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A Political Solution for Syria  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Elias Muhanna, at Lebanese blog Qifa Nabki, shares some of his readers views on a political solution in Syria in this post.
He writes:
As the Obama administration cracks heads and bends ears on Capitol Hill (with the help of a legion of AIPAC lobbyists) in the hope of winning Congressional approval for what must be the most anti-climatic military strike in the history of the world, why would anyone bother debating political solutions?
Click on the link above for alternatives to a strike.


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Chinese Pop Song: Rule Breaking Animal · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Rensi from ChinaSMACK translated and explained the lyrics of a recently released pop song, ‘Rule-Breaking Animals’, written by a 27-year-old independent singer-songwriter Xu Song. The song is about the conflict between chengguan (city management officers) and street vendors and it has generated more than 12 million listen in QQ music in less than a month.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


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Colombian Teachers Begin National Strike · Global Voices
Lully

Teachers from the Colombian Federation of Educators FECODE [es] have started [es] a national strike to demand better health plans, an end to “the policy of privatization” in education, and other issues [es]. The strike will include regional protests and a march towards Bogotá, the capital of Colombia.
Catalina Vanegas shares a photo on Twitter:
Y a esta hora en Girardot, marchan por el Paro Nacional del Magisterio… Una mejor calidad en la educación! pic.twitter.com/eDl5orG6cR
— Catalina Vanegas… (@catavp_94) September 10, 2013
Right now in Girardot, march for the national teacher strike…A better quality of education!
While the ministry of education tweets:
Invitamos a todos los docentes, padres de familia y ciudadanía a conocer los avances alcanzados en http://t.co/BSpJno66II
— Ministerio Educación (@Mineducacion) September 10, 2013
We invite all teachers, parents and the citizenry to learn about what as been achieved

author: Lully


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Fuel Price Increase Divides Malaysia · Global Voices
Jerrenn Lam

Malaysia’s recently announced fuel price hike has been met with quite diverse opinions. On one hand, many feel that the government is putting more and more pressure on households and families as well as making the cost of living much higher due to a domino effect of price increases. On the other hand, some feel that the current increase is reasonable given that Malaysia already enjoys huge fuel subsidies and has one of the lowest fuel prices in the world. Plus, many believe that the savings from the reduced subsidies would be well spent as Prime Minister Najib Razak has announced that it will be channelled into the BR1M welfare fund.
Gas station in Malaysia. Photo by Flickr user Sham Hardy (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Hoongling thought that Malaysians should learn to adapt to the changes:
Many people rant and blame everybody except themselves. Petrol price will hit us sooner or later, with or without government subsidies and whether or not we can control the price or whether or not we are oil producing country.
There are so many ways to save petrol. And we SHOULD save petrol not because petrol price will hit us but more for environment and a better future for our next generations.
Trav humorously agreed:
We all by all means should not feel enraged or pinched with forking up more money for fuel, and should instead look at the bright side of life. After all, with the fuel hike, these benefits can be achieved:
- With higher fuel price means petrol heads and rempits will think twice to burn fuel during Saturday nights, which means you can have quiet romantic moments with your partner. Don’t ever think of the word “I’m tired” excuse please.
- Crimes might go less! Snatch thieves may resort to bicycle or manual running since it is too much to fuel their bikes. Molotov cocktails will be too expensive which leaves arsonists to lose their jobs.
- The Selangor folks will have uninterrupted clean water since dumping expensive diesels/lubricants to rivers is not a good idea after all.
- Encourages carpool! Always want to know the cute receptionist girl in your office? Ask her where she stays and offer her the ride to work. Who knows she will become your wife which both of you can carpool for longer time.
Anil Netto was one of those opposed to the changes:
Malaysia’s middle- and working class are already squeezed by higher house prices (where are the low-cost houses?) while working class wages are suppressed by the policy of allowing cheap and more easily exploited migrant labour.
If you spend RM70 a week on petrol, you will end up paying about RM30 more a month. Expect petrol prices to get more expensive as reserves of fossil fuels are depleted and non-conventional fossil fuels become more difficult and expensive to extract.
When will we we get better public transport so that we won’t have to rely so heavily on private motor vehicles? Meanwhile, we appear to have made little progress in putting a lid on high-level corruption.
Hishamh argued that the fuel hike will have greater impact on higher income households:
The subsidy cut will disproportionately effect higher income households, not lower income households which spend a lot less on transportation (15.9% overall versus 12.3% for households earning less than RM3k per month). Strangely enough, rural households will also suffer more than urban households (slightly higher portion of transport costs).
As to why cut and why now, average global crude oil prices jumped 5% in the last month alone, and are 15% higher over a year ago. That’s well above the average the government was planning for in this year’s budget – if the deficit target was to be met, something had to give.
There were some reactions on Twitter as well:
#Malaysia: Save 13 billion by cutting petrol subsidies. Lose 80 billion/annually or so from corruption.
— Diyana Yahaya (@diyana_yahaya) September 3, 2013
Good morning, Malaysia. Hope everyone had a good rest after a night of our least favorite national pastime, queuing for petrol.
— rakyat / Leen (@twt_malaysia) September 2, 2013
Out of 227 countries, Malaysia's petrol and diesel price is the 8th lowest. Want it cheaper? You can always ride a bicycle.
— Shafiqah Othman (@sfqomhz) September 2, 2013
On Facebook, a page ‘Saya Benci Harga Barang Naik!’ (I hate the increase of prices of goods) have become very popular, with almost 70,000 Likes. The cover and profile photos have been changed to reflect the rise of fuel prices, with many posting and commenting on the issue.

author: Jerrenn Lam


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Guinea Bissau’s Parliament Rejects Amnesty for Coup Perpretrators · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

A law granting amnesty to those involved in the Guinea Bissau's April 2012 military coup was rejected by the national parliament on Tuesday, September 10, 2013.
On the eve of the opening of the special session, the Guinean Human Rights League had repudiated the amnesty law proposed by the transition government in an open letter to National Assembly President Ibraima Sory Djalo.
The letter was shared online by human rights organization Casa dos Direitos [pt] (House of Rights) and prolific Guinean blogger António Aly Silva [pt], who also took a stand against the amnesty law:
De acordo com a organização, a aprovação da proposta de lei de amnistia pode “gerar sentimentos de injustiça susceptíveis de conduzir à reincidência e perpetuar a impunidade numa sociedade já fortemente marcada por uma longa história de violência”.
A major human rights report by the League released earlier this year (see Global Voices report) thoroughly addresses the long history of violence and impunity, focusing on the justice system and the armed forces.
Elections in Guinea Bissau are expected to take place in late November 2013, a year and a half after the transitional government headed by President Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo came to power following the coup d'etat.

author: Sara Moreira


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Humour: Potential Targets in the Strike on Syria  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The Qnion – or Lebanese blog Qifa Nabki, shares the scenario of the “likely military strike on Syria.”
The plan includes:
we’re primarily considering two sets of Tomahawk missile strikes (between 8 and 11) launched by the USS Mahan and the USS Gravely against a set of military bases in the Syrian desert, including but not limited to… [ruffles some papers]… and let me see if I can get these names right: the Marj Ruhayyil Military Airbase, Al-Nayrab Military Airbase, the Suwayda Army Base, the Marj al-Sultan Military Heliport… Wait, no scratch that. My bad. The heliport is not under consideration. I mean, it may or may not be under consideration. Let’s see, where were we? Oh, also the Shayrat Military Airbase and the Khalkh… you know what, I’m not even going to try to pronounce that one.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Hundreds of Chileans File Complaints Against TV Show on Pinochet Dictatorship · Global Voices
Javiera Munoz

Photo from Flickr user RiveraNotario, used under creative commons license CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
With a few days until the fortieth anniversary of the coup d'etat that put an end to the government of Salvador Allende, there are many media outlets which, using collective memory and unpublished archive footage, attempt to remind and instruct new generations about the human rights violations that occurred during the military government of Augusto Pinochet through reports and documentaries. These have not been free from controversy.
Already in its debut, the program “Chile, The Prohibited Images” [es] (“Chile, las imágenes prohibidas” in Spanish), broadcast by the television station Chilevisión, showed through high audience numbers that many Chileans are interested in revisiting and understanding what occurred between the September 11, 1973 coup and the plebiscite that returned Chile to democracy in the end of the 1980s. However, the opinions generated by the audience have been varied, as much in favor as opposed.
Without going farther than the the broadcast of the first two episodes on August 14 and 21, the program received more than 100 complaints before the National Television Counsel  (CNTV) [es], the institution in charge of “ensuring the proper functioning of the Chilean television through institutional policies that tend to guide, encourage and regulate the activity of the actors involved in television” [es].
The complaints against the program stated that it generated “hatred and division in the country,” because it delivers, according to 40 of the claims, “a biased view of history”  [es]. This argument was ultimately dismissed given the liberty of expression to which every citizen is entitled.
This idea was discussed in the blog El huevo revuelto [es] (The Scrambled Egg) on August 29, when columnist Marcel Castro (@marcelocastrob) [es], taking the flag of the opponents of the program, referred to the complaints before the CNTV:
Pero no todo es color de rosa, o más bien rojo, para ellos, ya que acumulan más de 80 denuncias en el Consejo Nacional de Televisión, sólo el capitulo del 14 de agosto tuvo 62 reclamos, 40 de ellos por que “el programa presenta una visión sesgada de la historia”, cosa que es verdad, ya que muestra lo que le conviene a los bolcheviques, y otros 22 denuncios por “provocar odiosidades y división en el país”. Estas ultimas siguen vigentes ya que las otras 40 fueron desechadas debido a la libertad que tienen los realizadores de mostrar lo que a ellos se les plazca.
But not everything is rose-colored, or red, for them who have already accumulated more than 80 complaints before the National Television Counsel. Just one episode on August 14 had 62 complaints, 40 of them because “the program presents a biased view of history,” something that is true because it shows what suits the Bolsheviks, and another 22 complaints for “provoking hatred and division in the country.” These last remain valid even though the other 40 were dismissed due to the film makers’ freedom to show what they want to.
Reaffirming the biased-view argument, Natalia Ramos Briones (@nataliaramosb) [es] commented on her Twitter account that this is the result of confusion between the view of the writer and journalistic thoroughness:
No confundir mirada de autor con rigurosidad periodística. De lo contrario es una mirada incompleta, sesgada, ignorante #imagenesprohibidas
— Natalia RamosBriones (@nataliaramosb) September 8, 2013
Don't confuse the view of the writer with journalistic thoroughness. On the contrary it is an incomplete, biased and ignorant view.
Going along with the view against the television program and alluding to the program's name (“Chile, The Prohibited Images”), various Twitter-users published images that the Chilevisión program had not shown and that, in their opinion, were part of the “other side of the coin.” [“La moneda” refers to both a coin and the Presidential palace in Chile].
Lino González A (@LlinoGozalez) [es] shared through his Twitter account an image shown in the program “The 1000 days” [es] (a program with a similar theme broadcast by Channel 13). The photograph shows opponents of Salvador Allende who protested the scarcity of food and the economic inequality under his government (1970-1973).
“Señor Allende BASTA” las #ImagenesProhibidas que no mostrará el otro canal. #1000dias pic.twitter.com/8DvbtrRg0w
— Llino González Q. (@LlinoGonzalez) August 26, 2013
“ENOUGH Mr. Allende.” The prohibited images that are not shown on the other channel
In a similar way, the image of two Chilean Carabineros [police officers], in which one checks the vital signs of the other who was injured during protests, was tweeted by the accounts @SeptiembreOnce [es] and Don Corleone (@Don_Corleone_) [es]:
foto q jamas aparecera en imagenes prohibidas xq no les conviene mostrar la verdad absoluta sino lo q quieren nomas pic.twitter.com/BeZ4ymcS3S
— La 11 de Septiembre (@SeptiembreOnce) August 23, 2013
Photo that will never appear in Prohibited Images because it isn't convenient to show the whole truth but rather just what they want to show
ESTA FOTO JAMÁS LA VEREMOS EN “CHILE IMAGENES PROHIBIDAS” #ImagenesProhibidas de @Chilevision pic.twitter.com/8AqrviUrC9
— Don Corleone (@Don_Corleone_) August 25, 2013
THIS PHOTO WILL NEVER BE SEEN IN “CHILE PROHIBITED IMAGES” from @Chilevision
On the other hand, addressing the root of the complaints from opponents of the program, the journalist Federico Zurita Hecht published in his blog  [es] and in the Revista Intemperie [es] an article titled “Five false reasons to censor ‘Chile, The Prohibited Images’,” [es] among which the following stand out:
Primero El mencionado argumento de “la otra cara de la moneda” estaría sugiriendo que tanto las imágenes de represión en las poblaciones, en los funerales de las víctimas y en la visita del Papa, como los testimonios sobre la muerte de funcionarios de la Vicaría y sobre el incidente que terminó con Carmen Gloria Quintana y Rodrigo Rojas envueltos en llamas, corresponden a mentiras, porque habría otra supuesta versión (que incluso se sostendría en algo que ocurrió antes de 1973) que demostraría que esas medidas violentas fueron más bien una acción justiciera.
Segundo La idea de “la otra versión” sugiere que las seis mil personas asesinadas por los aparatos de inteligencia de la dictadura habrían formado parte de un plan tenebroso para devolver al país a la “dictadura marxista”. Esta idea que está implícita en la crítica al programa del que aquí hablo tampoco tendría sustento, porque la elite de la eventual “dictadura del proletariado” no podría haber sido tan grande (si ni siquiera hoy la elite empresarial que estrangula al resto del país, es tan grande), y porque finalmente muchas de esas seis mil personas no tenían vínculos con las estructuras de poder.
Primero The argument mentioned as the “other side of the coin” would suggest that in the images of repression of the population, the funerals of the victims and the Papal visit, as much as in the testimonies about the death of Vicarage officials and about the incident that ended with Carmen Gloria Quintana and Rodrigo Rojas in flames, correspond to lies because another alleged version (that includes something that happened before 1973) demonstrates that these violent methods were more a justified action.
Second The idea of the “other version” suggests that the 6 million people killed by the dictatorship's intelligence forces were part of a dark plan to return the country to the “Marxist dictatorship.” This idea that is implicit in the criticism of the program I do not discuss or support here, because the elite of the eventual “dictatorship of the proletariat” could not have been that big (nor is today the business elite that strangles the rest of the county that big), and finally because many of these six million people had no connection to the power structures.
The article continues:
Tercero Las palabras “la otra cara de la moneda” nos informan que se da por aceptada la idea caricaturesca que instituciones estadounidenses formularon sobre el marxismo y que difundieron ampliamente en Latinoamérica. De esta forma, Chile, las imágenes prohibidas intentaría ocultar esa otra cara en la que los marxistas se presentan como seres despiadados en su esencia.
Cuarto Cada vez que alguien reclama que se debe contar “la otra versión de los hechos”, además de abandonar la discusión original y suponer ridículamente que hay un plan maestro formulado por un movimiento marxista caricaturesco, propone que las formas de pensamiento de izquierda son homogéneas y que todos quienes adhieren a estas creencias quieren replicar lo hecho por Stalin en la URSS.
Third The words “the other side of the coin” [or presidential palace] inform us that the ridiculous idea that U.S. institutions formed around Marxism and spread amply around Latin America has been accepted. In this way, Chile, The Prohibited Images would attempt to hide this other side of the Marxists presenting themselves as essentially ruthless beings.
Fourth Each time that someone claims to tell “the other version of the facts,” more than abandon the original discussion and ridiculously suppose that there is a master plan formulated by a ridiculous Marxist movement, they propose the leftist way of thinking is homogeneous and that everyone who adheres to these beliefs want to replicate what was done by Stalin in the USSR.
Reactions on the part of those in favor of the program after the announcement of the complaints before the CNTV counsel soon became apparent. This was expressed by Marcelo Gomez (@MarceloGomezG) [es], who said the the complaints seemed to make little sense and then made a simile with another dictatorship:
Denunciar a CHV por #ImágenesProhibidas es como si alguien denunciara a NatGeo por los reportajes sobre Hitler y la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
— Marcelo (@MarceloGomezG) August 23, 2013
To denounce CHV for #ImágenesProhibidas is like denouncing National Geographic for its reports about Hitler and WWII.
The Twitter account Difamadores (@Difamadores) [es], which describes itself as a space for “humor, politics and critical journalism focused on society,” did not let the situation pass and related the authors of the complaints to supporters of right-leaning politics:
Fachos denuncian q se muestran las imágenes prohibidas de la dictadura y no a los q los protagonizaron… Sacosdewea. http://t.co/CYPEahjnyr
— Difamadores (@difamadores) August 25, 2013
Fascists denounce the showing of the prohibited images from the dictatorship and not from those who started it… Sacosdewea.
In the opinion of Don Jorgetaker (@Jorgetaker) [es], those who make the denunciations against the television program are adherents to Pinochet:
Todavía quedan calcetineras del viejo Pinocho –> “Imágenes Prohibidas” de Chilevisión acumula 83 denuncias en CNTV http://t.co/A3F308vvlR
— Don Jorgetaker (@Jorgetaker) August 23, 2013
There are still fans of old Pinochet –> “Prohibited Images” on Chilevisión accumulates 83 complaints in CNTV http://t.co/A3F308vvlR
Andrea Zamora (@negracuriche) [es] signaled he feels ashamed about the number of complaints against the program:
Se me cae la cara de vergüenza ajena! “Chile, las imágenes prohibidas” suma +100 denuncias en CNTV http://t.co/FMpx6Tff4o via @soychilecl
— Andrea Zamora (@negracuriche) August 23, 2013
This is embarrasing! “Chile, the prohibited images” has +100 complaints in CNTV http://t.co/FMpx6Tff4o through @soychilecl
For Cecilia C.B. (@ceciliacarolina) [es], the meaning of the complaints is a lack of acceptance or a distaste for the historical truth:
“Imágenes Prohibidas” de Chilevisión acumula 83 denuncias en el CNTV http://t.co/mbRIEkNKkW /Increible,hay gente q no le gusta la verdad
— Cecilia C.B. (@ceciliacarolina) August 23, 2013
“Prohibited Images” on Chilevisión accumulated 83 complaings in CNTV http://t.co/mbRIEkNKkW /Incredible, there are people that do not like the truth.
Right or wrong, the complaints against the program suggest that Chile is still divided by an event that marked its history 40 years ago and continues dividing society today. Recognition? Historical memory? Reconciliation? Chilean society is anxious to heal its wounds.
The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.
Oscar Wilde

author: Javiera Munoz


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Indian Border Guard Acquitted in Brutal Shooting of Bangladeshi Girl · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

A special court in India's state of West Bengal has found an Indian border guard not guilty in the shooting death of a 15-year-old Bangladeshi girl on the India-Bangladesh border, touching off a wave of anger in Bangladesh.
The court acquitted Border Security Force constable Amiya Ghosh of murder charges on September 6, 2013. Ghosh was accused of shooting Bangladeshi Felani Khatun on January 7, 2011 as she tried to cross the barbed-wire fencing at the Anantapur border point in Kurigram’s Phulbarhi Upazila on her way back to Bangladesh with her father. Fatally wounded, Khatun was left hanging in the barbed wire, screaming, for four hours until she died. Nobody helped her.
Photographs of her dead body tangled in the wire were widely published at the time. Ghosh's acquittal on September 6 only aggravated the already strained relations between India and Bangladesh.
Students form a human chain in front of the Indian high commission at Gulshan in Dhaka, protesting against the verdict in the Felani killing case in India. Image by Indrajit Ghosh. Copyright Demotix (9/9/2013)
The court's decision triggered much uproar in Bangladesh, especially on social media.
Asfaque Nipun called the special court a farce on Facebook:
So the verdict came; “No One Killed Felani!” What a joke!
Farjana Jannat (@farjana_neela) wrote on Twitter that this verdict was the death of justice:
No one killed or hanged the dead body of #Felani – all this happened automatically R.I.P #Justice pic.twitter.com/OhBvjF84xK
— Farjana Jannat (@farjana_neela) September 6, 2013
Twitter user Subal Sarkar ( @burningNlearnin) believed that the verdict will escalate extrajudicial killings on the border by the Border Security Force:
RT@bewahid: ফেলানীর রায় একটা বার্তা দেয় এমন নির্মম হত্যা আরো চলবে।
— Subal Sarker (@burningNlearnin) September 6, 2013
RT@bewahid: The Felani killing verdict gives us the message that these kind of brutal assassinations will continue.
Bangladesh has a 3,715 km long land border with India along its three sides. Each year, many face bullets from the Indian border guards, some unlucky for traveling close to the border. According to a BBC report [bn], 38 Bangladeshis were shot dead by the security force in 2012.
Shantanu Banik explained on Facebook why these people face death:
Bangladesh is a small country next to the mighty India. Therefore, illegal immigration and border-crossing isn't uncommon. Everyday, ordinary people choose to take unthinkable risk in hopes of a better life on the other side of the fence.
It is [a] crime, but a petty crime. Not one that deserves the ‘Shoot on sight’ policy enforced by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF). […]
Students form a human chain in front of the Indian high commission protesting against the verdict in the Felani killing case in India. Image by Indrajit Ghosh. Copyright Demotix (9/9/2013)
Bangladesh is a large market for Indian products and media. Many angry netizens have called for boycott of Indian products. Blogger and writer Akter Ahmed told Bangladeshis on Facebook:
এই রায়ের বিরুদ্ধে আপনার ক্ষুদ্ধ প্রতিক্রিয়া এবং অনুভূতিকে সম্মান জানিয়ে বলছি- সম্ভব হলে টিভিটা একটু বন্ধ করেন, ‘কৌন বনেগা ক্রোড়পতি'র অমিতাভ বচ্চনের দরাজ গলার সামনে আপনার কথাগুলো বেশ অস্পষ্ট এবং বেমানান লাগছে!
With respect to your outraged reactions and feelings I am requesting – please turn off the TV for a while. Amitabh Bachchan's [Indian actor and anchor of India's version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”] loud voice on TV is overshadowing your voice.
But Facebook user Muquit Muhammad does not subscribe to that:
ফেলানী হত্যার রায়ের সাথে ভারতীয় টিভি অনুষ্ঠান পছন্দ করার সম্পর্ক কি? ঐদেশের টিভি অনুষ্ঠান পছন্দ করি বলে আমার দেশের মানুষকে তাদের মেরে ফেলা যেমন জাস্টিফাইড না, তেমনি এই কুবিচারের প্রতিবাদে ঐদেশের টিভি অনুষ্ঠান বর্জনও কোনো যৌক্তিক প্রতিবাদ না|
How is the Felani killing related to liking an Indian TV program? Just as it is not justified to kill us because we like their TV, it is not logical to boycott their TV programs because of a sham verdict.
A Facebook event has been created to organize a sit-in protest in front of the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh. The High Commission requested everybody to wait till the final outcome. According to a spokesman “this is subject to review by a competent authority”. But the special court does not allow the victims family to appeal.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


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Indigenous Demand Investigation into Massacre at Nacahuil, Guatemala  · Global Voices
Renata Avila

San Jose Nacahuil, a small village near Guatemala City with a majority of Maya – Kaqchikel inhabitants, made international headlines during the weekend after gunmen killed 11 people and wounded 28 more on September 7, 2013.
Media reported that corrupt officers or gangs were the main suspects in the killings that took place in two cantinas and nearby streets, but no arrests have been made. The authorities confirmed that they suspect that gangs could be involved [es].
However, indigenous communities are opposing the government's hypothesis and demanding an investigation, as stated in a press release by the Kaqchikel community of San Jose Nacahuil and other organizations:
We are informing the international and the national community of the massacre that occurred on 7 September at 23 hours, against the Kaqchikel community of San Jose Nacahuil, in the municipality of San Pedro Ayampuc.
San José Nacahuil is a community of Indigenous Kaqchikel people, it has its own community authorities, and police presence is unnecessary. It is the only Mayan village and the largest community of San Pedro Ayampuc. Nacahuil has been characterized for defense of its territory against threats outside threats. Examples include TRECCSA, the electricity distribution company, the community prevented its passage, and the ongoing actions in La Puya, where there is a peaceful movement resisting a mining company
The comuniqué continues:
We are strongly opposed to the statement of the Minister of the Interior that blamed gangs, which is completely false. It is premature to make statements without having initiated an investigation.
We call on communities, national and international organizations for solidarity with the Kaqchikel people of San José Nacahuil for these bloody acts that have made the whole community mourn.
Community press from San Jose Nacahuil [es] reported that local leaders denounced increased police presence as early as August 31, 2013, and that their alerts were ignored by human rights authorities. Local reports also indicate that the police asked for names and documents of those present at the cantinas just a few hours before the massacre took place, which was later confirmed by the Ministry of Interior.
On Twitter, user @chapinesxGuate wrote:
Las versiones oficiales deben ser cuestionadas hasta que sean comprobadas. #SanJoséNacahuil #Guatemala
— ChapinesXGuate (@chapinesxGuate) September 8, 2013
Official versions must be questioned until they are confirmed
And reporter Claudia Palma shared the following photo two days after the killings:
Vecinos de San José Nacahuil enfilan hacia el cementerio de la localidad @prensa_libre pic.twitter.com/prcodJhK0b
— Claudia Palma (@ClaudiaPalma_PL) September 9, 2013
Residents of San José Nacahuil walk to local cemetery
As the investigation is pending and no suspects have been arrested, communities wait for answers as fear spreads.
But the inhabitants of the area are no strangers to violence; conflict related to mining has increased in complexity, and aggression has progressed into growing threats and physical violence. As the community struggles to preserve their territory free from mining and militarization, placing the blame on gangs and drug lords poses a new threat to rural and indigenous activists, as it might become an excuse to justify acts of repression.
FrontLine Defenders reported on two recent cases:
During the early morning of 10 July 2013, several shots were fired outside the home of Ms Telma Yolanda Oquelí Veliz del Cid, leader of the Frente Norte del Área Metropolitana (FRENAM – Northern Front of the Metropolitan Area), a movement of community members who defend the land from the expansion of mining activities in San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc, in the Department of Guatemala. The incident happened shortly after the killing of human rights defender Mr Santos Fidel Ajau Suret, as he returned from participating in the peaceful sit-in protests against a mining project at La Puya village.
Rights Action wrote more about the community's resistance to mining:
Since March of 2012, Guatemalan community members from the municipalities of San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc have demanded the cancellation of the American mining company Kappes Cassidy and Associates’ (KCA’s) exploitation license in the Tambor mountain region (originally owned and operated by Canadian mining company Radius Gold Inc.). Over the past 16 months, participants of the community roadblock have endured often violent and systematic repression organized by the mining company, pro-mining community members and the government.
International Peace Brigades published [es, PDF] a report on peaceful resistance in La Puya, a community which managed to resist the militarization and police control of their village by creating their own police force.
Indigenous organizations have filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) alleging that the Guatemalan government is openly supporting and protecting the mining sector by passing laws which unfairly benefit the industry.
Rights Action expressed its concern that violence and repression to defend the interests of mining companies is becoming the policy to follow in the region:
Over the past few years, in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador alone, there have been multiples murders, numerous armed attacks, gang-rapes, and other acts of repression against local citizens, all linked to Canadian/American mining companies: Hudbay Minerals, Goldcorp Inc, Pacific Rim, Tahoe Resources, Radius Gold, KCA Associates,
This repression and violence is guaranteed to continue, until North American citizens bring enough pressure to bear on our governments, media, companies and investors, to begin to hold them legally and morally accountable for these harms and violations.

author: Renata Avila


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Jordanian MP Fires Kalashnikov in Parliament  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

On Twitter, @fooqalsada shares this cartoon of Jordanian MP Sharif, who fired his Kalashnikov at his colleague after an argument today. No one was injured.
A Jordanian Member of Parliament opened fire on another MP while Parliament was in session today. No one was injured in the fiasco – a notch up from previous incidents where MPs threw shoes and hurled water bottles at each other.
Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab shares a video of the shooting, which is said to have happened in a hall outside, while parliament was in session today. The sound of the shots being fired from an Ak-47 is clear in the video:
Video of the shooting in parliament @AmmanNet  فيديو// اطلاق النار تحت  القبة  http://t.co/8LqzEMmqcK #الاردن #مجلس_17
— Daoud Kuttab (@daoudkuttab) September 10, 2013
He further explains:
The #jo parliament shooting was done by 33 yr old Tallal Sharif using a AK Klashinkoff that he brought from his car http://t.co/8LqzEMmqcK
— Daoud Kuttab (@daoudkuttab) September 10, 2013
And adds:
134 out of 136 MPs presented voted to dismiss MP Tallal Sharif who fired his Klashkinoff inside #jo Parliament bldng http://t.co/rTnBliI0sQ
— Daoud Kuttab (@daoudkuttab) September 10, 2013
Kristen McTighe wonders how an MP got a Kalashnikov into parliament:
Begs to question, how does someone get into parliament with a Kalashnikov? #Jordan
— Kristen McTighe (@KristenMcTighe) September 10, 2013
Jordanian Yasmina Alnasser poses another question [ar]:
Do think that wild animals should be kept in a zoo? طيب النواب ليش برا؟ #نواب #الاردن #jordan
—   ياسمينة YasminA (@YasminaAlnasser) September 10, 2013
Do think that wild animals should be kept in a zoo? How come MPs are outside [the zoo]?
And Jordanian Ali Dahmash adds:
عزيزي مجلس النواب المنتخب: مبروك الكلاشنكوف، ما تنسوا تصفوا بعضكم قبل يوم الخميس علشان نرتاح وشكرا. المخلص، المواطن المعتر #الاردن
— Ali Dahmash (@AliDahmash) September 10, 2013
Dear MPs of the elected parliament, Congratulations on the Kalashnikov. Don't forget to kill each other before Thursday, so that we can relax. Yours sincerely, the Citizen
From Bahrain, blogger Eyad Ebrahim describes the incident as awesome – “just awesome”:
Jordanian MP's shooting at each other, awesome, just awesome.
— إياد Eyad (@eyade) September 10, 2013


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Pro-Assad And/Or Anti-War Demonstrations?  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

A pro-Assad protest in Washington DC. In addition to waving the Syrian flag, an Israeli flag is seen among the crowd. Photograph shared by Eiad Charbaji on his public Facebook page
Anti-war protests have been staged against US efforts to strike Syria. Netizens chart some of the protests, where pro-Syrian president Bashar Al Assad crowds were present. The question they ask is whether pro-Assad protesters can be anti-war, given the war Assad has been waging against Syrians since anti-regime protests started in the country in March 2011.
M. Scott Mahaskey shares a photograph of anti-war – and pro-Assad – protesters wearing Bashar Al Assad T-shirts outside the White House:
Syrian American Forum outside White House protesting possible US strike against #Syria. pic.twitter.com/s6DvZzY7s9
— M. Scott Mahaskey (@smahaskey) September 9, 2013
Syrian Nader shares another photograph, from a pro-Assad protest, also in Washington DC:
Picture from Washington DC. No comment. pic.twitter.com/8UWnDyGA23
— Nader (@DarthNader) September 10, 2013
In addition to Syrian flags, one protester is seen waving an Israeli flag in this photograph.
Closer home, a pro-Assad demonstration was staged in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, the epi-centre of the Egyptian revolution.
Tom Dale comments:
An admittedly small but nonetheless depressing demonstration in #Tahrir Chanting for "God, Bashar, Sisi, and Syria" http://t.co/V1uWGZumJv
— Tom Dale (@tom_d_) September 10, 2013
Ahmed Aggour shares the link to the same video above and comments:
Just like I said, it was only a matter of time before pro-Assad chants find their way to #Tahrir http://t.co/ryKq7MUanU #Egypt
— Aحmad H. عggour (@Psypherize) September 10, 2013
Syrian activist Yasmine Jandali argues that the pro-Assad crowd, cannot be anti-war too – as Assad is waging a war against his own people. She tweets:
Anti-war ppl, if you see a pic of this guy @ ur event,realize they are pro-assad,pro-CW,anti-freedom grp #FreeSyria pic.twitter.com/730gbG5izu
— Yasmine – ياسمين (@yasminejandali) September 9, 2013
Syrian Farah, who lives in the UAE, states the notion more bluntly:
Pro Assad and Anti-war are two things that don't mix together
— Farah (@FeFu_x) September 7, 2013
And Shiyam Galyon draws a shocking comparison:
Seeing leftists/antiwar/peace activists with Pro-Assad ppl is like seeing feminists and rapists on the same side of a women's issue. #Syria
— Shiyam Galyon (@ShiyamNotes) September 5, 2013


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Story Behind the “Cancelled” Beijing Independent Film Festival · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Like other sensitive events, the Beijing Independent Film Festival was announced cancelled but quietly had its full program of screenings and panels held on schedule, except the opening ceremony. Liz Tung from Beijing Cream interviewed the festival's artistic director Dong Bingfeng on the story behind “cancellation”.


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Allende and Pinochet, the Comparison that Divides Chileans  · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

Each year, September 11 is a difficult day for Chileans — and this 40th anniversary of the coup d'état that overthrew Salvador Allende is especially controversial. The iconic date comes in the middle of an election year marked by the questioning of Sebastián Piñera's administration, the first right-wing president after the return to democracy in the late 80s. The electoral campaigns and constant memories have revived the debate about the Salvador Allende government and the legacy of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, revealing that the division among Chileans continues to be a thing of the present.
For the most part, the General's name is synonymous with human rights abuses both within and outside of the country. Despite the fact that even some of Pinochet's supporters condemn the crimes committed during his 17 years in power (according to official numbers [es], 40,018 people were victims of human rights abuses during the de facto regime and 3,065 were assassinated or went missing), Pinochet still has a group of right-wing followers that consider him a hero and ring back the economic achievements that have made Chile a thriving economy.
Pablo, a commercial engineer who describes himself as ultra right-wing, expressed it as such on Twitter:
Dejense de webadas, quien fracturó la democracia y no respeto las instituciones fue #AllendeCTM. El General Pinochet nos salvó de ser Cuba!
— Pablo (@SetzeriWarheart) September 9, 2013
Enough nonsense, Allende was the one who broke the democracy and didn't respect the institutions. General Pinochet saved us from becoming Cuba!
Or Patriota Chileno, an accountant, who responded as follows to another user who criticized Pinochet:
@hectortitolopez Gracias a Pinochet puedes comer, vivir y realizarte libremente sin necesidad d hacer fila para comer…hasta puedes tuitear
— Patriota Chileno (@fachorodriguez) September 10, 2013
@hectortitolopez Thanks to Pinochet you can eat, live, and accomplish things freely without having to wait in line for food… you can even tweet
Meanwhile JS Gumucio, a lawyer, claimed:
A Pinochet y a toda la milicada que participó en los crímenes les expreso mi mas profundo desprecio.
— JS Gumucio (@jsgumucio) September 10, 2013
I express my deepest disdain to Pinochet and the army that participated in these crimes.
On the other hand is the charismatic figure that is Salvador Allende, who many see as an excellent politician, a victim of a plot supported from the U.S. [es] to prevent the seed of socialism from continuing to grow during the Cold War — and others describe him as a bad manager.
Columnist Pedro Cayuqueo and Twitter user Angela commented on Allende:
Allende, para mi, fue el ultimo Samurai de la politica chilena. El último de una estirpe. Murió por honor.
— Pedro Cayuqueo (@pcayuqueo) September 9, 2013
Allende, for me, was the last Samurai in Chilean politics. The last of a breed. He died for honor.
Compañero Allende c/vez q leo y escucho tus discursos me emocionan, me conmueven. Que gran hombre de grandes ideales,que gran orador eras!
— Ángela (@pomelito77) September 10, 2013
Comrade Allende, each time I read and listen to your speeches, they excite me, they move me. What a great man of great ideals, what a great orator you were!
Former police official Herman Bravo announced:
#Allende triste personaje d muestra historia q no fue capaz d enfrentar los hechos y q quizo imponer a la fuerza la dictadura d proletariado
— Herman Bravo (@Hermanbravo) September 10, 2013
Allende, a sad character in our history who was unable to face the facts and wanted to forcibly impose the dictatorship of the proletariat
On his part, entrepreneur and blogger José Navarro questioned:
Si Allende, como todo el mundo, sabía que se avecinaba una tragedia, ¿Porqué no renunció para evitarla?
— José Navarro (@jocanavarro) September 10, 2013
If Allende, like everyone, knew that a tragedy was coming, why did he not resign to avoid it?
And Nataly Ruiz R. remembers that weeks before the coup, on August 23, 1973, Allende had named Pinochet Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army:
Fue apenas un mes antes del golpe militar que el mismo #Allende nombró a #Pinochet como jefe de las FFAA #sadbuttrue pic.twitter.com/rBqWP3dmQU
— Nataly Ruiz R. (@Forastera__) September 9, 2013
It was barely a month before the military coup that the very #Allende named #Pinochet the head of the FFAA
#sadbuttrue
In his column “Allende and Pinochet” [es], poet Emilio Antileff described the relationship of opposite – and complementary – poles between these two figures in Chilean history to further the comparison between the two:
No cabe duda, históricamente hablando, que Salvador Allende fue uno de los hombres más carismáticos que hayan llegado a La Moneda.[…]
Sin embargo, los resultados de la revolución con empanadas del “compañero presidente” describen una administración en que el derroche y la debilidad en el liderazgo, contradecían el magnetismo personal del presidente de la UP [Unidad Popular, coalición de izquierda con la que Allende llegó al gobierno]. La cantidad de sueños y talentos desperdiciados bajo batuta allendista fue terreno fértil para cualquier conspiración, como la que arrasó contra una administración plena en ideología, pero con una capacidad de gestión, con resultados no proporcionales al encanto del Señor Allende.
El general Pinochet, con cero elegancia, tenía la claridad y celeridad en el camino a ejecutar su objetivo, que su antecesor no alcanzó jamás. Pinochet es en nuestra historia, del lado por donde lo miren, un eficaz martillo. Es decir, algo semejante a una herramienta que saca un clavo de la manera más violenta y desgarradora, para instalar otro, con precisión ingenieril. Sus clavos instalados son parte de las estructuras  que sostienen al Chile de hoy, capeando crisis mundiales y catástrofes. […]
La debilidad de Allende, fortaleció la irrupción de un Pinochet. El atractivo personal del socialista fue la carencia del militar. El fracaso de uno fue el éxito de otro. El cariño que inspiraba el “salvador” llevó al miedo que provocaba el general  “Augusto”.
Without a doubt, historically speaking, Salvador Allende was one of the most charismatic men to have arrived at La Moneda [Chile's presidential palace]. […]
Nevertheless, the results of the revolution with cover ups of “comrade president” describe an administration in which the wasteful spending and weakness in leadership contradicted the personal magnetism of the president of the UP [Unidad Popular, the leftist coalition with which Allende came into the government]. The amount of squandered dreams and talents under the Allende baton was fertile ground for any conspiracy, like the one that levelled against an administration fully in ideology, but with a capacity for management with results that were not proportionate to Mr. Allende's charm.
General Pinochet, with zero elegance, had clarity and speed on the way to executing his objective, which his predecessor never reached. Pinochet is in our history, any way you look at him, an effective hammer. That is to say, something similar to a tool that takes out a nail in the most violent and heartbreaking way to install another with the precision of an engineer. His installed nails are part of the structures that sustain the Chile of today, weather global crises and catastrophes. […]
Allende's weakness fortified the invasion of a Pinochet. The personal appeal of the socialist lacked in the soldier. The failure of one was the success of the other. The affection that inspired the “savior” led to the fear that provoked general “Augusto”.
In trying to describe this period, many questioned the story in black and white that both parties are attempting to write, like Omar Audicio, a teacher:
Para mí, lo de Pinochet fue una dictadura y violó derechos humanos. Pero también creo que los otros lo hubieran hecho, y aún lo harían.
— Omar Audicio B. (@Omar_Audicio) September 9, 2013
For me, Pinochet's regime was a dictatorship and it violated human rights. But I also think that the other side would have done it and they would still do it.
And others like Matías Benfeld made calls for these types of incidents never to repeat, no matter the actors:
Ojalá el Museo de la Memoria sirva para decir #NuncaMás, de ningún bando, quebrantamiento democrático ni violaciones a los #DDHH
— Matías Benfeld (@RojoBenfeld) September 9, 2013
Hopefully the Museum of Memory serves to say ‘never again’, from either side, to democratic deterioration nor violations to human rights
During an interview on the television program Zero Tolerance, which aired on Sunday, September 9, Alberto Cardemil [es], former Sub-Secretary of the Interior during the Pinochet regime, made several statements regarding said period. Twitter user and sociologist Profitador alluded to this:
Todo indicaba en 1973 que Chile avanzaba hacia una dictadura, por eso salvamos a Chile instalando una dictadura #LógicaCardemil #Tolerancia0
— Profitador (@profitador) September 9, 2013
Everything in 1973 indicated that Chile was advancing towards a dictatorship, so we saved Chile by installing a dictatorship #LógicaCardemil (Cardemil logic)
There were also those who commented about the insistence on using the past in current political discussions. Angel Rodriguez and Pato Cuevas mentioned former leftist president and current presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet:
#Chile Si no habla de Allende o Pinochet, Bachelet tiene muy poco o nada que decir.
— Angel Rodriguez (@AngelitoxlAngel) September 10, 2013
If she isn't talking about Allende or Pinochet, Bachelet has very little or nothing to say.
Ni Bachelet ni Piñera: dos discursos divergentes y que buscan salvar un rol político. Jamás resolverán la problemática de la justicia.
— Pato Cuevas (@cuevaspato) September 9, 2013
Neither Bachelet nor Piñera: two divergent discourses that seek to save a political role. They will never solve the problem of justice.
There are some, however, who ask to close this chapter and look towards the future.
Necesitamos hoy nuevos lideres que vean el futuro y dejen en el pasado a Allende y pinochet
— opina&vota (@opinayvota) September 9, 2013
Today we need new leaders who look to the future and leave Allende and Pinochet in the past
The debate continues and only time will tell how much more must happen to heal the open wounds from 40 years ago.

author: Elizabeth Rivera


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Belgium FEMEN Leaves The International Movement · Global Voices
Marie Bohner

“We are announcing the closure of the branch FEMEN Belgium. We took this decision unanimously because of different views upon the internal organization of the international movement FEMEN. We have no regrets, we conducted our actions with sincerity. We will continue the fight, there is no question about that, but we will do it in a different way. Vive la Révolution !”
Femen Protests in Moscow by Sergey Kukota on FlickR CC-license-BY-2.0
This is the message the Belgian Femen group left on their facebook page on September 9th in English and French, and on the 10th in Flemish. For now the reasons of these “different views” seem unclear. What will be the next episode in the Femen quest to get a unified voice accross the globe?

author: Marie Bohner


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Catalans Around the World Claim Independence from Spain  · Global Voices
Violeta Camarasa

In the midst of the preparations for their next national day on September 11, 2013 Catalan communities all over the world have celebrated with human chains to claim independence from Spain.
On September 11, celebrations will include the Via Catalana (Catalan Way), a human chain along Catalonia's (Spain's northeast region) coastline, which is meant to be the longest human chain ever made in the European Union. The chain is organized by the civic association Catalan National Assembly (CNA), in an attempt to show the increasing popular support for the option of independence and to push the regional government to start the negotiation process with the Spanish government.
Screenshot of the website collecting all posts and pictures that will be shared on social media during the human chain celebrated in Catalonia.
More than 400,000 people who have published comments, pictures and videos on the Catalan Way can be tracked through this website and through the hashtags #11s2013 and #viacatalana.
On September 11, 2012, thousands of hundreds of Catalans took to the streets of Barcelona in the largest pro-independence rally in the region's history, also organized by the CNA. As a result, the center-right governing coalition Convergència i Unió (CiU) decided to hold the regional elections ahead of schedule, on November 25, 2012. Voter turnout peaked at almost 70%, the highest in 30 years, and the four political parties committed to holding a referendum on self-determination (CiU-ERC-ICV-CUP) got more than twice as many seats as those defending the status quo (PSC-PP-C). Crucially, both of Catalonia’s major parties – the governing center-right CiU and socialist PSC – suffered severe setbacks.
In order to show their support and encourage participation, Catalan communities all over the world have organized human chains in different cities. Below are some of the most striking pictures and videos.
Hold Your Hands. #ViaWDC #ViaCatalanaMon #inforac1 pic.twitter.com/eYUQtSMXLS
— Gustau Alegret (@GustauAlegret) September 4, 2013
#ViaCatalanaSydney pic.twitter.com/3wmzQR6oMn #viaCatalanaMón #CatalanWay via @CatalanNation
— Laksmí ||★|| #DUI (@Laksmiz) September 4, 2013
Amb més de 50 persones, la cadena a Praga ha estat un èxit! #viacatalanamon pic.twitter.com/TtLqVbKZcb
— Carles Noguera (@carles_noguera) September 2, 2013
With more than 50 people, the chain of Prague has been a success!
Oh, là là! C'est trop jolie! 300 held their hands at the very heart of France #viacatalanamon http://t.co/jBEjQ9Oc52 pic.twitter.com/hmjvLNHvTO
— Catalan Assembly (@catalanassembly) September 4, 2013
Catalans sing anthem and demand independence from Spain in New York: http://t.co/RW5ZuLGtW8 via @YouTube
— Adrià Alsina (@AdriaAlsina) September 1, 2013
Video (no emès) de la cadena humana ahir a la Gran Muralla Xinesa http://t.co/74OSQM3wE9 #ViaCatalana
— Sergi Vicente (@sergivicente) September 1, 2013
Video (not broadcast) human chain yesterday at the Great Wall of China
Fa efecte. Desenes d'independentistes a la Gran Muralla de la Xina #viacatalanamón via @eduardvoltas.pic.twitter.com/k5AskpNtWp“
— lluc salellas vilar (@llucsalellas) August 31, 2013
Eduard: “Catalans around the world have gone mad.” Iluc: “Indeed. Dozens of independents at the Great Wall of China.”
Cadena a Buenos Aires! #viacatalanamon Més de 250 persones a Plaza Congreso! Gran #ViaCatalana pic.twitter.com/X1pWXTf2HD
Chain in Buenos Aires! # viacatalanamon More than 250 people in Congress Plaza! Great
— Berta (@bertags) August 25, 2013
Estic plena d'orgull!! #ViaCatalana a #BANGKOK!! (http://t.co/WmTZzLnJgB) #viacatalanamon
— Cristina Figueras (@cristinuti) September 1, 2013
I am full of pride!!
!
Nova York -@ggarolera- #ViaCatalana pic.twitter.com/8ke8HKeNNk
— Oriol Rosés i Belló (@oriolroses) September 1, 2013
Cadena per la independència a #Helsinki #ViaCatalana #viacatalanamon pic.twitter.com/ki0spmvmek
— Pau Rodríguez i Ruiz (@Pauroru) August 31, 2013
#ViaLondres #ViaCatalana #ViaCatalanaMon pic.twitter.com/zqyfHqAjSK
— Kieron Merrett (@kieronam) August 31, 2013

author: Violeta Camarasa


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Cuba Colors Itself Yellow for “Los Cinco” Prisoners in the U.S. · Global Voices
Elaine Díaz

Facebook profile of users posting in solidarity with the plight of Los Cinco.
[Links are to Spanish-language pages.]
September 12, 2013, marks 15 years since the arrest of five Cubans who infiltrated groups in Miami, United States, and disrupted subversive actions and psychological warfare against the Cuban people. Four of them remain in U.S. jails.
On the eve of the anniversary and throughout the week, a video has been circulating on social networks and Cuban television. It features a version of the popular “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Oak Old Tree,” performed by the Cuban singer-songwriters Silvio Rodríguez, Amaury Pérez Vidal, Frank Fernández and Kiki Corona, among others.
According to René González, one of the five Cuban prisoners in the United States who recently returned to the island after having served his 13-year sentence:
La idea de la campaña me la dio la gente en la calle… lo que necesitábamos era el lenguaje norteamericano… Un día me desperté y dije: la cinta amarilla! por el significado que tiene en Estados Unidos.
The idea for the campaign came to me from the people in the street…what we needed was something which North American could identify with…One day I woke up and said: the yellow ribbon! because of what it represents in the United States.
In an address rebroadcast by Cuban television, González said:
Yo cumplí mi sentencia íntegramente, pero tenemos que impedir que eso suceda con mis cuatro hermanos por todo lo que implica y, aunque es duro decirlo, tenemos que recordar que eso para Gerardo implica que si los designios del gobierno norteamericano se cumplen, él moriría en la cárcel.
I served my whole sentence, but we must prevent this from happening to my four brothers because of all that it implies and, even though it is painful to say it, we must remember that for Gerardo this means that if the intentions of the American government are fulfilled, he will die in prison.
Then he added:
Durante estos años hemos tenido como protagonista del cariño al pueblo cubano. Ese cariño se ha manifestado de todas las formas posibles en las cartas, en los mensajes, en los dibujos de los niños y ese cariño es el que queremos que sea en esta ocasión el protagonista de la jornada.
Yo he tenido ocasión de sentirlo, de vivirlo, de palparlo, de experimentarlo en las calles de Cuba, de todas las formas posibles y en cualquier punto geográfico de la Isla y ese es el cariño que le estamos pidiendo que se manifieste en esta ocasión, donde ustedes lo hagan de la forma en que quieran, con toda la diversidad que nos caracteriza como cubanos y en la mejor manera que cada cual considere en su aula, en su centro de trabajo, en su barrio, en su proyecto comunitario, que puede ser capaz de manifestarlo.
During those years, the highlight for us was always the affection of the Cuban people. That affection was manifested in many ways, in letters, messages, children's drawings—and it is this same affection that we want to highlight on this commemorative day.
I was fortunate to feel it, to live it, to touch it, to experience it in the streets of Cuba, in all possible ways and in every geographical spot on the Island; and this is the affection that we are asking you to demonstrate on this occasion, wherever and however you choose, with all the diversity that distinguishes us as Cubans and in the best way each one can—whether in the classroom, workplace, neighbourhood, or community project.
In an emotional article, Progreso Semanal reported:
Cualquiera de estos días podrían aparecer cintas hasta en el Morro habanero… Serán las señales de anhelo, espera, fidelidad a cuatro cubanos encarcelados en Estados Unidos desde hace 15 años. René González ha convocado. El pueblo cubano se pronunciará. El pueblo norteamericando podrá captar el reclamo.
On any one of those days ribbons could appear, even in Havana's El Morro…They will be signs of longing, waiting, and keeping faith with four Cubans jailed in the United States for 15 years. René González has called us. The Cuban people will make themselves heard. People across North America will understand our demand.
During a concert by the popular Cuban duo Buena Fe, on September 6 in the Diez de Octubre district of Havana, Israel Rojas declared:
Buena Fe concert. Photo Iroko Alejo, used with permission.
No iba a decir esto, pero ya que estoy acá sobre la canción lo diré. Hay uno de los cinco compañeros que si se cumple lo que está escrito no verá la luz al final del túnel. Es Gerardo. El diario Juventud Rebelde publicó hace un tiempo unos testimonios de Gerardo sobre cómo enamoró a Adriana [su esposa] y me conmovió tanto, me pareció tan humano que sin saberlo al día siguiente nació esta canción que quiero dedicársela a Adriana y a Gerardo, se llama de “Proa a Popa” y quisiera cantársela si vienen un día a un concierto nuestro”.
I wasn't going to say this, but now that I am here I will say it about the song: There is one member of the group of five who, if forced to serve his sentence, will not see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is Gerardo. A while ago, the newspaper Juventud Reblede published some declarations by Gerardo about how he fell in love with Adriana [his wife] and it so moved me. It seemed so human that without knowing it the next day this song was born, which I want to dedicate to Adriana and Gerardo. It's called “Proa a Popa” [From Bow to Stern] and I would like to sing it one day if they come to one of our concerts.
According to the creators of Alamesa, a popular directory of state and privately owned restaurants in Havana, which recently expanded to include the province of Matanzas: “We are going to publish yellow food on the 12th; that is our way of contributing.”
But the request of the Cuban people also extends to the Puerto Rican Oscar López Rivera, a political prisoner who has been in jail in the U.S during 32 years. Miguel Fernández, on his blog Cuba la isla infinita, explains: “On this September 12 my yellow ribbon will be for the Cuban Los Cinco and for the Puerto Rican Oscar López Rivera.”

author: Elaine Díaz


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400 Cuban Doctors Go to Brazil · Global Voices
Elaine Díaz

David Oliveira de Souza, a doctor and professor from the Research Institute of the Sirio-Libanés Hospital, sent an open letter to the more than four hundred Cuban doctors who recently arrived in Brazil and who constitute the first group of a total of 4,000 physicians who are expected to come to this country before December of this year.
Maternal home in Cuba. (Foto: Randy Rodríguez Pagés)
The missive, published by the daily Folha from Sao Paulo, states:
Welcome, Cuban doctors. You will be very important for Brazil. The lack of doctors in remote and outlying areas have left our people in a difficult situation. Do not worry about hostility from some of our colleagues. You will be compensated greatly by the warm welcome in the communities for which you will care from this point on.
According to Oliveira de Souza, in states like Sergipe, it is easy to move from the capital to the Interior, but even so there are hundreds of unused job positions, even in equipped health units and in good conditions.
Before the deficit of 14,500 physicians in the South American nation, the government of Dilma Rousseff approved the “Mais Medicos” (More Doctors) program, which will contract doctors from Spain, Portugal, and Cuba, among other nations.
Recently, one of the principle critiques on the contracting of Cubans states that “they were being exploited.” In the face of this argument, Oliveira de Souza says in his letter:
It was talked about as if they would work like slaves. The Panamerican Health Organization (PHO), with a century of experience, would be an accomplice, since it signed the cooperation agreement with the government of Brazil. Their smiling faces in the airports condemn those hypotheses. In the name of our village and the majority of our doctors, I can only say with conviction: a brotherly hug and thank you very much.


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Hackathon Mozambique Offers Design Contest · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Poster of the second hackathon last June, 2013, which focused on mobile apps in natural disaster management and flooding scenarios, frequent in the country.
Hackathon Mozambique launched a graphic design contest [pt] for the upcoming third civic hackathon, and the deadline for submissions is already near: September 14, 2013.
The event, sponsored by Mozambique's Ministry of Science and Technology with the support of Sweden and Finland, will take place in early December and is being organized in an open group on Facebook, Hackathon Mozambique, that gathers more than 300 enthusiasts of the “development of innovative technological solutions” in the country. The topic for December's hackathon, Tourism, was democratically decided in an open poll.
The winner of the top prize of the previous edition, DoEverythingIT, proposed an app for “sending data on rainfall and water levels, collected from the Zambezi River upstream, to authorities who are able to issue timely warnings to people living downstream from the river via mobile messaging”, #humanipo reported.


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In Cage with Chinese Political Activist Wang Bingzhang · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A number of overseas Chinese activists in New York staged an action in Time Square, called “in cage with Wang Bingzhang”. Wang is the founder of two political parties in China. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003. Image via Wen Yunchao.
More background information about Wang Bingzhang.


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Music Flashmob in Hong Kong Times Square · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

An independent folk rock band, Noughts and Exes, teamed up with a number of indie bands occupied the Times Square in Hong Kong and held a flashmob music performance last weekend.


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‘Never Again’: Chileans Look Back on Coup, 40 Years On · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Bombing of La Moneda on September 11, 1973. Image from Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons license CC BY 3.0 CL
Forty years ago today, Chilean socialist President Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup d’état which marked the beginning of a 17 year-long military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet.
After 40 years since the coup and 23 since the country's return to democracy, Chileans reflected on the coup and on what the country must do to reach reconciliation.
Blogger Camila analyzed the anniversary media coverage on September 11, 2013 and on “moving forward” as a society:
¿Como vamos a olvidar y dar vuelta la página, si cada año los medios de comunicación nos bombardean con información negativa? Acepto que hay que avanzar, acepto que la violencia de nada sirve, acepto que lo sucedido fue culpa de ambos sectores políticos por diferentes factores conjugados, pero  acepto los comentarios irrespetuosos y sin análisis del corte de “Olviden el tema y punto”. Hay muchos factores en juego. Un poco de respeto por las víctimas de el genocidio que vivimos hace años atrás. Podremos recién avanzar y olvidar cuando seamos una sociedad unida de verdad que busque develar la verdad y prestar un hombro a aquellos que hoy sufren por el vacío que ha dejado la partida de uno de sus seres queridos, pero mientras sigamos estando en esos polos de “Sin perdón ni olvido” y “Olviden luego” sin prestarnos ayuda seguiremos siendo unasociedad dividida y estancada.
How are we going to forget and turn the page, if every year the media bombards us with negative information? I agree that we must move forward, I agree that violence is useless, I agree that what happened was the fault of both political sectors due to different factors, but I do NOT accept the disrespectful comments made without analysis, the “Forget it, period” kind. There are many factors at play. A little respect for the victims of the genocide that we lived years ago. We will only be able to move forward and forget when we're a truly united society that seeks to uncover the truth and provide a shoulder to those who now suffer from the void left by the departure of one of their loved ones, but as long as we remain in these extremes of “without forgiving nor forgetting” and “forget already” without helping each other we will remain a divided and stagnant society.
On Twitter, Camila G Arriagada agreed that the country should work towards unity:
#11deseptiembre concuerdo con la frase “ni perdon ni olvido”, pero si creo q despues de 40 años debemos trabajar en la unidad del país #eso
— Camila G – Arriagada (@cami_3189) September 11, 2013
I agree with the phrase “neither forgiving nor forgetting”, but I do think that 40 years later we must work towards unity in the country
But Teresa Quirino wrote that justice must come before reconciliation:
Jamás habrá reconciliación si no hay justicia! ya han pasado #40años y aun hay personas que no pagan por sus delitos del #11deseptiembre
— Teresa Quirino (@TeresaQuirinoM) September 11, 2013
There will never be reconciliation if these is no justice! It has already been 40 years and there are still people who haven't paid for their crimes from September 11
Meanwhile, PelaoAndrew tweeted that what happened before the coup must also be taken into account:
Para hablar de historia no basta saber solo lo que paso hace #40años ..hay que ver lo que paso un poco mas atrás #11deseptiembre
— PelaoAndrew (@PelaoAndrew) September 11, 2013
To talk about history it's not enough to know only what happened 40 years ago…you also have to see what happened a little before
And some supporters of Augusto Pinochet, like Felipe Abalos, shared a different perspective:
Hoy hace #40años triunfo la libertad x sobre el odio y la lucha de clases.. Solo decir #GraciasPresidentePinochet #11deseptiembre
— Felipe Abalos (@abalosfelipe) September 11, 2013
40 years ago today freedom triumphed over hate and class struggle. I just want to say thank you President Pinochet.
User @May_Grondona, like many others, called on fellow Chileans to make sure that something like the coup on September 11, 1973 doesn't happen again:
A #40años estamos llamados a entregar a las generaciones futuras, no el rencor, si las memorias, para q algo tan horrendo no pase otra vez.
— La Principessa (@May_Grondona) September 11, 2013
40 years later we are called to give future generations memories and not grudges, so that something so horrendous doesn't happen again.
On El Mundo Sigue Ahí (The Word is Still There), blogger Roberto Arancibia [es] reflected on the coup, which he experienced as a 17-year-old student, and on this 40th anniversary. He wrote:
Los medios nos inundan de resúmenes y programas especiales, los protagonistas de la historia entregan sus declaraciones, reconocimientos y verdades a medias. Algunos piden perdón. Algunos lo celebran, otros lo lamentan. Otros sólo “conmemoran”. Y los que quedamos, los que vivimos todo esto, de este lado y del otro, somos los testigos de un período difícil, somos un par de generaciones marcadas por la fecha, por la figura del General y todo su entorno. Generación X. Con 13 años de toque de queda metidos en el cuerpo, en la adolescencia, en la adultez. Y entremedio gente que desaparecía, profesores, amigos o parientes.
The media has flooded us with summaries and special programs, the protagonists of history make their statements, their acknowledgements and half truths. Some ask for forgiveness. Some celebrate, others mourn. Other just “commemorate”. And those of us who are left, those who lived through it all, from this side and the other, are witnesses of a difficult time, we are a couple of generations marked by a date, by the image of the General and everything around him. Generation X. With 13 years of curfews on our body, during our adolescence, during our adulthood. And in the meantime people disappearing, professors, friends or family.
Arancibia concluded:
Pero somos sobrevivientes, lo que no es poco. Y nadie, de verdad, nadie salió ileso.
Dejar los rencores, enseñar a respetar, tratar de entender el dolor y dar un abrazo a quien lo necesite. Sobre todo dejar de negarlo. No permitir que suceda de nuevo.
¿Será ese el camino? ¿Quién necesita venganzas? ¿Podremos superarlo?
Sobre todo, nunca más.
But we are survivors, which is not a minor thing. And no one, honestly, no one came out unhurt.
Leaving behind grudges, teaching respect, trying to understand pain and lending a hand to those who need it. Above all stopping denying it. Not allowing it to happen again.
Is that the way? Who needs revenge? Can we overcome it? Above all, never again.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Racism Greets Imported Cuban Doctors in Brazil · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

“#BemVindosCubanos (Welcome Cubans), the Brazilian population thanks your solidarity and apologizes for the racist and xenophobic acts of an elitist and conservative minority!” states UJS Rio de Janeiro on Facebook, sharing this cartoon by Carlos Latuff, “the first medical appointment of a Cuban Doctor in Brazil”, for the website Sul Vinte Um. The cartoon reads a Brazilian doctor screaming “slaves” and a Cuban doctor diagnosing symptoms of “xenophobia racism”.
[Since the publishing of the original version of this post in Portuguese on 6 Sept. 2013, an anti-racism wave has spread across Brazilian cyberspace with banners and messages of support for the Cuban doctors, such as the one above. All links lead to Portuguese-language pages unless otherwise noted.]
The first 400 Cuban doctors participating in the Brazilian federal government program Mais Médicos (More Doctors) have arrived in the country. Along with bags packed for three years of work in regions where medical assistance is lacking, they brought with them more debate surrounding the problems in Brazil's public health system.
The introduction of foreign doctors to Brazil's public health system has already sparked controversy and divided opinions, often marked by intolerant and racist positions.
The arrival of a student on her first day of class in a desegregated school in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA (1957), and the arrival of a Cuban doctor for the program Mais Médicos in Fortaleza, Brazil (2013). Image shared more than 39,000 times on Facebook.
However, the issue was seen in a new light after a protest by a group of doctors in Fortaleza, Ceará at the closing of a reception for the Cuban doctors on August 26, 2013. The attack against the recently arrived doctors by the group of protesters, with boos and hostile words, was recorded in a video that went viral on the Brazilian web.
A photo of the protest that shows a black Cuban doctor being booed by doctors (right), made the covers of newspapers and the Brazilian Facebook timeline (#MaisMédicos), becoming the official illustration of the discussion. During the week of the 50th anniversary of the March On Washington [en], in which civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, the image also served as a reflection on history, and helped to centralize the debate around racism.
In an interview, Dr. José Maria Pontes, president of Sindicato dos Médicos do Ceara (Doctor's Union of Ceara), or SimeC, denied that the attacks were directed at the Cuban doctors and that the shouts of “slaves” were a form of racist protest. According to Pontes, the protests targeted the Ministry of Health.
The minister of the organization Políticas de Promoção da Igualdade Racial (Politicians for the Promotion of Racial Equality), Luiza Bairros, expressed regret for the reception that was given to the Cuban doctors, affirming that “racism still exists and the place that blacks occupy in Brazilian society is questioned.”
#Mais Médicos
According to official government data, currently 80 percent of the Brazilian population depends on the service of the public health system, the SUS, or Sistema Único de Saúde (“the One Health System”). However, reality shows that, in spite of the increase of doctors graduating in the country in the past few years, the Northern and Northeast regions, especially in cities in the interior of the country, are suffering from a lack of professionals.
“We need you”. Illustration of doctor and artist Solon Maia on his blog, Meus Nervos (My Nerves) (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
For this reason, the idea for Mais Médicos was born, a program created by the federal government in order to “establish Brazilian and foreign doctors in the public health network.”
In the first stage of the program, the openings in the program were prioritized for Brazilian doctors. Or in other words, without taking away work from Brazilians, the foreigners will only work in 700 municipalities that would not attract the attention of any other doctor in the country. The Cubans, however, make up part of a distinct agreement between Cuba and Brazil's Ministry of Health, mediated by the World Health Organization [en].
The communist island is considered by the organization to be “the most developed in the world” in the health sector, with infant mortality rates lower than the United States and Canada thanks to the practice of preventive medicine. Fidel's country is superior in numbers, as shown in an article published by Vinicius Galeazzi on the website Sul 21:
No Brasil, há 1,8 médicos para cada 1.000 habitantes. Na Argentina, 3,2. O programa Mais Médicos visa elevar nosso índice para 2,5 médicos para mil habitantes: um incremento de mais de 170.000 médicos, quando nossas escolas de medicina formam cerca de 18.000 médicos por ano. Nesse contexto, não é aceitável que a corporação dos médicos brasileiros não concorde que se chame médicos de outros países para os postos carentes, onde eles não querem ir. Alegam que não há infraestrutura e, sem ela, os médicos não podem trabalhar, mas não lhes importa, parece, que pessoas adoeçam durante essa espera de infraestrutura.
In Brazil, there are 1.8 doctors for every 1,000 inhabitants. In Argentina, 3.2. The Mais Medicos program aims to raise our rate to 2.5 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, an increase of more than 170,000 doctors, when nearly 18,000 doctors graduate from our medical schools per year. In this context, it is not acceptable for a body of Brazilian doctors to disagree with a call for doctors from other countries to help at the most deprived posts, where they don't want to go. They allege that there is no infrastructure, and without it, doctors cannot work, but none of it matters if people get sick while waiting for infrastructure.
“Bootlegging” doctors?
The agreement signed by the Brazilian government to regulate the performance of the Cubans in the country, prohibiting them from, for example, moving from their cities or practicing medicine outside of the scope of the exchange program, exempts them from the medical diploma revalidation program in national territory, Revalida. A faction of Brazilians maintain that “attracting a foreign doctor to Brazil without validating his diploma, is not importing him, but bootlegging him”.
Nearly 84 percent of Cuban professionals, or Cuban graduates, that will work in Brazil already have more than 16 years of experience, as R7 points out. In past years, the first positions of Revalida were filled by medical students from Venezuela and Cuba.
Novo Airao, Brasil (March 11, 2013): A nurse prepares an anti-venom injection. Many challenges exist in the placement of health care professionals in local communities in the Brazilian Amazon. During the rescue of a Rio Negro resident bitten by a snake (Surucucurana), it took eight hours to get to the nearest hospital in Novo Airao. Photo: Marcio Isensee e Sá, copyright Demotix
Two medical entities, the Associação Médica Brasileira (Brazilian Medical Association, AMB) and the Conselho Federal de Medicina (Federal Council of Medicine, CFM), reached the point of filing lawsuits to try to suspend the program, alleging that contracting doctors without diploma revalidation is illegal. But they were blocked. In the state of Minas Gerais, the president of the Regional Medical Council even threatened to arrest doctors practicing without registration. The minister of health, Alexandre Padilha, protested on his Twitter account:
Negar socorro e atendimento,não se sustenta em nenhum código de ética médica.Ñ acredito q os médicos de MG seguirão tal recomendação
— Alexandre Padilha (@padilhando) August 25, 2013
Denying help and service is not sustained by any code of medical ethics. I don't believe that the doctors of MG [Minas Gerais] would follow such a recommendation.
Doctors, divided
The Brazilian medical field ended up divided. Many doctors against the arrival of foreign colleagues took advantage of the moment to point out the problems faced by doctors in the country, mainly the lack of structure and low wages. Dr. Rodrigo Fontoura, who has worked for seven years in the Sistema Unico de Saude (One Health System, SUS) used his Facebook  to let it out:
Não me aborreça depois de uma dia de plantão no SUS quando vou para casa triste e frustrado pensando que não fiz o meu melhor para alguns pacientes, porque não tive recursos básicos.
Não me faça ter pena da sua ignorância sobre o real motivo das vaias aos cubanos, portugueses, espanhóis ou brasileiros do Mais Médicos.
Essas vaias não são para os seres humanos que ali estão, e sim para o que eles representam.
Eles são a representação do descaso com a saúde, com todos os profissionais (médicos, enfermeiros, téc. Enfermagem, etc) que diariamente lidam com a mazela da sociedade, sem recursos.
It doesn't bother me that after a day on shift at SUS, when I go home sad and frustrated thinking that I didn't do my best for some patients, because I didn't have basic resources.
It doesn't make me have pity on you for your ignorance about the real motive for the booing of the Cubans, Portuguese, Spanish, or Brazilians of Mais Médicos.
These boos were not for the human beings that were there, but for what they represent.
They are the representation of the negligence of the health system, of all the professionals (doctors, nurses, nursing techs, etc.) that deal with the illness of society on a daily basis, without resources.
On the other hand, there are doctors that are receptive to the idea. David Oliveira de Souza, a member of the organization Doctors with Borders, published an open letter to the foreigners on his blog and in the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, where he points out the many problems of Brazilian population's health that could be resolved just with access to service, and declares:
A sua chegada responde a um imperativo humanitário que não pode esperar. Em Sergipe, por exemplo, o menor Estado do Brasil, é fácil se deslocar da capital para o interior. Ainda assim, há centenas de postos de trabalho ociosos, mesmo em unidades de saúde equipadas e em boas condições.
Their arrival is a response to a humanitarian necessity that cannot wait. In Sergipe, for example, the smallest state in Brazil, it is easy to move from the capital to the interior. There are hundreds of posts of idle work, in health units that are well-equipped and in good conditions.
Beyond helping with the problems with health in Brazil, it is hoped that the initiative will also expand opportunities and the profile of who has access to the practice of the profession. Cases such as student of medicine Cintia Santos Cunha, who comes from an impoverished community, and emigrated to Cuba to become a doctor:
Among controversies and debates that are still developing, one truth was pointed out by political commentator Bob Fernandes, in a video with more than 20,000 shares on social networks:
Milhões que moram nestas cidades (sem médicos) não querem saber se o médico é baiano, sueco ou cubano. Querem médicos. E medicina. Sabem que um médico é melhor do que nem um médico. A boa medicina será cobrada, e muito, nesse caminho. O resto é o jeito de cada um enxergar a vida.
Millions that live in these cities (without doctors) don't want to know if their doctor is from Bahia, Switzerland, or Cuba. They want doctors. And medicine. They know that a doctor is better than no doctor. Good medicine will be covered, and more, on this path. The rest is the way that each individual sees life.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Secret Use of Personal Digital Data Shocks Australians · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

A current affairs exposé In Google We Trust, has caused a flutter on twitter in Australia. The ABC TV Four Corners episode, broadcast on 9 September 2013, looked at how individuals’ digital data is being collected and used.  The extent of breaches of privacy, lack of online security, commercial use of personal information such as shopping habits, and even police tracking and storage of car number plates, came as a shock to many viewers.
Image from Nathan O'Nions Flickr (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)
Many tweeps were concerned by the revelations:
#4corners report scaring the living daylights out of me! Wow.
— Cameron Ross (@cameronross00) September 9, 2013
@4corners is melting my brain this evening. If Westfield didn't scare me before, it does now. I want to go back to pens and paper. #4corners
— Owen L (@ohh_ell) September 9, 2013
Apparently three Westfield Shopping Centres already have smart phone tracking ready to go. It is similar to RetailNext, instore analytics used in the United States.
This #4corners is A-mazing. This RetailNext stuff in particular. In store analytics. Customer heatmaps & face tracking via security cams.
— Greg Barila (@GregBarila) September 9, 2013
Thanks #4corners I'm super paranoid now!
— Roza Germian (@RozaGermian) September 9, 2013
Simon Johnson was one of many who think that there was nothing new in the episode:
Watching #4corners – none of these issues re US spying, apps used by kids, or Police car tracking are new. Need a detailed follow up story.
— Simon Johnson (@SimonAJohnson) September 10, 2013
There was also plenty of humorous reaction:
I'm happy to check everyone's security in the @4corners audience tonight for FREE. Just tweet me your netbank details #4corners
— Jonathan Brown (@JB_AU) September 9, 2013
#4corners my Mum just realised how untraceable she is. She has no phone, car, email address, credit card or social media account!
— Cat Cantina Whitlam (@TheCatCantina) September 9, 2013
Just for the record those porn sites I visited were part of a proposed Phd "Digital Sexuality & Cyber Dystopia"#honest#4corners
— Toby Nottabe (@Loose_id) September 9, 2013
There were also the inevitable political concerns:
switch over to ABC's #4corners and see why we should've put @WikiLeaksParty & @piratepartyau in the Senate. Big Brother is watching…
— James Stewart (@amorphic) September 9, 2013
"…no way a govt can collect that volume of data and remain incorruptible…& when you've got it, you'll find a use for it"… #4corners
— Kat Loughrey (@KatLoughrey) September 9, 2013
Concerns that big brother is secretly mining our big data are bound to increase with growing public awareness. However not everyone is that worried:
I'm happy for companies to use my data if it's not done maliciously. It would make a lot of things, like shopping, much easier. #4corners
— Tim Christodoulou (@tim_chr) September 9, 2013
(Featured image by Flickr user – Nathan O'Nions – Creative Commmons Attribution 2.0 Generic)

author: Kevin Rennie


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South Korean Film Questioning Warship Sinking Pulled from Theaters · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

A documentary film challenging the government's explanation of the Cheonan warship incident has been pulled out by a major cinema chain in South Korea. Not only have the movie directors and the country's film community angrily protested against the decision, but net users also have reacted quickly, calling it a crime against the freedom of expression and even started actively boycotting the cinema chain.
An official movie poster of the Cheonan Project, Fair Use Image
Megabox, the country's one of the largest multiplex chains, decided to stop screening “Project Cheonan” [ko], a controversial film throwing suspicions on whether North Korea was really behind the sinking of the warship named Cheonan, an incident that claimed 46 lives in March 2010. Although the investigation done by South Korean led-international commission concluded a North Korean torpedo sunk the ship, there are still unresolved questions and the movie ‘Project Cheonan’ offers another sets of explanations, such as that the vessel may have been hit by something else, such as a reef, or an unidentified submarine may have been not that of North Koreas.
The movie suffered a rough start from its beginning. South Korean navy officials and families of the Cheonan incident victims had even filed an injunction [ko] to stop its release, arguing the movie defamed the victims by intentionally distorting the facts. The court overruled [ko], however, sentencing that ‘one cannot restrict the freedom of speech for merely raising questions/suspicions’.
Megabox stressed [ko] that they had to withdraw the movie for safety reasons as they received phone calls from unidentified conservative groups who threatened them to stage protests outside the theaters.
“한국영화사에 이런 일은 처음이다. 중국에서조차 당서기장을 코믹하게 풍자하는 영화가 상영된다. ‘천안함 프로젝트 상영 중단'이라는 이번 건은 분명히 정치적 이유가 있다. 진상을 분명히 밝혀야 한다”(민병록/ 영화평론가협회 회장)
— gree(no-FTA) (@21gree) September 10, 2013
This has never happened before in the Korean movie history. Even in China, a movie comically parodying the general secretary of [the Chinese Communist Party] was released. There is certainly political motivation behind the Cheonan Project withdrawal. We must get to the bottom of the problem. (by Min Byung-rok, Chairman of the Movie Critics Association)
보수단체는 매가박스를 위협한 적이 없다는데 왜 굳이 천안함 프로젝트를 상영금지해야 했을까?우리사회에 현재까지 뿌리내린 보수권력의 힘. 그들의 오류를 막기위해 암암리에 행해지는 압력.그힘이 아니라면 이유를 찾을수 없다. 21세기의 문화적 자유의 억압.
— 희윤[시국선언] #바보가꿈꾸는세상 (@hee1025w) September 10, 2013
Why did Megabox have to pull the Cheonan Project, given conservative groups said they have never blackmailed them? This incident shows how the power of conservatives is deeply rooted in our society and that a tacit pressure to block disclosure of the conservative's errors does exist. There can be no explanation other than that. It is a restriction of cultural freedom in the 21st century.
<천안함 프로젝트>진실을 알고나니 화가난다 http://t.co/GhSyUx1ZuC 진실을 알고 싶다는 욕심이 종북으로 몰리고, 영화 한 편을 보기위해 신변의 위협을 감수해야 할지도 모르는 세상이라면, 그래, 파시즘이라는 말이 전혀 어색하지가 않다
— 세도야 [시국선언] #도화선 (@_sedo_ya) September 9, 2013
Knowing the truth about the Cheonan Project makes me so angry. (related link) Those who merely want to know the truth are being labeled as ‘pro-North/North Korean sympathizers’ and need to risk their personal safety to watch a single movie. If that is the world we are living in, it is rational to say it is a fascist society.
“의심은 모든 소통의 출발점이다”.. 영화 천안함의 마지막 증언이다. 의심을 할 수 없는 사회는 죽은 사회다. 영화 천안함을 자유롭게 하라. pic.twitter.com/yPcVwWWOzn
— 정동영 (@coreacdy) September 8, 2013
‘Suspicions are the start of every conversation’–That was the last statement of the Cheonan movie. When questions cease to be raised, then society is dead. Free the movie Cheonan Project.
More movie theaters have become available for the movie screening [ko] as the controversy made headlines and drew huge public attention to the film. Some net users suggested [ko] the multiplex chain blamed the non-existent conservative groups for their decision made purely based on the movie's low profitability, while some took one step further to boycott the cinema chain.
메가박스 측 “‘천안함’ 상영중단 요구단체 밝힐 수 없다” http://t.co/esxE35HWxk 메가박스 정신 차리게 해줄 방법은 관람거부운동 밖에 없습니다. 오늘부터 일제히 메가박스가 상영하는 영화관람을 거부합시다.
— 이재화(변호사) (@jhohmylaw) September 10, 2013
The Megabox said they cannot reveal the group who pressured them to pull out the movie. (link to a related article [ko]) The only way to help them to come to their sense is by boycotting. Starting today, we will boycott screening of any movie by Megabox.
천안함프로젝트, 압력넣어 상영중단시킨게 역효과를 낳았군요^^ 영화관람객 여론조사, ‘관람하고 싶어졌다'가 57%! 긁어 부스럼! http://t.co/ABsrGo7B9Z
— 이석현 (@lsh4u) September 10, 2013
The withdrawal of the movie Cheonan Project has backfired. One survey shows that 57 percent have responded as ‘they now have intention to watch the movie.’ They opened a can of worms. (link to a related news article)

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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500 Retweets Will Now Get You Three Years in Prison in China · Global Voices
Abby Liu

China has stepped up its crackdown on online rumors by issuing [zh] a judicial framework for prosecuting offenders. Internet users who share false information that is defamatory or harms the national interest face up to three years in prison if their posts are viewed 5,000 times or forwarded 500 times, according to a judicial interpretation released on September 9, 2013.
The new guideline, issued by the Supreme People's Court, defines the criteria for convicting and sentencing offenders. This includes causing a mass incident, disturbing public order, inciting ethnic and religious conflicts, and damaging the state's image.
According to Xinhua news, Shen Yang, a professor from Wuhan University specializing in microblogging cases, welcomed the judicial interpretation, saying it will help clean up the Internet.
Over the past month, China has detained a number of suspects. The move is seen as part of President Xi Jinping's new policy of online control. In July 2013, singer Wu Hongfei was detained after allegedly threatening to bomb a government building on Sina Weibo. Liu Hu, a Chinese journalist, was also detained by Beijing police in August for fabrication and dissemination of rumors online.
Given how easy it is to manipulate social media activity, people will need to be very careful about what they post, as anyone with a grudge or an agenda could quickly push a target's message over those thresholds. Many netizens expressed anger towards the new policy.
China's CCTV reported that people would face defamation charges if the online rumors they create are viewed by at least 5,000 Internet users or retweeted 500 times.
“Dunan Guandian” [zh] wrote:
一个人的同一个行为，他是不是个罪犯，决定权掌握在其他网民手中，别人不转他就是良民，别人转多了他就是个罪犯。
Whether someone has committed a crime is in the hands of other netizens. If others don't retweet, he's a good citizen, if others retweet, he has committed a crime.
“Shen biji” [zh] joked:
本人刚注册了500个小号，谁要惹我，就找他敏感贴，往死里转
I just registered 500 accounts, if anyone annoys me, I will take revenge by retweeting his or her sensitive posts.
The new policy has also prompted concerns about freedom of speech in China.
“Yangfan qu yuanhang” [zh] wrote:
从“谣言转发500条入刑”事件中看不到新政府有什么要改革的苗头，只要看要对民众禁言的冲动；
From this policy I can't see any sign of reform from the new government, I can only see the impulse to control citizens’ speech.
“EyeOfShaka” [zh] wrote：
一个不允许负面的ZF本身必然是专制，“谣言”转发500就可入刑，简直是滑稽加无耻，这无疑是告诉所有的百姓“你们必须保证说的是真理，要么我就可以给你转500，然后拿谣言的大帽子压死你”，潜在的意思就是都老实点，不然我就治你。
The policy that does not allow negative comments is tyranny. “Rumors” forwarded 500 times can earn you time in jail, this is simply ridiculous. This is to tell everyone, “You must ensure that what you say is the truth, or I can retweet you 500 times, and crush you with the excuse of spreading rumors.” The underline meaning is that if you don't behave, I will punish you.
Professor Chen Wanying at HK University commented [zh]:
法律也是需要的，要营造一种气氛，一方面打击谣言，但是也要给民众有讲话的空间，大家来探索，不然你不利于创新，不利于国家的发展。
Law is needed to create an atmosphere to combat rumors, but we need to create a space for people to speak and explore, or it not conducive to innovation and national development.

author: Abby Liu


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Chilean Education: ‘No More Market Mechanisms, No More SIMCE’ · Global Voices
Silvia Vinas

Photo shared by Alto al SIMCE on Facebook
Stop SIMCE [es] or (“Alto al SIMCE” in Spanish) is a campaign organized by a group of academics, teachers and students who want to put an end to the Education Quality Measurement System (SIMCE for its initials in Spanish), a standardized testing system used to evaluate Chilean students.
The group explains that the SIMCE ranks schools “in order to guide parents’ decisions about which schools are good or bad.” Furthermore, they argue that the system “has played a key role in preserving a market education system that governs Chilean education since the civic-military dictatorship (1973-1990).”
In the following video [es], scholar and researcher Cristián Bellei explains the role of the SIMCE in the “educational market”:
On Prezi you can find a presentation with “10 reasons to oppose the SIMCE” [es].
You can follow the campaign on Facebook [es], and also on Twitter under the hashtag #AltoAlSIMCE [es].
Únete a la campaña #AltoalSIMCE Queremos una educación con más colaboración y menos competencia http://t.co/QEZm1OndjG.
— Ivan Salinas (@ivansalinasb) September 5, 2013
Join the campaign Alto al SIMCE. We want a more collaborative and less competitive education.

author: Silvia Vinas


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Comments On The Proposed RTI Bill Of Bhutan · Global Voices
Rezwan

The Bhutanese Prime Minister has sought comments on the proposed Right to Information (RTI) Bill that is due discussed during the upcoming Parliament session. In a long letter to the Prime Minister, blogger Yeshey Dorji comments that Bhutan is not ready for the enactment of the RTI Bill.

author: Rezwan


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How Russians Read Putin’s NYT Op-Ed on Syria · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Vladimir Putin, 16 July 2013, Kremlin press service, public domain.
It’s not every day that the Russian President pens an opinion piece in the New York Times, but it happened yesterday, and the American blogosphere promptly lost its collective marbles, as tweeting journalists and surprised ordinary Internet users stumbled over each other to react. In the aftermath of local and regional elections, most Russian bloggers seem to be too preoccupied with domestic issues to take much interest in what Putin had to say to Americans.
But not everyone has ignored the story, and many RuNet users have hailed the President’s overture as something of a needed display of Russian moral authority on the world stage.
Within hours of its publication on the New York Times’ website, the online translation portal inoSMI.ru posted a Russian language version [ru] of Putin’s article. At the time of this writing, the translation has attracted 476 comments, the majority of which express positive responses.
User Skuter, for instance, writes:
Правильно сделал ВВП. В большинстве амеры понимают и признают всё это. Пусть теперь не только амеры знают, но и Обама знает, что амеры знают. Думаю лишним не будет. А с БОМБАМБАМЫ пузырь вискаря Путину, за сохранение лица…а может и жизни…
[Putin] did the right thing. The majority of Americans understand all this and admit it. Now let not just the Americans know it, but let Obama know what the Americans [already] know. I don’t think it’s going overboard. And bombobama [Obama] owes Putin a bottle of whiskey for saving face… and maybe his life…
Another user called zapravdu writes, with a tinge of 9/11 conspiracy theory:
Великолепное обращение, вот еще бы американский народ его услышал. Потому-как их в их сми постоянно идет прямо-противоположный посыл. Да что говорить, даже о трагедии 9/11 многие имеют лишь поверхностную инфу.
A magnificent piece, and all the better that the American people heard it, since it’s always the exact opposite message in their mass media. Even when it comes to 9/11, many have only the superficial info.
Not everyone, of course, marveled at Putin’s eloquence. User namik83 contrasted Russia’s nonintervention position in Syria with its willingness to engage troops in South Ossetia and then Georgia in 2008:
очень красивые слова..но когда россия бомбила грузию где было то санкция оон о котором сейчас говорят так много
Very pretty words … but when Russia bombed Georgia, where were the UN sanctions they’re now talking about so much?
Echoing the sentiments of many in the LGBT community (whose patience with the Russian government has worn thin, after the recent wave of anti-gay laws), Anton Krasovsky (a gay Russian journalist who last year lost his job after coming out) asked on Facebook if Putin had homosexuals in mind, when he wrote that “God created us equal.”
On Twitter, there is evidence of a botnet celebrating Putin’s op-ed, tweeting laudatory remarks and using the hashtag “#PutinForPeace.” Many of these suspicious accounts, like Vasilii Kuharev’s, post relatively infrequently, typically using hashtags involved in various pro-Kremlin campaigns. (Mr. Kukarev’s account, for example, has been active four times since July 2013, once praising Putin [ru], and three times criticizing prominent members of the Russian opposition, always using suspect hashtags.)
If the Russian authorities are behind efforts to promote Putin’s New York Times piece (and frame it as a public relations victory over the White House), the Twitter botnet is undeniably a primitive attempt. But the bots aren’t the only ones on the Russian Internet trying to spin the story in this direction.
Stanislav Apetian, aka Politrash, is a pro-Kremlin blogger who also weighed in today on the President’s New York Times article. Apetian collected dozens of positive reactions (as well as a few negative ones) posted to Facebook by random Americans, translated them into Russian with the help of a friend, and published them together [ru] on LiveJournal. Apetian’s work conveys the same sentiments propagated by the #PutinForPeace campaign (pride in Russia’s apparent—and admittedly rare—public relations coup), without the phoniness of robotic retweets.
Ironically, it seems that the more effective strategy for promoting a positive twist on Putin’s article is the one that relies on American netizens—not Russia’s.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Maldives Presidential Votes Will Need A Second Round · Global Voices
Rezwan

88% of the 240,000 voters in Maldives voted last Saturday (7 September, 2013) to elect a president, hoping to end the long political turmoil. As Mohamed Nasheed, the first elected president of Maldives, who was ousted in a coup 20 months ago, couldn't secure a majority, the poll headed to runoff to be conducted later this month. Here is an Instagram photo by user nrachey: