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Instagram Photos Offer a Peek Into Nagasaki’s Unique Send-Off for the Dead · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Nagasaki shoro nagashi (“sending off the dead” or “spirit boat procession”). Screencap from YouTube user akimama25.
In mid-August every year, Japan observes Obon (お盆), the festival of the dead. If they have the time and the money, family members return from the big cities to their ancestral homes to spend a week or so visiting the graves and remembering the dead.
It is believed the spirits of the deceased return to the family home at this time as well to spend a few days among the living. Once the week is up, the spirits return to the land of the dead for another year.
Every region of Japan has its own special way of observing Obon.
For example, many communities in Japan send off the dead at the end of Obon in a ceremony called toro nagashi (灯籠流し), where paper lanterns are set adrift on a river or on the tide to be be carried away by the current back to the land of the dead.
Nagasaki's variation of this tradition includes firecrackers and gigantic floats in a ceremony that fills the streets of the city called shoro nagashi (精霊流し), or “sending off the dead.”
Sometimes translated as a “spirit boat procession”, elaborate floats are constructed and paraded by the family members of someone who has died sometime in the previous 12 months. The destination for the Nagasaki dead is Paradise (Sukhavati, 極楽浄土).
Nearly 200 people participate in or come to view the event in Nagasaki. The spectators who line the streets often set off firecrackers.
Each year the whole thing is captured and shared on social media.
* * 道路で花火ができて大興奮のこどもたち♪ * 父さんは、爆竹責任者で赤のタスキ。 * * #精霊流し #お盆 #爆竹 #花火
A photo posted by tomo (@harunatsu514829) on
The kids are totally excited to be lighting off [roman candles] on the street, and their dad is a total “firecracker ninja” with his red sash.
Chinese-style firecrackers are not typically included as part of the traditional Japanese Obon festival in other parts of Japan. But Nagasaki, located in the far western reaches of Japan, has enjoyed a close trade relationship with China for at least 500 years. Nagasaki is notable for its Chinese-influenced cuisine and architecture, and the use of firecrackers as part of the shoro nagashi parade is yet another example of the city's strong ties with the China.
The firecrackers are said to ward off evil spirits.
⋆⋆ 0815 . 精霊流し！with ありさ . この船は花火が赤に統一されてて 周りが真っ赤になってた！！ かっこよかったなあ！ . 爆竹の音はテンションあがる⤴⤴ . #長崎#お盆#精霊流し#花火#街中#爆竹 #ぱっと見#火の海#赤#精霊船 #一眼レフ#デジイチ#kissX7#カメラ女子 #ファインダー越しの私の世界
A photo posted by iori (@ggg__ior) on
It's the shoro nagashi! This spirit boat was enveloped in red smoke thanks to people lighting off fireworks around it. It was really cool! 😊🌟💕 The firecrackers really increased the tension of the scene.⤴⤴
ごぶさた♡ It's been such a long time :) * * * It's call "Send Off Spirit Ceremony" an Annual local traditional event in every year in Nagasaki Japan… * 4年？5年？ぶりに生でみれたよ。 #精霊流し#長崎#精霊船 #夏#夏休み#お盆 #nagasaki#japan#spiritboat #sendoffspiritceremony #summer#holiday#happy
A video posted by Ayumi Shiroyama (@ayumrpy) on
It's been a long time since I have seen this. Four years? Five years?
The floats themselves are built by both individual families and by neighbourhoods. They feature lanterns with the names of the recently deceased and a family crest.
Video caption: Nagasaki shoro nagashi 2015: solemnity mixes with liveliness.
Families or neighborhood association members pull the floats through the streets of Nagasaki, as do members of clubs or fraternal organizations. Floats typically feature a large, poster-size photo of the recently deceased.
ひたすらに飲んで騒いで疲れて楽しいお盆だった♡ #精霊流し #青野家女組
A photo posted by misaki mochizuki aono (@misaki.511) on
[The women of the Aono clan] concentrated on drinking booze, raising a little hell, getting tired and having fun this Obon.
#長崎#しょうろうながし #精霊流し #お盆#暑かった
A photo posted by あたし (@chottomate.chotto) on
Floats come in all shapes and sizes. Families will typically construct smaller floats, while neighbourhood associations and fraternal organizations will build more elaborate creations.
#精霊流し#JHPヒト夏の思い出 #2015.08.15#長崎#中華街 #instagood #photooftheday #picoftheday #igers #instacool #photo
A video posted by @buzzlaal on
お盆休み、満喫しました！来週も所用で長崎帰りまーす♪#精霊流し#毎日お酒飲んでる #お盆休み
A photo posted by Naoya Tokunaga (@nao.ya) on
It's the Obon holiday, and I am eating and drinking my fill! And I get to come back to Nagasaki again next week for a business trip!
According to Wikipedia, people who are not mourning someone who has recently died will adorn the floats with fruits and flowers.
#長崎精霊流し #nagasaki #japan
A video posted by @miinan513 on
長崎精霊流し。耳につんざく爆竹音。 何故爆竹なんだろう～ #長崎#長崎精霊流し#爆竹 #うるさい
A video posted by @chi_qchan on
Nagasaki shoro nagashi. The firecrackers are so loud they hurt the ears. Why firecrackers???
Some floats are designed to look like objects and interests that the newly deceased held dear during their life.
For example, some floats may feature a prized possession like a car. This particular float was captured by two different people with two very different perspectives.
大の車好きの叔父。 生涯初の精霊流し参加の筈が、仕事で出れず！ 一生悔やみます。 サービス業辞めたい！ #長崎 #精霊流し #仲見世八番街 #minicooper #車好き
A photo posted by Ryotaro (@rosso211198) on
My uncle who loved cars. Even though I was supposed to join a shoro nagashi for the first time in my life, I couldn't because I had to work! I'll regret that for the rest of my life. I have to quit the service industry!
車乗ってる船にびっくりしましたKTNの精霊流しも始まりましたね！こちらも取り上げられてます！#精霊流し
A photo posted by MIYUKI DOI (@miyukidoiii) on
I couldn't believe it when I saw a float with a car on top 😳🚗🚗 This year's shoro nagashi has started, and I'm in a great place to snap photos!
Firecrackers are lit off during the afternoon and into the night as the parade continues on through the streets of Nagasaki.
長崎のお盆は精霊流し。この一年に亡くなった方々を賑やかに送り出します。皆さんが極楽浄土へ行けますように。 #2015夏#精霊流し#長崎#爆竹#越中先生
A video posted by @chie321q on
Nagasaki's Obon “spirit boat procession.” We're sending off the people who died over the past year in style. We're sending them off to Paradise (Sukhavati, 極楽浄土)!
There are a lot of firecrackers, and the lanterns are lit with real candles. Although injuries are rare, this year saw a float go up in flames in the most spectacular way.
That particular float was caught on camera and uploaded to Instagram before it caught fire.
長崎のお盆は精霊流し #精霊流し#長崎#爆竹オンパレード#20150815
A photo posted by momoka micky lee (@mickylee77) on
Shoro nagashi in Nagasaki for Obon.
Just a few hours, as shown towards the end of this newscast, the float caught fire and was destroyed, injuring one person.
While the floats used to be set adrift on Nagasaki Bay, in recent years the floats are retrieved from the ocean and burned in a subsequent ceremony in order to prevent pollution.
精霊船と送り火とおくりびと #一眼レフ #Nikon #長崎 #精霊流し
A photo posted by こ た 。 (@kota_1221) on
Spirit boat, lit lanterns and the spirits of the deceased, and those who see the spirits off.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Meet Venezuela’s Orthodox Priest Who Rocks in His Robes · Global Voices
Juan Ernesto Páez-Pumar

Orthodox priest, Fernando Rivas, has his own band, Irinika, which he uses to send the public a message of trust and faith, but without the religious label. “I'm out to convince people, not just stay with those already convinced,” assured the 47-year-old from Caracas. Photo: Jorge Santos Jr (used with permission).
Text originally published on the blog Tesis y Antítesis
A man attending a Fathers’ Day celebration, or the end-of-year function at his son's school, at first appears to be the most normal thing in the world. However, the fact that this parent is a priest, and also introduces himself to staff in his robes, at the very least would raise a few eyebrows and get people talking. For years this odd situation was life for Fernando Rivas, a graduate of an International Studies program, born in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, in 1968.
Could it be that he was committing, in public, the most serious act of blasphemy? Not at all, as although Rivas is priest, he belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church, which permits its ministers to marry and have families. But this explanation has to be repeated constantly, as much by his children to their classmates and friends as by the priest himself when around other fathers at street fairs.
It all began in 1996 when Rivas and his wife decided to travel to Bulgaria, planning to study. Being an opera singer, the man of the house wanted to deepen his musical knowledge, while his wife went looking to improve her knowledge of visual arts, specifically of Byzantine iconography.
“Nosotros nos vamos a estudiar. Pero empezamos a ir a la iglesia y allí el sacerdote, que era ortodoxo, me comienza a pedir ayuda en la liturgia y luego de tanto tiempo me pregunta si no estoy interesado en ordenarme. Y así comenzó todo esto”.
We went there to study, but we began going to church and there the priest, who was Orthodox, began asking me for help with the liturgy, and after a long time he asked me if I was interested in getting ordained. That's how it all started.
In his apartment in La Florida, a middle class area of Caracas, this was how he recalled how he found his true calling, for which he needed another “yes” from his wife. “The women must agree and even have to sign a printed document,” he explained.
In 2006, Fernando Rivas finally got ordained a priest of the Greek Orthodox Church, and for all purposes in his religious life he is Father Elías. “In the same way as the Pope and other men of God in the history of humanity, we change our names, but in daily life I am still Fernando Rivas.”
Elías immediately sought to combine his passion, which was still strong when he took the robes, with his new commitment to God. He didn't abandon his music—instead he turned it into a spiritual tool, like the teachings in the Bible themselves. “Three years ago, I founded my band, Irinika, which in Greek means litany of peace. We play rock, but we also play ska and reggae, and I'm accompanied by professional musicians.”
When hearing a priest talk about “rock,” the first thing that comes to mind is the traditional opposition religious people have to this type of music, which seems like a contradiction. “Rock isn't just death and drugs,” Elías explains. “That's not true. It has been stigmatized, and we want to remove the stigma. Rock is also a testimony to life, which we use to send a message of faith and hope.” He says he grew up listening to the sounds of The Doors, Janis Joplin, and The Rolling Stones, and is especially fascinated with Pink Floyd.
Although a decade ago the staff at his son's school were surprised by his presence at various events, sporting the characteristic Orthodox attire, these days it is no less surprising for the public that see him at a “gig,” up on a stage in his robes.
“Para nosotros es obligatorio llevarla. Solo me la quito cuando estoy en mi hogar con mi familia o las veces que he tenido que interpretar a algún personaje en una ópera que requiere un vestuario característico. Pero siempre estoy con mi sotana, incluso en las presentaciones de Irinika”.
For us it is compulsory to wear them. I only take them off when I am at home with my family, or the times when I've had to perform a role in an opera that requires a specific costume. I am always wearing my robes, even at Irinika performances.
If there is one thing Father Elías does not like, it is when people say he plays “Christian rock.” He prefers to call his music “alternative rock,” as his target audience is not the devoted believers but all kinds of people looking for answers through God to the difficult situation through which humanity passes, but without any sort of religious label. “I'm want to convince, not just stay with the already-convinced,” he declared.
Elías is a university professor and singing teacher, a weekly contributor to a radio program with a segment called “Rock and Faith,” a family man with a wife and two children, and—if that wasn't enough—a priest. When asked how he finds time for this last role, he responds laconically, “My parishioners know that they can count on me 24-hours-a-day. Whatever must be interrupted for them, will be interrupted.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Juan Ernesto Páez-Pumar


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Saeed Kamali Dehghan on Covering Iran for The Guardian · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

This is the fourth in a series of interviews with Iranian journalists and writers who have dedicated their careers to communicating Iran's complexities and contradictions to those outside of the country. Read the full series here.
Saeed in Geneva this past year to cover the nuclear negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran. PHOTO courtesy Saeed Kamali Dehghan, used with permission.
With over 800 Iran-related bylines to his name, Saeed Kamali Dehghan is the first staff journalist at The Guardian dedicated to covering Iran, and one of the few Iranian nationals employed by a major English-language media institution.
Much of his reporting relates to Iran’s human rights violations, but as he said in a phone interview, “the common problem in many western media organisations is that they see Iran as black and white, and Iran is not like that. It’s a spectrum, it’s a rainbow.”
So while Saeed covers issues such as Iran’s use of a fabricated Wikileaks cable to smear the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, another of his recent stories was a big feature about Iran’s tech start-ups and fashion gaining a foothold in Iran. “We need more human stories about Iran,” he says.
Saeed's Guardian profile lists has over 700 articles. Screenshot from The Guardian website.
With the current moderate administration now celebrated and lauded by many for changes such as the re-establishment of relations with western countries and bringing Iran closer to the prospect of an end to sanctions, it’s an interesting time for a journalist covering Iran.
Saeed believes the Rouhani government has done some good things in its two years in power, but has also failed to deliver on some of its promises. “He delivered on one aspect in terms of nuclear deal, and inflation under sanctions,” he says. “He hasn’t done enough on human rights and releasing those still under arrest. . . . If the Rouhani government is doing a good job somewhere, we should say it; but if he’s doing a bad job somewhere else, we should also say that.”
He cites the example of a statement by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) a few weeks ago condemning the Rouhani government’s gagging the hardline media. “[The ICHRI] was right to highlight that the government is trying to suppress the opponents of the nuclear deal,” Saeed says. “Free speech is for all, even for those we don’t like.”
As an Iranian journalist covering Iran, Saeed acknowledges that can take some effort to suppress one’s feelings and beliefs. “As an Iranian I have an emotional attachment to the country, but when I’m writing news I step back and try to be impartial. But I’m allowed to express my opinion when I write op-eds, and I’ve also done that sort of thing. I wrote about why Canada is getting it wrong on Iran, which led to the then Canadian foreign minister accusing me on Twitter of working for the Iranian authorities. I’ve been attacked by some people who accuse me of working for the Iranians and by others who accuse me of working for the Brits. I hope that’s a sign I’m doing my job right!”
One matter on which Saeed did not hesitate to take a stance on was his support for the recent nuclear deal between the P5+1 and Iran on July 14, 2015.
“I give credit to Obama for the peace we now have in the US-Iran relationship because of this nuclear deal. I give credit to Rouhani and Zarif too. But with a different president it might not have happened. Obama said in his speech that just because some Iranians chant “death to America” it doesn’t mean all Iranians think so—and he is damn right. He has never been to Iran, but he understands the complexity of Iranian politics in a way that many in the American press don’t.”
Saeed’s career as a professional journalist began in 2006, with what he considers a defining moment for a young engineering undergraduate who had never left his home country of Iran.
“One day in 2006 I picked up the phone and called the UK for the first time in my life. I called the Guardian switchboard. The Iranian daily Shargh was closed down by the government, and I wanted to know if I could write about it. I was connected to their foreign desk, where I explained that I was an Iranian journalist. They told me to email them my article.
“The next day I looked at the website to see if the article had been published, and it wasn’t. My English at the time needed a great deal of editing, and I thought they didn’t like it and forgot about it. A few weeks later, on an off-chance I discovered that it had in fact been published in print and online only a few days after my submission. You can still find that first article under my profile on the Guardian website.”
While he didn’t start out with the intention of becoming a political writer, politics, he says, “quickly became the only thing I wanted to do. It was everything that was happening around me.”
Between 2006 and 2009, Saeed wrote regularly for The Guardian, though as a contributor, not a staff member. But in June 2009, when Iran erupted in protest at the widely contested president elections, Saeed’s career took off.
“As soon as the post-election unrest occurred, my byline started appearing on the front pages. In one month alone I gave about 50 live interviews to international media about what was happening. It was an unfortunate moment and I was sad to see all the arrests and crackdowns. But as a young journalist writing about an extraordinary moment in my country it was momentous for my career.”
Saeed was subsequently co-producer on For Neda, a popular HBO documentary released in 2010 about the now famous murdered protester Neda Agha Soltan. He left Iran around the period many journalists were facing persecution for their coverage of the protests, and moved to London, where he completed a Masters in journalism and joined The Guardian as a staff journalist.
Saeed's desk in The Guardian newsroom in London. PHOTO: Saeed Kamali Dehghan, used with permission.
Asked why he chose to write for an English-language newspaper instead of a Persian one, Saeed cites The Guardian’s long history and ownership and accountability structure.
“It’s a newspaper with 194 years of history and doesn’t belong to anyone,” he says. “It belongs to itself as a trust, it has a very unique structure and I’m very proud of that. I’m happy to work for a newspaper that has such a long history of being truly independent. Kings and prime ministers have come and gone in this country and the world and The Guardian has been there through it all.”
Saeed believes that more Iranian journalists should be writing for the English-language press, and taking that experience back home. “Yes, we have newspapers like Etelaat which has been around for 80 years, and Kayhan, with a similarly long history. But influenced by the country's political events, they have gone through significant changes and lost their consistency. There’s never been a consistency in their work like we see in the west at The Guardian or the New York Times or the New Yorker. And from the way some Iranian officials and media talk about the Guardian ias if it's a government newspaper, it’s clear that some of them don’t know that there are newspapers in the world that have been able to maintain their independence for a long period of time.”
Saeed nevertheless sees some positive developments in the Iranian media in recent times, such as Iranian officials writing for the foreign press. “Rouhani wrote for the Washington Post, Zarif recently wrote for The Guardian. Iranian officials are beginning to interact more with the foreign press and that sort of thing will be good for Iran.”
Iran, he says, is also allowing more foreign press into the country, permitting foreign writers to experience Iran first-hand, which should result in more accurate and nuanced portrayals of the country.
“I looked at the editorials written by the foreign press in the wake of the nuclear deal, and my observation was that those newspapers who have a physical presence in Iran were largely supportive of the agreement,” Saeed says. “Those who haven’t, were not. By not allowing journalists in easily Iran is doing itself a disservice.”

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Sargassum Seaweed Turns the Caribbean’s Crystalline Waters Murky · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Sargassum lines a Caribbean beach in 2011. Photo by Mark Yokoyama. Used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Say the word “sargasso” and West Indian literature fans will automatically think of the critically acclaimed novel by Dominican-born British writer Jean Rhys, “Wide Sargasso Sea“. But now, sargasso — or as many are calling it, sargassum — the elegant-looking, dark brown seaweed with tiny berries, has been washing up in bulk along shores from the southern United States to the Caribbean.
The presence of the algae in regional waters is nothing new. In fact, there is an entire area in the northern Atlantic Ocean named for it. But the sheer volume of sargassum over the last month or so is concerning; some are attributing the phenomenon to climate change.
Naturally, Caribbean governments are concerned about the effect of the seaweed on tourism. Sargassum along Tobago's eastern coast was piled so high on the beaches that some of it had to be removed with the help of backhoes. Guests at one upscale hotel on the south-east coast of the island complained that the smell from such large quantities of the algae was nauseating. Still, as of last week, Tobago seemed to be full of holiday-makers, as the island's western coast remained unaffected, likely due to the motion of the tides.
One PADI-certified diver, Dave Elliot, who regularly dives in Tobago, filmed a short video about the sargassum — first, viewers get a perspective from the shoreline, and then from underwater. It's fascinating and well worth a look.
In the first part of the video, the entire stretch of Tyrell's Bay in Speyside, on the island's north-east coast, is thick with sargassum to the point where the water actually looks like mud. At about 5:45 in the timeline, the divers go directly underneath the sargassum. The closer to shore they reach, the darker it becomes; they soon have to turn on their lights in order to get any visuals on the camera and they must use their compasses to tell which direction they are going. The algae was so dense that it made swimming quite challenging. Elliot narrates:
Occasionally, maybe as a wave would roll, the light would peer through from the top […] Meanwhile, on the sea floor, the area is very sandy. What was noticeable was the absence of the normal algae-eating fish that we know: the parrotfish, the angelfish, the surgeonfish, trumpetfish and all the other smaller versions…the damselfish and such like…there were no signs of these species of fish.
Elliot soon discovered that the entire sea floor was “carpeted with the weed”; he did not notice “much life underneath there”. This has been one concerns of environmentalists — that the abundance of seaweed could be affecting marine life — though in a newspaper column, Lori Lee Lum, the community education officer at Trinidad and Tobago's Institute of Marine Affairs noted:
Besides being a food source, this seaweed community supports a diverse ecosystem and provides critical habitat for a wide variety of sea life including crabs, shrimp, molluscs, fish such as mahi mahi, and sea turtles, and is a nursery and spawning area for others.
Elliot and his diving companion soon had no choice but to find their way back to the jetty at Blue Waters Inn on the northeastern part of the island; the underwater images are murky; almost eerie. Tobago's fishermen have been adversely affected as well.
Interestingly, four years ago in September 2011, when the region also experienced an influx of sargassum, an octogenarian entrepreneur from Barbados found a way to turn the sargassum problem into profit. The Barbados Government Information Service produced a video feature on the process Cavendish Atwell uses to make a sargassum-based fertiliser:

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Students Push for Alcohol Prohibition in Southern India Street Protests · Global Voices
Winnan Tirunallur

Image courtesy Facebook page “We support professor Ramu Manivannan”
In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on August 11, about 50 students staged a sit-in at the University of Madras to protest the removal of Professor Ramu Manivannan, head of the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Madras.
Manivannan has been removed because he refused to take action against 11 students participating in gatherings against alcohol sales in the state. Alcohol sales are a huge cash cow for the local government.
The students demand that the university administration reinstate him.
A shocking video of a 4-year-old boy being forced to drink alcohol by a group of men in Tiruvannamalai, which circulated on social media, acted as the trigger for widespread demand to control the sale of alcohol in the state.
And demands intensified after a notable Gandhian and anti-liquor activist Sasi Perumal died during a local protest against a government-run liquor shop.
Last week a group of students from Pachaiyappan College were beaten by the police as they pelted stones at government-run liquor shops in the capital city of Chennai.
Similar demonstrations have taken place across the state, leading to the arrest of thousands of protesters. They claim the Tamil Nadu state government has used its police force to threaten and beat hundreds of students and activists.
Raising his concern over the Tamil Nadu state government's draconian way of crushing the protesters, blogger Tamil Elango wrote:
உண்மையில் மதுவை எதிர்த்து முதன் முதல் குரல் கொடுத்தவர் நமது திருவள்ளுவர்தான். ”கள்ளுண்ணாமை” என்று ஒரு அதிகாரமே திருக்குறளில் இருக்கிறது. இன்றைக்கு அவர் இருந்திருந்தால் மதுவை எதிர்த்த குற்றத்திற்காக புழல் சிறையில் பிடித்து போட்டு இருப்பார்கள்.
Our greatest philosopher Thiruvallur (who lived 2,000 years ago) is the one who raised his voice against alcoholism. In his magnum opus, Holy Kural, he dedicated a chapter to dealing with the problems of alcoholism. But, If he was alive today, surely he would be caught and put in jail for his views on alcoholism.
The state government of Tamil Nadu earns around US $3.35 billion a year from selling alcohol l in its 6,827 shops across the state. It is a major income source for the government.
Dr. Lakshmi Vijayakumar is a psychiatrist and the founder of Sneha, an NGO that runs a suicide helpline. He states that the rising number of suicide deaths in the state is directly connected with prevalence of alcoholism.
Not just suicide cases, but also an increasing number of road accidents in the state are related to the people's chronic drinking habits. In 2013, about 2,764 accidents occurred due to alcohol and 718 people were killed in Tamil Nadu by drunk drivers.
It made Tamil Nadu one of the top states in the country for alcohol-related road accidents. Growing alcohol consumption also causes health problems for many, especially economically deprived families.
மதுவிலக்கு கோரிக்கையினால் நடந்த ஒரு உருப்படியான விஷயம் : எவர் வாரிசுக்கு மது / புகையிலை தொழிற்சாலை உள்ளது என்ற விவரம் பகிரங்கமானது தான் !!
— Swathee (@iamswathee) August 5, 2015
As a result of these anti-liquor protests, it is good that we got to know that many prominent politicians and their heirs are the ones who run the alcohol and tobacco production industries in the state.
இப்பொழுது ஏற்பட்டுள்ள மதுவிலக்கு போராட்டம் மாபெரும் போராட்டமாகி மதுவிலக்கை தமிழக அரசு கொண்டு வந்தால் அது நம் தமிழ்நாட்டுக்கே பெருமை தரும்.!
— கோவை காதர் (@MoideenKadhar) August 3, 2015
The protests against the prohibition of alcohol are a great move. If Tamil Nadu government bans the sale of alcohol, it will be greatly appreciated by the general population.
Opposition parties have also begun backing a ban on alcohol, although netizens quickly reacted to their hypocrisy, exposing prominent members of those parties who produce and sell both liquor and tobacco products.
As student activists across the state are continuing their protests, findings of a survey by Satta Panchayat Iyakkam, a local study group, was released on August 13. Its findings show that US $10.33 billion were lost due to alcoholism and related health care costs in the state.

author: Winnan Tirunallur


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Tianjin Lives Up to Its ‘City Without News’ Nickname After Deadly Blasts · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The warehouse where the blasts originated was storing 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide, 70 times the legal limit. Image from Xinhua via HKPF.
As deadly explosions rocked Tianjin, China, and firefighters were risking their lives last week, local satellite TV was showing cartoons and Korean dramas. The enormous blasts at a warehouse storing hazardous chemicals killed at least 114 people and captured the world's attention, but the lack of coverage at home led netizens to crown Tianjin “a city without news.”
It's not the first time that Tianjin has been labeled as such. The term was used to describe the city by a China Youth Daily reporter in a feature story about the news reports of a fire in a shopping mall in Ji county back in June 2012. Local authorities restricted media from reporting on the fire. Rumors online claimed a staggering 375 people had died at the time, while officials said the death toll stood at 10.
When the shocking explosions took place last week, local media in Tianjin reacted similarly. Twitter user @nzxws highlighted the situation:
更为“奇葩”的是，灾难发生后，天津卫视仍然在播放韩剧，以至于网民质疑“全世界都在看天津，天津却在看韩剧”。全世界都在看天津新闻，可天津本地却沦为“一个没有新闻的城市”。
— 道义、正义、仗义、民主之间 (@nzxws) August 15, 2015
It was shocking to see that after the disaster, Tianjin satellite TV was still showing Korean dramas, and netizens criticized that “the whole world was watching Tianjin while Tianjin was watching Korean dramas.” The whole world was reading news about Tianjin, but the city has become “a city without news.”
To rebuke the label, Tianjin Daily published a 10-page spread on the blasts, but instead of taking a critical stance on the man-made tragedy, thank you messages to leaders, firefighters, doctors and nurses dominated the coverage. Experienced reporter Jia Jia expressed frustration on Facebook about such praises that buried the truth:
在天津爆炸二十個小時後，我們都不知道到底是什麼東西爆炸的時候，當地官方居然說要嚴懲造謠者。呵呵，不覺得眼熟嗎？是不是每次災難後都是這種表態？這就是我們天天在歌頌的那批人啊——救人一無是處，抓人毫不含糊。你躲在不知道什麼角落的鬼地方發個帖子，分分鐘就能知道是你幹的。但是瑞海公司的倉庫裏到底放了些什麼東西，兩天了還不知道。你覺得這個可能嗎？
這次天津爆炸事件中，民居的玻璃傷了很多人，可是如果建築商使用合乎安全規範的安全玻璃，完全可以避免這樣的受傷。又比如，如果不讓第一批次進入火場的消防員用水的話，可能會避免更多的傷亡（見南方週末的報道），但是很遺憾，每次發生這樣的人禍，總是會得到最壞的結果，在每一個環節都會掉鏈子。
Twenty hours after the explosion, we still didn't know what has caused the blasts. [Instead of revealing the truth], local authorities vowed to punish people who spread rumors. Isn't this situation common? Isn't this the same attitude after all disasters? This group of people we keep praising are good for nothing when it comes to rescuing people but firm when arresting people. Even if you hide in a corner when writing a tweet, they know it is you. While what exactly was stored in Ruihai Logistics’ warehouse, they couldn't tell in two days. Do you think this is possible?
Many residents were injured by windows that were blown out during the Tianjin explosions. If the construction companies use safe, up-to-standards glass, a lot fewer people would have been hurt. If the first group of firefighters had not used water to put out the fire, the casualties would not be as serious (see Southern Weekend's report). Every time when a man-made disaster happens, the worst scenario happens. The ball is dropped in every respect.
On August 14, two days after the explosions, local authorities revealed that at least 700 tons of highly toxic sodium cyanide was stored at the warehouse, an amount 70 times the legal limit. The blast leaked the chemical into the environment.
Social media user Jia Jia was furious when he saw that instead of questioning the authorities, local Tianjin media praised the leaders and rescue workers:
今天天津日報用了十個版證明“天津並不是一個沒有新聞的城市”，可是，這十個版是什麼？全是感動，沒有別的。感謝政府指揮，感謝消防官兵，感謝醫院護士。誠然，他們的付出是該感謝，可是，他們本來沒有必要這樣付出的，他們可以不用去啊。感動你妹，為什麼每次都要把喪事當成喜事來辦？
Today, Tianjin Daily used 10 pages to prove that “Tianjin is not a city without news.” What was reported in those 10 pages? All are touchy-feely expressions of thanks. Thankful for the government's supervision in relief work. Thankful for the firefighters, thankful for the nurses in the hospital. Of course, we should thank people who help out in disaster relief. But they didn't have to be in this position in the first place. Moving bullshit. Why do you have to turn grief into praise?
News about the blasts spread rapidly in China. In a 24-hour period between August 14 and 15, there were 269,512 messages about the explosions on the Chinese Internet according to new media analyst Hua Hongbing. Among the messages, 246,895 were messages on popular social media website Weibo, 2,980 were breaking news reports, 15,891 were blog or forum posts, and 3,764 were posts on messaging app WeChat.
An American named Daniel Van Duran, who was living a few kilometers away from the explosions, captured the frightening moment on film:
Instead of clarifying the situation, authorities stopped journalists from collecting eyewitness reports in hospitals and near port areas. Government censors shut down more than 50 websites and deleted social media messages, claiming to stop rumors from spreading.
One of the most deleted posts is an interview with a firefighter who said that they were not told that there were toxic chemicals at the scene that would react dangerously with water. Fears are swirling that the sodium cyanide could react with rain to produce poisonous hydrogen cyanide gas.
In fact, most of the censored messages retrieved from “Free Weibo”, a project that saves copies of censored Weibo messages, were not rumors but critical comments based on official news sources. Below are some examples of censored messages:
作为一个刚刚值完夜班的媒体人，带着双重的伤痛下班，一是无辜死难同胞带来的内心伤痛和一些农民工财产尽失、求告无门的呻吟，二是政府无力的辩解、遮掩和看客丧事变成喜事的无良歌颂。天津港，104条生命，天文数字一般的财产损失，高昂的救援成本，等待着一声真挚的忏悔和道歉。竟连安倍也不如。
As a media worker who was off from his night shift, I left the office feeling painful over the innocent deaths, those who lost all their property and belongings, and the government's defensive statement, cover-up and positive reporting full of praises. One hundred and four lives were lost in the port. The property loss was tremendous and the disaster relief cost will be huge. We are still waiting for a sincere apology. [The authorities] are worse than Abe Shinzo [prime minister of Japan who refused to apologize for WWII war crimes].
Residents from Wanke Harbour City demanded the government buy back their apartments and compensate them for their loss after the explosions. Image from Facebook-based Line Post.
天津港的万科海港城，就是中产阶级的隐喻：辛苦赚钱买房，努力做个良民。即使危险品仓库建在区区六百米之外，当初不过稍作反抗就习以为常。然后忽然一场爆炸，多年血汗化为灰烬……终于有天你会明白，中产也好，贫民也罢，这国普通人有关生活的全部憧憬，仅仅建立在概率之上。
What happened to [the residents] of Wanke Harbor city near Tianjin port can be seen as a metaphor for the fate of the middle class: They work hard to buy property and be a good and obedient citizen. The hazardous chemicals warehouse was just 600 meters away, and though they spoke out against the project back then, they got used to its existence. Then came the explosions and all their sweet homes were turned to ash… You will eventually understand that not matter if you are middle class or lower class, in this country ordinary people's dreams are built upon probability and luck.
截止目前，天津爆炸事件原因已渐近明晰答案：人祸。希望政府对这次人为的重大事故追责到底，公开透明，还原真相。例如：把受灾民众和消防官兵的死伤数据诚实地公示于社会，把相关涉案责任者送上法庭。中纪委介入很必要。灾难不可怕，可怕的是：将依法追责终结于表彰庆功，为灾难重演搭台。请尊重生命！
The cause of the Tianjin explosion is becoming clear: a man-made disaster. I wish the government would find out who should be held accountable for the incident in an open and transparent manner. Dig up the truth — announce the number of deaths and injured and prosecute those who violated the law. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection would be involved. A disaster is not horrible, what's horrible is covering up who is responsible and who should be held accountable with praise. Please respect life.
针对天津港特大爆炸事故，市委书记、市长、安监局长，应当一概免职。刚才在视频上看到天津安监局副局长在新闻发布会上，那么淡定地开发布会，我真服了。相关职责部门一把手都当立刻予以免职，务必请专案组进入调查。如请当地职能部门调查，还靠谱嘛？没有第三方、第四方介入调查，民众和消防员白死了！
The Tianjin party secretary, city mayor and the head of security inspection bureau should be fired. The deputy of the Tianjin security inspection bureau attended the press conference, he was so calm. The chief of all related government departments should step down and should be investigated [for negligence and corruption]. The investigation should not be handled by local authorities. Without the involvement of the third and fourth parties, innocent people and firefighters would die in vain.
Tianjin is not the only city in China that censors news and critical opinions. The “city without news” is just a microcosm of a country that sees positive reporting as a means to political stability.

author: Oiwan Lam


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A Ping-Pong Table Puts Singapore’s Intellectual Property Regulation Under the Spotlight · Global Voices
Sarah Green

Photo by Singapore-based Jason Goh. CC0 Public Domain
A round ping-pong table featured at the recent Southeast Asian Games in Singapore in June became controversial because of its similarity to an art work designed by Cultural Medallion winner Lee Wen. After this incident, a group of Singaporean artists called for discourse on intellectual property practices in this country.
They drafted a manifesto suggesting that more work is needed to ensure current intellectual property regulations are able to protect the rights of artists:
This incident highlights the lack of sufficient measures that respect and protect artistic creation in Singapore. In a nation that has been consistently ranked by international surveys as having one of the best IP protection laws in the world, why did this incident occur? Even if it was legal, is it ethical?
[…]
Given its importance, we feel that more can be done to encourage, respect and protect content creation. The government has made tremendous efforts in growing and professionalising the arts. Unfortunately, limited understanding of artists’ rights and standard industry practices remains.
Ping-Pong Go Round by artist Lee Wen. Photo by Flickr user Pascal Vuylsteker. CC BY-SA 2.0
The manifesto was signed by 229 theater people, writers, poets, filmmakers, journalists, actors and actresses, academics, dancers, arts administrators, performance artists, and visual artists from Singapore.
In response to their initiative, Sport Singapore (SportSG) decided to make a “goodwill payment” to the original creator of the horse-shoe ping-pong table, while the Southeast Asian Games Organising Committee noted that no copyright infringement was intended. Although this step demonstrates the institution’s awareness of the artist's rights, it is hardly a guarantee that no similar incidents will happen in future.
Strict IP laws. Still flouted. Caught redhanded with round Ping-Pong table at #SEAGames2015 http://t.co/2CTPiate04 #Singapore
— SIX-SIX News (@SIXSIXnews) June 29, 2015
Instead, a more recent event may prompt officials to tackle the issue in more detail and provide the answer to intellectual property concerns.
During a recent visit to Singapore on his Southeastern Asia route, UK Prime Minister David Cameron pointed to the need for strengthening co-operation with Singapore on resolving this issue. Although the very process of trademark application review is quite straightforward, an ever growing number of applicants complicates it to a great extent.
Namely, given that organizations such as The World Economic Forum and the Political Economic Risk Consultancy rank Singapore's intellectual protection laws as the best in Asia, it is unsurprising that a large number of international businesses decides to launch innovative projects in the country. Consequently, Singapore is facing a record-breaking number of intellectual property protection applications mostly in the field of technology.
Artists, on the other hand, do not feel the government is doing everything it can to prevent incidents such as the one with Lee Wen's table from happening. In fact, they are concerned about the fact that “some IP lawyers feel no copyright was infringed” despite the fact the project has existed for years.
Cameron's comment, therefore, may trigger the necessary reconsideration of potential loopholes in the law. Although his decision is primarily focused on benefits for British businesses, it may be a huge step when it comes to further improvements of intellectual property regulations in Singapore.
Some Singaporeans seem delighted this issue was brought into spotlight.
If Singapore is SERIOUS about being a Intellectual Property Hub, then IT ought to put their money where their… http://t.co/6Pq1M2cfRV
— KanCheong Spyder (@KancheongSpyder) June 10, 2015
By working together on such a serious matter, the two governments may make intellectual property regulation stable enough to protect everyone’s rights.

author: Sarah Green


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After 2 Bombings in Bangkok, Thai Internet Users Join #StrongerTogether Movement · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

#StrongerTogether memes are widely shared on social media by Thai Internet users.
Two bomb blasts have rocked central Bangkok in the past two days, killing 20 people and injuring hundreds. The first explosion hit Erawan Shrine, a popular tourism destination, and the second bomb exploded on the Saphan Taksin bridge today without any reported casualties.
Authorities are still investigating the two bombings, which have exacerbated the already tense political situation in the country. The army grabbed power last year and drafted an interim constitution, leading to the appointment of army officials in the military-backed civilian government. The ruling junta vowed to conduct elections next year, if political reforms and stability have been restored in the country.
Thai Internet users responded to the bomb attacks by expressing unity and solidarity on Twitter with the hashtag #StrongerTogether.
together forever #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/azpNpI5ydZ
— dodiddone’ (@dodiddoneshop) August 18, 2015
24 hours after the bomb blast I visited Erawan Shrine. Notes of regret in Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Russian. 1/ pic.twitter.com/u9V4er3zO4
— Christopher G. Moore (@cgmooreauthor) August 18, 2015
A day after the first explosion, many Thais placed flowers at the Erawan shrine:
People lay flowers and light candles for the victims of bomb attack at Erawan Shrine #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/RffgUMOF86
— ThaiPBS English News (@ThaipbsEngNews) August 18, 2015
Erawan shrine very quiet this evening, just a few people lighting candles and paying their respect to the victims – pic.twitter.com/7cemlaWCjo
— Florian Witulski (@vaitor) August 18, 2015
After the Erawan bomb explosion was reported on Monday evening, many doctors immediately volunteered to help the victims. The Thai Public Broadcasting Service reports:
There was another group of off-duty doctors who, after the bomb blast, rushed directly to emergency wards of their respective hospitals without being told or asked. They went there to help out, to tend to the patients out of their own free will.
Aside from doctors, Chinese interpreters also volunteered, as some victims are tourists from China. Many also responded to the call for blood donations:
7:30pm Still very long queues of people wanting to donate blood at the Thai Red Cross – RT @ShanMiaosan: pic.twitter.com/QHHMO5Tv8U #Bangkok
— Richard Barrow (@RichardBarrow) August 18, 2015
In addition to killing and maiming innocent people, the bomb attacks could also hurt Thailand’s tourism industry. Several nations have already issued travel advisories about the need for caution when traveling to Thailand. In Bangkok, many places seemed completely abandoned a day after the Erawan bomb blast:
It's never been like this around this time on weekday before (BTS heading national stadium) #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/0QaOQ8Bauy
— Thawatchai S. (@Ping_St) August 18, 2015
BTS refers to Bangkok Mass Transit system.
Central World & other shopping malls in central #Bangkok are like ghost towns tonight – RT @pinenerize: pic.twitter.com/KxztgvPXzG #Bangkok
— Richard Barrow (@RichardBarrow) August 18, 2015
8:20pm – RT @SamuelKertesz: Siam BTS station is empty pic.twitter.com/xk1TXywrBZ #Bangkok #Thailand
— Richard Barrow (@RichardBarrow) August 18, 2015
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the country’s former army chief, denounced the perpetrators of the bomb explosions. He appealed for unity and urged everyone to be responsible when sharing information about the #BangkokBlast:
I would like to seek the cooperation from the media, including all social media agents, in providing news that will be constructive rather than news which expounds violence and destruction, either by video or sound clips or contentious commentary, which may have a misleading effect on ongoing investigations and create misunderstandings in our society.

author: Mong Palatino


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How One News Website Is Taking On Russia’s Attorney General (and Losing) · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Image by Kevin Rothrock.
It’s often said that the freedom of the press is severely limited in Russia. While this has seemed to be the case for over a decade, the freedom of Russia’s online media began to suffer more recently, with the start of the government’s Internet crackdown, following Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin in 2012.
In Putin’s third term, small websites have been blocked and larger outlets have been pressured into editorial changes that have watered down the critical news coverage available to many Russian Internet users. Well over a year ago, state censors indefinitely blocked three relatively small oppositionist news websites. These sites remain online today, but they’re technically banned inside Russia.
Russia launched its Internet blacklist in the summer of 2012, at first targeting content like child pornography and information about illegal drugs and suicide. The blacklist has expanded considerably since then, extending to digital piracy, so-called “gay propaganda,” and more.
In terms of political salience, some of the most sensitive content that can be blocked in Russia today is what is considered to be “extremism,” as defined by a law that entered force in February 2014. This legislation, sometimes called the “Lugovoi law” (after its most prominent sponsor), empowers Russia’s Attorney General to ban websites without any judicial oversight, if officials decide that their content qualifies as “extremist” under the law’s rather vague definition, which includes even general information about unsanctioned political rallies.
On March 13, 2014, the Attorney General banned three relatively small oppositionist websites (Grani.ru, Kasparov.ru, and EJ.ru), as well as the LiveJournal blog of anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny. These resources remain banned in Russia today, though Navalny has relocated his blog to a self-hosted domain, which is accessible in Russia now, despite being blocked temporarily in January and February this year (also on the Attorney General’s orders).
Of the three news sites listed above, Grani.ru has proved to be the most defiant, waging a sustained campaign to circumvent the government’s censorship with a barrage of mirror sites. According to the website Rublacklist.net, an Internet-freedom project run by the Pirate Party of Russia, more than 40 percent of the Attorney General’s 2,292 interventions online have been directed at Grani.ru. Compared with any other website, Grani.ru has consumed more of the Attorney General’s censorship efforts, by far.
Number of online interventions (blocking websites and unblocking websites) by the Russian Attorney General. Data according to Rublacklist.net. Graphic by Kevin Rothrock. (From top to bottom: other, Navalny, .ua websites, YouTube, LiveJournal, EJ.ru, Grani.ru, and Kasparov.ru.)
Speaking to the Russian-language service of France Médias Monde, Grani.ru’s general director, Yulia Berezovskaya, recently revealed that the Kremlin’s media watchdog agency, Roskomnadzor, still sends Grani.ru warnings about content that appears on its website, despite the fact that the website has been blocked in its entirely for the past 17 months.
Roskomnadzor’s warnings differ from the Attorney General’s decision to ban Grani.ru, insofar as the former targets specific content, identifying stories that supposedly violate one law or another. The March 2014 site-wide ban on Grani.ru and the other websites, however, didn’t specify anything, according to Berezovskaya. “We are blocked in Russia for an indefinite period, insofar as prosecutors claim that the ‘aggregate sum of the content’ on our website contains calls to unsanctioned protests,” she says. Grani.ru has lost all its legal attempts to challenge this situation, and it’s since taken the matter to the European Human Rights Court.
In her interview, Berezovskaya says she understands why her Russian journalist colleagues have declined to take a hard line against censorship, as her outlet has, but she expresses concern that the crackdown on small sites like Grani.ru is reverberating more broadly as a RuNet-wide chilling effect. Some larger news publications, Berezovskaya says, have even purged from their archives any links to articles published by banned resources like Grani.ru.
The future doesn’t look terribly bright for Grani.ru, either. Forced to relocate its permanent staff and offices abroad (Berezovskaya works from France), Grani.ru now only employs special correspondents inside Russia. The website’s revenue stream has also slowed to a trickle. Before it was blocked, Grani.ru was enjoying record traffic: roughly 150,000 readers a day. Today, after more than a year of being banned in Russia, that number has dropped to 40,000 visitors, and most advertisers have abandoned the website.
Aside from some modest donations from readers (which are difficult to collect, thanks to online payment systems refusing to work with the site), Grani.ru today subsists on a grant from the National Endowment for Democracy, an American foundation whose activities were recently banned in Russia, in accordance with a recent law that targets “undesirable organizations.” Now that NED has been blacklisted, it is conceivable that Grani.ru’s correspondents working in Russia could face criminal liability for participating in NED-funded work.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Puerto Rico Celebrates the First Same-Sex Weddings—And It’s About Time · Global Voices
Ángel Carrión

The US Supreme Court's ruling not only declared marriage equality in the United States, but also declared it for Puerto Rico, too. Image by José Madera, used with permission.
After the US Supreme Court's June 26 ruling that declared marriage equality constitutional in all of the United States and its territories, the government of Puerto Rico announced that it would start the processes required to comply with the court's decision.
The results could be seen on Sunday, August 16, when over 60 same-sex couples formalized their commitment to each other in a mass wedding in Old San Juan under the more-than-welcome rain. The event was organized by activists Ivonne Álvarez and Ada Conde, who also married each other in Sunday's mass wedding.
The rain by no means dampened the spirits of the people gathered there. After many months of drought, it was instead seen by some as a blessing on the ceremony:
Que mejor regalo puede darle Dios a los gay's el día de su boda, que la oportunidad de bailar bajo la lluvia en tiempo de sequía.
— Abducted Creed (@Abducid0) agosto 16, 2015
What better gift can God give gays on their wedding day, than the chance to dance in the rain during a drought.
The event was celebrated without incident, in spite of a group of people protesting nearby who were mainly from religious organizations that oppose same-sex marriage. It must be said, however, that there were also representatives from other faiths and Christian denominations (not to mention the Pastafarians, who “believe” in the famous Flying Spaghetti Monster) that not only supported the marriages with their presence, but also blessed the unions by officiating some of the weddings.
For many, it was the first time they could express their feelings about each other so openly. Image by José Madera, used with permission.
For the couples that married that day, the experience was a deeply emotional one. Some couples had lived together for many years already and a few had even raised children together, an impressive accomplishment, considering how socially conservative Puerto Rico can be.
There still lingered much of the feeling that many same-sex marriage advocates had when the Supreme Court's ruling was first announced—a lot of joy and a bit of disbelief at the same time, as expressed in the following tweet:
Es increíble vivir para contarlo: todo Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico reconocen el derecho al matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo.
— José Manuel Simons. (@JoseSimons)
June 26, 2015
It's incredible to live to tell it: All of the United States and Puerto Rico recognize same-sex marriage.
On that occasion, Amárilis Pagán (@AmarilisPagan), an outspoken advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people's rights and executive director of Proyecto Matria, urged people to keep on fighting for full equality:
#MatrimonioIgualitario- ¡Hecho! Ahora sigamos con la agenda LGBTT: Adopción, Vidas sin Violencia, Acceso a Servicios de Salud y más.
— Amárilis Pagán
(@AmarilisPagan) June 26, 2015
Done! Now let's carry on with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and transgender (LGBTT) agenda: adoption, lives without violence, access to medical services and more.
Human rights advocate Pedro Julio Serrano celebrated the fact that same-sex couples could now get married in Puerto Rico, but also reminded people about other members of the LGBTQ community who have yet to gain the legal recognition of their rights:
…queda lograr, entre muchas otras luchas, que las personas transgéneros y transexuales puedan ir a este mismo Registro Demográfico, que hoy hace historia, para que puedan atemperar sus certificados de nacimiento con el género que les pertenece. Es lo justo, es lo correcto y es tan inevitable como el día que hoy vivimos.
…we still need to achieve, among other struggles, that transgender and transsexual people can go to the same Demographic Registry, which is today making history, so that they too can match their birth certificates to their gender. It is fair, it is right and is as inevitable as the day we live today.

author: Ángel Carrión


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Russia Blocks Euronews ISIS Video Over ‘Extremist’ User Comment · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Russian censors are now blocking YouTube videos for offending user comments. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Roscomnadzor, Russia's Internet watchdog, has blocked YouTube videos before, threatening access to the entire service for users whose ISPs cannot filter HTTPS traffic. This latest case, however, sets a new precedent for the RuNet, since the video itself on the page blocked by the censors does not violate any Russian laws. Instead, it was one of the user comments under the video which got it into trouble.
The block relates to a Russian-language news video by Euronews, posted to their YouTube channel. The news story, published over a year ago, on 20 June, 2014, is titled «Боевики ИГИЛ призывают к джихаду мусульман из западных стран» (ISIS Fighters Call Muslims from Western Countries to Jihad”). Roscomnadzor took issue with the page after a court decree that, curiously, did not mandate for blocking the website, the video, or YouTube's IP address.
A Tatarstan municipal court ruled in June that it considered a single comment under the Euronews video to be “extremist material,” after a complaint from the city prosecutor. The comment, posted more than 10 months ago in October 2014 by a user called “erotic dance,” states the user's hatred for Islam and contains calls for violence against Muslims.
The court ruling explicitly states the text of the comment bears “the signs of extremist materials” and should be considered “information banned on the territory of the Russian Federation.” However, the ruling contains no calls to limit access to the Euronews video itself or the YouTube website as a whole.
Roscomnadzor seems to have interpreted the court ruling in its own peculiar way, since it added the page with the Euronews video to the banned websites registry, despite the fact that the video itself was not found to violate any laws. This also means that, because the blocking relies on the website's IP, and because YouTube uses the HTTPS encryption protocol, some ISPs in Russia will have to block all of YouTube to comply with the page ban.
The blocked news video joins a number of other YouTube pages still on the banned sites registry, but sets a unique precedent where the video owners and the platform it's hosted on essentially bear the brunt of the responsibility for user comments left on the page by a third party. This opens up more worrying possibilities for limiting free expression on the RuNet, as it allows ill-intended actors to manipulate user-generated content on online platforms to potentially make websites or individuals posting ‘undesirable’ content a target for the country's trigger-happy censors.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Argentinians Keep the Memory of Dictatorship Victims Alive on the Web · Global Voices
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo marching. Photograph taken by Lisa de Vreede on December 10, 2009, published on Flickr under Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The March 24,1976 coup d'état was the start of the darkest period in Argentine history, during which more than 30,000 people disappeared, victims of state terrorism. The same state, despite having the intrinsic function of protecting its citizens, proceeded to exterminate them, systematically disappearing people because of their political ideas and then taking custody of their children.
The military dictatorship that Argentina experienced until the end of 1983 has led the mothers, grandmothers, children and other relatives of those who disappeared to organize in order to shine a light on the facts and bring the guilty to justice. Though the struggle has had its advances and setbacks, Argentina can count on an extensive tradition of movements and organizations that have fought and continue to fight on behalf of the victims.
So now, the struggle which began with the white-kerchiefed mothers of the disappeared marching in the Plaza de Mayo, demanding that their children and grandchildren be returned alive, has been adapted for the so-called Web 2.0 era. Up to the present day, the mothers, grandmothers, children and relatives of those who disappeared during Argentina's military dictatorship are keeping alive the historical memory of a generation that fell victim to the violence meted out by the military juntas, and now they are also taking advantage of the resources of the Internet.
For example, Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo has called for demonstrations to continue in the streets today as they have done in the past as they recollect their struggle on Twitter:
“El Futuro es Nuestro” 37 años de lucha, Madres de Plaza de plaza de Mayo @MadresOrg @sergiourribarri pic.twitter.com/iuvUchJtHa
— Antonio Albuquerque (@tony27bs) May 2, 2014
“The Future Is Ours” 37 years of struggle, Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo is using social media to record witness accounts gathered from grandchildren and promote the fight to recover the identities of the victims (video in Spanish):
Likewise, the organization of Sons and Daughters for Identification and Justice and Against Forgetting and Silence (H.I.J.O.S.) is complementing its struggle for justice in the streets and in the courts with a social media presence:
Ahora, en el Consejo de la Magistratura: ¡basta de impunidad judicial para los genocidas civiles de Bahía Blanca! pic.twitter.com/K2DUlRkWmG
— H.I.J.O.S. Capital (@hijos_capital) June 18, 2015
Now at the Judicial Council: No more judicial impunity for civilian genocides in Bahía Blanca!
Luciana Rocchietti, communications secretary for H.I.J.O.S. – Córdoba region, told Global Voices about the challenges and possibilities social media offers human rights movements:
[…] en los últimos años las redes sociales y distintos medios de comunicación virtuales son nuevas plataformas para la construcción de la historiografía sobre nuestros compañeros desaparecidos, sus recorridos y trayectorias y sobre eventos históricos donde la pluralidad de las voces dan testimonio y nutren esta memoria colectiva. Por una parte, desde la organización hacemos uso de estas plataformas para la divulgación de información, noticias y comunicados políticos. […]
Por otra parte utilizamos una página de Facebook llamada H.I.J.O.S. Córdoba, donde difundimos información relativa al juicio, donde invitamos a participar de distintas actividades, donde publicamos comunicados con nuestros posicionamientos políticos en relación a temas de coyuntura o conflictos sociales y políticos, donde además compartimos artículos periodísticos de distintos medios que abarquen los distintos aspectos que atraviesan nuestra lucha (desde información sobre la época de la dictadura a noticias actuales sobre violaciones a derechos humanos). También ponemos en circulación distintas producciones propias de carácter documental como fotografías, volantes, micros, libros, videos, etc.
Esta actividad que realizamos en la web es replicada por distintos seguidores de la página que colaboran en la divulgación.
[…] over the last few years, social networks and various virtual means of communication have become new platforms for constructing the historiography of our disappeared friends, their paths and trajectories and the historic events wherein a multitude of voices testify and nourish this collective memory. Firstly, we at the organization are making use of these platforms to spread information, news and political statements. […]
Secondly, we are making use of a Facebook page entitled H.I.J.O.S. Córdoba, where we publish trial information, invite participation in various activities, release statements with our political positions in regard to current events or social and political disputes, and also share articles from various press media dealing with issues related to our struggle (from information about the dictatorship period to contemporary news about human rights violations). We also ourselves produce and circulate diverse documentary-type materials such as photographs, flyers, recordings, books, videos, etc., which we put out on the web and are reposted by followers of our page who thereby take part in spreading the word.
The Families of the Disappeared and Detained for Political Reasons organization is using both Twitter and Facebook to keep the memory of their relatives alive. The Center for Legal and Social Studies also uses social media to spread awareness of the fight for truth, memory and justice. The center continues as well to denounce human rights violations that have occurred during the democratic restoration.
For more than 39 years, Argentinian human rights movements have been fighting to preserve the memory of their disappeared loved ones. First they conquered the plaza, then the street, and now they are diversifying their battle grounds and conquering social media. A lesson for movements fighting to preserve the memory of the disappeared and to shine a light on similar crimes in other parts of the world, especially in Latin America.

author: Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez


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Despite President Rouhani’s Promises, Films Continue to Be Banned in Iran · Global Voices
Center for Human Rights in Iran

Director Ahmad Reza Darvish directed the epic religious tale of the Ashura revolt. Despite abiding by many of Iran's religious ethics to make the film, conservative religious elements eventually called for its ban. Image from Art Director, published for reuse.
This is the first part of a post that originally appeared on iranhumanrights.org and is published here in collaboration with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Read the second part on Global Voices here.
Despite repeated statements made by President Hassan Rouhani regarding the need to allow more cultural freedoms in Iran, the banning of films in the Islamic Republic has continued unabated during his two-year administration.
The latest film added to the list of forbidden cinema was as recent as July 2015, when the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, under the direct authority of President Rouhani, banned “Rastakhiz”. This brought the number of films that have not received permission for public screening to 14 in Iran since 2007.
Although most of these films were prevented from screening during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency (2005-2013), they have yet to be seen by the public two years after Rouhani replaced him.
The most frequent reasons for the bans include references in the films to the mass peaceful protests that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election in Iran, a highly sensitive subject in the Islamic Republic that hardliners continue to refer to as the “sedition,” and issues with what is perceived as “poor” hijab (female attire) on actresses.
On June 5, 2013, during his presidential election campaign, Rouhani promised he would “hand over the monitoring of cultural matters to the people,” and he questioned how any individual censor could fairly judge a film’s religious violations. Such remarks increased hopes that banned films would make their way to the cinemas if Rouhani was elected.
Statements in support of cultural freedom continued during Rouhani’s presidency. In a meeting with artists and cultural figures on January 8, 2014, he stated, “Viewing the arts as a security concern is the biggest mistake.” He went on to say, “If there is no freedom, true artistic creations would not be produced. We cannot create and produce arts on order. Any type of security atmosphere can nip arts in the bud.”
In June 2015, at a press conference marking the second anniversary of his election to office, in response to a question by a reporter about the widespread cancellation of concerts over the past year, Rouhani said, “In the cultural domain, we believe cultural affairs should be relinquished to the people of culture, and the atmosphere must be facilitated so that consumers and producers of cultural works can meet.”.
Nevertheless, the disputes between the Rouhani administration’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and Iranian filmmakers have still not been resolved, and the films remain banned.
A number of the blacklisted films were initially shown at the Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran, and some were screened in cinemas for a few days before being pulled. The latest casualty, “Rastakhiz”, was banned on the day it premiered, even though 40 minutes of it was cut to receive a screening permit from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
“Rastakhiz” is a religious feature film set in 7th century Iraq that tells the story of the Ashura revolt, when Hossein, the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson and the third Imam of Shia Muslims, fought against the ruling caliph and died in an unequal battle near Karbala. Some religious leaders took issue with the depiction of Imam Hossein’s uncle Abolfazl al-Abbas. According to Shia theology, reproducing the face of the Imams and their family members is forbidden.
Director Ahmad Reza Darvish received many awards and accolades when “Rastakhiz” was first shown at the 2015 Fajr International Film Festival. But criticism from religious quarters was so strong that he was forced to cut 40 minutes of the film to satisfy Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance censors. Some religious leaders, however, were still dissatisfied and eventually forced the Ministry to pull its permit.
During the past two years, extreme positions taken by conservative members of parliament and hardline media, along with ultraconservative religious groups, have played a central role in preventing films from public viewing.
In September 2014, the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Iranian Parliament wrote a letter to the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance demanding he refuse screening permits for eight films that appeared to be sympathetic to the public “rebellion” against Ahmadinejad’s victory in the widely disputed 2009 presidential election.
“What we expect from the institution in charge of the film industry is to have the authority to carry out its decisions. The Ministry of Guidance gave a permit for the screening of my film [“Khaneh Pedari” (The Paternal House)] but then it was forced to pull it down after just two days, even though it was only being shown in a small cinema,” director Kianoosh Ayari told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

author: Center for Human Rights in Iran


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In Venezuela, Even the Police March Against Insecurity · Global Voices
Luis Carlos Diaz

Former Metropolitan Police, the National Guard and Chavez Followers dressed in red holding posters during a rally. Photo taken from Flickr account of Rodríguez Suárez under Creative Commons License.
Last year, protests and repressions that left hundreds detained in Venezuela made international headlines. But the kind of everyday violence that has dragged the country down over the years is now so routine it stopped being newsworthy long ago.
One story that has been lost in the deluge of killings and other acts of violence is the extreme risks police now face doing their job.
According to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV), in 2014 Venezuela had 24,980 violent deaths, or 82 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. That gives Venezuela the second highest murder rate in the world, surpassed only by Honduras and well above any country currently at war.
Tasa de homicidios por cada 100.000 habitantes: México: 17. Colombia: 28. Brasil: 29. Venezuela: 82. Fuente: OVV http://t.co/4GKCS1Ni7u
— John Mervin Tizamo (@jtizamo) July 8, 2015
Homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants: Mexico 17. Colombia: 28. Brasil 29. Venezuela: 82. Source OVV
State media in Venezuela glosses over the problem. None of the main pro-government newspapers have a section devoted to violent deaths or crimes, a surprising fact given the capital city of Caracas sees dozens of violent deaths occur every weekend.
For police officers, whose colleagues are regularly killed both in the line of duty and in their spare time, this is a slap in the face.
In the first six months of 2015, 120 officers have been killed according to independent media adding data for each region. The government does not report their dead agents even when they are killed with grenades and assault rifles, as happened in March 2015 in an area of Caracas called El Cementerio.
A dead policeman is a trophy for criminal gangs. Their murder, either as an attack or an act of revenge, gives status to criminals. And all of this is made worse by the rate of criminal impunity: 98% of all homicides committed in the country go unpunished.
César Marín, a member of Amnesty International and the International Action Network representative on Small Arms (IANSA) indicates that policemen die in the same numbers as young men in urban slums, assaulted taxi drivers or even people in street quarrels.
They have no escape from daily violence. The risks inherent to their own profession only make them even more vulnerable.
Official sources have tried to refute the statistics of the OVV. The Interior Ministry of Justice and Peace does not publish official statistics or allow access to this data since 2008, while government spokespeople occasionally pop up to pour cold water on the figures.
For instance, Attorney General of the Republic, Luisa Ortega Díaz, declared at the UN in June 2014 that the homicide rate was not 82 but 62 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. Even with that number, Venezuela continues to rank high among the world's most violent nations.
But silencing data on violence and censoring information associated with violence has not worked to reduce the scourge.
So many families have had loved ones taken from them that morgues routinely see lines of people waiting to recognize possible relatives. None of this is news. Nor is the killing of police officers.
Journalist Altagracia Anzola wrote in her Twitter account:
El saldo desastroso d lo q ocurrió ayer en la Cota 905 y El Cementerio fue de 2 pnb muertos y 5 policías heridos.Granadas, pistolas, fusiles
— Altagracia Anzola (@Alanzola) March 31, 2015
The disastrous total of what happened yesterday in the Cota 905 and El Cementerio was two National Bolivarian Policemen (PNB) dead and five officers injured. Grenades, pistols, rifles.
In a February interview with Global Voices, Pablo Fernandez, Executive Secretary of the General Council of Police, warned that most agents were vulnerable due to “reduced years of training, immaturity, lack of confidence in their own capabilities to respond to stress, limited training in progressive and differentiated use of force, [and] little self-control or self-protection.”
With a verdict like this coming from the public servant in charge of agents’ training, it is easy to understand the high levels of risk Venezuelan police are exposed to.
Leaving their weapons at the station and going home is also difficult. Most police live in the same poor and dangerous neighbourhoods as the criminals. Sometimes, revealing their profession can also be quite risky.
Claiming to be “socialist, chavista and anti-imperialist”, will not save officers off duty from a bullet, either.
Human Rights NGO Cofavic has warned that with the increase of the number of officers killed, demand to join the security forces is sinking fast. Salaries tend to be unattractive. Some agents must work as taxi drivers and bodyguards in their spare time to make ends meet.
This background makes a seemingly unusual event that took place last April actually completely logical: a march against insecurity organized by Caracas’ police officers in which members of six police forces agreed to protest against the violent deaths of their co-workers.
Policaracas, the main force of the capital, and the Bolivarian National Police — controlled by national authorities — were forbidden to participate. So some of them went dressed as civilians, with others asking family members to protest on their behalf.
The march was not covered by public media:
Realizaron marcha en la Cota Mil contra el asesinato de policías http://t.co/AsxGmEKWWi pic.twitter.com/FN4CREIGdF — 800 Noticias (@800Noticias) April 19, 2015
March in Cota Mil (popular section of Caracas) to protest against the killing of policemen
Con toque de diana en honor a funcionarios caídos terminó hoy la marcha de los #policías http://t.co/omEz9bfAW7 pic.twitter.com/PAxZFPsKA4
— Contrapunto (@contrapuntovzla) April 19, 2015
With a reveille to honor the law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty the the police march ended today.

author: Luis Carlos Diaz


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Hong Kong Investigative Journalism Start-Up ‘Factwire’ Crowdfunds HK $3 Million · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Screen capture from Fringebacker.
This post was written by Karen Cheung and originally published on Hong Kong Free Press on August 18. It is republished on Global Voices under a content partnership agreement.
A new investigative journalism agency has raised over HK $3 million (approximately US $386,917 dollars) on crowdfunding platform Fringebacker.
“2040 Hong Kongers created this miracle together. Thank you Hong Kong!” Factwire stated on its Facebook page on Tuesday (August 18) afternoon.
On crowdfunding platform, Fringebacker, Factwire describes itself as Hong Kong’s first and foremost news agency specializing in investigative journalism. Its ambition is “to be the most trusted news organization in the world”.
“Hong Kong is one of the few places where information flows almost completely freely. If Paris has Agence France-Presse, New York has the Associated Press, [and] London has Reuter, why [shouldn’t] Hong Kong have FactWire?” it asked.
The project was initiated by veteran local journalist Ng Hiu-tung, who has worked for various media outlets including Cable News and TVB. The campaign was launched on 30 June 2015 and still has ten days to go after it hit its HK$3 million target on Tuesday.
Last month, Factwire announced that it had broken records for online fundraising in Hong Kong, with over 800 people donating more than HK$1 million in just 24 days, “almost doubling the previous funding record held by Hong Kong Free Press which raised almost HK$600,000 on FringeBacker six weeks ago”.

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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On the Scene: Explosion and Gunfire at Istanbul’s Dolmabahçe Palace · Global Voices
Global Student Square

The peaceful exterior of the Dolmabahçe Palace. Photo by Jack Hennessy.
This is a partner post written by Jack Hennessy and originally published by Global Student Square. Republished with permission.
Two alleged gunmen have been captured after an explosion and gunfire rang out at Istanbul’s Dolmabahçe Palace today, a popular tourist attraction and seat of Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Crowds panicked and people fled over gates and into the streets after two assailants unleashed a stun grenade and several rounds of automatic gunfire, allegedly targeting police officers standing guard at the Ottoman-era site. Police immediately blockaded the scene.
The Associated Press reported one police officer was slightly injured.
Though no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Associated Press the state-run Anadolu news agency reported that the assailants were members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front, or DHKP-C. The Guardian also reported that Turkish news agencies were quoting police sources as saying DHKP-C was behind the attack.
Dolmabahçe Palace stands as one the last great remnants of the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul. The founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, died there in 1938. The palace features exhibitions for tourists, though other areas house government agencies, including the seat of the Turkish prime minister.
The incident comes in the midst of heightened tensions in Turkey, as sitting President Reccip Tayyip Erdogan and the Justice Development Party (AKP) issue new offensives against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq and the Islamic State in Syria.
Image: Google maps
Also on Wednesday, eight soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in Siirt, a southeastern Turkish region bordering Syria and Iraq.  According to the BBC, that attack was blamed on PKK militants.
“Turkey is on high alert,” said Eyup Kabogan, 27, a bartender at the Pierre Loti Hotel in Sultanahmet, in central Istanbul about five kilometers south of the palace. “Even I have to watch where I am going when I walk down the street now.”
“I am Kurdish, by the way,” Kabogan said, adding, “but I know that there are other means to change things (politically).”
Tourists should stay away from crowded areas and police stations, Kabogan warned, though he said that terror groups are “not targeting tourists, but security officers.”
Turkey’s political landscape is in flux after Davutoglu’s attempts to create a power-sharing coalition failed last week. On Tuesday, he gave Erdogan a mandate to form a new government ahead of elections expected in November.
“I don’t really know what to say (about today’s attack),” said Berk Çoker, 21, who is Turkish and a rising junior at Stanford University.
A computer science major, Coker had plans to return to his home country after a software engineering internship in the San Francisco Bay Area this summer.
“As evidenced by the attacks and the unformed coalition, the political climate is pretty tense, making it an unsafe country for travel,” Coker said.
In response to growing violence, according to The Telegraph, the Erdogan government has detained more than 2,500 suspected members of IS, PKK and DHKP-C.

author: Global Student Square


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That’s the Last Time This Cafe Owner Messes with a Supermodel’s Autistic Sister · Global Voices
Darina Gribova

Natalia Vodianova and her sister, Oksana. Photo shared widely on Facebook.
Righteous indignation was in ready supply last week, when Russian Internet users learned about yet another story of savagery from the country's regions. This time, the manager of a cafe called “Flamingo” in Nizhny Novgorod ejected from his establishment a 27-year-old customer named Oksana, diagnosed with autism and cerebral palsy since birth. He told her that she was scaring away potential customers.
The incident gained significant media attention, in no small part because Oksana turned out to be a sister of the world-famous Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova.
Vodianova has used her celebrity to drum up support for her sister. Writing on Facebook, she described the unpleasant incident at the cafe with her sister in a post that has now been shared more than 44,000 times and “liked” more than 106,000 times. According to Vodianova, her sister spends much of her day walking in the area around her home. When her sister gets tired, her caretaker brings her to the nearest cafe. Last week, when they tried to sit down and rest, the owner demanded that they leave, telling Oksana's guardian “to cure both herself and her child before coming out into public.”
Individuals in Oksana's condition, however, cannot be persuaded to do anything by force or intimidation, and her caretaker pleaded with the cafe manager for a bit more time to coax her outside. Instead of waiting, the manager called security. When Oksana's mother and sister finally arrived, the manager threatened to call the police. When it was all said and done, both sides had filed reports with local police officers.
Natalia Vodianova points out that what happened to her sister was not an isolated incident, but the reality of life for individuals and families managing special needs.
“Let us help non-profit organizations and charity funds who are working daily on building an inclusive society in Russia—help with our desire to become this society,” Natalia Vodianova writes. The supermodel herself is the head of the Naked Heart Foundation, which has operated since 2004, trying to change the society's perception of people with disabilities. In 2011, powered by the experience of disability in her own family, Vodianova launched the “Every Child Deserves a Family” program.
Since gaining infamy as an enemy of the handicapped, the Nizhny Novgorod cafe promptly closed its doors, and its owner now faces five years in prison for “abasing human dignity.” Vodianova, meanwhile, has called for calm, asking members of the public “not to trade one kind of zero tolerance for another.”
Local police haven't let the cafe off the hook, however. Officials from Rospotrebnadzor (Russia's consumer rights and human welfare agency) recently raided Cafe “Flamingo,” imposing fines (reportedly in the amount of roughly 3 million rubles, or $45,000) for a series of code violations, including the absence of certain fire precautions and the lack of an entrance ramp accessible to the disabled.
Asked about the stiff penalty imposed on the cafe owner, Natalia Vodianova said she would prefer to see him sentenced to community service. “I would suggest replacing the fine with volunteer work in one of our youth after-school camps,” she explained. “Maybe I'm an idealist, but I think this could bring a lot of good to them.”

author: Darina Gribova


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Tajikistan Cracks Down on Pop Idol Traffic Rule Breakers · Global Voices
Eurasianet

Noziyai Karomatullo: a multiple violator of the rules of the Tajik road. Screenshot taken from YouTube.
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org. Republished with permission.
Police in Tajikistan are busy naming and shaming renegade members of the pop star class, who have somehow managed to accumulate dozens of unpaid fines for driving violations.
Like many ex-Soviet cities, Dushanbe has a driving culture straight out of a Fast and Furious movie. Potholed roads encourage swerving at speed. And it is often the city’s well-heeled and privileged that are the worst offenders.
But running red lights and hanging illegal U-turns is riskier than it used to be thanks to the installation of around 1,000 closed-circuit television cameras.
The ‘Safe City’ project, which has been almost completely financed by deep-pocketed neighbor China, has transformed Dushanbe into a surveillance hotspot. Officials claim it has halved the number of traffic accidents.
If the Interior Ministry is to be believed, it seems famous musicians are particularly egregious lawbreakers, and they often ignore the consequences.
As Asia Plus reported on August 13, citing the Ministry’s website:
Popular Tajik pop star Noziyai Karomatullo, driving a Mercedes Benz ML350 (registration number 1234 AT 01) committed 38 traffic violations from November 1, 2013, to August 9, 2015. The singer paid fines totaling 3,160 somoni [roughly $500] that have already been transferred to the state budget. However, fines for another 21 traffic violations remain unpaid.
Just the day before, the outlet wrote:
First on the list is people’s artist Afzashlo Shodiev. The singer, driving a Toyota Land Cruiser (registration number 6262 AC 01) committed 27 traffic violations between November 3, 2013, to August 7, 2015. The singer paid 2,560 somonis [roughly $400] in fines for 12 violations, but 15 violations remain unaccounted for.
Shodiev is a well-loved, 50-something crooner, who first found his voice in the Soviet period. Among his heartstring-tugging classics is Samarkand and Bukhara, a ballad about the two fabled Silk Road cities that many Tajiks believe are rightly theirs, but which ended up in neighboring Uzbekistan
Karomatullo is a cute young synth-pop sensation whose latest releases are popular with the YouTube set and add a bit of dance to the grind of daily rides on Dushanbe public transport.
While the pair occupy opposite ends of the Tajik music spectrum, the Interior Ministry’s message appears to be that all are equal before the law — including those whose concerts are funded by the rich and well-connected.
But ordinary Tajiks will need some convincing before they believe the days of impunity — on the road and off it — are coming to an end.
Two years ago, local social media circles rose up in rage over reports that the 16-year-old son of the head of the state railways czar was allowed to skip the country after killing three people in a nasty road wreck.
However, even if the Safe City campaign fails to win over the public, the government has a plainer motivation to clampdown of delinquent celebrities.
ChinaExim Bank has given Tajikistan 20 years to repay the low-interest $20.9 million loan used to install the surveillance cameras. Tajik traffic cops are in a race against time.

author: Eurasianet