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2016 Was the Caribbean’s Year of Loss · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The year 2016. Image by Artis Rams, used under a CC BY-ND 2.0 license.
For bloggers in the Caribbean, “2016” has nearly become an obscenity. Adjectives now used to describe this “annus horribilis” include “sucky”, “terrible” and “the worst”. The thing that drove netizens over the edge — compounding the region's soaring crime rate and economic challenges — was the fact that so many outstanding artists, leaders and visionaries passed away this year.
It began with the musicians. In early January 2016, Trinidadian steel band arranger, Jit Samaroo, passed away on the eve of the country's Panorama music contest, where scores of steel pan players, organised into full orchestras, compete for one of the most prestigious titles on the annual Carnival circuit.
The Facebook group Maraval Road summed up the loss quite succinctly:
The pan world lost one of the biggest icons today. Jit Samaroo is credited with pushing pan to the next level and has written some of what is still known as the most difficult and genre defying music ever to come from Trinidad and Tobago.
Samaroo worked his magic with countless musical pieces over the years, like this novel arrangement of calypsonian Lord Kitchener‘s “Mystery Band”:
Four short days later, the region — like much of the rest of the world — was shocked at the passing of British-born rocker David Bowie. Bowie's music affected the people of the Caribbean in astounding ways. In an interview with Global Voices, fashion blogger Patrice Grell-Yursik explained why:
I wasn't surprised at the universal reaction […] but the Caribbean reaction was thrilling and reassuring in a different way. Growing up in Trinidad, it wasn't always easy to discover older music in different genres and I sometimes felt like a teenage misfit listening to The Beatles, Paul Simon and David Bowie. You have to seek it out. I love that so many of us did, and we are all feeling the loss.
Another international artist whose death, in April 2016, shook Caribbean music fans to their core was Prince. American artist and activist Natasha Thomas-Jackson, wrote a blog post about the impact of Prince's music; it was widely shared across the regional blogosphere:
As is the case with all cultural icons, the grief is being felt in all corners, by people of all races, ethnicities, economic classes, gender expressions, etc. There is no doubt that his Purple Majesty touched people all over this world.
For me, Prince was confirmation of the heights one could reach when they weren’t afraid…to be different. Non-conforming. Confusing. Questionable. Nuanced. Hard to understand. Hard to explain. Though I was deeply appreciative of his musical genius, Prince was more of a spiritual psychopomp for me, a shining example of how to obtain the deepest form of liberation: being your damn self.
By July, the brilliant but largely unacknowledged Trinidadian guitarist Fitzroy Coleman also passed away. Coleman's inimitable style earned him the international reputation of being one of the greatest chord players of all time, alongside some of the world's best known jazz musicians, like Wes Montgomery and Django Reinhardt. Trinidadian calypsonian David Rudder, who paid tribute to Coleman in his classic song Calypso Music, posted this Facebook status update on hearing of Coleman's passing:
Fitzie's gone boy. We wasted his brilliance. We only entered his library now and then. What a people eh!
For people like him, let's hope that there really is an afterlife so that his fingers can dance across the fretboard again. RIP boss.
Trinidadians Holly Betaudier and Earl Crosby, who each in his own way loved and promoted the music and culture of the country — and the region — also passed away this year.
Two seminal personalities in the world of sport left us in 2016. Hearts were heavy with grief the world over at the deaths of Barbadian cricket commentator Tony Cozier and Harold La Borde, the first Trinidadian to to circumnavigate the globe in his trusty ketch, the Hummingbird II.
The beloved Cozier, whose instantly recognisable voice was the indisputable soundtrack of West Indies cricket, was remembered not only for his clear, melodic Barbadian lilt that some describe as “champagne on air”, but also for his integrity, insightfulness, generosity, fairness, gentleness, grace, and — naturally — his burning love for the sport. Barbados-based journalist and blogger B.C. Pires wrote of his passing:
It’s the ultimate firetruckery for every one of us, and most of us will be lucky not to have to face it for a long time yet, but it came this morning for the most important man in West Indies cricket history who never raised his bat or sent down an over. What the now late Tony Cozier sent down, instead, were millions of words, every one of them up in the block hole, about our cricket. West Indies cricket would be in a good place now, had we listened to TC, instead of the hordes of pompous idiots gallerying themselves in their jackets-and-ties but revealing themselves in their press releases.
La Borde, an avid sailor and true explorer at heart, had been bestowed with Trinidad and Tobago's highest award — the Trinity Cross (Gold) — for sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, from one side of the world to the other, from 1969 to 1973. Historian Angelo Bissessarsingh wrote:
There are heroes in name and then there are heroes in legend who will live on through the ages. The late Harold La Borde was the latter. For those who knew him and others who grew up in the shadow of his incredible adventures, his passing is a deeply sorrowful occurrence. Many of us pass the decaying hull of a small yacht, the legendary Hummingbird II on South Quay without appreciating the awe-inspiring voyage of circumnavigation it took at the hands of its builder and captain. […] We have lost one of our greatest icons, a man both humble and fearless whose triumphs over Neptune's lair will never be forgotten.
The region was also in mourning for acclaimed Jamaican painter Barrington Watson, and Barbados-born writer Austin Clarke.
Watson's technical adeptness and rich palette bequeathed to Jamaica a rich legacy and solid visual history of its society, landscape and culture, while Clarke was remembered as a “pioneering voice”, “always questioning and challenging the status quo, always holding people to account, sometimes courting controversy but willing to suffer the consequences of his opinions and convictions.”
Several regional leaders passed away this year, and while none of them had careers that were without controversy, they were all remembered for their efforts to spark social and political change.
Former prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick Manning, lost his battle with leukemia in July 2016. The blogosphere paid him tribute for being a charismatic speaker and “a sincere advocate for regional integration”.
Makandal Daaga, who led Trinidad and Tobago's Black Power Revolution in 1970, was remembered as “a man out for change”. Dr. Keith Rowley, the country's current prime minister, noted that Daaga “was not afraid to challenge the status quo, speak up against injustice and advocate for equality.” Some social media users, however, noted that along with the accolades, people should also remember Daaga's failings.
Perhaps the most iconic regional politician to die this year was Cuba's Fidel Castro, whose complicated legacy left some sad at his passing and others outraged at his legacy.
Social activist and University of the West Indies lecturer Gab Souldeya Hosein summed up the emotions many were feeling:
History weighing heavy on my heart this morning. I mourning the end of an defining era of fierce collective Caribbean hope. I know the work is in our hands. But right now we've lost the strength in our stride and it feels as if every gain in the region is under threat. There must be commitment, courage and struggle, but first there is loss. My generation of activists stays away from the state instead of seizing it for our national sovereignty. We stay the course, but must risk more to go further and build movements that press our mandate forward. We must create the Bishops and the Fidels of our future. We must make ourselves new symbols of autonomy and self determination. But first, before we rise as giants, this is a time for remembering and tears.
In stark contrast, one member of the Cuban diaspora, Johennys Leiva, commented:
Please don't pretend to understand what happened on that island. […]
Castro didn't storm in on one side of the island and with a swooping coup d'etat seat himself at a coronation.
It was gradual. […]
When he finally took over, weapons were all removed. His indoctrination or brainwashing literally divided families. He had quiet watchers to see if anyone had too many ‘guests’ and if they called the authorities, on suspicion alone you we're [sic] thrown in jail. […]
We didn't have another uprising because it wasn't just go in and fight. You didn't know exactly who your enemy was. […] He was heavily guarded, heavily protected and although we hate him for the vile things he did – we respected the tenacity. We knew he didn't care who he killed to stay there. We understood there was no benevolence or weakness to attack.
In the end, death is the great equaliser. Today, December 16, Trinidad and Tobago will bid its final farewell to another regional great: designer and master wire sculptor, Narcenio “Senor” Gomez, whose contribution to the country's traditional fancy sailor portrayals during annual Carnival celebrations was priceless, as was his determination to teach the dying art form to the younger generation.
And perhaps that is the lesson in this year of loss: with each death, springs new life.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Controversial Trinidad Carnival Fete Frustrates Fans Seeking Fun · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A portion of the crowd at OVO Fest, featuring Machel Montano, with special guests Sean Paul and Kes, at TD Echo Beach in Toronto. Photography by Charito Yap for The Come Up Show, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.
A hugely popular Carnival fete appears to have irked many Trinidad and Tobago Carnival lovers. The organisers of Soaka 2017, scheduled for January 29, may have thought they were being social media-savvy by asking patrons to go through a five-step process when buying their tickets, but the manoeuvre struck some as elitist and discriminatory, a reputation the local party scene has for decades fought to shed.
Trinidad Carnival Diary, a reliable source for all things Carnival-related, posted the ticket-purchase requirements on its Facebook page, asking, “So basically, purchasing a Soaka ticket is like applying for a VISA?!”:
The five-step process; shared on the Trinidad Carnival Diary Facebook page.
While the rationale behind the new process was to stop scalpers, not all netizens were buying it. Facebook user Jason All Caps Best-Mitchell commented:
This has nothing to do with reducing scalping! There are easier, less DISCRIMINATING ways to cut out the Scalpers. It'll still ram out because Trinis like to be with the ‘In’ crowd or ‘in’ fete.
Other patrons had the exact opposite reaction:
I think Adrian [Scoon, the event's promoter] is a genius! Get rid of scalpers and fruads! #Soaka2017
I will be there!
In fact, Scoon explained on his Facebook page that “throughout the lifespan of Soaka we have noticed a large portion of tickets for the event repeatedly being sold/scalped on the black market”:
This has two major negative effects.
1. You the customer will end up paying double and sometimes triple the amount of the original price of the ticket to attend the event.
2. These tickets are sometimes channeled into the hands of pick-pocketers who wish to come to the event and steal the belongings of honest paying patrons. eg phones, wallets, car keys etc.
This new process (facial recognition) will help us attempt to eradicate these issues, as the ticket cannot be resold on the black market.
It will also help us to keep a database and better know and understand our patrons.
Scoon assured patrons that, if they want to transfer their tickets to someone else, the organisers would accommodate. It appears that part of the reason for this new approach was also to offer convenience to party-goers, who could register for the event via either Facebook or Google.
To Keisha Sirjuesingh-Salandy, the move certainly wasn't unexpected:
I know ppl who made money consecutively from the resale of their Soaka tkts this right here had to happen
Still, some social media users remained unconvinced. Teneille Padia countered:
I understand what they r trying to do but I am not that desperate to go any party
Keevan L added:
Soaka 2017 will show you that your heart could be stink once your face nice
Naturally, the memes soon began. A popular local beer company posted this response on its Facebook page:
Tongue firmly in cheek, photographer Mark Lyndersay thought it might be a good idea to ply his services to would-be patrons:
Contact me to improve your chances of attending Soaka. #hotprofilepixforsoaka Don't play the fool with some bathroom selfie when you could be on the shortlist for VVIP.
All-inclusive fetes, concerts and other events in Trinidad and Tobago, for which attendees pay one (substantial) price and get everything — even food and drink — included, are often separated into different “VIP” sections depending on the ticket cost.
Meanwhile, Facebook user Mel Lissa advised party lovers to explore their options:
Go where yuh could go without problems… Why we beating up?
Lime 2017 – US500
Beach House -sold out
Soca Brainwash – sold out
Tribe – sold out
Soaka – a whole new khaki pants!
Despite all the online discussion, the event's new ticketing system has not affected sales — Soaka 2017 is reportedly sold out.

source: news-globalvoices

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


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#FreeMaxenceMelo: Authorities Charge Tanzanian Whistleblowing Website Owner Under Cybercrimes Law · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Jamii Forums screenshot and photo of Maxence Melo, widely shared on Twitter.
Maxence Melo, co-founder of Tanzanian whistleblowing and discussion site Jamii Forums was arrested in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania on December 13, for refusing police requests for forum members’ personal data. The offices of Jamii Forums were raided by police on December 14, and multiple other staff were questioned.
The charges against Melo fall under Tanzania's relatively new and controversial Cybercrimes Law, which has been used to prosecute numerous social media users since its approval in 2015.
Jamii Forums, which was established in 2006 by Maxence Melo and Mike Mushi, is one of the most popular sites in East Africa. Jamii (Swahili for “community”) Forums is known for intense political discussions and revelations of corruption that take place on its comment and discussion threads, in a style similar to that of Reddit. Melo has periodically faced challenges from state and federal authorities since the early days of Jamii Forums, where various corruption allegations against government officials and ruling party members have surfaced.
One of Melo's six lawyers, Benedict Ishabakaki, says his arrest and detention follow a High Court case, brought by Melo, that asks the court to review sections of Tanzania's 2015 Cybercrimes Law that allow extensive powers of law enforcement officers to search and seize electronic devices and computer systems. Beyond declining to disclose user data that authorities have requested under the Cybercrimes Law, Melo argues that they are unconstitutional and that the Cybercrimes Law undercuts freedom of expression in Tanzania. He and his staff have also asserted that Jamii Forums store user data in an encrypted format, on servers located outside the country.
After spending 3 nights in detention, Melo was taken to Kisutu Magistrate Court on the morning of December 16. He has been charged with obstructing investigation contrary to section 22(2) of the Cybercrimes Act, 2015 and management of a domain not registered in Tanzania, contrary to section 79(c) of the Electronic and Postal Communications Act, 2010. He is represented by a team of six prominent lawyers in the country.
Melo was later taken to Keko Prison in Dar Es Salaam. He will appear in court on Monday.
Free speech activists, multiple media and human rights organisations have all come out in support of Melo, including the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Legal and Human Right Centre, Tanzania Editors Forum and Tanzania Human Right Defenders Coalition.
Twitter users in Tanzania and outside are voicing their opposition to his arrest using the hashtag #FreeMaxenceMelo.
Defending the site, Tanzanian communications expert, Maria Sarungi Tsehai, said:
Honest feedback is important for any government and whistleblowing sites are crucial in the fight against corruption #FreeMaxenceMelo
— Maria Sarungi Tsehai (@MariaSTsehai) December 15, 2016
Another user wondered why in other jurisdictions such as the US refusal to reveal users’ data does not lead to arrest. He cited the case of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and technology company Apple:
How come the FBI didn't arrest the owners of apple when they refused to provide personal information? #FreeMaxenceMelo
— The Invincible (@ktb_inc) December 15, 2016
Pato tweeted:
I tweet #FreeMaxenceMelo, because I believe in the rights that the Consitution Affords us!
— PATO (@PatNanyaro) December 15, 2016
Semkae, Policy Forum coordinator, wrote in Swahili:
Mfumo unaoacha watu wabaya wanapeta mitaani na kuruhusu wafuata sheria kuswekwa ndani unaleta taswira mbaya kwa nchi. #FreeMaxenceMelo
— semkae (@Semkae) December 14, 2016
A system in which criminals walk freely and those following the law are jailed creates a bad image for the country.
Kim Mhando noted:
It's ironic, siku chache baada ya kusherehekea uhuru wetu serikali yetu inakandamiza uhuru wa wananchi wake. Ni aibu. #FreeMaxenceMelo
— Kim Mhando (@KimMhando) December 15, 2016
It's ironic, a few days after celebrating our independence, our government curtails the freedom of its citizens. It's a shame.
Abdul Noor, an advocate of good governance in Tanzania wrote:
Mentioning ‘Tanzania’ and ‘democracy’ in the same sentence amounts to subjecting the term ‘democracy’ to ridicule. #FreeMaxenceMelo
— Abdul Noor (@noor_abdul) December 15, 2016
Maria Sarungi Tsehai wondered:
Mpk sasa hatujajua ni nani au kikundi gani kinataka kujua data na identity za watumiaji wa @JamiiForums .. akina nani hao? #FreeMaxenceMelo
— Maria Sarungi Tsehai (@MariaSTsehai) December 15, 2016
Up to now we don't know who or which group wants the data and identity of Jamii Forums users…who are they?
Tanzania's parliament passed a Cybercrime law on April 1, 2015, to address cybercrime issues such as child pornography, cyberbullying, online impersonation, electronic production of racist and xenophobic content, spam, illegal interception of communications, and the publication of false information.
The bill received widespread opposition from politicians, social media practitioners, donors and human rights activists. Former president Jakaya Kikwete signed it into law in May 2015.
Opponents of the Cybercrime Act argue that the law gives too much power — without meaningful oversight — to police, bestowing upon them the ability to search the homes of suspected violators of the law, seize their electronic hardware, and demand their data from online service providers. Melo's case will unquestionably put these critiques to the test.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Lebanon Deports Prominent Unionist, Testing Migrant Workers’ Resolve · Global Voices
Elias Abou Jaoude

Sujana Rana at Beirut's airport facing deportation. She waves to the crowd of supporters who came to protest her deportation. December 10, 2016. Source: Facebook.
Law enforcement officers in Lebanon are cracking down on unionists committed to organizing the country's migrant workers, and labor activists find themselves squeezed and left with few options.
Sujana Rana, a well-known Nepalese domestic migrant worker and unionist in Lebanon, was working in a home on Dec. 1, when police arrived and arrested her.
A week later, the group “Women’s Human Right Defenders in the Middle East and North Africa” (WHRD) announced on Facebook that Rana would be deported in two days, at 12:45 a.m. on Dec. 11,
تحديث: الامن العام اللبناني مصرّ على ترحيل النقابية سوجانا وبذلك أصبح موعد ترحيلها اليوم الساعة 12 45 صباحا ( الاحد). #أوقفوا_الترحيل #الحرية_لسوجانا
Update: the Lebanese General Security announced that the unionist Sujana will have to depart by 12:45 am on Sunday.
#StopDeportation #FreeSujana
Lebanese officials have refused to provide formal grounds for the arrest and deportation, but many suspect Rana was targeted for her high-profile role in the Domestic Workers’ Union, which she helped found.
Five days after Rana's arrest, Lebanese authorities then came for Roja “Rosie” Maya Limbu, another prominent union organizer. At the time of this writing, Limbu is still in police custody.
Though Lebanon's politicians and media typically devote little, if any, coverage to the country's labor issues, the arrests of Rana and Limbu have attracted considerable attention, relatively speaking.
Supporters joining Sujana at the airport as she faces deportation. Source: Facebook.
In response to these apparently arbitrary detentions, the Arab Trade Union Confederation stated:
Both the National Union and the General Assembly denounced the decision to deport Sujana Rana, and the “unjustified” arrest of Ms. Rose Limbu. The statement noted, “Until now the reason for her arrest is still ambiguous.” The statement added: “we even were not allowed to communicate with them so we can hire a lawyer or a minimum let us and the public know the charges against them.”
The International Domestic Workers Federation also condemned the decision:
Deeply saddened and outraged by the recent detention of two Nepali domestic workers in Lebanon — [Sujana] Rana known as Zogana Rana, and Roja Maya Limbu known as Rosie Limbaugh — without formal and clear explanation of the charges levelled against them. […] We strongly condemn this pattern of arrests which aims to weaken the union and intimidate its current and prospective members.
A Dec. 9 statement released by Lebanon's Anti-Racism Movement, signed by 29 Lebanese and International NGOs, called for the immediate release of the two women. The statement argues that the arrests prove unions’ case about a lack of protections for migrant domestic workers:
إن سوجانا وروزي من المدافعات عن حقوق عاملات المنازل في لبنان، وقد عملتا لسنين طويلة في توثيق وكشف الانتهاكات ضد عاملات المنازل المهاجرات والتي يسببها نظام الكفالة في لبنان. هذا النظام المستند الى تعليمات إدارية يربط إقامة العاملة بصاحب عمل واحد دون منحها الحق بتغييره إلا بموافقته، ولا يقدم حماية قانونية كافية للعاملات بسبب استثنائهن من قانون العمل اللبناني. وبالتالي، يمنعهن من التمتع بالحق في حرية التحرك، والراحة والحصول على الحد الادنى من الاجور بالإضافة الى العديد من الحقوق الاساسية وأهمها الحق في التعبير عن الرأي وإنشاء جمعيات ونقابات.
وتشكل هذه القضية دليلا صارخا على هشاشة الوضع القانوني للعاملات في المنازل بحيث تتحكم السلطات وأصحاب العمل في مصيرهن، وتثير هذه الخطوة الشكوك حول احتمال وجود إجراءات تمييزية بحق المدافعات عن حقوق الانسان والحرية النقابية المكفولة في مقدمة الدستور.
Sujana and are defenders of domestic workers rights in Lebanon, and have exerted efforts for years in documenting and exposing violations against migrant domestic workers caused by the Kafala/sponsorship system in Lebanon. This system, which is based on administrative instructions, links the legal stay of a domestic worker in Lebanon with one employer where she has no right to change this employer without their consent. Moreover, it does not grant any legal protection to migrant domestic workers as they are explicitly excluded from the Lebanese Labour Law. Thereby, the Kafala system denies them from the right to freedom of movement, rest, minimum wage, and several other basic human rights, most importantly right for assembly and association.
The case of Sujana and Rose today proves yet again the legal vulnerability of migrant domestic workers are in Lebanon as their fate is always fully controlled by the authorities and employers. The latest action by the General Security raises the suspicions on the possibility of the existence of discriminatory measures against the defenders of human rights and the right to freedom of association guaranteed in the Preamble of the Lebanese Constitution.
The arrests of these two prominent labor organizers highlights Lebanon's practice of “Kafala” — its sponsorship system that effectively deprives domestic workers of labor rights protected under international law.
According to an article published in 2015 at Migrant-Rights.org:
الكفالة نظام سلطوي. في سياق الهجرة، يسمح هذا النظام للحكومات بترك مسؤولية المهاجرين في أيدي المواطنين والشركات حيث يعطي الكفلاء صلاحيات قانونية للتحكم بمصير العمال فمن غير إذن الكفيل، لا يستطيع العامل تجديد أوراقه وتغيير وظيفته والاستقالة منها أو ترك البلاد. حينما يرحل العامل عن وظيفته من دون إذن الكفيل، فيحق للكفيل إلغاء إقامته مما يضع العامل في وضع غير قانوني داخل البلاد. وبعدما يقوم الكفيل بإلغاء الإقامة، لا يستطيع العامل الخروج من البلاد سوى من خلال إجراءات الترحيل التي تعرضهم تلقائياً للحبس لمدة أسابيع أو شهور وأحياناً لسنوات.
[The Kafala system] is a system of control. In the migration context, it is a way for governments to delegate oversight and responsibility for migrants to private citizens or companies. The system gives sponsors a set of legal abilities to control workers: without the employer’s permission, workers cannot change jobs, quit jobs, or leave the country. If a worker leaves a job without permission, the employer has the power to cancel his or her residence visa, automatically turning the worker into an illegal resident in the country. Workers whose employers cancel their residency visas often have to leave the country through deportation proceedings, and many have to spend time behind bars.

author: Elias Abou Jaoude


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Netizen Report: Discussion Platform Founder Arrested in Tanzania · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Maxence Melo, via Facebook.
The co-founder of leading East African online discussion forum Jamii Forums was arrested in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, on December 13. He has been charged with obstructing investigation, due to his non-compliance with police requests for forum members’ personal data.
Jamii Forums hosts Reddit-like comment and discussion threads on a range of mostly political topics, and also allows users to post documents and other materials to the site. Maxence Melo and Jamii Forums co-founder Mike Mushi have periodically faced challenges from state and federal authorities since the early days of Jamii Forums, where various corruption allegations against government officials and ruling party members have surfaced.
The charge falls under Tanzania's relatively new and controversial Cybercrimes Law, which has been used to prosecute numerous social media users since its approval in 2015.
Beyond declining to disclose user data that authorities have requested under the Cybercrimes Law, Melo has challenged these requests in court, arguing that they are unconstitutional and that the Cybercrimes Law undercuts freedom of expression in Tanzania. Jamii Forums requires users to review its official rules before joining, and reserves the right to remove from the forum users who do not comply with rules concerning harassment, hate speech, or any sort of illegal activity.
Melo’s arrest has triggered strong condemnation from local social media users, activists, and human rights groups including the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition and the Coalition on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA).
Federal authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have ordered at least three major ISPs to block access to Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Skype, among other communication platforms, beginning December 18. The orders follow months of public discord and protests in response to sitting President Joseph Kabila’s apparent refusal to hold elections, despite the fact that his term as president will end on December 19. Kabila’s supporters argue the country does not have the resources to hold fair elections at present, but many others believe this is simply an attempt to retain power.
Algerian journalist and blogger Mohammad Tamalt was laid to rest on December 12, following a protracted hunger strike protesting his arrest in June of this year. Tamalt was charged and sentenced to two years in jail for publishing a poem and video on Facebook deemed disparaging to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal. Responding to Tamalt’s death, reporter and editor Ihsane El Kadi wrote “The political regime in Algeria committed two mistakes, that are infamous in history. It imprisoned Mohamed Tamalt for an offense that should not lead to detention in 2016 in countries that respect the press and journalists. It continued to keep him in jail, even though his hunger strike [had] clearly put his health in danger since the end of July.”
Independent news website Doha News was blocked in Qatar on November 30, and remains inaccessible on desktop and mobile devices. In a statement announcing the block, the site’s editors wrote, “We are incredibly disappointed with this decision, which appears to be an act of censorship…We are also puzzled because authorities did not discuss any concerns they had with us before taking such serious action.” One of few independent media sources in the country, Doha News has operated in Qatar for eight years, and has reported on topics deemed controversial and sensitive to the government, including homosexuality and the treatment of migrant workers.
The Tor anonymity network appears to have been blocked in Belarus since the end of November, according to reports from Belarusian Internet users. The Ministry of Communications confirmed the block on December 6, stating the network was blocked to restrict the distribution of illegal material online. The Ministry laid the foundation for bans on anonymous services in a decree issued in February 2015 that explicitly named Tor.
The leaders of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and ETECSA, Cuba’s state-run telecommunications company, signed an agreement on December 12 to establish caching servers in Cuba that will allow Cuban Internet users to more rapidly access the Google Global Cache network, which stores content from sites like Gmail and YouTube on servers located closer to end users. In a country where mere access to the Internet is fleeting, it is difficult to know what impact this will have for users.
The employees of EMPOWER, a Malaysian NGO dedicated to protecting women’s rights in the digital era, were shaken by a police raid on November 28 in which officers rifled through documents and computers, and eventually left with six boxes of documents. During the four-hour raid, the police locked up the staff, taped up the windows and refused them access to lawyers. Officers did not present a warrant, but rather cited the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act of 2012. A similar raid took place at the offices of civil liberties group Bersih 2.0 last month.
Newly leaked documents obtained by Privacy International reveal that Syria began seeking surveillance equipment to monitor data flowing across the nation’s Internet well before the 2011 uprisings that preceded the country’s ongoing civil war. The government-owned Syrian Telecommunications Establishment placed a bid in October 2007 for companies to help them build this surveillance infrastructure, and many European companies were eager to take part. The contract was won by a partnership between three European companies: Ultimaco (Germany), Area Spa (Italy) and Qosmos (France).
The Chinese city of Hangzhou is one of 30 areas in the country testing out a new social credit system, a model of social control in which state authorities compile digital data on citizens to log and evaluate them on their day-to-day behavior and generate a credit score. According to planning documents, the system intends to “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step.” Proponents of the system, which has not yet been finalized, envision a stage at which online behaviors such as acquiring loans, getting a job, and traveling would eventually be recorded and rated. Yikes.
The National Coalition Against Censorship launched Censorpedia, a wiki that aims to crowdsource a database logging individual censorship incidents.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Mohamed ElGohary, Weiping Li, Leila Nachawati and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


text:
Social Media Sites Blocked in Kazakhstan on 25th Anniversary of Independence · Global Voices
Isaac Webb

Source: Pixabay. CC 2.0.
On Friday, the 25th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence from the Soviet Union, civil society activists reported that several social media websites had been blocked in the country, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Google. The news aggregator TJournal spoke with residents of four Kazakh cities—Astana, Almaty, Karaganda, and Atyrau—who all confirmed that they no longer had access to the social media platforms, though they did not receive messages saying the websites had been blocked. Meanwhile, other popular social media websites, including Twitter and VKontakte, were accessible throughout the day.
В Казахстане в честь 25-летия независимости заблокировали @facebook, @YouTube и @instagram#независимость #казахстан #новости #астана
— Malik Zhumagaliyev (@Malik_MKZ) December 16, 2016
In Kazakhstan, @Facebook, @YouTube, and @Instagram have been blocked in honor of the 25th anniversary of independence.
День Независимости от социальных сетей #казахстан #youtube #facebook #instagram
— big ol pupper (@isilmine) December 16, 2016
Independence Day from social media
Help! We have no access to social media in #Kazakhstan #test
— Joanna Lillis (@joannalillis) December 16, 2016
Kazakhstan's Ministry of Information said that the sites were down for “technical reasons” and promised to restore access soon.
Activists, however, pointed to the contemporaneous YouTube livestream of an interview with opposition politician Mukhtar Ablyazov, suggesting that the social media block had been intended to limit the spread of Ablyazov's message. Ablyazov was released from prison in a Paris suburb on December 9 after a French court denied an extradition request from Russia, where Ablyazov is wanted on embezzlement charges. He also faces charges in Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Independence Day in Kazakhstan has been marred by violence in the past: in 2011, more than a dozen protesters were killed in a confrontation with police in the city of Zhanaozen.
The Kazakh government occasionally blocks social media websites in order to quell protests and limit the opposition's attempts to organize. Most recently, in May, access was cut to social media websites shortly after opposition leaders called for nationwide mobilization to protest changes to the country's land code.

author: Isaac Webb


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Student Leaders Spark Hope for Change on Iran’s National Student Day · Global Voices
Hamid Yazdan Panah

Students at Iran's Sharif University take part in anti-government protests following the 2009 elections. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Last week, at Tehran’s Amir Kabir University, a defiant student gave a fiery speech focused on what he referred to as the historical responsibility of young Iranians. This included not only a sharp critique of the ruling establishment’s injustices, but also a scathing indictment of Iran’s murderous policy in Syria and demands that those inside the country have the courage to speak out and stand for what is right. (See full video with English subtitles).
The images and speeches that emerged from Iran last week left me truly proud to be an Iranian and in awe of the bravery, passion and sacrifices being made by those inside the country. They also gave me hope, in spite of the lack of meaningful reform inside Iran, and the absolutely dismal situation in the region and throughout the world.
In his speech, Amir Kabir university student declared that it is “our duty and right to find out about these things. We must ask what took place in 1988.” The 1988 massacre of political prisoners has long been one of the key taboo subjects in Iran, and recently emerged as a public issue after the leaking of an audio tape in which the late Ayatollah Ali Montazeri is heard discussing the mass killings of prisoners with no due process. In the recording Montazeri, the Deputy Supreme Leader at the time of the massacre, is heard saying that “in my view, the biggest crime in the Islamic Republic, for which history will condemn us, has been committed at your hands, and they’ll write your names as criminals in history.”
The Amir Kabir student referenced Montazeri’s quote in his speech, affirming that “history will condemn us—if we don’t look into these issues.” He went on to list the continuation of the Iran-Iraq war, the chain murders, and the taking of American diplomats as hostages as issues that should be confronted and questioned openly. Each of these subjects have long been taboo in Iran.
The idea of radical change, passionate idealism, and progressive popular movements are rarely associated with recent Iranian history, largely ignored by the press and has been brutally suppressed by the authorities. Yet this spirit, this passionate defiance of dictatorship and fearless hope for change has prevailed in the country despite having suffered successive dictatorships. Iran’s civil society and student movements remain a ray of hope, and indeed pride, for a nation that continues to struggle for change.
As in many countries, Iranian students have historically stood on the front lines of change. On December 7, 1953, students from the University of Tehran went on strike to protest United States’ support for the dictatorship of the Shah. This was only months after a CIA-backed coup removed the democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. The Shah’s forces, buoyed by the coup, opened fire on the student protestors, killing three people. The incident sparked outrage and the date would go on to be observed as National Student Day in Iran, to honour those who struggled for freedom, and continue on that path.
The Iranian student movement has challenged dictatorship and tyranny, both the Shah’s and the clerical regime's. Over the last three decades they have challenged both moderate and hardline presidents. The protest movement reached its pinnacle in the bloody 1999 student protests in Tehran, when dozens were killed and thousands of students were detained. It should be noted that Hassan Rouhani, the current and supposedly moderate president of Iran, was then secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and warned protestors that their actions were crimes “that are punishable by death.” Ten years later students would confront the regressive government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and in 2009 take part in mass demonstrations denouncing electoral fraud and the regime’s lack of legitimacy.
It is important to note that despite attempts to characterize the student movement as being centred on reform, university students have in fact been vocal in their challenges to supposed reformists like Khatami and the so-called “moderate” Rouhani. This past August, 92 student groups penned an open letter to Rouhani and blasted his administration for failing to fulfil promises of reform and progress. This includes the blacklisting of politically active students—often referred to as “starred students”—who are expelled from universities and denied re-entry to complete their studies. Rouhani’s administration claimed they would put an end to this practice, a promise which remains unfulfilled.
Student activists remain a target of the regime. This includes activists like Arash Sadeghi, who has spent more than 50 days on hunger strike while serving an unjust 15-year sentence for political crimes.
In his speech, the Amir Kabir university student also touched on what is perhaps the most pressing subject of all: Tehran’s involvement in the destruction of Syria and the massacre of its people. “I believe history will condemn us because we have been silent about Syria and the terrible genocide that’s taking place,” the student leader said. Addressing Ali Motaheri, a member of parliament who was in attendance at the rally, he said, “as a representative of the people I ask you, are we on the right side in Syria? Five hundred thousand people have been killed. It is easy to cite a number, but an entire generation are being wiped out…. We are surely guilty when confronted by the tears of Syrian children.”
As the world watches Aleppo burn, this young man eloquently described the reality of Iran’s involvement in the destruction of a country, and put his own freedom at risk by speaking out against this injustice.
A similarly passionate speech was given by another student at Tabriz University, who hailed the history of the student movement in Iran and criticized the repressive political climate in the country. He ended the speech with breathtaking, if subtle, defiance, offering the following remarks as the moderator literally pulled the microphone from his hands:
“They may imprison and oppress us as students, but no, the student movement is not something which can be destroyed. This idea is lasting, because it is just. This idea will find its place in society and in history. If today this flag falls from our hands, tomorrow someone else will pick it up…. And the future is ours. Have faith in the belief that the future is beholden to the student movement and actions of the just revolutionary.”
The remarks are interesting not only for their content, but because the speech included a direct reference to a famous speech given by Mousa Khiabani, one of the main leaders of the People's Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI) (sometimes referred to as Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK)) shortly after the 1979 revolution. The student’s speech repeated Khiabani’s lines almost verbatim with regard to the everlasting appeal of a just cause or idea, and the notion that even if individuals fall someone will take up the flag and continue the struggle. The PMOI is outlawed in Iran, and any association with such groups can result in lengthy prison terms and execution.
The Tabriz University student’s speech was surely a nod to the revolutionary climate that prevailed in Iran’s universities during the 1970’s, when various revolutionary groups across the country were comprised of students, and the sense of impending victory over the forces of the old and evil filled everyone with a sense of optimism and hope.
And hope is something we all need right now. I have always stood in awe of Iran’s history, particularly its revolutionary movements and the courage of its ordinary citizens. This past week I was reminded that these are not simply relics of the past, but a spirit which is still alive and well today. The speeches give by these two courageous young men give me hope that truth, justice and courage have not lost their way in Iran, if you know where to look.

author: Hamid Yazdan Panah


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Taiwanese Wonder If They’re Just a Chip for Donald Trump in Negotiating With China · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

Image from the Standnews, non-commercial use.
US President-elect Donald Trump tweeted on December 2 that the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-Wen, called him to offer her congratulations for winning the US election — breaking with decades of US protocol. Shortly afterward, he questioned in an interview, “I don't know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China’ policy, unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”
As Wikipedia correctly explains, the “one China” policy refers to the idea that there is only one state called “China”, so countries that want diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China must break official ties with the Republic of China (Taiwan) and vice versa.
Soon after Trump's interview aired on Fox News, Formosan Association for Public Affairs, or FAPA, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that seeks to build worldwide support for Taiwan's independence, published a statement:
We at FAPA are heartened to see President-elect Trump challenge the outdated “One China Policy”. Taiwan has never been a part of the People’s Republic of China.
However, Taiwan’s right to self-determination and democracy should not be a bargaining chip. Using Taiwan in any sort of “deal” with China is against the very ideals on which our nation is founded.
This statement reflects that many Taiwanese are unsure if Trump is just using Taiwan as leverage to negotiate with China, or if he really wants to re-evaluate the US-Taiwan relationship.
For example, June Lin, a policy fellow at the very same Formosan Association for Public Affairs, was annoyed by Trump putting the “one China policy” alongside possible trade dealings. She quoted Trump, then commented:
“I fully understand the ‘one China policy,’ but I don't know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China policy’ unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”
假裝很灑脫傲嬌 但交換條件講ㄉ蠻細ㄉ
「誰管你啊 ～除非你給我A跟B跟C，不然我才不理你ㄋ。」
如果這句話放在他的twitter大寫的字會是TRADE？？？？
真的是好煩啊….
“I fully understand the ‘one China policy,’ but I don't know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China policy’ unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”
Trump tried to be free and easy, but he is very specific about the exchange deal: ‘Who cares [about the the one China policy]?—Unless you give me A and B and C, or I won't give a damn.’
If his words were put on his Twitter account, I guess the capitalized word would be TRADE????
This is annoying…
As the geopolitics in the South China Sea and East China Sea changes, the US has moved seemingly more and more towards a new paradigm in manifesting its military strength. Under the administration of President Barack Obama, the US government has strengthened strategic ties with Taiwan. The US Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act and the “Six Assurances” this April, which reaffirms Taiwan's position as an “important partner” to the U.S.
In May, when the US House of Representatives passed the military budget for 2017, there was an amendment that directs the US secretary of defense to grant Taiwan military forces observer status in maritime exercises known as the Rim of the Pacific Exercise. In addition, on December 8, the US Senate passed the annual defense policy bill, including a provision recommending that the US conducts yearly high-level military exchanges with Taiwan.
Though Trump's Twitter performance has been viewed as a more proactive move to reaffirm the strategic partnership, Taiwanese are still worried that Trump as a businessman is only using Taiwan to negotiate a better trade deal with China. Taiwan is a de facto independent country, but authorities in mainland China don’t see it that way — and so they don’t take kindly to moves they perceive as recognizing the Taiwanese government.
Unsure about the status of Taiwan? Read more: Is Taiwan a Country, a Self-Governing Island, or a Breakaway Territory or Province of China?
Furthermore, some Taiwanese were also aware of former US statesman Henry Kissinger’s presence in Beijing while Trump tweeted about his phone call with the Taiwanese president. To them, Trump's behaviors embody Kissinger’s philosophy of diplomacy, which centers on unpredictability. But would Taiwan be able to survive under such diplomacy, the same that saw the US bombing Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam in the late 1960s into the 1970s?
Jou Yi-Cheng, a social activist and a former politician, also had concerns about Trump's fast pace on negotiating with China:
新的美國對中對台政策，還需要一點時間鋪陳。外交政策圈的論述戰還未全面開打。川普先生的步調太快，把全世界趕著跑。川普先生的生意作風是先把標的物（貿易）講清楚，籌碼擺上來（台灣，一個中國政策），讓雙方（美中，沒有台灣）快速進入談判。[…]
外交還是要談理念、理想。利益是核心，但不能只談利益。虛虛實實，互相掩護。美國正當性會削弱。美國在全世界會有更多麻煩。
The development of the new US-China and US-Taiwan policy would take more time. The debate among diplomatic policy makers has not started yet. Mr. Trump has a fast pace and pushes the whole world forward with him. Mr. Trump’s business style is to clearly set the goal (i.e., trade) and to put the chip (i.e., Taiwan, one China policy) on the table to proceed with the bilateral negotiation (between the US and China but without Taiwan) as soon as possible. […]
Diplomacy needs to address idea and vision. Benefit is the core, but it cannot stand alone. Ideology and concrete interest work together. [Without the ideological discourse] the legitimacy of the US will be weakened, and trouble follows.
If Trump is trying to use Taiwan as a bargaining chip, China doesn't seem interested in playing. For Chinese politicians, Taiwan is considered to be one of the utmost core interests of China, not to be bargained. They actually might rather negotiate with Taiwanese for a new cross-strait framework since when it comes to Taiwan they have much more to offer (or to threaten).
Some Taiwanese, however, believe that crisis is an opportunity even if Taiwan is used as a chip in US-China negotiations. Yu-His Liu, an economics researcher, said:
人生在世，不怕被人利用，只怕沒人要利用你。所謂交易，重點在於是否能互惠互利、各取所需。台灣人無須自我膨脹，但也無須失敗主義，盲目抗拒進場聽牌。與其如履薄冰，不如迎向改變。[…]我們要知道自己要甚麼[…]我們必須提醒自己，人不能用極惡或極善來二分，任何議題也不能用「全有或全無」做為行動方針。
We should not be afraid of being used by other people if we want to survive in the world. If no one wants to use you, you should be worried. When we talk about making a deal, the most important thing is whether both sides benefit from the deal and get what they want. Taiwanese should not be complacent, but we should not surrender to defeatism and blindly refuse to enter the game. Instead of being fearful, better take changes in our stride. […] We need to know what we want. […] We need to remind ourselves that we cannot fall into a dichotomy of categorizing everyone as either good or bad and letting the strategy of “all-or-nothing” guide our actions.
A user named Azuel analyzed the situation on PTT, the most popular bulletin board system in Taiwan, and his comment echoed with Liu:
接下來每一步對台灣來說都是兢兢業業如履薄冰
台灣就是支點，可以被維持，也可能因為一點點的偏移而破壞整個平衡
算計是一定要每天都根據新的情況算下去的，沒有不會改變的季節
不過這起手的牌，在可見的時間範圍內算是好牌
河牌一張張掀開的時候，隨時要注意牌桌上所有對手的表情了
Taiwan needs to be very, very careful with every step as we step on the fragile ice.
Taiwan is the fulcrum. It can support the balance, but a small misjudgment would upset the balance.
Calculation is needed based on the new situation we face every day. There is no unchangeable season.
To summarize, this first card can be considered to be a good one in the foreseeable future, but we need to observe the facial expressions of all the players carefully when the cards are lifted one by one.

author: I-fan Lin


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A Ceremony of Reconciliation in Colombia Shows How Peace is Made by People, not Treaties · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

This post is an adapted version of an original text written by Tom Power, accompanier from FOR Peace Presence in Colombia who was present at the event. The piece has been re-edited with permission of the author and the organization, who published the piece originally on their website.
“…We're going forward; as people, we forgive those who have done us so much harm […But] let's not forget [the other victims,] we're here for them […] let's all contribute to making peace, everyone's going to do it, we a need a country that's transparent and free of corruption.” Photo shared on Pixaby by user JazzGo. From the Public Domain.
A few days before the national plebiscite vote that rejected the peace accords, two of the most famous FARC guerrilla leaders Ivan Márquez and Pastor Alape arrived to the northernmost region of the country, the Gulf of Uraba, to participate in a public ceremony of recognition and forgiveness, as it was requested by the Apartadó Municipality Victims’ Association during the negotiations.
The crowd rose to its feet, stretching to look at Márquez and Alape as they made their way to the stage. The ceremony was attended by more than 500 people. The relatives of the 35 victims of La Chinita massacre sat in the front row wearing matching t-shirts reading “Sí perdonamos” (We do forgive), anxiously awaiting what Ivan Marquez had to say:
As an organization, as a collective, we recognize the many good people who weren't able to achieve their dreams […] the deaths of La Chinita are also our deaths […] We want to reestablish a relationship. Peace is in the heart; we're going to construct a future with hope. We're going to fight for rights, and change, and transformation.”
La Chinita, now known as the Barrio Obrero (Worker's Neighborhood) , with a population of around 35,000 people, is a working class neighborhood in Apartadó.  In the early 1990's, banana workers from local plantations began settling on the land along beside ex-guerrilla combatants from the recently demobilized EPL (the Popular Liberation Army) who were looking to reintegrate into civil society. La Chinita offered them this.
As part of the EPL's return to the legal political process they formed Esperanza, Paz, y Libertad (Hope, Peace, and Freedom)—a political party that slowly began to make links with local political and business structures in Apartadó—links that inevitably, stood at odds to the FARC’s own political movement, the Union Patriótica (Patrioric Union). Although both parties identified as “ideologically left”, realities of territorial control, political power, and economic gain made the two parties’ political ends mutually exclusive. This toxic mix of executives from banana companies, politicians, and sectors of the church, with different ideas and models of economic development, led not to a peaceful political struggle, but a descent into a nefarious cycle of violence.
Despite rising political tension in the region, the neighborhood of La Chinita was growing. On the 23rd of January, 1994, residents gathered at a local party to raise money for neighborhood schools. In the midst of the party, armed men arrived unannounced with military grade weaponry and began shooting. Amongst the shots, someone yelled, “Don't kill the women and children, only the men!”
While the FARC claim to have believed this party was full of demobilized EPL, of the 35 people killed, only two were demobilized guerrillas. In fact, most were working class banana workers, as well as three minors, an elderly person, and one woman. An unfortunate reality of the Colombian conflict is that those who suffer most often have little to do with what's being fought about.
The September ceremony was the first time the FARC publically recognized their responsibility in the massacre, after denying involvement for two centuries. Nevertheless, the symbolic nature of this event is only a beginning. Four points were outlined in the ceremony which the government is expected to fulfill as part of State responsibility and reparations: the creation of a University of Peace, a museum house in honor of the victims, a social and community center, and housing for victims. As a community leader said after outlining these points in her intervention.
We want there to be peace and we're going to construct it. We're betting on the construction of peace.
Other victims also had an opportunity to publicly reflect on the massacre, like a community member who had lost her father:
We had to help mom just to survive, we were totally alone […] And just like that there was no more time to play, we had to work, we had to grow up. It wasn't easy saying goodbye to [his] voice, [his] smile, [his] presence…
Another victim who lost her husband spoke about the difficulties she faced creating a life for her children, how the other women who lost their husbands supported and helped each other, and also reminded everyone of the scores of victims in Urabá and throughout Colombia:
…We're going forward; as people, we forgive those who have done us so much harm […But] let's not forget [the other victims,] we're here for them […] let's all contribute to making peace, everyone's going to do it, we a need a country that's transparent and free of corruption.
Between reflections of love and loss, the victims also underlined social ills that still ail them: “[…] here we are with a conflict and state abandonment that allowed this massacre to happen,” said a victim who had lost his brother. Referencing a case in which the US federal government fined the fruit company Chiquita brands (formerly Untied Fruity Company) US$25 million for links to paramilitary groups, he claimed, “There has to be a process to distribute that money among all the victims, not just the victims of La Chinita, but all of them.”
Colombia’s High Commissioner for Peace, Sergio Jaramillo, recognized the FARC for taking responsibility, and acknowledged the shortcomings of the State. He noted state abandonment of La Chinita, the historical links between the state and paramilitaries, illegal armed groups of the far-right responsible for heinous acts of violence and mutilation, and recognized the genocide claiming, “We hope this to be a signal that the government and the FARC are serious about reconciliation.”
For sectors of Colombian society urgently hoping for the demobilization of armed groups and for the construction of peace to begin, the rejection of the peace agreements showed the deep complexities of the conflict within Colombian society and made some reflect upon the many changes needed to build a concrete and standing peace.

author: Guest Contributor


text:
Masaki C. Matsumoto: English-Speaking, LGBT, Queer and Feminist in Japan · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Image from Masaki Matsumoto's Queer Eikawa Facebook page.
Queer and feminist activist Masaki C. Matsumoto acts a bridge between Japan and the rest of the world, and is able to discuss LGTBQ+ issues — in English — from a Japanese perspective.
Masaki's long-running  blog Gimme a Queer Eye dates back to 2004, and features posts, in English, about a variety of topics — including the changing legal status of LGBT people in Japan — and links to side projects like Rad-queers Speaking English For You, which Masaki introduces by saying:
Ever felt sick of English-language LGBT journalism that, no matter how many times we radical queers around the world denounce it, continues to portray and represent queers in non-English-speaking regions in often racist, ethnocentric, colonial, progressivist, and quite shallow ways with a hint of Messiah Complex? I have.
Masaki regularly expresses frustration about how LGBTQ+ politics in Japan is portrayed by media outside of the country, and clarifies:
The most (stereo)typical, all-too-common article written in English never fails to make the following clear:
>>Japan lags behind the West. There’s nothing legal about gay partnerships, and people there are afraid to come out.
>>But things are changing. And such changes are welcomed with enthusiasm by all LGBTs in Japan.
Masaki helps clear up the confusion via a vlog hosted on YouTube, called Masaki's QueerESL. “Feeling a bit disappointed in text as a medium/format for communicating ideas to the public,” Masaki says in the introduction to the channel, “I started making videos about LGBT, queer, and feminist issues!”
One of Masaki's latest vlogs is “5 Things You Didn't Know About LGBTQs in Japan”:
Sokka shot first, a member of the United States-based online community MetaFilter, made a post on the site that linked to a recent interview that Matsumoto did with Anime Feminist, a website that examines anime and manga through a feminist lens. It had previously been noted on MetaFilter that Anime Feminist “would be well-served by presenting Japanese criticism in addition to their own Western perspectives”; Masaki did not disappoint, providing both English- and Japanese-language transcripts of the interview.
In the interview, besides talking about his background (he's lived in the US and in New Zealand, and now operates a bar in a rural area outside of Tokyo), Masaki also makes a few observations about what kinds of different LGBTQ+ communities and intersections exist in Japan, and shares his feelings about whether LGBTQ+ people are well represented in Japanese pop culture (for the Anime Feminist interview, Masaki provided both the Japanese and English-language text):
ちなみに、実は私は、正確な表象なんていうものがあるとは思っていません。私たちはとても多様なため、LGBTQ+のうちどの小グループを取り出しても、それを正確に描き出すなんてことは不可能です。しかしそれは、偏見に基づいて描いてもいいということにはなりません。そんなのムカつくし、そもそも作り手の創造性の欠如です。
On a side note, I do not believe in accurate representation. We’re so diverse that it’s impossible to depict any of the subgroups of LGBTQ+ and be accurate. But, that doesn’t mean you can depict us based on the stereotypes. That’s annoying, and not very creative anyway.
When asked about his impression of yaoi/BL anime and manga, which presents queer male relationships for a target audience of heterosexual women, Masaki says:
やおい／BLは大好きなんです。多くの男性同性愛者と男性異性愛者がやおい／BLを嫌悪していることは知っていますが、やおい／BLは素晴らしいということを言わねばなりません。[…] それでも私にとってやおい／BLは自分のアイデンティティの基礎になっています。やおい／BLがあったことで、自分が両性愛者であることを受け入れることがだいぶ楽になったと思います。その点で、私はやおい／BLのクリエイターの皆さんに感謝しています。
I must admit I love them. I know many gay men and straight men loathe yaoi/BL, but I have to say, they’re awesome. […] Yaoi/BL still is the basis of my identity, which helped me accept my bisexuality greatly. I am grateful to all yaoi/BL creators for that.
As for how everyday life is different for LGBTQ+ people in Japan compared to the US or New Zealand, Masaki says:
差別的な人間として振舞うことが「楽しい」一方で、受け入れることは「つまらない」ことなのです。実際にあなたが心の中でどれだけ支援していようが、どれだけ差別的なことを考えていようが、関係ありません。ただ差別者のように振舞うのです。「オカマはキモい」と言うのです。罰ゲームとして男同士にキスをさせるのです。他にも何でもいいです。それは「面白い」ことで、誰も文句なんて言わないんです。だって文句を言ったら「つまらない」人になってしまうから。メディアすら、自分たちの作ったコンテンツに含まれる同性愛嫌悪やトランス嫌悪に文句がついても、ろくに真剣に受け取ったりしません。
[In Japan] it’s ‘fun’ to act like a bigot. It’s ‘boring’ to be accepting. It doesn’t matter how much of a bigot or an ally you may be underneath. Just act like a bigot, say ‘fags are kimoi‘ [gross], have a man kiss another man for a batsu game, whatever. It’s ‘funny’ and no one complains, because if you complain, you’re ‘boring’. Even no media company takes it seriously when they receive complaints about their homophobic and/or transphobic programs.
The whole interview is wide-ranging, and provides many insights into Masaki's own perception of LGBTQ+ culture in Japan.
Throughout the interview, as well as on his blogs and in his vlogs, Masaki is always careful to note that his observations of Japan are his alone, and that “he speaks for himself, not for some imaginary Japanese LGBTQ+ monolith.”

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
MujeresMundi Offers Spanish-Language Chronicles of Women’s Roles Around the World · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

MujeresMundi. Cover image. Used with permission.
“No feminism, no change” asserts MujeresMundi, a “website of Latin American origin and now completely written in Spanish” that “aims to be the echo of little-known initiatives that provide solutions for women and girls in a number of communities.” The website explains how it puts together the stories it publishes on a monthly basis:
[..] Reunimos así a cronistas feministas de diversos orígenes y a bloggers activistas invitados.
El cambio está a la vuelta de la esquina, aunque a veces lo sentimos lejano. La única manera de acercar el cambio es proponiéndonos.
[…] We bring together female chroniclers from various backgrounds and guest activist bloggers.
Change is around the corner, even though we sometimes feel it's far away. The only way to bring change closer is to set our minds on it.
MujeresMundi creator and editor Xaviera Medina is a Peruvian social communication specialist and photographer based in Belgium who worked in Afghanistan for three years. Global Voices spoke with her in 2012, when MujeresMundi was just beginning, to take a global approach to stories about women and their struggles. Her experiences in Afghanistan and also in Azerbaijan, the Arab Emirates and India were the starting point for a space that tells personal stories of empowered women and their daily life around the world.
In the most recent MujeresMundi online issue, Xaviera shares how boxing gloves can represent freedom for an all-women group from Kabul:
En el estadio olímpico de Kabul “los talibanes lapidaban a las mujeres y en el gimnasio donde ahora nos entrenamos las encarcelaban” testimonia Sadar en el documental del joven cineasta, Ariel Nasr. Un documental con un título que podría parecer surrealista para muchos: Las Boxeadoras de Kabul. […] Ariel narra la historia de este peculiar equipo, particularmente de Sadaf, Shabnam y Shalah durante las preparatorias internacionales para poder acceder a los Juegos Olímpicos de Londres. Una competencia que resultó mucho más ruda de lo que el equipo hubiera podido imaginar. […] Las boxeadoras de Kabul utilizan los guantes como una lucha interna contra costumbres e ideologías que han enraizado en su país una cultura controlada por varones.
As Sadar explains in Ariel Nasr's documentary about women boxing in Kabul, at the Kabul Olympic Stadium “the Taliban used to stone women to death, and at the gym where we now train, they incarcerated them.” A documentary with a title that might seem surreal to many viewers: “Kabul Boxing Women.” […] Ariel tells the story of this unique team, particularly of Sadaf, Shabnam and Shalah during their international training in order to participate in the London Olympic Games. A competition that ended up being much tougher than the team could have imagined. […] The boxing girls from Kabul use their gloves as an internal struggle against the traditions and ideologies that have allowed a culture controlled by men to take root in their country.
And in a different, very personal piece, Peruvian journalist Suiry Sobrino recalls stories of violence that were normalized in her family, the meaning of which she only came to understand as an adult:
Recuerdo que dentro de mi familia se contaba una historia que escuché desde pequeña, mi bisabuelo había visto a mi bisabuela, le gustó, la raptó de su casa […], la encerró en su habitación hasta que ella no tuvo más alternativa que casarse con él. […] sin ninguna explicación previa de nadie, entendí que lo que había sufrido mi bisabuela era una violación (probablemente siendo aún menor de edad).
I remember that my family used to tell a story I'd been hearing since I was a little girl. My great grandfather had seen my great grandmother, he liked her, he kidnapped her from her home […] locked her in his bedroom until she had no other choice than to marry him. […] with no previous explanation from anybody, I understood that what my great grandmother had gone through was rape (and she probably was still a minor).
In the end, she reflects:
La mayoría hemos crecido en ambientes en donde se justifica la violencia: “tu papá toma porque está estresado”, “me grita porque está borracho”; “tu hermano invade tu privacidad porque te cuida” […]. Todas estas frases ingresan a nuestros subconscientes y definen nuestra forma de actuar cuando ya somos adultas, sabemos que está mal soportar cualquier tipo de violencia, pero no hemos aprendido a hablar. […] Para cambiar el panorama, para detener los feminicidios, primero hay que asumirnos como parte del problema. ¿Qué estamos haciendo para que nuestras niñas sientan que no pueden hablar? […] Todas las violencias son en primera instancia, solo nuestras.
Most of us have grown up in environments where violence is justified: “your dad drinks because he's stressed,” “he yells at me because he is drunk,”; “your brother invades your privacy because he's looking after you” […]. All these phrases get into our subconscious and define how we act when we are grown-ups. We know it's wrong to accept any kind of violence, but we haven't learned to talk.  […] To change that, to stop femicide, we first have to accept that we are also part of the problem. What are we doing to our girls? Why do they feel that they can't talk? […] All instances of violence are initially only ours.
Besides sharing stories, MujeresMundi has online spaces in which they pay attention to events and breakthroughs that concern women's welfare or violence against women. On their Twitter account, @mujeresmundibxl, the team has recently echoed the outrage over the recent slaying of 7-year-old Colombian girl Yuliana Samboni in Bogota on December 4 and legal setbacks in Turkey:
#INDIGNACION Casos de niñas como #Yuliana que no provocaron el escándalo nacional https://t.co/0nk22lKbdA via @vicecol #NiUnaMenos
— mujeresmundibxl (@mujeresmundibxl) 7 de diciembre de 2016
OUTRAGE! Cases such as Yuliana that didn't caused a national scandal. Not one less.
VERGUENZA, CRIMEN INSTITUCIONALIZADO #Turquía plantea amnistiar a quienes violen a una menor si se casan con ella https://t.co/KgOhxY1Koh
— mujeresmundibxl (@mujeresmundibxl) 21 de noviembre de 2016
SHAME, INSTITUCIONALIZED CRIME. Turkey is considering pardoning those who rape a minor if he marries her.
They also use their networks for internationally relevant announcements that celebrate global victories in women's rights:
La naissance d'une maternité à Kaboul. Une bonne nouvelle!https://t.co/d3UKTyVFAe
— mujeresmundibxl (@mujeresmundibxl) 21 de noviembre de 2016
The birth of a maternity ward in Kabul. Good news!
And that's part of how MujeresMundi goes about “chronicling about what makes us women uncomfortable, about what can be improved and what can be changed.”

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


text:
Syrian Women Thank Russian Soldiers in New Sexy Calendar Funded by the Kremlin · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

“I was scared we'd never see each other again,” Miss March tells Russian soldiers. Source: FromSyriaWithLove.ru
Almost 4,000 non-profit organizations applied for Kremlin grant money earlier this year, hoping to win funding for projects designed to promote athletics, values, and science among Russia’s young people. Roughly 238 million rubles ($3.8 million) was divided up and spread across 70 different projects. One of the nine grant operators, the Russian Union of Youth, was tasked specifically with using the money to “popularize Russian cultural heritage.”
This week, eight months later, the public got a taste of Russia’s pop culture: a glossy calendar featuring a dozen beautiful Syrian women, posing beside flirty captions that praise Moscow’s armed intervention in the Middle East. Each of the women wears a “kokoshnik” head-band, “as a sign of respect to Russia.”
The calendar is a less erotic copy of another Vladimir Putin received six years ago for his 58th birthday. That calendar featured semi-nude women studying at Moscow State University’s journalism department, along with short, suggestive messages alluding to Putin’s irresistible virility.
The newer creation isn’t as sexualized as the 2010 birthday gift, and it’s also less exclusive. This time, the lady photos are addressed to “Russian military officers,” and a special shipment was sent to troops in Syria on Saturday, Dec. 17.
Just so Putin isn't totally forgotten, Russian soldiers will still get a reminder about their president late in the year, on his birthday. “Tell me who your commander in chief is, and I’ll tell you who you are,” says Miss October, a woman identified as Yara Khasan.
Miss October beckons Russia's men in arms. Source: FromSyriaWithLove.ru
Other months bear similar hubba-hubba messages meant to convey the gratitude of women relieved, rescued, and maybe aroused. “You had the holiday, but I got the presents,” jokes Miss February, the month when Russia celebrates Defender of the Fatherland Day.
It’s unclear when the calendar was completed, but some of the monthly quips are already grimacingly outdated. Miss August, for instance, poses as if in prayer and says, “The fate of my Palmyra is in your hands,” referring to the ancient Syrian city taken by government forces with Russian air support in March, and then suddenly recaptured by Islamic State combatants last week, on Dec. 11.
“The fate of my Palmyra is in your hands,” says Miss August. Source: FromSyriaWithLove.ru
In November, the calendar even observes the day Russia’s elderly aircraft carrier, the “Admiral Kuznetsov,” arrived at the shores of Syria, to help in the air war. Since the ship’s arrival, however, two planes have crashed while trying to land on the vessel, thanks to mechanical problems on the flight deck.
The calendar is the work of a group called “Citizen,” which the Russian Union of Youth selected to design a project that would identify “nationally-oriented young artists” capable of expressing Russia’s “cultural and national values,” as well as the “victories and achievements of modern Russia.”
The calendar is certainly a monument to Russian victory, and its authors have not disguised their contempt for American reluctance to join Moscow's defense of the Assad regime. In a press release on Dec. 15, the creators wrote:
«В последнее время западные СМИ часто ссылаются на аккаунты “сирийских девочек”, которые на безупречном английском пишут о том, как они ежедневно страдают от действий русских. Причём эти “девочки” даже не могут ответить по-арабски на предложения о помощи. Все большему числу людей становится понятно, что эти пронзительные истории пишут не восьмилетние девочки, а SMMщики ЦРУ, но для организаторов и участниц проекта важно, чтобы те, кто сражается с террористами, знали, что думают о них настоящие дочери Сирии».
Recently, the Western media often cites the [social-media] accounts of “Syrian girls” who write in perfect English about how they suffer daily because of what the Russians are doing. And these “girls” can’t even respond in Arabic when people offer to help. An increasing number of people are starting to understand that these wild stories aren’t being written by eight-year-old girls, but by social-media experts in the CIA. The organizers and participants of this project, however, think it’s important that the [Russian] men fighting the terrorists [in Syria] know that real Syrian girls are thinking about them.
The remark about social media and eight-year-old girls is presumably a dig at Bana Alabed, the seven-year-old girl whose mother famously tweets from rebel-held East Aleppo. Bana rocketed to media fame in late September, prompting a furious response by pro-Assad Internet trolls and those seeking to discredit her existence. On Dec. 14, the citizen-investigative website Bellingcat published research strongly suggesting that the girl indeed exists and lives in East Aleppo.
The chairman of the Russian Union of Youth is Pavel Krasnorutsky, one of Vladimir Putin’s so-called “proxies,” meaning he was authorized to speak on Putin’s behalf during the 2012 presidential campaign. After winning the race, Putin kept the proxy program active, and Krasnorutsky still regularly contributes expertise on education issues.
Update: The Russian website TJournal reports that at least some of the women featured in the calendar were mortified to learn about the suggestive phrases attributed to them. Yara Khasan, or Miss October, reportedly posted a friends-only message on Facebook, assuring her acquaintances back in Syria that she and the other women knew nothing about the calendar's racy captions.
“We thought it would just be our photographs,” Khasan told TJournal. “But we were shocked when we saw the calendar online with these stupid phrases. […] I explained to my circle of friends on Facebook what happened, because the reaction in Syria has been awful. Everyone is furious about these phrases.”
Khasan says she and the other models were told merely that the calendar was meant as a thanks to Russian soldiers for their fight against terrorism in Syria. She has asked the calendar's makers to delete the suggestive captions, but copies have reportedly already shipped to troops in the field.

author: Kevin Rothrock


text:
What Are People Naming Their Kids in Mexico? · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

“In Mexico, there are people whose parents name them ‘Terminator’, ‘Usnavy’, ‘Hitler’, ‘Lady Di’ or ‘Zoila Rosa’.” Photo published under Creative Commons license. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Before writing a post for Global Voices, one of the most important parts of the process begins with conversations — the exchange of ideas among community members. These discussions take place through various online platforms, but the flow of ideas intensifies when GVers meet directly — face to face — like when part of the Global Voices Latin American team and the general editors shared a table in Mexico City at the beginning of December 2016:
– Y ¿cuáles son las costumbres de la gente para nombrar a sus hijos en México? Donde yo vivo la gente opta por nombres tradicionales como Juan, Manuel o María.
– Oh no, acá ya casi no pasa eso. Déjame contarte algunos de los nombres que los padres dan a sus descendientes…
– And what are the naming customs of people in Mexico? Where I live, people opt for traditional names like Juan, Manuel or María.
– Oh no, that rarely happens here. Let me tell you some of the names that parents give their children…
Are you wondering how the conversation ended? The answer contains the inevitable phrase:
Escribamos una nota al respecto.
Let's write a post about it.
The conversation first addressed the issue of foreign names that are sometimes written with an unusual spelling. This problem has been documented in Nuevo León — a state in the northeast of the country — by the public servant in charge of registering people, in a piece available on the Aristegui News portal:
Tenemos en nuestra base de datos una cantidad de nombres que son poco comunes, entre ellos Kevin, Britany y Brayan, pero tenemos otros mucho más raros que son causa de bullying.
In our database, we have a number of uncommon names, including Kevin, Britany and Brayan, but we also have much rarer ones which are a cause of bullying.
Many people may find it incredible that in Mexico there are people whose parents named them Terminator, Usnavy, Hitler, Lady Di or Zoila Rosa (which in Spanish can be read out loud as “I'm the rose”), but this is a very real situation.
In other states, laws have been passed to limit this phenomenon. The case of Querétaro stands out where, according to some some sources, the public servants in charge of the registry can make suggestions to the parents when the name that they intend to call their child could cause mockery. These public servants must strike a fine balance, as they must still respect parents’ freedom to choose their children's names. It is not a question of some names being prohibited as they are in Sonora (in the northwest of the country), according to information on the Sopitas portal:
Según el artículo 46 del nuevo marco legal, los oficiales del Registro Civil ahora tienen terminantemente prohibido inscribir a los infantes con nombres que sean peyorativos, discriminatorios, infamantes, denigrantes, carentes de significado, que sean signos o siglas o que los expongan a burlas.
According to article 46 of the new legal framework, the Civil Registry officials are now strictly prohibited from registering infants with names that are pejorative, discriminatory, infamous, demeaning, meaningless, symbols or acronyms, or that would subject them to mockery.
There is even a list of forbidden names. If you're curious, you can find it on the Animal Politico site. Other examples include: All Power, Email, Scrotum, Harry Potter, Pocahontas, Twitter, Virgin and Yahoo.
This isn't an issue that has gone unnoticed by the traditional media, but it is worth mentioning that by covering it, examples that violate people's privacy are disclosed.
Whether on television or on the Internet, it is possible to see uncensored, undistorted photo identifications of people named Usnavy Marine or Christmas Day. This exposes their personal information such as their address or date of birth, thereby violating their privacy and putting them at risk for becoming victims of identity theft, a crime that is occurring more frequently in Mexico.
The online version of the Excélsior newspaper offers an example of one such privacy violation; it shows the ID card of a man with one of the aforementioned names. Here, however, we have taken precautions so that his personal information will not be revealed.
Screen capture obtained from the news website Excelsior.com. The image has been distorted by Global Voices to protect the personal information of the person in question.
It is worth noting that Mexico is not the only Latin American country in which the parents’ “creativity” in naming their kids draws attention for the wrong reasons. Chile's case is particularly interesting, but Uruguay is not far behind, as became apparent in a story by Nélson Fernández, in which an unfortunate name was chosen for reasons that seemingly had to do with the calendar:
La creatividad (o irresponsabilidad) de algunos uruguayos para nombrar a sus hijos, ha sido motivo de atención durante muchos años. Uno de los ejemplos más raros fue el de un matrimonio que quiso aplicar el criterio de bautizar con el santo del día. Miró el almanaque el día del nacimiento de su hijo y coincidía con el final de la feria judicial (vacaciones anuales de la Justicia). Increíblemente pero cierto, confirmado por el Director del Registro Civil, ese niño nació con el nombre de “Ábranse Los Tribunales”.
The creativity (or irresponsibility) of some Uruguayans in naming their children has been the focus of attention for many years. One of the strangest examples was a couple that wanted to christen their child with the name of that day's saint. They looked at their son's birthday on the calendar and saw that it coincided with the end of the judicial recess (the Justice Department's annual vacation). Incredible, but true, the Director of the Civil Registry confirmed that the child was born with the name ‘Open the Courts’.
The mockery and derision that the kids who receive such names are exposed to will be discussed in detail in an upcoming instalment.

author: J. Tadeo


text:
Is Nepal No Country for Women? · Global Voices
Saprina Panday

Nepalese woman thinking at Durbar Square, Bhaktapur, Nepal. Image: Flickr by Elmar Bajora. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
In September 2015, still recovering from devastating earthquakes earlier in the year, Nepal adopted a controversial new constitution, accepting discriminatory provisions against two of Nepal's most vulnerable groups: women, ethnic Madhesis and Tharus living in the country's southern belt, known as “the Terai.”
Demarcating land unfavorably for these southern populations, and introducing new discriminations against women on the pretext of national security, Nepal's new constitution remains highly divisive, a year later.
Renown writer Manjushree Thapa burned the constitution in protest, saying:
I’m through with being abused by my own country. I can’t accept the constitution’s privileging of the male bloodline over the female, of semen over ova. I can’t accept the empowering of the male body and the negation of the female body, the erasure of women’s agency as full human beings.
A year later, Thapa hasn't budged:
It's 2016 & Nepal is refusing to grant women the same citizenship rights as men. There's no mystery as to why the country is suffering.
— Manjushree Thapa (@manjushreethapa) December 3, 2016
The “world's best constitution” discriminates against 51% of our fellow citizens: #Women. #Nepal https://t.co/aXZ05LIV4p via @subinmulmi
— Dorje Gurung (@Dorje_sDooing) December 13, 2016
.@manjushreethapa 93% of countries give women equal rights to transmit citizenship. Nepal is in 7%. @bhandaripadam https://t.co/TR1tumcwNX
— Robert Penner (@robpenner) December 13, 2016
Artist and educator Supriya Manandhar created a series of infographics that explain the law with regards to citizenship.
Infographic by Supriya Manandhar. Used with permission
You can find more infographics here.
The new provisions fail to follow longstanding principles of non-discrimination and equality accepted by Nepal as a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
The constitution has complicated the way Nepal grants citizenship, and Amnesty International has urged that the government void new rules that discriminate against single mothers. Citizenship should be granted with consideration for both parents, Amnesty International argues, to avoid stateless children.
The new constitution has harmed children of single mothers and mothers who do not reside permanently in Nepal (including trafficked women, migrant women, and others). This has also affected mothers whose husbands are foreigners.
While this distinction between men and women may seem arbitrary, it is a part of a long historical narrative.
A writer at one of Nepal's main newspapers, Republica, explains:
Equal citizenship right for women was a key agenda of all major political parties during Constituent Assembly elections. But when it came to granting such rights they offered the excuse of “open border with India” and “possible risks on nationality” to continue with discriminatory provisions against women. The proposed amendment, which has sparked protests in parts of the country, has also talked about citizenship. The amendment proposal has relaxed the provision to provide citizenships to non-Nepali women married to Nepali men. But no such provision has been proposed for non-Nepali husbands of Nepali women and their children.
Manjushree Thapa also explains the legacy leading up to this:
Nationalism beats, as a final refuge, in the hearts of Nepal’s Hindu patriarchs. Incredible as it sounds, they are ruled by a deep-seated xenophobia, a fear that Indian men will marry Nepali women, and the children—born of Indian seed!—will populate Nepal. Nepal will then no longer be Nepali; it will be Indian. “We agree with you,” Nepali feminists have been told. “But you have to consider our national identity.” If women are to be loyal to Nepal, we must accept unequal citizenship rights.
Nepal's leading women's advocate, and present Justice of the Supreme Court, Sapana Pradhan Malla, denounces this justification:
Geopolitics, national security and the open border with India can no longer be used as justification for the continuation of systematic state discrimination against Nepali women. […] This is a bogey raised by those who wish to perpetuate patriarchy in Nepal!
Still, the new constitution has yielded some positives for women:
For many, though, this is mere tokenism:
Tokenism to the max-Nepal has women as president, chief justice and head of parliament but has a conservative and sexist constitution.
— Erisha Suwal (@erishasuwal) July 11, 2016
As a southerner, a Muslim, and a woman, Mohna Ansari is triply marginalized. She's also the first such person in Nepal to become a lawyer. She says she is aware that much remains to be done:
[…] having women heading the top state posts does not mean the end of patriarchal values and structural discrimination against women. There still lies a long battle ahead to bring real change in the lives of the ordinary women in Nepal.
Ansari says “keen observation and patience” are needed to be heard in a patriarchal society. Only then “will [we] know how to intervene and change the system in [our] favor.”
In the meantime, people in Nepal continue to call for changes that would repeal the constitution's discrimination against women, Tharus, and Madhesis. Some individuals have even resorted to poetry:
Second-Class Citizens | #Poetry | Dedicated to Women and Madhesi People of #Nepal. #StructuralDiscrimination #CitizenshipThroughMothers pic.twitter.com/BOWYWbLXc5
— Ajaybar S. Pradhan (@ajayspradhan) December 13, 2016

author: Saprina Panday


text:
‘Keyboard Warriors’ Want To #TakeBackKenya · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

A screenshot of a YouTube video of Kenyans with raised fists taking part in #TakeBackKenya protest in Nairobi, Kenya.
On December 12, 2016, Kenya marked its 53rd anniversary of independence from Britain. The Jamhuri (Kiswahili word for Republic) Day celebrations in Nairobi would typically have proceeded in the traditional style, with the central business district calm, the Kenyan flag hanging from various buildings, and few Kenyans walking about on this national holiday.
Instead, it was the same day on which a movement formed by ordinary (mostly young) Kenyans, known as Kenyans on Twitter (KOT), planned a peaceful walk along the streets of Kenya's capital. The #TakeBackKenya event had been planned months in advance, a web presence set up and the required permits obtained from the Kenyan police department in order to hold the demonstration.
However, what started as a peaceful walk meant to denounce corruption and poor governance, turned into running battles between the protesters and police after officers used teargas canisters to disperse the people — both men and women — who were walking from Tom Mboya street to Jeevanjee Gardens shouting, “Lipa Kama Tender” (“Pay It Like You Pay Tenders”) and “Take Back Kenya”, all the while singing patriotic songs.
The irony of ordinary Kenyans being tear gassed on the country's independence day was not lost on netizens, many of whom began calling out the ruling Jubilee party for curtailing the very freedoms that Kenyans fought so hard for 53 years ago.
Corruption is rampant in Kenya; the nation maintained its poor score last year in the Transparency International global Corruption Perception Index(CPI), scoring 25 on a scale of zero to 100 (with zero perceived to be highly corrupt, and 100 very clean).
Among countries that participated in a 2016 PricewaterhouseCoopers survey on economic crime, Kenya was the third most corrupt. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is known to have said that his government cannot fight corruption. He was captured on video saying, “Sasa mnataka nifanye” (“What do you want me to do now”), in response to allegations about the massive scale of corruption in his own government.
The #TakeBackKenya movement is drawn from the often criticized, Internet-savvy, Kenyan middle class, which is often referred to as “keyboard warriors”. This group has, in the past, been accused of participating only virtually in the agitation for better governance and accountability from the government.
It was the first time a citizen-led movement, not affiliated to any civil society organisation, was taking its thoughts, frustrations and calls for improved governance and better accountability of public funds from social media spaces to offline spaces.
#TakeBackKenya was trending nationally on Jamhuri Day and has become a true movement, allowing Kenyans to ask hard questions — especially at a time when Kenyan doctors working in government hospitals have been on a one-week nationwide strike. The medics are demanding better pay against the backdrop of the scandal of public funds that were allegedly looted through Kenya's Ministry of Health — the very ministry under which they are employed by the government.
The movement comes at a time when both doctors and ordinary Kenyans are demanding — using the hashtag #LipaKamaTender — that the government pays health professionals like they pay for illegally won tenders.
Despite the #TakeBackKenya organisers making it very clear that theirs was a citizen-led public participation and active citizenship initiative, Kenyan media houses have referred to the participants as activists.
Participating in the movement online, Louis Mulema posted his request for Kenya's “looting regime”:
My request for the current looting regime. Kenyans #TakeBackKenya @bonifacemwangi @Maskani254 @SaintSnappy pic.twitter.com/IqmirdzAr2
— #Unbounded (@louis_mulema) December 13, 2016
Other Twitter users used parts of President Kenyatta's Jamhuri Day speech against him. Fundi Ndegz wrote:
Guess you meant equipped with teargas @TakeKenyaBack #TakeBackKenya https://t.co/lDZLbQwaAI
— Fundi Ndegz (@ndegwapower) December 12, 2016
Martin Ndambuki asked:
Apart from “My fellow Kenyans” ,which
other part of President Kenyatta's speech
was true? #JamhuriDay2016 #UCLdraw #TakeBackKenya
— Martin Ndambuki (@martinndambuki7) December 12, 2016
Responding to President Kenyatta's statement that foreigners want regime change in Kenya in the New Year, Gatwiri said:
No, Uhuru doesn't have a regime, what he has is a tragedy that must be stopped in 2017. Such a dramatic president my god #TakeBackKenya https://t.co/0TILUGfU8x
— Gatwiri (@RookieKE) December 13, 2016
Kenyans will be going to polls in August 2017, and public dissatisfaction with the current status quo is rife.
Loise Kinuthia tweeted:
#TakeBackKenya the thuggery in Kenya leadership, one day, they will steal their own bank account, thinking its a public account
— Loise Kinuthia (@KinuthiaLoise) December 12, 2016
Waiguru, meanwhile, thought the fact that Kenya has an Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission quite ironic:
EACC job is not to fight corruption but to seem to! #HealthCrisisKe #ChaseBankScam #DefeatCorruptionKE #TakeBackKenya CEO Halakhe Waqo #GMW pic.twitter.com/PBtyZ1xZE9
— 6Th President Kenya (@WaiguruGM) December 14, 2016
Kate Mbuto talked about her experience of taking part in the march:
#TakeBackKenya was my first ever protest. I was so scared did even have breakfast. But I've learnt to stand up to power
— kate mbuto (@KateMbuto) December 12, 2016
As the #TakeBackKenya hashtag continues to build momentum online, many Kenyans are beginning to share messages asking other citizens to take a stand against corruption. Could this be Kenya's Arab Spring?

author: Njeri Wangari


text:
Remembering Castro’s Commitment to Healthcare and Beating Ebola in Africa · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

After approximately six months of fighting the Ebola virus in Liberia and Sierra Leone, 151 Cuban doctors and nurses return to Cuba. Photo by Enrique Ubieta Gómez with permission.
Political leaders and citizens worldwide have reacted in different ways to the recent passing of Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro. West Africa also had a lot to say about Cuba and Castro, but its perspective is driven by the very specific history the region shares with Cuba.
Political discourse and human rights have been important, but medical assistance and medical training were at the heart of Cuban-African relations during Fidel Castro's leadership.
Salim Lamrani, a lecturer at the University of Reunion Island, stated in an article published on Invetigaction.net:
En Afrique, depuis 1963, près de 77 000 médecins et autres collaborateurs de la santé cubains ont offert leurs services dans 39 pays sur 50. Actuellement, plus de 4 000 professionnels de la santé, dont plus de la moitié de médecins, travaillent dans 32 pays d’Afrique.
Since 1963, nearly 77,000 Cuban doctors and other health workers have offered their services in 39 of 50 African countries. Currently, more than 4,000 health professionals, over half of whom are doctors, are working in 32 African countries.
On Nov. 30, Ms. Kenia Serrano, the president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, announced on the Cuban news website Ahora.cu that 40,000 African youths have been trained in Cuba.
Two months earlier, she spoke at the 4th African Regional Conference for Solidarity with Cuba, held at the African Union headquarters in Addis-Abéba, Ethiopia, where she reported that more than 8,000 Ethiopians have been trained in Cuba.
Cuba operates more than 1,100 “friendship associations,” but it has especially close ties to Africa, Serrano stressed, telling the conference that Castro was a major supporter of solidarity and friendship between Cuba and African countries from the first days of the revolution, when the first Cuban medical team arrived in Algeria in 1963.
Cuba currently has cooperative relationships with 52 of the 54 countries in Africa. According to official sources, these efforts focus largely on healthcare, and have yielded positive results, especially among the most disadvantaged populations.
Cuba has also offered more than medical training, sending its own personnel to help African countries in many areas. During the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, for example, Cuba sent a remarkable number of doctors and nurses to fight the epidemic.
In fact, with its first contingent of 62 doctors and 103 nurses, Cuba, a small Caribbean island of only 11 million inhabitants, contributed aid equivalent to that of the rest of the world combined. And it didn't stop there. When other, richer countries were slow to respond, Cuba sent an additional 400 specialists.
This help is exactly what the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) and countries like Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone have said they need.
WHO director general Dr. Margaret Chan praised Cuba's actions in September 2014, saying, “I am extremely grateful for the generosity of the Cuban government and these health professionals for doing their part to help us contain the worst Ebola outbreak ever known.”
In an article published on the French-language website Francecuba.org, Dr. Jorge Delgado Bustillo, the assistant director of the Unité centrale de coopération médicale (Central Medical Cooperation Unit), stated that Cuban specialists faced major challenges during this mission. Bustillo, who was in charge of the brigade sent to Sierra Leone, described the intense preparation they received at the Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine, with guidance from WHO and the Pan American Health Organization.
Nous avons combattu une épidémie pratiquement inconnue, qualifiée de très dangereuse. L’entraînement pour enfiler l’équipement de protection personnelle a exigé une préparation rigoureuse. Avec cette combinaison de protection, on perd plus d’un litre d’eau en moyenne en une heure et il était indispensable que notre personnel s’adapte à son utilisation….
Nous n’avons pas toujours pu déterminer la maladie des patients, les résultats des examens prenant du retard du fait du manque de laboratoires. Grâce à notre insistance, dix centres de ce type ont été ouverts et nous avons obtenu des diagnostics plus précis. Dans le cas de l’Ébola, nous sommes parvenus à recevoir les résultats dans les 12 à 24 heures. Une réussite pour nous tous.
We've been fighting a practically unknown and very dangerous epidemic. The training for how to put on the personal protection equipment called for rigorous preparation. Those wearing a protective suit lose an average of more than one liter of water per hour. So, it was imperative that our personnel get used to wearing them. […]
We weren't always able to diagnose our patients’ illnesses. The exam results would arrive late due to a lack of laboratories. Thanks to our insistence, ten centers were opened and we could get more accurate diagnoses. In the case of Ebola, we were able to get results within 12 to 24 hours. Everyone benefited.
Cuba and the Republic of Guinea also share similar revolutionary histories. The former French colony gained independence in 1958, and was the second country to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba. Shortly after Guinea achieved independence, once the French had left, Fidel Castro sent several experts (teachers in particular) to help the fledgling state.

author: Abdoulaye Bah