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This is how Hungarian villages fought back against planned nuclear waste repositories in the 1980s · Global Voices
Atlatszo.hu

Town hall meeting in Hungarian village of Ófalu in 1990. Photo by Atlatszo.hu, CC BY-NC-SA 2.5.
This story was published in Hungarian and English by the Hungarian investigative journalism non-profit, Atlatszo. An edited version is published below here as part of a partnership with Global Voices.
It has been reported several times that geological research is being conducted near the Hungarian village of Boda in order to determine whether the area is suitable for a long-term nuclear waste repository. Hungary needs a repository where it can place the spent fuel from Paks Nuclear Power Plant and the new Paks2 reactors because spent nuclear fuel cannot be transported back to Russia anymore.
The research about Boda and its suitability is not conclusive yet; however, only a few people remember that the “perfect” place for a nuclear repository has been found twice already in Hungary. But neither of them was built because locals organized and stood up against the state and the powerful nuclear plant. Here is the story of how the “small” managed to fight the huge powers over the last decade of socialism in Hungary.
Since 1960, Hungary has had two nuclear waste repositories to store the waste produced by healthcare, education facilities and some of the waste produced by the nuclear plant in Paks. The Solymár repository worked from 1960 until 1974 and another was built in Püspökszilágy, which is still in operation.
Átlátszó investigative journalists teamed up with experts from Energiaklub Association to research the rumors about disorganized documentation of the packaging and storage of waste deposited before the fall of socialism, high background radiation and harmful substances leaking into the groundwater around the nuclear waste repository at the Hungarian village of Püspökszilágy.
They examined official documents, visited the village and the waste repository, concluding that the level of background radiation the locals are exposed to is unknown and that it will take another 15-20 years to conduct a thorough examination of the waste products which include tritium and radiocarbon.
However, more nuclear waste repositories were needed and the search for another location was started – the process is documented by journalist and lawyer János Havasi, who published a book about the topic in 1989.
A study published in 1981 recommended four possible locations. Three were eliminated and one remained: the village of Magyaregregy. This would have been the place for low and medium-level radioactive material from Paks.
Locals were shocked and surprised – especially that they were not officially notified. They've heard about the plan from hearsay. Some of them secretly started to organize. One of them was Lajos Bihari, a local doctor. This is the first time he spoke about the events since then.
He told Atlatszo that the area considered for the nuclear waste repository was rich in coal and other minerals, which could not have been mined if a nuclear cemetery was built in the area. He thought that for the future of his children and grandchildren, the mineral resources needed to be protected.
He convinced the local party secretary responsible for the industry to support the cause. They convinced a deputy minister, László Kapoly to go and inspect the area; during the visit, locals convinced Kapolyi that the village was unsuitable for the nuclear waste repository.
In 1982, a study commissioned by the Ministry of Industry concluded that the area was not fit for the nuclear facility.
The reason was that the soil easily moved, water was seeping through, and there were several water springs in the area; all of these made it unfit for the facility.
It is obvious now that the decision to cancel the plans was scientifically well-founded at the time, backed by geological research. However, some locals remember it differently. Some of the older inhabitants mentioned that some of the communist party elite liked to hunt in the area, and if nuclear waste was dumped there, the hunting would have been impossible.
Following Magyaregregy, the attention turned towards another village, Ófalu. Locals living near the new proposed location were not informed about the decision either. They simply noticed several heavy machines appearing in their area doing geological research. After a few town hall meetings, the plans were revealed.
Hungarian Communist Party officials near Ófalu in 1989. Photo by Atlatszo.hu, CC BY-NC-SA 2.5.
Even though many scientists questioned the suitability of the area, the works proceeded, and 150 million Hungarian forints were spent on research and construction preparations. It seemed like it was a done deal.
However, a few locals started a petition, including Ferenc Wekler and his wife. According to an interview he gave to journal Beszélő, his wife pressed him to step up. First, they tried to establish an NGO, but that proved to be impossible in 1985. However, his wife did not give up; she organized town hall meetings, asked scientists to write independent opinions and founded a “social committee” with locals in the four villages near the proposed site.
“We've done a lot of things that were very new at that time,” he said.
Wekler says that many things contributed to their success. One of them was that the political environment was already changing in 1987. Also, they managed to find renowned experts who stood up for their opinions and who were so well-known that they could not be ignored.
Wekler also mentions the role of the press that supported the locals in Ófalu. “The press finally had a story where they could tell the story of the small guy standing up to power,” he said. The locals even asked for an opinion from Hans Blix, then-director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In the end, the nuclear waste repository was not built. The final word was said after a group of independent experts concluded that the area was geologically unsuitable for the facility.
The final decision not to grant a permit to the proposed facility was announced in April 1988 and the minister of health and social affairs stated in 1990 that there wouldn't be a nuclear cemetery in Ófalu.
Geological research near Ófalu in 1987. Photo by Atlatszo.hu, CC BY-NC-SA 2.5.
Representatives of the Paks nuclear plant held a press conference in February 1990 where they said that “the locals in Ófalu were better at politics and were better at using the current political realities of Hungary to their advantage.” They added that they learned their lessons and that they will never try to construct such a waste repository without winning the support of the local population. They stressed, however, that they think that the decision to cancel the construction of the facility was political, and not scientific.
During the same press conference, it was announced that the government is starting research near the village of Boda to determine whether it is suitable for a long-term facility.
Also, a short-term waste repository was built in Bátaapáti, only a few kilometers from Ófalu. The facility officially opened in 2012.
However, the Bátaapáti construction was also controversial. Energiaklub, an NGO working on energy issues, asked the Ombudsman for Future Generations to look into the Bátaapáti construction in 2008.
According to Energiaklub project director Eszter Mátyás, the Ombudsman found irregularities in the licensing procedure of Bátaapáti – officials several times granted permits unlawfully. Also, barrels of nuclear waste had been placed in the facility before its geological suitability was proven, and before the construction of the underground holding facilities was finished.
Mátyás said that Energiaklub is closely watching what is happening in Boda as well. The stakes are high because, until now, Hungary built nuclear waste repositories for low- or medium-level nuclear waste.
The new facility, planned in Boda, will be a long-term repository for highly radioactive material including spent nuclear fuel from the Paks nuclear plant – and later, from the Paks2 reactors.
This story, written by Eszter Katus and adapted into English by Anita Kőműves was produced by Atlatzo.hu in cooperation with Energiaklub, as part of a joint investigative series on energy issues in Hungary. Company information was provided by Opten.


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Nigerian students face cybercrime charges for criticising their university online · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

A graduation ceremony at a Nigerian university. Photo by Rajmund Dabrowski/ANN, via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, June 7, 2009.
A group of students and alumni linked to the privately-owned Madonna University in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, risk up to seven years in jail over social media posts denouncing poor conditions and mistreatment of students and staff at the university.
The group, known as the #Madonna7, include four students;  Benedict Amaechi, Badaziri Owhonda, Chijoke Nnamani and Nwokeoma Blackson; and former staff members Anthony Ezeimo and Jonathan Abuno, also university alumni. A seventh man in the group, Nnamdi Opara, a friend of Ezeimo, is also named in the case.
On March 28, 2019, the group was arraigned before the court under section 27(1) (b) of the Nigerian cybercrime law of 2015 [Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015] for offenses allegedly committed between January 1 and December 31, 2018. Police brought the charges against the group following a complaint submitted by the university.
Vivien Douglas, a communications consultant acting on behalf of the Madonna 7, shared the charge sheet (FHC/FHC/C/03/2019) with Global Voices via email. The group is accused of sending “false messages” through social media which caused “annoyance, inconvenience, danger, insult, injury, criminal intimidation…” to Madonna University and its chief security officer, Titu Ugwu.
On July 3, a Federal High Court in Awka, the capital city of Anambra State in southeast Nigeria, granted the men release on bail. Although the application for bail for the group was filled and heard on February 19, they remained in prison for five months.
Chinedu Igwe, the head of the legal team for the accused, stated that the court was supposed to grant them bail in March but the court clerk could not perform an address verification of the sureties, which stalled their release.
The case was adjourned to October 7, 2019.
Madonna University is a private Catholic University that runs three campuses in Nigeria. The Madonna 7 allegedly committed their cybercrimes on the Okija campus located in the Anambra State, southeast Nigeria. The university has two other campuses located in the city of Elele, River State (southern Nigeria) and Akpugo in Enugu State (southeast Nigeria).
Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Edeh founded Madonna University in 1999 and also founded another university and a polytechnic. Edeh is the second richest Nigerian pastor with charities and investments estimated to be within 80 and 100 million United States dollars.
Online, Edeh and his university faced backlash for not tolerating criticism from students and staff:
Madonna University is still a glorified secondary School.
You will never see a graduate of Madonna University talk good about his or her alma mata. Sad.
In case you don't know, the institution locked 6 students and a lecturer up since February for their opinion on Facebook.???
— Artist extraordinaire (@AlphabetPrize) July 4, 2019
Madonna University is a prison governed by a religious tyrant called Father Edeh#FreeMadonna7Now pic.twitter.com/oqczpjn6Zo
— iHustle (@sheyirealtor) July 3, 2019
The Madonna 7 in court. Photo provided by Vivien Douglas and used with permission.
Anthony Ezeimo, Jonathan Abuno, and Chijoke Nnamani are among those who got into legal trouble for their comments about the university and its administration online.
According to the charge sheet, Ezeimo, a former lecturer and dean of students’ affairs of the university, posted a message on an unspecified social media network describing Madonna University as a ”death trap” and its administration as ”evil” after alleging that the Okija campus locked a group of students in a room and denied them access to food and water for two days.
Douglas, the communications consultant, clarified to Global Voices that Ezeimo posted claims in an alumni Whatsapp group that school security had locked Abuno, a former spokesman of the university, in a school cell at the Elele campus for allegedly starting a Facebook group called “It's Madonna,” which was critical of conditions at the university.
The charge sheet refers to a group on an unspecified social media network called ”Itz Madonna.” But, according to the sheet, students Amaechi and Owhonda created the group — not Abuno.
Allegations of Ezeimo's mistreatment by school security generated a fury of reactions from alumni members who condemned the arrest — and also narrated their unpleasant experiences while students at Madonna.
Chijoke Nnamani in his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Uniform. Image provided by Vivien Douglas and used with permission.
Nnamani, a Madonna University graduate who had previously defended his alma mater against the social media backlash, is among those arrested. Prior to his arrest, he urged the university to be ”nice to its lecturers” because ”good lecturers are scarce” in a Facebook post.
He was arrested on February 4 in Delta State where he was serving obligatory time in Nigeria's National Youth Service Corps.
Online activists welcomed the release of the Madonna 7. The #TakeItBack Movement, a campaign for social justice, started by human rights activist Omoyele Sowore, also expressed solidarity.
FREE MADONNA 7 NOW.
The Madonna seven (7) story is one injustice too many.
In February Chijioke Michael Nnamani was snatched from NYSC post in Delta State by the Nigerian Police, over frivolous accusations.
— Ngozichukwuka (@VivienNgozika) July 2, 2019
The campaign for the group's freedom drew national attention to the unjust jailing of the seven men. This was achieved through petitions, press statements, online and offline agitations by students and Nigerian netizens directed at the administration of Madonna University.
Dear Nigerians,
If you know the facts of this case or the family of Chijioke Nnamani & others, please contact me. We want to take up this matter and if you are close to Madonna university management tell them we are coming if they don’t do the needful quickly. #FreeMadonna7Now pic.twitter.com/Ybu4mBLXrY
— Comrade Deji Adeyanju (@adeyanjudeji) July 3, 2019
Their case is one of the more recent examples of intensifying crackdowns on human rights and suppression of free speech in Nigeria, under the pretext of fighting cybercrime.
In 2016 and 2017, online journalists Kemi Olunloyo and Abubakar Sidiq Usman were each arrested and detained on spurious charges of cyber-stalking in connection with journalistic investigations on the basis of the Cybercrime Act.
The continual use of the cybercrime law to clamp down on dissenting voices in Nigeria portrays a deterioration of human rights in Africa’s most populous nation. The law makes it even more difficult for citizens, journalists and activists to criticize or hold the government accountable.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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Macedonian PM publicly apologizes after he was deceived by pro-Kremlin Russian pranksters · Global Voices
Metamorphosis Foundation

Prime Minister of Republic of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev at the press conference about ‘Russian pranksters’ on 9 July 2019 in Skopje. Photo by Arbnora Mehmeti/Meta.mk CC-BY.
This story originally appeared on Meta.mk News Agency, a project of Metamorphosis Foundation. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement.
On July 7, Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev spoke to journalists in Skopje about a YouTube video in which he appears talking to two Russian pranksters pretending to be the former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The Prime Minister said he was deceived by “well organized and inventive structure, which is directed at persons and countries that are aligned towards Euro-Atlantic aspirations in order to cause damage.”
The conversations with the self-described pranksters Vladimir Kuznecov (Vovan) and Aleksej Stolarov (Lexus) happened in August 2018, January 2019, and April 2019, and in them Zaev openly talks about current political affairs such as the border between Kosovo and Serbia, autocephaly of Macedonian Orthodox Church, and EU integrations. He also gives out the phone number of the former US Assistant Secretary.
The PM said during a press conference on July 7:
„Тоа е добро организирана структура на ширење на влијание на трети страни, манипулациите по правило извираат од анти-НАТО пропаганди и дезинформации. Овие напади се насочени кон земји-членки на ЕУ или земји-аспиранти. Во разговорите повторувам наши официјални ставови, верував дека постои тој состанок и зборував како премиер“, вели Заев.
It’s a well-organized structure for spreading influence over third parties, and as by rule, the manipulations come from Anti-NATO propaganda and disinformation centers. These attacks are directed towards countries members of the EU or countries candidates. The conversations contain our official stances as I believed the meeting existed and I spoke as a Prime Minister.
Zaev emphasized that he wasn't the first the victim of this kind of mockery: the French President Emanuel Macron, the former British Minister of Foreign Affairs Boris Johnson, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, and musician Elton John have all been duped by the same group.
„Ова покажува дека сум во добро друштво. Јас сум жртва на мојата отвореност. Постојано сум достапен на граѓаните, лидерите на европските држави. Неопходно е да се преиспита протоколот за безбедност на комуникацијата, која постојано е на удар на инвентивните групи. Паралелно со реформските процеси неопходен е итен план против ширење на дезинформации“, рече Заев.
This shows that I’m in good company. I’m a victim of my openness. I am constantly available for the citizens, the leaders of the European states. It is necessary to reassess the security protocol of our communications which is always under attack by those inventive groups. In addition to the reforms, it is also necessary to come up with an urgent plan against the spread of disinformation.
He added that he will not resign because of the incident as he didn’t reveal any state secrets in the conversations — he has only repeated publicly known opinions, he said. Finally, he said that similar incidents have happened in other states with much stricter security systems.
„Во тој момент лично верував дека разговарам со Столтенберг и Порошенко и зборував како премиер. Ги повторив ставовите кои секогаш јасно сум ги кажувал. Секој ден сте во машина, установи, разговори и затоа се случуваат пропусти, за што искрено се извинувам“, додаде Заев.
In those moments I personally believed that I was talking to Stoltenberg and Poroshenko and I spoke as a Prime Minister. I repeated the opinions and stances that I have always stated clearly. Every day I am in the machine with talks, and that is why lapses happen for which I sincerely apologize.
Hristijan Mickoski, the leader of the largest opposition party, the right-wing populist VMRO-DPMNE, responded to the PM's comments by saying that, with a scandal such as this, Zaev should have resigned and called for early elections.
Supporters of the VMRO-DPMNE, the Russia-backed party that ruled North Macedonia from 2006 to 2017 (a period of sharp democratic decline), had a field day ridiculing Zaev after he made the comments above.
Many of those accounts are anonymous and regularly amplify each other's content. In November 2018, a former VMRO-DPMNE official revealed the party had and was still actively running a “troll farm.”
Among those accounts, there are a few real users, such as the former Minister of Culture Ganka Samoilova, who shared the controversial Russian video with a comment:
Пред извесно време го замолив да не зборува англиски. Сега го замолувам ДА НЕ ЗБОРУВА ВООПШТО!!!https://t.co/pvL3TuMamm
— Ganka Cvetanova (@gankacv) July 8, 2019
Some time ago I asked [Zaev] to refrain from speaking English [without a translator]. I now ask him to not talk at all!!!
Some netizens who are not necessarily associated with the now-opposition right-wing party have also reacted. The official profile of TV comic personality Mile Panika tweeted:
Ни ја земаа работата. Ќе си дадам оставка.
— Миле Паника (@Mile_Panika) July 9, 2019
They took our job. I am about to resign.
Some commentators agreed with the PM's position considering the case a serious security breach rather than an inoffensive prank. Blogger Jane Gjorgjioski wrote on Facebook:
Само едно да знаете, она не е пранк. Би бил пранк, ако на крајот од разговорот ‘комичарите’ му кажеле на Заев дека е пранк и дека наседнал. Она е чиста пресметана злоупотреба за политички цели и многу опасна манипулативна алатка која во иднина со сите овие гаџети на располагање, фејк колс заедно со фејк њуз ќе се валкани инструменти со страшен манипулативен потенцијал од кој би паѓале влади, претседатели, селебрити…
You should know one thing, this isn't a prank. If it was a prank, then at the end of the conversation ‘the comedians’ would tell Zaev it's a prank and that he had been duped. This case is clearly calculated abuse for political purposes and a very dangerous manipulative tool that has the terrible potential to ruin governments, presidents, celebrities with all those new gadgets at their disposal, fake calls together with fake news as dirty instruments…
Others have contributed to the debate by sharing a story by BBC Monitoring from 2018 on how the two famous pranksters practically only target Kremlin foes while receiving ample airtime and support in Russia's state TV channels.
Глупости, кога Русија правела вакви работи, кога…
Fake news машинеријата гази, а ние како лакоми бебиња ја голтаме наеднаш. https://t.co/3Ffz98UgXP
— ПолитичкиНекоректен (@nekorektniot) July 9, 2019
Some people dismiss this as Russian government ploy, claiming they have nothing to do with this…
Meanwhile the fake news machinery is doing its job, and we like greedy babies swallow its products whole. https://t.co/3Ffz98UgXP
Another Twitter user cheekily referred to the content of the conversation, which they think isn't actually that controversial in the first place:
Толку е јак муабетов на русиве што чекаа година да помине референдум, промена на име, за да го пуштат СРЕД ЛЕТО на полноќ, за вмроовци да бидат први на тајм со руска бомба паф
оставка оставка оставка оставка оставка оставка оставка оставка оставка милошоски бе аман
— V!DanaDsgn (@VidanaDeSign) July 9, 2019
The talk with the Russians is ‘so explosive’ that they waited for a year, allowing the referendum and the name change to pass, so they can release it IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER at midnight, benefiting the VMRO profiles who got top spots for the day on [Twitter aggregator] Time.mk list with this Russian bombshell.
Resignation resignation resignation resignation resignation resignation resignation resignation resignation OK Miloshoski keep it cool.
Analyst Dragan Alcinov tried to point out a silver lining of the embarrassing incident, quoting a lyric from a historic song that is widely employed as a metaphor for hypocrites:
Колку и да е ова невкусна шега, сепак од објавените разговори може да се забележи дека кај Заев нема голема разлика меѓу она што го зборува насамо и она што го зборува во јавност.
За разлика од едни други ,,лицем светци, срцем в'лци”.
— Алчинов (@DAlcinov) July 9, 2019
Even though this joke is in a very bad taste, the published conversations show that there's no big difference in Zaev's discourse between how he speaks in private and how he speaks in public.
Compared to certain others who show “the faces of saints, but have the hearts of wolves.”

author: Metamorphosis Foundation


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The ‘water attack’ of Chinese tech exec opens a flood gate of complaints against the company · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Screen capture from SCMP's youtube channel.
The chief executive of Chinese tech giant Baidu, Robin Li, had an unpleasant shock on 3 July when an audience member doused him with water during the company's annual artificial intelligence conference.
Li resumed his talk after security guards escorted the water attacker off stage, but video footage of the incident quickly went viral. Not much is known about the man but local media has reported that he was placed under administrative detention for five days by the Beijing Chaoyang district police and released on 9 July.
Although the water attacker's motivation is still unknown, many Chinese netizens were quick to applaud his actions and to mock Li, airing their own grievances against Baidu in the process:
给点奖励吧，这个人干的漂亮。
This man should be awarded for such a nice act.
李彦宏淋感冒了吗？ 快送去莆田医院看看。
Did Robin Li catch a cold? Have a body check up at Putin hospital group. [Putin hospital group runs a large number of private hospitals in China and has been notorious for misleading patients for expensive and unnecessary medical treatment.]
After the water dousing incident, Chinese netizens began searching for the viral video using keywords like “Li Yanhong (李彥宏）”, “Pour water（潑水）, “Baidu (百度）” etc. on social media platforms; however, many users said image searches produced zero results on Baidu.
These search results have reinforced Chinese netizens’ beliefs that Baidu's search engine is unreliable and cannot be trusted.
Public outrage against Baidu emerged in 2016 when 21-year-old student Wei Zexi complained that his family was misguided by the Baidu search engine when looking for rare cancer (synovial sarcoma) treatment information. Wei eventually died after the family spent all their savings on a scam treatment found during their online searches.
Since then, negative sentiments against the tech company have grown, as many of its users feel that Baidu's algorithm only populates content from its own platforms.
In early 2019, media researcher Fang Kecheng wrote an article titled “Baidu search engine is dead” which claimed that the search engine harms the open internet with its artificial intelligence (AI) that only caters to the company's interests. Fang noted:
你在第一页看到的搜索结果，基本上有一半以上会指向百度自家产品，尤其频繁出现的是“百家号”。
In Baidu’s search, half of the generated resulted are from Baidu’s own platforms, in particular from Baijia hao [NOTE: Baijia hao is Baidu's content platform]
Fang's research looked at Baidu searches related to “Brexit” which generated a total of  7 results. The first result was from Baidu Baike (a Baidu version of Wikipedia) and the #2, #4, #5, #7 search results were from Baijia hao. Only two items were from other Chinese platforms.
Fang says that Baidu's search engine at times steers users towards legally questionable content. For example, he says that when he searched “How to write a thesis” the first two results were advertisements for hiring thesis ghostwriters, the #3, #4, #5 results were from Baijia hao, followed by two other thesis ghostwriters advertisements.
In the past, Baidu's search engine has also prioritized viral fake news articles. In a recent example, as highlighted by Fang, joke news site The Onion published a satirical article about the 9/11 attacks that was subsequently translated into Chinese and published as if it was real news. The article then went viral and now it shows up on the top of Baidu's search results when people look for “Osama Bin Laden”, “911” or “CIA”. While China has very strict laws regarding the spreading of rumors online, the spread of this fake news story has been helped along by Baidu's search algorithm.
Although an August 2018 poll showed that 72.8% of Chinese users prefer Google over Baidu, the American tech company left the Chinese market in 2010 after it refused to comply with censorship requests. Many Chinese netizens perceived the incident as the Chinese government’s market protection policy which is seen as a protection mechanism against external competition.
Blogger Dabao shared frustration at Baidu’s failure to take up greater social responsibility:
百度肩负着非常高的期待，非常重的责任，每当中国官员在外交流，很可能被问到的一个问题就是为什么中国这个改革开放的国家却是禁止谷歌的少数国家之一，不仅是民间，政府也对百度寄予厚望，这是付出了一定国际舆论代价的。
在拥有8亿网民的互联网第一大国，在从政府到民间的支持下，百度今天走得怎样呢？百度的信息管道接不到淘宝、接不到微信、接不到今日头条、接不到抖音等视频网站，到头来竟然一场空，只能咽下苦水连接到自己的百家号。
China has high expectation for Baidu and it has a huge responsibility. Whenever Chinese officials visit other countries, they will be asked why an open China would block Google search. The government has paid huge price and expected Baidu to perform well.
[China is] a country with 800 million netizens, and while both the government and people support the company, how does Baidu perform today? Baidu could not channel information from Taobao, WeChat, Today’s Headline, Duoyan etc. In the end, its search only links to its own product – Baijia hao.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Beloved hill is a ‘painkiller’ for Afghans seeking refuge from conflict-torn Kabul · Global Voices
Ezzatullah Mehrdad

Afghanistan's capital lacks green spaces. Photo by Ezzatullah Mehrdad.
In Kabul, a city of six million wracked by war and choked by smog, green space is at a premium.
Most parts of the city are completely shorn of green belt. In Dasht-e-Barchi, a neighborhood home to over a quarter of the Afghan capital's population that has sprawled thanks to internal migration, there is not a single public park. With limited government funds focused on reconstruction and basic infrastructure, allocating space for one is not a priority.
And yet some form of respite from the never-ending tensions of the city is sorely needed.
Setting off up the hill before sunrise, these guys climbed above the smog that settles in its basin each morning, assembled their shisha pipe and pulled in lungfuls of kiwi-lemon flavored tobacco while singing and dancing to modern pop songs played through a portable stereo. Photo by Andrew Quilty, used with permission.
According to a survey by Big Think, one in five Afghans suffer depression, more than anywhere in the world.
The latest World Happiness Survey commissioned by the United Nations places the country as the third most unhappy globally, behind two other countries wracked by chronic violence and insecurity — South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
In 2018, Afghanistan was judged the least peaceful country in the world by the Australian Institute of Economics and Peace think tank, overtaking Syria.
In such circumstances, a hill overlooking Kabul — Koh-e Haji Nabi — becomes a sanctuary.
On weekends and Fridays, families, couples, lovers, friends and solace-seekers flock like pilgrims via foot, car or bike to the hill on the eastern outskirts of Kabul.
Towards evening, as the descending sun allows a shadow to creep over Kabul, Koh-e Haji Nabi's population starts to grow.
Dusty and dirty at dusk, the sprawling settlement below feels a world away.
And yet for Kabulis, this hill is a helpful way of helping them to reconnect with their city, recall its better days and reimagine its potential.
The Kabul of the 1960s — peaceful, pedestrian, hopeful — is mourned and romanticised by older hillgoers.
Back then Kabul's population was just two million and the whir of bicycle spokes was more central to its soundscape than the beeping of horns.
That Kabul disappeared thanks to the Soviet invasion in 1979 and the civil war that ensued shortly after Moscow's humiliating withdrawal a decade later.
Militant groups boasting heavy artillery vied for dominance, leaving entire neighbourhoods in rubble.
By 2001, when a US-led invasion overthrew the Taliban, large parts of Kabul had already been destroyed, including the historical Darul Aman Palace.
Kite flying is still a favorite weekend pastime for younger and older visitors to the hill. Photo by Jim Huylebroek, used with permission.
Khuja Shahabudeen, a 70-year old shop keeper on Kabul’s Chicken Street, was born and raised in the heart of the capital, Kabul.  His family had been tailors for three generations, but were forced to change businesses thanks to constant instability.
“I had this normal life, free of stress There were no suicide bombings, no killings. Today our lives are full of uncertainty,” Shahabudeen complained to Global Voices.
While today's Kabul offers more public goods than many parts of Afghanistan — Internet connection, luxury cafes, better tolerance between ethnic groups and relatively greater freedoms for women — it also has all of Afghanistan's vices in abundance.
Large swathes of the capital's population lacks access to basic services.  Devastating suicide bombings occur from month to month. Crime is rampant.
In Omid Sabz, a private town in the lower reaches of the hillside, residents hang out in a muddy yard. Photo by Ezzatullah Mehrdad.
For citizens of contemporary Kabul, the hill is a useful source of endurance in what often feels like a daily struggle for survival, regardless of your economic or social background.
Ali Reza Mohammadi, an 18-year old high school student whose life has never known peace, was one of the hundreds of young-hillgoers on a recent Friday.
“Usually every Friday, you can find me here,” said Mohammadi, who works part-time and studies at night school.
Mr. Panahi with his friends pose for a photo at the top of the hill. Photo by Ezzatullah Mehrdad.
Another is Nemataullah Panahi, 26, who says the clean air is a major draw.
As he speaks one of Panahi's friends twiddles with the volume on their portable stereo. Another prepares a pipe full of weed.
“Trips to the hill are our painkiller,” Panahi says.

author: Ezzatullah Mehrdad


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Moldova’s journalists cautiously optimistic after ‘silent revolution’ · Global Voices
Maxim Edwards

“Deoligarchization: the beginning,” reads this headline from Moldovan weekly Ziarul de Gardă. Photo: Maxim Edwards
Moldova seldom makes international headlines. When it does, the country usually plays a walk-on role in a greater drama between Russia and the West. But that script changed last month, when bitter foes put their differences aside to oust nominally pro-Western but deeply unpopular rulers.
Parliamentary elections in February proved inconclusive: by June, a government had still not formed and snap elections seemed likely. But on June 8 the unexpected happened: the pro-Russian Party of Socialists (PSRM) and the pro-European ACUM-PAS bloc turned on the ruling Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) and formed an “anti-oligarchic” coalition. The PDM refused to accept defeat; the next day, prime minister Pavel Filip dissolved parliament and the country’s constitutional court called the new parliamentary majority illegitimate. This standoff lasted about a week before the PDM yielded. Its leader Vlad Plahotniuc, widely regarded as the most powerful man in Moldova, fled the country. ACUM leader Maia Sandu became prime minister.
These events were made possible by the readiness of Moldova’s opposition to put its geopolitical differences aside in order to pursue “deoligarchization” and clean up a state described in a 2018 European Parliament resolution as “captured by oligarchic interests.” Notwithstanding some protests, Moldova’s change was largely forced by institutional politicking and pressure from both Russia and the West. This is why some observers such as Dumitru Alaiba, an economist and member of parliament, called the events a “silent revolution.” Meanwhile, internet users christened it #PlahaPad (a play on “Leninopad,” the name for the fall of Lenin statues across Ukraine after 2014, and Plahotniuc’s nickname).
Either way, change is afoot. And for Moldova’s beleaguered journalists, it’s come not a moment too soon. The run-up to parliamentary elections saw several incidents of verbal and physical assault on journalists; In 2019, Reporters Without Borders’ Global Press Freedom Index ranked Moldova in 91st place, down from 81st the previous year. This was one of the steepest declines in Eastern Europe. The country’s journalists have complained of an opaque and inaccessible government, an oligarch-ridden media landscape with poor journalistic standards, and harassment by the authorities.
“Ministers didn’t hold press conferences. The government only held briefings without the right to ask questions, and these were held in the offices of the ruling PDM party, to which not all journalists were allowed access. Land records which should have been public were only available at high prices, and a lot of information simply wasn’t online. The distributor of print publications was under state control, so sometimes papers didn’t reach readers,” explains Alina Radu, editor and co-founder of Ziarul de Gardă, a weekly investigative newspaper published in Romanian and Russian, has told Global Voices.
Just after the recent change of power, investigative outlet RISE Moldova published leaked documents attesting to an extensive surveillance campaign conducted by the previous authorities against their opponents. A list of names of those surveilled mostly included opposition activists and politicians but also journalists such as Vladimir Soloviev, correspondent for the Russian daily Kommersant and founder of the Russian-language independent outlet NewsMaker. Radu suspects that the real number of journalists under surveillance may have been much higher.
In April 2017, Soloviev wrote that he had been followed through the streets of the Moldovan capital Chișinău by unknown men and a mysterious black car. There are even more sinister stories; in 2016, somebody tried to blackmail the prominent investigative journalist Natalia Morari with an intimate tape filmed inside her own apartment.
Morari revisited the event during a TV broadcast during the recent political upheaval, when explaining why she was wearing a t-shirt with the words “Je Suis Moldova.”
Ровно три года назад в 2016 году я выходила в майке на которой написано: «Улыбайтесь, Вас снимает скрытая камера.» Это был следующий день после того, как меня за несколько минут до эфира набрал человек, приближенный к Владу Плахотнюку и предупредил меня о том, что в ближайшее время в публичном пространстве будет опубликовано видео того, как мы с моим мужчиной занимаемся любовью в моем доме. […] Я помню, что в тот день сильно переживала, на том эфире я вся тряслась. Придя домой я поняла, что единственный способ себя защитить — заявить о том, что меня шантажируют. […] Я знаю, что многие мне тогда не верили, многие, в том числе коллеги из прессы, обвиняли меня в том, что я пытаюсь сделать пиар. Но поверьте, это не очень приятно видеть съемки из твоей квартиры, как тебя снимали скрытой и ты не понимаешь как долго эта камера была у тебя у тебя дома. […]
По моей информации, я надеюсь ее проверить, теперь, когда у нас будет независимый прокурор, отвечал за операцию по установлению прослушки и видео был Георгий Кавкалюк. Я все эти годы об этом молчала, но по моей информации именно Георгий Каваклюк отвечал за то, чтобы у меня появилась видеокамера.
Exactly three years ago, I went on air wearing a t-shirt bearing the words “Smile! You’re being filmed by a hidden camera.” The day before, I had received a call shortly before I went on air from a person close to Vlad Plahotniuc who warned me that a video would soon be released to the public showing me and my husband making love at home. […] I remember how worried I was that day; I was shaking throughout the entire broadcast. When I got home, I understood that the only way to defend myself was to declare that I was being blackmailed. […] I know that back then many people didn’t believe me. Many, including colleagues from the press, accused me of trying to do PR for myself. But believe me, it’s not very pleasant to see a recording taken from your own apartment, when you’ve been filmed secretly and you don’t know how long that camera has been in your home.
According to my information, which I hope to confirm given that we now have an independent prosecutor, the person responsible for installing wiretaps and video surveillance of me was [former Deputy Secretary of Police] Gheorghe Cavcaliuc. I had kept silent about this for all these years, but according to my information, Cavcaliuc was responsible for that video camera.
— Natalia Morari, TV8, 15 June 2019
Given staff changes in state institutions, Morari hopes that those who blackmailed her will be brought to justice. But Morari also complained about the conduct of hostile media outlets which gloated about the incident at her expense. That may take longer to change.
Under the previous government, Moldova’s television market was largely monopolized by Plahotniuc and his associates. A pliant advertising commission funded granted deals to loyal print and broadcast media and kept away from critical outlets; Moldovan journalists demand the reform of this. Until and unless the new authorities issue a legal challenge to freeze his assets, Plahotniuc could still control a significant section of Moldova’s media landscape absentia. Channels continue to broadcast fervent criticism of new Prime Minster Maia Sandu and PSRM leader Igor Dodon to this day.
But Vladislav Kulminsky, a political scientist who was recently appointed advisor to Sandu, doubts that the oligarch will be able to maintain this media empire from afar. “In a lot of the country, Plahotniuc’s TV channels; PublikaTV, Channel 1, Channel 2, Prime; are the only channels people can get hold of. And he’s spent a lot of money on supporting them; he extracted that money illegally from state enterprises and monopolies on importing goods to Moldova,” explained Kulminsky in an interview at the government building in downtown Chișinău.
“In the end, you had a system where all profitable businesses yielded revenue to Plahotniuc and his immediate circle, which was then used to pay public officials in envelopes and maintain this huge media empire. So today, it’s a question whether he’ll have access to these flows of cash to subsidise that empire. I think it’s only a matter of time before his [media] influence ends,” the prime minister’s advisor told Global Voices.
This polarized media landscape conditions how Moldova’s politicians interact with the press, says Maria Levcenco, a journalist and media expert at the Institute for Strategic Initiatives (IPIS), a Chișinău-based think tank. “Politicians in Moldova are used to communicating with journalists who are loyal towards them,” continues Levcenco, who wrote one of the most comprehensive profiles of Plahotniuc for the international press. “What I don’t want is for the roles to simply be reversed now that the PDM are in opposition. Journalists shouldn’t be ‘for’ or ‘against’ any politician, and I don’t want those categories to remain the basis for how politicians and officials chose whom they talk to,” she concluded.
Felizia Nedzelschi, a Moldovan journalist working for independent online publication Agora.Md, told Global Voices that her colleagues were initially torn about how to respond to the new government. Were they to join in the chorus of criticism and risk reinforcing the narrative set by Plahotniuc’s media empire, or should they seek to provide balance by toning down their criticism? Nedzelschi and Ștefan Grigoriță, a journalist at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Moldovan service, concluded that the responsible stance was never to withhold criticism, but to ensure that criticism is factually accurate.
“Yes, we appreciate the pro-democracy and pro-EU orientation of the government. But we have been critical over the past 15 years of 12 governments and will continue to be critical of this one; we’ve already published critical pieces on conflicts of interest concerning two members of this government. We understand that if you don’t criticise [politicians] at the right time, they will install themselves too deeply and stop listening to any criticism,” remarks Radu, the Ziarul de Gardă editor. She adds: “We won’t stop. We’ve suffered too much.”

author: Maxim Edwards


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Pseudoscientific racial theories by discredited British psychologist keep going viral in the Balkans · Global Voices
Metamorphosis Foundation

Illustration of fact-check report “The IQ is OK, but journalist standards are at low level,” by Crithink.mk. CC BY.
This story is based on two different stories, one by CriThink.mk and another Meta.mk News Agency, both projects of Metamorphosis Foundation.
On July 2, 2019, Macedonian news site Fokus published an article titled “National IQ of Macedonia is 82, the lowest in the region.” It was illustrated with a color-coded world map ranking countries based on the average intelligence quotient of its populations, with Western Europe, North America, and East Asia at the top of the ranking. The article had over 3,500 Facebook reactions within a week.
The article lists as its main source the book “The intelligence of nations,” authored by Richard Lynn and David Becker and published by the Ulster Institute for Social Research, a think-tank based in Northern Ireland which Lynn directs. What the Fokus article lacks, however, is key background context on this source.
Richard Lynn is a highly controversial figure whose work has been consistently criticized by the scientific community for its lack of scientific rigor, misrepresentation of data, and for promoting a racialist political agenda. In April 2018, Ulster University stripped Lynn of his title of psychology professor emeritus after concluding that he advocated for “views that are racist and sexist in nature.”
Lynn's think tank — which isn't connected with Ulster University — also publishes the journal “Mankind Quarterly” which promotes various racial theories that the broader scientific community rejects. Lynn also regularly collaborates with ultra-right-wing publications such as Right NOW! and VDARE and is often praised by extreme right-wing figures around the world.
The Fokus article triggered a cross-border disinformation wave in the past weeks, according to anti-disinfo article by Meta.mk. Shortly after publication, it was widely plagiarized (copy-pasted with minimal changes of the text and without attribution) by several outlets based in North Macedonia, including the website Lider, which is part of a group of right-wing publications owned by Hungarians with ties to the regime of Victor Orban.
The Lider article, headlined “The lowest in the region: National IQ in Macedonia is 82,” was then listed as a source by the Serbian news site Kurir on an article titled “MACEDONIANS WILL DISLIKE THIS RESEARCH: They have the lowest IQ in the region, read here who is the smartest!” On the next day, back in North Macedonia, Kurir’s sister publication, news website Sloboden Pečat (both are owned by the Serbian company Adria Media Group), published a verbatim translation of that story in the Macedonian language, amplifying the visibility of the racist ideas.
The EU-supported project Critical Thinking for Mediawise Citizens – CriThink fact-checked the Fokus article, contextualizing its sources and raising questions about the journalistic standards of Balkans media. Journalist Jugoslava Dukovska, who signed the report, wrote: “Almost always these media fail to report on the sources of the alleged research and don’t attempt to verify their credibility. Instead, they exploit their potential for sensation.”
Screenshot of the article by Fokus with a map reflecting a white supremacist worldview.
This isn’t the first time Macedonian or the wider Balkans media have passed Richard Lynn’s ideas off as scientific fact.
In 2014 websites from around the region published a story claiming North Macedonia had an average IQ of 91, lower than most Western European countries but higher than those of Albania, Montenegro, and Serbia. That story was based on a Czech blog post that quoted another of Richard Lynn's books, “Intelligence: A Unifying Construct for the Social Sciences”, co-authored with Finish writer Tatu Vanhanen and also upholding racialist theories on intelligence.
At that time, Croatian portal Index.hr published a news item titled“This map shows the average intelligence of the peoples of Europe”. Immediately afterwards, Macedonian website MKD picked it up and published a story titled “Macedonian people are among the stupidest peoples in Europe.”
In 2015, dozens of Macedonian portals published similar news items about the allegedly smartest and stupidest people in the Balkans. These stories are still available online.
Only a few professional journalists and scientists have questioned the credibility of the viral articles. None of the websites have published the story have so far issued corrections or retractions.
In the Balkan context, stereotyping members of different ethnic communities is as old as it gets. There are folk tales from central North Macedonia dating back to the 19th century that say the Shopi — the people who lived in the today's border region between Bulgaria, Serbia and North Macedonia — thought the sea was a huge fish soup, and that they took out spoons to eat it when they came to the shore. Later, in the former Yugoslavia, it was Bosnians who were the butt of many jokes.
The cyclical spread of pseudoscientific notions about IQ based on race or ethnicity taps into pre-existing stereotypes as well as it reinforces them in this region — no wonder they generate so much social media attention. But while this translates into more clicks for the media outlets who publish this disinformation, it also fuels resentment, discrimination, and hate.
Scientists have long dismissed theories that link ethnic or national origin with intelligence. Intelligence itself is a complex concept that is typically examined by considering the interplay between nature and nurture. Many studies have shown socioeconomic environment, education level of caregivers, and health and nutrition all play a role.
Despite all scientific evidence demonstrating otherwise, white supremacists in the United States and Europe systematically advocate for the notion that intelligence is primarily a result of genetic traits, usually postulating that a narrow subset of white people is genetically superior.
Ironically, the Balkan nationalists who typically deem US and Western European right-wing extremists as ideological alliesfail to see — or choose to ignore — that those pseudoscientific theories usually rank their own ethnicities below that of Western countries.


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Victoria Espinosa: Farewell to a tireless activist for Puerto Rican theater · Global Voices
Ángel Carrión

Victoria Espinosa: March 26, 1922 – July 6, 2019. Image taken from YouTube video.
On July 6, 2019, Puerto Ricans mourned the passing of actress, director, playwright, teacher, and theater producer Victoria Espinosa, a key figure in twentieth-century performance theater. She was 97 years old.
Victoria Espinosa's extraordinary career included directing over 120 plays, among them “Los soles truncos” (“The Half-Suns”) at the First Puerto Rican Theater Festival in 1958 with renowned Puerto Rican playwright René Marques, and again at the 1965 inauguration of the Calatrava Theatre in Salamanca, Spain.
Espinosa also founded the College of Theater Actors (now the Puerto Rico Actors’ Association) and spearheaded the creation of a special fund for the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture’s Theater Division that is intended specifically for the development of theater in Puerto Rico.
Victoria Espinosa remained active in theater until 2011.
Victoria Espinosa was born on March 26, 1922, in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan, the capital city of Puerto Rico. The Trastalleres community where she lived, despite being one of the country’s poorest, is famous for being the place where many other prominent Puerto Ricans were born and raised, including singers Andy Montañez and Daniel Santos, writer José Ferrer Canales, and major league baseball player Orlando Cepeda.
Espinoza graduated from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), completed her doctorate at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and was a professor at UPR’s Río Piedras campus for several years. There she founded the now-defunct Puerto Rico Theatrón Theater Workshop, where several theater and television artists were trained.
One of her career highlights was directing the 1978 world premiere of the play “El público” (“The Audience”) by Federico García Lorca, a work that could not be released when it was written around 1930 because it frankly addressed homosexual issues. In 2000, she was awarded the Pozo de Plata, the highest award granted by the Federico García Lorca Casa Natal Museum in Fuentevaqueros, located in Granada, Spain.
Also in 2000, the old Music Hall Theater in Santurce was renamed the Victoria Espinosa Experimental Hall in recognition of her numerous contributions to the development of theater in Puerto Rico.
Beyond her indisputable contributions and professional achievements, Victoria Espinosa will be best remembered by the students and actors who worked with her. In a Facebook post, the actress and singer-songwriter Nancy Millán (@Nancy_Millan) recalled an anecdote from one of her classes with her teacher:
Pedro Rodiz me hizo recordar algo que me dijo Victoria Espinosa cuando dirigí por primera vez una escena de “Sol 13 interior” para su clase. Tenía que ser una escena experimental. Termina la escena y me dice: “No hiciste la asignación. Esto no es experimental pero yo dirigí esta pieza en su estreno y tengo que decir que me conmovió. Muy bien.” Yo creo que floté por tres días corridos después de eso. Gracias Maestra.
Pedro Rodiz reminded me of something that Victoria Espinosa told me when I first directed a scene from “Sol 13 interior” for her class. It had to be an experimental scene. The scene ends, and she says: “You did not do the assignment. This is not experimental, but I directed this piece for its premiere and I have to say that it moved me. Well done.” I think I floated for three straight days after that. Thank you, Maestra.

author: Ángel Carrión


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Jamaican women tackle the climate crisis on all sides · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Journalist, blogger and environmental activist Petre Williams Raynor (right) speaking with a fisherman in Negril, Jamaica. Photo by Emma Lewis, used with permission.
This post has been adapted from a presentation by Global Voices contributor Emma Lewis, who took part in the first of a series of events headlined “She Speaks”, in Kingston, Jamaica, June 18, 2019.
Globally, startling changes in the environment disproportionately affect women in developing countries, largely because of their lower economic and social status. In Jamaica, women head about 46 percent of households and bear the brunt of responsibility for shelter, water, and food security.
International agencies have caught on to the need for women's involvement in the climate crisis quite late with gender-sensitive policies and action plans.
In September 2018, Una May Gordan, principal director of the Jamaican government's Climate Change Division, brought together a group of regional gender specialists and climate experts for a workshop with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) in Kingston.
Now, a growing number of Jamaican women — internationally, regionally and locally — are contributing to the fight against climate change.
Ingrid Parchment, executive director of the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation (C-CAM) (left), chats with Una May Gordon of the Climate Change Division, at the signing of a grant agreement at C-CAM's field station in Salt River, Clarendon, Jamaica. Photo by Emma Lewis, used with permission.
After Senator Kamina Johnson Smith signed the historic Paris agreement on behalf of Jamaica at the UN conference on climate change on Earth Day, April 22, 2016, much of the hard slog associated with UN negotiations fell on the shoulders of Una May Gordon. Focusing on long-term goals, she obtained sustained financing for Jamaica's climate change efforts, supporting the efforts of the Alliance of Small Island States to advocate for a limit to global emissions to not more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. This was a critical part of the historic UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, following which the Caribbean launched a major campaign, spearheaded by St. Lucia and Jamaica, called “1.5 to Stay Alive”. Gordon also conducts regular forums on climate change-related topics and spearheads the government's public education efforts around the climate crisis.
Le-Anne Roper, chief technical director for adaptation at the Climate Change Division, speaks at a regional conference. Photo by Emma Lewis, used with permission.
At the UN, Jamaica and fifteen other Caribbean islands work under the umbrella of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) to make sure the region is meeting crucial climate targets. Le-Anne Roper is chief technical director for adaptation, which is a critical area of concern for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Small nations, like those that make up the Caribbean archipelago, are largely not responsible for the emission levels produced by developed countries, yet the burden is on them to adapt to the impact of the climate crisis, which is already impacting their economies more acutely. They do this largely through finding funding for community-based projects like the Kingston-based Pilot Program for Climate Resilience, which benefits six Caribbean islands, including Jamaica.
Jamaica's Minister for Science, Energy and Technology, Fayval Williams — the first woman to hold this post — also has a critical role to play. In October 2018, the government announced that the country would increase its very modest target of 30 per cent renewables to 50 per cent by 2030. Since then, Minister Williams, who has a strong background in finance, championed the highly successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) for Wigton Windfarm. In an innovative move, the shares were offered to ordinary Jamaicans for $1,000 JMD (about $7.50 USD) each. Nearly 12,000 new, mostly young investors (about 38 per cent of total subscribers) obtained shares for the largest wind facility in the English-speaking Caribbean.
Forests and mangroves, critical to stemming the rate of climate change, remains a central issue to forest conservationist Marilyn Headley, who is working toward preparing Jamaica for the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programme, aimed at cutting down forest carbon emissions by awarding carbon credits. As the first female and longest-serving Conservator of Forests, Headley was instrumental in crafting the country's National Forest Management and Conservation Plan for the next ten years.
Environmental filmmaker Esther Figueroa records an interview with a farmer in a field in rural St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. Photo by Emma Lewis, used with permission.
Following in these women’s footsteps is a veritable army of women scientists, artists, community-based organisers, civil society activists, youth leaders, advocates and journalists, all supporting Jamaica’s efforts to combat climate change from various angles — including researching its effects on agriculture and gender.
Eleanor Jones, Founder and Managing Director of Environmental Solutions, speaks at a gender and climate change workshop in Kingston, Jamaica. Photo by Emma Lewis, used with permission.
Eleanor Jones, for instance, is the founder and managing director of Environmental Solutions Limited. A leading light in the Jamaica Institute of Environmental Professionals, she has one foot firmly planted in the private sector and the other in community-based climate resilience and disaster risk management — a key area for the Caribbean in the face of increasingly violent storms, floods and drought. As Chair of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica's Energy, Environment and Climate Change Committee, Jones promotes business opportunities in energy and environmental management for members and contributes to building national and regional environmental and energy policies and legislative frameworks.
On Jamaica's vulnerable south coast, which is more regularly affected by storms and is susceptible to flooding from rising sea levels — as well as prolonged drought at times — Ingrid Parchment heads the nongovernmental Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation. The organization facilitates climate change adaptation programs all along this sensitive area.
Diana McCaulay, Founder and current Chairperson of the Jamaica Environment Trust. Photo by Emma Lewis, used with permission.
Similarly, the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), a nongovernmental organisation founded by environmental advocate and author Diana McCaulay and now led by Suzanne Stanley, has an ongoing campaign to Save Cockpit Country — an ecologically critical area that is under threat from bauxite mining. This type of mining makes by far the largest contribution to Jamaica’s emissions, including around two million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. JET's impact over the more than 25 years of its existence is almost immeasurable in scope. The small all-woman team's activities have included long-running environmental education programmes, spearheading coastal cleanup efforts, island-wide monitoring of sea turtle nesting sites, and ongoing advocacy campaigns — including a successful challenge to “Save Goat Islands” from industrial development — through the extensive use of social media platforms.
These are just some of the women doing their part to help mitigate the effects of the climate crisis in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean. The hope is that their efforts will serve to make the wider public aware of the speed and gravity with which environmental change is happening, and inspire them to make changes in their own behavior to help alter its effects on small island developing states.

author: Emma Lewis


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Puerto Ricans demand that Governor Rosselló resign amid corruption and #Telegramgate scandals · Global Voices
Ángel Carrión

Feminist groups protesting in front of La Fortaleza, the governor's mansion, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 12, 2019. Image shared on social media by the Twitter account of @TodasPR, a project created by women journalists that aims to make women's voices and stories visible in journalism.
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló is being asked to resign after the high-profile arrest of several individuals linked to numerous corruption cases. A leaked Telegram chat also revealed how the governor and some of his Cabinet members used profane language to ridicule the opposition.
The latest scandal involves the July 10, 2019 arrest of six people closely linked to his administration, two of the most notable being former Health Insurance Administration Director Ángela Ávila Marrero and former Department of Education Director Julia Keleher.
The arrests were carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as part of a probe that uncovered a widespread scheme — involving several agencies — to bypass regular bidding processes for government contracts. The charges in the FBI's indictment included money laundering, theft, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.
Journalist Andrew Scurria (@AndrewScurria) quoted part of the indictment that describes the scheme:
“Members of the conspiracy and scheme failed to disclose that portions of the funds assigned under the contracts would be paid as commissions by the contractors to individuals with gov't influence in exchange for obtaining the gov't contract.”
— Andrew Scurria (@AndrewScurria) July 10, 2019
Page 16 of the indictment further states: “By paying unauthorized commissions, the cost of government contracts was unnecessarily inflated and increased.”
In a Twitter thread, cultural anthropologist and essayist Rima Brusi offered a synthesis of the events leading to this latest government scandal :
This morning, the FBI arrested #JuliaKeleher, Puerto Rico’s ex-secretary of education. This is the latest chapter of a saga that showcases how greed, #disasterprofiteering and #colonialism operate together in #PuertoRico. See this thread for a summary. (1/8)
— Rima Brusi (@RimaBrusi) July 10, 2019
Some of these transactions occurred during the weeks immediately following Hurricane Maria, in September 2017. During this time, many Puerto Ricans had no access to basic medical services, food or potable water. Most of the country was without electricity. Hurricane-related deaths were later estimated to be as high as 4,645 people.
The day before the arrests, pages from a Telegram chat — which included the governor, several members of his cabinet and individuals who were neither employees nor contractors, yet misrepresented themselves as such to other agencies — were leaked to the public.
In the chat, the governor and his team used profane, sexist, misogynist, homophobic and body-shaming language to refer not only to members of the political opposition, but also to members of feminist groups and the Puerto Rican press. American politicians and even high-ranking members of the governor's own New Progressive Party were also the object of derision.
In one instance, Chief Financial Officer Christian Sobrino (who resigned on July 13) made a cruel joke about the accumulation of corpses at the Institute of Forensic Sciences (IFS):
While people worried about missing loved ones in the aftermath of #HurricaneMaria, Gov. @ricardorossello’s close advisor joked about dead bodies. “Any spare bodies we can feed our crows? They need some attention.” #RickyLeaks https://t.co/gfgHElDVW9
— Ricardo A. Ramírez (@RicardoEnDC) July 13, 2019
The lack of forensic experts is a serious problem which has paralyzed thousands of criminal investigations in Puerto Rico because of inadequate funding of the IFS and has only worsened after Hurricane Maria. It currently takes several months for examination to take place.
On July 13, the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (Center for Investigative Journalism) made the entire 889-page document available on their website.
Twitter users created the hashtags #Telegramgate and #RickyLeaks to accompany their comments. Julio Ricardo Varela, founder of Latino Rebels, pointed out what he saw as a recurring problem with Puerto Rico's political class:
I understand the need for private convo that is based on trust, but at the same time #TelegramGate exposes a deep truth about #PuertoRico: The arrogant, white male Puerto Rican political class. It's been a thing for decades. That they are entitled. That they are better.
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) July 13, 2019
At a July 11 press conference, Governor Rosselló asked for forgiveness for the Telegram chat. Journalist Ana Teresa Toro noted that something was glaringly absent from the governor's apology:
¿Dónde está el compromiso de trascender los prejuicios que llevan a ese tipo de comentarios? Pedir perdón sin compromiso de evolución, sin cambios concretos, no es suficiente.
— AnaTeresaToro (@AnaTeresaToro) July 12, 2019
Where is the commitment to transcend the prejudices that lead to these types of remarks? Asking for forgiveness without a commitment to evolve, without concrete changes, is not enough.
She added:
La disculpa es porque fue expuesto, no porque lamente su pobreza de carácter. Y eso es todo lo que hay que saber acerca de su mirada a la corrupción.
— AnaTeresaToro (@AnaTeresaToro) July 12, 2019
The apology is because he was exposed, not because he laments the poverty of his character. And that's all that is needed to know about his views on corruption.
The double shock of the Telegram revelations and the FBI's corruption probe prompted many to call for Governor Rosselló's resignation. That night, protesters gathered outside La Fortaleza, the governor's mansion in San Juan, demanding that he step down.
Concentración frente a Fortaleza en contra de la corrupción gubernamental. pic.twitter.com/4xRDmERFyU
— Periódico Claridad (@ClaridadPR) July 10, 2019
Protest in front of Fortaleza against government corruption.
United States Congressman Raúl Grijalva, the Chair of the Natural Resources Committee of the House of Representatives (which oversees Puerto Rico), also called for Governor Rosselló's resignation, a move which some found probelamtic and hypocritical:
As corrupt as Roselló and his govt is it is our job to remove him from office not yours
Why don't you impeach your own criminal president first?
As self appointed rulers of #PuertoRico you @NRDems have no moral authority because u are complicit in an ongoing crime: #colonialism https://t.co/z9Lum26Suf
— Uncivilized PRican (@profanostra) July 11, 2019
In the midst of the controversy, Puerto Rico's institutions have been heavily criticized for failing to act. Responding to Secretary of Justice Wanda Vázquez's apparent intention to not examine the Telegram document to determine whether any laws broken — but instead dismiss the matter as a regrettable incident — journalist Benjamín Torres Gotay (who was derided in the Telegram chat), tweeted:
Nunca en la vida el Departamento de Justicia había analizado an velozmente un documento de 889 páginas, como para llegar a la simple conclusión de que ‘errar es de humanos’
— Benjamín Torres Gotay ?? (@TorresGotay) July 13, 2019
Never in the life of the Department of Justice has an 889-page document been analyzed so quickly to come to the conclusion that ‘to err is human.’
The Procurator of Women, Lersy Boria, also came under fire from several feminist groups for refusing to assume a clear position that condemns the character of the people involved in the Telegram chat — and the language they used:
Comentarios machistas, homofóbicos y lesbofóbicos contra mujeres activistas,periodistas y funcionarias de gobierno.Persecución a quienes disentimos y exigimos trabajen para mejorar nuestra calidad de vida. Procuradora @LersyBoria , ¡exija la renuncia de @ricardorossello ya!
— Colectiva Feminista (@ColeFeminista) July 13, 2019
Sexist, homophobic and lesbophobic remarks against women activists, journalists and government officials. Persecution of those of us who dissent and demand that they work to improve our quality of life. Procurer, @LersyBoria, demand @ricardorossello‘s resignation now!
As of this writing, it is heavily rumored that Governor Rosselló could announce his resignation at any moment.


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Why are people debating the proposed car-free day in Colombo? · Global Voices
Rezwan

Evening traffic in Wellawatte, Colombo. Image via Flickr by Nazly. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The Colombo Municipal Council recently announced that the city’s first-ever car-free day will be held on Sunday, July 14, 2019. The Council is partnering with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Sri Lanka to organize the pilot event — and although many hail this environment-friendly initiative, others are debating it on social media.
Many women, for instance, said that cars afford them much-needed protection from sexual harassment. Driving allows them to avoid having to walk on the streets or take public transportation.
Street harassment is a daily reality for most women in Sri Lanka. A 2015 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) study found that 90 per cent of women surveyed had experienced street harassment while taking public transportation. Of these incidents, 74 per cent were physical in nature and included unwanted touching.
In this vein, journalist Marianne David tweeted:
No, I will not support car-free Colombo. I can barely walk 100 metres without some sick pervert or inbred idiot saying something perverted or stupid to me or making some strangled sound – today's was a meow, of all bloody sounds, a MEOW. So no, no car-free Colombo for me, thanks.
— Marianne David (@MarianneDavid24) July 10, 2019
She later added:
Tomorrow is #CarFreeCMB day & I wish the event the best. It's a good start which I hope brings about positive change. I am not anti-car free, I am anti-street harassment, which is a lot more important to me, & I hope our voices will help birth a street harassment free Sri Lanka.
— Marianne David (@MarianneDavid24) July 13, 2019
The traffic in the Sri Lankan capital has worsened in recent times due to the increase of motorized vehicles — including three-wheelers — on its roads. According to official figures, the total number of vehicles rose by 67 per cent to 7.2 million in 2017, from 4.8 million in 2012. In 2017, with a population of 21 million, Sri Lanka had a vehicle to person ratio of 1:3.
Some netizens lauded the move:
Car-free Sunday, initiated by Embassy of Netherlands in Sri Lanka with CMC, aims to reduce our dependency on motor vehicles & to help realize how vehicle emissions is the largest contributor to air pollution & climate change.
Let's try walking & cycling!@Joan_ned #CarFreeCMB pic.twitter.com/BJrc2KVps9
— Coco Veranda (@cocoveranda) July 6, 2019
The Dutch ambassador was also seen walking (or at least riding) the talk, as she traveled back from the press conference on her bicycle. According to the event organizers, people can show their support for “CarFreeCMB” by traveling on foot, bicycles, skateboards or other non-motorized means:
Dutch Ambassador Joanne Doornewaard is seen cycling back to the Embassy after a joint news conference with Colombo Mayor Rosy Senanayake today where they announced the CarfreeCMB programme to be held on July 14, 2019. pic.twitter.com/vE505vu4qQ
— Sunil Jayasiri (@sjayasiri) July 5, 2019
Re-imagine how we could use our streets if they were car-free for a morning. On 14th July from 6.00am-12.00pm, selected streets will be open exclusively to pedestrians and cyclists. Join in on foot, skateboard, bicycle or rollerblades to stay fit and eat clean. #CarFreeCMB pic.twitter.com/Qtcw0iaJgp
— Car Free CMB (@CarFreeCMB) July 8, 2019
However, Twitter user Sanduni Hettigoda felt that the event was only scratching the surface of the issue:
There is no point having a car-free Colombo unless the state addresses the root causes of traffic and pollution. For example, they can introduce more electric charging points, reduce the prices of electric cars, give easy access to solar power.
— Sanduni Hettigoda (@SandHettigoda) July 10, 2019
Others questioned the efficacy of the initiative, as the car-free day applies to just a small portion of the city and affects only private vehicles:
1) why bill it as a ‘debate’ 2) #carfreecmb isn’t going to apply to public transport only to personal use cars AFAIK 3) honestly shocked how the element of class privilege/socio-economic capacity isn’t being handled properly or even acknowledged here https://t.co/2lhrqd4rdG
— S M W (@smwij88) July 13, 2019
@Rosy_Senanayake ‘s proposed “car-free day” is not a car free day, but a day of road closures. See the map for the stretch that will be closed and how main trunk routes will be blocked forcing motorists to take longer D-tours. pic.twitter.com/kDTRWevRDE
— M A Ratna (@maratnasiri) July 7, 2019
In fact, Twitter user Shamika Kulasingham was unconvinced that the car-free day would actually effect long-term change:
Thought it was a great idea till I realized it was for a limited time in a limited space. #CarFreeCMB is more dangerous than sustainable as it will only result in feel good activism. Alternative- improve public transport so that more people will travel in it. https://t.co/oQblHYGYQ7
— Shamika Kulasingham (@Shamika_25) July 11, 2019
For Radha Withanachchi, though, the issues of long-term environmental benefits and women's safety were inextricably combined:
I’m all for reducing pollution (it’s a necessity!)but #CarFreeCMB will only be a glossy one time event, until public transport & public spaces are safe for women. https://t.co/u2KmvoKYmU
— Radha Withanachchi (@caliginousradha) July 11, 2019
Anupama Ranawana agreed:
What you point is the privilege at the heart of #carfreecmb campaign. Folk who use buses/tuks /walk hv to navigate myriad challenges incl overcrowding, bad service, unhygienic conditions, sex harassment. If campaign really wanted to go care free it would try for transformation.
— Anupama Ranawana (@ARanawana25) July 13, 2019
Right now, the only “transformation” in sight is in the form of the Colombo Light Rail Transit System, which will be operational by 2021 and is expected to ease a lot of the present traffic woes in the Sri Lankan capital:
I really hope #ColomboLightRail is going to minimize my 7.5 km commute which takes one and a half hours now! And massively contribute to #CarFreeCMB pic.twitter.com/KL5oGxwIak
— Kaveen Rodrigo (@enigmamaker) July 8, 2019
Changing sexual harassment culture is not as straightforward.

author: Rezwan


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A look at indigenous women in Mexican cinema · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

At’ Anii’ (Your Lover) is a film completely in the indigenous Teenek language. Image posted on Instagram on the film's official account.
Mexican women — specifically, Mexican women of indigenous heritage — are gradually taking the leading role they deserve in movies in their country and across borders. We'll discuss three specific cases.
But first, what can we say about Mexicans who have gained international recognition in film in recent years? A lot! In strictly commercial terms, work by Mexicans has been consistently recognized in the last decade. We can discuss the writers and directors Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity”, 2013; “Roma”, 2018), Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Birdman”, 2014; “The Revenant”, 2015) and Guillermo del Toro (“The Shape of Water”, 2017), whose works have received awards in Hollywood, in Europe, and at all the festivals where they have been screened. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who has received nominations and awards for almost every project he has worked on since 2005, deserves a special mention.
In this context of Mexican presence and success in the “seventh art”, the participation of women has not been highlighted… until now. Carmen Martínez starred in the feature film “At’ Anni'” (2019), the first film to have all dialogue in the indigenous Teenek language (also known as Huastec, spoken in small regions of San Luis Potosí, Veracruz and Tamaulipas in eastern Mexico).
Carmen Martínez was chosen for the role despite having a very different profession: law. The website Wipy profiled her:
¿Quién es Carmen? Una abogada y madre originaria de la comunidad de Huehuetlán, ubicada en la Huasteca Potosina. Su lengua materna es el Tének y aprendió el español conforme fue creciendo.
Carmen acudió al casting cuando tenía 22 años. El director de la película, Antonino [Isordia], en una declaración para la revista Vogue mencionó que, la cultura Tének es muy sensual y que cuando la vieron llegar para audicionar pensaron que era perfecta para el papel.
Who is Carmen? A lawyer and mother from the community of Huehuetlán, located in Huasteca Potosina. Her native language is Teenek and she learned Spanish as she was growing up. Carmen auditioned when she was 22. In a statement for Vogue magazine, the director of the film, Antonino [Isordia], said that Teenek culture is very sensual, and that when they saw her arrive at the audition, they thought she was perfect for the role.
Although “At’ Anni'” (“The Lover” or “Your Lover” in English) has not debuted in commercial theaters, it has been screened at festivals (including the Guadalajara International Film Festival) and is already drawing international attention. In fact, in June 2019, Vogue Mexico published an interview and photos of Carmen Martínez.
Recordando nuestra presentación en San Antonio. Muy agradecidos con la Presidencia Municipal representada por el Lic. Edyuenary Gregorio Castillo Hernandez, y toda su gente que nos apoyó para que fuera todo un éxito la proyección de  AtAnii. ¡Hasta pronto San Antonio!
A post shared by  At' Anii' – Tu Amante (@ataniipelicula) on
Remembering our screening in San Antonio. Very grateful to the city administration represented by Mr. Edyuenary Gregorio Castillo Hernandez and all of his people who supported us to make the screening of AtAnii such a success. See you soon, San Antonio!
“Arcángel (“Archangel”, 2018) is a short film directed by Ángeles Cruz, who is from the Mixteca region in southwest Mexico. The website Sopitas says the following about Ángeles, who also acts:
Ángeles Cruz lleva años dentro de la industria del teatro, televisión y cine en México. Estudió la licenciatura en actuación en la Escuela de Arte Teatral del Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes […] fue nominada por la Academia Sueca como mejor actriz en 2014 y recibió en 2013 la Diosa de Plata y un Ariel por su primer trabajo como directora.
Ángeles Cruz has been in the Mexican theater, television, and film industry for years. She studied acting at the School of Theater Arts at the National Institute of Fine Arts […] she was nominated by the Swedish Academy for best actress in 2014, and in 2013 she received the Diosa de Plata and an Ariel [Mexican film awards] for her first film as a director.
The website Proceso highlighted Ángeles Cruz's short film awards:
‘Arcángel’ ya cuenta con el Coral del Festival de La Habana, Cuba; Mejor Película Narrativa Corta en Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival, San José, California; Prix Revelation en el Festival de Cine Latinoamericano de Toulouse, Francia; Mejor Cortometraje en el Ismailia Film Festival, Egipto, y Mejor Cortometraje de Ficción, con Patrocinia Aparicio y Noé Hernández como Mejor Actriz y Actor, en Enfoque Film Fest de Puerto Rico. Además, alcanzó la presea a Mejor Cortometraje Mexicano en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Hermosillo, Sonora.
‘Arcángel’ has already won the Coral Award at the Havana Film Festival, Best Narrative Short Film at Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival in San José, California, Prix Revelation at the Toulouse Latin American Film Festival, Best Short Film at the Ismailia Film Festival in Egypt, and Best Fiction Short Film, with Patrocinia Aparicio and Noé Hernández as Best Actress and Actor, at the Enfoque Film Fest in Puerto Rico. It also won Best Mexican Short Film at the International Film Festival in Hermosillo, Sonora.
Local news source El Imparcial said that the film touches on the theme of vulnerability in old age.
Gracias al @fichermosillo Mi amor y agradecimiento por siempre a Patrocinia, @noehernandez7519 y a todo el crew que con su talento, profesionalismo y entrega lo hicieron posible. @lola_ovando @carbscorrea @yaaviko @feliphotograf @filomarino @llogurt @acelo_ruiz @alendrey @tatismaganda @_cascas @jennymendozagarcia @imcine #myriambravo @pablo_marquez79 @kokoxuxp César Palafox, Chili y a much@s más. Gracias ??
A post shared by  Angeles Cruz (@angelescruzactriz) on
Thanks to @fichermosillo My love and gratitude always to Patrocinia, @noehernandez7519 and the whole crew who made it possible with their talent, professionalism, and dedication. @lola_ovando @carbscorrea@yaaviko @feliphotograf @filomarino @llogurt @acelo_ruiz @alendrey @tatismaganda @_cascas @jennymendozagarcia @imcine #myriambravo @pablo_marquez79 @kokoxuxp César Palafox, Chili and many more. Thank you ??
Some media sources have suggested that more attention has been paid to another Mexican film actress, Yalitza Aparicio. Or is it that the attention Yalitza has received has served to raise awareness of indigenous women in film? That's up to the critics and industry analysts to decide.
The reality is that since the award-winning feature film “Roma” premiered on the streaming site Netflix, much has been said and written about the performance of Yalitza Aparicio, who is also indigenous, from Oaxaca. There has been criticism of the digital retouching of her photos (some say it made her skin look lighter), as well as the relevance of her appearances at glamorous industry events like “red carpets” and awards ceremonies.
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A post shared by  Yalitza Aparicio Martínez (@yalitzaapariciomtz) on
These and other controversies can be linked to the theme of the film, which deals with classism and the role of domestic workers in Mexican society, among other issues.
The website SDPNoticias discussed the criticism:
Desafortunadamente para la actriz, las fuertes críticas peyorativas en redes sociales no han cesado desde que la película del director mexicano empezó a acaparar los reflectores de los principales festivales de cine en el mundo. Ahí está el caso del actor Sergio Goyri, quien hace unos días fue grabado en video refiriéndose a la actriz como ‘pinche india’ por su actuación en la película. ¿Envidia?
Unfortunately for the actress, the strong pejorative criticism on social media has not stopped since the film by the Mexican director began to take the spotlight at major film festivals around the world. There is also the case of the actor Sergio Goyri, who was recorded a few days ago referring to the actress as ‘pinche india’ (a ‘damn Indian’) for her performance in the film. Envy?
The reactions to these women's success in film across borders are varied and complex. Why are they being recognized now when they weren't before? Why are we talking only about those who make it to the international level and not those who work daily within their communities? And so on. The truth is that here are three examples of indigenous women who have worked to excel in an environment in which many others fail, so their stories, as well as their efforts, do not go unnoticed here at Global Voices.

author: J. Tadeo


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A prolific theatre producer is one of the latest victims in Trinidad and Tobago’s homicide spiral · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Screenshot of the late Raymond Choo Kong performing a monologue from the play “Norman, is that you?”, uploaded by The Silver Lining Foundation.
One of Trinidad and Tobago's latest murder victims is the pioneering local theatre producer, director, and actor Raymond Choo-Kong, who was found stabbed to death on July 15, 2019.
Details are still sketchy: one local newspaper reported that the murder took place at a bar that Choo Kong owned in Arima, a town in north-eastern Trinidad, while another said that he was found dead at his home (located directly above the bar), and that there did not appear to be any forced entry. Choo Kong's home and business are located only a short distance away from the Arima police station.
Choo Kong's production company was well known for staging comedies. His plays are so popular that his name became a household one over his 40-year career. He gave many up-and-comers their start in local theatre, and was well respected as a contributor to the arts.
Many social media users, gutted by the news, thought it heartbreaking that a man who brought so much laughter to the lives of so many should meet such a violent end. The mayor of Arima, Lisa Roxanne Morris-Julian, lauded Choo Kong's creativity and compassion, saying the news of his death was “a devastating blow”.
Choo Kong was the most decorated member of the local theatre community, having won 18 Cacique Awards — an honour bestowed by the National Drama Association of Trinidad and Tobago. A long and vibrant career saw Choo Kong stage a range of popular musicals like “The King and I” for local audiences, and collaborate with nobel laureate Sir Derek Walcott under the banner of the now defunct Trinidad Tent Theatre. A prolific writer, Choo Kong was known for taking current issues and cleverly turning them into stage plays that tackled tough topics with humour.
The fact that Choo Kong was such a respected contributor to national life has fuelled much of the social media outcry, but one report says that he is among seven people killed in country within the last 24 hours, fuelling further concern about the country's crime rate.
Facebook user Kevan Gibbs said:
The murder of Raymond Choo Kong should be devastating to all citizens of T&T. He gave his life to making us laugh, cry, think and reflect, every time he walked onto a stage or stood behind one. #EverybodyLovedRaymondChooKong #RIPraymond
Randall Douglas added:
Lost another son of the soil to needless, unjustifiable violence.
There have been several calls for action to demand justice for Choo Kong and other murder victims.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun still detained by Beijing after six months · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Yang Hengjun & Yuan Xiaoliang: Screenshot SBS News YouTube video, 8 July 2019
Writer and popular online commentator, Chinese-Australian Yang Hengjun, has been held in detention for six months by Chinese authorities since his arrest at Guangzhou airport on 19 January 2019. He and his family were trying to board a plane to Shanghai. At the time he was living in the United States as a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York.
The Chinese authorities suspect him of “endangering national security.” It is not the first time he has been detained. He disappeared for a couple of days in 2011. This time he left a letter to be released if he was arrested again. In it, he asked activists to:
[…] maintain belief in China's democratic future, and, when it doesn't put yourself or your family at risk, to use all your means to push China's democratic development to happen sooner.
He urged them to work for “freedom, human rights, the rule of law, and justice to occur sooner”.
Yang has been an Australian citizen since 2002. He had worked for the Chinese Foreign Ministry during the 1980s.
There have been concerns that he has not received adequate support from the Australian government or the media.
Until recently, prominent political journalist Chris Uhlmann has been one of few who raised the issue online:
It was noisy diplomacy that freed Hakeem al-Araibi. So where are the calls from politicians for Yang Hengjun’s liberation? Where is the mainstream and Chinese Australian media? The Chinese community groups? The academics and business leaders? To date we don’t even know his crime.
— Chris Uhlmann (@CUhlmann) March 5, 2019
Hakeem al-Araibi is a Bahraini refugee football player with an Australian permanent visa but was jailed in Thailand during a vacation.
However, there was little coverage until it emerged that Yang's wife, Yuan Xiaoliang, had been prevented from leaving China on 7 July 2019. She is a permanent resident of Australia. However, according to the national broadcaster, she has not received help from the Australian government, as she is not a citizen:
Feng Chongyi, friend of detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun, tells @mantsig Mr Yang's wife, who has been prevented from leaving the country, asked for help from Australian authorities but was denied as she's not a citizen #TheWorld pic.twitter.com/DQpAhgXbO5
— ABC News (@abcnews) July 8, 2019
In 2017 Yang's friend Feng Chongyi, a professor at University of Technology Sydney, was detained for a week in China, also under the suspicion of threatening state security.
Online Asia-Pacific current-affairs magazine, The Diplomat, has published some of Yang's articles over the years. In Fixing China's Intelligence System, published in 2015, he argued:
Some intelligence leaders are seriously enmeshed in ideological or factional struggles. Without proper supervision, they could purposefully use biased intelligence reports to mislead decision makers, forcing them to make inappropriate or even wrong decisions. And of course, it’s common for intelligence agents to abuse intelligence and counterintelligence resources to deal with ordinary people or to monitor their political opponents.
Yang's own website is not currently online. Snapshots can be viewed on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. His Twitter account is still live but inactive since his arrest.
Sydney-based online OP Magazine has reported concerns that Australia has not been active enough in pressuring the Chinese government for Yang Hengjun’s release:
Lawyers for Australian writer #YangHengjun, who has been detained in #China since January, are urging #Canberra to intervene. #Australia #auspolhttps://t.co/CL4UolC4tc
— OPMagazine (@OPMGnews) July 8, 2019
Foreign Minister Payne has rejected claims of inaction. However, comparisons were being made with the release of another Australian Alek Sigley from detention in North Korea for over a week. Australia does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea but used Sweden as an intermediary. Maree Ma, General Manager of Vision Times Media, ‘Australia's most widely circulated independent Chinese media’, tweeted a couple of days before Yuan’s attempt to leave:
Waiting for the day we hear that Yang Hengjun gets released. Would the same “discreet” ways work with China? https://t.co/a6jAQsCnBK
— Maree Ma (@maree_jun) July 4, 2019
While Yang Hengjun has been a critic of China’s lack of democracy, some believe his arrest and continuing detention have other causes. Yang may be a victim of hostage diplomacy.
Despite China being Australia's largest trading partner, there has been rising tension between the two countries recently. These were outlined in the article “Chinese-Australian relations have had a rollercoaster year in 2018“. Among the underlying causes identified in this article were the Australian government's:
The last issue has been inflamed by reports in February 2019 that 17 Uyghurs who are Australian residents have been detained as part of China's repression.
Since Australia and China do have diplomatic relations, many netizens are hoping for a similar result to Sigley's.

author: Kevin Rennie


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#MeToo in Myanmar: Two documentaries on how the global movement has inspired women to speak out · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Migrant worker Lazing Lu Bu narrates how she was sold to marry a Chinese man. Screenshot from YouTube video
More and more women in Myanmar are sharing stories about experiences with sexual abuse and their struggle to combat gender discrimination. Here are two documentaries which show women speaking out against violence and standing up for gender equality.
The documentary “Metoo Myanmar,” produced by Myanmar Journalism Institute for Mizzima TV and released in April 2019, investigates the problem of sexual violence in society and how it continues to victimize many women despite the passage of laws meant to protect vulnerable segments of the population.
The documentary features women who became victims of human trafficking, domestic abuse, and sexual harassment in the workplace. It narrates particular stories of young migrant women who were forced to marry Chinese men near the China-Myanmar border, teenagers raped by relatives and even a Buddhist monk, and wives moving on from traumatic relationships.
In November 2018, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) released a short film featuring the voices of women who talk about their experience of gender norms, gender inequalities and women’s rights in Myanmar.
“The films explore gender inequality as the root cause of violence against women and girls, and they carry the voices of women and men who are both ordinary and extraordinary at the same time,” according to an introduction provided by UNFPA.
Both films note how the global #MeToo movement has inspired a growing number of women in Myanmar to bravely confront their abusers and speak out against sexual violence.
One of them is Eain Chit, a famous singer in the country who shared in the “Metoo Myanmar” film the instances when she received sexual offers and was asked to sing and dance privately in front of rich customers.
After narrating more cases of abuse involving women who were harassed and attacked, the documentary points out the need to enforce laws intended to defend women’s rights
Myanmar has signed the United Nations Convention on Anti-Discrimination Against Women in 1997, but all stories in this documentary prove that special laws to protect women don't work in here. On the contrary, it's more likely rape and other sexual violence against women is increasing.
According to government figures, reported rape cases went up from 671 in 2016 to 897 in 2017.
A major challenge in advancing women’s welfare is resisting feudal thinking like the concept of hpon which promotes the supposed superiority and positive spiritually of men over women. This unequal status between men and women has forced the latter to remain quiet if they experience sexual violence. It has promoted a culture of fear linked to the concept of men having a natural right to dominate women. But since 2018, the #MeToo movement has given confidence to many women in Myanmar to question hpon.
In an interview with Tea Circle, an online forum focusing on Myanmar issues, researcher and activist Aye Thiri Kyaw cites a #MeToo-inspired incident in 2018:
…a few teenage girls publicly denounced a popular and famous fortune teller, saying that he had sexually abused them when they visited him a few years back. Their public declaration was a surprise to people, given the age of the girls, and the social prominence of the fortune teller.
She adds that a number of women have also accused an NGO leader of harassment and sexual assault.
Also interviewed on Tea Circle was Kachin activist May Sabe Phyu who explains the motivation of some abused women to share their stories:
Women in Myanmar have suffered in silence. Now they understand that sexual violence is not their fault. They hear other women’s stories, and they realize that their stories will never be heard unless they speak out.

author: Mong Palatino