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#Humanrights On Blog Action Day: The Ignored Issue Of Disappearance In Nepal · Global Voices
Rezwan

The National Network of Families of Disappeared and Missing Nepal claims that more than 1,400 people were forcibly disappeared during a decade long (1996-2006) civil war. Siromani Dhungana at ‘United We Blog! for a Democratic Nepal’ reports that the issue of disappearance has not been addressed properly by the state and the political parties.


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Rise in Entrepreneurship Reveals Gender Tensions in Cuba · Global Voices
Sandra Abd'Allah-Alvarez Ramírez

The transformation of the Cuban economic model has caused the flourishing of self-employed work (cuenta propia), understood as not employed by the state.  Self-employment [es] is not a novelty in Cuba; however, it is one of the fundamental pillars of the government's recent economic measures. But that process has revealed certain contradictions and tensions within Cuban families, and especially regarding gender relations.
This way of producing goods and services has slowly introduced, since 2010, a great number of trades and professions. According to the Trabajadores [Workers] newspaper, the voice of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba, there were 436,342 employed people in this sector [es] by the end of July, 2013.
According to the researcher Teresa Lara:
… la actualización del modelo económico cubano requiere de una intensidad del trabajo doméstico y de cuidado para sustituir con trabajo no remunerado los gastos que antes eran asumidos en gran medida por el Estado y para producir bienes y servicios que ya no se compran en el mercado. La reducción paulatina de los subsidios a productos normados, la disminución de comedores obreros y el recorte racional de los gastos del presupuesto estatal exigen la incorporación de todos estos gastos al ámbito del hogar.
… the updating of the Cuban economic model requires an intensity of household work and care to substitute work which is not paid for with the expenses that before were mostly taken on by the state, and to produce goods and services that cannot already be bought in the market. The slow reduction of subsidies for already-established products, the decrease of food service workers, and the rational cutting of state budget expenses demand the incorporation of all of these expenses on the home front.
It is within this context that women have entered self-employed work in Cuba. According to the Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas (National Office of Statistics), the number of women in this sector rose to 62,000 at the close of 2011.
Self-employed Cuban Workers and Enterprise
The recent founding of the Entrepreneurial Women site [es] specializing in gender and employment reinforces the need to update not only the economy, but also gender interpretations and perceptions.
In this way the application of the enterprise [en] concept is revealed as an important pillar in new gender relations in the work environment, where the subordination of women has no place, and the creation of micro-companies led by women and supportive economy is favored.
The website, managed from Cuba, is coordinated by the Servicio Informativo de la Corresponsalía en Cuba del Servicio de Noticias de la Mujer de Latinoamérica y el Caribe [es] (SEMLAC in Spanish, a women's news agency) and contains seven sections where they post newspaper jobs, results of investigations, and opinion articles.
In addition, users can access a virtual forum, in which the following questions have been discussed: how can we change this reality ? Are women and men equal within companies? And what barriers do women face in order to take charge of the direction os small enterprises?
Within the multiple projects, Entrepreneurial Women also edits a printed bulletin that is distributed only in the country's capital at the moment, Sara Artiles reveals, one the site's managers. Additionally, she manages a discussion list. The site, the service, and the email list have the goal of creating a gender culture with this economic sector: “We're getting there little by little, but we're getting there,” Artiles declares.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Sandra Abd'Allah-Alvarez Ramírez


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Elderly Care in Portugal Highlighted on Blog Action Day · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

The Community Center of Gafanha do Carmo [pt], in Ílhavo, was highlighted by João Paulo Pedrosa as a positive example [pt] concerning elderly care in Portugal. On October 16's Blog Action Day dedicated to human rights, the blogger, from Malfadado o Contestatário, started by questioning:
Quantas pessoas idosas vêem os seus direitos ignorados, esquecidos ou até espezinhados pelas outras pessoas? Quantas situações de miséria, quanta falta de respeito… quanto abandono.
How many old people have their rights ignored, forgotten or even trampled by other people? So much misery, so much lack of respect… so much abandonment.
And then he shared a video from this institution where, he believes, “seniors are treated as they deserve”:
Check out Centro Comunitário da Gafanha do Carmo's Youtube channel.
“Wherever men are condemned to live in misery, human rights are violated. To unite to have them complied to is a sacred duty,” Father Joseph Wresinski. Cartas do meu moinho blog shared a photo of Lisbon´s replica of a tombstone in honor of the victims of human misery inaugurated on October 17, 1987, in Paris, Plaza of Human Rights and Liberties.
Other bloggers went international. Taking on Amnesty International's resources for Blog Action Day, maisk3d and Viagem das Letras shared the video ‘How to forcibly effect a community in 5 easy steps‘. Bruno Duarte Eiras from Entre Estantes, shared ‘The Movement to End Modern Slavery‘, by Walk Free. Maria João, Duas e Muitos, posted a cartoon on human rights by Zen Pencils.
Belinha Fernandes wrote a few tips on how to start acting locally if you care about human rights and pointed out the upcoming 14th Youth Work meeting of Amnesty International – Portugal, taking place in November in Albufeira.

author: Sara Moreira


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#1book140: Twitter Book Chat on International Poetry · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

1book140 – Susan Harris
Join readers of The Atlantic and Global Voices at 3 pm Eastern Time (9pm CEST) on Monday, October 21 for a live Twitter chat with Susan Harris (@SusanHarrisWWB), editor of The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry.
Says Rayna Stamboliyska in a post on The Atlantic:
We have already read The Ecco Anthology back in April, during the 1book140's poetry month. Edited by Susan Harris and Ilya Kaminsky of Words Without Borders, The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry is back in the spotlight this month as we wish to revive the magic of internationally celebrated poets from the 20th century, rarely—if ever!—translated into English.
The Ecco Anthology invites us to discover and know more of the world. We, at 1book140, invite you, through The Anthology, to discover “a country of words”
Here's how to take part:
Find a copy of The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry and follow us at @1book140. We'll tweet out when the live Q&A begins, and you can send your questions with the hashtag #1book140. Susan will answer with the hashtag so everyone can follow along. After the Q&A, we'll post the answers.

author: Solana Larsen


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Activists Demand Release of Angola’s Youngest Political Prisoner · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Nito Alves in front of the wall newspaper he created in the Bairro do Chimuco, Viana. Photo shared on his Facebook profile.
It has been more than a month since a 17-year-old activist from Angola was detained after allegedly having ordered the print of 20 t-shirts saying “[President] José Eduardo out! Disgusting dictator”.
Manuel Chivonde Baptista ‘Nito Alves’ was jailed on September 12, 2013, and is currently at Luanda central prison, after a few days of solitary confinement and a period at Luanda's Provincial Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DPIC).
For Leslie Lefkow (@LeslieLefkowHRW), from Human Rights Watch, Angola's human rights situation “has sunk to a new low“:
[Nito Alves] will be the first Angolan to be charged under article 25 of a 2010 state security law. The crime of “insulting” the Republic of Angola or the president of Angola in “public meetings or by disseminating words, images, writings or sound” is punishable by up to three years in prison – a blatant violation of free expression rights.
Maka Angola reported [pt] on October 11 that the activist was still without access to a lawyer and visitors and in poor health condition. Renowned Angolan writer José Eduardo Agualusa wrote [pt] a note in solidarity. Member of European Parliament Ana Gomes sent a letter presenting the case of Nito Alves to the President of the European Commission, Durão Barroso, and Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
An activist youth group, Angolan Revolutionary Movement (MRA), requested hearings [pt] with various institutions of the government until now to no avail. An online petition [pt] demands Nito Alves’ “immediate and unconditional release”.


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Chile: Police Special Forces Evict Mapuche Community From Contested Lands · Global Voices
Felipe Cordero

“Welcome to the Temucuicui Autonomous Community” Photo by Donmatas1 on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
In the early morning of Wednesday, October 9, riot police and members of the Group of Special Operations (GOPE in Spanish), an elite, special unit of the Chilean Police, raided the Temucuicui Autonomous Community [es], an indigenous Mapuche community located near the town of Ercilla in the Araucania Region of Southern Chile.
A self-denominated “autonomous” community, Temucuicui has occupied what they consider to be ancestral lands for over two years. They have resisted several eviction attempts, and their resistance has landed many community leaders and members in jail.
The land where the community lives is part of what the Mapuche call “Wallmapu”, meaning Mapuche country, where clashes between police forces and Mapuche activists are common. Currently, these lands are contested, but legally owned by landowners Rene Urban, Martin Ruf and the Zeit family.
News site Terra [es], one of the few to speak to the police, cited [es] Commissioner Major Salomón Zenteno, the Commissioner in charge of the 2 Police Station of Malleco, explaining details about the operation that morning:
Esta orden de desalojo comenzó alrededor de las 09:15 horas, participando aproximadamente unos 60 funcionarios a cargo del coronel Marcelo Teuber Muñoz de la Prefectura de Malleco”, dijo el comisario, agregando que “tuvimos dos detenidos, el señor Mijael Carbone (werkén o vocero) y su cónyuge. Durante el desalojo resultó una carabinera lesionada por la conviviente de Mijael Carbone, quien a oponer resistencia a su detención efectuó varios puntapiés, golpeando una de las manos de la carabinera.
“This eviction order began to be [implemented] at around 09:15 with the participation of approximately 60 officers under the command of Colonel Marcelo Teuber Muñoz from the Malleco prefecture”, said the Commissioner. He added that “we had two arrests: Mr. Mijael Carbone (werkén or spokesperson) and his partner. During the eviction, a police woman was injured in her hand by Mijael Carbone's partner when she kicked repeatedly while resisting arrest.”
[Note: In Latin America, the rank of Commissioner often refers only to the police official in charge of a single police station and not the entire police force, as is often the case in the UK or other countries.]
In a public statement, the community expressed its complaints and concerns about this operation and the broader context in which it occurs:
1.- El día de ayer Miércoles 09 de Octubre de 2013, se produjeron dos graves hechos de violencia por parte los aparatos represivos del Estado Chileno, quienes una vez más han violentado nuestros derechos y la tranquilidad de la Comunidad, mediante la irrupción, incursión y militarización violenta a nuestras tierras, allanando y destruyendo todos los bienes y sembrados que poseemos en los predios que hemos denominado recuperación productiva y control territorial de nuestra tierra ancestral, hoy en manos de particulares.
1.- On Wednesday, October 9 of 2013, two serious, violent incidents were carried out by the repressive apparatus of the Chilean State. Once again, they have violated our rights and the tranquility of the community, through the intrusion and the violent militarization of our lands. They have raided and destroyed all our goods and the crops that we possess in lands that we consider under “productive recovery” and which today are controlled by private landowners.
The statement added:
3.- Con esta grave y violenta arremetida policial, queda claramente demostrado que no existe la voluntad política y administrativa de parte el Estado Chileno en solucionar las demandas de nuestra comunidad. La “voluntad de diálogo” que supuestamente han manifestado, no es más que una práctica histórica de engaño y manipulación hacia el Pueblo Mapuche, por cuanto nuestra comunidad continuará reivindicando nuestro legítimo derecho a la tierra y territorio usurpado. Lamentamos que las autoridades de gobierno no hayan sido capaces de solucionar nuestras demandas, solo han respondido con una fuerte represión y maltrato a nuestra gente y con nuestras Autoridades Tradicionales, militarizando y sitiando completamente a nuestra comunidad.
3.- This serious and violent police advance demonstrates that the Chilean State does not have the political and administrative will to solve the demands of our community. The “will to dialogue” that they have supposedly expressed, is nothing more than a long-held practice of deceit and manipulation against the Mapuche People. For that reason, our community will continue to reivindicate our legitimate rights to stolen lands. We regret that government authorities have not been capable of solving our demands. They only have responded with the strong repression and mistreatment of our people and our Traditional Authorities. [They have] militarized and completely sieged our community
Hours after the operation, Azkintuwe [es], the first Mapuche media outlet in Chile, reported [es]:
Según el Werken Jorge Huenchullan, son alrededor de 300 efectivos policiales los que irrumpieron violentamente, destrozando casas y atropellando rebaños de ovejas pertenecientes a la comunidad, arrojando un saldo de 15 animales muertos y otros tantos heridos, “todos propiedad de los peñi”
According to Werken (leader/spokesperson) Jorge Huenchullan, about 300 police officers violently entered [the community], destroying homes and running over a flock of sheep that belonged to the community, leaving 15 animals dead and several wounded. “All belong to the peñis (brother in Mapudungun, the Mapuche language)
The Ajayula Magazine [es], republished [es] a post with the testimony of a Susana Curinao, a 25-year-old woman and member of the Temucuicui Autonomous Community. She explains that in the morning of October 9 they saw police forces destroying fences the community had erected to protect their sowed cereals. Mijael approached the person who was in charge of the operation to talk to them, while Susana filmed everything with her cellphone. She says that at least 20 police officers grabbed Mijael and kicked him. When Susana ran over to the officers to ask them to release Mijael, two female officers grabbed her. She says that 12 officers “dealt with her”
Me agarraron de la cabeza y el pelo para echarme hacia el suelo y me pateaban por detrás mientras otros me amarraban las manos atrás con algo como un elástico que hacía mucha presión sobre mis manos y de esa forma me subieron al un furgón policial. Arriba creo que sufrí lo peor que le puede ocurrir a una mujer en cualquier parte, donde quizás el insulto más suave que me dijeron fue “india puta, hija de borrachos, hedionda a culo, descendiente de ratas…”. También me decian que un día nos harían desaparecer a todos los mapuche así como lo había hecho su general con los comunistas, eso no lo entendí mucho pero creo que se referían a Pinochet…
They grabbed my head and hair to put me on the ground. They kicked me from behind while others tied my hands with something like a rubber band that put a lot of pressure in my hands. They put me in a police van. Inside, I suffered the worse that can happen to a woman anywhere. The softest insult I received was “indian whore, drunkard daughter, you smell like ass, rat’s descendant…”. They also said that one day they will make all of the Mapuche disappear, just like their General had done with the communists. I didn’t understand that much, but I think they referred to Pinochet…
On Twitter, many shared reactions using the hashtag #temucuicui:
Mientras , en Temucuicui… pic.twitter.com/KIIbUetgqg
— Nodalomismo (@duendeanarko) October 16, 2013
Meanwhile, in Temucuicui…
“via @la_linea_roja: Tras violento allanamiento en Temucuicui detenidos Mijael Carbone y su esposa ahora en Angol pic.twitter.com/AaksV9fMGD“
— Revolución 3.0 Chile (@Revolucion3_0CL) October 9, 2013
Mijael Carbone and his wife detained, now in Angol, after violent raid in Temucuicui
Familias de Temucuicui reingresan a fundos en recuperación sin temor a nuevo desalojo | País Mapuche http://t.co/kdjuz1OFix
— In lak ´ech (@Antara1957) October 16, 2013
Families of Temucuicui re-enter lands without fear of another eviction
In an article for Revista Anfibia [es], Carolina Rojas [es] explored the long-term effects of the violence:
Ayer, a las diez de la mañana seguían llegando carros policiales, todo era una Franja de Gaza a 535 kilómetros de Santiago. Las noticias del horario prime, no hicieron ninguna mención. De esa indolencia sabe muy bien Karina Riquelme, abogada de algunos comuneros de la zona. “Este ha sido el allanamiento más grande de la historia y a nadie parece importarle”, comentó.
Karina dice que una cosa es el daño a los adultos y otra es ese mundo infantil resquebrajado. Vidas que están reducidas a un espacio de guerra y a pequeños momentos de felicidad donde ellos juegan a la escondida con el sonido de los grillos de fondo, montan caballo y persiguen a los cerdos y a las ovejas. Esos, son sólo interludios en un continuo de violencia.  “Los niños experimentan esas situaciones desde que tienen meses de edad, niños que no sonríen y su seriedad se intensifica con el tiempo…
Yesterday, police vehicles kept on arriving at ten in the morning. It was like the Gaza Strip, but only 535 kilometers from Santiago. Prime time news did not mention it. Karina Riquelme, lawyer of some of the community members, knows well about that indolence. “This has been the largest raid in history and no one seems to care”, she said.
Karina says that one thing is the damage done to adults and another is how children are broken. These children's lives are confined to a war zone and only get brief moments of happiness when they play hide and seek to the sound of crickets, ride a horse or chase pigs and sheep. Those moments are only the interlude in a long continuum of violence. “Children go through these situations from the time they are months old. These are children that do not smile and their seriousness intensifies as time goes by…
To learn more about the Temucuicui community and their resistance, watch this interview [es] of Mijael Carbone by Prensa Opal from December 2012:

author: Felipe Cordero


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China: School Forces Students To Participate in Forced Demolition · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Joe from ChinaSMACK translated a news story about a middle school in Guiyang city, Guizhou province, that forced students to wear SWAT police uniforms and participate in the demolition of illegal structures. In China, demolition armies are as notorious as Chengguan on account of their violent actions against rural villagers who resist land grabbing.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China’s Maple Bridge Experience and Local Governance · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Qian Gang looks into the political implications of recent state propaganda of “Fengqiao experience” (or Maple Bridge Experience) which took place in Zhejiang province during the Mao's era in early 1960s as a local governance model under the new China leadership.


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Controversial Candidates, Silly Season in Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

With another parliamentary seat having been made vacant in Trinidad and Tobago (this time in the constituency of St. Joseph, thanks to the resignation of Former Justice Minister Herbert Volney from the United National Congress), the required by-election will be called on November 4th – but the electoral candidates are proving to be just as controversial as the former minister.
Ian Alleyne, host of the popular but contentious television programme Crime Watch will be contesting the St. Joseph seat for the ruling People's Partnership government, a move which has cost him a lot of criticism from his fan base, many of whom now regard him as a sell-out. (Alleyne had unsuccessfully run for the Chaguanas seat back in 2002 for the People's National Movement party, which currently sits in opposition). Speculation about Alleyne's political ambitions began after he appeared on a People's Partnership platform; those ambitions were confirmed when he showed up to officially file his election papers.
Ian Alleyne flanked by Attorney General Anand Ramlogan (l) and Ganga Singh (r)
Alleyne's Facebook fan page was filled with derogatory comments and memes about his decision to represent the People's Partnership.
One of the Internet memes criticizing Ian Alleyne's decision to contest the St. Joseph seat for the People's Partnership.
Karamchand Ramsingh pulled no punches:
Hmmmm I wonder how much Ian Alleyne sold his soul for????
Shamina Rosemarie Othman reminded everyone about an issue which currently has Mr. Alleyne before the courts, on three charges under the Sexual Offences Act and one charge of resisting arrest. The charges are all related to Alleyne's broadcast of a video in which a minor was raped. Othman commented:
Am sure Ian Alleyne joined the PP to bust them down jus saying. If he could not use his judge ment on the matter of showing the video of the child do you think he have good judgement as an MP
In a curious twist, one of Alleyne's contenders for the St. Joseph seat is Alleyne's former business partner and lawyer, Om Lalla. Their partnership – both legal and on the television show – came to an abrupt end and Lalla subsequently announced that he would be contesting the seat for Jack Warner‘s Independent Liberal Party.
The Alleyne-Lalla split formed the basis of a humorous video clip:
Comedian, social activist and television host Errol Fabien has decided to run as an independent candidate, though he has also been endorsed by the Movement for Social Justice. He has been keeping a video blog of his campaign:
This vlog was made just after Fabien officially filed his election papers:
The other candidates for the upcoming election are Senator Terrence Deyalsingh of the People's National Movement (PNM) and Michael Lopez of the Democratic National Alliance.
On his blog Plain Talk, Philip Edward Alexander compared the current state of Trinbagonian politics to a circus:
Hope you all enjoyed our little montage and Trini nursery rhyme, and we would like to remind you to make sure to get your mad card stamped, punched and pickled for the St. Joseph bye (sic) election, because without a ticket you wont (sic) be allowed under the big top.
On Facebook, Alexander added:
The entire political system has been reduced to a circus. Yesterday was just the icing. WE the people have failed. Read the conversations, listen to the talk shows. We have been educated to a functionally literate level, but our ability to think critically and analyze has been bred out of us. So now noise, flare and flash determines who gets into office, perpetuating the cycle of undereducated, unqualified leaders setting the national agenda. Simply put, the ignorant masses are giving their votes to who entertains them more. The people are for the most part broken, incapable of being a party to their own salvation.
At Wired868, Mr. Live Wire gave a humorous analysis of the election field:
Mr Live Wire cannot confirm that Alleyne has commissioned Cee-Lo Green to sing ‘F**k you’ in his coming out party as a pointed message to his rival. Or that Lalla has Taylor Swift’s ‘We are never ever getting back together’ on repeat on his iPod.
Either way, there will be wet handkerchiefs among Crime Watch fans in St Joseph as the show is set to take a hiatus while its two former leading men fight it out on the streets. Medics, pathologists and relationship counsellors are set to be on stand-by.
He also noted that the actual comedian in the race has yet to make a big joke out of the process but there's still time:
Errol Fabien, a real comic and the grassroots candidate, has promised to bring sober, caring representation to the community. But the race is still young and there is plenty time to sacrifice solemnity for the soundbytes that will take his message into the mainstream media.
Give them a razzle, ‘Uncle Errol'; show the johnnys-come-lately what entertainment is all about.
Mr. Live Wire's assessment of the one candidate with government experience was brief:
PNM candidate Terrence Deyalsingh is the only candidate with a record of State service as a current senator, which makes him the most vulnerable.
Back on Facebook, Junior Diaz felt that Mr. Lalla was in a stronger position than Alleyne:
The funny thing is that some people who admires Mr Lalla are not ILP supporters but more less people who has faith in Mr Lalla cause he's as real as could be, Ian Alleyne on the other hand has lost confidences in his once die hard supporters who would rush home just to see his program. Judas is alive and well.
Blogger Trinikid was surprised that Alleyne would even get involved in politics at this time:
Don't get me wrong, I like Ian Alleyne. I like Ian Alleyne as an entertainer. I like Ian Alleyne as a vigilante. I like Ian Alleyne as a Television personality. He makes good television on a weekday evening. I'm not sure if he'll make a good politician though. Ian seems a bit shaky as a person but I guess he deserves a chance…..RIGHT? I think he should be giving a chance to try to represent St. Joseph, so does Errol Fabian and so does Om Lalla. I'm just really taken aback by the fact that Ian took sides in the whole political arena. I'm no expert in media but I do know that media personnel are advised not to publicly proclaim their political affiliation. That's just a rule of thumb. But I don't know if he's planning on keeping his job on CNC3 after this though. We'll just have to wait and see.
He believed that Alleyne's best chance politically would have been to run as an independent:
But anyhow you take it, Ian Alleyne is still not guaranteed to win. He would have had a better chance if he had done like Errol Fabian (sic) and be an independent. Why? Because the amount of people that would vote for him as an independent would drop considerably since he took sides. That's just how it goes with politics. Everybody loves Ian Alleyne but not everyone loves UNC/PP. Ian Alleyne or not, it's still the UNC/PP.
The St. Joseph by-election will follow the country's Local Government Elections, which will be held this Monday, October 21st.

author: Matthew Hunte


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Declaration on the Future of Internet Cooperation · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Representatives of the organizations that manage the technical infrastructure of the Internet meeting in Montevideo,  Uruguay, have released a Declaration on the future of Internet cooperation [es], in which they analyze the problems currently affecting the future of the Internet.
Among other things, they mention the importance of globally consistent Internet operations and warn against the fragmentation of the Internet at a national level, while expressing their concern about the global decrease in confidence of Internet users due to the recent revelations of monitoring and surveillance.
This can, in some way, be considered as a response to proposals that go in that direction, such as that recently advanced by the president of Brazil, Dilma Roussef, before the UN and to the activities of the NSA.

author: Juan Arellano


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GV Face: Malala’s Pakistan  · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

Malala, the 16-year-old girl that survived a bullet from the Taliban and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize is being celebrated for her compassion and bravery the world over. But she continues to be polarizing figure in her home country Pakistan.
In this week's episode of GV Face, we talk about why Malala's country feels so conflicted about her. We also look at the role social media has played in Malala's fame and the spread of negative propaganda against her. Activist, blogger and GV Pakistan author Sana Saleem (@sanasaleem) joined us from Karachi. And Irfan Ashraf joined us from Illinois, USA. He's a Pakistani reporter who co-produced the New York Times film, Class Dismissed, the first documentary on Malala made for an international audience in 2009.
I'm the Deputy Editor at Global Voices, also a Pakistani journalist (@saharhghazi) and I hosted the Hangout. When I asked Sana if people in Pakistan really hated Malala, she said [01:00 – 02:50]:
I don't think the hatred is towards Malala, as a young girl or woman or  Malala herself, the hatred is towards Western coverage of issues in Pakistan, and specific coverage or also the selective coverage whether is Western foreign policy or Western agenda. So the hatred and there is a lot of vicious hatred honestly, is wrongfully directed towards Malala, but it is basically about anything or anyone that gets any sort of limelight in the Western media and specifically if that person gets limelight on human rights violation, there is this form of animosity that you are washing your dirty linen in public. […]
In Malala's case she's lucky because the government at least or public figures have been openly very supportive of her. But unfortunately, a lot of the hatred that is meant for Western selective coverage or that is supposed to criticism of how they perceive us or their condescending coverage of certain issues, is being directed towards Malala.
During the conversation, Irfan said [17:00 – 18:30]:
We should not look upon this issue in a binary way, like West or East, or that Malala has been hijacked by the Western media. In our area we have a huge problem with “masculinity”; a masculine culture that is being strengthened by the militarization in our region, as a result of which, whenever a female voice is raised, even for the sake of education, it is branded as Western or as too liberal, and is projected in a way that is not seen as a basic human (need), rather it is seen as a conspiracy. So instead of East or West, I think we should also look upon our own culture which is so masculine.[.. ]we have just made women as a site of contestation between the two cultures. Where as I think this is a high point for women too, to raise the issue of Malala,  as a sign of liberty, as a sign of liberation from a masculine culture that they are being raised, nourished and brainwashed in – this is a high point for them.
In this episode Irfan also talks more about Malala's hometown Swat, a place she calls paradise on earth. Taliban's were cleared out of the Valley by the Pakistani military in 2009, but the area still struggles to educate its young, after hundreds of schools were reduced to rubble by the Taliban.
Here's an audio version of the Hangout on Soundcloud:
We also answered questions from the audience during the Hangout. More details on our event page.
Read our complete coverage of Malala here.

author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


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Japan: OpenStreetMap Aggregates Typhoon Info · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

A screenshot of OpenStreetMap for Izu Oshima island.
OpenStreetMap users volunteered their time to create a crisis map of Izu Oshima island [ja], a small island to the south of Tokyo where more than a dozen of people were killed by mudslides triggered by this week's deadly Typhoon Wipha. The red dots on the map represent reports submitted by users, which give information on things such as disaster relief, blocked roads, and water supply.

author: Keiko Tanaka


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#OccupyMyself: Confessions Of A Social Media Deserter · Global Voices
Paula Góes

“I was feeling tired and anxious: I was addicted to social media.” Photo: Wm. Li (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
I would probably never have known it was Social Media Week last September had Rayna, a fellow Global Voices colleague, not come to London for it. It seems to be such a big international event that anyone who works for Global Voices must have known about it. But I did not: I am a social media deserter.
First, I left Twitter. After an intense period of over-use during the Brazilian national elections in 2010, I was knackered. Was it what they call information overload? Besides being physically tired, realising I could not be on the top of everything made me feel powerless as well. I was addicted the energy and buzz of social media, but I could no longer keep going. By the beginning of 2011, I had left completely.
After experiencing proper withdrawal symptoms that caused me to stare repeatedly at the login page, I started to feel better. Suddenly I had more time and energy to do things I used to enjoy, like reading books, and things that I wished I had time for, like learning to meditate.
Leaving Facebook was a more considered decision. After Twitter, it had become the sole black hole sucking up my time. As I was about to start a very intensive course in Psychosynthesis coupled with a new university degree, my free time had became too costly, my attention too precious. I knew Facebook had the ability to distract me and take my focus away from my inner self, so I set my departure date for before 2012, and said goodbye to the few friends who still saw my updates in their increasingly busy timelines. I quietly deactivated my account, aware that I tend to addiction and that it was this, not the tools, that were the root cause of my problem.
I have missed seeing photos of friends’ new babies and kittens, party invitations, interesting events, and daily updates about people I care for. I have not missed the game invitations, memes, or being bombarded with advertisements. Also on the plus side, I have become more selective about the information I consume, the raw material of my thoughts. I feel sad that only a few friends drop me notes or send me photos elsewhere, and I admit I haven't been that good at keeping in touch either.
I miss feeling connected, but truth be told, when I meet people and have one of those “Didn't-you-see-it-on-Facebook?” moments where I'm surprised with old news everyone has already seen on their timelines, they usually say, “Oh, I hadn't noticed you left”. Is this being connected to people in a meaningful way?
I don't miss Twitter or Facebook, but I confess I created a “fake” account to promote a cause last year, ended up using it to follow my friend's pregnancy, and then got in touch with our common circle of 10 close friends. I am, however, just a silent member of their audience, not willing to be publicly intimate on my own timeline. I have been forced into Google Plus because many of my colleagues have begun to use Hangouts instead of Skype. And I once opened a Twitter account for a service I was offering, but found it unbearable. It felt like I was shouting in the middle of a street packed with screaming people. Deafening—and boring. I quickly went back to my own inner hashtag, #occupymyself.
“One day, I decided to break free.” Photo by Eric Hacke (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Will I ever return to social media? I don't know. I miss my old friends. I miss meeting new like-minded people, like @giantpandinha, one of my best “real life” friends whom I would never have met if it wasn't for Twitter. I miss having a laugh sometimes at some random silly post. There's still a little voice inside me tell me I'm missing out. Sometimes I consider going back, but maybe I'll wait till I finish university and have more time. By then, I hope there will be social media tools facilitating more consciously minded connections.
But by then, when I do have more time, perhaps I will prefer to do yoga, garden, explore nature, or do the many other things on my life to-do list. I enjoy the time offline after spending whole workdays connected. I still spend much more time in front of computers than I wish I did, and have read fewer books than I've hoped to, but it's wonderful to meditate every day and explore my precious inner space, instead of getting distracted by others. Having time for myself has been the biggest change in my life since I became social media-free.
I love the fact that, when I'm out there in the world, I no longer feel the compulsion to check, read, post, report, share, or measure my relevance in “retweets” or ‘likes’. I pay better attention to what people say, and I'm able to focus fully on what I'm experiencing. Free from an overdose of external distraction, I can better connect to myself.
No longer satisfied with being merely social media-free, I have booked myself on a silent Vipassana retreat in the coming weeks, where I shall spend 10 days doing nothing but sitting still and meditating from 4am to 9pm. I dare my social media friends to do that for even 10 minutes!
“Now I am zen!” Photo by Evan Lovely (CC BY 2.0)
Paula Góes, from Brazil, is a reformed social media addict and the Multilingual Editor of Global Voices.

author: Paula Góes


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PHOTOS: Hundreds Dead, Historic Churches Destroyed in Philippine Quake · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

Loboc Church in Bohol collapsed front and center. Image by @tokyodrastic
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake killed more than 150 people in the central Philippine islands of Bohol and Cebu Tuesday October 15, 2013.
The strong earthquake started in Bohol, where the epicenter was recorded at 8:12 in the morning and caused the destruction of roads, homes, buildings, and historic churches in the island.
The neighboring island of Cebu, which is the second largest urban center in the country outside of the national capital Manila, also bore the brunt of the quake with shopping malls, public markets, schools, and other buildings bearing damage.
Other provinces in the central Philippine area also felt the tremors but sustained no significant harm to people or physical structures.
Striking early in the morning during a holiday, the earthquake caught many by surprise. Hundreds of aftershocks of varying intensity also followed the main quake.
Social media users recorded their earthquake experiences through various networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram:
Funny how my dad came running out the shower trying to put some pants on, and my sister diving in the bed with her laptop in her arms. ????
— Francesca Fua (@francisfua) October 15, 2013
Wow, the earthquake shook our plane hard here on the ground at Iloilo International Airport. I thought they were just loading something.
— Lloyd (@lloydthelostboy) October 15, 2013
was jolted awake from deep sleep by a strong quake & dashed outside. blessed to be with my family. on alert for aftershocks #earthquake
— Karollyn Mae Laya-on (@klyme_layaon) October 15, 2013
Today is #Heritage National State of Calamity
— Ka Bino Guerrero (@Kabinoguerrero) October 15, 2013
Social media users also took photos of the damage caused by the powerful earthquake and posted them online:
Sto Nino de Cebu church. Image uploaded by @KaiizenM
Cebu Doctors University. Image uploaded by @BlueGrayKimpots
Ayala Shopping Center Cebu. Image from @randelltiongson
Some of the most badly damaged structures by the earthquake are the historic limestone churches in Bohol. Built through polo or Filipino slave labor during the Spanish colonial era in the 1700s and 1800s, these churches have become some of the country's most prized cultural heritage.
Saint Vincent Parish Church in Maribojoc, Bohol crumbled to the ground after the earthquake. Image by @rod_bolivar
“The worst church damage in Bohol. The church is now pulverized.” Image by @Huntress96

author: Karlo Mongaya


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Property Bubble In Kathmandu · Global Voices
Rezwan

Chandan Sapkota reports that the rise in the cost of housing in Kathmandu has made them beyond the reach of most of the Nepalese people. Easy bank credits to developers and prospective buyers have possibly triggered the bubble.

author: Rezwan


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South Africa’s Ruling Party #ProudlyBroughtByANC Campaign Flops · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The main opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance (DA), erected a billboard last week in Johannesburg, South Africa to poke fun at ruling African National Congress’ electronic tolling system. The billboard reads: “E-tolls. Proudly brought to you by the ANC [African National Congress].”
Jacob Zuma, the head of ANC and South Africa's president. Photo released under Creative Commons by Wikipedia user Dewet/GCIS.
Electronic Toll (e-toll) is a cashless payment system for road operators to pay toll fees. The ruling party pushed for it earlier this year despite public outcry, legal challenges and protests. It is the first open road tolling system in South Africa.
ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu (@JacksonMthembu_) reacted to the advert by starting a campaign against the DA on Twitter using the hashtag #ProudlyBroughtByANC. He wrote:
The constitutional right of all parties to campaign freely without any fear of arrest #ProudlyBroughtByANC
— Jackson Mthembu (@JacksonMthembu_) October 7, 2013
Removal of all discrimination and segregation laws from SA landscape #ProudlyBroughtByANC
— Jackson Mthembu (@JacksonMthembu_) October 7, 2013
But the ANC campaign backfired as Twitter users used the same hashtag to show corruption, inefficiency and mismanagement on part of the ANC government.
SDH (@Coach_Hearn) pointed out to corruption in government procurement:
#ProudlyBroughtByANC South Africa loses R30-billion [approximately 3 trillion US dollars] of the annual government procurement budget to tender corruption
— SDH (@Coach_Hearn) October 16, 2013
Sentletse (@Sentletse) used the the Traditional Courts Bill to show what is wrong with the ruling party:
Banna! The Traditional Courts Bill allows traditional leaders to sentence the accused to ‘hard labour’. #ProudlyBroughtByANC
— Sentletse (@Sentletse) October 15, 2013
The Traditional Courts Bill , which was first introduced in 2008, has been rejected by most provinces in South Africa. Legal experts and rural activists argue that the proposed law creates a separate, second-class justice system for rural communities, where women have fewer rights
Jessinsight (@Jessinsight) shared a photo showing members of the South African parliament, which is dominated by the ANC, sleeping while the House in session:
This is too much!!! #ProudlyBroughtByANC pic.twitter.com/0JxcqLN3ZI
— Jessinsight (@Jessinsight) October 8, 2013
Marketing technologist Rafiq Phillips (@rafiq) complained about the banning of open-source software in government schools. The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has announced that it will phase out the use of open-source software for information technology curriculum:
South Africa Education Department bans Open Source Software! WTF? http://t.co/CUKLp3BU9U #ProudlyBroughtByANC
— Rafiq Phillips (@rafiq) October 9, 2013
Pieter van Dalen MP (@PietervanDalen), a member of parliament for the opposition Democratic Alliance, used a photo of a dilapidated building with an ANC flag to represent the extent of rot in the party:
This photo is good example of the present state of the #ANC not only in Western Cape. #ProudlyBroughtByANC @Gouda pic.twitter.com/t8Eh0PmM08
— Pieter van Dalen MP (@PietervanDalen) October 9, 2013
Sentletse (@Sentletse) reported:
South Africa is among African countries with medium human development, ranked below dysfunctional Libya. #ProudlyBroughtByANC
— Sentletse (@Sentletse) October 9, 2013
Flower Child♡ (@Miss_Tshiff) posted a photo of council workers erecting a street sign and jokingly asked:
How many municipal workers does it take to erect a new street sign? #OnlyInSA #ProudlyBroughtByANC pic.twitter.com/M1YRsu1ilm“
— Flower Child♡ (@Miss_Tshiff) October 8, 2013
By the time of writing this post, ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu (@JacksonMthembu_) had not responded to any of the tweets under the hashtag #ProudlyBroughtByANC.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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‘Chayn’, a New Website for Pakistan’s Victims of Domestic Abuse · Global Voices
Rezwan

For women in Pakistan, domestic violence is a serious threat. Local NGOs estimate that between 70 and 80 percent of women in Pakistan are subject to verbal, sexual, emotional or physical abuse at home, according to Human Rights Watch.
Government efforts to raise awareness or introduce tougher laws have not been enough. An estimated 5,000 women are killed per year from domestic violence, with thousands of others surviving but with injuries. They have few shelters to turn to, and legal recourse is often not a realistic or available option.
Screenshot of Chayn
However, Chayn, a volunteer-led, crowdsourced website, is trying to change the situation by supporting women who face domestic violence in Pakistan. Chayn aims to raise awareness of emotional and physical abuse, offer information on how to deal with abuse, and inform Pakistani women of their rights. The portal also acts as an online support system that allows women to share their stories of abuse and trauma.
Founder Hera Hussain, a psychology and economics graduate and social entrepreneur, provides the background in a blog post:
I have always wanted to do something to support women in Pakistan. [..] From researching online for months on domestic violence resources in Pakistan for two friend escaping a situation of abuse – I knew no such site existed. [..] I also knew that women found it hard to find factual information about laws in Pakistan and the help available online. Furthermore, because women in such situations are extremely depressed, they are unable to think rationally about their options available to them. I always say being depressed is like wearing sunglasses – the world has a different hue. It all looks different. It’s important for women to have information on mental health so they can identify and understand things like depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. And then there is the issue about knowing what divorce laws are and what options there are to study and work in Pakistan.
The site focuses primarily on educated Pakistani women and Hussain hopes that they will be able to make use of the website and get some ‘Chayn’ (meaning peace and tranquility in Urdu) from domestic violence.
In an interview with The Diplomat, Hussain elaborated about the team:
Chayn is solely run by dedicate and passionate volunteers who work on this part-time. It took 70 volunteers from around the world to put the Chayn website together. Now there are 35 dedicated volunteers who are continuing to work on the site. There are no managers at Chayn. We work through collaborating with each other across borders and time zones using Facebook, Skype, Google Plus and Google Docs. Most of the team is very young but very accomplished.
She also shared the updating process of Chayn:
We use a Wiki model, so we invite visitors to the website to submit alterations or new ideas for content. The content on the website changes constantly.
The website also serves as a platform for storytelling. Hera asserts that anonymous sharing of stories and experiences at the catharsis room can inspire others to get out of their abusive relationships.
Blogger Saniya Mujahid notices a unique feature of this website:
I noticed that the site also has a “Hide this Page” tab that always hangs in mid-air which, when clicked, takes the reader to an innocuous looking Daily Times. That's a pretty handy tool for someone who is afraid of being caught by her abuser looking at a site that encourages her to get out of an abusive relationship.
Twitter users have praised the site. Tanya Dlima (@TanyaDlima1) tweeted:
http://t.co/FVdqv8wmbH Simply amazing resource for any #Pakistaniwomen facing #domesticviolence and abuse. I encourage all to use and share.
— Tanya Dlima (@TanyaDlima1) October 4, 2013
Meera Ghani (@MeeraGhani) urged everybody to spread the word:
spread the word, it may help many who you may not even know are suffering abuse silently http://t.co/OSTqrT37yy #ViolenceAgainstWomenIsWrong
— Meera Ghani (@MeeraGhani) August 18, 2013
Chayn has plans to launch some offline initiatives soon. Hussain's future plan is to launch Chayn India and Bangladesh, create a pop-up shelter program and establish a scholarship partnership.
Follow the project on Twitter (@chaynorg).


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Dandin.me: Encompassing the Emerging Talent in the Middle East · Global Voices
Rayna St.

October 10 saw the official launch of Dandin.me, a novel independent platform whose founders are based in Egypt. Abdel-Rahman Hussein, one of the people behind Dandin.me, explains what it aims to achieve:
The rationale behind it was our desire to create an audio platform that would manage to encompass a wide array of emerging talent in the region, in their respective arenas. It is a platform for expression, in whatever guise, and the flip side of that is the hope that this expression finds an engaged audience via the platform.
Screenshot of Dandin.me front page.

author: Rayna St.


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Free Expression, Right to Information Focus of Blog Action Day Brazil  · Global Voices
Thiana Biondo

Though the Internet is flourishing in Brazil as a way for people to mobilize and voice their protest, recent events have shown that online censorship and police repression on the streets are problems yet to be overcome, Brazilian bloggers wrote on Blog Action Day 2013.
Bloggers discussed the state of freedom of expression in Brazil as part of Blog Action Day's human rights theme. A total of 70 blogs and sites from Brazil registered for the annual coordinated blogging campaign.
The well-known NGO Article 19 in an post titled “For the right to blog“, written by Helena Rocha, recalled how citizen media surpassed mainstream media on covering recent mass protests in Brazil and notorious cases of censorship against bloggers in recent years:
Several cases have had public repercussion over the years. For example, the case of the blog “Imprensa Marron”, which was taken down by a lawsuit because of a comment left on the blog. This was the first time that we know of in the history of Brazilian blogosphere, that someone was held responsible due to the activity of a third party.
Once the importance and the role conducted through blogs in promoting public debate was affirmed, the blogosphere became increasingly the target of intense censorship through litigation, especially by political powers. In 2006, candidate José Sarney tried to censor more than 100 blogs in the state of Amapá due to published materials that he was not pleased with and to third party comments posted on those blogs.
In the same manner, RioOnWatch, a site that gives a voice to residents of favelas, or slums, on the web, highlighted the crackdown on the teachers’ protest, a strike that has been ongoing since August 2013. On 15 October, 2013, which is Brazil's Teachers’ Day, a crowd of 20,000 people took the streets of Rio de Janeiro to demonstrate their support for the municipal teachers who demand [pt] changes in their salary pack – such as 20% pay rise and to be allocated to work in only one school. Victims of forced evictions joined the mass demonstration.
“Favela supports the teachers”. Photo shared on Rio on Watch website, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
In the post “Favela Residents Join Teachers Day Protest“, testimonies of Rio locals are highlighted, such as that of Regina Célia da Costa Coelho, a resident of the popular area named Horto:
We are from the Horto community, located in Jardim Botânico, a historic community threatened with removal because the authorities recently created a new demarcation map, which places 520 houses of former and current employees of Jardim Botânico within an area to be removed… In Horto we are facing the possibility that one of our schools (Manuel Bandeira) will be closed. Education is the most important thing in a country, it is the foundation of everything. We are here not only supporting the teachers’ movement, but also to unite all the demands, all those communities that are unsatisfied with this government. We are coming together in a unified struggle with a broader, all-encompassing vision.
Another Blog Action Day participant was citizen journalism project Amigos de Januária, a Rising Voices grantee. On their blog, they highlighted how public information goes hand-in-hand with freedom of expression in a post calling “For the right to information” [pt ]:
Chamaremos a atenção neste texto para o “Direito a Informação”, que mesmo não estando explicito entre os direitos da Declaração, pode ser lido entre suas entrelinhas e se caracteriza de grande importância por ser a chave para a garantia de vários outros direitos presentes nas mais diversas legislações.
Sem acesso a informações públicas fica impossível descobrir quais dos seus direitos estão sendo prejudicados. (…)
Se escolher seus representantes públicos é um direito universal, então obter informações sobre o governo que você ajudou a escolher também o é. Essas informações vão desde a verbas públicas recebidas, gastos efetuados, impostos recolhidos, direito a saúde e educação, entre outros.
(…) although not explicit in the rights of  [Universal] Declaration [of Human Rights], [the Right of information] can be read between its lines, and is characterized of great importance because it is the key to guarantee several other rights present in other laws
Without access to public information, it is impossible to find out what rights are being undermined. (…)
If choosing public officials is a universal right, then information about the government that helps you choose is too. This information, ranging from public funds received, expenditures made, taxes collected, the right to health and education, among others.

author: Thiana Biondo


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Gift from French Investing Group Bolloré to Ivorian University Stirs Controversy · Global Voices
Kanigui

French investing group Bolloré [fr] made a donation of 6 electric buses to the University of Felix Houphouët Boigny at Cocody in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. The first two buses were delivered on October 16 under great scrutiny from the Ivorian press and social media. In fact, the donation stirred a major controversy over the cost of the project, 1.2 billions CFA francs (about $2.5 million USD) and the putative agenda behind the “generous gift”.  Ivorian blogger Yehnidjidji wrote a blog post that summarizes all the reactions [fr] to the project and various comments on social networks.

author: Kanigui


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Race Riots Remind Russians About Political Divide · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Demonstrator injured in Biryulevo, 13 October 2013, screenshot from YouTube video.
This week’s reactions to a riot that took place outside Moscow are a reminder that the subject of ethnic nationalism deeply divides Russians. The rift between the RuNet’s liberals and nationalists was one of the key findings of a mapping project by Harvard’s Berkman Center in 2010. Three years later, the divide persists.
One of the controversial interpretations of the Biryulevo riot, which involved upwards of a thousand young men breaking into and vandalizing a vegetable market, is the idea that it represents a display of the popular will. Such characterizations, of course, mirror the narrative routinely offered to explain Russia’s “Winter of Discontent,” which produced the many spectacular political demonstrations of the 2011-2012 season. Inherent in such storytelling, however, is a degree of vindication. The rioters (and the relatively peaceful protesters who took to the streets in their defense against responding police officers) were reacting to the murder of a local ethnic Russian—killed by a then-still-unidentified man, presumed to a (non-white) Caucasian.
If Biryulevo’s violence was a reaction against police corruption and ethnic mafias, does it diminish the rioters’ savagery and racism?
Indeed, many Russian liberals refuse whatsoever to see the Biryulevo riot as a manifestation of popular dissatisfaction with the state. To do so, they seem to fear, would poison the well of democratic credibility feeding their own anti-Kremlin movement.
Blogger and opposition leader Alexey Navalny is Russia’s most prominent “liberal nationalist.” Throughout his time as the biggest star of the protest movement, Navalny has worried liberals with his nationalist views, and disappointed nationalists with his liberal views. Surprisingly, the delicate dance has worked, so far. Navalny has benefitted from the senescence of the Putin regime, the intolerability of which has increased Navalny’s viability as a political alternative. Nevertheless, there are bumps in the road, and Navalny’s response to Biryulevo (promoting an anti-immigrant petition [ru] to require travel visas for citizens of Russia’s southern periphery) hasn’t curried favor [ru] with Russia’s bleeding hearts.
That said, the division between liberals and nationalists doesn’t prefigure everything about Russian politics. Valery Fedotov (a former United Russia functionary, who jumped ship in July 2013) is an example of someone who disparages how liberals dismiss the popular sentiments behind Biryulevo, but also mocks [ru] Navalny for an excessive, poorly designed visas initiative. Consider Fedotov’s October 17, 2013, LiveJournal attack [ru] on Dmitri Oreshkin, a noted liberal-leaning “politolog,” whom Fedotov criticizes for speculating [ru] that the Biryulevo riot was the result of an orchestrated campaign to destabilize Moscow, in order to justify canceling next year’s city council elections (where the liberal opposition is expected to do well). Oreshkin’s conspiracy theory, Fedotov points out, is eerily similar to the tropes Kremlin propagandists used to trivialize (and criminalize) anti-government demonstrations in 2012:
[…] когда речь заходит о «социально неблизких», те же журналисты и политологи без каких-либо угрызений совести готовы сменить свою точку зрения и превратиться в «Аркадия Мамонтова».
[…] when it comes to discussing those who aren’t “social allies,” the same [liberal] journalists and political analysts—without any compunction—are ready to change their point of view and transform into “Arkady Mamontov” [the man behind the hated anti-opposition TV series, “Anatomy of Protest”].
Seizing on the fact that Oreshkin even implicated the Internet in riling up Biryulevo’s rioters, Fedotov also attacked him for recycling the Kremlin’s open-ended distrust of netizens and its refusal to surrender the slightest legitimacy to political rivals:
[…] куча таинственных намеков о «круге специальных товарищей», преувеличение злокозненной роли интернета и полное неверие в то, что люди могут выйти на улицу сами, просто потому что «достало».
[…] there are a bunch of mysterious hints [in Oreshkin’s comments] about “a circle of special friends,” the exaggeration of the Internet’s insidious role, and an utter disbelief that people might go out into the streets on their own, simply because they’ve “had enough.”
The ethnic question promises to estrange and exasperate bloggers and oppositionists more now and in the coming weeks, than it has in the months and years previous. Aside from a brief disturbance [ru] last July in the small town of Pugachyov, the post-December 2011 opposition movement has not had to endure any significant explosions of ethnic tensions.
With Biryulevo, society’s movers and shakers in Moscow now face such turmoil, and at their very doorstep.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Artists Search for Eid in Syria’s War · Global Voices
Nour Al Ali

As the number of casualties and refugees continue to rise in Syria, the country's talented young artists turned to their canvases to express their refusal to celebrate Eid Al Adha, the Islamic holiday of sacrifice.
Musician Wael Alkak experimented with traditional Syrian folk music in his latest track, entitled, “Eid Song,” which was inspired by Tammam Azzam’s “Bon Voyage” artwork.
The song has one lyric that build ups as the song moves forward. It roughly translates to:
No one can withstand anyone,
because everyone is sad.
No one can withstand anyone,
because everyone has lost (x2).
No one is left to withstand anyone,
considering everyone has lost.
No one is left to withstand anyone,
considering everyone has runaway.
The track seems to reflect the general nonchalant feel towards Eid, and how people in Syria are perhaps running out of patience. Nevertheless, Alkak's song follows a pattern of pessimism displayed by other Syrian artists as well. Below are a few examples:
Done by Maher A. Husn. It reads, “We do not want your Eid”
Done by Wajdi Saleh, entitled, “No Eid while our kid is a martyr,” referring to children martyrs of Ghouta.
Rising artist Sedki Al Imam approaches Eid with jest.On Eid al Adha, Muslims sacrifice a goat or sheepand distribute the meat amongst the poor, neighbors and relatives.
Caricature by Husam al-Saadi shows Bashar Assad butchering Syria's map as though it were an Eid sacrifice.
Suzan Yaseen paints “The Martyrs and the Eid Dress.”
Mohammad Hamawi wraps Syria's Eid in a bloodied gift.
Other artists tackled the humanitarian side of the conflict and focused on refugees:
Hani Abbas sketches a Ferris wheel with refugee tents
Syria's art scene is nothing if not involving commentary from Kafranbel's people. Twitter user Racan tweets their latest poster:
Happy Eid from #Syria pic.twitter.com/Fwqo0C9ozI
— Racan (@Racanarchy) October 15, 2013
However, there is an embedded message that could be understood from such art, and that is: Syria's hardship is throttling what remains of the nation and it needs help. Prominent writer Amal Hanano explains the dire reality that people are enduring in Syria, as meat, for instance, has become far too expensive for many to afford.
Many people in #Syria this year are not slaughtering lambs for Eid. Meat has become a dream commodity to millions.
— Amal Hanano (@AmalHanano) October 14, 2013
Through design, the Syrian Revolution Multimedia Team asks that people donate their Eid sacrifice to Syria, making it art with a cause:
Done by the Syrian Revolution Multimedia Team, who are urging people to send their Eid sacrifice to Syria. The sheep says, “Send me to Syria they need me more there.”
Even those in diaspora feel Syria's ache, finding it hard to celebrate, as Omar Kuptan puts it:
You just can't buy Eid clothes or even feel anything that has to do with Eid when your country is barely alive. #syria
— Mr.Homsi.أبو شَهِمْ (@OmarKuptan) October 11, 2013
Others are dreading the distance:
Another Eid away from home. #Syria
— Alia Al Baba (@1996Alia) October 14, 2013
However, among the pessimists and the realists arises a voice wishing Syria a blessed Eid in beautiful typography and bright colors, as though saying, this too shall pass:
By Abdo Meknas
And pass, it shall.
–
Copyright of photographs used in this post are to their respective owners, used here with attribution.

author: Nour Al Ali


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Saudi Prisoners’ Visits Cancelled, Family Members Arrested · Global Voices
Anas Soliman

On October 16th sit-in via yasser939393
During the holiday of Eid al-Adha [October 15], prisoners in certain Saudi prisons are allowed to be visited by their relatives. Many of the visits in this year's holiday have been canceled, causing a lot of discontent among family members.
The issue of arbitrary detainment is already one of the most heated human rights issues in the absolute monarchy. Independent human rights sources say that there are over 30,000 arbitrarily imprisoned people [ar], many of whom were arrested in the massive, post-9/11 “war on terrorism”. Those detainees were arrested without a warrant and have not had access to lawyers and trial.
One of the family members, Yasser al-Ayaf, tweeted his encounter:
اليوم زيارة المعايدة لوالدي .. الجوير يقول عبدالله متغير “يقصد ابوي” وعدنا من حيث اتينا دون زيارة (وعلى قدر المضالم تأتي الدعوة)
— ياسر عبدالله العياف (@yasser939393) October 16, 2013
Today was supposed to be my father's Eid visit. [The prison warden] al-Jouir says that Abdullah, my father, has changed and we returned with no visit…
Back in August, Yasser's father, who had been arrested for seven years without a trial, had a release order issued by a judge, but it has not been implemented by the Interior Ministry:
اللهم لك الحمد حتى ترضى صدور امر افراج لوالدي قبل دقائق من الأن ..
— ياسر عبدالله العياف (@yasser939393) August 27, 2013
Thank God. The order to release my father was issued minutes ago.
Maha al-Dhuhayan, Abdullah al-Ayaf's wife, tweeted:
مر يوم العيد بلا اتصال من ز وجي واليوم موعد الزيارة وطال الانتظار فاقبلوا علينا ليخبرونا انه لا زيارة اليوم…!! #عيد_المعتقلين
— مهاء الضحيان (@cczz9000) October 16, 2013
The Eid has passed without a call from my husband. Today, we were supposed to visit him but we waited for a long period and then were told that we had no visit!
When the family members were denied visits, they decided to hold a short sit-in on the second day of Eid, October 16. They were surrounded by police forces and given no response:
من ست ساعات ولارد احد ! طيب ليش تواعدوننا بزيارات ؟ pic.twitter.com/SAKEpWx9fk
— ياسر عبدالله العياف (@yasser939393) October 16, 2013
It has been six hours and no one responded! Why then did you tell us that we had visits?
In one of the video clips uploaded from the sit-in, a young child chants [ar]: “The people want to free the prisoners!”
By 7pm, local time, they decided to leave:
تفرق المشاركون في #اعتصام_الطرفية بعد وقوف بعضهم لقرابة ٨ساعات ليعايدوا أقاربهم ولم يلاقواسوى قسوة قلوب المباحث وفضاضة السنهم #عيد_المعتقلين
— المناصرون (@almonaseron) October 16, 2013
The participants in the al-Terfeya [prison] sit-in have left. Some of them have been there for about 8 hours to meet their relatives, but they only found the heartlessness of the secret police.
On the following day, October 17, they decided to come back to demand another visit. They were told to go to the Governor's Office. Maha al-Dhuhayan tweeted:
اليوم الثاني على التوالي مرابطة من اجل اتصال او زا يارة بلا جدوى واﻵن توجهنا الى الأمارة عسى الله ان يحدث بعد ذلك فرجا #عيد_المعتقلين
— مهاء الضحيان (@cczz9000) October 17, 2013
This is the second day in a row in which we hold a sit-in to demand a call or a visit, with no progress. Now we are heading to the Governor Office. May God help us.
Reema al-Jourish, whose husband is also arbitrarily imprisoned, tweeted:
عاااجل اعتقال جميع الشباب و اختفاء كامل للنساء لانعلم عن النساء شي ذويهن يتصلون بهم ولا يوجد رد #عيد_المعتقلين
— ريما الجريش (@twit_rima) October 17, 2013
Just in: All young men have been arrested and all women have been lost. We don't know anything about the women. Their relatives have tried to call them without an answer.
Reports say that 15 children have been arrested:
لا يزال ١٥ طفل من (أسرة الحربي و العياف و الضحيان) يعتقلون في سجون القصيم ، كانوا في الطريق لزيارة آبائهم في سجن مباحث الطرفية
— اعتقال (@e3teqal) October 17, 2013
Fifteen children are still detained (they are from al-Harbi, al-Ayaf and al-Duhayan families) when they were in their way to visit their fathers in the al-Terfeya prison.
Some other prisoners were denied the Eid visit since the beginning, like human rights activist Houd al-Aqel, who was arrested back in March:
إدارة سجن الحاير تحرمنا من زيارة هود ومعايدته رغم اتصالاتنا ومطالبتنا المستمرة #عيد_المعتقلين
— خولة العقيل (@khawlah20) October 18, 2013
The administration of al-Hayer Prison has denied us visiting Houd despise our continuous calls and demands.

author: Anas Soliman


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Sydney Bushfires Spark Climate Change Brawl · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Takver Takvera examines the devastating spring bushfires in the Australian state of New South Wales that have destroyed nearly 200 homes so far on his Climate Citizen blog: Raging Bushfires surround Sydney with early start to Fire season: Is there a link and is it appropriate to air the debate while the disaster is still unfolding?

author: Kevin Rennie


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The Raqqa Woman who Faced the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria · Global Voices
Syria Untold

This post is cross-posted from Syria Untold.
School teacher Suad Nofal was among the first demonstrators to take to the streets in Raqqa, a city in north central Syria located on the north bank of the Euphrates, about 160 kilometres (99 miles) east of Aleppo, at the beginning of the uprising against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in 2011. She also took part in the first demonstrations against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the jihadist group that has taken over the areas free of regime control and imposed its own agendas on the population. When activists in Raqqa decided that gathering in front of the ISIS headquarters was too dangerous, Nofal decided to protest alone, becoming a one-woman demonstration and a symbol of the Syrian uprising.
Suad Nofal, surrounded by her banners. Source: Syria Untold
The one-woman demonstration
Nofal, who majored in Education in 2006, has gone through her own personal revolutionary process since the beginning of the uprising. She has gone from facing the regime to dealing with extremist groups trying to profit from the power vacuum, as well as having to face her own family, who did not agree with her activism.
When asked by Syria Untold about how her activism has affected her family, Nofal said:
“My family has told me to stop and they say they will not forgive me if something happens to them. Of course I am worried about this, but Syria needs us all now. How can we abandon our country when it needs us the most?”
She seems determined not to abandon it, and continues to raise her home-made banners both in front of the ISIS headquarters and through the streets and markets of Raqqa. Her very critical and straightforward messages include “Our revolution was triggered by honorable people, and it is being stolen by thieves”, “Release all detainees”, and “Where were you when the crimes of Ghouta happened? Sleeping in your palaces?” (Ghouta is an area in the outskirts of Damascus whose population suffered chemical weapons attacks in August 2013, which caused the death of hundreds of civilians, many of them children).
Other banners send a clear message to those using religion to oppress people:
“Muslims spilling the blood of Muslims are sinners”, “Our enemy is the criminal regime, not the people”, and “Don't talk so much about religion. Show us your religion through your decency, your compassion and your good deeds.”
When asked about ISIS, she insists that these groups are no different from the Assad regime that they had to endure for so long.
“They burn churches, shoot at people, and impose their decisions on the population, how is that different from the regime?”
Suad Nofal with a child and one of her banners in Raqqa. Source: Suad Nofal´s facebook page.
“I don’t want to leave my city”
As previously reported on Syria Untold, ISIS has engaged in raising the group's black flag to replace the popular revolution flag in demonstrations, imposing sectarian slogans, desecrating Christian saints’ graves and destroying churches and cultural symbols such as the statue of poet and philosopher Abul Alaa al-Maarri, known for denouncing religious superstition and dogmatism. This has created outrage among activists, who saw their revolution being hijacked by groups that are far from representing the diversity of their country and the population´s demands.
Standing up to ISIS has caused Nofal to be the subject of constant attack and threats. She was even shot at in front of the ISIS headquarters, an episode that she managed to survive with the help of her sister.
“No matter what happens, I want to stay. I want to stay in my city, I don't want others to take over it. Online activism is good, but there is work that has to be done on the ground, and some of us have to stay to do it.”
Nofal’s courage has inspired others and ignited solidarity with the “one-woman demonstration” from all over the country, especially from other women. Activist Mayan Atassi wrote:
“Today I really needed this feminine source of strength and courage. I wish you the best, Suad Nofal!”
Nofal holds on to her banners, full of messages, colors and cartoons, as a reminder of the Syrian struggle, and her own.
“These banners have kept me company, they have given me strength. They remind me why it is important to keep doing what we are doing. Until we are free.”
Suad Nofal´s banner, in solidarity with the Christian population, torn by ISIS. Source: Suad Nofal´s Facebook page
This post is cross-posted from Syria Untold.

author: Syria Untold


text:
Three Reasons Why Young Indians Don’t Become Entrepreneurs · Global Voices
Rezwan

Abhinav Sahai has a theory to explain why young Indian talents do not usually end up as entrepreneurs. They give more priority to marriage, kids and buying own property, he thinks.


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Viral Video Compares Chinese Top Leaders to Kung Fu Masters · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A video, “How to become a top leader?”, uploaded to major video hosting sites on 14 October 2013, has gone viral in China as it is the first time China's top leaders are presented as cartoon figures on the Chinese internet.
With both English and Mandarin versions, the professionally made video presents the selection process of Chinese leaders as “meritocratic screening that requires years of hard work like the making of a Kung Fu master” and describes the U.S election of president as “more difficult than becoming an American Idol”.
The video is produced by a studio called “Road to Revival” which resonates with Chinese president Xi Jinping's China dream. Hence many speculated that the video is state sponsored. Kang Jie is among one of the  micro-bloggers to point out [zh] the video's political nature:
很可能是由官方制作，意在改变以往中国相对生硬的宣传方式，尝试以一种与国际接轨、公众更能接受的新方式来阐释中国的政治制度，并且选择“干部选拔”这个核心话题进行国际对比，显示出相当的自信。
It is likely an official production [government sponsored], an attempt to change the rigid political propaganda in the past. It tries to use a new way to explain the Chinese political system to the public and international society  by focusing on Chinese “official selection” system and comparing it with other international systems. It manifests its confidence.
The 5 minute video begins with a brief explanation of the U.S presidential election system:
Anyone born on American soil, have lived in the States for more than 14 years and are now over 35 years old. Then you can run for U.S president. […]
Without a glib tongue, extraordinary stamina, and most importantly an unending flow of greenbacks, no one can ever pull through it. The two candidates in the 2012 US presidential election, spent 2.04 billion US dollars. Alas becoming a “political hero” is definitely far more difficult than becoming an “American Idol”!
Before explaining the difficult path of Chinese leaders, the video describes the “massive” character of the Chinese Community Party:
How then does one win the presidency in China? To begin with you also must get to the top of the governing party. But here we're talking about a Party of more than 85 million members. To qualify for top leadership, you need to go through decades of selections and tests. The membership of the gigantic party is a first pass. You could be a college student, or factory hand, or technician, a journalist, a teacher. Anyways, you must be excellent at what you do. Various trials and tests lie ahead to determine whether you have it in you to lead.
In China, officials are ranked in a hierarchy. Typically one starts at the primary level and then is promoted successively to township / section, county / division, department / bureau, and province / ministry levels. Among China's 7 million officials, only one out of every 140,000 makes this far and it takes more than 20 years.
Then the video takes the current Chinese president, Xi Jinping, as an example to explain the “meritocratic screening” process of top leaders:
Take Xi Jinping, president of China. He started at a primary-level office, one similar to community councils in the West. Later he was promoted to run a county, then a city and then different provinces like Fujian and Zhejiang and Shanghai. He went on to become the Veep and finally the Party General Secretary and the President. He experienced 16 major job transfers and governed an accumulative population of over 150 million over 40 plus years. […]
In the system before a party member could take over the helm of China, he would have sailed through all kinds of rapids and shoals. More important, he would have participated in the deliberation and formulation of many major strategies and policies. That is why over the decades, through several leadership transitions, China has managed to keep its policies generally consistent and worked along one national development strategy. This is one of the secrets of the “China Miracle”.
To counter problems like environmental degradation, and statistical frauds in recent years, due to excessive pursuit of GDP, the evaluation criteria for officials have also been duly modified to include items such as energy and resource efficiency, social security, and cultural development. To the end of each year, officials face a thorough performance review where they are gauged with more than 40 different yardsticks. Besides, their performance is also subject to a vote of approval by the rank and file under their administration and all kinds of supervision. Today the 538 million netizens of China show no mercy to officials with misconducts. Many roads lead to national leadership and every country has one for itself.  Whether by a single ballot that gets the whole nation out to vote, or by a meritocratic screening that requires years of hard work like the making of a Kung Fu master. As long as people are satisfied, and the country develops and progresses as a result, it's working.
The professionally made video went viral online as soon as it was uploaded because it is the first time [zh] to see Chinese top leaders presented as cartoon figures on the Chinese internet. Indeed most of the discussions on Chinese social media platforms are about the creative presentation style and “cuteness” of the images while neglecting the self-flattering comparison of Chinese top leaders to “Kung Fu masters”.
Chinese micro-bloggers are usually keen to debate about the political system, yet this time, almost no critical comment appears on social media platforms due to the Communist Party's ideological battle and the resulting crackdown of online dissents. One can only find mumbling comments hidden here and there. For example, under the Nanjing city propaganda department's Weibo comment section:
法明道长：不敢乱说什么！
“Taoist Priest Faming”: Dare not say anything!
妙木山的初级仙人：那个往上跳的片段应该让薄先生也出境，不能因为人家被推下去就不让人家出境
“Junior Taoist Immortal in Miaomu Mountain”: Should also show Mr. Bo [Xilai] on the staircase, should not censor him out because he has fallen.
春风化雨的时候：自欺欺人被人欺~
“Time to teach”: Cheating others cheating oneself.
拉哥1990微博達人：最重要的背景和家庭出身没讲
Brother La 1990: It has not mentioned background and family, the most important criteria of all.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Fake Beating Stunt on Serbian TV Draws Criticism from Journalists · Global Voices
Danica Radisic

Image of “bleeding” journalist Zoran Šećerov on SOS Channel's live television show. Image by Nikola Janković, sports reporter for Mondo. Used with permission.
The story began when viewers tuned in for a live program about football on SOS Channel, a national sports TV network. A guest on the show, veteran sports journalist Zoran Šećerov, entered the studio late, bleeding and visibly bruised [sr]. By the end of the program, however, viewers learned that it was all a ruse orchestrated by SOS Channel to “raise awareness of the issues in Serbian football” such as organized crime and corruption, an idea they say they borrowed from Italian colleagues who did the same.
As Šećerov entered, it was explained that he had been jumped and “brutally beaten by three assailants in front of the SOS Channel building”. Šećerov had what seemed to be visible cuts on his head and appeared to be bleeding moderately from the head, arms and torso, leaving viewers, who had expected a typical weekly discussion on football-related matters, in shock.
Among the first viewers to break the news and comment on social networks was Igor Krasnić, a journalism and communications professional:
NOVINAR SECEROV KRVAV U STUDIJU, TUKLA GA TROJICA BATINASA ISPRED #SOS KANALA. KAZE, OTKRICE NARUCIOCE
— Igo® (@IgorKrasnic) October 20, 2013
JOURNALIST SECEROV BLOODY IN THE STUDIO, BEATEN BY THREE ASSAILANTS IN FRONT OF #SOS CHANNEL. SAYS HE WILL REVEAL WHO ORDERED [the beating]
— Igo® (@IgorKrasnic) October 20, 2013
The news traveled quickly on Twitter, and soon other viewers joined the program. Many were disturbed by what they saw and heard. The journalist, approximately 60 years old, was visibly injured and covered in blood. Those watching the show began demanding that someone call an ambulance and police to the SOS Channel building to give Šećerov the treatment he seemed to need.
Šećerov said he would reveal the names of those who “ordered the beating” later in the show and, of course, the audience's anticipation grew. Once the show's host asked him to reveal who the guilty parties were, Šećeroc laughed and said, “Two lovely makeup ladies from SOS Channel.” The injuries and blood that had frightened viewers into worrying about Šećerov were nothing but well-done makeup assisted by a little acting from the journalist.
Viewers flooded social media in disgust, condemning the channel's stunt and calling it “shameful”, “unprofessional” and a “bad joke”. Željko Ilić from Belgrade directed his comment at SOS Channel's official Twitter account, writing:
@nixonbelgrade @sos_kanal Da je hrabrosti u Srbiji sutra ne bi nigde nista pisalo o sportu, niti bismo gledali na tv-u #Secerov
— Željko Ilić (@KonkiBasketball) October 20, 2013
@nixonbelgrade @sos_kanal If there were any courage in Serbia tomorrow there would be nothing written about sports and we wouldn't watch it on tv #Secerov
— Željko Ilić (@KonkiBasketball) October 20, 2013
Slavko Beleslin, an editor and anchorman at B92 network, commented on the matter with his colleagues:
@Nikola330 @djoca @SuzanaTrninic @AnjaDmitrovic Uopste nije opusteno!!! To nije za salu, to je bezobrazluk i vrhunski neukus!
— Slavko Beleslin (@SlavkoBeleslin) October 20, 2013
@Nikola330 @djoca @SuzanaTrninic @AnjaDmitrovic Not relaxed at all!!! This isn't a joking matter, it's rude and ultimately distasteful!
— Slavko Beleslin (@SlavkoBeleslin) October 20, 2013
Anja Dmitrović, a former popular television host turned PR professional, commented with similar outrage:
Sve za rejting #soskanal #secerov Sramota! I onda me pitaju sto vise ne radim na tv…
— Anja Dmitrovic (@AnjaDmitrovic) October 20, 2013
Everything for ratings #soskanal #secerov Shameful! And then they ask me why I don't work in tv anymore…
— Anja Dmitrovic (@AnjaDmitrovic) October 20, 2013
The shock and outrage most viewers and journalism professionals showed on social networks was a reflection not only of the state of media in Serbia, but also of the dangerous sports landscape in the country, which has produced many high-quality sports teams and players throughout the past decades. In 2009, now Prime Minister Dačić was quoted as saying that “half of sports clubs [are] led by mafia” in Serbia. The situation has only worsened in the meantime, and many politicians have since promised a crackdown on corruption and crime in the world of Serbian sports, particularly football, which still yields the highest criminal profits.
Though there have been some arrests in previous years, the mix of organized crime in Serbian and regional sports has only escalated, thus people don't seem so pleased with SOS Channel's twisted joke on account of the lurking and highly possible reality.

author: Danica Radisic


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#FreeBoussa: Moroccan Netizens Protest Teen Trial over Public Kiss  · Global Voices
Ahmed Medien

Three Moroccans teens were arrested on October 3 in Nador in the “Rif” region of Northeast Morocco. The arrested teens were a 15-year-old and 14-year-old couple and their 15-year-old photographer. Their crime was posting a picture of the couple kissing outside of their high school on Facebook. In Moroccan law, this could be translated into violating “public decency.”
Moroccan Adolescents On Trial for Kissing in Public
Photocredit: Facebook
The Rif mountainous region is known to be an über Muslim conservative region within a conservative Morocco. Such daring public photographs may shock the public. Another public kiss stirred this violent reaction from a standby witness.
The angry man in the video shouts a slur at the young couple calling it disrespectful to do such acts in a Muslim country.
The arrest immediately triggered a public uproar from fellow Moroccan netizens and social media users worldwide. #Freeboussa, free kiss in Arabic, has been the new social media buzz for a week now since the arrest.
The story has been covered from North America to New Zealand, skipping through the Middle East.
The charge created a furor not only on social media under the hashtag #Freeboussa which translates (from Arabic) to Free Kiss; Also, several Moroccans created social events to protest by daring authorities to kiss in public. Young Moroccans staged a kiss protest last Saturday [October 12th] in front of the kingdom's parliament in Rabat.
The original Facebook event has inexplicably disappeared since Sunday, October 13.
Public “kiss-in” protest in Rabat – Oct. 12th
Photocredit: @BelkouchHicham
Public “kiss-in” protest in Rabat – Oct. 12th
Photocredit: @BelkouchHicham
Parisian Moroccans staged in their public protest last Friday during the same day as the scheduled trial in Nador at the Moroccan Embassy.
Photocredit: “we sign it” Facebook page
Photocredit: “we sign it” Facebook page
“Generation Active“, a community development organization launched by young Moroccans, started a petition aiming to collect 10,000 signatures. The organization doesn't state its goals once the object will met, but such a petition will sure stir more reactions and debates online. The petition has only gathered for now 2,791 signatures (28%) so far.
Photo of the petition website
Photocredit: freeboussa.wesign.it/fr
Photo of the petition website
Photocredit: freeboussa.wesign.it/fr
Human Rights Advocacy organization, Amnesty International, called the charges against the young people arrested for the kiss “absurd“. Its MENA diector Philip Luther urged the Moroccan judiciary to drop charges against the teens:
These young people should never have been detained in the first place – there is no imaginable reason why expression of this type ought to result in prosecution. Launching a judicial investigation into a complaint about an act as benign as teenagers kissing is ridiculous. It should be dismissed out of hand.
Many other netizens flocked to the internet to post other symbolic photographs to express their rejection of putting the young people on trial for a kiss.
Voici comment ils veulent rendre le Maroc .. #Freeboussa pic.twitter.com/5HPXjc3KvB
— MarocTopNews (@MarocTopNews) October 5, 2013
This is how they want Morocco.. #FreeBoussa
Marrakech resident, Anas Oulmidi, tweeted a picture of two young children also kissing in public surrounded by friendly, smiling faces as a contract to a judicial trial and risk of imprisonment.
Posté en juin "avec 10ans de plus, ça serait pas la meme histoire", c finalement vrai #dommage #freeboussa #twittoma pic.twitter.com/cFoReVJabx
— Anas Oulmidi (@Oulmidianas) October 4, 2013
Posted in June “in 10 years time, the situation will change (in reference to the teenagers’ case). It is finally true #alas #FreeBoussa #twittoma
DC-based Jadaliyya co-editor Samia Errzouki explains:
Those teens were from Nador. Socioeconomic and political marginalization has an embedded history there and is a huge factor. #FreeBoussa
— Samia Errazzouki (@charquaouia) October 12, 2013
Kiss-in certainly serves to disrupt. Though let's not discount political & socioeconomic reasons for why the teens got arrested. #FreeBoussa
— Samia Errazzouki (@charquaouia) October 12, 2013
Arab Schizophrenia? Ever heard of it? Arab schizophrenia often consists of double standards in majority Muslim countries.
Moroccan Sheriff talks about the subject on his YouTube Channel. He makes a point that Moroccans are often accepting of non-Islamic norms as reality, but are not willing to defend these liberties publicly. In fact, they might turn against these norms all of the sudden. Moroccans have the pressure to conform. Sheriff also advances in his video that Moroccans consume 13 million liters of alcohol annually. Morocco is one of the biggest exporter of hashish worldwide, with an amount of exchanging doubling that of the kingdom's tourism revenues.
This isn't the unique case of Morocco. The same has been noted in neighboring Tunisia.
Secular writer, Kacem El Ghazali (@emkacel), now Zurich-based famed Moroccan blogger and activist, also shared his opinion about the matter on his Facebook page [ar]:
مايفهم من خلال وقفة البارحة للقبل بالمغرب هو أننا بحاجة إلى ثقافة تطبع بين الحريات الفردية والفضاء العام. أغلب المغاربة يمارسون الجنس دون زواج ويشربون الخمر لكن مادام فعلهم محاطا بسرية تامة فكل شيء جيد و مقبول. مجتمع سكيزوفريني منافق ومريض.
What I understood from the Kiss-in action in #Morocco and the reactions on social media is that we need a culture of normalization between individual freedoms and the public. Many Moroccans do have sex without marriage and drink alcohol… and as long as all is being kept in the dark, then it's alright. What a schizophrenic and sick society!
As for the Moroccan government and the King, they asserted the importance that judiciary be and remain independent from governing authorities.
Following this social pressure, the regional Nador persecutor ordered the release of the teens on bail. The trial was scheduled last Friday. The final sentence is now expected on November 22 in order for “an inquiry into the social circumstances of the teenagers,” their lawyer said, according to international news channel France 24.

author: Ahmed Medien


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Morocco Censors the Web: Collateral Damage Allowed · Global Voices
Rayna St.

On the morning of October 19, many Moroccan netizens woke up to the blocking of a large number of websites, among them popular social media platforms Instagram and Pinterest. Noticeably, one of the main independent media outlets in Morocco, Lakome, has been censored. Targeting Lakome is actually the reason behind the wide blocking, operated by Maroc Télécom, the main Moroccan telephone and internet provider, and other, less influential companies.
Indeed, Lakome’s editor, Ali Anouzla, has been arrested on September 17 after he published an article containing a link to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) video. More precisely, the article was a report on AQIM's 40-minute propaganda video. The video dubbed Morocco the “kingdom of corruption and despotism,” and called for jihad (holy war) in the country, Anouzla wrote. The link to the video was in fact a link to the blog of a journalist with the Spanish daily El Pais. Anouzla was charged with terrorism on September 25, and has since then been in pre-trial detention. Such an abusive treatment has generated worldwide support, translated through social media campaigns with the hashtag #FreeAnouzla and massive calls to set the journalist free.
Meanwhile, Lakome.com was blocked as per alleged explicit demand of Anouzla himself. The story is murky, and various potentially interdependent events intertwine. Anouzla’s colleague and Lakome co-founder, Aboubakr Jamaï, explained that, on October 14, Ali Anouzla has publicized through the website Goud.ma a decision to shut down the Lakome’s Arabic version. This is also the moment when Jamaï is informed that Anouzla has a new lawyer. His confusion is apparent [fr]:
La décision d'Ali me laissait d'autant plus perplexe que la manière dont elle a été exécutée nous était à moi et à Lakome particulièrement hostile. Pourquoi ce nouvel avocat a décidé de communiquer d'abord à travers Goud ?
Et pourquoi ne pas m'informer ? Je suis co-fondateur de Lakome et directeur de publication de son site francophone, et depuis le 26 septembre, directeur de publication de lakome arabophone sans que personne n'y trouve à redire. De plus, Ali avait jusqu'à ce lundi 14 octobre demandé avec insistance que le site continue de fonctionner.
Ali’s decision left me even more perplexed given that the way it’s been put to work is particularly hostile to both myself and Lakome. Why has this new lawyer decided to communicate through Goud first?
And why not inform me about it? I’m Lakome’s co-founder and editor of its French version; also, since September 26, I am editor of Lakome’s Arabic version, a situation nobody has opposed so far. Moreover, Ali had — until this Monday, October 14 — required that the website keeps on functioning.
Aboubakr Jamaï actually decided to keep the website active. On October 17, Lakome.com was, however, effectively blocked. Quickly, the team set up two alternative urls, lako.me and lakome.info, which were swiftly blocked as well. This arbitrary movement clearly illustrates the fact that blocking Lakome is unlawful and politically driven. Mohamed Ezzouak explains (Fr) that suspending Lakome as per Anouzla's demand should have been rejected by the public prosecutor or the National Agency for the Regulations of Telecoms because him being editor does not suffice to legitimate his ownership of the website. Ezzouak finally argues that “the speed of this new blocking [of the newly set-up domain names] demonstrates the authorities’ desire to silence the website at any cost.”
It is how on October 19, Lakome was blocked completely, a move decried by netizen and human rights activist Yassir Kazar as “North Korea style.” The blocking has widened, causing impressive collateral damage:
Amazon services (including Instagram+Pinterest+Quora+Heroku/and Heroku hosted apps+a few million other sites) are not accessible for (1/2)
— AnonOpsAfrica (@AnonOpsAfrica) October 19, 2013
… are not accessible for ADSL users in Rabat. How long would it take for the other cities in #Morocco #Maroc ? :) (2/2) @AnonyOps
— AnonOpsAfrica (@AnonOpsAfrica) October 19, 2013
Initial reports were quoting Tumblr as blocked as well, but it came out the blogging platform was experiencing technical issues on its own side. Irony spread over Twitter as netizens were flagging (un)censored websites:
youporn toujours accessible
— Karim (@Karim_EH) October 19, 2013
Youporn is still accessible
Ils ont aussi coupé trib.al pour une raison qui me dépasse donc tu ne peux plus cliquer sur les liens de @TheEconomist
— Karim (@Karim_EH) October 19, 2013
They have also cut trib.al for a reason I cannot comprehend, thus one is no longer able to click on @TheEconomist's links
BREAKING: http://t.co/DBHPmEtxxH / the AWESOME Pocket extension is on the blackout list. #Morocco #AmazonDown
— AnonOpsAfrica (@AnonOpsAfrica) October 19, 2013
Ruzzle censuré. Cette fois c'est clair, le makhzen veut qu'on reste des idiots.
— عمر (@omtael) October 19, 2013
Ruzzle [a word-smithing mobile phone game] censored. This time, it's clear, the regime wants us to remain idiots.
In a surprising move, French-based independent hackers news outlet Reflets.info was also blocked:
Screenshot from blocked within Morocco website Reflets.info. Image from @vxroot
Two of its co-founders reacted, one of them addressing the French Minister for Digital Economy, and the other asking Maroc Télécom (Fr) for explanations. Reflets.info's blocking seems to be (Fr) politically motivated as it has been firmly standing behind Lakome and denouncing the Moroccan government's decision to censor it.
The censorship was hugely decried on Twitter:
Regardez la TL de @vxroot pour admirer la censure au #Maroc. Ils ont balcklisté les services sur lesquels se basent plein d'autres sites 1/2
— CarnetDeBeur (@YassirKazar) October 19, 2013
Have a look at @vxroot's timeline if you want to admire censorship in Morocco. They have black-listed the services on which are based plenty of other sites 1/2
à présent non seulement les militants sont concernés mais aussi des admins des développeurs de simples internautes des business Amazon 2/2
— CarnetDeBeur (@YassirKazar) October 19, 2013
now, not only activists are concerned, but also admins, developers and ordinary web users of Amazon 2/2
He was indeed correct, as local entrepreneurs have been showing discontent (Fr) about important services such as Amazon and Heroku being blocked thus directly impeding on the local economy.
On a more vindictive note, Twitter user @L_badikho invited hackers:
[je donne des idées gratuites, 2)Hackers] piratez un site gouvernemental et mettez y un miroir de Lakome
— Lbadikho@gmail.com (@L_badikho) October 19, 2013
[I'm giving free ideas, 2) to hackers] take over a governmental website and install a Lakome mirror on it
Others, such as @sniper_ma, highlighted the negative impact in terms of image the country will have on the international scene:
ce blocage de sites va coûter au Maroc plusieurs places ou dizaines de places dans les indices et indicateurs internationaux. bravo !
— Marouane HARMACH (@sniper_ma) October 19, 2013
This websites’ blocking will cost a lot in various global indicators. Kudos!
Quite timely congratulations were apparently also sent to the Moroccan government from China:
Le Parti Communiste Chinois salue les progrès fait par le Maroc en termes de liberté sur Internet – MAP
— Omar H. (@Omar_H_) October 19, 2013
The Chinese Communist Party salutes the progress Morocco has completed in terms of internet freedom — MAP [Moroccan Press Agency]
According to personal contacts in Morocco, at the time of writing, the blocking seems to be country-wide for Lakome and Reflets.info while blocking of other services is patchy as it apparently depends on strict IP addresses. Some of the mirrors set for Lakome are also censored. There has been no official declaration yet.