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France, Turkey, Poland: The reality of the new COVID-19 spike crisis · Global Voices
Ian Inkster

Bangalore, India during COVID-19 lockdown, 2020. Photo by Nicolas Mirguet on Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0
Last month was not a good one for the world. While some nations were becoming vainglorious and relaxing in environs of vaccine success, surplus and stockpiling, others such as India and Brazil were seen as collapsing under the onset of a huge second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, now much worsened by the strong surge of new varieties. It is still not clear whether such new variants are both more fatal to mankind and more resistant to existing vaccines.
That the Western media have been generally triumphalist is perhaps the better way of describing the Anglophone press based in the U.S.A. and U.K., where democratic regimes are emerging from the anxieties of failed policy responses to bask in the relative peace of vaccine safety. In richer nations, the major broadsheets and broadcasts are now filled with questions as to which countries may be visited first on summer holidays or when undergraduates may finally get their due quantum of actual live and lively lectures and discussion groups in which they may study in perhaps more hallowed grounds than their own living rooms. The new mood is working on the electorates—the awful policy regimes of British Tories and American Republicans seem to be all but forgotten in today’s civil society responses, thus the easy ambitious spending of Biden and the massive electoral triumphs of Johnson.
But, of course, much truth lies buried. Table 1, which fastens on to the large outbursts of COVID-19 cases during two weeks of April (4-10 and 20-26) among the top 10 nations of the viral onslaught, provides some more systematic insights.
Column D shows the ranking of 10 nations with the greatest spike in cases, India being at a firm ranking of 1, with the Philippines at the bottom with a ranking of 10. This is the data expressed frequently by print and social media in most places. Note that the Western media, in particular, are quite happy at repeating this basic numerical data based on Columns B and C ad nauseam and seem to quibble only when some further processing is done and the story becomes a little more nuanced, more based on global realities.
The truly horrible figure is for India at Column C with the enormous figure of 2.3 million new cases in just one week. This is where the Western media have settled, dwelling on broken-down facilities, mass overcrowding and attendances at traditional religious gatherings, the need for aid from the rich Western nations, the insufficiencies of the top levels of Indian governance, the failure of Indian democracy to save its civil society. Running the eye down Column C does alert us to the serious position of the U.S.A., the third worst-situated nation on these crude figures. But note that Brazil’s new cases, second highest, seem quite far removed from India’s greater disaster, with total figures for the two weeks only 28 per cent those of India, on a par with the U.S.A., just a little worse than France.
Columns E and F remind us of the longer-term context, the cumulative effects of more than a year of COVID-19 attack. Column E gives the number of cases per million for each nation since the beginning of the pandemic. We immediately see the huge impact of contrasting demographics and how little even a large spike in numbers alters that power in the short term. Thus, the COVID-19 cases per million by April 26 (the end-date for this analysis) for India stand at only (Column E) 13 per cent those of the USA, 15 per cent those of France, 19 per cent those of Brazil. They remain only 66 per cent those of the world average (bottom row). This does not remove unhappiness, hunger or terror from the lives of millions of Indian people, but it does serve to discount the Western implication that Indian democracy and civil society have failed in the last analysis to match the achievements of the richer nations. And this is not the last analysis.
We get further when we move to Column F, the deaths per million from COVID-19 in each nation.  Apart from the Philippines, a nation of around 111 million people, no nation on the list can match the low number of deaths recorded in India. At what point do we reject the registered data? India as unable to record accurately or wishing to reduce its “failure” and thus its regime's culpability? How are we to go? To loudly announce the figures when they look like Columns B and C, to suddenly query them when they are logically processed into Columns E and F?
If Western commentary on this pandemic is to attain any veracity it must be faced with the need to frame the debate fairly and in a manner whereby the world might learn something for the future. If we are to accept the dramatic pictures conjured up in the press then the logic of this is to accept that democratic, flawed, and wounded India is a great nation—among many others—standing up to an onslaught as best it can, given its initial circumstances and its initial advantages of a high proportion of youngsters and a low proportion of older citizens (which meant that this particular virus would not so readily bite into the lives of as high a proportion of Indian people as has been the case in the West). This is still reflected in Columns E and F for nations such as the U.S.A. and France and Italy
Much of this is brought home when we do the obvious and total the two weeks of high-spike Covidity as a proportion of total populations in each nation, which is done in Columns G and H. Here we see France ranked now as the worst case of new COVID-19 cases in this period, leading Turkey and Poland as the truer triangle of disaster than the one suggested in Column D. Followed by the Ukraine and Brazil, we now have a ring of nations with little in common other than very high spikes of COVID-19 cases during April of 2021. India now joins the Philippines at ranks 9 and 10, the lowest high Covidity among this grouping.
This finding covers both a wide spectrum of cases and a huge number of cases, some 69 per cent of the total world new cases for these two weeks. We see that France, Turkey and Poland appear to have been hit very hard in comparative demographic terms, and that India, in particular, was very hard hit in purely absolute numerical terms, but emerges as Number 9 in a ranking that takes fuller account of the population size of nations.
None of this will stop triumphalism, especially that associated with the new vaccines and their effective distribution. Column J shows that while high vaccination levels in the U.S.A. by April 26 may well have helped slow down cases and deaths by this time, it did not stop the U.S. virus surge nor lower its high place in the Cm and Dm figures of Columns E and F. But it has undoubtedly strengthened the hand of new president Joe Biden and his awful Trumpian echo of “The future belongs to America.” The more measurable positive effect in Britain presently powers the forward advance of the Tory movement and strengthens the grasp of Boris Johnson over his cabinet and detractors within the government. And, of course, the reality is that on April 26, the British statistics for total COVID-19 cases per million since the start of the pandemic remained at 64,639 or some 3.4 times that of the world average, over 5 times that of India. In terms of fatalities, the British Dm of 1,869 was 4.6 times that of the world average, 13.2 times that of India.
The real message of the high figures of April is that while vaccine success may wipe out the negative political impacts of COVID-19 mismanagement in nations such as the U.K., the U.S.A., France, Italy, and so on, the continued failures of such nations to effectively aid vaccine usage in poorer nations will extend the pain of the poor. East Asia, the region that has managed things best of all, should before now have stepped in both with vaccines and with virus-fighting aid through drugs, oxygen supplies, dispersal of skilled nurses and auxiliaries, and the institution of short training courses to ensure effective dispersals, especially among the active and often little affected young folk of small towns and villages. They are the nations that know these things best, have much to gain through action, and might have stimulated—if only through global guilt—the actions of others in Europe and North America, Australia, and elsewhere. It would have been the best forerunner for planning a new world commercial order as the pandemic loosens and East Asian muscles flex.
Instead, one major impact of the present, often wilful, misreading of the known data will be to continue the move away from effective democratic processes in Europe and the U.S., to hasten the decline in underlying productivity within democratic economies, and to boost populism that puts one-line rhetoric well ahead of informed discussion.

author: Ian Inkster


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Hong Kong to toughen up privacy law against doxxing · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Screen capture of pro-government doxxing site hkleaks.
Hong Kong could soon lay down a set of amendments to the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance to curb doxxing, the act of publishing identifying information of a person on the internet with malicious intent.
Doxxing is a crime under the current Privacy Ordinance, but the Privacy Commissioner has in the past faced difficulties in tracing the sources of doxed content or verifying whether the information shared was obtained without consent. It also lacks the legal power to obligate platforms to remove doxed content.
Put forward in the Legislative Council on May 17, the upcoming bill will extend protection to the data subject's immediate family members and empower the Privacy Commissioner to conduct criminal investigations, initiate prosecutions, send content removal requests to platforms directly — without having to obtain a court order, apply for injunctions related to doxed content, and may even block foreign sites if they do not comply with content removal notices.
The proposed amendments also institute tougher penalties for those who commit doxxing — a maximum five-year jail term and a HK$1,000,000 fine (approximately US$ 128,765 dollars). Anyone, including local staff of overseas websites, could face two year imprisonment and a HK$100,000 fine (approximately US$ 12,976 dollars), if the platforms that they are in charge of or working for fail to comply with content removal requests.
Doxxing has become a widespread practice of both anti and pro-government protesters in Hong Kong since the anti-China extradition protests broke out in June 2019.
As riot police officers failed to display their ID numbers during operations, some pro-democracy activists reacted by compiling and circulating photos of officers who were seen using excessive force on protesters. Some police officers’ identities have also been revealed, and members of their families have been harassed in real life.
In response, the Secretary for Justice and the Commissioner of Police obtained an injunction in October 2019 prohibiting any members of the public from using or disclosing personal data of police officers and their family members if it would be likely used to intimidate them.
On the other side of the coin, Beijing and Hong Kong officials have publicly called for exposing teachers if they expressed support to the protests in class. They've also called for doxxing journalists working for pro-democracy media outlets and health workers who participated in strikes (for example, health workers staged a strike in early 2020 demanding the government closed Hong Kong's borders).
The pro-government doxxing site HKleaks hosts 3,434 files of personal data, including photos, telephone numbers, emails, social media accounts, and biographies of protesters, journalists, teachers, medical workers, artists, among others. This data has circulated on messaging apps and on social media platforms.
However, Hong Kong's privacy watchdog is powerless to protect those citizens fairly and equitably.
Between June 2019 and April 2021, the Privacy Commissioner documented 5,700 doxxing cases. It wrote 297 letters to 18 websites or platforms requesting the removal of 5,905 hyperlinks. About 70 percent of their requests were complied with.
But given its lack of investigating powers, the Privacy Commissioner referred 1,460 cases to the police, which arrested a total of 17 suspects in that period. Thus far, two were convicted of disclosing personal data without consent, one of which was sentenced to two-year imprisonment for obtaining police officers’ personal information and posting it on a Telegram group, according to the discussion paper submitted to the Legco.
The Privacy Commissioner referred 60 additional cases to the Department of Justice, all related to doxxing of police officers and their family members. Four people have been convicted.
If the proposed amendment is passed, the Privacy Commissioner could investigate these cases on its own, as well as take legal action without going through other law enforcement agencies.
Responding to concerns raised pro-establishment lawmakers that foreign social media platforms would not comply to take-down requests, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Erick Tsang said:
Hong Kong employees of websites based overseas will be liable to arrest if their bosses fail to remove doxxing data from the platforms, under a new legal amendment to criminalise the malicious publishing of personal data… A lot of these overseas platforms will have operational or management staff in Hong Kong. We can catch these people. I believe they will be relatively cooperative with the notices.
Privacy Commissioner Ada Chung also stated that the proposed amendments could include a provision to ban whole websites if they are solely dedicated to hosting doxed information.
Under the national security law, the police has the power to block foreign sites without notifying the public. The first confirmed case took place in January 2021: Traffic to HKChronicles.com, an anti-government site that hosted doxed information of riot police officers, was blocked by internet service provider Hong Kong Broadband Network after it received a take-down order from the police.
The pro-government doxxing site HKleaks, meanwhile, is still online.
If the law passes, it remains to be seen whether the Privacy Commissioner will implement the law fairly and take action against doxxing regardless of the victims’ real or perceived political affilitions. It will be another test to the rule of law in Hong Kong.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


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Instances of online gender-based violence pile up in Kenya · Global Voices
Cecilia Maundu

Photo by makeitkenya, CC PDM 1.0
On March 27, a heated debate ensued on Kenyan social media about utterances made on-air by three radio hosts during a breakfast show. The hosts were discussing an ongoing court case involving Eunice Wangari, a woman who was pushed off a 12-floor building by a man with whom she was on a date.
On Twitter, angered Kenyans lashed out at the presenters Shaffie Weru, Joseph Munoru, and Neville Muysa for their remarks on the case of alleged gender-based violence, and called out the hosts’ victim-blaming.
Shaffie is insinuating that the lady who was pushed from the 12th floor of a building in Nairobi CBD after she said no to a man's advancements was because she was too loose & very available hence putting herself is such a situation. Homeboyz yawa. What the actual hell! ?
— BRAVIN YURI (@BravinYuri) March 25, 2021
The case divided online users as a section of citizens took sides with the hosts. Although the trio was fired by the radio station, it brought to the fore how hostile the Kenyan online space has become for women.
There are about 21.75 million internet users in Kenya, or 40 percent of the country's population, according to 2021 data by research firm DataReportal. Around 11 million of those use social media, an increase of 2.2 percent compared to 2020.
According to another report by Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), while mobile phone ownership is almost equally matched between men and women — with only five percent more men than women owning or having access to the gadget –, only one in every three internet users in Kenya is a woman.
As an online minority, women in Kenya are often targets of cyberbullying. And although in 2018 the country passed a law against cyberbullying – which defines the behaviour as interacting with others in a manner that “is likely to cause […] apprehension or fear of violence to them or damage or loss on that persons’ property” — with penalties of up to 10 years in prison, mass online trolling still runs rampant.
Below we'll describe two other prominent cases of the past 12 months in which social media served as a platform to harass women in Kenya.
In March 2020, Brenda Ivy Cherotich became Kenya's first COVID-19 patient. After fully recovering, she came forth to speak about her journey just as the world was beginning to understand the new virus.
But Cherotich didn’t receive the warm welcome she may have anticipated. After doing media interviews in April 2020, she was subjected to online harassment and backlash from Kenyans on Twitter (or famously #KOT, a term often used to describe the collective of active Kenyans online known to rally against various causes or personalities) who sought to discredit and question the truth behind her story.
Other online abusers poked into her personal life, and her private conversations and photos were widely shared, probably after being leaked by a friend or acquaintance.
her hairstyle looks like Corona itself ????#brenda @indukusy pic.twitter.com/q3HsQxkcfw
— this is me?? (@mykdjmaliq) April 1, 2020
Angered by this, Kenya’s Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe came forward to defend Brenda, calling for the arrest of the abusers and terming the trolling as a “shameful bid to undermine the government efforts to combat COVID-19.”
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe tells police to arrest social media users for bullying Brenda pic.twitter.com/YkI5EMfeaM
— Nairobi News (@Nairobi_News) April 3, 2020
That wasn't the end of it, as another victim soon fell to #KOT attacks: TV personality Yvonne Okwara was targeted for defending Brenda and backing the minister’s advocacy for the arrest of online abusers.
I strongly disagree with Yvonne Okwara. Your statement is not objective. It is emotional and stinks to high heavens. Speaking of which where was your voice when your fellow women stripped a MAN (Lonyangapuo) naked and shared his nude photos? This is toxic
pic.twitter.com/mqXDt0GkAK
— Lord Abraham Mutai (@ItsMutai) April 3, 2020
Okwara called out the abusers for targeting women. She pointed out that Brian Orinda, the third Kenyan who fell ill with COVID-19, and who was present giving his recovery journey alongside Brenda, didn’t receive the same treatment. This stirred the itchy fingers of the keyboard warriors who had a field day on Twitter trolling Okwara.
Playing gender card everytime. Women should safeguard their dignity in the first place. Posing for such photos and sharing the same is equally immoral
— Saadiq-Al Amin (@Saadiq77) April 3, 2020
Kind of shallow and idiotic take from Okwara. So shallow, you wonder if Corona ate the brain.
Nudes of men were online juzi. She suddenly has selective amnesia over that.
— Robert Alai, HSC (@RobertAlai) April 3, 2020
Earlier in 2021, State House Spokesperson Kanze Dena also fell victim to Kenya's cyberbullies. As she gave a press briefing to journalists at an event, online abusers body-shamed her over her weight.
It quickly became a social media debate, with a section of Kenyans and media personalities coming to Dena's defense.
She’s too fat, tall,short! Who set standards for how women should look like?Why is it our problem that @KanzeDena has added some weight? Well, she’s a new mother, but, she owes no one an explanation! #HerBodyHerChoices! Give her a break please! This is a new low we must reject ? pic.twitter.com/x7qP3nuPeS
— Patience Nyange (@NyangePatience) January 29, 2021
A post shared by Emmy Kosgei (@emmykosgei)
An article by The Elephant, one of Kenya’s foremost digital publications, noted that online social network spheres in Kenya and globally have turned to be the frontiers for toxic expressions and harassment.
There is no gainsaying that social media has become an important tool for social and professional advancement, more so for women. Many women have built their businesses online and, in the process, have learned how to connect with others. Many find clients to buy and sell their products online. Others find platforms to incubate ideas, leading to hundreds if not millions of social enterprises that not only spur economic growth but directly empower young men and women economically. They have also learned how to improve their entrepreneurship skills online. No doubt then, social media has emerged as a great space to do business. This is important for women’s economic empowerment and visibility. – Source: The Elephant
It seems that for women to participate in meaningful online conversations about topics that directly affect their lives, the internet must become a safer place than it is now.

author: Cecilia Maundu


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‘Support your local beekeeper’: Caribbean concerns on World Bee Day · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Bees from one of the 60 colonies at the Carmel Valley Estate in northwest Trinidad. Photo by Monique Johnson, used with permission.
On May 20, the world marks the fourth annual World Bee Day via a virtual event hosted by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, guided by the theme “Bee engaged—Build Back Better for Bees.”
Bees play an important role in pollination, a process that is critical to the survival of ecosystems, biodiversity, food security and sustainability, and they have been under threat at rates 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal because of habitat loss and other human impacts, including the climate crisis. Unsustainable agricultural approaches like monoculture and the damaging effects of pesticides have greatly harmed the world's bee population.
This year's event aims to achieve global awareness of the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened food insecurity, while advocating for ways in which to regenerate the environment and protect these vital pollinators.
Across the Caribbean, social media users did their part to raise awareness, sharing via WhatsApp and other networking channels videos about the occasion, some of which were aimed at teaching children about the importance of bees. St. Lucia held a World Bee Day panel discussion that chronicled the progress being made in the island's apiculture industry.
In Jamaica, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) focused on the biodiverse and ecologically sensitive area of Cockpit Country, where the work of beekeepers there is testament to the fact that respect for nature can go hand in hand with development—it is, after all, the only sustainable approach.
Apart from its environmental importance, Cockpit Country is also hugely relevant to Jamaica historically. Its rugged limestone landscape, was where the Maroons hid after escaping from slavery under British rule. The area, however, continues to be threatened by unsustainable practices, largely led, according to the UNDP, “by small-scale farmers cutting trees to make yam sticks and charcoal.” Its report continued:
Sustainable livelihood alternatives like beekeeping deploy nature’s biodiversity warriors and pollinators to support income generating opportunities that are kind to the environment.
A solitary bee draws nectar from what is locally known as ‘rabbit grass,’ at the Carmel Valley Estate. Photo by Monique Johnson, used with permission.
Beekeeper Leif Johnson and his sister Monique, who operate the family-owned Carmel Valley Estate in northwest Trinidad, agree. For bee populations to survive and thrive the way they need to, they say, support is critical.
In a telephone interview, Leif noted that “wanton deforestation” is one of the biggest threats, and though, he says, the country's Forestry Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries is excellent, it is “severely understaffed.” Bees and other pollinators face habit loss as a result of land clearing for housing and farming. In the hilly farming community of Paramin, for instance, he says that land is being cleared by the acre, but farmers are not replanting the depleted forest areas at the same rate.
Meanwhile, in farming communities on the country's east coast, Leif notes that pesticide poisoning is a huge challenge. Many farmers’ go-to insecticide “knocks down everything,” including indigenous pollinators. Trinidad and Tobago has as many as 50 species of stingless bees that fall into this category.
Other challenges to the local bee population include the intermittent spraying of communities by the Insect Vector Control division of the Ministry of Health, in an effort to curb the presence of mosquitoes. Beekeepers nationwide have been asking the division to communicate more effectively about their spraying schedule in order for them to be able to move their bees to a safe area. Although the ministry's website says its approach involves a “safe, effective and economical integration of all appropriate and sustainable vector control measures,” Leif says the chemicals they use kill bees on contact.
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions have made protecting bees even more difficult for Trinidad and Tobago's 300-plus registered beekeepers and over 7,000 bee colonies. The country is currently under a state of emergency, with a curfew in place from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Because bees only return to their hives in the evening, this is problematic for beekeepers who have found it difficult to get curfew exemptions should they need to move their bees in the event of a scheduled spraying. In addition, most beekeeping operations are not overt. Bee rearing tends to take place in forested areas, many of which may border farms that are using chemicals.
Beekeepers at Trinidad's Carmel Valley Estate. Photo by Monique Johnson, used with permission.
There is hope, however. The current minister of agriculture, Clarence Rambharat, has shown an “active interest” in the beekeeping community and understands the importance of keeping the bee population healthy. Trinidad and Tobago has four different beekeeping organisations, spread out geographically, that have been advocating for legislation against the use of pesticides. “Many of the chemicals used here and marketed as ‘safe,’ Leif says, “like neonicotinoids, are toxic to bees—and they have been banned in European Union countries.” In the absence of such legislation, however, the onus is on consumers to educate themselves and make informed choices.
Carmel Valley Estate is home to 60 bee colonies, which are the focus of its operations. Any crops the Johnson family grows, such as cocoa, are cultivated without the use of toxic chemicals, but the effects of the climate crisis are still having an impact. Trinidad and Tobago is just emerging from an unusually rainy dry season, which Leif says has adversely affected output. “Rain washes away the nectar in the flowers and bees can't fly when their wings are wet,” he explains, “so we're not even at 25 per cent of what we normally produce. The season ends in June, and since most other honey producers are experiencing similar shortfalls, the price of honey increases, placing the product out of reach for the average consumer.”
To do its part in increasing the bee population, the Tobago Apicultural Society has offered to sell 150 European queen bees at 100 Trinidad and Tobago dollars each (approximately 15 United States dollars) to interested beekeepers. While the organisation functions as the main networking group for beekeepers on the island, for a small annual fee anyone interested in learning about bees can become a member.
Leif says, however, that the average homeowner can begin cultivating small habits with big payoffs for bees. “Find alternatives to insecticides,” he says, “or choose safer ones, like bioneem.” Permaculture practices are a good starting point. Strive for biodiversity by planting an array of flowering plants and shrubs, as well as fruit trees and vegetables. “Oranges, mangoes, avocados, watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes and pumpkins are all wonderful for honey bees,” Leif says, “and you get a much higher quality yield with bee pollination.”
And if you really want to help the bees, adds Monique, “support your local beekeeper! [They are] the real stewards and the ones who are taking the time and have the expertise to raise bee populations. Get to know them, reach out, find out what their struggles are and how the community can support them.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Tunisians left to themselves to fight COVID-19 · Global Voices
Saoussen Ben Cheikh

A woman in the subway in Tunisia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Brahim Guedich CC BY-SA 4.0
Since April, Tunisia has faced a sharp rise in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. The Ministry of Health described the health situation as “very dangerous” with hospitals being at almost full capacity. To flatten the curve, the authorities—again—announced new containment measures that include a national curfew, school closure, travel restrictions. But few believe it will be enough.
Unlike wealthy countries, there are no relief schemes to support workers and businesses to stay afloat. With unemployment already high and the cost of living skyrocketing, the most vulnerable have barely received ad-hoc small state assistance, and people are left to fend for themselves to survive. Therefore, the prospect of catching the virus is less of a concern than the necessity of carrying on and making a living.
Though Tunisia imposed a stringent lockdown at the onset of the pandemic and for a while kept the spread of the virus low at a high price for the economy, there is now a wide feeling of powerlessness and fatigue. “If I don’t go out and work who is going to give me money?” asked Salah, a Tunisian builder who, like the majority of workers, relies on daily earnings.
Unable to respond to the demands of the population and drowned in their own political disagreements—Tunisia has had nine governments in 10 years since the revolution—there is complacency at the top. The authorities are not enforcing COVID-19 measures: political rallies have continued to gather large crowds flouting health protocols; social distancing and masking are ignored; cafés and markets are crowded. Digitalisation having lagged, many office and administrative work is still done on-site using hard copies.
Since independence in 1956, Tunisia has heavily invested in its infrastructure. The public health system grew rapidly to provide universal health coverage that used to be the pride of Tunisians. But in the Nineties, corruption, deregulation in favour of the private sector resulted in a downward spiral of deterioration of public health services. It has only worsened throughout the years.
Wakkas Mejdi, a medical intern told the Anadolu Agency that “the health sector is now in crisis not only because of the pandemic but also due to many infrastructural problems which have remained unresolved in recent years.”
Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi visiting a hospital in Sousse in December 2020. Photo from the official Facebook page of the Presidency of the Government of Tunisia, Public Domain.
In 2014 and 2018, medical professionals launched two general strikes after scandals at hospitals that took the lives of 15 newborns babies and the death of a young doctor in a lift accident. Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi pledged at the end of December 2020 the creation of a national body for public health reform. But it is an issue that will take a long time to fix.
In the meantime, Tunisians who can afford it are turning to a largely unregulated and mushrooming private sector for treatments.
COVID-19 has exacerbated the dysfunction of the public health care system. It starts by being able to access a COVID-19 test. While the WHO’s director recommended testing at the onset of the pandemic, Tunisia has never had enough testing capacity.
If, in theory, PCR tests are free at public hospitals, there are not enough tests available in reality. Most people will not be able to be diagnosed. The private sector is called to fill the gap but with a high price tag that is unaffordable for most Tunisians. At the beginning of the pandemic, some laboratories were charging 400 dinars (145 United States dollars) for a PCR test which is almost the equivalent of the Tunisian monthly minimum wage. The government intervened to cap it at 209 dinars ($76) and then to reduce it further to 170 dinars ($62).
Tunisian Ministry of Health Facebook announcement with photo of Health Minister Dr. Faouzi Mehdi and a quote, “We agreed with laboratories to reduce the cost of PCR test.” Public Domain.
At this price tag, it is unlikely many people will get tested. Mainly travelers are taking the test as more and more countries require negative PCR tests for entry. There have been numerous stories of test results trafficking—people buying forged certificates at a cheap price on the black market. The government has clamped down on the traffic, now requiring laboratories to have a QR code on test results.
Tunisia's lack of testing is in stark contrast with most wealthy countries, where testing is free and at the center of their recovery strategies. For instance, the UK and France will offer free rapid COVID-19 tests when lifting their lockdown.
Tunisians are caught between a poor-quality under-resourced health care system and a prohibitive private sector. There has been pressure to demand—as in times of war—the requisition of private clinics if public hospitals are at saturation point. Last October 18, Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi announced that “patients of COVID-19 who cannot find a place in a hospital will be treated in a private clinic at the government's expense.“ But this has still to materialise. Patients must still foot the bill. According to the secretary-general of the Union of Liberal Specialist Physicians (UMSL), the cost of hospitalisation for COVID-19 in private clinics is about 45 thousand dinars ($16,375) per patient. Some families have had to sell property and belongings to save their loved ones. The poorest are trying to treat themselves alone at home using self-medication and traditional medicine. Consequently, many arrive too late at hospitals that are often crowded and unhygienic. Since COVID-19 affects lung function, oxygen is a crucial treatment for many patients, but as cases of this disease surge, many Tunisian patients are turning to an unregulated black market to breathe, and social media feeds have become helplines for medical supplies on behalf of the sick.
Prohibitive treatments, patients outside the system, and a private sector working alone in parallel mean that official figures are likely to be underestimated and only a fraction of the reality. Awash with personal anecdotes but short on reliable data, tackling COVID-19 blindly without rigorous information will only complicate the public response.
The vaccination campaign started over a month late, in March. Tunisia received vaccinations through the World Health Organisation’s COVAX scheme, as well as from Russia, the U.S. and China, and aims to vaccinate over half of the population by the end of the year. An online platform, evax.tn, has been created for people to register for the jab. But general pessimism and distrust in the authorities have slowed down the vaccination.
To succeed in what UNICEF described as “one of the largest mass undertakings in human history” will require general local mobilisation and solidarity engaging with local civil society, the private sector, religious leaders. At the global level, the sharing of vaccines, medical equipment and protection gear, as well as the distribution of low-cost tests, should be a priority for wealthy governments. Because ultimately, we are all in this together, and only in uniting our efforts, can we overcome this unprecedented crisis.

author: Saoussen Ben Cheikh


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WATCH/LISTEN: What Eurovision tells us about Europe · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

For many fans of the Eurovision Song Contest, this week is “Eurovision week”—the final show of the annual singing extravaganza takes place on May 22. And even less ardent followers of the show might agree that Eurovision—and the events surrounding it—provides a compelling lens through which to regard contemporary Europe, its politics, its self-image, and its presumed values.
In this episode of Global Voices Insights, Global Voices’ managing editor Filip Noubel sat down with Eastern Europe editor Tanya Lokot and Central Europe editor Filip Stojanovski for a conversation about Eurovision as a cultural phenomenon. The webinar also featured special guest interviews with two Eurovision 2021 contestants: Benny Cristo from the Czech Republic, and Vasil from North Macedonia.
And please visit our Eurovision special coverage page for more stories!

author: Georgia Popplewell


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In photos: Chileans vote for a new future · Global Voices
Francisco Osorio

May 16, 2021, Santiago de Chile, Chile, photo taken by the author and used with permission.
On May 15 and 16, 2021, Chileans voted for citizen representatives who will rewrite Chile's constitution and help the country leave behind the previous political system designed by a dictatorship of decades past. Citizens also voted for governors, mayors, and city council members that work together with the mayor. And for the first time in history, Indigenous Chileans voted for a representative of their culture to help re-write the constitution.
These elections were groundbreaking – through a democratic process, Chile was able to handle a political crisis. Back in 2019, protests rocked the country, provoking a collapse of the political system. At first, Chileans protested a hike in transportation fares, but the discontent was much deeper than that: people were not satisfied at many levels with Chilean society. Reports of police violence multiplied.
After four weeks of instability, Chile's authorities suggested organizing a referendum to change the constitution. The idea was to change the rules to make room for a new political system to emerge. The results of the referendum, held on October 20, 2020, overwhelmingly favored a new constitution written by ordinary citizens. The current constitution, adopted in 1980, was written during Chile's dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet's rule, a period of widespread political violence and disappearances. In simple terms, the new constitution is a symbol of a new start on how to govern.
The protestors, who recently had the chance to vote, hope for better education, healthcare, pensions, and more gender equality, environmental sustainability, and indigenous political participation, according to a study from the University of Chile.
So, in mid-May 2021, Chileans took another step in the democratic process by electing those who will transform Chile's constitution. The violent images of 2019 seem long gone as a new picture of Chileans heading to the voting booths to determine their future emerged, as shown by a selection of photos at polling stations in Santiago de Chile, on Sunday, May 16, taken by the author.
Because of Covid-19, a sanitary protocol was implemented. A person measured body temperature of voters and applied hand sanitiser before allowing them to enter the poll station. All people wore masks.
On Sunday, May 16, some small queues were formed, trying to keep social distance.
In this polling station, voters first waited in front of their appointed poll number. The electoral officers then checked first if there were enough social distancing inside the poll station before calling voters in. The chairs were an improvised solution.
At the election booths, the atmosphere was extremely calm, with some queues forming at times. People were mostly silent, waiting patiently to vote and return home. The turnout was 43 percent, which is lower than expected. The results were also a complete surprise. All media predictions and surveys failed. They thought the right and center-left candidates would emerge as winners. It was not so.
Youth participation was a big question. So far, there has been no official data, but analysts point to low rates of participation.
Every poll station was under military control. That is a regular modus operandi in Chile. There were no disturbances.
Chile's political landscape is traditionally divided into three political ideologies: left, center, and right. The traditional parties presented candidates, but 60 percent of the candidates were independent, according to one study. Today, the main political force is now the independents with 65 seats (40 per cent), followed by the left-wing, center-left wing, and right-wing parties. In other words, people voted against the political parties that have ruled Chile for decades to write the constitution.
So far, we don't know if the whole country is turning to the left – the presidential elections in November 2021 will offer more clues. All in all, there will be more independent, youth, women, Indigenous and progressive people at the helm of the constitution.
Since the pandemic, bikes are the preferred mode of transportation in Santiago.
A young person using a stylised mask.

author: Francisco Osorio


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Netflix’s new series on Yasuke, the African samurai, is a new dawn for Black characters in animation · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

A screenshot of  a poster promoting the Netflix series – Yasuke, an animated TV Series  inspired by the real life story of the African Samurai. Source: Netflix
In April, Netflix released Yasuke, an animated television series that tells the story of an African who becomes the military retainer — or samurai — of one of medieval Japan's most famous warlords. The series demonstrates how Africans and Black people have been connected to Japan for nearly 500 years.
The Netflix series is actually inspired by the story of Yasuke, a real-life person who first arrived in Japan in 1579. Employed as a bodyguard by a Jesuit emissary to Japan, the man who would become known as Yasuke is rumoured to have hailed either from Mozambique or Sudan.
After impressing Oda Nobunaga, the de facto ruler of Japan at the time, Yasuke was invited to serve the warlord as a military retainer, or samurai. At the warlord's side, for three years Yasuke experienced firsthand the conflict and violence of Japan's “warring states” period, until Nobunaga's sudden defeat and death in 1582. After that, the man known as Yasuke essentially disappeared from history. Africans, however, continued to have a presence in Japan for hundreds of years.
The six-part Netflix series is not a biography of the African samurai. Instead, it takes the void of knowledge about Yasuke's fate post-1582 and the death of Nobunaga as a starting point to a re-imagined alternate reality and fantastical story.
The trailer, released on April 26, and the premier has re-ignited a strong interest in the history of the real Yasuke, who, for centuries has remained a  legendary popular culture icon on the pages of manga, Japanese comic books.
A screen at Nagasaki prefectural museum depicting a “Nanban” trading mission to Nagasaki at around the time Yasuke arrived in Japan. The men with the lances are likely indentured servants. A number of Africans travelled to Japan during the Indian Ocean “East Indies” trade and Vatican missions period. Photo taken by Nevin Thompson. Image license: CC BY 3.0
Historical records show that Yasuke arrived in the western port city of Nagasaki in 1579 as part of a Jesuit mission to Japan. He was one of many Africans to come to Japan as indentured servants or enslaved people, as part of European “Nanban” trading missions. Africans crewed merchant ships, worked as bodyguards or performed other essential tasks as part of European colonization and trade with Asia, including with Japan.
Three weeks into the premier, the series continues to draw strongly mixed reactions online from animation fans globally.
Netflixの「ヤスケ」で、織田信長に仕えた黒人の武士が実在してた人物と知った。
こんな面白い話、中学の歴史で聞いてなくない…？
こんな小咄交えたら、学校の授業ももうちょい楽しかったのかな。別に今知るのでも良いけど。
学習の足場かけがいかに大事かわかる。https://t.co/E5MY3bPZ1l
— 町田祐一郎@愛媛／Webディレクター (@netacho) May 15, 2021
I learned from Netflix's “Yasuke” that a Black samurai who served Nobunaga Oda was a real person.
It's an interesting story that we were never taught in junior high school..?
I wonder if the school lessons would have been a more interesting with if stories such as Yasuke's were included. At least we can learn about him now.
It just goes to show how what gets taught in school is important.
visual representation of how episode 5 of yasuke made me feel pic.twitter.com/ro7AUqaBBZ
— stupid man thing (@fagachilles) May 8, 2021
Just finished Yasuke. What an amazing fast paced anime man I enjoyed it a lot! Highly recommend it! ???? pic.twitter.com/rBkch1U8Jp
— i cry to NTR (@insanitydrowl) May 11, 2021
Would give a Yasuke 7.8/10. Could have honestly been longer which would have given the plot for time for proper development but for 6 episodes they did a preety good job
— Prophet Natty (@prophet868) May 12, 2021
In her review article written appearing on Kotaku.com, Ash Parrish said
Watching the first episode of Yasuke, Netflix’s new fantastical animated show about the life of a Black samurai, I started to cry. I remembered how it felt to be a 16-year-old girl watching anime in the nighttime darkness of my living room. Watching Yasuke, with its titular Black character kicking ass to a soundtrack by musical producer Flying Lotus transported me back to that time, and it feels f****** amazing.
For some anime fans, however, the mechas and magic seemed a bit far-fetched.  Some critics have even gone as concluding that the Netflix Yasuke was a “mistake”:
Why #Yasuke was a huge Mistake https://t.co/Bxjbz5knX4 pic.twitter.com/NDoTCe6hPL
— Axel (@AxellianYT) May 11, 2021
Finished Yasuke. I think this would’ve been better without the mechas and the magic but that’s just me pic.twitter.com/OquOlM5Qbd
— Rods (@bl4ckrxd) May 10, 2021
Just finished Yasuke. The magic and mechs ruined it and Yasuke's flashbacks stole the show and 90% of it had me staring at my phone. Probably one of the most disappointing animes I've watched recently. It Doesn't help that I finished Dororo a few days ago which was amazing. pic.twitter.com/I79ogI61MU
— Panda @ Playing Shadow Dragon (@ThatGuyPanda2) May 11, 2021
The Yasuke Netflix series has been hailed as a “full-circle moment” among Black anime fans. Its significance as a turning point in the depiction of a Black animation hero has further reignited the discourse on the representation and stereotypical characterization of Black characters in cinema.
“It’s the kind of thing where hopefully the right kids see it,” @flyinglotus said of the new Netflix series “Yasuke.“ “I just hope that some seeds are being planted, and this is just the beginning of the onslaught of Black animation” https://t.co/alrytH3FxE
— TIME (@TIME) May 7, 2021
As a black man interested in Japanese art, culture, and history (and a HUGE anime fan, duh), I just had to watch Yasuke: a Netflix original anime loosely based on the first black samurai of the same name. I loved nearly everything about it, but see more potential in it!! 7.5/10⭐ https://t.co/jCDt2gTk0D
— ＴｅｃｈｎｏＭｅｔｅｏｒ ? @ ??? ????? ??????? (@ChidoriX100) May 12, 2021
If Yasuke can be a black samurai I can be a black ninja
— Mani ☥✨ (@ayeitsmani) May 12, 2021
At a deeper level, the new animated series has unearthed the rich historical context behind Yasuke to reveal the dignity, admiration, and reverence that he received. Although he was one of the first prominent Africans in Japan, Africans had travelled with trade missions to Japan since at least 1543, with the start of the Nanban trade, and the arrival of Portuguese traders.
That he rose through the ranks to become a prominent retainer to Oda Nobunaga, one of the most important figures in Japanese history, has become a new source of pride for many Africans and Black people all over the world.
Ash Parrish writing for Kotaku.com said:
Watching Yasuke feels like a full-circle moment to me too. Growing up, and even now as an adult, I never expected to see Black people in anime. As I’ve gotten older, there seems to be more Black anime characters than ever before. And now, I’m getting shows made by Black people too. It’s like a Black anime character renaissance for which Yasuke is the crowning jewel.
During an interview with animenewsnetwork.com, LeSean Thomas the series producer said,
We love fish-out-of-water stories, and we just don't really get to see that from a particularly Black lens because of the history of cinema, the history of animation, and where African-Americans were positioned at the beginning of that event at that time, historically.
Every once in a while, a soundtrack is produced that goes beyond capturing the spirit of the motion picture to grip its audience.
American musician, DJ, filmmaker, electronic and hip-hop producer Flying Lotus’ album Yasuke has been hailed by critics and anime fans as a masterpiece:
Flying Lotus’ original soundtrack for Yasuke is impeccable pic.twitter.com/IwnnGFsvpZ
— Eli (@dlc_elijah) May 7, 2021
Dear @flyinglotus,
Yasuke, damn.
Love, Aby. pic.twitter.com/5xQooi0Zm7
— A B Y W O L F (@abywolf) May 11, 2021
While speaking to Vulture.com on the making of the Yasuke soundtrack, Flying Lotus said:
I empathize with Yasuke so much — feeling like an outsider all the time, especially in music and in the electronic-music space that I occupy. Also, being a Black man whenever I go to Japan, it was real easy to get the story. I knew exactly what it felt like.
Decades before the 2021 Netflix series, the legend of Japan's Black Samurai appeared in Japanese popular culture.
In 1971, famed novelist Shusaku Endo published a book about the samurai. But it was Kurosuke, a children's book about Yasuke published in 1968 by children’s author Kurusu Yoshio  (来栖良夫), that provided a spark for the 2021 Netflix series.
LeSean Thomas, the series director, said:
It was my first time seeing, you know, a really cool illustrated children's book about the story of a foreign Samurai who helped Nobunaga during the whole regime
Since 1968, Yasuke the man transformed through centuries into the mythical legend featured in numerous manga comics and into popular culture icon outside of Japan until 2019 when Thomas Lockley published his book African Samurai.
In March 2017,  Lionsgate announced plans for a live-action film about Yasuke starring the late Chadwick Boseman, who was to portray Yasuke. Boseman died at age 43 in August 2020.
It’s the kind of thing where hopefully the right kids see it,” Flying Lotus said of Yasuke. “I just hope that some seeds are being planted, and this is just the beginning of the onslaught of Black animation.
Nevin Thompson contributed to this article.

author: Njeri Wangari


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Ukraine commemorates 77th anniversary of Crimean Tatar deportation · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Flag of the Crimean Tatars. Image by Riwnodennyk, Public Domain.
On May 18, Ukrainians commemorated the memory of the victims of the Soviet deportation of Crimean Tatars. Engineered by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1944, virtually the entire Crimean Tatar population was rounded up and exiled from their homeland in the Crimean peninsula in the south of Ukraine. In just three days in May 1944, between 180,000 and 200,000 people, adults and children, were expelled from their homes and put on crowded trains to be resettled in Central Asia and the Ural mountains. The official reason for the deportation was tied to false treason charges brought against the whole population by the Stalin regime.
Emine Dzheppar, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, who is herself Crimean Tatar, posted about the anniversary of the deportation on Twitter in Ukrainian, English and Qırım Tili (Crimean Tatar):
On May 18 1944, Stalin's regime started deportation of Crimea's indigenous people.
Just in 3 days no Crimean Tatar was left on the peninsula. Deportation was conducted in inhuman conditions-almost 50% died.
Memory eternal to the victims of the genocide of the #CrimeanTatarPeople pic.twitter.com/d2gzc5yZmo
— Emine Dzheppar (@EmineDzheppar) May 18, 2021
The official Twitter account of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea also commemorated the day with a striking poster featuring the familiar shape from the Crimean Tatar flag made up of railroad segments, while the official Twitter account for Ukraine shared archival images of Crimean Tatar villages, left behind by the deported inhabitants.
77 years since the forceful and mass deportation of the Crimean Tatar people by the #USSR from their homeland. Almost half of the population died in exile as result of the crime of Soviet authorities.
We remember the victims of genocide ?. #Surgun #CrimeanTatar pic.twitter.com/MSFWLBLu27
— Crimea / Крим (@Crimea) May 18, 2021
In a few days on 18-20 May 1944 Stalin’s regime deported over 200k indigenous Crimean Tatars from @Crimea. 46% of them died in first years of exile. Today, we honor the memory of victims of this horrendous genocide?
?: Crimean Tatar village of Üsküt without inhabitants, 1945 pic.twitter.com/axBRsbfNkj
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) May 18, 2021
The deportation (part of Stalin's population transfer policy) and subsequent repressions of Crimean Tatars by Soviet authorities resulted in the abandonment of 80,000 households and 360,000 acres of land. They also led to the deaths of many indigenous community members – some during the deportation, and many more in exile. Publications and education in the indigenous Crimean Tatar language (Qırım Tili) also faced restrictions: to this day the language is designated by UNESCO as under serious threat of extinction (severely endangered).
The long exile of the Crimean Tatars lasted 45 years: though Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev condemned the displacement, it wasn't until the Perestroika era in the late 1980s when 260,000 Crimean Tatars returned to Crimea.
The ban on their return was officially abolished on 14 November 1989, when the Supreme Council of Crimea declared that the deportation had been a crime. On 12 December 2015, the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) issued a resolution recognizing the deportation as genocide and established 18 May as the “Day of Remembrance for the victims of the Crimean Tatar genocide”.
The trauma and memory of the deportation remain central to the history and identity of the Crimean Tatars, and have gained renewed attention since Russia's occupation of Crimea in 2014. The Russia-installed Crimean authorities banned the Crimean Tatars’ representative body, the Mejlis, and renewed the persecution of the indigenous community. Since then, over 10,000 people, most of them Crimean Tatars, have left the occupied peninsula.
In 2016, Ukraine participated in the Eurovision Song Contest with “1994”, a song about Soviet Moscow’s repressions against the Crimean Tatar community. Though the Ukrainian entry caused consternation among Russian lawmakers, Jamala, a Ukrainian Crimean Tatar artist, won the contest that year.  Speaking to Radio Free Liberty, Jamala confessed that she wanted to attract international attention to the events in Crimea. Without this publicity, she said, history might repeat itself.
In 2016, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a warning to the Russian authorities because they “intimidated, harassed and jailed Crimean Tatar representatives, often on dubious charges”. While the Kremlin and local officials present many of the arrests and detentions of Crimean Tatars as anti-extremist operations against Islamists, human rights defenders argue that the crackdown on local activists, journalists and lawyers is aimed at silencing critical voices.
In its recent report on the human rights situation in occupied Crimea, the U.S. Mission to OSCE noted that,
According to a recent report by the Crimean Human Rights Group, as of the end of April, there are more than 100 Crimeans held as political prisoners in Crimea or Russia, including 74 Crimean Tatars.
In a new episode of the documentary series “Nashi 30. Living History” (produced by Ukraine's public broadcasting service UA:PBC), devoted to the self-return of Crimean Tatars to their homeland, Ukrainian journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk interviewed members of the indigenous community. They recall their life in exile and reflect on the history of the displacement and the echoes of the decade-old trauma in modern events.
Today we remember the victims of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944. This is my documentary (Eng subtitle) in which we say about their return to Crimea, for which they fought. Despite being sad it's about strength&hope https://t.co/57mOY1J7Dd https://t.co/cZJr998OYH pic.twitter.com/HDQnMKgAwz
— Nataliya Gumenyuk (@ngumenyuk) May 18, 2021
Watch the documentary in full below [in Ukrainian with English subtitles].

author: Tanya Lokot


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In Turkey, a mafia boss’s YouTube videos give Netflix some stiff competition · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Screen shot of from a video from Turkish organized crime boss Sedat Peker's YouTube channel.
Dressed in a white shirt, sitting at a desk where each object—including prayer beads and a book (different in each video)—seems carefully selected and placed, a mafia boss starts casually disclosing information about links between the Turkish government and organized crime. But don't be mistaken: this is real life, not a new show on Netflix—although with millions of views, the series of videos that began appearing on YouTube in early May are giving the most popular Netflix shows in Turkey some stiff competition.
Sosyal medyada Sedat Peker için esprili bir Netflix afişi hazırlandı. pic.twitter.com/uL3BNEd40J
— ?Muhbir (@AjansMuhbir) May 16, 2021
Funny Netflix poster about Sedat Peker prepared on social media.
Yemin ediyorum Netflix bu kadar heyecanlı bir dizi yayınlamadı. Sedat Peker 5. bölüm yayında. pic.twitter.com/g4oA0CywnU
— Av. Melih Demirer (@avmelihdemirer) May 16, 2021
I swear, Netflix is yet to air a series as thrilling as this one. Episode 5 of Sedat Peker is now online.
The videos’ protagonist, Sedat Peker, started posting videos on YouTube on May 2. Since then, he has tossed around “accusations of rape, drug dealing and suspicious deaths against officials close to Mr. Erdogan.” Targeted so far are the current Minister of the Interior, Suleyman Soylu, former Director of Security turned politician Mehmet Agar, and the former Minister of Finance, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son-in-law Berat Albayrak. But the main question Peker asks is why the Turkish government and its top brass abandoned and betrayed him.
Peker, 49, was found guilty of organized criminal activity twice, and is the subject of an Interpol red notice. In his fourth video, Peker said that, in total, he has spent 16 1/2 years behind bars.
Now reportedly living in Dubai, he left Turkey in 2020 and after a brief stint in the Balkans. He rose to popularity in 2016, when he threatened to “bathe in the blood” of academics who had signed a petition denouncing military operations against Kurds in southeastern Turkey. Peker was acquitted then, as well as at least on two other occasions, once, in the aftermath of a failed 2016 coup attempt, when he threatened to hang the putschists in their cells, and once when he threatened journalist Fatih Altaylı.
For what it is worth, nothing Peker has said so far in his videos is news, but there's no doubt that Peker's reiteration of the murky links between party's senior officials and the mob is damaging to the ruling Justice and Development Party. More importantly, Peker's stories are targeting prominent men who have otherwise seemed impervious to threats, wrote journalist Pinar Tremblay in her recent piece for Al-Monitor, adding that “his [Peker's] words as an insider carry a high value as transparency of government activities has diminished significantly.”
The video released on May 20 added to the growing disenchantment with the Erdogan government, with its claim that pro-government journalists had acted as mediators between Peker and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.
So far, Peker's allegations against several officials have only been slammed by those targeted, and no legal proceedings were launched until Peker targeted the Minister of Interior, Süleyman Soylu, who filed a criminal complaint against Peker on May 17 over the string of recent accusations. In an episode targeting Soylu, Peker said the Minister approved the security detail that has been assigned to Peker since 2015 and that he had helped Peker avoid prosecution after an investigation into the organized crime boss's activities was launched in early 2020.
Surprisingly, the overall response from the ruling party to the on-going allegations, has been tepid and somewhat evasive, wrote journalist Zülfikar Doğan. This stands in contrast to the way the government has responded to criticism in the past. Instead, this time the blame was placed on the opposition, whom presidential spokesman İbrahim Kalın accused on May 13 of playing small games over the claims of an organized mob boss.
İçişleri bakanımız @suleymansoylu meseleyi açıkça ortaya koyarken muhalefetin küçük siyasi hesaplarla ve mafyatik bir şahsın hezeyanlarından medet umarak iftira ve tezviratta bulunması muhalefet adına ne hazin bir durumdur. Umarım bu yaptıklarından hicap duyarlar. https://t.co/16ZiYXARIJ
— Ibrahim Kalin (@ikalin1) May 13, 2021
What a sorry sight for the opposition, engage in slander, by seeking help from the delusions of a mafia figure and make small political calculations at the expense of our Minister of the Interior. I hope they feel ashamed for what they have done
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on May 18 after weeks of silence, President Erdogan finally addressed Peker's accusations, vowing to “foil this dirty script.” At a time of looming economic crisis amid the government's struggle to battle with COVID19, such a promise might fall short of a much bigger issue—the ruling Justice and Development Party's being hit with yet another scandal, and one where foiling may simply not be enough.

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


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Istanbul mayor surprises users on live streaming platform Twitch · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Screenshots from Ekrem İmamoğlu's Twitch account: https://www.twitch.tv/ekremimamoglu
Istanbul's mayor and member of the main opposition Republican's People Party, Ekrem İmamoğlu, joined the world's leading live streaming platform Twitch on May 19, much to the surprise of Turkish users:
Bir anda, Twitch'te! ?@ekrem_imamoglu pic.twitter.com/SvnJP7xcnb
— İstanbul Gönüllüleri (@gonulluist) May 19, 2021
Suddenly on twitch
Twitch is a live streaming platform, used mainly—but not only—by gamers. Many lifestyle “casters” have been using the platform to broadcast their game or activity by sharing their screens with fans and subscribers. One well-known U.S. politician who uses Twitch is social media-savvy Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), but so is Bernie Sanders. In Turkey, the mayor of the capital Ankara participated in a discussion on a live stream held on Twitch but İmamoğlu went further by opening his own account in order to interact with a large base.
Users responded to İmamoğlu's Bits, first in disbelief that it was the mayor himself. Bits are virtual goods that users on the platform can buy that give the power to encourage and show support for streamers, according to the platform's FAQ. “Cheering with Bits shows support for streamers and celebrates the moments you love with the community, all right in chat. A Cheer is a chat message that uses Bits. Bits emotes can be used one by one, all at once, or anywhere in between. Using many at once shows more support and creates cooler animated emotes.”
İmamoğlu's first appearance on the platform coincided with a national holiday celebrating youth and sports, with the mayor joining a live Q&A session from Turkish internet phenomenons.
Twitch kanalımda gençlerin zor sorularını yanıtlıyorum; https://t.co/cJixvWox1H
— Ekrem İmamoğlu (@ekrem_imamoglu) May 19, 2021
I am responding to tough questions from our youth on my Twitch channel
“I see this as an opportunity,” said İmamoğlu in his opening remarks, adding, “No matter how hard the questions may be, ask away.”
İmamoğlu responded to questions ranging from outreach to youth, assistance to the community of musicians who are suffering great financial losses during the pandemic, to dealing with hate and harassment and serving 16 million residents of Istanbul, protecting the environment, pollution, judiciary, youth unemployment and many other issues.
Ekrem İmamoğlu was elected mayor of Istanbul in March 2019. Previously, the 50-year-old politician was mayor of Istanbul's Beylikduzu district, but his name was barely known before he ran in the March 2019 election. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) called for the annulment of results on the grounds of election fraud. In June 2019, however, İmamoğlu won the election rerun by a larger margin, ending the 25-year rule of the Justice and Development Party in Istanbul.
The Istanbul mayor's popularity among young people is not surprising. According to some local media, it was Generation Z votes that significantly boosted the margin of votes in the election rerun, bringing in İmamoğlu's second victory. This generation born between 1995 and 2010s, has known no other Turkey than the one ruled by Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party. Increasingly, President Erdogan's efforts to shape the young generation in Turkey have been failing. The most recent protests that have rocked Istanbul's prestigious university, Bogazici, attest to this. Before that, however—ever since the Gezi protests in 2013—the popularity of the ruling party has decreased, especially among the youth. According to a study conducted by the Gezici Arastirma Merkezi Institute in 2020, 76.4 per cent of respondents said they regarded the rule of law and democracy—both of which have been scrutinized under the current leadership—as top priorities for Turkey.
Last year, hundreds of students joined a live stream with President Erdogan and used the comments section to criticize Erdogan and tell him that he would not get their votes in the upcoming presidential election scheduled for 2023. It is estimated that some six million new voters will be casting their ballots in the next election.
Most recently, in an interview with Fox TV Turkey, İmamoğlu said he did not have plans to run for the upcoming presidential election and instead, aims to be the most successful mayor of Istanbul. Regardless of his candidacy, he appears to be winning over a generation that may set a new course for Turkey.


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Resistance, rebellion, and rage: Japan’s opposition to the Tokyo Olympics · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

A change.org petition calling for the Olympics to be canceled registered about 50,000 signatures in 24 hours after it was launched in early May. Screencap from Change.org.
As Japan continues to struggle with a new wave of COVID-19 infections, opposition to the upcoming Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will be held from July 23 to August 8, continues to build. Because of perceptions that the Olympic athletes are being prioritized over the safety of Japanese citizens, local authorities have begun to “rebel” against the Olympics, while a widely-shared meme compares Japanese authorities to the military government of World War II.
In a poll conducted on May 16, at least 80 per cent of Japanese people surveyed opposed holding the Olympics this summer (in the survey, 40 per cent said the Games should be postponed again), largely because of the threat posed by COVID-19. As of May 21, 2021, persistent rates of COVID-19 community transmission had forced much of Japan into a state of emergency, just 63 days before the start of the Tokyo Olympics.
Tokyo State of Emergency likely to be extended into June. Olympics are supposed to start in July? ? https://t.co/HJLdwn8fHX
— Tokyo Fashion (@TokyoFashion) May 20, 2021
As of May 21, 706,000 people in Japan had tested positive for COVID-19, with significant outbreaks in the Tokyo and Osaka regions during a “fourth wave” of rising infections this spring.
Despite the rising number of deaths and economic disruption throughout the pandemic, the Japanese government and the International Olympic Committee, the governing body of the Olympics, have insisted that the Tokyo Olympics will proceed this summer, after being postponed a year from summer 2020.
A main concern among the Japanese population, at least until late May, has been the relatively low rates of COVID-19 vaccinations in Japan. While the number of Japanese people who have received at least one dose of vaccine had quadrupled in just two weeks, from just 1 per cent of the population on May 5 to 4 per cent on May 20, and an ambitious stated goal of administering 1 million shots a day, there is a widespread public perception that Japanese citizens’ lives are less of a priority than the those of Olympic athletes.
For example, Nikkan Gendai, a tabloid that regularly breaks news critical of the government, reported there were criticisms that COVID-19 vaccines in Japan were prioritized for the “well-connected.”
“Vaccine priority for the well-connected” screams the Nikkan Gendai headline. pic.twitter.com/KEGUfESYBL
— Mulboyne (@Mulboyne) May 12, 2021
And, as of May 19, less than 40 per cent of medical staff in Japan had been vaccinated, and the Tokyo Medical Practitioners’ Association joined the call for the Summer Olympics to be canceled.
After the Japanese government announced plans to remove nurses from the public health system and dispatch them to the Olympics, nurses protested on Twitter:
#看護の日 のTwitterデモ、私も参加します。
政府は医療現場からあがる #看護師の五輪派遣は困ります の声を聞き、五輪中止の判断を。医療現場がコロナ対応に集中できる環境を一刻も早く作ることこそ政治の責任です。#看護は自己犠牲じゃない pic.twitter.com/tH9rYyrRBu
— 坂井和歌子 (@waka929) May 12, 2021
Twitter card text: “Nursing is not self-sacrifice. I oppose dispatching health workers to the Olympics.”
I'm joining the “Twitter Day of Action for Nurses” (#看護の日 ) on May 12th (Wed). I'm hearing concerns about government plans to recruit nurses for the Olympics, and I'd like to call for the Olympics to be canceled. It is instead the responsibility of politicians to end the COVID-19 crisis in Japan as soon as possible.
#NursingDoesNotMeanSelf-Sacrifice
Masuzoe Yoichi, disgraced former governor of Tokyo and regular critic of Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide's government, has criticized the vaccine rollout:
ワクチン接種予約：やっとネットが繋がった。第一回目が最速で8月21日、直ぐに予約。2回目はまたネット・パンクで予約できず。7月末までに高齢者の接種完了と豪語した菅首相、これが現実だ。86％の自治体が首相の希望に応えると言ったが、人口93万人の世田谷区は無理だ。完全な政府の失敗である。
— 舛添要一 (@MasuzoeYoichi) May 14, 2021
My vaccine reservation experience: Finally managed to login to the online reservation site. The earliest I could book is August 21st, and I nabbed it immediately. For reserving my second (follow-up) dose, I couldn't make a reservation: the site crapped out again. This is the reality of Prime Minister Suga's promise (about vaccines). He boasted that the inoculation of the elderly would be completed by the end of July. While 86% of local governments have said they would achieve the prime minister's stated goal, Setagaya Ward, which has a population of 930,000, cannot do so. So far, vaccinations in Japan have been a complete government failure.
Political foes of the government are not the only ones criticizing Japan's slow efforts to control COVID-19 while inviting tens of thousands of Olympic athletes and support staff into the country.
An online petition registered about 50,000 signatures in 24 hours after it was launched in early May. By May 20, the petition had gathered 380,000 signatures.
Only 1% of Japan is fully vaccinated against #COVID19. Moreover, the Japanese gov't is still trying to allocate medical resources to Olympic officials on a priority basis. Please sign the petition to #CancelTheOlympics #StopTokyoOlympic!https://t.co/E7uRsdidsT
— ねこむらねっこ (@nekomuranekko) May 14, 2021
Editor's note: The “1% vaccinated” figure was as of the launch of the petition in early May.
Other commentators likened the government's determination to hold the Tokyo Olympics in the face of a global pandemic to the military-dominated government Japanese government during World War II which mobilized the young and the old in preparation for a futile, suicidal battle against invading Americans.
Magazine publisher Takarajimasha took out full-page ads in major daily newspapers that satirized the Japanese government.
Japanese publishing company Takarajima took out this brutal double full-page ad in today's Asahi Shinbun.
In an old-timey prewar font, it reads, “No vaccine. No medicine. Are you asking us to fight with bamboo spears? At this rate, we'll all be killed by politics.” pic.twitter.com/RLXL7InP9E
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 11, 2021
A university researcher and “bookworm” (本の虫) noted the illustration used in Takarajimasha's parody is, indeed, real:
宝島社の企業広告で「タケヤリの訓練」として使用されている写真は、山中恒『子どもたちの太平洋戦争』（岩波新書）中において、「薙刀の訓練（1941年）」（P62）として紹介されている。 pic.twitter.com/95n0JKKYQa
— 本ノ猪 (@honnoinosisi555) May 11, 2021
The photo used in the Takarajimasha newspaper ad comes from the “training with bamboo spears” illustration found in the chapter “Training to Use the Polearm” on page 62 of Yamanaka Hisashi's “Children and the Pacific War” (Iwanami Shinsho, 1941).
Adding to the aura of a rigid, incompetent war-era military government, after major news outlets exposed how it's possible to make vaccine bookings run by the military using a random number generator, Japan's defense minister, and his brother, former prime minister Abe Shinzo, instead complained that such “malicious behaviour” by journalism outlets would lead to wasted vaccines. The defense minister threatened to prosecute the media outlets.
Meanwhile, fearing a tidal wave of COVID-19 cases and dwindling resources to deal with them, local authorities have started to bow out of participating in the Olympics.
As at least 31 Tokyo Games host towns have abandoned plans to welcome overseas athletes, the governors of Chiba and Kanagawa prefecture, which neighbour Tokyo, have rejected a request by the Tokyo Olympics to secure hospitals designated for athletes. The governor of Ibaraki prefecture also rejected a request to secure beds for athletes, stating that, “We cannot prioritize athletes over our own citizens.”
The Olympic torch relay across Japan has also shrunk in scope. Earlier in 2021, a sexism scandal resulted in many celebrities and volunteers withdrawing from the relay. Now, the risk of COVID-19 and the unpopularity of the Games has resulted in dramatically pared-down ceremonies.
And the only thing that happened was a ceremony with a runner and the governor, because it's too dangerous to have spectators! https://t.co/SO9Gd2mIQj
— Jim Rion Rhymes with Slim Lion (@EasternSmooth) May 13, 2021
In terms of silver linings for both the Tokyo Olympics and the pandemic, the Japanese government has released plans to dramatically increase COVID-19 testing.
On May 21, the government approved the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines as Japan aims to finish inoculating the country's 36 million people age 65 and over by the end of July.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Belarus grounds Ryanair flight, detains independent journalist amid regime’s crackdown on media · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Raman Pratasevich, ex-admin of NEXTA-Live, current editor-in-chief of Belarus Golovnogo Mozga. Screenshot from video by Euronews on YouTube.
A civilian flight from Athens to Vilnius was forced to make an unplanned landing in Minsk, Belarus on May 23 after an allegedly false bomb threat on board. Upon landing, Belarusian authorities detained Raman Pratasevich, an independent journalist wanted by the Lukashenka government on extremist charges.
Pratasevich is a former administrator of the Telegram channel NEXTA-Live, which has been covering the anti-government protests in Belarus. He recently became the editor-in-chief of Belarus Golovnogo Mozga (Belarus of the Brain), another Telegram-based independent media outlet.
❗ Наш главред Роман Протасевич задержан в минском аэропорту
В Национальном аэропорту Минска приземлился самолет компании Ryanair, который летел из Афин в Вильнюс. Самолет внезапно подал сигнал бедствия и поменял курс. pic.twitter.com/rNpH20j0SS
— РБ головного мозга (@belamova) May 23, 2021
Our editor-in-chief, Roman Protasevich, has been detained in Minsk airport
A Ryanair airplane heading from Athens to Vilnuis has landed in Minsk's National airport. The airplane sent out a distress signal and changed course unexpectedly.
As reported by the Media Solidarity Belarus campaign on Twitter, the FR4978 flight was close to the Lithuanian border when it was diverted to land in Minsk. Belarus sent a Mig-29 fighter jet to intercept the civilian plane and force a local landing. On the ground, Belarusian border and law enforcement officials inspected the passengers’ luggage and IDs and subsequently detained Pratasevich.
While on the flight, the journalist had reportedly messaged his friends to indicate he may have been shadowed by Belarusian state security. His whereabouts are currently unknown, though according to Euroradio, police have confirmed his arrest.
4. Before the flight Raman Pratasevich (ex @nexta_tv ) wrote to his friend someone showed suspicious interest in him at the registration in #Athens airport.
5. A Russian-speaking man presumably attempted making a pic of Pratasevich's passport, then left the queue abruptly. 2/
— Media Solidarity (@MediaSOL_BY) May 23, 2021
In November 2020, Belarusian authorities announced that Pratasevich, along with another NEXTA-Live administrator Stsyapan Putsila, were being investigated on charges of organising mass disorder, disrupting public order, and inciting social hatred. NEXTA-Live and the Belarus Golovnogo Mozga channel were both designated ‘extremist’ by Belarusian authorities. The latter channel's founder, Ihar Losik, has been in jail since June 2020 and recently ended a six-week hunger strike.
Both Pratasevich and Putsila had previously moved abroad fearing prosecution after other activists’ arrests.
Based on the charges against him, Pratasevich could face a lengthy jail term and, potentially, more severe consequences.
20. Pratasevich is facing the following charges in #Belarus:
Article 130 p.3 of Criminal Code – inciting social hatred based on professional affiliation,
Article 293 – organizing mass riots
Article 342 – organizing group activities that violate public order #FR4978 10/
— Media Solidarity (@MediaSOL_BY) May 23, 2021
Former opposition presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsihanouskaya and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, along with other EU leaders, have both condemned the incident and Pratasevich's detention.
The regime forced the landing @Ryanair plane in Minsk to arrest journalist and activist Raman Pratasevich. He faces the death penalty in Belarus. We demand immediate release of Raman, @ICAO investigation, and sanctions against Belarus. pic.twitter.com/ondPBd0kU9
— Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (@Tsihanouskaya) May 23, 2021
Unprecedented event! A civilian passenger plane flying to Vilnius was forcibly landed in #Minsk. Belarusian political activist & founder of @NEXTA_EN was on the plane. He is arrested. ?? regime is behind the abhorrent action. I demand to free Roman Protasevič urgently!
— Gitanas Nausėda (@GitanasNauseda) May 23, 2021
Though the grounding of a civilian flight by Belarus is unprecedented, Pratasevich's detention is only the latest episode in the ongoing crackdown against Belarusian independent media. According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, 29 reporters are currently behind bars.
On May 21, Belarusian law enforcement raided the Minsk studio used by Belsat, a Polish-based TV station that has produced investigations critical of Lukashenka and his milieu. Six Belsat employees were detained. Earlier this year, two Belsat journalists, Daria Chultsova and Katsiaryna Andreyeva, were handed two-year prison sentences for reporting live from a Minsk protest rally.
#Belarus Happening right now. Security forces broke into @Belsat_TV studio, where a programme was recorded. People have been detained pic.twitter.com/Bt95x7ZcV4
— Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) May 21, 2021
Earlier this week, Belarusian authorities launched a probe of the country's largest independent online media outlet, Tut.by as part of an investigation into suspected tax evasion. A number of Tut.by journalists were detained, with police searching the homes of several of its editors. The Tut.by website was also blocked.
Belarusian revolution has always had woman's face – and the junta targets women the most. Among 11 detained https://t.co/Kd5AnBgylu employees – Volha Loika & Alena Talkachova, extremely brave, truthful, and strong-minded female journalists. They should be freed #fightlikeagirl pic.twitter.com/CF2hKWc9fz
— Franak Viačorka (@franakviacorka) May 19, 2021
Press freedom organisation Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned the pressure against the media outlet, while Amnesty International has called the blocking of the Tut.by website, which is read by over 40% of Belarusian internet users, a ‘full-scale assault on the right to freedom of expression and media freedom in Belarus’.
The Tut.by newsroom has launched a standalone website, freejournalists.info, to keep readers updated on the case against Tut.by.


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In honour of World Turtle Day, meet the five species that frequent Trinidad and Tobago · Global Voices
Cari-Bois News

A leatherback hatchling heading to sea at Back Bay, Tobago, 2010. Photo by Ryan P. Mannette courtesy SpeSeas, used with permission.
This article was written by Michelle Cazabon-Mannette and originally published on Cari-Bois News. An edited version is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement with Global Voices.
May 23 is World Turtle Day, marked annually to protect turtles and their disappearing habitats. In Trinidad and Tobago, the species most people are familiar with, thanks to their nesting habits and the country's conservation efforts, is the leatherback turtle, which visits the shores of the twin-island Caribbean nation each year from March to August. Less well known are four other sea turtle species, all hard-shelled: Hawksbill, Green, Loggerhead and Olive Ridley.
All five species share some common characteristics. They all spend the majority of their long lives at sea, travelling great distances, with the females returning to beaches near their birthplace to lay large numbers of eggs. All hard-shelled sea turtles have bony plates called scutes that make up their shell, the pattern of which, in addition to the number of prefrontal scales between the eyes, is key to determining the species.
They are all also under threat, and have been designated as environmentally sensitive species. Local penalties for harming these turtles are 100,000 Trinidad and Tobago dollars (nearly 15,000 United States dollars) and imprisonment for two years.
Early morning leatherback at Grande Riviere, along Trinidad's east coast, 2018. Photo by Ryan P. Mannette courtesy SpeSeas, used with permission.
The largest of the sea turtles, leatherbacks spend a significant portion of their lives in the vast open ocean, travelling thousands of kilometres. They can be found in all tropical and subtropical oceans, with a range that extends into the much cooler Arctic Circle.
What sets leatherbacks apart from other sea turtles is their soft, leathery shell, which enables them to dive deeper than any other species of sea turtle. Their main diet consists of soft-bodied animals that drift throughout the water column, such as jellyfish.
For nesting season, they favour warmer climates. Trinidad and Tobago, located at the southern end of the Caribbean archipelago, is home to one of the largest populations of nesting leatherbacks in the world; as such, the country has played an important role in global conservation efforts.
While global populations are considered to be vulnerable, due to recent declines, the regional subpopulation is currently classified as endangered—a more alarming designation—by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The primary threat to leatherbacks, both locally and globally, is bycatch of the species in fisheries.
A juvenile hawksbill resting on the reef at Castara, Tobago, 2012. Photo by Ryan P. Mannette, courtesy SpeSeas, used with permission.
Hawksbills are the next most common turtle using Trinidad and Tobago as a nesting ground. Being a small, agile species, their nesting activity is scattered across many beaches, including small bays protected by rocks or reefs. Mature females make breeding migrations between foraging and nesting grounds on the scale of hundreds to thousands of kilometres.
Juvenile hawksbills can be found in local waters year-round, in coral reefs, underwater cliff walls and hard bottom habitats, where they feed primarily on sponges. Their unique diet helps maintain the diversity and health of coral reefs. Distinct from the nesting population, they originate from a variety of other islands, including as far away as Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Hawksbills can be recognised by their four lateral scutes, two pairs of prefrontal scales, and narrow, pointed beak. The scutes on their shell overlap like shingles on a roof, resulting in the serrated appearance of the shell, which appears more prominently in juveniles.
Hawksbills are distributed throughout the tropics and, to a lesser extent, the subtropics. Turtles born on the shores of Trinidad and Tobago tend to migrate widely across the Caribbean region, with females returning to nest.
Sadly, hawksbills have been harvested for their beautiful “tortoiseshell,” which in the past was used to make jewellery and other decorative items. IUCN lists them as critically endangered.
A juvenile green turtle swimming offshore Curaçao, 2017. Photo by Ryan P. Mannette, courtesy SpeSeas, used with permission.
Uncommon to find in Trinidad and Tobago, green turtles are the largest of the hard-shelled turtles. Just like the hawksbill, however, juvenile greens do live offshore year-round. They are a herbivorous species, feeding primarily on seagrass and algae, and typically live in seagrass beds and coral reefs, where algae may be present.
They are occasionally spotted around the rocky coastlines of Trinidad's north and east coasts, and their grazing activity plays an important role in maintaining the health of seagrass beds and coral reefs. They are easily distinguished from hawksbills by their blunt beak and are the only species with one pair of prefrontal scales between their eyes.
While the meat from the green turtle has generally been the most sought-after worldwide, both hawksbills and greens continue to be threatened locally by poachers, either on beaches or at sea. IUCN lists them as endangered.
A sub-adult loggerhead that was stranded on Manzanilla beach along Trinidad's east coast; it was successfully rehabilitated and released in 2017. Photo by Ryan P. Mannette courtesy SpeSeas, used with permission.
Loggerheads are rare in Trinidad and Tobago, but a number of sightings have been confirmed over the last 12 years, off Trinidad's east, south, and western coasts, as well as around Tobago.
In 2017, one loggerhead that was stranded on the east coast was successfully rehabilitated and subsequently released with a satellite tag, which showed that the turtle spent some time exploring the Gulf of Paria after being released.
Loggerheads are distinguishable from other species by their large heads and the five lateral scutes on their shell, though hatchlings may easily be mistaken for hawksbills if you don’t pay attention to the scute pattern.
Loggerheads like muddy, hard-bottom habitats, where they feed on a variety of animals, including shellfish, which they crush with their large heads and strong jaws. They nest along shorelines in tropical and temperate zones, and frequent all tropical and temperate ocean basins, with Florida boasting the largest nesting population of loggerheads in the world. IUCN lists them as vulnerable.
An injured Olive Ridley that stranded on Lambeau beach in Tobago, 2007. Photo by Ryan P. Mannette courtesy SpeSeas, used with permission.
The smallest of the sea turtles found locally, sightings of Olive Ridleys are rare, but they do happen. Their varied diet, which can include crabs, snails, barnacles, algae, fish, jellyfish and other soft-bodied animals, means that they feed in soft-bottom coastal habitats, as well as at the surface of the open sea.
The species usually has six or more lateral scutes, making them distinct from the other species found locally. In some parts of the world, Olive Ridleys exhibit a unique nesting behaviour called an “arribada,” whereby thousands of nesting females coordinate and nest on a single stretch of beach over the period of a few days. During the nesting season, the entire group remains close to their nesting beach, but this behaviour has not been recorded in Trinidad and Tobago, which sees only the occasional, solitary nesting turtle. IUCN lists Olive Ridley as vulnerable.
These once-abundant sea turtles play important roles in maintaining healthy marine ecosystems, yet they have been harvested for their meat, eggs, shells and other products, including intensive harvesting by the region's European colonisers in the 17th and 18th centuries, which significantly depleted the populations.
Locally, sea turtles generate significant revenues from eco-tourism activities that include guided tours to nesting beaches and scuba diving. Despite this, the species continues to face numerous threats, including continued attempts at harvesting, bycatch, habitat loss, climate change and plastic pollution.
If you want to contribute to learning more about sea turtles in Trinidad and Tobago, the marine advocacy website SpeSeas encourages netizens to become citizen scientists by filing reports on turtle encounters.

author: Cari-Bois News


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‘Kakoli Furniture’ viral video spawns funny memes in Bangladesh and West Bengal · Global Voices
Rezwan

Screenshot from Facebook video of Kakoli Furniture.
The main characteristics of a viral video usually include humour, connection and controversy. Sometimes you come across some content for which there is no explanation available as to why it became viral. A low budget video advertisement shared on social media containing a repetitive six-word sentence “Low price, good quality, Kakoli Furniture” has become an online sensation in the past month. Netizens are unable to fathom why this advertisement of an unknown furniture store in Bangladesh has become viral in the Bangla speaking communities in Bangladesh and West Bengal in India. Even the owner of the furniture store is baffled.
Amidst the grim news of the second wave of the pandemic in India and the ongoing lockdown in Bangladesh and West Bengal, people are finding some moments of laughter and respite with this viral video.
Abhishek Ghosh from Kolkata, India comments:
#KakoliFurniture seems more of a PANDEMIC right now ??♂
— Abhishek Ghosh (@thefoodgambler) May 18, 2021
Kakoli is a common name for girls in Bangladesh. The furniture store “Kakoli Furniture” is located in Mawna Union of Sreepur Upazila in Gazipur district, some 60 kilometres outside of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka. SM Sohail Rana, the proprietor of Kakoli Furniture, was thinking of some publicity for his furniture shop and generated the idea for this low budget advertisement after seeing two girls of his customer visiting his shop.
In the video advertisement published first on their Facebook page on April 9, 2021, two girls are seen jumping on sofas and mattresses of the shop or swinging in rocking chairs simultaneously. It is accompanied by a monotonous voiceover of the girls chanting “Low price, good quality, Kakoli Furniture” in Bengali (দামে কম মানে ভালো কাকলি ফার্নিচার!) that repeats from the beginning to the end which can also sound annoying. The girls are seen wearing masks — which shows that they are respecting the guidelines during the pandemic.
Since then, the video has been shared by many on several platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, among others. People are commenting on it, creating memes and sharing it widely. Another video from Kakoli furniture also created widespread interest. Reports estimate that the videos have been shared over five million times already.
Mr Rana told the media that he didn't expect that his video would become viral:
আমি বুঝতেও পারিনি বিজ্ঞাপনটি এভাবে ভাইরাল হবে। আমি শখের বসে কাজটি করেছিলাম। এটি আমার প্রফেশন নয়।
I did not imagine that this advertisement will be viral. I just produced it as a hobby. This is not my profession.
The videos have also been extremely popular in West Bengal, the fourth most populous state in India. Bangladesh has over 160 million Bengali population and India has over 97 million Bengali population and they are united by language and culture but divided by a border.
Md. Soukat Hussain, a Twitter user from West Bengal describes the impact of the Kakoli Furniture videos:
The Kakoli Furniture video must be one of the most shared posts in the history of Bangla Facebook now.#kakolifurniture pic.twitter.com/GCaJ7W7pJX
— ?? ?????? ???????|মোঃ শওকাত হুসাইন (@Soukat_Hussain_) May 19, 2021
AnandaBazar Patrika, a popular Bengali news daily from West Bengal comments that it seems that the “Kakoli virus” has taken over the internet spaces. Netizens from both countries are using creative memes, using footages from “Mr. Bean“, “The Shining” or music from horror videos. Memes by influencers like actress Ritavari Chakrabarti from West Bengal have been liked by 66,000 followers which boosted the popularity of the video.
Debi from West Bengal tweets:
Uff everywhere! #KakoliFurniture really haunting me ?? https://t.co/4oEbeSWpvG
— Debi (@WhoDebi) May 20, 2021
Subham Sinha from West Bengal asks:
Why people promoting Kakoli furniture at free of cost??#KakoliFurniture
— Subham sinha (@i_subhamsinha) May 20, 2021
Farhana Islam from Bangladesh comments on Quora:
কালকে দুপুরে দেখি আমার (বড়) বোন কাকলি ফার্নিচার এর ছড়া কাটছে। [..] আজকে দেখি, পরীক্ষার সময় আমার মাথায় কাকলি ফার্নিচার ঘুরছে।
বিজ্ঞাপনটির কোনো বিশেষত্ব নেই,কিন্তু একবার শুনলে কাকলি ফার্নিচার মাথায় ঘুরতেই থাকবে!
Yesterday my (elder) sister was parroting the Kakoli Furniture jingle. [..] Today, while sitting for an examination, the words were echoing inside my head.
There is nothing special in this advertisement, but if you listen to it once, the (repetitive) words will be playing inside your head.

author: Rezwan