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Popular, yet banned, songs in Cuba · Global Voices
Luis Rodriguez

Screenshot of Willy Chirino in the music video Nuestro Día (ya viene llegando)/YouTube.
More than three decades have passed since the song Nuestro Día: Ya viene llegando (“Our Day is Coming”) composed by Willy Chirino in the early 90s was released in the Cuban public sphere, becoming not only the musical symbol of the Cuban exile but also of a whole Cuban generation fed up with the economic and social crisis on the island. I will never forget how I had to flee from the police when, as a teenager in the 90s, we were caught listening to Ya viene llegando on a tape recorder of that time.
The song, announcing a possible end of the Cuban government, was released after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's main ally for decades. Meanwhile, the economic crisis was worsening, triggering the exodus of balseros and the mass protests of the Maleconazo of 1994.
The song from Chirino's 1991 Oxígeno album, became a hit at the time. The almost-disappeared music cassettes made their way into parties or family celebrations where they were played.
Willy Chirino was born in Cuba in 1947 but emigrated to Miami at the age of 14. He is considered one of the artistic icons of the Cuban exile community in the U.S., along with Gloria Estefan and the late Celia Cruz, as well as Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D'Rivera.
In 2012, Cuban radio stations reported that they received authorization to play the music of 50 artists who were, in fact, banned, but Chirino explained to BBC Mundo two years later that “[His] music to a certain extent is still banned in Cuba, because it is not broadcasted on the radio or on television.” This year, after the Cuban protests of July 11, Willy Chirino released a new song titled “Que se vayan ya” (“Let them go now”)
Ya vienen llegando tells the story of Willy Chirino's own experience as a Cuban exile in the U.S. and unveils the drama of exile, the difficulties involved in adapting to U.S. culture and language. He became the symbol of a generation marked by emigration to the U.S. and the search for new opportunities.
In the midst of the endless blackouts that plagued the country in the 1990s, listening to that autobiographical song had become an escape for millions of Cubans who lived in fear of being discovered by the police or being fired from their jobs for listening to music considered subversive.
I listened to it for the first time in the recreational cultural center of my hometown Crucecita in 1996 at a time when I was a fan of rap and hip hop. In those days I wandered the streets with other young people of my generation with a tape recorder seeking any corner where we could dance and breakdance. One afternoon, a friend handed me a copy of the song; we were listening to it with the volume as low as possible, rehearsing our dances. A friend of mine happened to turn up the volume when suddenly a police car drove by and they got out of the car. We ran away and hid at a friend's house. No one told on us and no one found us that afternoon.
Listening to the song for the first time was a discovery for me at a time when food was scarce in my house. I couldn't bear to come home from school and see my grandmother cooking with firewood because of the energy crisis of the nineties. The impact of the song was enormous because it conveyed a message of hope, that someday we would reach freedom by escaping to the U.S., a nation that was receiving balseros at that time.
Something similar is happening today with the song of a new generation, Patria y Vida, by Cuban rappers and singers Yotuel, Gente De Zona, Descemer Bueno, Maykel Osorbo and El Funky. Many of us young people whisper the title of this song in our peers’ ears as a sign that we identify with a free Cuba, when we meet in informal spaces to chat, and in text messages where we claim Patria y vida (“Fatherland and life”) as a slogan that put to the grave Fidel Castro's Patria o muerte (“Fatherland or death”) that has been imposed on us for decades. The present and future of Cuba is Patria y vida.

author: Luis Rodriguez


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Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Awards highlights Hong Kong’s censored productions · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Clara Law, Jun Li, and Kiwi Chow. Image from the Stand News. Used with permission.
The 58th Golden Horse Film Awards, dubbed the Chinese-language “Oscars,” was held in Taipei on November 27. In 2019, China's national film board ordered directors and actors to boycott the event, so for three consecutive years, the film festival has had no mainstream Chinese films on the nomination list.
Beijing's political pressure has affected Hong Kong too. Directors and actors prominent in the commercial film industry have been compelled to decline the award nominations for fear of losing the mainland Chinese market. Unexpectedly, such tensions have generated a space for Hong Kong's independent, less-commercial productions.
This year, Kiwi Chow's “Revolution of Our Times,” a banned documentary about the 2019 anti-China extradition protests in Hong Kong, won the Best Documentary award. Clara Law's “Drifting Petals” won the Best Director award, and Jun Li's “Drifting” won the Best Adapted Screenplay award. All three movies depicted stories about the city's grassroots activism efforts.
The title of “Revolution of Our Times” comes from a protest slogan during the 2019 protests. This July, Hong Kong's High Court judged that the display of the slogan was considered an act of incitement in the trial of Tong Ying-kit. Kiwi Chow's work was banned in Hong Kong, as were other films that address the city's pro-democracy movements and its political tensions with China,
Under the newly amended Film Censorship Ordinance, films that go against national security interests can not be shown in Hong Kong, and anyone who illegally screens unlicensed films could face three years imprisonment and a one million HK dollar fine. Twitter @MenSuen compiled a list of films that have either been banned or heavily edited for release:
You may remember that a while ago we did a Q&A about what films #CCP hates, well here are a fresh batch of films made about #HongKong‘s fight for freedom. Many were censored in #HK but that cannot stop the world from watching them. PLEASE REQUEST THEM FROM @netflix ! pic.twitter.com/6gROEYNYIv
— IFC (@MenSuen) October 21, 2021
Kiwi Chow's documentary was slammed by pro-Beijing media outlets for advocating Hong Kong Independence after it was screened at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
Kong Tsung-gan, a Hong Kong activist, highlighted the audience reaction and the director's video speech during the award on Twitter:
.@RoOT_film wins Best Doc at Golden Horse Awards. After screening, the audience shouted, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times!” Director Kiwi Chow: “This film belong to every HongKonger with a conscience & righteousness who sheds tears for HK.”https://t.co/IRmRKwSWEe pic.twitter.com/poZ2iEBkU7
— Kong Tsung-gan / 江松澗 (@KongTsungGan) November 27, 2021
Director Clara Law was born in Macau, grew up in Hong Kong, and migrated to Australia. In her film “Drifting Petals,” she revisited the twin cities during the 2019 protests and told the story of Hong Kong and Macau through the lens of the diaspora.
Both Hong Kong and Macau are former colonial cities located on the periphery of mainland China. In the late 1990s, both were reunified with China under the constitutional principle of “One Country Two Systems.” Through the traveler's encounter with protesters and spirits of the past in his trip, the director draws connections between the contemporary conflict in Hong Kong with the 1966 Macau riots against the colonial Portugal government and the 1895 Guangzhou Uprising against the Qing Dynasty.
Although the film is not directly about the 2019 Hong Kong protests, it is unlikely to be screened in Hong Kong theatres, as pointed out by Lai Chak Ling, an actress in the film who represented Law when receiving the film festival award:
Jun Li's “Drifting” is the only one among the three awarded films that managed to air in Hong Kong cinemas.  The film is based on an actual court case in 2012 involving a group of homeless people in Sham Shui Po, a low-income district that is undergoing gentrification. The lawsuit was filed by a group of homeless people demanding compensation and an apology from the government after police officers and street cleaners forced them to leave their camps by throwing away their belongings without prior notice.
The homeless citizens’ demand for an official apology resonated with the city's pro-democracy protesters during the 2019 protests.
As pointed by Michael Mo, a Hong Kong diaspora in the UK, the director used the politically sensitive chant, “Hong Kong Add Oil” 香港加油 when he received the award:
#HongKong based film #Drifting have just won the best adapted script at the 58th @Golden_Horse Awards. At the end, the director gave his speech in Cantonese, ending with #香港加油 (Cheer up Hong Kong), a slogan which is deemed seditious now.
Thank you #Taiwan. pic.twitter.com/0JcYdPCGFR
— Michael Mo (@michaelmohk) November 27, 2021
In addition to the awardees, two other nominated Hong Kong productions were praised by the Festival reviewers.
With less than a 600,000 Hong Kong dollar budget (approximately 77,000 US dollars) production fee, Rex Ren and Lam Sum's “Will you stay forever young” was nominated for Best New Director and Best Film Editing.
The film was also censored in Hong Kong, as it is discussed the 2019 protests. It features a rescue team who searched for young protesters who attempted to commit suicide due to generational conflicts within their families.
The title, “Will you stay forever young,” comes from a 15-year-old protester in the film: “will people be doomed to change as they grow up? If so, I don't want to grow up.”
Established filmmaker Fruit Chan's “Coffin Homes” has been nominated for multiple awards. The comedy thriller, which was screened in Hong Kong in August 2021, is highly critical of the capitalist exploitation in the city to the extent that the ghosts have to compete for living space among themselves and with living people.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


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Indonesian police arrested students who raised banned ‘Papuan Independence Day’ flag · Global Voices
Sydney Allen

A free West Papua protest in Melbourne, Australia, in August 2012. Image from Wikipedia, (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Eight students were detained by police and are being investigated for treason in Papua, Indonesia, for raising the Morning Star flag at the Cenderawasih Sports Center in Jayapura City and marching toward the Papua Police Headquarters on Wednesday, December 1. The Indonesian government has forbidden citizens from raising the Morning Star flag, which is a symbol of Papuan pride and sovereignty in a region that has long sought independence from Indonesia.
According to Suara Papua, the eight students marched in protest toward the Papua Police Headquarters, waving Morning Stars and carrying a banner reading “Self Determination for West Papua! Stop militarism in West Papua. Welcoming UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to West Papua.”
They were detained upon their arrival at the police station and now face potential treason charges. In Indonesia, treason charges can carry a 20-year prison sentence.
1/12/21 Jayapura, West Papua
Six students DT, EM, LS, MY, AM, MY were arrested for raising the banned Morning Star flag. They could face treason which carries life imprisonment.
The Morning Star was first raised on this day in 1961. pic.twitter.com/d200w6ti7H
— Veronica Koman 許愛茜 (@VeronicaKoman) December 1, 2021
December 1, 2021, unofficially considered West Papua Independence Day, marked the 60th anniversary of when Papuans first flew the Morning Star flag in a bid for independence from the Dutch. Since then, Papuans around the world raised the flag on December 1 to commemorate the occasion and express their hopes for a free Papua.
West Papuans around Australia have raised their Morning Star flag, a potent symbol of their struggle for independence from Indonesia, to mark the 60th anniversary of the first time it was flown in the former Dutch colony https://t.co/htjxfbi5PG pic.twitter.com/1yuCCgz7gI
— Andreas Harsono (@andreasharsono) December 1, 2021
Emanuel Goal, Litigation Coordinator for the Coalition for Law Enforcement and Human Rights in Papua, told the news organization Suara Papua that he had not been permitted to assist the students because they had not been officially charged. He said:
We have not accompanied the eight Papuan students directly because the investigators have not updated the status of the eight students, he said. Until now, the eight Papuan students who raised the Morning star flag at the Jayapura Sports center are being detailed by the Papua regional police. The detention of these eight people still does not have any status.
This is not the first time that students have been targeted for protesting for Papuan independence. In August 2020, a university student was expelled and faced treason charges for joining a protest in support of Papua. Similarly, seven other activists, known as the “Balikpapan Seven” were charged with treason and imprisoned for nearly a year for participating in anti-racism protests in Papuan — a case that drew widespread international attention and criticism against the Indonesian government.
Tensions in Papua have been heating up in recent months due to economic stress from COVID-19, increased calls for independence among activists and Papuan citizens, and recent instances of military and militia violence on the island.
According to the news agency, Suara, on the same day as the student protest, members of The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), a local militia group, set fire to a timber company, PT Build Irian Wood, in Sorong, West Papua.
A spokesperson for the group said they reject all development in Papua and would take similar action against companies that continue to develop against community wishes.

author: Sydney Allen


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Belarus, transformed: political analysts track social and political change in the country · Global Voices
Transitions Online

“Past the expiry date, 1994-2020″ reads this placard at a protest in Minsk, August 2020. Lukashenka became President of Belarus in 1994. Photo CC BY-NC 2.0: Natallia Rak / Flickr. Some rights reserved.
This article by Elena Spasiuk was originally published on Naviny.by and appeared on Transitions Online on December 2, 2021. It is republished as part of a content-sharing partnership and has been edited to fit the GV style.
The August 2020 presidential election in Belarus triggered unprecedented street protests against Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s official victory. What has been happening in Belarus since the summer of 2020 and why? Was it a revolution? Political analysts shared their thoughts with independent Belarusian news outlet Naviny.
Belarusian society stepped into 2020 in the midst of a dramatic transformation of values, Pavel Daneyko, an economist and administrative director of the Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center (BEROC), said at an online meeting organized by theCenter for New Ideas think tank.
About 50 percent of the economically active population in Belarus is currently employed in the private sector. According to Daneyko, this was one of the reasons behind people’s activism during the 2020 election campaign.
Positive attitudes among people toward private business also played a role, he said. This can be largely attributed to the fact that many businesses in the country were established from scratch, with a significant number of them in the manufacturing sector, so many people, especially those not employed in the government sector, “had the feeling that they themselves shape their future,” he said.
He cited the findings of the World Values Survey that a significant portion of Belarusians are willing to take responsibility for their lives instead of shifting it to the state, and many support private property ownership.
“As for the distribution of income, the Belarusians, like the Swedes, believe that the state should support vulnerable groups. Overall, our configuration of values is similar to that in Sweden or the Baltic states. Its essence is about taking responsibility for your own life as well as assuming social and individual responsibility,” Daneyko noted.
An important driver of this mindset was a reduction in government spending on social programs, including education, health care, and social support, coupled with tax policy changes in 2005 and 2006, said Gennady Korshunov, a sociologist and senior researcher at the Center for New Ideas. At the same time, he said, those changes prompted the government to allow private entrepreneurship to develop, which coincided with the digitalization of society accompanied by the rise of social media networks and growing accessibility of digital infrastructure. On the whole, in Korshunov’s view, the government relaxed restrictions for business and society.
Belarusians also began to travel abroad a lot, seeing different ways of life, while the internet made communications easier. As a result, many people underwent a change of values, the sociologist said.
The transformation of values that began 15 years earlier because of many factors reached its climax. This happened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the government demonstrated its ineptitude or even refused outright to deal with the crisis. The politicization of social processes also played a role, with everything possible set on edge.
According to Korshunov, supporters of change and their opponents vary little by education, age, or the population of their home city. “This is a civilization gap, a mindset difference. Some people want to be responsible for themselves, their family or the country, while others just don’t.”
He continued:
In psychological terms, we can speak of locus of control. Some people have an internal locus of control. They themselves determine their lives. Others have an external locus, giving somebody else the right to control their lives. From the point of view of large-scale social change, a part of the people with an internal locus of control is the most progressive part of society and they have now in fact transformed into a digital society.
However, Korshunov said, the policies the government has pursued in the past 25 years have stimulated a movement back to traditional social models. Chiefly, this came about because one person fills the leading role in public life, and “the rest are his subjects, vassals. Everything depends on the will of this person in this rigidly structured authoritarian system,” he said.
Apart from supporters and opponents of change, there are also people who stay neutral and declare themselves indifferent to what is happening in the country. Unlike in 2020, when their number was insignificant with the majority clearly divided into government supporters and opponents on the side of the protesters, this cohort now “forms a third vertex of the triangle, and this is a natural process,” Korshunov said.
Those who weren’t sure which side they should take have now joined a neutral group. The Belarusians have been living with extreme stress for more than a year, and this cannot last for long. Fear is another factor. According to one poll, 60 to 70 percent of the population in large cities are concerned about their safety, meaning that going neutral is a self-defense mechanism.
Finally, the sociologist said, there is an economic factor as prices are increasing much faster than wages while the variety of products in stores grows smaller, forcing people to “think about their survival.” “You and your children should first have enough food. Only then will you be able to think about some strategic, lofty things.”
Can TV propaganda have an influence on those still undecided? According to Korshunov, the viewers of Belarusian TV are mostly government opponents rather than supporters or undecideds. They watch “for information or fun,” he said. “Propaganda fails to reach its intended audience.”
Overall, state propaganda doesn’t have a profound impact on the minds of the masses. It may only cement the views that those who are watching Belarusian TV channels already have. However, one should remember that if you pull a pendulum too far to one side, it will go the same distance when swinging back. Propaganda is a very subtle art where you should know how to switch back and forth from softness to roughness or extreme caution. There is no subtlety in the Belarusian authorities’ propaganda.
Belarusians have undergone a major transformation, Daneyko said. They have begun to openly express positions, something they had never done before. “Opinions were not voiced in the passive society. The government had passive support from people, but it is gone now.”
Korshunov agreed. Politically speaking, he said, a revolution takes place only when the government is overthrown, but this is a narrow viewpoint because essentially, “a revolution is a system’s transition from one state to another, which is about a change in quality.”
This is what has happened in Belarus, he said.
All the people cannot change completely at once, he added:
Usually, it is 5-10 percent of the population who determine the country’s development path. What is remarkable about Belarus is that more than half of the population is now ready for change, working in this direction. The Belarusians have re-envisioned their national identity, giving birth to a new civil society and reformatting social processes that generate new patterns of behavior. New economic practices have emerged. It’s indisputable that the processes that took place in Belarus were revolutionary in essence.
There has been a “digital social revolution” in the country, and now, “Belarusian society is spread everywhere on the planet where there are Belarusians,” he said.
Though living on different continents, the Belarusians are acting as a collective force, Korshunov noted, citing a demonstration staged by Belarusians outside the headquarters of Czech carmaker Skoda, the main sponsor of the 2021 World Ice Hockey Championship, demanding that the company withdraw its sponsorship if the event took place in Minsk.
“The Belarusians spontaneously joined forces to tackle their problems using their strong human capital, newly born social capital, and high intellect,” Korshunov said.
They have started to lobby for their interests all over the world. It’s phenomenal. Our horizontal connections and shared pain from the collective Akrestsina [a detention center in Minsk where anti-Lukashenka protesters were severely beaten] have built strong and partly painful ties triggering processes that are still unfolding and God knows where they will take us.

author: Transitions Online


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Omicron prompts Japan to attempt “national isolation” once more · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

A scale model of the former foreign enclave of Dejima, in Nagasaki. Dejima was a self-contained trading post reserved for Europeans at Nagasaki, Japan, from 1634 to 1854, during Japan's “period of isolation” (鎖国, sakoku). Original image by Hidetsugu Tonomura has been slightly edited, under terms of image license. Image license: Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Following the identification of a new strain of COVID-19, the Japanese government briefly attempted to completely seal the country's air and sea borders. The sudden policy prompted fear and accusations of making a return to two centuries of “national isolation” before the Japanese government backtracked, which in turn created more confusion about just who is allowed into the country.
After the Omicron COVID-19 variant was identified in late November 2021, Japan's Ministry of Transportation directed airlines to immediately pause all reservations for Japan-bound flights until the end of December.
The new directive also appeared to refuse entry to Japanese citizens, an entirely new policy that appeared to violate Japan's constitution, and, more immediately, leave thousands of travelers stranded outside of the country.
Following the announcement of an apparent ban on all travel into Japan, hashtags such as #japantravelban and #鎖国 (sakoku) were shared by English speakers on Twitter.
Sakoku, or “national isolation”, refers to a period of about two hundred years when Europeans, and later, citizens of the United States, were effectively banned — and Japanese subjects were prohibited from leaving the country — by Japan's military dictatorship.
Japan, which welcomed 32 million overseas visitors in 2019, the year before the start of the pandemic, has largely cut itself off from the world. By the end of 2021, the total number of annual visitors is forecast to drop to just over 190,000, due to a ban on all but essential travel by foreign visitors and permanent (non-Japanese) residents.
After several days of mounting criticism of the government that was described as a “crisis,” the Japanese government seemed to reverse course, causing yet more confusion.
There were reports that neither Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, who had been enjoying a honeymoon period after winning election one month earlier, nor Transportation Minister Saito Tetsuo were aware of the directive by Transportation Ministry bureaucrats that banned Japanese nationals from the country.
According to a news report by NHK, Japan's public broadcaster, as of December 3, 2021, Japan's borders are essentially closed to all non-residents of the country, although citizens of several African countries were targeted for exclusion:
The African countries affected by the outright ban are Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This focus on banning travelers from African countries is in spite of rising cases of the Omicron variant outside of Africa.
In addition, the Japanese government capped the number of monthly arrivals of non-Japanese people from 5,000 pre-Omicron to just 3,500 per month, beginning in December. This reduction in airline capacity may effectively ban Japanese nationals caught outside the country during the emerging response to Omicron from returning to Japan
The move by the Japanese government to effectively close its borders to foreigners was questioned by Michael Ryan, a World Health Organization representative, who remarked:
Epidemiologically, I find it hard to understand the principle there. Does the virus read your passport? Does the virus know your nationality or where you are legally resident?
Japan has largely controlled the spread of COVID-19, with daily deaths from the diseases in the country of 116 million down to single digits in November 2021. There were hopes the country would loosen travel restrictions.
Post-Omicron, the tightening border controls were a blow for many foreign residents of Japan. Due to the threat of sudden changes in border controls that would leave them stranded outside of Japan, such as the short-lived but quickly announced ban on inbound flights in late November, many foreign residents have been largely confined to the archipelago since the start of the pandemic, unable to visit overseas friends and family.
I'm tired of them toying with our lives and changing rules every other day.
— Camille Von (@DeadBlueMorpho) December 2, 2021
Since the start of the pandemic, Japan's strict COVID-19 entry restrictions on anyone who is not a Japanese citizen or permanent resident have also delayed or destroyed the plans of students hoping to study in the country.
One example of Japan's strict and seemingly unreasonable limitations on entry to Japan is the case of Melek Ortabasi, a dual Canadian-American citizen who currently resides as a student in Japan. Her children, who are not Japanese citizens or permanent residents, are not permitted to join her in Japan, a situation Ortabasi characterizes as a human rights violation:
Hello @JapaninCanada @JapanCons_vanc I have a very important message for Consul General Hatori. I would appreciate a prompt answer and swift resolution to this issue, which constitutes a human rights violation. pic.twitter.com/ogipgkai8K
— Melek Ortabasi (@MOrtabasi) December 2, 2021
In early November, the Japanese government had indicated it would start to allow international students to return to Japan to resume their studies. However, the emergence of the Omicron variant at the end of the month appears to have left these students in limbo:
Maybe time to sign and send in a 2.0… https://t.co/SLauEyvplL
— Chelsea Szendi Schieder（チェルシー・センディ・シーダー） (@SzendiChelsea) December 3, 2021
Some were able to see the humor — or irony — in Japan's brief attempt to impose a total ban on travel into the country on Japanese citizens and non-citizens alike.
Clinton Godart, a Dutch-born history professor who teaches in Japan, suggested that the country's new approach to sakoku might be fine with him. During Japan's two hundred years of national isolation, the only Westerners allowed into Japan were Dutch, who were confined to a small island in Nagasaki harbor, in western Japan.
鎖国を再導入しているね。長崎だけでもいいので、オランダ人??として滞在を許可してほしい。
そして日本人出国禁止もしたら、鎖国完成ですね。 ? pic.twitter.com/O4tt303Z9y
— Clinton Godart (@ClintonGodart) December 1, 2021
Japan, you seem to be reintroducing “national isolation” (sakoku). I don't mind Nagasaki at all, and I'm a Dutchman, too, so please allow me.
If the Japanese are banned from leaving the country, the isolation will be completed.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Post-COP26, a Caribbean view on climate injustice and ‘1.5 to stay alive’ · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

St. Lucian-American artist Jonathan Gladding‘s most recent “1.5 to Stay Alive” painting, used with permission.
After two intense weeks of panel discussions, side events, networking, and speeches by political leaders, Glasgow's UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) is behind us—and already fading from the media spotlight. Looking back, what can Caribbean nations take away from it, and where do they go from here?
Yves Renard, board member and regional coordinator of the non-governmental organisation Panos Caribbean, shared his post-conference reflections with me from the village of Laborie, Saint Lucia, where he lives and works.
For over four decades, Renard has been involved in sustainable development policy and participatory natural resource management in the region. He's particularly interested in linking natural resource governance with poverty reduction and social development, and in designing institutions that foster participation and empowerment.
Yves Renard, board member and regional coordinator of the non-governmental organisation Panos Caribbean, which has been an active advocate for the region when it comes to the climate crisis. Photo courtesy Renard, used with permission.
Emma Lewis (EL): Remind us about the 1.5 to Stay Alive campaign, which was launched in Paris by Caribbean countries with Panos’ support, and gained a lot of traction.
Yves Renard (YR): The slogan ‘1.5 to Stay Alive’ was actually first coined by the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) when [Grenadian diplomat] Dessima Williams was its chairperson. In 2015, following a discussion between Dr James Fletcher of Saint Lucia and Panos Caribbean, it was decided to design and launch a campaign with the primary objective of supporting Caribbean negotiators at COP21 in Paris. Media, artists, young people were mobilised to amplify their voices and to make Caribbean negotiators feel that people at home were aware of the issues and supported their efforts. That campaign used the slogan, with the iconic images of [artist] Jonathan Gladding, [to] forcefully convey the message.
EL: What if 1.5 is not achievable?
YR: This is very hard to tell and we have to believe the science. As NASA succinctly points out, ‘The potential future effects of global climate change include more frequent wildfires, longer periods of drought in some regions and an increase in the number, duration and intensity of tropical storms.’ We have to accept that many scientists now see a 1.8° Celsius increase as the ‘optimistic’ scenario and that there is no place for complacency. This 1.8°C scenario assumes full implementation of all the targets announced and commitments made. Let us keep in mind that we are now at 1.2°C above the pre-industrial levels of 1850-1900.
EL: The Caribbean is very much focused on climate finance. Coming out of COP26, do you think a more equitable source of finance that will make a real difference at the grassroots, community level is now possible?
YR: It seems that COP26 made very little progress with respect to financing for Loss and Damage. There was a proposal to create a Glasgow Loss and Damage Finance Facility which was supported by all Caribbean countries, but which was not adopted in the final declaration. Instead, the focus was on the operationalisation of the Santiago Network, but this is not a financing instrument; it is only a mechanism to facilitate the exchange of expertise and information.
There was, however, some encouraging news, with a significant increase in funding for adaptation, including over 350 million United States dollars in new pledges to the Adaptation Fund, which has a good reputation of reaching the ground and working at the grassroots level. In addition, there were several important conversations at COP26, spearheaded in particular by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), which stressed the importance of climate finance reaching the most vulnerable and demonstrated how this could be done.
EL: Are we therefore any closer to obtaining support for the “Loss and Damage” component of financing, which would have to be in addition to current pledges?
YR: From what I know, it doesn't seem so, except that the idea of the Loss and Damage Finance Facility is still on the table, and some private philanthropic organisations, such as the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Open Society Foundations, have offered to provide support to get it started.
The most well known image of the “1.5 to Stay Alive” campaign, by St. Lucian-American artist Jonathan Gladding, used with permission.
EL: Like several other catchphrases, you believe the term “climate justice” is being misused and abused.
YR: For me, we cannot talk about climate justice if we don't talk about climate injustice and if we are not prepared to fight that injustice. We talk about climate justice because the climate crisis exacerbates social injustice: poverty increases vulnerability to disasters. Women, especially those who are heads of households, have a special burden to carry when they are impacted by storms, floods or landslides. Poor households typically cannot afford insurance.
There is another dimension of climate justice which is about fairness in international negotiations and relations. Climate justice is also about the countries and economic sectors that are most directly responsible for the current crisis accepting that responsibility, and acting accordingly.
The abuse and misuse of the concept of climate justice, in my view, comes because it just sounds absolutely right. So everyone wants to be associated with such a righteous concept, even when doing things that have little, if anything, to do with combatting injustice. It can be achieved by putting the response to the climate crisis at the core of some of our main policies, such as social policy, land policy, agricultural policy.
EL: In its pre-COP statement, Panos Caribbean stressed that we must “look at ourselves” and our own practices at home. Do you think that Caribbean leaders will now make some positive changes, or will it be business as usual? What are some impactful measures they can take—especially now, as time is short?
YR: Imagine if all Caribbean countries in 2022 agreed to a post-COP26 statement outlining what they will do, concretely, to reduce their vulnerability. This action plan would have to be very specific and deal, for example, with the issue of dredging for cruise ship ports with agreed coastal construction setback, or the complete and effective ban on illegal and destructive mining. I fear that this will not happen, and that the urgency of economic recovery in the wake of the pandemic is already fuelling investments that are incompatible with the objectives of reducing our vulnerability.
EL: Finally, what do you think the Caribbean has gained from COP26? Are we likely to be moving closer to true climate justice, which goes hand in hand with greater social justice?
YR: The move towards climate justice will depend largely on what we do at home, ourselves. We should, however, accept that COP26 did a few things that are important to us. The goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement was ‘to limit global warming to well below two, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels’. Thanks to the IPCC report, the passionate speeches of young climate activists, the eloquent speeches of world leaders such as [Prime Minister] Mia Mottley of Barbados, and the media coverage of COP26, it has been made clear that it is not a question of ‘preferably'—1.5 has to be the target. But that target will not be reached without the phasing down of coal and the just transition that so many spoke about in Glasgow.

author: Emma Lewis


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Citizens start clean-up and recovery efforts after protests and riots in Solomon Islands · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Volunteers help clean up the streets after three days of rioting and looting in Honiara City. Photo supplied by ZFM 99.5 My Favourite Music Station, used with permission.
Hundreds of volunteers have responded to the Soloman Island government’s public appeal to help clean up the capital Honiara after three days of rioting and looting in the city’s Chinatown district.
Protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare erupted in the capital of the South Pacific nation on November 24, which later turned violent, leading authorities to institute a 36-hour lockdown.
Based on the initial assessment of the Central Bank of Solomon Islands, 63 buildings were burned down, including schools and police outposts, 1,000 employees lost their jobs, and the total damage to the economy could reach 534 million US dollars. The government lost about 36 million US dollars in potential revenue from tobacco excise taxes alone. Honiara represents 30 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
As of December 3, the police have arrested 217 individuals suspected of participating in the riots.
Journalist Robert Iroga wrote about the impact of the violence in the city:
Within just three days, life in Honiara — which has been rebuilt steadily over the years since the ethnic tensions and the 2006 riots — has been turned into a nightmare.
Our public transport has been interrupted, shops are closing or burned down and life has been turned upside-down. Such is the new normal for Honiara, but surely more painful days are ahead.
The Honiara City Council deplored the actions of the rioters:
We bring hardships and struggles upon ourselves, our family members, relatives and community members by involving in unlawful activities like riots, arson and looting. We are the ones who will suffer. The hardships we will face are huge and catastrophic.
We also appeal that we realize the harm we bring upon the traditional owners of Honiara. Because of our actions, innocent lives were lost during the burning and looting. The spilled blood desecrated the land traditionally owned by people of Tandai.
Chinatown on Friday and Chinatown today pic.twitter.com/AuWTpHwjRz
— Georgina Kekea (@ginakekea) November 28, 2021
After the riots ended, concerned citizens, civic groups, and even foreigners took to the streets to clean up the city.
Cleanup starts for some in Chinatown. Locals manning the shop can not control the mob that looted the hardware & plumbing shop. pic.twitter.com/kkjfItlaFe
— Georgina Kekea (@ginakekea) November 27, 2021
The Solomon Islands Chinese Association expressed gratitude to those who extended assistance to displaced community members who had their homes or businesses destroyed:
Many Chinese individuals and families have lost literally everything and are also homeless.
The Chinese community extends their gratitude towards the many peace-loving Solomon Islanders who have offered their support and sympathy during this difficult time.
The Indigenous Solomon Islanders will also be heavily affected such as through loss of employment, and lack of timely supplies for their businesses and canteens.
Selwyn College Old Student's Association #SOSA netball team participating in a cleanup session this afternoon in #Honiara ? Pictures by Robert Iroga @LukeIroga pic.twitter.com/FQOWjx6LIO
— Georgina Kekea (@ginakekea) November 28, 2021
Most of those who joined the protests on November 24 were from Malaita Island, a province whose local leadership has consistently opposed the decision of the Sogavare government to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 2019 and adopt a “One China” policy. This was a controversial decision since the Solomon Islands had maintained diplomatic relations with Taiwan for 36 years before Prime Minister Sogavare decided to formally establish relations with Beijing. This controversial decision seemed to further exacerbate tensions within the nation.
Malaita officials refused Chinese aid and continued relations with Taiwan. They said that the province’s criticism over the foreign policy of the Sogavare government led to reprisals that hurt citizens’ livelihoods and the island’s economy.
The Malaita Provincial Executive has issued a statement condemning the violence but also articulated the sentiment of the protesters:
Solomon Islands state is a house built on sand, unless the provinces have more autonomy and the issues of land, natural resource control and indigenous benefit are meaningfully addressed.
From 2019 to 2021, Malaitan attempts to develop its own affairs have been blocked and frustrated by central government, which ultimately resulted in the protests which have spiralled out of control this past week.
Transform Aqorau wrote on the DevPolicy blog that the “sense of alienation, disempowerment and neglect has been building for some time,” not just in Malaita but also in other islands.
Solomon Islands has been drifting to self-destruction. It is one of the most aid dependent countries in the world. Significant donor support is given to its health and education sector. Yet, its ministers and senior government officials treat its people poorly, and allow them to be exploited by loggers and miners.
The ruling and opposition parties have each traded blame over who is responsible for the violence that gripped the capital in November. The prime minister said opposition leaders were seen talking to the rioters and looters before November 24. He urged local leaders not to coddle “domestic terrorists.” Meanwhile, the opposition said the government has “politicized” the police in ordering the arbitrary arrest of innocent citizens and peaceful protestors.
Amid the unrest, other Pacific nations deployed security forces to help the Solomon Islands government restore peace and order. More than 150 troops arrived from Fiji, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand to help stabilize the situation.
World leaders, including Fiji’s prime minister, conveyed concern about the situation in the Solomon Islands:
Out of concern for the safety and well-being of our Pacific sisters and brothers in the Solomon Islands, 50 Fijian troops will dispatch to Honiara tomorrow as part of reinforced platoon embedded with Australian Force Elements to help maintain peace and security. ?????
— Frank Bainimarama (@FijiPM) November 29, 2021
While some media outlets have blamed China for stoking unrest in the Pacific nation, China took a different narrative, accusing the US and Australia of encouraging unrest. The Global Times, a state-owned media outlet in China, published an editorial which accused Australia of “fomenting” the riots in the Solomon Islands:
It is clear that Australia's overall attitude, and that of the US, is to connive with and even encourage the unrest, even though the Australian troops and police were sent to keep order in the Solomon Islands. What is right and what is not is obvious.
The government of the Solomon Islands and their people know what is really going on there. It is also not hard for the outside world to know.

author: Mong Palatino


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Death and destruction as former allies faced off in central Somalia · Global Voices
Mohamed Adan Ishak

“AMISOM Sets Up Clinic in Baidoa, Somalia” by United Nations Photo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Normalcy has returned to the town of Guriel in the Galmudug state of central Somalia after four consecutive days of gunfire between the Somali federal government, state military units, and the armed religious movement Ahlu Sunnah Waljama. The Ahlu Sunnah group has been active in central Somalia since 2008 and was once allies with the Federal government, as they helped oust the militant group Alshabab from certain towns in Central Somalia.
The two sides split when the moderate movement that used to dominate the Galmudug state, accused the federal government of violating their power-sharing agreement, after the federal government held a state presidential election without consulting them. Ahlu Sunnah boycotted the election and held a parallel state election, producing their own president. That led to a clash between the two sides that later forced the leadership of the movement into exile.
Fighting broke out on October 23, 2021, in Guriel following an offensive led by the federal and state armed units to recapture the town after the religious movement claimed it in the first week of October.
After one month of military buildup along the main road that connects the town to the State Capital Dhusamareb, the war broke out on October 23, killing over 100 people and injuring at least 400 others. As the war raged, medical services were disrupted and hospitals and other medical facilities were forced to discontinue their services due to heavy shelling nearby.
Fighting in Guri Ceel town, continued into its fourth day on 26 Oct;
2⃣ health facilities damaged, cutting off lifesaving health services
3⃣0⃣ civilians killed
1⃣0⃣0⃣K➕ displaced
⏺Access challenges remain, humanitarians are responding
Read more; https://t.co/uJg7xvQTLm pic.twitter.com/01HbYCOVDu
— OCHA Somalia (@OCHASom) October 27, 2021
A situational report by the United Nations agency for humanitarian assistance (OCHA) stated that health facilities were damaged, power and water lines were cut, and 100,000 residents of nearby villages were displaced. The report also warned that the displaced were vulnerable since they lacked proper shelter and had to travel long distances to get water and firewood. Women and girls faced increased risk as they could be exposed to dangers like sexual assault and gender-based violence. In a separate report, the UN noted that more than 400 houses and 260 shops were damaged in the war and that schools had not yet opened.
‼More than 80% of 100k+ people displaced by recent fighting in #Guri Ceel,Galmudug #Somalia returned home.
ℹ Inter-agency assessment found schools reopening but 17k students from 41 schools are yet to resume classes. Fighting damaged 400+ houses,260 shops,6 schools,2 hospitals pic.twitter.com/c0S7iF49mD
— OCHA Somalia (@OCHASom) November 6, 2021
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Africa also documented the destruction of the health facilities in a statement, noting that because of the heavy shelling, wounded people on both sides of the struggle could not access much-needed medical treatment.
We’ve delivered medical supplies, including weapon wounded kits, dressing kits and body bags to health facilities on both sides. We’re also working to provide water and health care for displaced families. pic.twitter.com/u918PFOw8t
— ICRC Africa (@ICRC_Africa) October 27, 2021
Kulmiye community hospital management shared photos on their Facebook page of a completely charred medical facility after it caught fire due to shelling. In a Facebook post, the management said that they could no longer serve the community. The community hospital has not yet been rebuilt, though the main hospital is being rehabilitated by the state government.
The town's main hospital, Sterling, was partially damaged due to a mortar fire. This hampered citizens’ access to medical facilities and forced many to seek treatment elsewhere.
According to OCHA, local humanitarian partners recorded violations of international humanitarian law, including the denial of treatment to those injured. In one instance, Somali police officials in Galmudug state seized two patients from their hospital beds where they were receiving treatment. As per a local media report, the two individuals were fighters for the religious movement. Police seized them in one of the hospitals in Galkayo, Galmudug, when they were tipped off. In another report, state district commissioners issued a warning to hospital management not to admit any injured fighters. The ICRC decried the decision in a tweet, underlining the wounded people's right to access healthcare irrespective of who they are.
The move led to many questioning the motive behind the denial of treatment. Among the various Somali Twitter users that commented on the incident was former state president of neighboring Hirshabelle state Mohamed Abdi Ware. In a tweet, he wrote:
Reports of mistreatment of the wounded & denial of medical assistance in the Guricel conflict a grave concern. This is a violation of Int’l Humanitarian Law/Geneva Convention. Also a violation of our Somali/Islamic values in the conduct of armed conflict. @ICRC_Africa @UNSomalia pic.twitter.com/WnesD8qJ89
— Mohamed Abdi Ware (@HShPrez2Ware) October 24, 2021
The hostility prompted the US government to reconsider support for Somali military elite unit Danab (Lightning) following participation in a battle in central Somalia against a former ally in the fight against al-Shabab extremists and the killing of   Major Abdilatif feyfle, the commander of the US-trained elite unit in Galmudug state.
Speaking with VOA Somali services, an official with the US embassy in Mogadishu who declined to be named said:
The United States provides training and support coordination to Somali National Army Danab Brigade units to advance our shared objective of defeating al-Shabab. … As a result of this incident, we will be reviewing the support we provide to ensure it is being used appropriately and consistent with US policy and objectives.
The fighting might have subsided for now, but its impact is far-reaching. In a statement by Ahlu Sunah, the armed movement leadership accused African Union peacekeepers (AMISOM) of participating in the conflict. AMISOM countered the accusation with a statement denying any involvement. In the statement, they stated that the allegations are false, malicious that are meant to cause disaffection between AMISOM and the Somali communities.
There is now an atmosphere of tranquillity in the town, and people have started to return, with business and other essential services reopening; however, the fluidity of the situation means that any minute there is the possibility for another confrontation.
BREAKING: Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a militias have left Guriel town after mediation efforts by the business community; govt forces now fully in control. ASWJ also handed over two military vehicles seized during the fighting, source. Their militias are heading towards Godwiil village. pic.twitter.com/n2jApEegiY
— Harun Maruf (@HarunMaruf) October 27, 2021
The state government is now in control of the town, and the armed movement retreated to a new base 35 kilometers away from the state capital, Dhusamareb, following mediation efforts led by elders and the business community. As reported by Somali Guardian, they are now regrouping and are readying for another showdown with the state government.
Somalia's international partners issued a joint statement in October calling for dialogue and cessation of hostility. Reliable sources on the ground who requested anonymity confirmed to Global Voices that another conflict is likely imminent since the state government ruled out any talks with the armed movement — insisting that they surrender their weapons and disband Ahlu Sunnah.

author: Mohamed Adan Ishak


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Hong Kong authorities warn against boycott campaigns over low voter interest ahead of Legislative Elections · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Image from Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute with highlight on 2021 figure made by Global Voices.
Hong Kong Legislative Council (Legco) elections will take place on 19 December 2021.
Because of the “patriot-only” screening mechanism under the new electoral rules, only 153 individuals managed to obtain enough nominations from the Election Committee to become legitimate candidates to compete for the 90 seats in the lawmaking body. And only 35 individual candidates are to compete for the 20 directly elected seats from 10 districts in the geographical constituencies.
In general, people foresee that the voting rate would be very low as the majority of pro-democracy politicians have been jailed and the new election rules ensure that members of the political opposition would not be able to enter the gate in polling places. Catrix, a diaspora HongKonger in Scotland, expresses this popular sentiment on Twitter:
Election is choosing someone you want to serve in the Government. All the people HKer love are either in jail or force outside HK. Now #ccp Hk blame us for not interested in Votings. fxxk u #ccp & hksar. #FreeHongKong first … https://t.co/FL00AmrC8r
— Catrix?????????HKer in Scotland. FIGHT！ (@Catrix_BorninHK) November 30, 2021
Reflecting the political frustration among pro-democracy citizens, exiled activist Ted Hui launched a “Be water campaign” near the end of October on Facebook and urged Hongkongers to cast blank or invalid votes to protest against the new election rules. The ex-lawmaker said (via HKFP):
Faced with the reality that, under the tyranny of the regime, Hong Kong people have very limited options for political mobilisation with substantial influence… The implementation of strategic voting is not aimed at ‘who is elected’ or ‘how many seats.’ Instead, we can use official blank votes to express our resistance to tyranny and our thirst for freedom. This is the greatest political mobilization we can actually achieve at the moment…
The campaign triggered a strong response from Hong Kong authorities and the police quickly took action to arrest three individuals who shared an online message asking people to cast blank votes. They are facing a maximum penalty of three years in jail and a fine of HK$200,000 (25,600 US dollars).
Then, on November 29, Hong Kong’s corruption watchdog, Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) obtained arrest warrants for two exiled activists Ted Hui and Yau Man-chun under the allegation of inciting another person not to vote or cast an invalid vote. London-based political group Hong Kong Democracy Council interpreted the police clampdown as a reflection of their fear for the low voting rate:
The HK govt. is so afraid of the low turnout for their fake election that they issued an arrest warrant to HKDC's Advisor @tedhuichifung, who advocated a protest against the upcoming legislative council election by boycotting or casting blank votes. https://t.co/Lp6pX4n19j
— HKDC – Hong Kong Democracy Council (@hkdc_us) November 29, 2021
However, the clampdown on the blank vote campaigns cannot improve the voting rate. According to a survey conducted by Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI), Hong Kong voters’ propensity to vote 31 days ahead of the elections has hit a record low since 1991 at 52%, which is 30% lower than the trend in the 2016 Legco elections when a total of 84 candidate lists involving 200 individuals were registered to compete for 35 directly elected seats from 5 districts in the geographical constituencies.
Pro-Beijingers reacted to the survey with indignation. The China state-funded Ta Kung Pao accused PORI of misleading and inciting citizens to boycott the elections as they included the option “casting blank or invalid vote” in their survey. Tom Grundy, founder of HKFP highlighted the professional and independent character of PORI:
.@hkporihkpop came under fire from the Beijing-backed Ta Kung Pao, which claimed their surveys have “incited and misled” citizens.
Name another credible pollster in town?
The pro-Beijing equivalents do not publish their methodology nor have any ownership/funding transparency. https://t.co/sakWAzE9Dy pic.twitter.com/KoQqxcN5Rq
— Tom Grundy (@tomgrundy) November 24, 2021
Lo Man-Tuen, the vice-Chair of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, also pointed his finger at PORI and claimed in a newspaper published on November 29 that Beijing had noticed that foreign forces had stepped in to sabotage the Legco elections with boycott campaigns.
Simon Peh, the Commissioner of the anti-graft body also echoed the accusation of pro-Beijingers by asserting that PORI’s election survey could have violated the law.
Parallel to the clampdown, the Hong Kong government decided to set up three border voting stations so that 110,000 voters who are residing in mainland China can cast their ballots. However, election watchdogs and media outlets are not allowed to monitor the voting process in these stations.
Hong Kong democracy advocate Richard Scotford interpreted the arrangement as an effort to boost the number of votes:
HK Gov: This election is gonna be really embarrassing cus no one will vote.
CCP: No worries, we’ll just send people from China to vote. https://t.co/E0Y3ilNXc0
— RichS ? ??? (@RichScotford) November 29, 2021
Nathan Ruser, a cyber policy researcher at Australian Strategic Policy Institute, sees the arrangement as a normalization of election rigging:
After it's become clear that Hong Kongers do not have any appetite to vote in a rigged election, the government is going to get ~100,000 people not from Hong Kong to vote in and crudely attempt to legitimise a rigged election. https://t.co/8kdmZ4izmB
— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) November 29, 2021
Indeed, the arrangement is highly controversial as according to existing election rules, only citizens who are “ordinarily residing in Hong Kong” are eligible voters while there is no mechanism to prove if the 110,000 voters from mainland China are still living in Hong Kong.
The latest poll conducted by PORI indicated that half of the local residents opposed the border voting station arrangement. Even former ICAC Chief Investigator Stephen Char expressed worries that the anti-corruption authority would not have the capacity to monitor vote-rigging in mainland China.
But under the current political climate, any result of opinion surveys that are at odds with government policy can be viewed as a threat. AFP journalist Jerome Taylor summed up such a political trend in a tweet:
Not only is it now illegal to encourage people to cast blank votes or not vote in Hong Kong's upcoming ‘patriots only’ election — it might even be illegal to even do polling on voting intentions, the ICAC has warned https://t.co/dSrT1weTKS
— Jerome Taylor (@JeromeTaylor) November 30, 2021


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Undertones: A deep-dive into Indian hyper-nationalism · Global Voices
Civic Media Observatory

Party flags of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena on display at an election rally in Mumbai (2009). Shiv Sena is now in staunch opposition to BJP. Wikimedia Commons. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
What do India’s Farmers’ Protests and the Kashmir conflict have in common?
A government-led crackdown against all forms of dissent using rhetoric, force, and legal means.
Simply put, India's government dubs all critics “enemies of India.”
Narendra Modi's government attacks journalists who report on violence against religious minorities, regular citizens who post memes making fun of the prime minister, and Kashmiris protesting Indian rule. Although the controversial farm laws were recently repealed, narratives about farmers being influenced or manipulated by separatist groups continue to proliferate.
Mainstream media, including nominally neutral media outlets, inject hyper-nationalist narratives into their reporting.
WHY CARE?
The right-wing BJP government pushes the narrative that individuals or groups that criticize the government are a threat to the unity and sovereignty of India. Meanwhile, mainstream media channels, which are heavily controlled and influenced by the government, share pro-government propaganda and biased arguments rather than neutral and critical reportage on important issues like the Kashmir conflict, anti-minority violence, or the farmers’ protests.
India’s hyper-nationalist narratives entered the mainstream in 2014, when Narendra Modi, leader of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), became prime minister. In the six years since Modi came to power the crackdown on freedom of expression and dissent intensified.
Any critique of the government, the armed forces, or the Hindu religion and its socio-political project, known as Hindutva, is labeled “sedition,” and is treated as treason for attacking the sovereignty of India. The government charges sedition through the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), an archaic anti-terror law adopted in 1967.
The BJP party and related media figures claim that protests and dissent against government policies are manipulated by the opposition and funded by foreign entities seeking to divide the country.
After the farm laws were repealed on November 19, a tweet by Advaita Kala, a right-wing author and screenwriter, began trending. Kala and others on the right claim that Modi repealed the farm laws primarily to avoid fueling a separatist movement instigated by the farmers’ actions. Proof for these assertions is yet to be given.
Choice between fuelling Khalistan 2.0 and Farm Laws. Choice had to be made in the larger interest of the nation. Good on PM to take it on the chin – nothing above nation.
— अद्वैता काला Advaita Kala ? (@AdvaitaKala) November 19, 2021
For over a year, farmers in India protested a set of laws passed by the Indian parliament in September 2020. The farmers claimed the laws would effectively hand the agriculture market to big corporations and deprive them of the minimum guaranteed prices traditionally offered by the government.
Underlying Kala’s tweet is a narrative implying that the farmers’ protests did not have a valid cause and that the agitation was a political ploy to create a separatist movement. Khalistan refers to a movement in favor of a separate Sikh nation that largely died out following intense repression in the 1980s.
Commenters below this tweet criticize Modi for “bowing down” to the farmers, who are also labeled as terrorists and miscreants.
Into the overarching belief that critics of the government are enemies of India, the BJP-led government also weaves the “Hindutva” narrative.
Hindutva refers to the belief that India is inherently a Hindu nation. For India’s current leadership, people who defend secular constitutional laws and human rights are betraying not only the Hindu nation, but India as well. India and Hindutva, for the Modi administration, are one and the same.
This discourse is bolstered by sub-narratives and policies aiming to eliminate Muslims and undermine other minorities. Critics and journalists may also sometimes be charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) if they report on perspectives that clash with those of the government.
In early November, local police in the state of Tripura filed a case against 102 Twitter accounts under the UAPA for spreading false information about a recent outbreak of anti-Muslim violence in the region.
In its reporting on the case, Asian News International (ANI), a large Indian news agency, gave precedence to the police’s statement, tacitly reaffirming the narrative that anyone who shed light on Islamophobic attacks opposes Hindu majority rule. Such actions, according to this narrative, is essentially seditious, or “anti-national.”
In August 2019, the BJP stripped Kashmir of its rights to statehood, which were granted at the time of India’s independence. The Indian military has since employed heavy-handed crackdowns and frequent communication shutdowns to repress any form of dissent. Today, some regions in Kashmir have no access to the internet.
Mainstream media, the BJP-led government, and the Armed Forces justify human rights violations in Kashmir by citing national security.
Human rights violations have been widespread in Kashmir for decades, orchestrated by the Indian Armed Forces in the name of rooting out terrorism. The people of Kashmir, which has been part of India since the 1947 Partition, have long demanded the exercise of their right to self-determination through a UN-monitored plebiscite, to no avail.
The decades-long vilification of Kashmiris in Indian media has been strikingly effective. Many people in India — even those who defend human rights in other spheres — do not empathize with Kashmiris’ desire for political autonomy. As a result, criticism of the army’s operations in Kashmir is often perceived as an offense against India.
Not only pro-government media spread this narrative. For example, New Delhi TV, a left-leaning media channel trusted by many Indians for its unbiased and critical reporting, uses the word “terrorists” to describe three Kashmiri men who were recently killed by the police.
The term “terrorist” was taken from the statement given by the police — eyewitness accounts of the incident described them as civilians. The views of Kashmiris are absent in the media.
Critical, independent media do exist in India, but they are facing political pressure and growing threats. Historically more neutral media outlets are inching towards an editorial line that favors the government. Most media in India are still funded by advertising, and they rely heavily on government advertising. The constant quest for larger audiences incentivizes them to present sensationalist news, against a backdrop of weak monitoring of misinformation.
Some media still share other points of view. For example, the satirical page The Deshbhakt, The Wire India and NewsClick deconstruct narratives surrounding the Farmers’ Protests.

author: Civic Media Observatory


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Changes on the Global Voices board · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Akwe served previously on the Global Voices board frorm 2008-2012. (Photo courtesy Akwe Amosu)
Global Voices is pleased to announce that Akwe Amosu joined our board of directors in November.
Akwe's career has spanned journalism, advocacy, and philanthropy. Currently the Program Director at The Symposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights, she served previously as the Chief Integration Officer at the Open Society Foundations (OSF), after earlier stints as the Regional Director for Africa and Director for Africa Advocacy.
Akwe began her career in African journalism, moving to the Financial Times, and later to the BBC World Service, where she produced and hosted live news and current affairs programmes for an Africa-wide audience of 18 million. She left the BBC to join the team building the allAfrica.com news site, and later served as head of communications at the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa before joining OSF Washington, DC. She served previously on the Global Voices board from 2008-2012.
In November the board also said farewell to James Deane with the expiry of his term. James joined the Global Voices board in 2015 and assumed the role of board chair in 2019. Stepping into the role of chair is Mary Kay Magistad, who joined the board in 2019.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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The US government confirms diplomatic boycott of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A protest against Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic in Switzerland on June 23, 2021. Screenshot from No Comment TV.
The US government announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on December 6, citing concern over “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang.” The statement refers to the Uyghur genocide and human rights violations the Uyghur community has faced in China.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told the press that the US administration would not contribute to the “fanfare” of the Olympics. No official US delegation will attend the 2022 Games, but unlike the complete boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, American athletes are allowed to participate in the Games.
US president Joe Biden revealed last month that he was considering a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics. Last week, Lithuania announced that it would not send an official delegation to Beijing and it is anticipated that more countries, including Canada, will join the diplomatic boycott.
In the days leading up to the announcement, China’s spokesperson, Lijian Zhao vowed that China would take “resolute countermeasures” should the US choose to boycott the Olympics.
The #US should follow the #Olympic spirit of “together” and stop politicizing sports and the diplomatic boycott of #Beijing2022, lest it would affect China-US dialogue and cooperation on key areas. #China will take resolute countermeasures if the US is bent on the wrong decision. pic.twitter.com/xnDBIDzGer
— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) December 6, 2021
So far, no concrete countermeasures have yet been announced by Beijing. Solomon Yue, a Chinese American Republican activist and CEO of the lobbying group Republicans Overseas, mocked China’s aggressive political rhetoric:
What countermeasures? NOT sending Chinese students to America? Withdrawing remaining 36 Confucius Institutes from America? Closing down CGTN in America? Go ahead, make my day! https://t.co/fdcTd7Sr8D pic.twitter.com/yYQ1cyVeqI
— Solomon Yue (@SolomonYue) December 6, 2021
Indeed, after the Biden administration made its official announcement, Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the US abandoned threats of countermeasures and called the boycott “political posturing.”
Politicians calling for boycott #2022BeijingOlympics are doing so for their own political interests and posturing. In fact, no one would care about whether these people come or not, and it has no impact whatsoever on the #Beijing2022 to be successfully held.
— Liu Pengyu 刘鹏宇 (@SpoxCHNinUS) December 6, 2021
Hu Xijin, chief editor of the Chinese state-funded Global Times went further to suggest that Beijing would not welcome the US officials anyway:
Only super narcissistic people will regard their absence as a powerful boycott. Most of those US govt officials are close contacts of the COVID-19 patients according to China’s standard, moreover picky and pretentious. You are the people that Beijing residents least want to see. https://t.co/jMrrmBHr8G
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) December 6, 2021
Meanwhile, some said the diplomatic boycott is not far enough, arguing that US athletes should be barred from attending the Games in China. Other organizations that have been advocating for the Winter Olympic boycott urged more action against China’s human rights abuses. Sophie Richard, China Director of the Human Rights Watch said:
2/2: But this shouldn’t be the only action. The US should now redouble efforts with like-minded governments to investigate and map out pathways to accountability for those responsible for these crimes and justice for the survivors. https://t.co/zO3GgI8P54 @hrw @hrw_chinese
— Sophie Richardson (@SophieHRW) December 6, 2021
While some, such as US politicians Tom Cotton and Carlos Gimenez, have insisted on a complete boycott, Jerome Cohen, law professor of the New York University, is more interested in observing individual athletes’ actions in Beijing during their Games as more sports stars have spoken out against human rights abuse in China in the past two years:
It will now be interesting to see how the participating US athletes will conduct themselves. Will any engage in human rights protests? In what ways? When? To support which of the several causes that cry out for protest? Quite a challenge for young people.https://t.co/EDwcbED0g4
— Jerome Cohen 孔傑榮(柯恩) (@jeromeacohen) December 6, 2021


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High infection, low vaccination—could mandatory COVID-19 vaccines be the answer for Caribbean nations? · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Vaccine mandate: Photo by The Focal Project on Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0.
As the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus appears poised to create a new wave of the pandemic, several Caribbean nations are already grappling with soaring numbers from the highly transmissible Delta variant. Coupled with high levels of vaccine hesitancy, correspondingly low vaccination rates, rampant social media misinformation, and economic hardship exacerbated by recurring lockdowns, the regional stage has been set for some time now for unrest to play out over vaccine mandates.
Back in August, after the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines proposed to amend the country's Public Health Act to make vaccines mandatory—at least for frontline civil servants—Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves suffered a head injury when a member of the public stoned him on his way to parliament. A month later, with the rate of vaccinated nationals at only 12 per cent, opposition members and government detractors were being arrested in connection with the incident, adding both political and free-speech angles to the issue.
In late November, vaccine mandate protests in the French Caribbean grew violent, making international headlines, after France proposed mandatory vaccination—a move that didn't go down well, given that these French overseas territories record higher levels of economic inequity than mainland France.
In Martinique, citizens opposed to compulsory vaccination for healthcare workers barricaded streets by burning car tyres; there were also reports of police and journalists being fired upon by protestors. In Guadeloupe, meanwhile, thousands protested against the measures, prompting France to send in security forces to try and quell the unrest, though there is now talk about engaging with local populations to grant them greater autonomy.
At the southern end of the archipelago, Trinidad and Tobago's daily numbers have been skirting (although not quite reaching) the 1,000 mark, but in the campaigning leading up to Tobago's tie-breaker election on December 6 and Christmas celebrations on the horizon, higher infection rates may just be a matter of time. On November 30, close on the heels of the demonstrations in Martinique and Guadeloupe, crowds of people opposed to “forced jabs” gathered at the Queen's Park Savannah in Port of Spain in a protest that was dubbed “Push Back Tuesday.”
Five days prior, on November 25, Prime Minister Keith Rowley had addressed the country on the COVID-19 issue. People expected him to announce harsher restrictions—which did not happen—but some took his recounting of the genesis of the pandemic, the current local situation, citation of rising global infection rates and references to what other countries were doing, as a veiled mandate threat. Some countries, like Austria, have already gone the mandate route, while others, like Germany, appear to be following suit. New York City has also instituted a vaccine mandate for private employers.
Caribbean nations have already been making moves in this direction. Trinidad and Tobago has legislated “safe zones,” including restaurants, bars and performance spaces, with entry restricted to vaccinated people. Guyana has done the same, requiring vaccination cards for entry to public buildings, banks, supermarkets and schools, and most Caribbean Community (CARICOM) members have instituted strict vaccination-based entry protocols at their borders for nationals and visitors alike. Most recently, Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda instituted systems via which only vaccinated patrons could attend sporting events.
Former Trinidad and Tobago prime minister Basdeo Panday, meanwhile, recently recommended the separation of vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens. It is a strategy being carried out by the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in an effort to protect its population and increase vaccination numbers, and certain categories of public servants who remain unvaccinated after December 3—”Separation Day”—will be considered to have abandoned their jobs. It is a policy that local teachers continue to protest against.
In some regional territories, the issue of mandatory vaccinations is a political hot potato. Even with Jamaica's low vaccine uptake and soaring infection rates (estimates suggest that only 17 per cent of the country's population is fully vaccinated), Opposition leader Mark Golding is staunchly opposed to making the jab compulsory. In contrast, the Jamaican Bar Association maintains that there is no law stopping either the state or private sector employers from insisting upon mandates. Meanwhile, the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, has said she has no plans to pursue vaccine mandates because she is certain Barbadians will continue to do the right thing. She estimates the country's vaccination rate to be at about 60 per cent.
A report by Zadie Neufville in the Stabroek News, widely viewed as Guyana's newspaper of record, makes references to a document entitled “The Legal Dimensions of Mandatory/Compulsory Requirements for COVID-19 Vaccinations,” dated August 2021, in which the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) outlines its position on the potential pursuit of mandatory vaccination:
Having demonstrated […] that mandatory vaccination is constitutionally appropriate given the leeway granted in favour of public health imperatives, it is submitted that employers could justify a requirement in a pandemic context […]
But many of the people who are protesting such measures, like Ingrid Bessarion, a nurse in Guadeloupe, don't necessarily see it that way; for them, it's both a freedom of choice and human rights issue. In a video interview during one of the protests, which was widely shared on social media channels, she explained:
I am fighting with my country for my country. It's not only about the fact that we are forced to take a vaccination that we do not want […] we are fighting for our rights.
With rights, however, come responsibilities, and Caribbean governments will no doubt be strategising over how best to balance the two in the midst of a global pandemic that has no end in sight.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Russia blocks access to Tor browser website · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

The Tor Project website has been blocked in Russia. Image by The Tor Project, CC BY 3.0 US.
Russian authorities blocked access to the Tor browser website, torproject.org, on Wednesday, 8 December, according to reports from Tor developers and users. The official block follows earlier reports this week of Russian internet service providers blocking access to the service, with some Russian users unable to access the Tor Project website since 1 December.
Initially a research project funded by the U.S. Navy, Tor is now run by a nonprofit group based in Seattle, WA. Tor (an acronym for “The Onion Browser”) provides software that allows users to browse the internet anonymously and circumvent locally imposed internet blocks and restrictions. The Tor browser anonymizes internet traffic by sending it through a unique configuration of nodes known as an onion routing system.
An estimated 300,000 Russian netizens use Tor's services daily, accounting for about 15% of all Tor users. Russia has the second largest number of Tor users globally.
Russian state internet regulator Roskomnadzor said it included the Tor browser website in its registry of banned websites because it had allegedly posted “information that ensures the operation of tools that provide access to illegal content.” According to digital rights group Roskomsvoboda, the pretext for the blocking is a 2017 decision by a Saratov district court cited in Roskomnadzor's database (though the court did not decree for the website to be blocked). It is also unclear why a court decree from 2017 is only being acted on in 2021.
The Tor Project has announced that users in Russia can still use Tor services by visiting the website mirror hosted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It also called on Russian users to monitor the blocking of their services and appealed to digital rights groups to put pressure on the Russian authorities to stop censoring Tor.
If you live in Russia… help detect internet censorship with @OpenObservatory probes. https://t.co/NolwkBP1hx
If you work for an international digital rights or human rights org… apply pressure to the Russian government to immediately reverse this censorship.
— The Tor Project (@torproject) December 7, 2021
The blocking of Tor's website comes amid a renewed crackdown on virtual private networks (VPNs) and other online anonymity tools in Russia, which authorities say potentially allow access to illegal online content in violation of Russian legislation. In September 2021, on the eve of the parliamentary elections, Russia blocked six major VPN providers and issued a warning to Western companies behind tools such as CDN- and DNS-services that allow users to bypass Russian state censorship.
The push for greater online censorship is part of the country's “sovereign internet” strategy which seeks to cement centralised state control over internet infrastructure and online spaces. The “sovereignty” measures have enabled a more centralised approach to online filtering and blocking, with internet service providers now obligated to install new hardware referred to as “technical means of countering threats” in the legislation.
This equipment is controlled centrally by Roskomnadzor and other state bodies and allows for unaccountable centralised blocking of websites which is harder to track and record. The hardware has already enabled throttling of platforms such as Twitter, as well as blanket blocking of opposition voting websites and apps earlier this year.

author: RuNet Echo


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Uganda holds regional e-conference on unpaid care work  · Global Voices
Brian Oduti

Panelists David Lambert Tumwesigye, Her Worship Atim Sheilla Gloria and moderator Elizabeth Atori during the second session of the e-conference. (Image from Femme Forte. Used with permission.
A regional e-conference on unpaid care work was held in Kampala, Uganda, on November 25. The convening of women’s civil society organizations, journalists, academics, women’s rights leaders, and unpaid care work advocates from across the East African region was organized by Femme Forte, GROOTS Kenya, and Masai Women’s Development Organisation, with funding from the Urgent Action Fund. The event gave women affected by COVID-19 a platform to share their experiences on existing inequalities resulting from unpaid care work and to encourage public discourse on the topic.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines care work as:
Direct, personal and relational care activities, such as feeding a baby or nursing an ill partner; and indirect care activities, such as cooking and cleaning. Unpaid care work is care work provided without a monetary reward by unpaid carers.
Girls and women constitute two-thirds of the world’s unpaid care workforce, which perpetuates inequalities in education and the labor market. This burden excludes them from fully accessing education, work, and healthcare and ultimately holds them back economically compared to men. The International Labour Organisation links unpaid care work with increased gender inequalities in the career sector.
The first session at the conference discussed “The Care Crisis and Implications of COVID-19 on Economic Justice and Unpaid Care Work.” One of the panelists, Ms. Allana Kembabazi, the Programs Manager at the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights, defined unpaid care work as “work done within a household that is not paid for but when you look at it, it is supposed to be paid for.”
Domestic care work is mostly unpaid, unrecognized, and difficult to quantify in terms of economic value. In nearly every society, unpaid care work plays a vital role in filling gaps in social services and supporting robust economies.
The loss of jobs and closure of schools in the wake of the COVID-19  pandemic compounded existing inequalities for women in unpaid care work. Esupat Ngulupa Laizer of Masai Women’s Development Organisation — a panelist at the e-conference — said:
Unpaid Care Work has denied women economic participation and resources, increasing their vulnerability during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before COVID-19, women were doing three times more unpaid care work than men. With the pandemic, things have become worse. Women are burdened with unpaid care work and have to drop out of the labour force. Opportunities for women to participate in leadership roles is also limited because of all this work.
A 2018 report by Oxfam on care work in Uganda indicates that an average of 32.1 percent of female home caregivers in Uganda reported suffering from illness, injury, depression, physical and/or mental harm due to their caregiving roles.
The panelists made a compelling case for recognizing domestic care work and the potential benefits from its remuneration, noting that these require legal reform and mindset changes. UN Women estimates that unpaid care work contributes to about 10-39 percent of any country’s GDP.
During the conference, panelist David Lambert Tumwesigye, Global Advocacy Manager for Child Poverty at Save the Children, highlighted the mental perceptions that will have to be challenged to normalize paid care work.
Regulation and legislation is often demand-driven. Given our cultural context, many people haven’t mentally prepared for a time when men pay for the care provided by women.
Her Worship Atim Sheila Gloria agreed, focusing on the legal and legislative pathway toward a more equitable labor market.
Most times a policy may not be enough. What we need are the laws. When the laws are in place, it becomes easier. Parliament is there to represent people hence they’d know all these problems. The executive and Parliament should recognise and translate unpaid care work into the law through forming policies that can be used as a basis of evaluating the country's capacity to quantify and include carework in the labour market.
Speaking during the forum, Jael Esther Amati, Lead Officer at GROOTS Kenya, shared that Kenya recently released a court ruling that home care workers should be compensated.
The Kenyan High Court’s recent judgment in caseMW v AN (Matrimonial Cause Number 20 0f 2016) is a significant win for unpaid care work reform. The court held that the housework and care work performed by a female spouse (in this case, the Plaintiff) entitled her to an equal share of marital property upon the dissolution of marriage.
Justice Matheka observed in the latter case observed:
How do we put a monetary value to that process where a woman bears the pregnancy, gives birth, and takes care of the babies and where after divorce or separation she takes care of the children single-handedly without any help from the father of the children.
The court’s recognition of the contribution of women’s unpaid care work to the construction of the matrimonial property is important in starting conversations around remuneration for care work. The judgment could also encourage courts in the East African region and elsewhere to take a progressive stance in relation to matters of care work.

author: Brian Oduti


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How ‘cyber troops’ influence Indonesia’s politics, policies, and media landscape · Global Voices
Sydney Allen

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (third from right) announced revisions to Indonesia’s anti-corruption body, the KPK, in October 2019. Researchers found this move was driven by an online cyber troop campaign. Screenshot from Kompas News.
Cyber troops are teams dedicated to swaying and manipulating public opinion through coordinated internet and social media campaigns organized by governments, powerful parties, or corporations. Inside Indonesia, a quarterly magazine based out of Melbourne, released an issue in November discussing the rise of cyber troops in Indonesia and how they have influenced issues ranging from elections to the controversial Omnibus Law on Job Creation and the nation’s COVID-19 policy.
One of the issue’s authors, Wijayanto, is an Indonesian activist and professor specializing in identifying digital news manipulation and exploring how media influences democracies. Global Voices interviewed him about the power of cyber troops in  Indonesia, his recent research, and how the country’s journalistic traditions fit into a digitized era.
Sydney Allen: How can powerful figures use cyber troops to change the media narrative and influence the public?
Wijayanto: There are some policies that the public are very critical to. And what the government does is not just ignoring it, but also, flooding the internet — Twitter for instance — with content supporting the power-holders policy.
This is what we call cyber troops.
So imagine that you talk like this, right? And you can hear me and I can hear you. With cyber troops, the government can talk with a megaphone. The number of tweets is massive.
What we find next is that the critical voices are ignored. And what becomes a trending topic is the voice of the cyber troops. And they're not just flooding the internet with support for the government's policy, but also more than that.They also attack those who are critical with doxing, trolling, cyberbullying.
They also spread hoaxes and fake news.
According to Wijayanto, one of the key instances of cyber troop manipulation involved revisions to Indonesia’s key anti-corruption body, the Indonesian national commission on corruption eradication (KPK), in 2019. Before the revisions, the KPK was widely regarded as one of the most trustworthy organizations in Indonesia, and it had a long history of taking down high-profile corruption cases.
Wijayanto: To give you just one example, one of the problematic policies, that was passed by the government was the revision of the law on the KPK. The KPK is seen as strong and credible, because they are the only institution that [was] still believed as capable of sending corrupt politicians to jail. So it's very important for the politician to weaken the KPK, so it's no longer able to prosecute the corrupt politicians. And one of the ways to do it, is by revising the law so the KPK is still there but the power is reduced.
The government know that they need a support from the public, but the public was also critical [of] this.
So what they do then is manipulate it. Manufacturing consent and support. One of the ways to do it is by spreading hoaxes on Twitter that the KPK is now filled with Islamic radicalists — with the Taliban. So they spread a trending topic on Twitter the hashtag says #KPKTaliban.
Our research found that there are at least 250 articles on mainstream media on the issue of KPK and Taliban.
We call that agenda-setting. The theory says that the mass media may not be always powerful enough to make you agree on something, but everything that is in the mass media, may be powerful enough to make you think about it.
So maybe people do not always agree that there is Taliban in the KPK, but if you read it every day, you began to consider it as correct, or at least you begin to doubt it.
After the revisions, the KPK was severely weakened. They lost autonomy, no longer had the power to conduct independent investigations, and had to ask an advisory council permission to prosecute important figures. Additionally, some key figures were ousted over bogus qualification questions.
Wijayanto: I'm also wondering about it too. We have workshops with some journalists as well about it and they indirectly were admitting that yes, they play some part in amplifying the agenda of the cyber troops.
The context of the Indonesian media today — we have a culture of clickbait journalism because of the digital revolution. Clickbait journalism has something to do with profit-making. The more people read your website, then the more advertisements will come there. So, surprising or hyperbolic, superlative news is necessary.
There's also the old tradition in Indonesian journalism, what we call speaking journalism.
So basically people don't investigate the statement of politicians, they just put it as it is. For instance, is a politician says, the KPK consists of Taliban, they don't do a verification of whether or not this is true. So it is recorded as it is. And that's the culture.
And also the political-economic aspect of Indonesian media is that it's a dominated by media conglomerates. Some media outlets are owned by politicians or political parties. Some are close to power holders and the tradition of political journalism or investigation is not very strong here.
So that also plays a role.
Wijayanto: To be quite honest, the short answer is no. One of the conclusions of our research in our last workshop is that we will see this for the rest of time. And it will become even more apparent in the future. But at the same time actually, to fight for a healthy digital public sphere is so very important.
Wijayanto: That's actually what we're doing in the field today. There was an issue in which the civil society organization MUI (Majelis Ulama Indonesia), the assembly of Indonesian Islamic leaders, wanted to create their own cyber troops to curtail an attack to them. One of its members was suspected as a terrorist and people begin to say, “maybe let's ban this MUI.” And one of the officers in Jakarta is saying that we will build our own cyber troops to curtail  criticism and the demands about banning the MUI.
And also some of my friends already got contacted by some politicians who want their name to be viral, to conduct digital campaign for them. For increasing their electability.
So I think it's inevitable to have this kind of digital campaign in the future. For the politicians digital campaigns are okay, because this is a digital era, right? But don't use fake news or hoaxes. Don't do it by attacking people. By trolling or doxxing.
And for the journalists, be careful when taking the news from the internet, from the trending topic, you have to check whether or not they are true. You have to do investigative journalism. You have to do verification.
Wijayanto: For citizens, in general, I think people need to learn more — to be more skeptical with what is viral on social media. And I think we need to increase the digital literacy of the people.
The first sign in our research was that there was a sudden emergence of narrative in social media. This is what we call us a tsunami of conversation. For example, there was suddenly a tsunami of opinions on the New Normal Policy.
The second sign was the content creation. When supporting the policy, there are pictures or graphics not made by ordinary people — it's made by professionals. So this is proof that there is an intentional attempt to direct public opinion.
And also we can see it from the hashtag. A hashtag means that you want to create a certain narrative on Twitter: #KPKTaliban or #NewNormal or #OmnibusLaw. That's another sign.
And the fourth was sometimes there was a prize. For instance, “if you tweet this saying the KPK is Taliban or KPK should obey the law, then we will give you credit for your cell phone.”
So those will be maybe some of the things we can see as the sign of public opinion manipulation. People have to be more skeptical and to be more critical in seeing it.