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Thanks to the New York Public Library, India’s Bygone Days Are Just a Click Away · Global Voices
Rezwan

Various men and women in Hindustan (India). (1823–1838) Sketch by Andrea Bernieri. Photo from The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Old images of people and places help us realise how much things have changed. Looking at old pictures takes us back to the days when life seemed simpler. In those faded facades and strange clothes, from one photo to the next, we remember how people once lived.
Earlier this month, the New York Public Library released more than 180,000 digitized items in the public domain. Readers can now access and download these archived materials from the library for free and also remix the materials to develop and share new content.
Among the digital archive are old photographs and sketches from Asia and the South Pacific regions showing how people lived in the then-colonized countries. The images provide a rare glimpse of architectures and clothes of the undivided Indian Sub-Continent.
Throughout India, you will find a number of beautiful grand palaces, which were built by emperors who ruled the region in different periods. Perhaps you've seen photos, but have you ever wondered how they appeared before photography was available everywhere? Take a look.
Sketch of the Palace of Agra, view from the river (1859). Image from The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Jahangir Palace is a palace inside the Agra Fort, which bears the blend of Hindu and Central Asian architecture. It was used mainly by the Rajput wives of Mughal Emperor Akbar, who had it built.
The king's palace at Delhi (1859). Image from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
Located at the centre of Delhi, the Red Fort (Palace of Delhi) was the residence of the Mughal emperor of India for two centuries, until 1857. It evolved over the years.
How were the lives of people then? Here are some sketches and paintings of the royals and people around them:
Rulers and women from India (1876–1888). Art by Chataignon. Image from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
A commander of the palace guard in Delhi (1845–1847). Image from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
Dancing Girls At Court Of Rewa, East Central India, 1863–8. Engraver Jacob Ettling. Image from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
An elite Indian Muslim women (1823–1838). Sketch by Andrea Bernieri. Image from The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
And here are some of the sketches and paintings of common people around that time:
A Brahmin praying in the morning (1851). Lithographer Day and Son. Photo from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
A second Caste Pundit (scholar) 1899. Engraver Charles Laplante. Image from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
Hindus of Malabar Coast. Photo from The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Cheetah and the keeper in Jaipur (1894). Photo from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
Men and Women in India (1876–1888). Photo from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
The world's earliest surviving camera photograph is from 1827. It took a while before photography reached India. Here are some rare photographs from 19th-century India:
A Hindu Goldsmith (Sonar) (1868–1875). Photo from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
Hindu Blacksmiths from Madras (1868–1875). Photo from The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Diljaan, Bazar Woman, Saharanpoor (1868-1875) Photo from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
The Rajpoot tribe (1868–1875). Photo from The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Snake-charmers in India (1897). Photo from The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Female street musicians in India (1898). Photo from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
And here are some scenes of rituals and festivals from that time period:
The cremation ghat at Calcutta (1869–1871). Image from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
A wedding of British colonials in southern India—the bridesmaids’ return from church (January 29, 1887). Sketch by Durand Simon. Image from The New York Public Library Digital Collections
A Hindu marriage. Artist Edwin Lord Weeks. Image from The New York Public Library Digital Collections

author: Rezwan


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The Russian Government ‘Embraces’ Transparency · Global Voices
openDemocracy Russia

Doors open during Vladimir Putin's inauguration as President in May 2012. Image from kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0.
This article by Andrei Jvirblis was originally published on openDemocracy Russia and is being republished as part of a partnership between RuNet Echo and openDemocracy.
As the response of Russia’s Prosecutor General to accusations of graft in December 2015 shows, nothing gets Russian public officials angrier than journalists rooting through sensitive financial information. In a letter published by Kommersant, Yury Chaika called the video by Aleksey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) not only ‘baseless’ and ‘highly false,’ but the product of ‘orders from above.’ Indeed, Chaika went on to accuse Bill Browder, the billionaire-turned-human rights activist, of funding the 45-minute video as part of a conspiracy against Russia.
FBK’s latest investigation into top public officials and their circles is precisely the kind of work targeted by a new bill drafted by the FSB. This controversial initiative threatens the work of anti-corruption activists by limiting Russian citizens’ access to the Unified State Register of Property Rights and Transactions, Russia’s land registry.
The authorities are sending a message: transparency and access to state information exists only so far as it poses no threat to political stability. The idea of limiting citizens’ access to information is back on the table in Russia.
The 200-year-old idea of Russia’s ‘special path,’ a guiding principle for many, has also, in 2015, found fresh meaning in the development of open governance and the state’s discovery of ‘big data.’
In 2013, after membership of just over a year, Russia retracted its signature from the Declaration of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Signatory countries recognise that the state should strive for openness: increasing access to information on the activities of state institutions for their citizens, stimulating public engagement in government and implementing policies of transparency and accountability—and all through state of the art technological means.
There was no official rejection of the partnership’s aims from Russian officials—there was just talk of reviewing the scale and form of Russia’s participation in the partnership, as well as developing its own ideas on this issue. That said, at the time of signing the declaration, and particularly after its withdrawal, various nationalist and pro-Kremlin media and blogsites were actively spreading the idea that the OGP was a channel of American influence and a limit on Russian sovereignty. Homegrown experts, unsurprisingly, welcomed the official change of heart.
As a result, Russia didn’t join the OGP, but the country’s own ‘Open Government’ organisation continues to operate. This structure was created at the time that Russia was planning to join the OGP, at the height of Dmitry Medvedev’s reign as president. Indeed, it was in the ‘Medvedev era’ that public discussion on state transparency and digital government emerged and Russia conducted its first experiments in the area, such as online public discussion of a draft bill on policing.
Pro-Kremlin media spread the idea that the OGP was a channel of American influence.
The head of the Open Government project, businessman Mikhail Abyzov, who, according to Forbes, is worth some $700m, is now Minister of Federal Government. And the Ministry of Open Government is no longer to be found on the list of state institutions; there is only a ‘Commission on Coordinating the Activities of Open Government.’
Three years after its creation, Open Government continues to operate, but it’s hard for the uninitiated to find out exactly what it is. The Open Government website states that it is a ‘system of mechanisms and principles that guarantee effective cooperation between state and society, as well as the quality and balance of decisions taken.’ Among the results of its work are ‘standards of openness for state institutions,’ a transparency rating system and a road map on developing open data, as well as a range of projects designed to open access to information about allocation of public funds and the activities of state companies (of which Russia has many).
A new video by anti-Putin campaigner Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation has been watched more than three million times on YouTube. Source: Youtube
Open Government is a rival of Russia’s Civic Chamber, which was set up in 2005 with the aim of improving cooperation between state and civil society. With 126 members, the Civic Chamber hosts something of an all-star cast of Russian civil society. Today, these two structures compete for the renewal and control of the system of public councils attached to government bodies. (These councils were also created under Medvedev, but the majority of them turned out to be a complete farce—most of the time they didn’t even hold meetings, let alone carry out any substantial work).
Both the Civic Chamber and the Open Government initiative are trying to create an effective model of cooperation between the public and the state, using open data and digital democracy. From the outside, both organisations seem to have a broad mandate for this project and significant resources. But how successful are they?
The first open online discussion of state initiatives was piloted on the draft police bill in 2010. A special site with the draft text was set up, and all you had to do was register. This approach and the visibility of the subject to be discussed—the trigger for police reform was the shooting of three people by a senior police officer in a Moscow supermarket in 2009—drew a lot of people in.
But many of them were unhappy with what came next: media discussions were censored, and the dialogue with experts wasn’t properly organized. The government evidently didn’t like the results either: the user polls following the discussion soon led with rather radical proposals, which had to be written into law—for instance, a mandatory badge to be worn by police officers when in public.
This kind of discussion continued for other legislative initiatives until the idea tailed off when Putin returned to the Kremlin in 2012. But Russian law does not permit the authorities to refuse a public discussion, and its relocation to the internet—well, that’s just progress.
The result has been the development of a number of specific legal instruments to resolve different issues. For example, the government’s portal for the publishing and discussion of regulatory documents contains drafts of serious documents being compiled by different regulatory bodies. But the portal can’t boast about the hits it receives: even the most popular subjects only score a hundred or so views and a couple of comments. The reasons are clear: the complexity of the subjects is exacerbated by the authorization system, which requires people to enter their National Insurance numbers and sign up to an Electronic State Services account.
A ‘citizen bill’ needs 100,000 signatures to get past the first stage.
There is a similarly complex identification system for accessing the ‘Russian Public Initiative’ portal, which publishes details of citizen initiatives and drafts of legislation proposed by users. The advantage of this site is the simplicity of its content (proposals are often reminiscent of those on the petition platform Change.org), but for a federal level draft bill to pass this initial stage it needs to collect 100,000 signatures in the space of a year, which is a serious challenge. So far only one proposal has got that far: opposition politician Aleksey Navalny’s bill on the ratification by Russia of 20 UN anti-corruption (‘unlawful enrichment’) articles. The second stage of the process involves an ‘expert commission’ of the Open Government Partnership, but in this case it voted against the initiative.
Open Government is, however, forging ahead in Moscow. Muscovites proposed the creation of a democratic instrument of their own: the Active Citizen project, a website and mobile phone app where people could discuss the future development of the capital. In practice, this means users taking decisions on small questions (the colour of floral borders, for instance) or approving decisions taken by the city authorities (such as speed limits in the city centre).
Yury Chaika, Russia's Prosecutor General, called the video by Aleksey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) ‘baseless’ and ‘highly false’. Credit: Ruslan Krivobok
Active Citizen, however, suffers from the same flaw as previous popular platforms: its inability to verify users’ identity. On the other hand, this very flaw allows it to create the illusion of mass involvement and claim to engage the public in debate about government decision making. The site has more than a million registered users, and the city authorities have already begun to use it to create public discussion of planning decisions. This is a small opportunity for Muscovites to influence the development of their city’s infrastructure, but it is the only one available and at this stage it does give dissatisfied groups of residents the maximum chance to challenge arbitrary official decisions.
‘Active Citizen’ is only one element of the city's electronic management system introduced by Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin and his team, who have been running the capital since 2012. The system is an increasingly effective response to the dissatisfaction many Muscovites have with the city and federal authorities—it was Moscow that saw the largest protest rallies in the winter of 2011-12. Many Muscovites are also clued into global issues and the capital has the resources to put systems like this into place.
The city authorities are also copying many public initiatives, scaling them up as they go. The popular service for lodging complaints about communal and government services, for example, draws on the experience of an existing mapping service, both in terms of discovering problem areas in a given district and in emergency situations.
An important element of an electronic state is open access to information, which takes place in Moscow through a special portal with datasets. Nevertheless, despite its huge database, the information it provides falls short in many areas of social significance. For example, neither it nor other information resources carry essential information about the work of the law enforcement agencies or crime rates.
The Russian government has successfully assimilated the basic elements of electronic democracy and public engagement in government and rolled it out across the country, but it uses them only when it can ensure it has control over the processes it has initiated. The situation is much the same with big data: it remains accessible only so long as it doesn’t discredit the state machine, or uncover the corruption and incompetence of the individuals who run it.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: openDemocracy Russia


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Activist-Blogger Hossein Ronaghi Maleki Returns To Jail · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Activist blogger Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki tweeted a photo of himself stating he is determined to stand for his innocence before returning to jail from furlough.
With the lifting of nuclear sanctions and the release of Iranian-American prisoners such as Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, the events in Iran on January 18 opened new channels of hope for progress among many Iranians.
But when it comes to dissent in Iran, such progress is hard to imagine. While the world watched Iran re-establish ties with the west, Iranian blogger-activist Hossein Ronaghi was spending his last hours with his family before returning to prison to serve his 15-year sentence for dissident commentary about the 2009 Presidential elections.
Three days before his return to jail, Maleki posted a photo to his Twitter account of his parents’ anguish about his return.
پدر و مادر غمگینند My Parents are sad pic.twitter.com/wgaVEdyHOm
— Hossein Ronaghi (@HosseinRonaghi) January 17, 2016
Maleki was arrested in December 2009, six months after Iran's disputed presidential elections. He was arrested and immediately incarcerated at the notorious Evin prison, serving 376 days in solitary confinement before seeing trial.
Maleki blogged under the nickname Babak Khorramdin, the name of an ancient Persian freedom fighter from Azerbaijan (Maleki is an ethnic Iranian Azeri). His 2010 trial led to a 15-year sentence on charges of “spreading propaganda against the regime”, “membership of the Internet group Iran Proxy” and “insulting the Iranian supreme leader and the president.”
10 yrs – Iranproxy & 4 yrs – insulting leadership & 1 yr – propaganda against regime https://t.co/Lh0ULDodwW
— Hossein Ronaghi (@HosseinRonaghi) January 15, 2016
According to the Committee for Human Rights Reporters in Iran, Maleki's expertise was in computer programming and setting up websites aimed at circumventing online censorship and establishing ways to access blocked addresses.
Maleki was then released on June 14, 2015, on 14 billion rials (approximately USD $464,000) bail to receive treatment for persistent lung, kidney, and digestive problems. Human rights advocates and fellow prisoners had advocated since 2012 for Maleki's deteriorating health before he was granted release for medical furlough on June 14, 2015.
Maleki's bail payment included the deeds to multiple properties belonging to his parents and family friends.
Pressured by IRGC Intelligence unit to return me to prison, the Tehran Prosecutor issued an official order to confiscate my bail collateral.
— Hossein Ronaghi (@HosseinRonaghi) January 14, 2016
Maleki was summoned back on January 14, 2016. His family considered keeping him from returning, but this would have cost his parents to lose properties whose deeds were used as his bail collateral. Maleki's father Ahmad Ronaghi Maleki told International Committee for Human Rights in Iran:
I had given the deed to my house and workshop to bail out my son. A number of my humanitarian friends had also added their property deeds. It wasn’t important to lose my own properties, but I could not endanger my friends and let their properties be confiscated. So I delivered my son to prison.
In the days leading up to his return, Maleki posted on his Twitter his insistence to stand for his innocence.
My main charge is defending freedom of speech (against censorship) for which I was handed an unjust 10-yr prison term. @proxyiran
— Hossein Ronaghi (@HosseinRonaghi) January 15, 2016
On Wed I will go to Prosecutor's office for arrest. Like 100's of pol prisoners I'm innocent & don't deserve prison. pic.twitter.com/tTqxYtjq00
— Hossein Ronaghi (@HosseinRonaghi) January 18, 2016
Might be last post but I'm determined to gain my freedom bec I'm innocent. The response to opinions is not prison. pic.twitter.com/esIZjSLh9j
— Hossein Ronaghi (@HosseinRonaghi) January 19, 2016

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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The Lebanese ‘Christian Marriage’ Between Aoun and Geagea Leaves Many Skeptical · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

Samir Geagea (left) and Michel Aoun (right) cutting a cake to celebrate the former's endorsement of the latter (screenshot of television appearance on LBC Lebanon)
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea endorsed the candidacy of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun for the presidency of Lebanon. This move came as a surprise to most observers for two reasons:
Geagea is the executive chairman of the Lebanese Forces, the second largest Christian political party in Lebanon, while Aoun is the founder of the Free Patriotic Movement, the country’s largest Christian political party.
News website Now Lebanon described the endorsement as a “political bombshell”, but not everyone was surprised by Geagea's decision. ‘Moulahazat’ blogger Ramez Dagher wrote a long post analyzing what he called ‘the Christian wedding’ from a strategic point of view.
In fact, Dagher wrote an article called “when warlords become presidential candidates” nearly two years ago saying that “the candidates [for the presidency] are of the civil war era, their programs are of the civil war era, the parties are of the civil war era, the lawmakers are of the civil war era, the absence of parliamentary elections is of the civil war era, and even our former overlord to the East is in a civil war.” In other words, for those of us who have grown cynical towards Lebanese politics, that one former warlord decided to endorse another former warlord didn't really come as a shock.
As for the reaction of the public, it's hard to say. Despite an anonymous minister claiming in an interview with Al Monitor that “more than 85% of the Christian public opinion is now with Michel Aoun”, the news of Geagea’s endorsement of Aoun proved to be controversial to say the least. With memes, tweets, songs and jokes, the Lebanese internet exploded with disbelief, outrage, or just plain old sarcasm.
The point of this post is to simply document memories. The Lebanese Civil War was a complex 15-year-long series of events and no one article can properly encompass its complexity. Since Samir Geagea and Michel Aoun are currently making the news in Lebanon, we have focused our efforts on the Lebanese who talked about these two men’s actions during the war. There will be other stories, stories of the disappeared and of current warlords-turned-politicians, of the fallen and the survivors.
The first story is by Jadaliyya co-editor Maya Mikdashi, who wrote in an article entitled “Let us now praise murderous men” about the trauma caused not only by Geagea and Aoun, but by other leading politicians currently in the Lebanese government.
Here’s an extract:
Reading and watching Geagea give press statements on his candidacy, I remember the space of terror he used to occupy for myself and my friends in Tariq al-Jadidah. I remember watching mortars explode from a window with a view of the northern coast with my grade school classmates during the Aoun-Geagea war. I remember a year spent in a mountainous Beirut suburb, away from school and from an apartment untenably close to “the Green Line.” Today, I try to imagine what a Palestinian in Lebanon thinks when she sees Geagea on TV confidently lay out why he should be president. Does her heartbreak as one by one, journalists fail to ask Geagea about his involvement in war time massacres? Has her heart been broken too many times in Lebanon, and does she simply change the channel? No one asks Geagea, or his rival Gemeyyel, about their wartime alliances with Israel, or their complicity in the siege of West Beirut, or their wars with rival Maronite leaders that left thousands dead and maimed.
I remember listening to the news with my family on the way to school the day that Gemeyyel left Beirut for Paris—It was a happy day. Years earlier, my five-year-old self had found an unexploded ordinance on our balcony in Tariq al-Jadidah. Amin Gemeyyel was President and he had ordered the army to shell the area. Many refused the order and deserted. I like to think that the unexploded ordinance on our balcony was the result of a soldier consciously removing explosive materials from mortal shells, knowing that his act would save the lives of residents. In reality, however, we have no idea why that shell did not explode. We were just lucky.
We were lucky again when the Lebanese army shelled our neighborhood during Aoun’s “War of Liberation” against the Syrian army, a war which apparently required the Lebanese army to shell heavily congested civilian areas in West Beirut. One particularly terrifying night, as my family was clustered in our foyer where we had been sleeping for days, my mother spread her arms across a wall and kissed it. This is the first memory I have of my parents as ordinary people; fragile, afraid, vulnerable. I have never been as profoundly shaken in my life as I was in that moment, watching my mother hug a concrete wall during a night of heavy shelling.
The legacies of Aoun, Geagea and Gemeyyel are the hundreds of thousands of killed and wounded during the Lebanese civil war. Their legacies are massacres and sieges and mortars and snipers and kidnapping and millions of dollars stolen and embezzled from citizens and the treasury. They are not alone with this legacy: leaders of rival political units and “different sides” should also be defined by their wartime crimes.
The second story is by Wadad Halwani, whose husband, a member of the Communist Action Organization, was kidnapped in 1982. Halwani is now the chairperson of the “Families of the Disappeared and Abducted Committee”. In an interview with Lebanese Francophone newspaper L’Orient Le Jour, she explained why she keeps on fighting for the cause of the disappeared: “I have a new responsibility today, which is to look out for some 17,000 officially reported abducted persons,” adding that she will never give up until her mission is completed.
January 19 at 4:32pm ·
هالقاعدة مُعتمدة مش من هلّق، بل من بداية الحرب في لبنان سنة 1975 وحتى نهايتا وبعدا سارية المفعول حتى اليوم.
هالقاعدة مش محصورة بين عون وجعجع ، بل بين جميع زعماء الميليشيات والأحزاب اللي تقاتلت وتسبّبت بوقوع عشرات الآلاف من القتلى والجرحى والمعوقين والمفقودين والمهجّرين… عدا عن حجم الدمار الذي أصاب لبنان على كافة المستويات.
نحنا، بقصد ناس هالبلد ما نزال نعاني من آثار تلك الحرب حتى اليوم وعلى كافة المستويات..
ما يزال هؤلاء (قادة الحرب) يعيشون ويتنقّلون بحرية بيننا ، ما زالوا يتحكّمون بمفاصل البلاد والعباد بمنطق شريعة الغاب، بمنطق زمن الحرب ذاته.. يعني بعدهم متل ما كانوا عم يمارسوا بالحرب.. يعني هتّي ما تغيّروا بالسلم..
غريب يكون لهلّق في حدا من ناس هالبلد بيصطفّ مع هذا المرشح أو ذاك، مع هذا الـ”زعيم” أو ذاك…!!!
Sorry يمكن عم هلوس
When they fought, they fought us and on our account. When they reconciled, they made up without us and at our expense. This is their way, not just now, but from the beginning of the civil war in Lebanon in 1975, until its end, and continues until today. This attitude is not confined to Aoun and Geagea but includes all the leaders of militias and parties which went to war which resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries in addition to those who became disabled, disappeared and were forced to immigrate, in addition to the destruction that effected all aspects of life in Lebanon. And we, the people of this country, continue to suffer the effects of that war until today, across all levels. And those warlords continue to live and move freely among us. They are still in charge of all aspects of this country and over all the people with the jungle mentality they has during the war. They have not changed in times of peace. It is strange that people until now support this candidate or that! Sorry, I might be hallucinating.
The third story is by Zeina Allouche, who recalls how she used to sleep in the bathtub fully clothed because she didn’t want her corpse to be seen naked, calling Aoun’s so-called ‘war of liberation’ a ‘war of elimination':
كنت انام في بانيو الحمام في الطابق 11 في الحمرا وانا مرتدية ملابسي لانني لم اكن اريد ان اراني أشلاء عارية على التلفزيون…مذكرات حرب الإلغاء
I used to sleep in the bathtub on the 11th floor in Hamra, wearing all my clothes, because I did not want to have my blown up body parts naked on television… from the memories of the War of Elimination
The fourth story is by Joelle Boutros, a researcher at the Legal Agenda and blogger at joojle31, who remembers the suffering caused by Michel Aoun and Samir Geagea and asks that they both set the ground for a ‘real reconciliation between the people, and not just a reconciliation between the leaders and sectarian officials to fulfill their political goals':
بتذكر كل صاروخ تفرجنا عليه انا وخيي عم يمرق فوق راسنا خلال حرب الالغاء. بتذكر صريخ بيي من الوجع وقت كسر اجرو وما قدرنا ناخدو عالمستشفى بسبب القذائف الدايرة. بتذكر خبار جارتنا عن التبهدل يلي كانت تتعرضلو كل ما بدها تمرق ع حاجز البربارة. بتذكر كيف كان بيي يمنعنا نقول انو بيحبّ عون قدام جارنا يلي بيحارب مع القوات خوفا علينا. بتذكر كمان ورقة ستي بالمطبخ “ممنوع التكلم في السياسة” لأن كانت عم تحاول توّقف الخناقات على الغدا كل احد (هيدي بعد ال ٢٠٠٥). بتذكر العالم يلي قوّصت وضربت بعضها بال ٢٠٠٧ وقت العونيين قرروا يسكروا الطرقات ويحرقوا دواليب. بتذكر حملات التحريض والتخوين والاهانات والمسبات يلي كانت تبّلش عالشاشات وتخلص بالصالونات. بتذكر الامل عند العالم من بعد زيارة عون لجعجع بالسجن والانتكاسة دغري بعدها. ترشيح جعجع لعون بيكون صادق وبداية صفحة جديدة وكل هالشعر بس يعتذروا عن حروبهم الهمجية. بس يعتذروا من كل عائلة خسرت حدا من افرادها بسبب قتالهم المستمر. بس يعتذروا من العائلات يلي بقيت مقسومة لليوم بسبب عداوتهم. يعتذروا ويأسسوا لمصالحة حقيقية بين القاعدة مش مصالحة مفصلة على قياس القيادات والمسؤولين الحزبيين ومصالحهم السياسية. يعتذروا على هال٣٠.سنة من حياتنا! يعتذروا!
I remember every rocket that flew above my brother's and my heads during the war of elimination. I remember my father's screams when he broke his leg and we couldn't take him to the hospital because of the falling mortar. I remember my neighbour's complaints about the humiliation she suffered every time she had to cross the Barbara checkpoint. I remember how my father forbade us to say that he loved Aoun in front of our neighbour who fought with the Lebanese Forces because of his fear on us. I also remember the note put up by my grandmother in the kitchen: “Discussing Politics is Forbidden” as she tried to put an end to the quarrels over Sunday lunch (this was after 2005). I remember the people who shot at and hit each other in 2007, when the Aoun's supporters decided to block the streets and burn tyres. I remember the incitement, insults and accusation campaigns that started on the television screen and ended up in the living room. I remember the hope among people after Aoun visited Geagea in prison and how everything turned south afterwards. Geagea's nomination of Aoun would only be genuine and a chance to turn a new page if only they would apologise for their barbarian wars. They will have to apologise to everyone who lost a family member because of their constant fighting. They should apologise to the families that have become divided because of their enmity to this day. They should apologise and set the ground for a real reconciliation between the people, and not just a reconciliation between the leaders and sectarian officials to fulfill their political goals. They should apologise for those 30 years of our lives! They should apologise.
The fifth story is by Rouwa Saba, who writes of how her family was stuck between the forces of Michel Aoun and the forces of Samir Geagea, quite literally:
بوقتها… كنا عايشين بمنطقة إسمها “حبوب” بجبيل.
بوقتها… كنا مجبورين نقعد عَ العتمة كل الليل، حتى لو في كهربا. كانت الشمعة غالية. إذا ضوّيناها حتى نفتش على شي ناكلو، كانت تكلّفنا قذيفة أو قنبلة.
بوقتها… كانوا العونيي تحت شباكنا والقوات فوق، يعني فيكن تتخايلوا المعارك اللي كانت تدور بيناتُن ونحنا بالنص.
بوقتها… كان بابا يقعد عَ أرض المطبخ كل ليلة ويتكي راسو عَ البراد، قبل ما نركض صوبو ويغمرنا أنا وخيي كل واحد بإيد ونبقى هيك كل السهرة. وكان لحتى ينسّينا صوت القذايف والرصاص، يخترع قصص يخبّرنا ياها.
بوقتها… انقطعنا من الخبز (وبوقتها كنا ياما ننام نحنا وجوعانين) بس مش ممكن إنسى مشهد إمي طالعة عَ الدرج الخارجي رَكض. أكتر مرّة خفت بحياتي. كانت صيد سهل للطرفين. وبعدما ركضت وراها قال لحتى إحمي ضهرها (هيك بقوصوني أنا ومش هيي) ركض خيي وبيّي ورايي، وكان آخر يوم إلنا بالبيت. قصفوه. وطار الدرج. وطار الشباك اللي كان يخلّيهن يستكتروا علينا ضو الشمعة. بس زمطنا، هيك قالت إمي.
بوقتها… الزمطة من الموت كانت ترف.
بوقتها… ولكانوا أهلي دبّروا بيت تاني، خبّونا القوات بالدبابة تبعن أنا وخيي. مش لأنن هني مناح، بس كان عنا واسطة. خالي بالصدم. ما بنسى هالنهار. صوت اللاسلكي وكلمة عمليات وبعدها إحتدام المعارك والرصاص والقنابل والقذايف. كلها مشاهد مش ممكن إنسيها حتى لو اجتمع عون وجعجع مبارح!
حتى لو بوّسوا بعض مبارح…
حتى لو عملوا وثيقة تفاهم بين بعض مبارح…
حتى لو قالوا إنو تعلّموا من التاريخ لبناء المستقبل…
اللي بفكّر للحظة بالحرب، السلام ما بكون ولا مرّة من أولوياتو.
هيدي طفولة بشعة… بشعة بسبب عون وجعجع.
مستحيل كذبة كبيرة وتصرّف كيدي يرجعوا يعَيشوني طفولة حلوة ويمحوا أصوات الرصاص والقنابل والقذايف اللي ربيت عليها.
قبل ما تتفقوا… بدكُن ما تواخذوني يعني، بس مجبورين تعتذروا مني ومن كل عيلة شرّدتوها ودمّرتوا بيتها وقتّلتوا أحد أفرادها.
قبل ما تتبسّموا وتنكتوا مع بعض علينا… مجبورين تعتذروا لأنكن كنتوا سبب تدمير حياة بكاملها.
وآه مبروك الصلحة… لابقين لبعض.
هيك اتنين ما بيلبقوا… إلا لبعض!
مبروك عليكن جمهورية الزبالة والمجارير.
#طز_فيكن_وبالجمهورية_تبعكن
At the time, we used to live in a place called Haboub, in Jubeil. At the time, we were forced to stay in the dark every night, even if there was electricity. Candles were expensive. If we lighted one even to look for something, the price could have been a rocket or a bomb. At the time, Aoun supporters were under our windows, and the Forces were on the rooftops, so you could just imagine the fighting that took place between them, while we were stuck in the middle. At the time, my father used to sit on the kitchen floor, and resting his head on the fridge, before my brother and I would run to him and he would embrace us, and that is how we would spend the night. He would make up stories to keep us occupied from the sounds of mortars and bullets. At the time, we had no bread. We would go to sleep hungry. I can never forget when my mother came down the stairs. It was the most I have been afraid. She was an easy target for both sides. I ran behind her thinking if they snipe her, they would hit me and not her, and my brother ran behind me and my father behind him. It was our last day in the house. They blew it up. And the stairways disappeared. And the windows which prevented us from having candle light were gone too. But we survived. That's what my mother said. At the time, survival from death was a luxury. At the time, until my family was able to secure another house for us, the Forces hid my brother and I in a tank, not because they were good, but because we had contacts. My uncle was in the special unit of the Lebanese Forces. I will never forget that day. The sounds on the wireless, speaking about operations, and then the intensifying of the fighting, and the bullets, and bombs and mortar. These are all scene I will never forget even if Aoun and Geagea met yesterday! Even if they kissed each other yesterday! Even if they signed an agreement of understanding between each other yesterday and even if they said they have learned lessons from the past to enable them build the future. Those who think of war never put peace among their priorities. That was an ugly childhood, ugly because of Aoun and Geagea. A big lie will not give me a happy childhood and make me forget the sounds of bullets and bombs that I grew up hearing. Before you reach an agreement, you should apologise from me and from all the families that you have made flee, and destroyed their homes, and killed their members. Before you smile and joke with each other, you are forced to apologise because you were responsible for destroying entire lives. And congratulations on your reconciliation, you deserve each other. People like you two, only suit each other. Congratulations on the republic of garbage and sewerage. To hell with you and your republic!
Finally, this last story is by Abir Ghattas, co-author of this article. Being too young at the time, she doesn’t recall the war itself but rather asks what is next for those of us who were born at the end or after the civil war.
A lot of people are sharing stories of the times Aoun and Geagea bombed their neighborhoods. I can't testify to that, as I was too young to remember and had the “luxury” to be born in a remote village in the north of Lebanon. I can't testify firsthand to the pain of the war, to the loss, to the fear, to the death surrounding you. But I can testify to the hatred i saw and see every day between people my age or younger, who also did not live the war. I am not dismissing their experiences or those shared by their loved ones, but they themselves did not live the war, yet they hate each other, they listen to songs and learn how to honk, put stickers on their cars, and wage their own war, with no bloodshed, but a cold war still… Where is the urge to question those they blindly follow, and ask why? What happened? Who won? How many people died? What happened to those kidnapped? How many women and girls were raped? How many corpses were tied and dragged by cars like war trophies? How many loaves of bread were stolen at checkpoints? Why? How?
Yesterday Aoun said, what happened, happened and we should put it behind us, and maybe remember it so that we don't repeat it, and Geagea was smiling besides him… Well, even though it is our fault, I don't want to stop believing that we deserve better.
This endorsement, this deal between two war criminals, is yet another nail in the coffin of our collective memory. We didn't live the war, and we are stripped from our ability to hold those responsible for the death of thousands accountable.
And now, we have to forget and move on, because it is convenient for them? Because in face of mutual elimination after years of wanting to eliminate each other, is the only way to survive? And we can’t demand justice? We can't question their past, and they want us to trust them with our future? No, we deserve better.
They say, this is peace making. How can peace exist without a proper context? How can peace exist without a reconciliation process? How can peace exist without healing from the past? How can peace exist and we are in a silent, brutal, cold, war everyday? Where is peace when all we see is corruption, unaccountability, nepotism, theft, and the dismissal of a whole people?
I demand better!

author: Elia J. Ayoub


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Camels Enjoying the Snow in Saudi Arabia · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi camels enjoying the snow in Tabouk, Saudi Arabia, tweets Aysha bint Abdulaziz (@ayosh70)
Parts of the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia are experiencing snowfall — and netizens are rushing online to document it. From photographs to videos, from Twitter to Facebook, and from Instagram to Snapchat, we have a minute by minute feed of what it is like for Saudis to experience snow.
The snow, although rare in Saudi Arabia, is more common in Tabuk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia and close to the Jordanian border, where snowfall is recorded once every three to four years.
The Storm Centre shares this snippet of information:
#السعودية: تساقط الثلوج قبل قليل على مرتفعات الظهر في منطقة تبوك ، بعدسة تركي الحويطي #عواصف_تبوك #مركز_العاصفة pic.twitter.com/iyi2xLkk0d
— مركز العاصفة (@Storm_centre) January 26, 2016
Saudi Arabia: Snowfall on the Dhahr ridge in Tabouk. Photographs by Turki Alhuwaiti
Musleh Elharbi tweets:
الثلوج الان تتساقط بشكل متوسط على هضبه الظهر ،، والارض اكتست بالبياض#تبوك #عواصف_تبوك المقاطع بحسابي بسناب شات pic.twitter.com/lxNV8hbiLu
— مصلح الحربي (@maslh10) January 26, 2016
It's snowing now on Aldhahr ridge and the ground has become white. Check out the footage on my account on Snapchat.
Aysha bint Abdulaziz shares photographs which may have been taken earlier in the day of sheep and camels in the snow:
جمال #الثلج ❄☁فى صحراء #تبوك والاجمل قطيع الخرفان pic.twitter.com/X9JT7Bdk94
— عايشه بنت عبدالعزيز (@ayosh70) January 26, 2016
Camels in the desert in the snow and what's more beautiful is this flock of sheep
And Fahad Aldhorfari shares a video of snow falling on a car windshield (not a joke), which has been retweeted almost 70 times at the time of writing this post:
ثلوووووج الظهر ماشاء الله #تبوك#ثلوج#عواصف_تبوك pic.twitter.com/MNwY7LDFTL
— فهد الطرفاوي (@500_fofo) January 26, 2016

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Childrearing Traditions and Weak Policing Are Failing Armenia’s Abused Children · Global Voices
Margarita Gaboyan

Image is from the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women Facebook page. Photo taken at a public exhibition in Yerevan on October 1, 2015.
A few months ago, a pair of pink children's shoes and an attached sign appeared in Republic Square in Yerevan. It read, “I couldn't do my homework. Dad got angry. He hit me in my face. Blood dripped from my nose… [signed] Mariam, 8 years old, Yerevan”.
The display was part of a public exhibition organized by a group of activists to raise awareness about family violence in Armenia. Dozens of shoes were placed alongside stories of personal abuse, which nonprofits recorded from victims of violence against minors.
It is difficult to say how big a problem child abuse is in Armenia. Milena Abrahamyan, a journalist from Kvinna till Kvinna, notes that family violence is considered to be a private matter in Armenian society:
Working against domestic violence in Armenia is not easy, especially since many people do not even admit that it exists.
According to the Armenian children's rights commissioner's annual report in 2014, local police investigated only 10 cases of domestic violence against children. There are more than 819,000 children in Armenia. Commissioner Karen Andreasyan stated:
Խնդրի […] լուծմանը խոչընդոտում է այն, որ […] բազմաթիվ դեպքեր չեն բարձրաձայնվում և հետագայում չեն բացահայտվում, քանի որ երեխաներն անձամբ հազվադեպ են դիմում օգնության, իսկ ծնողների […] կողմից […] բռնությունը […] համարվում է օրինաչափ` որպես երեխայի […] դաստիարակելու միջոց:
The problem is difficult to solve because violence cases are not voiced and further disclosed. Children rarely ask for help and violence exercised by parents is considered to be a normal approach to childrearing.
The laws of Armenia guarantee basic rights to children in its Family Code, Labor Code, and Criminal Code. As a member of the United Nations, the country has been following recommendations on protecting children through amendments to key domestic laws, trying to protect children better from exploitation, abuse, and trafficking.
Last year, Armenia was supposed to conclude an 11-year process to develop and endorse a comprehensive National Plan of Action for the Protection of Children’s Rights. Armenia's strategic plan includes promoting investigations of domestic violence cases, establishing hotlines in hospitals, police stations, and local governments, and psychological consultation in educational institutions, as well as public awareness campaigns and temporary accommodations for victims. A range of draft laws are still awaiting legislative debate, though the UN's agency for children, UNICEF, paints a grim picture of the child-protection laws in Armenia that have already passed.
However, despite these developments and the presence of political will, the implementation of laws still remains a problem as few working mechanisms have been established and resources, both human and financial, have been insufficient to translate provisions of laws into results for children.
Despite these obstacles, youth activists in Armenia are doing what they can, calling on society to reform its approach to childrearing, and demanding that the government take more active steps to protecting minors at risk. So far, that effort has focused on raising awareness about child abuse, one pair of pink shoes at a time.

author: Margarita Gaboyan


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Deus Ex Putina · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Image edited by Kevin Rothrock. Original photo by Jamie Sanford, July 15, 2006. CC 2.0.
According to a Russian news site and a whole lot of bloggers (including anti-corruption activists associated with the celebrated RuNet sleuth Alexey Navalny), Vladimir Putin’s ex-wife, Lyudmila, has remarried. The lucky fella is said to be 37-year-old Artur Ocheretnyi, two decades Lyudmila's junior and more than a quarter century younger than Putin. Ocheretnyi manages a publishing house and serves as the head of an organization called the Center for Development of Interpersonal Communications.
Not only do bloggers say they have the property records to suggest that Lyudmila remarried (taking Ocheretnyi’s surname), but many also believe they’ve discovered her Facebook account, along with her new husband’s.
@leonidvolkov Я к тому, что слишком тонко для фейка
— Kashin⚓Kashin⚓Kashin (@KSHN) January 25, 2016
I think this is just too subtle to be a fake.
Lyudmila's account has 168 friends (all of whom are publicly visible), including Ocheretnyi. Among her Facebook friends, there are no noteworthy national figures. It is not possible to “add” her account, either through a “friend request” or a subscription. (Those features have been disabled.) Ocheretnyi’s alleged account shares several common friends.
Photo: Ludmila Putina / Facebook
There are various telltale signs of authenticity. Lyudmila’s account wasn’t created recently. Its first photo was uploaded four years ago in 2012. For years, the account has offered a steady supply of everything most Facebook users have come to expect from an older relative: cat videos, inspirational quotes and prayers, trivia quizzes, and listicles. In October 2015, Lyudmila expressed pleasant shock when one of her profile photos received a whopping 47 likes. “I can’t understand how I’ve suddenly flown to the top and earned so much positive feedback. It’s even uncomfortable somehow,” she wrote at the time.
In late May 2015, Lyudmila wrote to praise a book titled “Alphabet of Feelings,” published by Ocheretnyi’s group, the Center for Development of Interpersonal Communications. (The book—which is about child psychology—originally came out in 2009, but Ocheretnyi’s publishing house re-released it last year in a new edition.) The Facebook account believed to belong to Ocheretnyi wrote two comments on this post, promising “there are more wonderful projects to come.”
Whoever controls the Facebook account, “Lyudmila Putina” doesn’t show any great interest in politics. One of the only recent posts containing any political subtext is a YouTube upload on November 21, 2015, when the account shared a video showing Russian soldiers inscribing on bombs bound for targets in Syria the words “For our boys and for Paris!”
Admittedly, some Russian conservatives might take issue with another link she shared on November 7, 2015: “Ten of Stephen Fry’s Ideas About Love, Depression, and the Meaning of Life.” (Fry is an active supporter of LGBT rights and has in the past been a vocal critic of Russian legislation outlawing so-called gay propaganda.)
If journalists in Moscow decide to ask the Kremlin about Lyudmila Putina’s alleged remarriage, an answer—let alone confirmation—isn’t likely. Vladimir Putin has closely guarded his family’s privacy since the first days of his presidency. In January 2015, the news agency Reuters claimed to have uncovered proof that real-estate developer Katerina Tikhonova is Putin’s youngest daughter. At a press conference 11 months later, Putin stated emphatically, “I have never discussed my family and I am not going to do it now.”

author: Kevin Rothrock


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How Netizens Are Pushing Back Against ISIS’ Social Media ‘Propaganda Machine’ · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

Cartoon by Nicholson from “The Australian” newspaper: www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au
Despite technological efforts to contain or eliminate their presence on social media, ISIS has amassed substantial power online.
It is difficult to quantify the precise impact of ISIS’ efforts to promote its mission and recruit new members. But some data suggest that it is having an impact. According to a 2015 study by King’s College London's International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, “the number of foreigners that have joined Sunni militant organizations in the Syria/Iraq conflict continues to rise.” According to ICSR’s latest estimate, “the total now exceeds 20,000 – of which nearly a fifth were residents or nationals of Western European countries.”
Social media platforms have also been in the media spotlight as a key avenue for ISIS to spread its message and recruit new members. Writing for Reuters, security and intelligence expert Rita Katz describes ISIS’ use of social media as a unique within the realm of violent extremist organizations’ activity:
Until the rise of Islamic State, extremist activity and exchanges online usually took place inside restricted, password-protected jihadist forums. But Islamic State brought online jihadism out of the shadows and into the mainstream, using social media — especially Twitter – to issue rapid updates on its successes to a theoretically unlimited audience.
Facebook and Twitter have sought to prevent ISIS from marketing its graphic and hate speech content to the masses, but balancing these efforts with their commitments to free expression is no small feat. On Wired, Julia Greenberg writes:
…the challenge for sites like Facebook and Twitter goes beyond tracking down content that promotes terrorism. It also requires defining “promoting terrorism.” In a sense, the two platforms are global communities, each engaged in a constant process of determining community norms as the use of the platforms evolves.
But another part of the story, one that has garnered far less attention than the efforts of big companies and governments, are the many independent groups and individuals are making their own efforts to combat ISIS’ activities online.
Twitter account @reportterrorist claims that there are 50K ISIS Twitter accounts it needs to bring down:
Social Media users on Twitter can make a difference against Terrorism! @FBI @DHSgov @cyber @NSAGov @CIA @WhiteHouse pic.twitter.com/AZoi6v6oOy
— Report A Terrorist (@reportterrorist) June 30, 2015
Anonymous has published a series of guides to help those seeking to join its “war on ISIS” to track and identify the group's websites. It dedicates Twitter account @TeamDestroyISIS to retweet, mock and hunt down ISIS accounts accompanied by the hashtag #OpISIS.
@hoodhMz18 @InfidelScotsman @VapidWastrel @MissyGH @anonzeus3 @An0nRav pic.twitter.com/sbqxvCLxkk
— Anonymous Norway (@mntnape) December 16, 2015
@TeamDestroyISIS Photoshopped terribly by me. BUT IT GETS THE POINT ACROSS RIGHT!? :'D pic.twitter.com/RcIbtTam6M
— LavandulaWine (@LavandulaWine) December 14, 2015
Several individual Arab netizens have joined the international coalition against ISIS online. One of these contributions is the Twitter account @KSAssa or Saudi Arabia Electronic Army, with 20.7K followers, which is taking the lead to stop and “destroy” accounts related to ISIS and “every enemy” that threatens the country's unification under the Arabic hashtag #حمله_جيش_سبام_الدواعش (Campaign against ISIS spam accounts):
كثره حذف الحسابات شي مهيب بتفاعلكم ندعس حسابات الإجرام والمخربين بلا رحمه اعداء الدين والوطن #سبام_اعداء_الاسلام pic.twitter.com/6CyofHbkM9
— الجيش الإلكتروني KSA (@KSAssa) January 9, 2016
Your cooperation and activity is essential to delete the accounts of criminals and vandals, the enemies of religion and our homeland.
There is also @BlockDaesh, lead by @Mujtahid_i (30.4K followers), which aims to bring down ISIS Twitter spam accounts.
579 Daesh accounts blocked by @BlockDaesh (arab activists have started this campaign to block Daesh accounts). https://t.co/hBxdhzHzV3 — yalla souriya (@YallaSouriya) July 7, 2015
Although the account @faaars444 (25K followers) was originally created to ban pro-ISIS accounts that target Saudi national youths to join the group, the account has recently changed its mission. After the political rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran, following Saudi Arabia's execution of top Shia Cleric Nimr Al Nimr, the account converted to fight the “Safadis,” the most significant ruling dynasties of Persia in what known today as Iran, or in other words, Shia:
باسم : جيش أسبام الصفويين حيث إنني قررت تغير النشاط من محاربة الدواعش لمحاربة الصفويين خاصة هذه الأيام وسوف نعود على الدواعش إن شاء الله
— جيش سبام الدواعش (@faaars444) January 11, 2016
[…] I decided to change the activity from fighting against ISIS, especially these days, to fight the Safadis; and will get back to ISIS, God willing
And the question yet is beyond the air strikes and on-ground military operations:
Will western #media cover this story? #Arab activists launch #socialmedia campaign against #ISIS on #twitter pic.twitter.com/QL5YJ89FhM
— Jessy El Murr (@JessyTrendSKY) July 6, 2015
But taking down ISIS websites is like shooting fish in a barrel, writes the Fight ISIS blog:
There is soo many targets out there right now on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Sendvid all are flooded with ISIS users and Propaganda. You can help and you do not even need to be a Hacker to Shut Down ISIS Web Sites !!
Most of the Web sites, all we have to do is report the User to the Host (like twitter, facebook, Etc.) and they will Suspend or Shutdown the User / ISIS account.
The MIT Technology Review proposed a more human approach, arguing that what's missing is direct contact with the young generation (Muslims or non-Muslims) who are being targeted by ISIS to disprove jihadist propaganda:
Indeed, the technological response to stanching the recruitment isn’t having much of an effect. Internet companies close accounts and delete gory videos; they share information with law enforcement. Government agencies tweet out countermessages and fund general outreach efforts in Muslim communities. Various NGOs train religious and community leaders in how to rebut ISIS messaging, and they create websites with peaceful interpretations of the Quran. But what’s missing is a widespread effort to establish one-on-one contact online with the people who are absorbing content from ISIS and other extremist groups and becoming radicalized.

author: Rami Alhames


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Local Media Coverage of Tunisia’s Job Protests Under Criticism · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

A Tunisian protester holding up a sign which reads: Five years after the revolution!!! Tunisia??? Photo credit: Nawaat
The local media coverage of the recent job protests in Tunisia has come under criticism.
The protests demanding jobs and development for impoverished regions started on 17 January in Kasserine, central western part of the country, before spreading to several other provinces. On Monday, protests continued in several inland regions, including Kasserine and Sidi Bouzid, where the uprising that toppled the rule of dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali began in late 2010.
Though peaceful most of the times, there were acts of looting and vandalism, which prompted the government to impose a night curfew as of January 22. Despite the protesters distancing themselves from these acts, the media has been focusing on them alone,  instead of providing enough coverage of the protesters’ demands, note critics.
Journalist Wajd Bouabdallah, who tweets as Tounsia Hourra (Free Tunisian), remarks to her 113K followers on Twitter:
وسائل الإعلام التونسية ما عادت تنقل مطالب المحتجين بل أرقام عمليات خرق الحظر وعمليات النهب والسلب وهذا بالضبط ما يريده كثيرون.
— tounsiahourra (@tounsiahourra) January 24, 2016
Tunisian mainstream media is no longer covering the demands of the protesters but just the numbers of people who break the curfew and the vandalism and looting. This is exactly what some want.
She further explains, linking to a post on her Facebook page saying:
كيف تحول الإعلام من نقل الاحتجاجات إلى نقل عمليات النهب والسلب #تونس #صحافة pic.twitter.com/njOAl2zEzg
— tounsiahourra (@tounsiahourra) January 24, 2016
Two days ago, Tunisian media stopped covering the demands of the protesters and started covering news about the number of people who break the curfew, and the vandalism and looting and this is exactly what many want.
It is mind boggling how masses fall into the trap.
Yes, there is looting and vandalism, but the social protests have no relation to to the gangs which are well know to the Ministry of Interior. The looting happened on the night Ben Ali escaped: We all saw the different samples of Tunisians: the honest and the revolutionary, and the cunning and the thief, who hurried after the security forces disappeared to loot the malls and shops. We even saw housewives doing that. We saw the worse of the Tunisians. The unemployed are seeking an honest living, not a screw driver to unhinge the door of a shop.
There are people who are unemployed and hungry in Tunisia, not only in the interior areas but also in the capital. To the editors-in-chief of newspapers: News about the deviant people should be in the court news pages. News about the unemployed and their protests should be on the front pages.
Meanwhile, Raja adds:
للإخوة #العرب : لا تصدقوا تهويل الإعلام ،نعم هناك حظر تجول في #تونس و لكن وضعنا ليس بتلك الخطورة التي تتصورونها.
— Freemind ~~رجاء (@Freemindrose) January 23, 2016
To our Arab brothers: Don't believe the exaggeration in the media. Yes, there is a curfew in Tunisia but our situation is not as dangerous as you are imagining
Moez Benja, an activist from Redeyef an impoverished town despite its rich mining resources, tweeted on 22 January:
Les médias TN ignorent complètement les revendications des jeunes, et se concentrent sur les dégâts et les locaux vandalisés. Bien joué !
— Moez Benja™ (@moezrdf) January 22, 2016
Tunisian media are completely ignoring the demands of the youth, and focusing on damages and vandalized premises. Well played.
In another tweet, he shared the following cartoon by Italian cartoonist and illustrator Marco Marilungo. The cartoon shows media crews covering a vandal while ignoring a large crowd of peaceful protesters.
Voilà, tout est dit. #Tunisie #Kasserine pic.twitter.com/vluZOpFQkN
— Moez Benja™ (@moezrdf) January 23, 2016
The national television's newscast which airs everyday at 8pm local time was also criticized.
Tunisia-based French journalist Benoit Delmas notes:
#Tunisie A regarder le JT de la TV étatique, pas de chômage, pas de pauvretés. Que des casseurs. Triste retour en arrière.
— Benoît Delmas (@westernculturel) January 23, 2016
watching the newscast of the public television, there is no employment and no poverty. Only vandals. A sad setback.
Writing for Nawaat.org, journalist Thameur Mekki analysed the coverage of the protests in Kasserine in the national TV's newscast edition of 19 January. He concludes:
Durant les 13 minutes consacrées aux contestations à Kasserine, les pouvoirs législatif et exécutif se sont exprimés alors que les principaux acteurs, les diplômés chômeurs, sont restés en sourdine. De quoi rappeler que les médias du service public, la Watania 1 en l’occurrence, ne se sont toujours pas débarrassés des séquelles de la mainmise du pouvoir politique sur les rédactions tout au long des décennies de la dictature. Du moins, ils n’ont toujours pas coupé le cordon ombilical qui les lie au Palais de la Kasbah et à la bâtisse grise de l’avenue Bourguiba.
During the 13 minutes dedicated to the protests in Kasserine, the legislative and executive powers expressed themselves, while the main actors, the unemployed graduates, remained muted. Enough to remember that public media, National TV 1 in this case, have not gotten rid of the after-effects of the domination of the political power over the newsrooms throughout decades of dictatorship. Or at least, they have not cut the umbilical cord that links them to the Kasbah Palace [the Prime Minister's office] and the gray building on Bourguiba avenue [Interior Ministry]
The criticism comes as President Beji Caid Essebsi accused Tunisian and foreign media of “inflaming the situation” by giving voice to those who “make matters worse”. Though he did not explicitly mention it, he was referring to the appearance of political opponent and former interim President Moncef Marzouki on the Paris based international news television France24. In that interview, Marzouki called for early legislative elections and the formation of a national unity government.
Rana Jawad adds:
#tunisia president televised address tonight:says media &some political parties ‘adding fuel to the fire’ called on ppl to respect situation
— Rana Jawad (@Rana_J01) January 22, 2016
And some local media responded to Essebsi's call. The 24 January edition of the daily newspaper La Presse, had news about the ruling Nidaa Tounes party and a meeting of the governing coalition parties to support the government, and calls for the media to “preserve the country's stability”.
La Presse en mauve à la gloire du parti, du fils et du gouvernement #Tunisie pic.twitter.com/YEBWwniQ3u
— Hamilcar (@HamilcarB) January 24, 2016
La Presse is in purple, to the glory of the party, the son [son of Essebsi], and the government. (Purple is the color of Ben Ali party’s flag and is often used to describe pro-government media).

author: Afef Abrougui


text:
Mexico’s Supreme Court Hands Indigenous Peoples Landmark Victory in Media Representation · Global Voices
Giovanna Salazar

Text reads, “Me versus Linguistic Discrimination. No to Article 230 of the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law.” Image: poet Mardonio Carballo / Facebook
On January 20, 2016, Mexico's Supreme Court, the highest judicial body in the nation, ruled in a decision that favors the rights of indigenous peoples and communities in Mexican media outlets and recognizes the country's linguistic diversity, by declaring unconstitutional the following passage from Article 230 in the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law (with translation):
Artículo 230. En sus transmisiones, las estaciones radiodifusoras de los concesionarios deberán hacer uso del idioma nacional. Lo anterior, sin perjuicio de que adicionalmente las concesiones de uso social indígena hagan uso de la lengua del pueblo originario que corresponda. […]
Article 230. In their transmissions, licensed broadcast channels shall use the national language. The foregoing is without prejudice to the use of the corresponding language of indigenous peoples in additional licenses for indigenous social use. […]
In a unanimous vote, the Supreme Court justices invalidated this part of the law, ruling, on the one hand, that the law does not recognize the enormous diversity of national languages that are spoken in Mexico, and, on the other hand, that it limits the use of native languages for indigenous and community broadcasters and therefore infringes on indigenous communities’ freedom of expression.
According to the court's statement:
De esta manera, la decisión de la Primera Sala de la Suprema Corte reconoce el derecho de las personas indígenas de acceder efectivamente a las concesiones comerciales y transmitir su invaluable identidad cultural, sin que su lengua constituya un obstáculo para ello.
Thereby, the decision of the First Chamber of the Supreme Court recognizes the right of indigenous peoples to access commercial licenses effectively and to broadcast their invaluable cultural identity, without their languages posing any obstacle.
The judgement was the result of a lawsuit filed by the renowned indigenous writer, poet, and journalist, Mardonio Carballo, who initiated the legal battle against the law in 2014.
In his December 2015 newspaper column in La Jornada, Carballo shared some of his motives for taking a stand against the article's contents:
[…] quien estas líneas escribe –impulsor del uso de las lenguas originarias en los medios de comunicación masivos– se puso en alerta, e interpuso una demanda de amparo contra este artículo para proteger su derecho individual –como escritor, poeta y periodista indígena, hablante del náhuatl– de poder expresarse en su lengua en cualquier radiodifusora, así como para proteger el derecho colectivo de los pueblos y comunidades indígenas para expresarse a través del espacio radioeléctrico mexicano y no únicamente en aquellas que sean concesionarias de uso social indígena.
[…] Un país que poco a poco logra hacerse visible en su multiculturalidad y pluriversos debe abrir, no cerrar. Debe incentivar la visibilización de los múltiples rostros que cada vez se ocultan menos o que cada vez son más difíciles de ocultar.
[…] the writer of these words—a strong proponent of the usage of indigenous languages in mass media channels—went on alert, and filed a lawsuit against this article to seek protection of the individual right—as an indigenous writer, poet and journalist, and speaker of the Náhuatl language—to be able to express oneself in one's own language through any broadcast means, as well as protection of the collective right of indigenous peoples and communities to express themselves on the Mexican airwaves, and not solely through those licensed for indigenous social use.
[…] A country that, little by little, is gaining visibility in its multiculturalism and pluralism should open wider, not close off. It should encourage greater visibility of the many faces that are hiding themselves less, or that are increasingly harder to hide.
At the same time, he announced the creation of the collective Artists Against Linguistic Discrimination:
Para que esto ocurra lo tenemos que exigir juntos. Los necesitamos, nos necesitamos. México nos necesita, incluidos a los pueblos de más antes y sus lenguas representadas en todos los medios de comunicación mexicanos. Eso es un derecho irrenunciable. Están todos invitados. Artistas contra la Discriminación Lingüística, título de esta entrega, es un colectivo que pretende sumar. Esté atento.
For this [pluralism] to happen we have to demand it together. We need all of you, we need all of us. Mexico needs us, including our native peoples and languages to be represented in all Mexican media outlets. It is an irrevocable right. All are invited. Artists Against Linguistic Discrimination, the title of this release, is a collective that aims to add on. Be on the lookout.
The following video from the collective highlights the group's central objective:
Nunca más un México sin nosotros en los medios de comunicación.
Never again a Mexico without us in its media.
With this month's court ruling, it seems the movement's time and efforts against linguistic discrimination have finally borne fruit. Undoubtedly, the Supreme Court's decision represents a breakthrough for the human rights of indigenous peoples and communities in Mexico—specifically their rights to freedom of expression, freedom to participate in cultural life, and freedom from discrimination.
On Twitter, Carballo put his poetry to use and celebrated the watershed moment in Mexican media:
RTplis: Ganamos 5-0. Fallo de @SCJN nos otorga amparo vs Art 230 de la #LeyTelecom sentamos un precedente #todaslaslenguasentodoslosmedios
— Mardonio Carballo (@mardoniocarbalo) enero 20, 2016
RTplis [Retweet please]: We win 5-0. Ruling of @SCJN [the National Supreme Court of Justice] grants us protection vs Article 230 of the #LeyTelecom [#Telecommunications Act] we set a precedent #todaslaslenguasentodoslosmedios [#all languages in all media]

author: Giovanna Salazar


text:
A Rare Snowy Day in Taiwan · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

A snowman at Yangmingshan National Park. Photo by Chi-Hung Lin. CC BY-SA 2.0
Given its subtropical and tropical climates, it is unusual to see snow on Taiwan island, unless you're 3,000 meters above sea level in the mountainous region during winter. However, due to the negative phase of arctic oscillation, the strongest cold front in 10 years hit Taiwan on January 24, 2016, and many areas below 1,000 meters in altitude were experiencing snow this past weekend.
Many Taiwanese took the opportunity to take photos of the perhaps once-in-a-lifetime snowy scenery.
A Taiwan Blue Magpie in the snowy Yangmingshan National Park in Taipei, around 400-1,100 meters above sea level. Photo by andysu0408 on PTT, Taiwan's largest Bulletin Board System. Republished by Global Voices with permission.
A man walking in the snowy Yangmingshan National Park. Photo by avant1997 on Facebook. Republished by Global Voices with permission.
Sakura covered by the snow in Mrqwang. Mrqwang in Hsinchu is around 700-1,200 meters above sea level. Photo by Taya Yumin on Facebook. Republished by Global Voices with permission.
A Daurian Redstart stood in the snow in Mrqwang. Photo by Taya Yumin on Facebook. Republished by Global Voices with permission.
Since the air temperature dropped much more rapidly than the sea surface temperature, the rarely seen sea smoke was observed in southern Taiwan. This YouTube video posted by Ya-Lin Tsai was shot at Xiaoliuqiu:
The white weather hit vegetable and fish farmers hard, and deaths related to the cold have exceeded 40.
Taya Yumin lives in Mrqwang in Hsinchu with her family. She said that on January 25:
清晨，和媽媽到菜園裡，用水澆菜，也用手把葉子上的雪和冰拿掉，全身凍僵地在田裡工作，有說有笑地說要給菜做告別式。
I went to our farm with Mom. We poured water on the vegetables and removed the snow and ice from their leaves. We worked in the field until freezing, but we still laughed and said that we should hold a parting ceremony for our vegetables.
Taya Yumin's mother tried to save the vegetables covered by the snow. Photo by Taya Yumin on Facebook. Republished by Global Voices with permission.

author: I-fan Lin


text:
[TIMELINE] Morocco: Political Repression in the Era of Social Media · Global Voices
Advox

Moroccans demonstrate in Rabat on February 20, 2011 demanding political reforms and limits to the powers of the king. The demonstrations, held in around 20 locations around the country. Photograph by Karim Selmaoui, used with permission.
The prosecution of seven prominent journalists and human rights advocates in Morocco last November has brought rising levels of international scrutiny to the regime of King Mohammed VI.
As we look ahead to the trial of these seven men, including former Global Voices Advocacy Director Hisham Almiraat, we are working as a community to better understand the political and social context in which their prosecution has taken place.
Before the current monarch, King Mohammed VI, came to power, Morocco was an extremely difficult place for journalists to live and work. King Hassan II was most famous internationally for the Years of Lead, a period from the 1960s until the late 1990s, during which outspoken political dissidents could expect arrest, jail time, and even execution in response to their critiques.
After the ascendancy of current monarch Mohammed VI in 1999, things improved. But in 2006, journalists began to face consequences for their work once again—and now, alongside them, citizens engaged in political activism online also became targets. From then onward, these groups became routine targets of Moroccan authorities.
The magazine Nichane is shuttered over a series of common Moroccan jokes they published, some of which were about the king. The journalist and editor involved are lightly fined and given suspended sentences.
At about the same time, well-known journalist Aboubakr Jamaï is slapped with an exorbitant fine that the government knows he can't pay, forcing closure of his publication, Le Journal Hebdomodaire.
Fouad Mourtada is arrested for starting a fan page for one of Morocco's princes and becomes the first person in Morocco prosecuted for his activities on social media. Mourtada is convicted of “villainous practices linked to the alleged theft” of the prince's identity and is sentenced to 3 years in prison. His sentence is ultimately reduced to 43 days, following public outcry.
Blogger Mohammed Erraji is arrested for writing, in the Arabic publication Hespress, that the king's charity toward his people encourages them to remain helpless rather than work hard. He is later acquitted.
Over the next couple of years, several publications, including Nichane, are forced to shut down after temporary bans and potential bankruptcy. The publisher of Nichane and TelQuel, Ahmed Benchemsi, leaves the country to avoid further persecution.
Millions of Moroccans demonstrate for reforms across the country. Photo by Magharebia via Wikimedia. (CC BY 2.0)
Moroccan citizens take to the streets throughout the country, demanding limits to the powers of King Mohammed VI and joining the wave of civic activism across the Arab region
The government responds with reforms, and the February 20 movement dies down.
Working with colleagues, defendant Hisham Almiraat launches Mamfakinch, an alternative media platform dedicated to covering citizen resistance to government repression.
Mamfakinch is targeted with malware. At the same time, arrests of social media users begin to increase.
Hip hop artist Mouad “El 7aqed” Belghouat is arrested and convicted of insulting the regime, a charge based on his hit song “Dogs of the State,” in which he compared state police to dogs. Known for his controversial political lyrics, Mouad had a leading voice within Morocco’s pro-democracy movement.
Cover of TelQuel Magazine after the arrest of journalist Ali Anouzla.
Journalist Ali Anouzla is arrested for linking to Spanish paper El País, which linked to an Al Qaeda video (yes, you read that right). His case continues.
Later that year, Morocco makes moves to regulate the Internet with proposed legislation known as the Code Numérique, that sought to restrict views expressed online by forbidding disrespect to the king, the regime or public order.
In April, thousands of people take to the streets in Casablanca express frustration with labor, social and political issues affecting youth in the country. Nine leading members of the February 20 Movement, the pro-democracy movement that began in the immediate aftermath of the Arab spring, are arrested.
Rapper and video blogger Mouad “El 7aqed” Belghouat is arrested again.
Student activist groups stage three flash mobs in Rabat, Casablanca and in Mohammedia, as seen in the following video:
Arrests and fines become increasingly common.
March: A Rabat court sentences press freedom advocate Hicham Mansouri, one of the defendants, to a ten-month jail term and a $4,057 fine over what his colleagues describe as a trumped-up adultery charge. Mansouri is the project manager for the Moroccan Association for Investigative Journalism (AMJI), a group which works to promote freedom of expression, access to information and investigative journalism. Prior to his arrest, he was working on a report about alleged Internet surveillance of activists and journalists by the Moroccan authorities.
April: Mouad “El 7aqed” Belghouat is awarded the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression award for artists.
May: The Ministry of Interior launches an investigation concerning research on digital surveillance and “Their Eyes on Me,” a report on the topic co-authored by Casablanca-based Association for Digital Rights and UK-based NGO Privacy International. The former was co-founded and led by Hisham Almiraat, one of the defendants in the case.
June: A Casablanca court sentences in absentia the director of the news site badil.info, Hamid Mahdaoui. Mahdaoui was handed a suspended jail term of four months for publishing a report on the death of political activist Karim Lachkar in police custody. He was also ordered to pay a 10 million Moroccan dirhams in damages to the head of the general directorate of national security, along with a fine of 6000 dirhams.
July: Leaked documents from the massive hack on surveillance software company Hacking Team's files reveal that Moroccan authorities spent USD $3.1 million on surveillance software between 2009 and 2012.
September: Samad Iach, another of the defendants, is interrogated by police over his participation in training sessions for using StoryMaker, a mobile application that helps journalists produce and publish stories.
January 17: Hicham Mansouri is released from prison.
January 27: The seven defendants begin trial.
Hicham Mansouri and Maâti Monjib at press conference about their trial in Rabat. January 2016. Photo by Samia Errazouki.

author: Advox


text:
Why I Went Into Exile: A Bangladeshi Blogger Tells His Story · Global Voices
Rezwan

Exiled blogger Mahmudul Haque Munshi. Photo used with permission.
In the face of threats, intimidation and multiple assassinations of secular bloggers in Bangladesh, many bloggers have stopped writing and some have gone into hiding. Some of the country's most active bloggers now fear they may face jail or will die at the hands of the assailants. A number of them have left the country and are seeking safe refuge elsewhere.
The names of these bloggers and others under threat first appeared on a list of 84 people submitted to a special government committee in 2013 by a group of conservative Muslim clerics who accused the bloggers of “atheism” and writing against Islam. Ali Riaz, a politics and government professor at Illinois State University, explains that there is a widely held but mistaken perception in Bangladeshi society that atheists are ‘anti-religious’ and there is little room for informed debate on such issues.
How have bloggers become such a critical target for religious political groups? In an op-ed for the Dhaka Daily Star, Adnan R. Amin describes the contentious gap in historical reckoning that bloggers have come to fill:
Today, the very mention of the words [blogger] conjures notions of atheism, virulent anti-religious sentiments, religious propaganda and hate speech. It evokes emotions ranging from discomfort to anxiety to outrage. Yet, at least half our population does not know what a blog is, what it represents and what it can do.
…dominant Bangladeshi blog narratives either frame present politics in terms of the History of 1971, or link it to the global schism over Islamist ambitions and terrorism….these narratives are not shaped by the technology of blogging, but by unresolved issues that keep Bangladesh from historic closure. The moral and ideological fractures surfacing in our blogosphere are rooted in the history and politics of Islam in Bengal, directed by the spirit of 1971 and lately, viewed through a post-9/11 lens. All of this is what makes blogging so contentious in Bangladesh.
Despite the fact that the country’s constitution guarantees freedom of speech, the threatened writers are getting little support from the government. Some say the government is thereby endorsing religious politics and are soft on those who use religion for politics. Even the police chief warned that free-thinkers and bloggers should not cross the limit of tolerance while expressing their views on religion.
“With law enforcement crippled and the government unwilling to push back on fundamentalists too hard, the bloggers have been left to protect one another,” writes New York Times’ reporter Joshua Hammond. As the situation worsened over the course of 2015, more and more bloggers have opted to leave the country and seek exile.
Blogger and online activist Mahmudul Haque Munshi is among them. In a recent post on his blog Swapnokothok (Dreamweaver), he described his experience. Global Voices worked with Mahmudul to translate the following segments of his text.
মানুষ নিজের দেশ ছেড়ে বিদেশ পাড়ি দেয় অনেক কারনে। কেউ পড়াশোনার জন্য, কেউ চাকুরির জন্য, কেউ ব্যবসার জন্য, কেউ অন্য মানুষের প্রতি ভালোবাসায় আর কেউ উন্নত জীবনের লোভে। আমার জন্য উক্ত কোন কারনই কাজ করেনি। আমাকে দেশ ছাড়তে হয়েছে বেঁচে থাকার জন্য।
People leave their home country for a foreign destination for lots of reasons. Some go to study, some relocate for a job or to start new ventures. Some travel abroad to be close to their loved ones and some simply to have a better life. For me none of the reasons applied. I had to leave my country just to be able to live another day.
আমি কখনো ভাবিনি আমাকে আমার মাতৃভূমি ছাড়তে হবে। [..] এই বাংলার মাটি-আকাশ-জল-বাতাস ছেড়ে আমি কোথায় যাবো? [..] আমি স্বপ্ন দেখতাম। স্বপ্ন দেখতাম একটি উজ্জ্বল আগামীর। একটি সুস্থ সুন্দর দেশের। মানুষের জন্য কাজ করবার চেষ্টা করতাম। কোথাও বন্যা হলে, কোথাও ঝড়ে জেলেদের বাড়িঘর ভেঙ্গে গেলে, কোথাও ভূমিধ্বস হলে ছুটে যেতাম মানুষের সাহায্য নিয়ে। নিজের বা পরিবারের ততটা আর্থিক সক্ষমতা ছিলোনা, তাই চেষ্টা করতাম গায়ে খেটে পুষিয়ে দেবার। একটা ব্যাপারে বিশ্বাস করি আমি, আমরা প্রত্যেকে আমাদের নিজের অবস্থান থেকে যদি কিছু করার চেষ্টা করি, সমাজ পরিবর্তন হতে বাধ্য। আমার দেশটার আরো উন্নতি হতে বাধ্য।
I never thought that I would leave my country. […] Where would I go where the (beautiful) earth-sky-water and air of my homeland is not present? I had a dream. A dream of a bright future. Of a healthy and beautiful country. I tried to help others a lot. Whenever disaster struck – during floods, when houses were damaged in cyclones, or if people were in peril after landslide – I would run there to volunteer in relief and rescue efforts. My family is not rich, so instead of donations I tried to volunteer my time and service. I believe in one thing, if we try to do something from our own reality, our own position, the society is bound to change. The country is bound to progress with such citizens.
আমার শক্তির জায়গাটুকু ছিলো লেখালেখি। আমি লিখে লিখে অনেক কিছু করবার চেষ্টা করেছি, করে ফেলেছিও কিছু কিছু যা কোনদিন ভাবিনি আমার পক্ষে সম্ভব। [..] আমি প্রচুর বই পড়তাম। আমার বাসায় প্রায় হাজার পাঁচেক বই এর একটি লাইব্রেরী ছিলো। সে সূত্র ধরে কিছু লেখালেখি ও একটিভলি ব্লগে মুক্তিযুদ্ধের বিপক্ষের ব্লগারের বিরোধিতা করায় আমি এক গোষ্ঠীর ব্লগারদের কাছে শত্রু হিসেবে পরিগনিত হতে থাকি। [..] প্রচুর লেখা পড়তাম। মনে আছে, ব্লগে প্রথম এক মাসে প্রায় হাজার তিনেক ব্লগ পোস্ট পড়বার কথা। কিভাবে ধর্ম আমাদের জাতিকে নিপীড়ন করেছে, কিভাবে সেই ধর্মের দোহাই দিয়ে আমার ভাষাকে বদলে দেবার ষড়যন্ত্র হয়েছিলো আর কিভাবে সেই ধর্মের নামেই পৃথিবীর অন্যতম বৃহৎ গণহত্যাটি হয়েছিলো এই জনপদে… এসব জানতে পেরে আমার ধর্মের প্রতি অবিশ্বাস রূপ নেয় ক্রোধে।
My strength was my writing. I tried to achieve a lot with my writing, and it really was able to stir some commotion which I never thought would be possible. […] I used to read a lot. In our home there was a private collection of about five thousand books. I would use these resources in my writings in various blogs against those who oppose our liberation (fundamentalists) and I became enemy to a certain faction of bloggers. […] I used to read a lot of blogs too – different opinions. I remember I read almost three thousand blog posts in a month. I realised how religion was being used to oppress our nation, how our language was proposed to be changed citing religion and how religion was used to commit one of the biggest genocides in the history… After learning all my disbelief in religion turned into anger.
এরপর ব্লগ ভিত্তিক বিভিন্ন একটিভিজমের সাথে যুক্ত হয়ে পড়ি। ব্লগার দিনমজুরের মুক্তির ডাক দিয়ে আন্দোলন করা, ব্লগ আড্ডার আয়োজন বা চট্টগ্রামে ভূমিধ্বসে মানুষের জন্য সাহায্য তোলা কিংবা ব্লগার আসিফ মহিউদ্দীনের গ্রেফতারের প্রতিবাদে আন্দোলন করা, বাংলাদেশ ক্রিকেট দল পাকিস্তানে যাবে না এরকম অনেকগুলি ইভেন্ট যার কিছু কিছু মনেও নেই। শত্রু বাড়তে থাকে। মোবাইল নাম্বার ওপেন ছিলো ব্লগে তাই কল করে হুমকি ধামকি দিতো কিছু মানুষ। ব্লগে পোস্ট দেয়া হতো সরকার চেঞ্জ হলে কোন দশজন ব্লগারের লাশ পড়বে। আমার নাম থাকতো সেসব লিস্টে। আমরা পাত্তা দিতাম না। কারন ব্লগের লেখালেখির কারনে ব্লগার খুন হবে এটা ছিলো এক ধরনের হাস্যকর চিন্তা তখন। সেই হাস্যকর চিন্তাটাই সত্যি হয়ে দেখা দেয় ২০১৩-র ১৪ই ফেব্রুয়ারি। আমার খুব কাছের একজন মানুষ, একজন ব্লগার থাবাবাবা কে হত্যা করা হয় কুপিয়ে তাঁর বাসার সামনে।
Then I got involved in different kinds of activism related to blogging. Arranging blogger meetings, raising funds for relief and rescue of landslide victims in Chittagong, protesting the arrest of blogger Dinmozur and Asif Mohiuddin, or protesting against Bangladesh cricket team's tour to Pakistan and many more which I don't recall. And my enemies started to increase. My mobile number was mentioned in my blog so I got frequent calls threatening me. On other blogs, writers would say which ten bloggers would be killed if the current government falls. My name was on those lists. But I didn't let it bother me. Because back then killing bloggers for their writing was an unthinkable and laughable idea. But that laughable idea became a reality on 14 February of 2013, when one of my close friend, blogger Thaba Baba (Ahmed Razib Haider) was hacked to death in front of his home.
…back then killing bloggers for their writing was an unthinkable and laughable idea. But that laughable idea became a reality on 14 February of 2013, when one of my close friends, blogger Thaba Baba, was hacked to death in front of his home.
এই হত্যার পর সে হুমকি আরো বেড়ে যায়। [..] এর মাঝে আমার পরিচিত ও কাছের চারজন ব্লগারকে গ্রেফতার করে সরকার। এই চারজনের ভেতর একজন আমার ব্যাপারে কিছু নাস্তিকতার প্রমানাদি হস্তান্তর করে ডিবি পুলিশের কাছে। আমি তাকে দোষ দেই না, সে ভীত হয়ে এই কাজটি করেছিলো। তারপর শুরু হয় জাতীয় নিরাপত্তা বাহিনীর অত্যাচার। আমাকে বলে আমাদের হাতে সব আছে, আপনাকেও গ্রেফতার করা হবে। এর মাঝে স্বরাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রনালয়ের হাতে পৌঁছে দেয়া হয় ৮৪ ব্লগারের লিস্ট, যার ভেতর আমার নাম উল্লেখ করা ছিলো। এর মাঝে একবার শাহবাগ থেকে টিএসসির দিকে যাবার পথে ভীড়ের ভেতর গান পাউডার মেরে আমার গায়ের চাদরে আগুন ধরিয়ে দেবার চেষ্টা করে, সাথে থাকা সহযোদ্ধারা সাথে সাথে সেটা নিভিয়ে ফেলে। কিন্তু ধরতে পারেনি ভীড়ের কারনে অপরাধীকে। ফেসবুকে একটা লেখা লিখতে পারতাম না, জাতীয় নিরাপত্তা রক্ষা অফিস থেকে কল চলে আসতো। বলতো এইটা ঠিক লিখেছেন, ঐটা ঠিক লেখেননি, মুছে ফেলুন। এর ভেতর কয়েকশ লিস্ট প্রচারিত হয় নামী অনামী খ্যাত-অখ্যাত পত্রিকাগুলিতে, যার বেশিরভাগই ভুয়া। আমাদের কয়েকজন সহযোদ্ধা নিজেকে গুরুত্বপূর্ন প্রমান করবার জন্য নিজের নাম আরো প্রাসঙ্গিক বিশ-ত্রিশটা নামের সাথে ঢুকিয়ে দিয়ে পত্রিকাগুলিতে পাঠাতো।
After that murder threats against me increased. In the meantime four bloggers whom I knew closely were arrested by the government. One of them handed over proof of some of my anonymous writing promoting atheism to the detective branch of police. I don't blame him, he was threatened and coerced to expose others. In the meantime a list of 84 bloggers including me with blasphemous and atheist writings was handed over to the home ministry. Then I got frequent calls from the national security authority. They said we have proof, we can arrest you anytime. While I was at the Shahbag protests, someone tried to light my clothes with gun powder and fire but luckily my friends put that fire out. I couldn't post on Facebook without trouble — I would get calls from the national security authority. They would tell me some of my points were right, but that I shouldn't have written them online and should remove them. In the meantime, the lists grew and were being published in lesser-known newspapers. New names were being inserted in some of them and were frauds actually. I know some people who created some of those fake lists to include their names — just to become famous.
He talks about more attacks and threats against bloggers involved in the Shahbag movement, including himself. They were often accused of atheism.
অভিজিৎদাকে মেরে ফেলার পর খুব রাগ হয়েছিলো। অনেকে আমাকে বলেছিলো চলেন ওদের খুন করি। চাইলে একটা আন্ডারগ্রাউন্ড টিম তৈরী করা ব্যাপার ছিলো না। কিন্তু ভাবতাম কাকে হত্যা করবো? আমি তো নিশ্চিত নই কে আমার ভাইদের হত্যা করছে। সেসময় ফারজানা কবীর খান স্নিগ্ধা আপা আমাকে নক করে বলেন আপনি দেশের বাইরে চলে আসেন। আমি রাজি হইনি। আমি বলেছি আপা আমি কোথাও এসাইলাম নিবো না। সাময়িক এক বা দুইমাসের জন্য যদি অবস্থা খুব খারাপ হয় তাহলে বাইরে যেতে পারি। কিন্তু চিরতরে আমি দেশ ছাড়বো না।
When Avijit Roy was killed I was furious. Some of my friends told me we should retaliate and create an underground team. But I thought whom should we kill to stop this madness? We are not sure who is killing our brothers. During that time blogger Farzana Kabir Khan Snigdha from Germany urged me to go abroad. I did not agree. I told her I would not seek asylum anywhere. I could go abroad for one or two months if things got really bad here. But I would not leave my country forever.
ওয়াশিকুর বাবুকে খুন করার পর অক্ষম ক্রোধে কেঁদেছি। [..] এর মাঝে নিলয় নীল খুন হয়ে যায়। এর আগের হত্যাকান্ডগুলি রাস্তায় হলেও এবার ঘরে ঢুকে মেরে ফেলা হয়। আমি তখন কয়েকজন ছোটভাইকে ডেকে অনুসরনকারীদেরকে অনুসরন ও নিস্ক্রিয় করার এক ধরনের প্রতিরোধ কমিটি করার কথা ভাবি। [..] আমি বেশ কয়েকজনের সাথে যোগাযোগ করে পরিকল্পনাটি বলি। তারা সবাই রাজি হয়। দুইটি মিটিং ও করা হয়। এর ৩/৪ দিনের মধ্যেই আমাকে ফলো করা শুরু হয়। আমি প্রচন্ড ভয় পেয়ে যাই। আমার মনে আছে নিলয়কে হত্যার মাস দুয়েক আগে ফলো করা হয়েছিলো। এদিকে আমি শিওর না আমার উদ্যোগের কারনে কোন লিকেজের মাধ্যমে এই কথা ওদের কানে পৌছানোর জন্যই কি এই ফলো করা শুরু কিনা। এদিকে পুলিশকেও বিশ্বাস করিনা।
When Washiqur Babu was killed I cried because I could do nothing to keep him alive. After that it was Niloy Neel. The assailants dared to enter his room and kill him in front of others. I then talked with some acquaintances to prepare a kind of resistance by targeting those who were keeping an eye on us. We had two meetings about this. But then I saw that I was being followed everywhere. I became very afraid. I remembered Niloy said that they started following him two months before his death. I am not sure whether they found out our plan for resistance through some leakage. I don't trust the police for the same reason.
He described how he contacted blogger Farzana for help for a scholarship abroad and how exiled blogger Asif Mohiuddin and writer Taslima Nasrin provided important references.
আমি তখন আরেক দেশে। এর ভেতরেই জার্মানির একটা বিখ্যাত সংগঠন আমাকে মেইল দিয়েছে আমি তাদের ওখানে স্কলারশিপের জন্য এপ্লাই করেছি, তারা আমাকে স্কলারশিপ দিতে চায়, আমি যেতে আগ্রহী কিনা। [..] আমরা সবাই খুব খুশি, আবার ভয়ও লাগছে, কারন জার্মানি যেতে হলে আমাকে আবার দেশে ফিরে ভিসা এপ্লাই করতে হবে। এর ভেতর যদি বাইচান্স কিছু হয়ে যায়? [..] আমি ভিসার ডেট পেয়েছি ২০ দিন পর। এর ভেতর বাড়ি গিয়ে বসে আছি।
I was hiding in a neighbouring country then. In the meantime I got a mail from a reputed organization in Germany that I received the scholarship I applied for earlier. [..] My family was happy, but afraid at the same time that I had to come back to Bangladesh to apply for the visa. What if something happens before then? […] My wife and I got the visa appointment twenty days later. I hid in my village home after coming back.
Then he talked about how the third secretary of the German embassy helped him submit the documents and expedited the visa with concern for his security.
আমার মনে একটি অপরাধবোধ আছে। যে যুদ্ধটা আমরা করছিলাম, সে যুদ্ধটা ছেড়ে চলে আসার অপরাধবোধ। কিন্তু এ কেমন যুদ্ধ? ছায়ার সাথে মানুষ কিভাবে যুদ্ধ করে? [..] যারা চাইছিলেন আমি দেশে থেকে যেন মারা যাই, তাঁদের বলতে চাই, আপনাদের চাওয়াটা পুরন হবে না। আমি বেঁচে থাকবো, আমার করার আছে অনেক কিছু। সব শেষ না করে মরে গেলে তো হবেনা।
আমরা ব্লগার, আমাদের তো রাস্তায় নামার কথা ছিলোনা। কথা ছিলো আমরা লিখবো, আমাদের লেখার ধারে সমাজ থেকে ঝরে পড়বে চর্বি, ক্লেদ। সময়ের প্রয়োজনে রাস্তায় নেমেছিলাম, দরকার হলে আবার নামবো। কিন্তু আমাদের মূল কাজ যেটি, তাকে তো এগিয়ে নিয়ে যেতে হবে। আমাদের আরো বেশি করে লিখতে হবে। মনে রাখতে হবে আমাদের দ্বায়িত্ব আরেকটু বেশি। আমার যে বন্ধুটিকে খুন করা হয়েছে আমার ঘাড়ে তাঁর লেখাটি লিখবার দায় আছে। আগে যদি আমি তাঁর মতো করে নাও লিখে থাকি, এখন আমার দায় তার মতো করে লেখার। ওরা চায় আমাদের কীবোর্ড থেমে যাক। আমরা যেন গুটিয়ে যাই সময়ের শামুকে। কিন্তু এখনই আমাদের বেশি করে লিখবার সময়। নিজের লেখাটিও লিখতে হবে, আমার মৃত বন্ধুর লেখাটিও লিখতে হবে। নইলে জয় হবে অন্ধকারের, জয় হবে মৌলবাদের, হিংস্র ধর্মের।
I have a guilty feeling. The fight we fought but then abandoned, leaving the battlefield. But how is this war? How can you fight with shadows? […] Those who wanted me to die in vain, I would like to tell them, you will not win. I will live, I have to do a lot of things. I cannot die before achieving some of that.
We are bloggers, we were not supposed to be on the streets, We were supposed to write, we were to remind the society about its faults, its shortcomings – give a direction. We had to come to the streets and we will do the same again if needed. But we need to carry on with our main job, to write more. We have to keep in mind that our responsibility has grown more. I have to also write for the friends and their dreams, who were killed. If I did not pay heed to their thoughts or dreams earlier, I should also write about those now. Because they (the assailants) want our keyboards, pens to stop. That we cringe with fear and be silent. Now its the time to write even more. Write our thoughts and also our slain friends’ ones. Otherwise the darkness will win, religious fundamentalism and extremism will win.


text:
Don’t Be Confused. The Panama Hat Is an Old Ecuadorian Tradition · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Panama hats. Photo on Flickr by user Fabrizio Cornalba (CC 2.0).
It's known as Panama hat, but it's a traditional brimmed straw hat from Ecuador made from the plaited leaves of the toquilla palm or jipijapa palm. The name gets its origin from the time when the Panama Canal was built, when thousands of these hats were imported from Ecuador for the workers who labored at the ship canal that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
According to the BBC, the finest Panama hats in the world come from the Ecuadorian cities of Montecristi and Cuenca, but locals in a small village called Pile say they're manufacturing the “best Panama hat in the world.”
Pile es una comunidad de artesanos y pescadores ubicada en la costa manabita a 40 kilómetros de Montecristi, que tiene como actividad principal el tejido de sombreros de paja toquilla. […] Actualmente, cuenta con una población de 750 habitantes aproximadamente. Hombres, mujeres y niños, desde muy temprana edad combinan sus labores domésticas con el tejido de sombreros de paja toquilla.
Ellos aún mantienen en la actualidad la tradición y técnicas del saber ancestral del tejido de sombrero fino. De aquellos maestros que tenían en sus manos el don de convertir a la humilde hebra de toquilla en una magnífica obra de arte, quedan muy pocos.
Pile is a community of craftsmen and fishermen located in the Manabi coast, 40 kilometers [25 miles] from Montecristi, where the main activity is the weaving of toquilla palm hats. […] It currently has about 750 inhabitants. Men, women, and children, from very early age, combine their domestic chores with the weaving of toquilla palm hats.
They still keep the tradition and techniques of the ancient knowledge of fine hat weaving. Of those masters who had in their hands the gift of transforming a humble thread of toquilla in a magnificent masterpiece, very few remain.
“On the international market, the price of a hat, depending on its quality and fineness, can vary from $100 to $30,000,” reports BBC World.
On December 5, 2012, Pile had good reason to have pride for its legacy and tradition, as Unesco inscribed it on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity:
En este paraje de sencillas casas costeras, enclavado en medio de verdes cerros y el azul del mar del sur manabita, los moradores se sienten muy felices y a la vez humildes por el triunfo alcanzado a nivel mundial producto de su trabajo ancestral
In this region of simple coastal houses, set deep among green mountains and the blue of the sea of the Manabite south, residents feel very happy and humble at the same time for this worldwide achievement—the product of ancestral labor.
As this is a very expensive product, there are many tips to keep it in good condition, as explained by website Yoqs. Sombreros, boinas, gorras (Yoqs. Hats, berets, caps). Some recommendations include:
En climas secos cuando note que el sombrero esta muy seco y rígido, humidificarlo de vez en cuando con el vapor de una plancha a cierta distancia o dejándolo en el baño mientras se ducha. Así ganará flexibilidad, y será menos quebradizo. En climas húmedos guardar el sombrero en un lugar seco, para evitar que a la paja le salga moho.
In dry weather, when you see the hat too dry and rigid, moisten it from time to time with the steam of an iron from a distance, or keep in the bathroom while taking a shower. It will acquire flexibility and will be less brittle. Under wet conditions, keep the hat in a dry place, to prevent the appearance of mold in the palm.
Entre los sombreros más finos y caros del mundo, el sombrero Panamá hecho en Pile, Ecuador. https://t.co/9PD5SLuyRG
— Hannah (@HannahPty) enero 10, 2016
Among the finest and most expensive in the world, Panama hat made in Pile, Ecuador.
Me encantan los abanicos, pero que me hayan regalado un “Sombrero Panamá”, eso realmente… ¡Enamora! 👒💕😍
— Liz (@LaTerribleLiz) enero 7, 2016
I love fans, but to get as a present a “Panama hat,” that really… enamors!
Quiero un sombrero Panamá.
— Jose Pablo (@GreenCR) enero 4, 2016
I want a Panama hat.
Ya quiero que llegue la primavera para estrenar una camiseta polo azul marino y un sombrero panama.
— Alfredo Denali (@alfredo_denali) diciembre 27, 2015
I wish spring were here, so I can wear a navy blue polo T-shirt for the first time, and a Panama hat.
Fortunately, it seems the future of the Panama hat is well assured with a new generation of handicrafters. In the so-called Hat Road, it's always sought to keep the tradition alive training the younger ones in this craft:
Pile es también un importante pueblo en esta ruta, ya que produce los sombreros más “Finos” de Paja Toquilla del mundo. Es importante recalcar, que sus habitantes aprenden a tejer estos finos sombreros desde niños en la escuela como una más de sus materias escolares, procurando así mantener viva la tradición que ha venido sobreviviendo por varios siglos.
Pile is also an important town in this road, as it produces the “finest” toquilla palm hats in the world. It's important to stress that its residents learn how to weave these fine hats since they are children, as a school subject, aiming to keep alive a century-old tradition.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe