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Many Africans (But Not All) Recall Fidel Castro as a True Friend of the Continent · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Fidel Castro with Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni. Photo shared by Yoweri Museveni on Twitter.
Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary leader who died on Friday November 25 at the age of 90, is arguably one of the most beloved world leaders in Africa.
This is mainly due to Cuba's contribution during anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggles in African countries such as South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. In addition, Cuba trained many African doctors and sent its own doctors into African countries. The most recent example of Cuban doctors helping out in Africa was during the Ebola crisis when the country sent about 300 doctors.
Immediately after the official announcement of his death, African leaders and ordinary citizens took to Twitter to pay tribute to the communist icon.
Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari wrote:
Fidel Castro was a great friend to Africa, to countries in the Global South and to the Non-Aligned Movement. His place in history is assured
— Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) November 26, 2016
Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta noted:
Castro also demonstrated to the world that sovereign equality is a paramount idea that must prevail at all times.
— Uhuru Kenyatta (@UKenyatta) November 26, 2016
Tanzanian professor of law Issa Shivji tweeted, referring to Castro's own pledge that “history will absolve me“:
History has abundantly absolved him. A small nation withstood the might of the most vicious military power on earth. pic.twitter.com/Asg7LWIYvE
— Issa Shivji (@IssaShivji) November 26, 2016
Prince Maphosa took note of the fact that he died on a Black Friday, which marks the beginning of Christmas shopping season.
2016 could not get
any more ironic, Fidel Castro died on Black
Friday, the most capitalist day there is.#MHSRIP
— Prince.M. Maphosa (@Mfumbesi83) November 26, 2016
Luka was surprised that he was still alive:
Imwe Fidel Castro was alive this whole time? eh.
— Luka (@LukaMwango) November 26, 2016
Siame shared a popular lament:
Haha everyone's going to be a Castro expert now… and the shear number of quotes we'll have to endure https://t.co/trW893xCOM
— Siame (@mr_siame) November 26, 2016
In a tweet that seems to be making reference to the surprise election of Donald Trump as the next US president, Ory Okolloh Mwangi, the co-founder of Ushahidi, remarked:
Castro waited until it was clear that the Empire has imploded.
— Ory Okolloh Mwangi (@kenyanpundit) November 26, 2016
Mohamed Harith in Kenya explained what Castro taught him:
Fidel Castro defined anti-imperialism to me. He taught me, taking a stand has its price but dignity is by far priceless. RIP Savior
— Mohamed Harith (@almafazy) November 26, 2016
Betty Waitherero, a Kenyan researcher, offered the following advice to Africans:
While googling who Fidel Castro is find out how Cuba supported Africa's fight against colonialism.
It matters. It matters how you got HERE.
— Betty Waitherero?? (@bettywaitherero) November 26, 2016
Dr. Majak D'Agoot, South Sudan's former deputy defense minister, tweeted:
Fidel Castro Ruz:
Your imprints are visible in me and in most of the SPLA top Cdrs that you trained. I bid you farewell, mi Commandante!
— Dr. Majak D'Agoot (@Aquaengnoq) November 26, 2016
Adam Habib, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa:
An end of an era – Castro has died. He fought imperialism for 50 yrs, survived many assassination attempts, and died peacefully in his bed.
— Adam Habib (@AdHabb) November 26, 2016
Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, wrote:
RIP Fidel Castro, tenacious fighter who lived a full liberation life & condolences to the resilient people of Cuba
— Paul Kagame (@PaulKagame) November 26, 2016
A South Africa tweep observed:
We won't forget how #FidelCastro supported fight against apartheid when the ‘civilized’ world didn't. Castro, with his faults, was a leader. pic.twitter.com/NPbtpY9M2e
— Amandla! (@AmandlaMobi) November 26, 2016
Ghanaian rapper Ko-Jo Cue sent the following message to Castro:
R.I.P Fidel Castro … Tell Che we love him … Tell Gaddafi we are sorry … Tell Nkrumah to forgive us … Tell Sankara he was right??
— Ko-Jo Cue (@KOJO_Cue) November 26, 2016
Acknowledging Castro's faults, Nii Sarpei Hornsby, a Ghanaian lecturer, said:
He had his many faults but don't let them tell you Fidel Castro was a bloodthirsty know-nothing dictator.
Don't be lied to.
— Nii Sarpei Hornsby (@nii_sarpei) November 26, 2016
Miss Hamalwa wrote:
#RIPCastro pass our greetings to #CheGuevara, tell him there is black president in Us, & African leaders are now agents of colonialists.??
— Fidel Castro (@NyanzaJnr) November 26, 2016
However, not all Africans who took to Twitter showered Castro with praises. For example, Yasmin Yonis wrote:
My grandfather was ripped out of his home by Castro-backed Ethiopian troops & slaughtered in front of my family. Please have some nuance.
— Yasmin Yonis (@YasminYonis) November 26, 2016
Yonis is from Somalia, a country where Cuba sent troops to help to fight alongside the Ethiopian army during the Ethio-Somali War over the disputed Ethiopian region of Ogaden from July 1977 to March 1978.
Oluwasenyi Karimu drew a comparison between Castro and the 92-year old Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe:
#FidelCastro,#Mugabe & #OyedepoCanaanLand have something in common…their families take over when they die, fact!!!
— oluwaseyi karimu (@seyik) November 27, 2016
While Peter Kamalingin called the death of Castro the “end of an error”:
The end of an error- #Fidel Castro he just couldn't stand a Trump and decided enough https://t.co/rbj7QgNUUd
— Peter Kamalingin B.L (@kampetero) November 26, 2016

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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One Year on, Belo Monte Dam Is a Nightmare for Indigenous Peoples in Brazil · Global Voices
ISA

Raimunda Gomes da Silva, who lived in one of the fluvial islands in the Xingu, flooded by the new reservoir. Photo: Isabel Harari/ISA
This story by Isabel Harari, originally published on Instituto Socioambiental, is abridged and republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
A year ago, officials closed the gates of the Belo Monte Dam, the second largest hydropower plant in Brazil and fourth largest of the world in installed capacity. From that moment on, the dam's reservoir in the Amazon began to fill, and the lives of the indigenous and riverlands populations who surround it were forever transformed.
Thanks to the dam, locals say sailing parts of the river has become more difficult, fishing grounds have disappeared, and pests and fish deaths are on the rise.
“It's impossible to live in the Xingu River today. I don't stand a chance. People use to live well. Now they survive. It's not a dignified life,” says Raimunda Gomes da Silva while sailing by the Pedrais da Volta Grande, a section of the Xingu River severely affected by the Belo Monte Dam.
Raimunda used to live with her husband, João, in one of the fluvial islands of the Xingu that were flooded by the dam's reservoir. They both lived off fishing and farming. Today, she lives in the suburbs of Altamira, a city of 100,000 people — the largest population center near the dam.
The Volta Grande is a 100-kilometer section of the Xingu river that runs through two indigenous reserves, the Arara da Volta Grande and Paquiçamba. Since the dam’s gates were closed, about 80% of the volume of the Volta Grande’s water has been diverted from its natural bed through an artificial canal to a reservoir
Deforested and burned islands were partially submersed by the artificial lake. Photo: Isabel Harari / ISA
“The biggest problem is the lack of water. Downstream there's too little and upstream it overflows. It overflows with bad water and the downstream shortages are killing things off. There's too much water upstream, but it's all compromised, with problems, residues, dead fish, dead trees that have been submerged. And downstream we need more water —there's a little left, but not enough,” says Raimunda.
Today, she makes plans for her new house, which she calls “the promised land”: a piece of land, located 350 meters from the river, purchased with reparations she received from Norte Energia (North Energy), the private contractor responsible for building and running the plant. “I will be there in front of it, looking… I won't see it smiling and running free. I will see it in pain, but I want it to see that I haven't forgotten it.”
Between February and April this year, Ibama, Brazil's environmental regulation agency, fined Norte Energia in R$ 35.3 milhões (10.5 million USD) for the death of 16.2 tons of fish during the filling up of the reservoir, which took three months.
Acari, a common fish in the region, blind and diseased. Photo: Torkjell Leira/ISA
But dead fish weren't the only problem that confronted people living along the Xingu. The construction sites’ artificial lighting and use of explosives also ruined vital fishing grounds used by the indigenous peoples of Volta Grande.
With the permanent damming of the Xingu and the reduction of its flow, damage to local communities’ fishing got only worse. “It used to take an hour to get to the fishing grounds. Now it takes twice as long. Some places are inaccessible because the water level is too low and we can't pass [in our boats],” says Natanael Juruna, a member of the indigenous community.
Fishing is the main subsistence activity of the Juruna, according to the the Atlas of the Impacts of the Belo Monte Dam on Fishing, produced by the Instituto Socioambiental. According to data collected by independent monitors at the Instituto Socioambiental and the Federal University of Pará, the annual production of fish of the Juruna is of 4,469 kilograms — 98 percent of which is consumed and 2 percent of which is sold commercially. Fish represent 55 percent of local communities’ meals.
Sailing has become difficult in parts of the river because of the reduced water flow. Photo: Isabel Harari/ISA
Fishing is intimately connected to the river's “flow cycles.” For example, the pacu and the matrinxã, two types of fish that inhabit the Amazon basin, feed themselves from fruits that wash in from flooded areas — environments that will cease to exist with the alteration of the river's flow.
“Without fish we won't survive,” says Gillard Juruna, chief of the Miratu village, located in the Paquiçamba Indigenous Reserve. “Our people have always lived off the fish in this region. I am sad when I hear that the fish will end. We live off the fish, the river, and that's why we are the Yudja [another name for Juruna], which means ‘the lords of the river,’ and we have always survived in the river, which is everything to us. While the Xingu exists, we will keep fighting. We are going until the end. When it dies, we die together with it.”
Riverlands people and indigenous groups report that mosquito populations have increased considerably since the installation of the dam, making fishing, foraging, and farming more difficult.
To Bel Juruna, another indigenous leader at the Miratu village, communities have responded by using insect repellent at alarming rates: “Now we have to live walking with those poison bombs, having to breath poison, but it's the only way we can live a little free of the insects — even inside our own homes. It could intoxicate the children and the people. And the problems with these poisons aren't immediately apparent.”
A whole year before the company built the dam, Belo Monte's installation license required Norte Energia to discuss proposals to monitor and mitigate the project's environmental impact with both indigenous and traditional riverlands peoples — adversely affected. So far, according to locals, Norte Energia only presented this information to Ibama, the licensing body.
Norte Energia reportedly outsourced its water-quality monitoring responsibilities, and some local indigenous people say they've participated in efforts to collect water samples, but they've yet to gain access to the test results.
One of the five canoes that crossed the Volta Grande do Xingu during the canoada. Foto: Marcelo Salazar/ISA
The Canoada Bye Bye Xingu — a canoe excursion organized by the Indigenous Association Yudja Miratu da Volta Grande do Xingu (Aymix) and by the Instituto Socialambiental — aims to draw attention to the problems that the peoples and communities of the Xingu have been facing since the beginning of the Belo Monte dam's construction.
The third Canoada excursion, which took place between September 3 and 9, was the first after the Belo Monte's gates were closed. The changes in the scenery are visible. With the river's drought, the 112-kilometer journey was even more difficult and the breathtaking landscape of the Amazon now featured flooded and deforested islands and sick fish.
“It's a whole experience to feel with the indigenous and the riverlands peoples: the consequences of the installation of the plant, the beauties and the pains of the region. Whoever takes part in the canoada and listens to the affected populations, feels the bites of carapanãs (mosquitoes), sees the dying fishes and trees, returns convinced that the model of development for the country cannot be the construction of dams such as Belo Monte,” says Instituto Socialambiental's Marcelo Salazar.
The canoada also helps indigenous groups think of socio-economic alternatives to communities that depend on the commercialization of fish. Indigenous and riverlands groups could generate income with this kind of activity, working as guides, renting out canoes, or selling their arts and food products.
Over the next few years, Norte Energia will conduct a series of tests to determine what water levels are necessary to generate the necessary electricity levels, and how much will flow to the Volta Grande. But until 2019, when the dam begins operating at full power, the company will “open and close” the dam, following the regulations of the National Water Agency (ANA) and Ibama.
Participants of the canoada followed closely the changes in the river and the population that lives on its banks. Photo: Roberta Simonetti/ISA
“What's being tested is the minimum water flow to maintain life in this region, and what kind of life this minimum flow can sustain. It's a great human and natural experiment, to test the life of nature and the lives of people who live in that place — to see if it will work. It's a morbid laboratory, what's being done to the people of this region,” says Marcelo Salazar.
This story by Isabel Harari, originally published on Instituto Socioambiental, is abridged and republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: ISA


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White Ribbon Campaign Enjoins Singaporean Men to Reject Gender Violence · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

White Ribbon campaign image from the Facebook page of AWARE
A gender equality advocacy group in Singapore is supporting the White Ribbon Campaign, a global movement of men and boys working to end violence against women.
The Association of Women for Action and Research or AWARE launched the campaign in Singapore last November 25, which coincided with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
To encourage greater public participation, the campaign urged Internet users to upload a white ribbon onto their profile pages in support of the call to end gender violence. One of the early advocates of the campaign was swimmer Joseph Isaac Schooling, Singapore’s first Olympic gold medalist. Schooling won the gold in Rio this year by beating legendary American swimmer Michael Phelps.
Writing on his Facebook page, Schooling reminded the public that “strength does not mean dominance and aggression.”
Now more than ever, men should proudly wear their commitment to end violence against women. Powerful men boasting about sexual assault should not be brushed off as ‘locker room talk’. We need a culture of equality, not disrespect. As an athlete, I want everyone to know that strength does not mean dominance and aggression.
Olympic gold medalist Joseph Schooling supports the White Ribbon campaign. Source: Facebook
The White Ribbon campaign also featured the letters of some Singaporean male leaders and AWARE partners which were written “to provide guidance and mentorship to boys and for young people to realize that men should speak up against gender violence.”
One of the letters was written by health practitioner Poh Kiang. His letter to his two nephews emphasized the value of determining the real meaning of strength:
Like you, two of the most important persons in my life are women – my Ah Ma (paternal grandma) and my Mom. Much of who I am and the leader that I have become is due to their loving influence. I learn from a young age that strength and ability are not gender related. In fact, in these women I discovered that strength is not merely muscular, it is steely resolve when facing fear, quiet endurance when suffering pain and loss as well as dogged resourcefulness when facing deprivation.
Another letter was penned by Adrian Pang, an artistic director at a theatre, who wrote to his children:
A STRONG man is one who is not afraid to be vulnerable and to admit to being afraid, who always tries to exercise compassion and sensitivity, who is always respectful and active in creating a world that embraces equality for EVERYONE.
Hopefully, initiatives like the White Ribbon campaign can help address gender violence, especially in a society like Singapore where about 70 percent of sexual harassment cases are not reported to the police. According to some surveys, 6 in 10 victims of sexual violence in Singapore suffer repeated victimization.

author: Mong Palatino


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Bold Film About an Indian Woman’s Sexual Awakening Accused of Pardoning Pedophilia · Global Voices
Rezwan

Independent director Shailaja Padindala's short film “Memories of a Machine,” which is available on YouTube, is making waves in India.
In the 10-minute movie, a woman, played by Malayalam actress Kani Kusruti, talks about her first sexual experience — with an adult at her school — when she was only eight. “Memories of a Machine” has received positive reviews from Seattle South Asian Film Festival (SSAFF), Bangalore Queer Film Festival (BQFF) 2016, and other film festivals.
However, a section of Indians think that YouTube should take down the movie because in their opinion it doesn't condemn pedophilia.
‘Memories of a machine’ is a short film directed by&acted in by sensitive souls, but @YouTube should take it down as it pardons paedophelia.
— N.S. Madhavan (@NSMlive) November 24, 2016
“Memories of a Machine” was filmed in one continuous shot, where lead actress Kani narrates on camera her character's experiences of discovering herself as a sexually curious young girl as well as being shamed by a boyfriend when she is older for wanting to be sexually intimate with him.
Of what happened when she was eight, the character says in the film:
I don't know if it was right or wrong. At that point it was sexual exploration for me. I liked the way he touched me and he stopped when I did not want it. I'm not concluding that it's right or even wrong for that matter. I don't think it is wrong. That's all.
Published on YouTube on November 20, 2016, the film has already been viewed more than half a million times in a week.
Memories of a Machine – Director Shailaja Padindala
A new perspective of a girl's life
Watch and share guys! https://t.co/oUuFH8h7OK
— Anand Varadaraj (@anandvaradaraj) November 21, 2016
#MemoriesofaMachine is oddly funny yet a relevant film by Shailaja Padindala. Watch and share :) https://t.co/aWedKwVq4l
— Kino (@CharlesBritto) November 21, 2016
Shailaja Padindala ????? it's simply Truthful and Bold! Kani Kantari Kanmani Kusruti this is meaningful! https://t.co/wuV0z7YUhA
— saran (@saranram) November 21, 2016
Although India is the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, in conservative Indian societies sexuality has been considered something to be discussed in muffled voices and discovered behind closed doors. In Indian culture, talking about sex is deemed a taboo, having sex before marriage is unacceptable and educating youngsters about sex is something many adults don't do. But there are a number of people in India who want to change this.
Filmmaker Shailaja Padindala is a graduate of LV Prasad Film and TV Academy. She denied that she supports child abuse or rape as alleged by many reviewers of her movie. In an interview with the Daily Thanthi Next, she described the film:
The movie is a culmination of several personal experiences and stories of women we come across on a daily basis. I’ve attempted to explore the complexity surrounding sex and sexuality and how the society views it. […]
I didn’t want to moralise or demoralise the issue. I wanted the audience to form their own perspective and which is also why I’ve named it Memories of a Machine.
However, some think otherwise. Here is one response shared by the actress Kani Kusruti herself on Facebook made by her friend:
While it’s true that when kids start exploring sex, they are often attracted to adults. This is quite a natural thing and happens to pretty much everyone. But an adult wanting to enter into a sexual act with a kid cannot be regarded as a natural thing. It is clearly an act of aggression. But the movie tries to place both these individuals as equals in the story. Which they certainly aren’t.
The movie also tries to normalize a pedophilic act by saying that the girl child liked it. It also tries to humanize the pedophile by saying how he was ‘gentle’ and took a ‘no’. In a country where women and kids are often subjected to violent crimes, this normalization of an aggressive act becomes even more problematic.
Sourabha Rao commented on the above:
Yes; the movie is a little too soft on the pedophile there, but I guess we shouldn't generalise that “some girls might ‘like it’ by listening to just one girl who might actually have. She was too young to even judge this on any intellectual or societal level; she was just a biological being exploring her body's reaction to something.
Some also took it to the extreme:
Memories of a Machine,short film by Shailaja Padidndale selling on You Tube as soft porn titled” My First Sex” “Orgasm” #Memoriesofamachine
— N.Madhavan Kutty (@nandeilath) November 25, 2016
And entrepreneur Sam Eapen thought that “diverse view and different perspective on same issue may help one to have a better understanding on a subject”.
Director Shailaja Padindala defended the film as encouraging important conversations about sex and sexuality:
Conversations about these subjects must be encouraged and brought out of closed walls. When an individual is able to speak about it without feeling awkward or uncomfortable, it paves for a better understanding of it and thereby creating a healthy environment. The more you forbid something, more negative will be the repercussions.
She even posted a note on YouTube to explain her position:

author: Rezwan


text:
Corporate Japan must now offer stress tests to overworked employees. But is it enough? · Global Voices
Sarah Lee Stones

Japanese workers wait for the train home after a long day at the office. Image from Flickr user tokyoform.
In light of a rise in work-related mental health problems, the Japanese government has revised the law to urge businesses to offer annual “stress checks” to their employees. This non-mandatory mental health check will be in addition to the yearly medical check-ups which companies are already required to provide.
The stress will come in the form of a 57-question multiple choice questionnaire. It includes measures such as “I have an extremely large amount of work to do,” and “I am exhausted.” Test-takers are given four response options ranging from “very much so” to “not at all.” Employees are encouraged to take the test, although it is not required.
As reported by Yahoo News Japan, stress checks were introduced in response to a recent increase in mental health issues, in the hopes of preventing mental illnesses like depression.
うつ病の患者数も00年以降、大幅に増加している。[厚生労働省]は労働安全衛生法の一部を改正して企業にストレスチェックを義務付けた。50人以上の事業所では15年12月から毎年1回、医師や保健師による検査の実施が必要になった。ストレスが高い場合は医師の面接を受けて助言してもらうなど、メンタルヘルス不調を未然に防止する仕組みだ。
The number of cases of depression has been rising sharply since 2000. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare revised the Industrial Safety and Health Law to oblige businesses with over 50 employees to offer annual stress checks, to be conducted by doctors or occupational health nurses, starting from December 2015. By having stressed employees talk to a doctor, the initiative aims to prevent mental health problems early on.
A salaryman crosses the street. Image from Flickr user tokyoform.
While the end of November marks the deadline for the first annual check, many companies are lagging behind. TBS News reports:
最初の期限は今月末までで、厚労省はパソコン用の無料ソフトを提供していますが、従業員１０００人未満の企業で実施した割合は３割前後にとどまっているという民間の調査結果も出ています。
With the deadline at the end of the month inching closer, the Health Ministry has provided companies with free software to help them implement stress checks, but according to a survey conducted by a private company, only about 30% of companies with fewer than 1,000 employees have introduced the checks thus far.
Because they are not mandatory, employees may be reluctant to submit to the checks, and while the interviewing doctors can provide employers with advice based on the results (which are confidential), ultimately, it is up to companies to create better work environments.
Some Twitter users have even complained that, somewhat paradoxically, the test itself is stressful.
「ストレスチェックにストレスを感じる」の記入欄がない
— 赤い豚 (@cochonrouge) November 21, 2016
There's nowhere for me to write, “I feel stressed as a result of this stress check.”
Work-life balance is a somewhat unfamiliar concept in Japan, where loyalty to one's company often comes first. While OECD data indicates that, on average, Japanese work comparable hours than their counterparts in other developed nations, with the US and Israel racking up more work hours than Japan in 2014, these statistics can be misleading for a number of reasons.
Firstly, much of Japan's workforce is made up of part-time workers. The liberalization of Japan's job market has meant increasing numbers of women, young people, and retirees taking on part-time work. These part-timers, who are not expected to put in the kind of hours that are required of workers in more typical full-time “salaryman” type positions, bring the average down.
Full-time workers, on the other hand, often work gruelingly long hours. An August white paper reported that nearly one in four companies have some employees do more than 80 hours of overtime per month.
Another important factor is the number of overtime hours that go unrecorded (and unpaid). While the law places restrictions on how many hours employees are allowed to work in a week, one way that companies can get around this is by having employees do their work off the clock. Young employees in particular are often pressured into doing unpaid overtime in order to hold onto their jobs, and excessive workloads often leave employees with little choice but to put in overtime, even if it is goes unrewarded.
Morning commuters packed into a crowded train. Image from Flickr user tokyoform.
Death by overwork is so prevalent in Japan that there is even a word for it: karoshi (過労死). The term refers to death from health issues like heart attacks and strokes resulting from long periods of extreme stress, or suicide by overworked employees.
In 2015, 93 suicides and attempted suicides were officially recognized as overwork deaths and eligible for compensation, and 96 deaths from heart attacks, strokes and other illnesses were linked to overwork.
“I have lost all feeling except the desire to sleep.”
A notable case is that of 24-year-old University of Tokyo graduate Matsuri Takahashi, who took her own life on Christmas Day last year after being forced to work long, hard hours at advertising giant Dentsu. The case carried echoes of that of another young Dentsu employee, a man, also 24, whose death was ruled to be the result of horrendous working conditions by Japan’s highest court.
Takahashi documented her growing fatigue and the verbal abuse she suffered at the hands of her boss on Twitter:
-They decided again I’ll have to work Saturdays and Sundays. I seriously just want to end it all.
-I have lost all feeling except the desire to sleep.
-My boss told me I have no femininity. Even if he was just trying to get a laugh, I can’t stand this anymore.
An exhausted salaryman sleeping on the train. Image from Flickr user tokyoform.
Some might wonder why overworked employees don't simply quit. After Takahashi's suicide was ruled to be an official case of karoshi, a comic offering insight into the mindset of these worn out, depressed workers by an illustrator who goes by the name Kona Shiomachi went viral on Twitter:
「死ぬくらいなら辞めれば」ができない理由　1/2
むかーしの体験談と、そのとき思ったこと。よければ拡散してください。 pic.twitter.com/tImNNIOG56
— しおしおしいしおしお (@sodium) October 25, 2016
Why I couldn't “just quit” [Part 1 of 2]
My past experiences, and what I was thinking at that time. Feel free to share.
The time I almost unintentionally killed myself
At the time, I was working 90-100 overtime hours per week (less than many of my colleagues). Every day, I would rush to catch the last train.
“Phew! I made it.”
At no point did I ever want to die.
But at that moment, standing on the empty platform, a single thought crossed my mind.
“If I were to take one more step, I wouldn't have to go to work tomorrow!”
“When you work over 100 hours of overtime, you won't have time to be with your family, friends or lover… You start to think, […] ‘I don't know why I'm living this life.'”
Shiomachi explained that when people are that overworked, they aren't capable of making rational decisions, including on whether to change jobs. “It’s almost impossible for workers to take a break or leave the company. When you’re exhausted beyond the limit, your mind avoids thinking about that,” she said.
Overwork can lead to a dark spiral of negative thoughts, according to Shiomachi: “When you work over 100 hours of overtime, you won't have time to be with your family, friends or lover, or even time to enjoy your hobby. Then, you start to think, ‘I don't know what I'm working for,’ which leads to thinking ‘I don't know why I'm living this life.'”
Commuters waiting for the train. Image from Flickr user tokyoform.
The small advertising company where Shiomachi was working as a designer, and Dentsu, with its notoriously harsh management practices and long overtime hours, are what some might describe as a “black company”, or burakku kigyou (ブラック企業). The term is generally used to refer to companies with highly exploitative employment systems.
Many black companies hire a lot of young employees, often recent university graduates, and force them to work under poor conditions. Excessive overtime, verbal abuse and sexual harassment are not uncommon at black companies.
The term “black company” originated in the IT industry in the 2000s, and in 2012, a group of journalists, activists, and university professors formed a special committee to create the “Black Corporations Award” where the public could vote on “the most evil corporations of the year.” It is now an annual award. Black companies span various industries; 2015 award winners include a convenience store, moving company, and “cram school” management company.
It seems that the “Black Corporations Award” has achieved its goal of raising awareness of crooked business practices; the black company problem has received more and more attention in recent years.
There is even a “Black Company Bot” Twitter account that generates witticisms from black companies:
「無理なのはわかってるけど、こっちは給料払ってるんだから何とかしろ」
— ブラック企業名言ｂｏｔ (@blackmeigen) November 25, 2016
I know it's impossible, but we're paying you, so make it happen.
倒れるのはそいつが悪いだけ。自己管理の問題だ
— ブラック企業名言ｂｏｔ (@blackmeigen) November 24, 2016
It's his fault he collapsed. He wasn't taking proper care of himself.
子育てと仕事、どっちが君にとって大事なんだい？
— ブラック企業名言ｂｏｔ (@blackmeigen) November 24, 2016
What's more important to you: raising your children or this job?
While these statements seem unreasonable to the point of lunacy, they reflect the perspective of management at some companies.
A frazzled salaryman doubled over on the floor. Image from Flickr user Reuben Stanton.
It's great that the government is trying to crack down on black companies and curb the incidence of work-related depression and karoshi with regulations aimed at reducing overtime and the introduction of stress checks, but it will only work if companies are willing to change. Hopefully, increased awareness will bring real progress. The lives of young, talented people like Matsuri Takahashi could be at stake.

author: Sarah Lee Stones


text:
Facebook’s Controversial ‘Free Basics’ Project Spreads to 47 Countries · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Screenshot of a video introducing Free Basics on YouTube. Via internet.org
Responding to the fact that a majority of the world's population lives areas where mobile Internet access is unaffordable, Facebook launched its “Free Basics” program, in collaboration with local mobile phone operators and telecommunications companies around the world. The project allows users to access select websites and services, if they're using a SIM card from a participating mobile-phone operator.
Launched in August 2013, Free Basics is the result of a collaboration between Facebook and the mobile-technology companies Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Opera Software, Nokia, and Qualcomm, along with local telecommunications providers in areas where the service is provided.
Originally named “Internet.org”, the social media giant changed the name to “Free Basics” after critics complained that the name could lead users to believe that the app gives unbridled access to the Internet, which it does not.
But the app does offer access to useful resources. Facebook allows any web developer to submit their apps for review. If approved, based on technical and other substantive criteria, apps can be included in the package. Olivier Ntanama is a blogger from Bukavu, where he studies in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is also the founder of the Tech in Congo blog, where he lists the “Top 80 Free Websites with Facebook's Free Basics,” a helpful resource for those interested in learning more about the app's offerings.
Thierry Barbaut, an African technology specialist, described the project's impact to Afrique Technologie as a useful educational effort:
Ce programme a un véritable impact sur les vies humaines en fournissant un accès gratuit à la santé, à l’éducation, et aux informations économiques. SmartBusiness, par exemple, est un site qui apprend aux gens à lancer et à gérer une entreprise, avec désormais 5 services de recherche de plus par jour depuis son lancement en Afrique du Sud au mois de juillet, ce qui signifie qu’un plus grand nombre peut accéder aux informations économiques importantes.
BabyCenter et MAMA atteignent des millions de personnes dans le monde en proposant des informations de santé primordiales pour la grossesse et l’art d’être parent et, rien qu’à travers les services Free Basics Internet.org, 3,4 millions de personnes sont informées.
This program has a true impact upon human lives through providing free access to health, education, and economic information. SmartBusiness, for example, is a site that teaches its users how to launch and manage a business. It now has five more search services per day, since its launch in South Africa in July. This means that a greater number of people can now access important economic information.
BabyCenter and MAMA reach millions of people worldwide by offering pregnant woman essential health information and providing information on parenting and raising children. Through the medium of Free Basics Internet.org alone, 3.4 million people are receiving information on these topics.
In a post titled “Free Basics in Madagascar: Facebook's Free Internet at What Price?” Malagasy blogger Ando Rasoa looked at the advantages of the app in her country. During a Facebook mission team's visit to Madagascar, she wrote:
Le nombre d’utilisateurs de Facebook sur la grande île a augmenté considérablement ces dernières années. Chacun y trouve son compte : du petit vendeur de téléphone seconde main au leader de parti politique en passant par l’étudiant. Bon nombre de discussions transitent sur les groupes créés sur le réseau social, allant des plus enrichissantes aux plus futiles. Facebook est devenu un outil de communication incontournable, autant sur le plan personnel que professionnel. Free Basics pourrait aussi aider à créer des emplois et à combattre la pauvreté, grâce à la mise à disposition d’informations utiles à la population.
A Madagascar, l’Autorité de Régulation des Technologies de Communication (ARTEC) ne s’était pas encore prononcée publiquement sur le sujet. Quant au ministre des postes, des télécommunications et du développement numérique, il a honoré de sa présence le lancement de BIP, le 2 Juin dernier. Il a été clair lors de son discours en qualifiant le partenariat entre l’opérateur et Facebook comme une « étape cruciale vers une société malgache où la connectivité a toujours été une réalité ».
The number of Facebook users on the big island has risen considerably during the recent years. There is something for everyone: from the small-scale seller of second-hand phones to leaders of a political parties to students. A good number of discussions take place in groups created on the social network, from the more enriching discussions to the very futile. Facebook has become an unavoidable communication tool, on both a personal and professional level in equal measures.
Free Basics could also help to create jobs and to fight poverty, thanks to its provision of useful information to the public. In Madagascar, the Authority of Regulation of Communication Technologies (ARTEC) has not publicly declared its stance on the subject. The Minister of Post, Telecommunications and Digital Development attended the launch of the new Madagascan mobile phone operator, Bip. He was clear in his speech that the partnership between the operator and Facebook was a “crucial stage towards a Madagascan society in which connectivity has always been a reality”.
In May 2015, Free Basics was accessible in 47 countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. In Africa, 22 mobile-phone operators were offering the service in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Zambia, Rwanda, and Guinea among others.
According to The Guardian, Facebook has been in talks with U.S. government officials and mobile-phone operators to develop a U.S. version of Free Basics. As in other countries, this version would be adapted for low-income groups and rural areas that are not able to afford either broadband Internet access or Internet access via smartphones.
Despite many users’ appreciation of the service and the fact that it is free to use, there is resistance to Free Basics, which led to the program's closure in India and Egypt.
In May 2015, NGOs working to defend online rights published an open letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, denouncing the program for violating the principles of net neutrality, and thereby threatening freedom of expression and equality of opportunity, security, privacy, and innovation. The NGOs accuse Zuckerberg of building a “walled garden,” in which the world's poorest people will only be able to access a limited set of insecure websites and services. The petition has received thousands of signatures from around the world.
Organizations endorsing the petition include several African groups, such as Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, Right 2 Know Campaign (South Africa), Unwanted Witness (Uganda), Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Centre Africain D'Echange Culturel (CAFEC- Democratic Republic of the Congo), i freedom (Uganda), KICTANet (Kenya), and Just Associates (South Africa). Global Voices Advox was also signatory to the letter.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


text:
Internet Freedom Declines in Russia and Ukraine, Improves in Belarus · Global Voices
Jack Margolin

Source: Alan Levine, Flickr CC 2.0
Freedom House’s annual “Freedom on the Net” report, released this month, paints a worrying picture of declining internet freedom in Russian-speaking parts of the world. Russia, Belarus and Central Asian states including Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were rated as “not free” in the report, while Ukraine was rated “partially free.” With the exception of Belarus, all of these countries have fallen in the report’s ratings since last year.
The report uses a scoring process that measures barriers to accessing data, limits on internet content, and recorded violations of user rights as they are articulated by international human rights doctrine, as well as methodological criteria developed by the organization itself. Freedom House is based in the United States and is funded primarily by US government aid agencies.
Russia’s ranking fell as a result of the introduction of new legal restrictions on internet users, including a legislative package know as the “Yarovaya Law,” which circumscribes internet freedoms ostensibly to fight terrorism. The Yarovaya Law requires telecommunications developers to provide backdoor access to authorities and introduces restrictions on the religious activities of certain denominations. By increasing the maximum penalty for “justifying” terrorism online, the law also sets a precedent for more aggressive legal action against social media users. Freedom House also notes that online activists have been increasingly subjected to cyberattacks and physical violence.
While Russia does have a high degree of internet penetration, Freedom House and other observers have voiced concerns over the prominence of state-owned internet service provider Rostelecom in the telecommunications industry. But state control over the internet is not necessarily seen as a bad thing in Russia: According to a public opinion poll conducted by the Moscow-based Levada Center earlier this year, 60 percent of respondents said that internet censorship is needed in Russia.
Ukraine's falling Freedom of the Net rating is tied to events surrounding the War in Donbas. As in Russia, Ukrainian authorities have cracked down on “extremist” expression online, which is usually linked to criticism of Kyiv’s role in the war or support for Russian-backed separatists in the east. Authorities in the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine have engaged in reciprocal efforts, seeking to block content that is related to Ukrainian cultural identity or is supportive of Kyiv’s war effort.
Some efforts have been driven by non-state actors: earlier this year, Ukrainian nationalists released the personal information of thousands of journalists covering the conflict in the east.
#Ukraine has fallen 11 spots on the Internet freedom ranking index since 2012. pic.twitter.com/T809v7kqRQ
— RFE/RL (@RFERL) November 20, 2016
More positively, activists have made use of the web as a platform to combat Kremlin-propagated misinformation, and to coordinate civil society initiatives.
Internet freedoms have increased in Belarus, though the country is still rated as “not free.” Internet penetration and speed have increased in the country, improving the availability of online media and social media coverage of political events.
Still, repressive policies continue to hinder free expression on the web in Belarus. Journalists, bloggers, and average internet users continue to be targeted by authorities. The recent introduction of new legal initiatives and technical measures has enhanced the Belarusian government’s ability to monitor and prosecute users: internet service providers are required to retain information on users’ browsing history for one year, and deep packet inspection (DPI) technology has been used since 2011 to filter content. Like in Russia, the government employs spyware and malware to surveil its population online.

author: Jack Margolin


text:
Myanmar’s Refugee Returnees Struggle to Build New Lives · Global Voices
The Irrawaddy

The warehouse of the Relief and Resettlement Department’s Rangoon office in Mayangone Township, where 17 returnees are being provided temporary shelter. Photo and caption by Hein Htet/The Irrawaddy.
This edited article by Tin Htet Paing is from The Irrawaddy, an independent news website in Myanmar, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The story tackles the situation of some refugee returnees who are struggling to rebuild their lives back in Myanmar. A military dictatorship has ruled the country from 1962 until 2010, but it was only this year when the military lost total control of the government after its party lost in the elections. During the reign of the junta, a civil war involving state forces and ethnic armed groups intensified across the country, displacing residents and forcing thousands to seek refuge in nearby countries.
The only reason 46-year-old former refugee U Aye Lwin returned to Myanmar was so that his six children could receive a formal education in his home country—the country he left eight years ago due to political turmoil.
After having taken refuge in a camp on the Thai-Myanmar border since 2008, he decided to repatriate once the National League for Democracy-led government took office in April 2016 and welcomed the return of refugees.
U Aye Lwin is one of 17 former refugees who recently returned to Yangon (the country’s biggest city) from the Nu Po camp located on the Thai-Myanmar border, which was established according to an official arrangement by the governments of Thailand and Myanmar, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The first batch of 65 returnees was repatriated to Myanmar via the Myawaddy-Mae Sot Friendship Bridge in late October. Seventeen of them asked to be sent to their homes in Yangon.
U Aye Lwin made up his mind to earn money by doing any kind of job available so that his kids—from his 4-year-old son to his 18-year-old daughter—could go to school.
But his homecoming hasn’t played out how he thought it would.
Since arriving in Yangon in October, the 17 returnees—four families—have only been provided temporary shelter at a warehouse run by the Relief and Resettlement Department’s Yangon office in Mayangone Township, waiting for the regional government to arrange long-term accommodation.
The department, operating under the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief, and Resettlement, provides 3,000 kyats (US$2.33) to each returnee for daily living expenses. In addition, each family has received 300,000 kyats (US$230) from the Union government, and the Thai government has offered 8,300 baht (US$230) per adult and 6,500 baht (US$180) per child before leaving Thailand.
Daw Khin San Yee, 59, is a former political prisoner and, along with her husband, was a refugee at the Nu Po camp in 2009. Though she was a refugee, she followed news about Myanmar’s democratic transition on the radio and television—the only available news sources in the camp.
I’ve been willing to return to Myanmar since its government transition [last year]. UNHCR and officials from the Myanmar government came to the camp and told us that we could officially register to return home—in dignity.
Daw Khin San Yee, 59, is a former political prisoner and was a refugee, along with her husband, at the Nu Po camp in 2009. Photo and caption by Hein Htet/The Irrawaddy.
All four families that The Irrawaddy spoke to last week said that their voluntary returns were driven by the fact that the NLD is in power.
The Yangon regional government provided low-cost housing worth 9.8 million kyats (US$7,400) in the Shwe Linn Ban Industrial Zone in Hlaing Tharyar Township for the former refugees, but asked them to pay for it in installments, paying 30 percent upfront and the rest over eight years.
Still, the families refused to buy the apartments, saying that they couldn’t afford them. The commercial capital’s rental prices for housing have increased nearly three-fold in less than 10 years. Asked if they owned any places in Yangon before they left Myanmar, Daw Khin San Yee and U Aye Lwin told The Irrawaddy that they have never been able to afford to buy apartments and that they previously had to rent places. Daw Khin San Yee explained:
We returned from a refugee camp. We didn’t come back bringing heaps of money. How are we supposed to pay 3 million kyats [US$2,200]?
U Thant Zin Maung, 47, returned home to get traditional medical treatment for his wife, who is unable to walk due to muscle atrophy in her legs. He said he would do any kind of work to afford hospitalizing his wife and sending his two children to school once he gets long-term accommodation for his family.
U Win Shwe, a director at the relief and resettlement department in Yangon, told The Irrawaddy that his department has reported to Yangon’s regional government about the current situation and is waiting to hear back about a possible solution, potentially this week. He said that the government is still struggling to provide affordable housing to illegal squatters in the city.
We can’t provide [free] accommodation to everyone who returns. It’s impossible to do that given that there are also people who are in worse trouble. Myanmar is not rich enough that it can give housing for free. There are also hundreds of thousands of refugees living in border camps, hoping to come back. If Yangon’s government were to provide free housing to returnees, others in the future would also look to return to Yangon, and the situation would get out of hand. They have returned to Burma [as Myanmar is also known] and are no longer refugees. They shouldn’t be given privileges under the title ‘refugee’.
The official also said that each regional government provides for returnees support and rights afforded to every citizen.
Mg Aung San Suu Kyaw, 14, Mg Kaung Myat Kyaw, 10), and Mg Zin Ko Win, 4, are seen at the warehouse of the Relief and Resettlement Department’s Yangon office in Mayangone Township. Photo and caption by Hein Htet/The Irrawaddy.
U Soe Aung, permanent secretary and spokesperson of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, told The Irrawaddy that the government is doing as much as it can to support returnees and to find job opportunities for them.
Yangon’s regional minister for social welfare U Naing Ngan Linn visited the temporary shelter after returnees’ arrival in Yangon and told reporters afterward that the government was “responsible” for arranging long-term accommodation for the new arrivals.
Daw Khin San Yee said that returnees are not asking to have the Shwe Linn Ban housing for free, but rather just a place where they can afford start their lives again. Other returnees echoed these words, saying that they don’t want to depend only on donations, that they are ready to work.
U Thant Zin Maung said they now realize situation is very different from their expectations.
Ma Thiri Suu Kyi, 16, is seen together with her little brother Mg Zin Ko Win. She decided not to continue going to school in Yangon because she’s embarrassed to be in the 7th grade with students much younger than her. Photo and caption by Hein Htet/The Irrawaddy.
Sixteen-year-old Ma Thiri Suu Kyi was fidgeting with her hands, not making eye contact. Sitting in front of a warehouse in Rangoon, she talked about how she used to hang out with her friends in a refugee camp in Thailand.
“I didn’t want to come back to Burma,” she said, adding that she doesn’t know what to do next with her life.
She was 8 years old when she and her father U Aye Lwin left for Thailand in 2008 and barely remembers what Myanmar looked like back then. She was in the 7th grade in the Nu Po camp and thought that she could continue school when she returned to Myanmar. But not anymore.
“It’s not suitable for someone my age to be in 7th grade,” she said. “I have to learn with these small kids, so I don’t want to continue school here,” she continued, pointing to her 10-year-old child brother.

author: The Irrawaddy


text:
The Hotly Contested Gambian Presidential Race Enters Its Final Stretch · Global Voices
Demba Kandeh

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh who has been in power since 1994 has said he believes only God can remove him from office. UN photo by Erin Siegal. Used under Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Presidential candidates are canvassing on the final days of campaigning for the crucial 1 December election in the Gambia. Incumbent President Yahya Jammeh is facing two challengers: Mama Kandeh of the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC), and Adama Barrow, an independent candidate backed by a coalition of up to seven political parties.
Jammeh, who is seeking his fifth term, is running on a platform for continued socio-economic development, peace and stability. He promises to expand and improve healthcare, education, including free university education. Jammeh has emphasised the importance of peaceful and orderly campaign and election. He has urged people to go about the election in a peaceful manner.
Opposition candidates on the other hand have accused Jammeh of ruining the economy and having the worst human rights records in Africa. They promise to deliver a fairer and more inclusive government if elected.
Campaigning ends on Tuesday, 29 November, with Wednesday considered a “cooling off” day.
The forthcoming December election promises to be one of the most closely contested election since the 1994 coup that brought Jammeh to power. The European Union has said that Gambian authorities have denied their request to observe the elections, but regional grouping such as the African Union and ECOWAS said they will monitor the election. In last presidential election, ECOWAS refused to send observers arguing that the elections will not be free and fair.
(Update 29 November 2016: In the end, ECOWAS will not observe the elections in The Gambia. According to local sources the chairman of the electoral commission said the regional groups application for observation was not received on time.)
In the run-up to the elections, there have been anti-government political protests, mostly in the Greater Banjul Area. The protests were part of a movement calling for electoral reforms and the resignation of President Jammeh. Protesters were met with live ammunition from security forces.
Ousainou Darboe, leader of the main opposition party, will not be able to take part in the election as he has been convicted for his participation in the protests alongside up to 18 other heavyweights of his party.
Opposition leaders and their supporters demonstrating in Gambia's capital Banjul. Photo taken from the main opposition party (UDP) Facebook page.
Early this month, Human Rights Watch released a report, “More Fear Than Fair: Gambia’s 2016 Presidential Election,” describing government’s repression of the political opposition in the months the election.
The report shows how President Jammeh has used a crackdown on the opposition, domination of state media, and state resources for campaigning. It states that more than 90 opposition activists have been arrested for participating in peaceful protests, with 30 sentenced to three-year prison terms while two opposition activists have died in custody.
In its 2014 submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Gambia, human rights organisation Amnesty International said: “Since Gambia’s first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2010, the human rights situation in the country has deteriorated. The government continues to stifle freedom of expression and commit other human rights violations with impunity.”
Concerns about the integrity of the election aside, the candidates and their supporters have been making a push on social media to win votes. First Lady Zainab Jammeh, who is campaigning alongside her husband, posted the video below on her Facebook page with the following message:
Gambians hail the efforts of His Excellency The President and APRC [Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction] Party candidate with a rapturous welcome after a week long tour of rural Gambia as part of the ongoing 2016 Presidential campaign.
The enthusiastic demonstration of support and renewed determination for President Jammeh’s continued leadership is unrelenting for Gambians have shown it all.
The masses have clearly spoken “Vote President Jammeh for continuous development and Prosperity”.
While Bakary Badjie, a supporter of the opposition coalition, wrote on Facebook:
Because Jammeh didn't wait for Allah to come hold his hand to presidency, Gambians too shouldn't fall for those unfounded fatalist talk “Allah put him there and will remove him when his time is up”.. Go Vote Coalition because this is that time. You the Voters can make it happened cuz Allah works through people..
Several people on the group confirm the coalition's caravan and people welcoming them was unprecedented. Now Gambia translate this into #Votefor #AdamaBarrow#1Demberr
President Jammeh said recently that only God (Allah) can remove him from power because he is the one who put him there. President Jammeh opposes presidential term limits. He believes God decides term limits and if God is willing, he may rule The Gambia for “one billion years.” The Gambia is one of two countries in West Africa without presidential term limits.
The opposition GDC posted this video of their candidate arriving at Sintet village in the West Coast region:

author: Demba Kandeh


text:
Why You Shouldn’t Stick Your Chopsticks in Your Rice Bowl and Other Vietnamese Superstitions · Global Voices
Loa

Vietnamese elders will react in horror if you ever stick your chopsticks upright into your rice bowl. Photo from the Flickr page of Quinn Dombrowski, CC License.
This article by Vinh Trần is from Loa, an independent news website and podcast that broadcasts stories about Vietnam, and is republished by Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Ever gotten a slap on the hand when you stick your chopsticks upright into your rice bowl in Vietnam? What’s up with that? Let’s explore this and other popular Vietnamese superstitions.
Black cats are a bad omen in many parts of the world, but for the Vietnamese, the bad luck happens when the cat comes into your house.
We got the lowdown from Professor Hoàng Mai Nguyễn.
Professor Nguyễn says that this superstition is rooted in the belief that when someone passes away and a cat enters the home and jumps over the coffin, the deceased person might sit right up. Apparently, this came from a story passed down through the generations without scientific evidence. But since no one wants that to happen, people will do everything to prevent this situation from happening.
Ever been to a Vietnamese wedding and notice that if there’s an odd number of people gathering to pose for a photo, another person will jump into the mix? Well, here’s the “logic” behind that.
According to Vietnamese superstition, the person in the middle of an odd-numbered group photo will be the first to die. Specifically, when there are only three people in the picture, the person in the middle could be the first one to die, and if he or she does not die, then all three people will receive bad luck.
Again, no scientific evidence, but… who wants to risk it?
Vietnamese elders will react in horror if you ever stick your chopsticks upright into your rice bowl. What gives?
Some say it’s because it resembles an incense bowl (with the chopsticks as the incense).
Professor Nguyễn says it’s not so much that an incense bowl is bad luck, but because it is so often used during ceremonies commemorating the deceased, it is often associated with a death in the family. She says there’s no proof of bad luck occurring because of this, but a student named Lan Bùi says she avoids positioning her chopsticks this way out of respect.
I don’t personally know if the superstition can bring misfortune but I still avoid it because I consider it as bad manners. It’s a kind of a form of respect for me.
You now have a brief breakdown of three popular Vietnamese superstitions. Whether it’s out of respect or to avoid risking bad luck, perhaps you can now make a slightly more informed choice on whether or not to adhere to the superstitions.
Learn more about Vietnamese superstitions by listening to this podcast:

author: Loa


text:
A Bollywood Actress Inspires Hilarious Book Misinterpretations With Her ‘Animal Farm’ Gaffe · Global Voices
Rezwan

Collage from Flickr image of Shilpa Shetty by Celebrityabc. CC BY 2.0
You might be seeing the hashtag #ShilpaShettyReviews in many tweets by Indians today. It refers to a blunder made by Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in an interview, which quickly became viral.
The Twitter trend all began a few days ago when the new curriculum for the Indian School Certificate Examination was released in Lucknow at the 59th annual conference of the Association of Schools for the Indian School Certificate. It was announced at the conference that the syllabus for students of Class 3 to Class 8 will now include graphic novels “Asterix and Tintin”, JK Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series, Agatha Christie’s “Hercule Poirot” series, J. R. R. Tolkien's “The Hobbit”, Satyajit Ray's “Feluda” and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes” stories, among other books. Biographies of APJ Abdul Kalam, Anne Frank and Malala Yousafzai will also be on the reading list.
In an interview to English-language daily Times of India, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty wholeheartedly supported the move and said:
Books like Lord Of The Rings (LOTR) and Harry Potter as part of the syllabus is a great move because it cultivates imagination and creativity at a young age. They should include books like Little Women, as it encourages respect towards women at a young age. Even a book like Animal Farm can teach the little ones to love and care for animals.
She obviously mistook that Animal Farm, an allegorical political commentary on the Soviet Union by George Orwell set in a dystopian society, was something good for animals.
This is why #shilpashettyreviews is trending. pic.twitter.com/1AXnAJS3Fi
— CornerCubicle (@cornercubicle_) November 28, 2016
The internet broke loose prompting one-liner reviews like the following, all bearing the hashtag #ShilpaShettyReviews, which quickly became a top trending topic:
Fifty shades of Grey is an instruction manual for dot matrix printers #ShilpaShettyReviews
— Fahad R. Bhatti (@frbhatty) November 28, 2016
Oh! I thought David Copperfield is about a boy who works in fields where copper grows. #ShilpaShettyReviews https://t.co/Xwa7H9CaKH
— kaveri (@ikaveri) November 28, 2016
Pride and Prejudice is my favourite book about a group of lions and racism. #ShilpaShettyReviews
— Purva Scamander (@thatobesewoman) November 28, 2016
Children should read ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, so that they can learn geography. #ShilpaShettyReviews
— Absinthe Minded (@MinstrelofSound) November 28, 2016
“Life of pi is an amazing cookbook. Children will love it.” #ShilpaShettyReviews
— Harish Iyengaar (@scaryhairyman) November 28, 2016
Children should read The Kite Runner, because only then will they know how dangerous it is to chase kites. #ShilpaShettyReviews
— #ish (@WhatMenBugger) November 28, 2016
The fault in our stars is the best book for kids to learn astronomy :P #ShilpaShettyReviews
— Daniel (@AskDanyal) November 28, 2016
“The Hobbit is good. All children should develop good hobbits.” #ShilpaShettyReviews
— Harish Iyengaar (@scaryhairyman) November 28, 2016
And people had more fun reading the innovative tweets:
Is there anyone else who cannot stop reading all #ShilpaShettyReviews?
The things people come up with are just hilarious!
— Li'l Jevi (@MissChotaPacket) November 28, 2016
There were also tweets supporting Shetty:
because why blame a paper produced by multiple editors if you can laugh at the woman who probably didn't say the thing? #ShilpaShettyReviews
— Supriya Nair (@supriyan) November 28, 2016
Dear @TheShilpaShetty, are you sure they have quoted you properly? Because the book #AnimalFarm is not about animal husbandry. #JustChecking pic.twitter.com/abS9byfscF
— Soumyadipta (@Soumyadipta) November 28, 2016
And Sabit Aziz thanked Shilpa Shetty:
Thank You Shilpa Shetty for the Gaffe. I have my book bucket list ready now. #ShilpaShettyReviews
— Sabit Aziz (@azizspeaksss) November 28, 2016


text:
Meet South Africa’s Prophet of Doom…Literally · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Image shared widely on social media. This one was shared by @Mission316Show.
A self-proclaimed prophet, Lethebo Rabalago, has shocked many South Africans after news broke out that he uses Doom, a popular insecticide in the country, to heal. He sprays the deadly chemical on different parts of the body of his church members including faces.
Announcing the “healing” powers of Doom, Rabalago wrote on his Facebook page:
By my name, you shall drive out demons.
By my name, you shall pick up snakes. Anything you touch, recieves favour because of the annointing upon you. Doom is just a name, but when you speak to it to become a healing product, it does. People get healed and delivered through doom. Its not by might nor by power, but by the HolySpirit. We give God the glory!!
The company behind the insecticide has condemned Rabalago and says it is in the process of contacting him to warn him about dangers of using Doom insect poison onto people's faces.
The Internet has reacted with anger, shock and funny memes using the hashtag #ProphetOfDoom.
A Twitter user using the name ‘Sound Surgeon’ joked:
#ProphetOfDoom
Breaking news: Doom prices have shot up??? pic.twitter.com/mpd3U9HDBG
— ?Sound Surgeon? (@speaks_beats) November 22, 2016
Iloveza shared this picture showing empty shelves of Doom in a supermarket:
Business is good? #Doom #DoomProphet #ProphetofDoom #iloveza❤?? pic.twitter.com/wzEebVzsvS
— iloveza (@ilovezacom) November 23, 2016
Mphuma mentioned other strange acts performed by a growing number of self-proclaimed prophets in South Africa:
Just when you said you read it enough, petrol, grass, snakes Pastors etc.. now it's happening again. #ProphetOfDoom world coming to an end.
— Mphuma Tshililo (@mphuma27) November 21, 2016
Bizzare “prophetic” acts by South African preachers in recent years have included eating grass, snakes and drinking petrol, which supposedly becomes pineapple juice after prayer.
Considering the latest “miracle”, Ditjhaba said South Africa needs a timeout:
After this, I think we need a timeout as a country. This is too much and the #prophetofdoom is the last straw. pic.twitter.com/cG4edPGQeH
— Ditjhaba Selemela (@DitjhabaS) November 21, 2016
@shandu009 tweeted a photo of a man trying to increase his wealth at an ATM machine following the preacher's advice:
#prophetOfDoom pic.twitter.com/BURImBD1MX
— #AlooterContinua✊ (@shandu009) November 24, 2016
Another Twitter user said:
Doom is the answer brothers and sisters lets bow our heads and sPray. #ProphetOfDoom
— Eng TKN (@telferkndumba) November 24, 2016
Vhoni joked:
Who needs gym when there's doom(Raid)? ?????????????#Prophetofdoom #TrendingSA pic.twitter.com/HTMl69TWRO
— SC&IG @vhoni_henny (@vhoni_henny) November 23, 2016
A Zimbabwean man posted the following photo suggesting that Zimbabwean president needs the special “Doom healing”:
I'll jus leave this here… #prophetofdoom pic.twitter.com/aQqtgDumgt
— Peter Tavaruva (@tavaruva_peter) November 24, 2016
Qamatha posted a photo of a mini bus with a Doom advert suggesting that it belongs to the church :
#ProphetOfDoom just bought a new minibus for congregation. pic.twitter.com/a50YmIwxks
— QAMATHA (@SaAutonomy) November 23, 2016
The video below shows the prophet in action:
South African Internet entrepreneur Peter Mansfield suggested:
LOCK HIM UP, and send congregants for psychiatric examination to determine why they stupid enough to follow him #ProphetOfDoom https://t.co/MutzfJtWSJ
— Peter Mansfield (@Peterman43) November 21, 2016
Another Twitter user rephrased the Bible verse in the book of John 3:16. The verse reads: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life”:
does one see this doom coming or is it a surprise… #doom, #Doompastor, #ProphetofDoom pic.twitter.com/YE6ujSR1Wu
— nev.b (@_nevb) 21 de noviembre de 2016
Celeste thought the spraying of the harmful chemical on congregants amounted to attempted murder:
The #ProphetofDoom should be arrested for attempted murder. #Doom is used to kill so surely the #Hawks or #NPA can whip up a charge.
— Celeste Tema (@celeste_tema) November 21, 2016
Using the photo of the Ghanaian Internet sensation, Jake Amo, Barry Roux wrote:
Dear #ProphetOfDoom
Sorry for the bad handwriting, am writing to ask if Doom can cure TB Joshua. #DoomProphet
Sincerely Your Boy pic.twitter.com/XYZwFNCfh8
— IG:AdvBarryRoux (@Barry_Roux) November 22, 2016
TB Joshua is a popular Nigeria preacher who is known for controversial prophecies. During the US elections he predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the election.
Kalabash Media posted this photo:
Running out of fuel?? …#DoomELA #ProphetOfDoom #DoomProphet pic.twitter.com/RpsMiyCW2i
— Kalabash Media (@KalabashMedia) November 22, 2016
Rabalago has claimed that with his spiritual powers it is possible to make a phone call without a sim card or drive a car without fuel.
Finally, need a bottle of healing Doom?:
Miracle spray for sale, Contact #ProphetOfDoom prophet Lethebo Rabalago of Kingdom of Doom Church for more details.. pic.twitter.com/mNNJShQAR2
— IG:AdvBarryRoux (@Barry_Roux) November 24, 2016


text:
News Commentators Decry the Errand Economy as ‘Ruining’ Friendship on Chinese University Campuses · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Students lining up to pick up their package. Photo from state-owned Xinhua Net.
The popularity of online payment systems has given rise to a new errand service among university students in China. An errand can vary from delivery delivering mail, packages, food, groceries and hot water to signing in class attendance, doing presentations, writing term papers and taking examinations for fellow students, and the existence of such errand service has raise some heated debate online.
Most university campuses in China are huge and not open to public. The setting creates a distinctive campus-based market. For example, on a cold winter's day, many students do not want to go outdoors for meals, mail or groceries and prefer someone else to run their errands.
In the past, they would ask their fellow students to do them a favor and return the service later on. However, as online payments have entered their lives, many now prefer to hire someone to run their errands instead.
Among the 700 million internet users in China, approximately 60 percent actively used e-commerce and online payments in 2015, with a gross merchandise volume up to 11.8 trillion yuan, or approximately US$1.7 trillion.
University students are the most active user group. In 2015, 6% of the nation’s package deliveries had university campuses as their final destination.
New mobile applications, like “campus delivery” (校內達), are specifically designed to provide a platform for students to look up other fellow students to run errands for them for a small payment between three to five yuan per service. Reportedly, some students have managed to earn 3,000 yuan a month running errands for other fellow students.
Apart from mobile apps, some students also use chat rooms, such as Tencent’s QQ groups, to provide more controversial services, like signing in class attendance, taking the place of other students in class discussions or presentations, or even taking exams for them.
One survey shows that about half of university students have either hired others to take their place in class or seen others do it. The price varies from 20 to 50 yuan.
News commentators for official media outlets in China have been critical towards this new campus economy in their writings, saying it is the result of students being spoiled and lazy. Some, including news commenter Zu Yuanyuan from the Chinese Communist Youth League-affiliated Youth.cn, have taken a nostalgic view of campus life:
本来取快递可以寝室几人结伴而行，或者是由舍友代拿，本来买水果也可以成为同学间逛街交流的借口，本来打热水亦或成为你打我用的友好共用形式，然而“跑腿经济”这一利益化产业的兴起，打破了原本纯洁友好的校园，让舍友代拿快递就会顾虑舍友代拿是否需要付费？让朋友代买水果也要考虑不付费的代买是否合适？“跑腿经济”已经渐渐成为阻隔校园内人情的一道屏障，让原本充满亲情的校园变得有着些许的冷漠，一切能代办的全部用金钱来衡量，殊不知这本该是校友间、朋友间顺便代办的区区小事。“金钱至上”的利益经济已经在悄然侵蚀着本该纯净的校园，难道这不令我们担忧吗？
Roommates could walk to the package delivery station together, or ask a friend to do a favor. Buying fruit with fellow students should be an excellent opportunity to share thoughts. Getting hot water for one another is good for building friendship. Yet with the rise of the errand economy, friendship on campus has been ruined by a profitable business — whenever you ask your roommate to pick up a package or buy some fruit for you, you would start to wonder if you should pay for the errand. The errand economy has blocked students from developing friendship on campus and changed the warm campus into a cool campus where everything is evaluated in monetary terms. The errands should be small favors that friends give to one another. Shouldn’t we be worried that our campus is slowly being eroded by monetary value?
On the other side, some netizens see the errand service as a creative business. Here are a few of the comments on one of the news threads on popular social media platform Weibo:
挺好啊 时间也是金钱啊 每个人价值观不一样 对待金钱的态度也不一样 爹妈有钱爹妈爱给孩子花 这有什么好批判的 多半是眼红吧 人家爹妈赚一辈子钱了就希望孩子活的轻松 凭什么非要道德绑架 非要看不得别人过得舒服和你一样苦哈哈才爽？
This is good. Time is money. Every one has a different set of values and hold different attitudes towards money. Why should we criticize those kids with rich parents who allow them to spend money? Most of the criticisms are out of envy. Their parents work so hard to make their kids’ lives easy, why judge them? Do you want to see everyone equally poor?
多亏了代课跑腿什么的让我度过了没有生活费的日子
I have to thank those who demand the service of running errands and taking students’ place in class or I could not have survived without a basic income for living.
懒是促进科技进步的核心啊。要不是因为懒得洗衣服，洗衣机怎么会发明出来，要不是懒得走路，自行车又是怎么来的
Laziness is the driving force of scientific progress. Washing machines were invented because people were too lazy to wash their clothes. Bicycles were invented because people were too lazy to walk.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Political Satire Returns to Russian TV, Neutered As Ever · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Image: Dmitry Smirnov / Twitter
Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov, whose regime is widely accused of human rights crimes, is a comedy star on Russian television this week. Or rather, comedian Mikhail Galustyan’s impression of Kadyrov has surprised and entertained the millions who tuned in this weekend to watch the 55th anniversary of Russia’s “KVN” comedy club.
Political parody is a perilous thing in Russia, where the last unbridled satire to grace the small screen is widely considered to be the TV show “Kukly” (Puppets), which was taken off the air more than 14 years ago, when the Kremlin allegedly lost its patience for being mocked so openly.
Kukly is often likened to “The Daily Show” in the United States — a comparison that captures the fact that both shows lampoon public figures, but fails to prepare you for the garish puppets that starred in Kukly, and the stilted, unsubtle sketch comedy the show’s writers used to ridicule Boris Yeltsin and later Vladimir Putin.
Years after Kukly bit the dust, Russian political parody seemed to be making a feeble comeback. In the early 2010s, before Dmitry Medvedev announced that he would step down from the presidency to allow Vladimir Putin to return, the atmosphere felt like it might be changing, Ellen Barry wrote at the time. To the surprise of many, the state-funded national TV network Channel One aired a special musical segment lampooning President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin on New Year’s Day in 2010.
The parody was light-hearted, to say the least. Little cartoon versions of Medvedev and Putin danced in Red Square, playing instruments and shaking their butts, while singing playful barbs aimed at Kremlin adversaries, like the White House, the Viktor Yushchenko presidency in Ukraine, and others. The duo even returned the following year for an encore performance, having established itself as a regular, if somewhat dull, presence on a Russian television show that practiced similarly “safe” humor ridiculing Moscow’s geopolitical foes.
The cartoon show that gave us the dancing, singing Kremlin tandem, along with another popular television program called “Prozhektorperiskhilton,” which was also built on joking about current events, didn’t last beyond 2013 — the year after Putin’s return as commander in chief.
Throughout Putin’s third term as president, Russia has witnessed incredible transformations domestically and abroad. The relative thaw under Medvedev gave way to a political crackdown at home, and Moscow’s new willingness to sustain military interventions beyond its borders has changed the way many look at the world map.
With Russia’s September parliamentary elections over and done, the country’s political talk now turns to 2018, when Vladimir Putin is expected to run for a fourth term in office, paving the way to another six years in power — extending his lease on the presidency to 2024, when Putin will turn 72.
Facing the prospect of a 25-year reign by one, increasingly reactionary politician, Russians were understandably surprised this weekend to see comedian Mikhail Galustyan on television impersonating Ramzan Kadyrov, the brutal dictator of Chechnya. Dressed like Kadyrov, mumbling in a Chechen accent, and strutting about on stage, Galustyan did a remarkably good job pretending to be the ruler of Chechnya.
And, by the way, President Vladimir Putin was in the audience, laughing politely.
“Я сразу говорил, что победит Трамп”: Путин и “Кадыров” на юбилее КВН pic.twitter.com/y0NNO9U1Uv
— Дмитрий Смирнов (@dimsmirnov175) November 27, 2016
“I said straight off that Trump would win.” Putin and “Kadyrov” at KVN's anniversary celebration. ~Dmitry Smirnov
Like the parodies that have appeared on Russian television since the Kremlin purged the medium of genuine satire in the early 2000s, Galustyan’s impression was largely anodyne.
The edgiest moment in the performance was probably when Galustyan’s Kadyrov, in an uncouth gesture, wiped his hand on his pant leg, before extending a greeting to the show’s host. The joke was likely meant to be that Kadyrov is a relatively unrefined man, whose hands are liable to be dirty from work at any moment. Interpreted another way, however, the bit could have hinted that Kadyrov’s hands are dirty in a more symbolic sense. (Columnist Oleg Kashin seemed to relish this possibility, at least.)
The story didn’t end with the TV broadcast, however. A day after Galustyan’s parody aired, Ramzan Kadyrov himself claimed on social media that he’d helped the comedian prepare the schtick, apparently rehearsing it with him twice, and providing Galustyan with the very clothes he wore on stage. “Everything was good with the accent,” Kadyrov explained on Vkontakte. “He’s the master at this. I told him not to make it too hard for viewers to guess who he was parodying!”
After Channel One aired the footage of Galustyan’s Kadyrov impression, some social-media users wrote that they worried for the comedian’s personal safety, implying that Chechnya’s ruler might seek revenge for perceived slights.
Galustyan seems to be fine, however. And Ramzan Kadyrov is happy as a clam.

author: Kevin Rothrock


text:
Tajikistan’s Qurutob: ‘Food for the Poor’? · Global Voices
Salam Aleik

Qurutob, also spelled Kurutob. Creative commons.
Qurutob, a food that was traditionally popular in the south of the ex-Soviet country of Tajikistan, has rapidly conquered other parts of the country in recent years, with some members of the Tajik chattering classes born and raised in the north linking this fact to a deep economic and cultural malaise in the republic.
To make basic qurutob you do not have to be rich, and that the meal was never historically considered for the supper table of the Central Asian republic's local elite. The standard recipe sees milk balls smashed into salt and water and poured onto a mess of torn up bread and well-cooked onion.
Those who are better off can then add vegetables, tomatoes, and even meat, although the historical recipe is a rare vegetarian outlier in the pantheon of Tajik cuisine.
The following two-minute video shows you how to prepare qurutob:
Southern Tajikistan, despite its huge population, has historically been the country's political and economic backwater; barely surviving, it was largely neglected by key decision-makers in the Bukhara Emirate, the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union all the way up to the country's independence in 1991.
That situation changed somewhat when Russia and Uzbekistan, two of the main supporters of the government during the bitter civil war that raged in Tajikistan during the 1990s, threw their weight behind southern-born Emomali Rakhmon in 1992.
Some 24 years later, Rakhmon is no longer the interim chief of a war-torn country but the constitutionally-acknowledged “Founder of Peace and National Unity, Leader of the Nation” whose close relatives and southern kinfolk hold top positions in Tajikistan's government.
As a result, whereas once ideas of Tajik statehood were inextricably tied to the Tajik-speaking populations of northern cities like Khujand, which was the hub of the national elite during Soviet times, and the Tajik-speaking Silk Road cities Bukhara and Samarkand (based in modern-day Uzbekistan), now southern cuisine, music and dance all play a central role in state propaganda.
In recent years, the number of qurutob-offering eateries (qurutobkhona in Tajik) in the capital Dushanbe has shot up notably, and a qurutob lunch costs no more than $2-3.
This has fuelled a spontaneous discussion online.
Tajik journalist Aziz Karim described the qurutobkhona as “a mirror” for a country whose struggling economy has experienced tremendous blowback from the recession in Russia, where over a million Tajik labour migrants toil.
“Ин бор аз он намегуям, ки орзуи бархе аз хамватанон як табак курутоб ва ифтихорашон хам ба хамин намуди хурок ва табакаш хулоса мегардад. Ва низ аз он, ки табаки чубин хоси рестурону ошхонахои шахр несту чавобгуи меъёрхои бехдошти буда хам наметавонад ва ин намуди зарфро хеч як моеъи зарфшуи аз микробу бактерия пок намегардонад. Балки, манзурам посух ёфтан ба он аст, ки чаро дар Душанбе пойтахти Точикистон микдори Курутобхонахо руз аз руз бештар мегардад.[….]
Фикр намекунед, ки сабаби ин факру нодори аст? Бубинед, агар дар як ошхонаи маъмули ё рестурон барои як нафар 25-40 сомони сарф шавад, дар Курутобхона муштари бо 10 сомони сер мегардад”.
This time I won’t talk about why some of our fellow citizens dream only of a plate of qurutob and are proud of this food and its wooden plate. I also won’t talk about this wooden plate, which should have no place in the city’s restaurants and eateries, as it does not meet sanitary requirements. My concern is rather why the number of qurutobkhonas is spiking in Dushanbe? […]
Don’t you think that the reason is poverty and financial stress? If a modest lunch costs $3-5 in a normal eatery, you can fill your boots for just $1.50 in a qurutobkhona.
Famous independent Tajik journalist Rajab Mirzo disagrees, however:
дар Душанбе умуман чизе монанд ба курутоби асли вучуд надорад. Курутоби аслиро х, ар кас имкони тайер кардан надошт, зеро бисер гарон меафтид….пас гуфтан, ки курутоб моли мардуми камбагал аст, бисер машкук ба назар мерасад.”
There is no real qurutob in Dushanbe. Not everyone can afford real qurutob, because it is actually fairly expensive. It is simply not right to say that qurutob is a food of the poor.
Tajik writer Abduqodir Rustam, who has lived in Kyrgyzstan since the outbreak of the five-year Tajik civil war that concluded in 1997, moved the discussion away from economics and onto culture:
Аз масъалаи иктисодиаш хам ки бигзарем, афзоиши курутобхонаю курутобхури ба маънии тасаллути фарханги кишлоки бар фарханги шахри ва нишонаи таназзул аст!
Even if to leave the economic factor aside, the rise of qurutobkhonas means the domination of rural culture over urban culture and is therefore a sign of downfall.
Some of the alarm over qurutob might be explained by northern snobbery and paranoia. It is also over-egged. While qurutob's influence is growing, palav (also plov and pilau), an oily meat, rice and carrot dish popular across Central Asia, is still the dish that most people aspire to.
Combined with a pot of hot tea, palav still dominates weddings in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and remains the most common point of entry into the region's rich hospitality for a foreign guest. In this sense qurutob, has remained its ‘poor relation’, despite a search of qurutob-related tweets showing Dushanbe expats are increasingly aware of the dish.
In addition to debates about economics and culture, the hubub over rough-and-ready qurutob in recent times has raised broader questions about Central Asian eating habits.
Facebook user Mirzoi Hojimuhammad recently defended the culture of eating from the same plate, for instance:
Фарханги дар зарфхои алохида гизо хурдан моли мо нест ва чои фахр зам надорад. Бахилу хасису тангназарон ин урфашонро роич кардаанд. Фарханги мусалмон- харчи бештар нафарон аз як табак газо хурдан аст. Шумо магар оши палавро хам дар косаи алохида истеъмол мекунед Бурхониддин? Мо ба кудакони хурдсол, ки одоби гизохуриро наомухтаанд дар косаи алохида ош медихем… Таи хазорсолахо касе то имруз собит накардааст, ки бо чурми бо даст гизо хурдан ё чанд нафар аз як табак гизо хурдан ягон беморй пахн шуда бошад. Агар инсон бефархангу чиркин бошад бо кошуки тилло ва дар щарфи нукра алохида хам гизо хурад гирифтори исхол ё бемории дигар мешавад.
The culture of eating from separate plates does not belong to us and there is nothing to be proud of in it. Greedy people do that. The culture of Muslims is when as many people as possible eat from a single plate. We give separate plates to children, who have not yet learned the rules of eating.
No one has proved yet that you can get diseases from eating with your hand or from eating from one plate with several other people. If a person is dirty, he will get diarrhoea eating with a golden spoon from a silver plate.
Whatever the science of eating from the same plate, sanitation is a problem in Tajikistan. Diarrhoeal diseases were listed as the sixth top cause of death in Tajikistan in 2012, according to the WHO, resulting in 3.7% of all deaths. Significant volumes of international aid have been devoted to this problem in terms of building more restrooms, providing safer water to the population, and informing people of the importance of washing their hands with soap.

author: Salam Aleik


text:
Through Hardships to the Stars: These Latin American Children Won’t Let Garbage Stand in the Way of Music · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Recycled instruments orchestra from Cateura, Paraguay, during a concert in Washington DC. Image on Flickr by user OEA-OAS (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
What do a Mexican music school from the Vicente Guerrero community in the state of Oaxaca and children from the Paraguayan city of Cateura have in common?
That the music being played in both places has not only changed the kids’ lives, but has a deep connection to…garbage.
Vicente Guerrero is located on the edge of a large landfill, just 16 kilometers south of Oaxaca — an old colonial city that's popular with tourists — but a world away from the nearby pre-Columbian ruins and its world famous cuisine. For some years now, La banda de música (The music band) has played in the community. It's a project that has evolved into a symphony orchestra made up of children and adolescents, who have found a way to overcome the poverty surrounding them with their musical instruments:
Una escuela de música con 100 estudiantes se ha vuelto un eje central de la comunidad de Vicente Guerrero en Oaxaca https://t.co/gbQciibvcj
— José Luis Moyano (@NicksNames) 23 de noviembre de 2016
A music school with 100 students has become a focal point for the community of Vicente Guerrero in Oaxaca.
The British newspaper The Guardian wrote about the project:
The community, in one of Mexico’s poorest states, has a reputation for drug abuse and gang violence. But it is undergoing a transformation after a fortuitous encounter with a French pilot helped launch a musical venture offering rare hope to its youth.
The young band members take their commitment to the musical group very seriously, according to local media outlet Noticias Oaxaca NVI:
Ni bien salen de la escuela, llegan casi corriendo a sus casas, ni bien comen y se encaminan por las polvorientas calles para encontrarse con su gran pasión. Siempre llegan sonriendo, con los ojos vivaces y jugueteando, entre un gran bullicio. […] aprenden día a día a tocar con destreza la trompeta, el trombón, el flautín, el clarinete, el oboe, la flauta, la trompa, los timbales, los bongoes y las congas.
As soon as they get out of school, they almost run back to their homes; and as soon as they have lunch, they head through dusty roads to take up their grand passion. They always arrive smiling, with lively eyes, playing around, amidst hustle and bustle. […] They learn day by day to skilfully play the trumpet, the trombone, the piccolo, the clarinet, the oboe, the flute, the French horn, the kettleddrum, the bongos and the conga.
More than 7,000 kilometers south from Vicente Guerrero, the children of Cateura — a village practically located on top of the main landfill of Asunción, Paraguay's capital — play instruments made out of recycled materials:
[Interpretan] obras musicales con instrumentos reciclados, fabricados a partir de residuos sólidos domiciliarios, en el taller de lutería que posee el grupo en Cateura, donde recicladores, asesorados por Favio Chávez […], han comenzado a utilizar restos de “basura” para elaborar instrumentos que emitieran sonidos musicales. Los instrumentos […] imitan a violines, violas, cellos, contrabajos, guitarras, flautas, saxofones, trompetas, trombones e instrumentos de percusión, pero construidos con basura. Entre su repertorio ejecutan música clásica, música folklórica, música paraguaya, música latinoamericana, música de los Beatles, de Frank Sinatra, entre otros.
[They perform] musical pieces with recycled instruments, made from domestic solid waste, at the musical instrument workshop the group has in Cateura, where recyclers under the guidance of Favio Chávez […] have started to use “garbage” parts to fashion instruments that make musical sounds. The instruments […] imitate violins, violas, cellos, double basses, guitars, flutes, saxophones, trumpets, trombones and percussion instruments, all made out of garbage. Their repertoire includes classical music, folk music, Paraguayan and Latin American music, music by The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, among others.
In an article by US newspaper the Los Angeles Times, Favio Chávez, a local ecologist and musician who is teaching the children of Cateura to play, remembers their early days:
At first it was very difficult because we had no place to rehearse and we had to teach in the same place where the parents were working in the trash […]. The children knew nothing about music and it was very difficult to contact parents because many of them do not live with their children.
That all changed when Favio was shown something he had never seen before: a violin made out of garbage. Today, there is a whole orchestra of assembled instruments, called The Recycled Orchestra. A documentary called “Landfill Harmonic” chronicled the musical effort:
The world generates about a billion tons of garbage a year. Those who live with it and from it are the poor – like the people of Cateura, Paraguay. And here they are transforming it into beauty. Landfill Harmonic follows the orchestra as it takes its inspiring spectacle of trash-into-music around the world.
The orchestra has even performed its music for Pope Francis:
The Orquesta de Instrumentos Reciclados Cateura were invited to play for Pope Francisco, and presented him with a… http://t.co/gPXweZrNqV
— Landfill Harmonic (@landfillhrmnic) July 13, 2015
These two groups, as well as some others, show that with music, the possibilities are endless.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


text:
Today is #GivingTuesday—Donate to Global Voices · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Today is #GivingTuesday, a day dedicated to global generosity of all kinds, and we're hoping that Global Voices is one of the organizations whose work you'll support by making a donation.
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author: Georgia Popplewell


text:
Alipay’s New App Abuses Personal Data and Reinforces China’s Class Divisions, Critics Say · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Screen capture of “White Collar Diary” circle via Twitter.
Alipay, China’s biggest online payment system, launched a social networking feature last week on November 24, called “Circles”. In distinction from other social media platforms, the new app is built around the users’ real identity, social status and online payment record, which is assessed by Sesame Credit – an app tracking users’ online activities.
Alipay, which operates under the Ant Financial Services Group affiliated with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, has 450 million registered users. The newly launched social networking app has about 100 circles. These circles are groupings of people with specific interest, consumption behaviors and educational and professional background.
For example, a software programmer who buys pet food and financial investment products online and frequently plays a specific online game will be invited to the circles of IT experts, pet lovers, financial investors and online gamers as long as the user has a real name registration and personal details filled out on Alibaba-related apps.
Each circle has different membership rules, forging effective barriers to entry for non-elite users that have been slammed by both state-affiliated media and ordinary netizens. In some cases, the app seems to celebrate social inequality in the most crude manner.
The two most controversial circles are “Campus Diary” and “White Collar Diary”, which were both taken down on November 29 after state-media outlets rolled their eyes at them.
The membership rules of the two circles are:
A typical post on White Collar Diary with a suggestive message that said: See who can comment on me :) :). Image via Twitterer @kerotto.
1. Only women can post on the circles’ walls
2. Most men can only read, like and pay tips [in cash via alipay]
3. Men with more than 750 Sesame credit score, can also comment on posts.
Below is the welcoming message for the “White Collar Diary” circle that appears to encourage male voyeurism:
歡迎各位來到「白領日記」！
本圈子只有白領女士才可以發佈動態哦！你可以在這裡聊聊你的職場經歷，也可以記錄每天的生活瞬間。
不能發佈動態的小伙伴，你可以盡情的點贊、打賞。用你的雙眼發現美！
Welcome to the “White Collar Diary”!
Only white collar ladies can post on this circle. You can talk about your work and take snap-shots of your daily life here.
For guys who can’t post on the circle, you can like and tip. Use your eyes to discover beauty!
In order to get tips from male users, the female members of the circles started posting seductive and sexy photos on the walls, with messages declaring their interest in finding boyfriends.
The two social circles quickly and unsurprisingly devolved into hook-up services, leading Chinese netizens to brand the new app Alipimp (支付鸨) as the high Sesame score tipping rule for men laid bare the economic and power disparity between the male elite and ordinary women in modern China.
As pointed out by Twitterer @straightea
支付宝圈子当然不是一个好产品，它内核都烂成渣了，这有什么好辩驳的？产品基石就是消费阶层、物化女性，运营自导自演出了问题再嫁祸给用户。即使是要寻求社交转型，就真的没有更好方式了吗？脸都不要。
Alipay’s Circle is a bad product with a rotten core. There is no question about that. It is built upon the consumption [manifestation] of one’s class / social status, reification of women, [traits which are] then blamed on users. Even if the company needs to expand its business into social media, it should use a better means rather than being so shameless.
State-run TV channel CCTV, was quick to slam the concept. In a November 28 commentary, the outlet said the two circles’ membership rules were vulgar and violated moral norms.
On the same day, a spokesperson of Ant Financial Service Group issued an apology to the public and said that the app admin would delete posts and users that violated community rules. The two circles were then taken offline completely on November 29.
Removing the the two circles does not solve the problem of the potential abuses of big data relating to netizens’ online consumption and financial footprint inherent in the new social networking app, however. The app has a function for instance that shares what you have bought online through Alipay. This has prompted concerns that users’ privacy will be violated while a culture of showing off wealth thrives, endorsing China's widening class divide.
As reflected on the comment thread of Alipay’s apology letter on Weibo, many are resentful towards the tie between the users’ financial status and their social circle:
做好钱包功能，不要捆绑社交。
Just improve the wallet function [referring to online payment function] and don’t tie it with social networking function.
我存钱的东西和我的钱包不需要跟别人社交，只认识我一个人就行了。
My deposit and my wallet do not need to socialize with others. People just need to know me as me.
圈子可以搞，但拜托再新建一个app，不要和钱包挂钩。不要共用账号。
It is ok to develop a social circle function, but pls develop a separate app. Do not tie the new app with my wallet, do not use a shared account.
掌握点客户信息就想搞社交大数据？那银行不无敌了？想清楚自己是干嘛的，一个钱包就别搞社交。
Now that you control your clients’ data you want to use it for social networking and generate more data. Should the banks take the lead in social networking then? Know your own business and be a good wallet. Drop this social networking arm.
别再搞社交了！钱花在哪了本来就很隐私的事，我现在就害怕一个不小心就把花钱的动态分享出去了，整天付个钱担惊受怕的。
Drop the social networking app. How people spend their money is very private. Now I am so scared that I would accidentally share what I bought to others on the new apps [when doing transaction online with Alipay].