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Iranian Journalist Omid Memarian: ‘Turning Explosive Anger Into Something Constructive Is an Art’ · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Iranian journalist Omid Memarian. PHOTO: Courtesy Omid Memarian.
This is the fifth in a series of interviews with Iranian journalists and writers who have dedicated their careers to communicating Iran's complexities and contradictions to those outside of the country. Read the full series here.
Omid Memarian, as a successful and widely read journalist in Iran, and now in the United States, covering Iran for both Iranian and English-speaking audiences, what is it like navigating these two media environments?
When I worked in Iran as a journalist, I used to hang out with foreign reporters. I was curious about they way they approached stories, particularly in a country where everything needs a very strong context, and especially as many of these reporters never spent more than two weeks in the country. We also talked much about the ethics of journalism. All of that sparked and deepened my fascination with US journalism.
When I arrived at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, I had so much to learn. I was already skilled at interviewing people, gathering information, comprehending the big picture and addressing the public good. But at Berkeley learned a lot about narrative structure and the organization of storytelling. Also the importance of simple, clear sentences and the role of the human element in stories. It transformed my thinking about news and feature stories. I also learned about the evolution of law and ethics in journalism over the last two centuries, which explains why the media now play such an important role in shaping public opinion and holding the powerful accountable.
What differences do you see now, as an American-trained journalist, between US and Iranian journalism?
In the US there is a vibrant connection between journalism schools and media outlets. In Iran there is no such a tradition. Journalists learn what they do by trial and error. Some journalists even disparage those who join newsrooms straight out of journalism school as they believe you learn journalism by doing, not in the classroom. There is actually a sense of antagonism towards academic training in Iranian newsrooms.
The economy of the media, management, and media laws in Iran are also very primitive compared to the US. US media is very adaptable, innovative. There’s been an evolution in business models in US media over the past decade. Most Iranian newspapers live on state subsidies. Major publications that cover politics and social issues face an extreme level of censorship and could be shut down at any moment if they cover an issue that state entities or powerful individuals do not like.
These subsidies have a destructive impact, in that they don’t allow media to play by the rules of business and commit to professionalism. It’s like a rentier state: no matter how they perform, at the end of the month there is money going into their pockets to keep them alive. The political environment’s instability is also a factor in keeping independent Iranian media weak and vulnerable. Iranian media suffer much from the judiciary’s lack of independence and the dominance of Iran’s intelligence services. This kills innovation, quality reporting and investment, both from the economic and human resources aspects.
How does your writing for Iranian audiences and English-speaking audiences differ?
When you write for an English-speaking audience you have to identify what matters most to them. If I pitch a story, for instance, on Iran’s parliamentary elections, I define the story from the perspective of US-Iran relations and how it would affected by the election result. Once that’s established, I can explain the power dynamics and inside politics.
The US media’s interest in covering Iran-related issues also shifts. For example, during the nuclear negotiations you could write stories on sanctions, economic hardship, the balance of power between moderates and hardliners, even tourism. As long as you could connect the story to the nuclear talks, it was relevant.
“The US media’s interest in covering Iran-related issues also shifts. For example, during the nuclear negotiations you could write stories on sanctions, economic hardship, the balance of power between moderates and hardliners, even tourism. As long as you could connect the story to the nuclear talks, it was relevant.”
Publications have their own agendas and highlight stories that support their narratives. For instance, a few weeks before Iran made a deal with the so called 5+1 counties to curb its nuclear program, I published a story in Politico, explaining a harsh speech made by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. My overall point was that regardless of his harsh comments, he was willing to make the deal, and that his remarks were for domestic consumption. Obviously this would not have been appealing to right-wing media like Fox News, Townhall or The Washington Times, who were banking on the failure of the nuclear talks. But beyond partisan/ideologically oriented publications there is a wide range of US outlets that are interested in fair reporting.
There’s a group of journalists inside Iran who work for reformist-leaning media, and politically identify with this current. Do you identify with this group?
Iranian journalism in general is very partisan. When you look at the history of American journalism, you see a period where journalists were partisan, papers were shut down, and journalists were jailed, years after the constitution was ratified. But over time it changed. Journalists learned that in order to protect the media they should be independent, and distanced themselves from political parties and politicians.
I understand why in Iran this hasn’t happened yet: mainly because the state does not recognize political parties as major players in the political life of the country. Parties can’t have their tribunes. They don’t have their media. So the place to preach their political agenda is newspapers or news websites. Journalists can follow and support certain values, including the ideals and values that reformists or conservatives pursue. But supporting these ideas does not mean journalists owe anything to political parties or politicians.
For example, the foundation of my work might be human rights, democracy, justice, government  accountability. At one point, reformists might have been the ones who held these values. Which doesn’t mean that if they did something contrary to these values I should close my eyes to it. But on both sides of the political spectrum reporters are so close to politicians that it seems that they act as their public relations people. That’s very harmful for journalists and the media as a whole.
Your career as a journalist inside of Iran has had its highlights: you’ve received accolades such as the Golden Pen. But you’ve also clashed with authorities on account of your reporting. Tell us about these ups and downs, and what finally led you to leave Iran.
In Iran, you don’t need to go after the authorities to get into trouble. By merely following the common sense line and raising simple questions within broad political and social red lines you could be targeted. One of the major areas I covered was the development of civil society organizations, democracy building, citizenship rights and the like. I wrote for news outlets, attended conferences abroad and I was the editor-in-chief of a quarterly magazine devoted to these issues. These topics may not seem as sensitive as issues like corruption, political conflicts or human rights violations, but at the time the security establishment and judiciary were very suspicious of the role of civil society and those who promoted it. They believed, and still do, that civil society is a tool used by the Americans to change the society from within and ultimately overthrow it.
“There were, and still are, people in Iran who believe that by empowering civil society organizations, political parties and independent media, the Islamic Republic might change gradually from within. On the other side, there are forces trying to prove them wrong, and one way to do so is by making the environment so threatening that no one dare stay active in the field.”
There were, and still are, people in Iran who believe that by empowering civil society organizations, political parties and independent media, the Islamic Republic might change gradually from within. On the other side, there are forces trying to prove them wrong, and one way to do so is by making the environment so threatening that no one dare stay active in the field. When I insisted on continuing to what I was doing, writing and promoting the things I believed in, I was arrested and thrown into jail.
After spending 55 days in prison, I decided it was time to pursue one of my dreams, which was studying journalism in the US. I knew that after what I had been through I would have a very hard time pursuing higher education and working in Iran. In 2005, I received Human Rights Watch’s annual Human Rights Defender Award for speaking out about what had happened during the time in prison, and I thought maybe it was best to stay out of the chaos for a little while. I also thought I could be of more help if I learned more and communicated what I learned to the next generation. Over the past few years I’ve led many journalism courses for my colleagues and for young aspiring journalists living in Iran.
This past April, Iran’s Fars news agency accused Iranian-American journalist Jason Rezaian of being ‘friends’ with journalists and activists living in exile, including you. How do you react to this?
During the time Jason was detained at Evin Prison my name came up a few times, once as a friend who sold information on sanctions with Jason’s collaboration. I don’t know how a journalist living in Brooklyn could have had access to such information, but the media wing of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Jason’s captors, has a long history of going after those to stand up to them. From the early days of Jason’s arrest I was one of the people who consistently spoke out on his behalf. I wrote about it extensively and it made them really angry.
“We leave prison with a lot of anger, of a kind that might be destructive. To turn that explosive anger into something constructive, to put it into perspective and not take it personally, is an art.”
Jason was trapped in a political case. From the early months of his arrest, his captors suggested a prisoner swap as a way out for him. They never said what Jason’s crime was, or what he did wrong. It was clear that he was targeted because he holds an American passport. There was a lot of pressure from the US media on the Obama administration to use all means to secure Jason’s release, which meant the IRGC had even stronger leverage for a prisoner swap. The media wing of the IRGC brought bogus charges against Jason to convince the Americans he was in serious trouble and that unless they did a swap he might stay in prison for a long time. And the Obama Administration fell for it.
Jason spent around 18 months in prison, mainly because the prisoner swap talks took so long. Once the Americans started talking about a swap his fate became tied to the results of the negotiations. Other dual-nationality detainees, like Roxana Saberi and Maziar Bahari, were released much earlier because they went through a routine that couldn’t take longer than six months and public pressure really worked.
Overall it’s sad and cruel that a journalist like Jason, who supported Iranians’ efforts in the nuclear negotiations and wrote many stories on the harm caused to ordinary Iranians by those crippling sanctions, had to endure so much pain, isolation and psychological pressure. Just imagine how unbearable it must have been for him seeing his wife also in detention for two months. It shows how far the IRGC’s intelligence services will go to score political points.
Do you identify with Jason’s situation?
I very much identify with Jason. Now he is a member of the “Evin Club”. It used to be a more exclusive club, but its membership has increased. Those who spend some time in Evin feel a powerful bond. Unlike Jason I didn’t have a US passport, and I was not initially taken to Evin. I was taken first to a safe house, a building in the middle of the city used by intelligence to investigate cases they didn’t want anyone to know about. My name was nowhere to be found for three weeks. It was like I was kidnapped, along with a number of other journalists. In my case they subjected me to some inhumane and humiliating practices they do not normally use on prisoners, or at least on journalists. All were designed to extract a forced confession. After I was released, and before leaving Iran, I had a chance to speak out about what I went through. It’s much more effective to talk about such things when you are in Iran, because people know that in exposing your captors’ wrongdoings you’re risking your life. In my case, the circumstances turned out in a way that was very fortunate.
But regardless of the details, spending time in prison has an irreversible impact on one’s soul and mind, something Jason will have to deal with now as well. We leave prison with a lot of anger, of a kind that might be destructive. To turn that explosive anger into something constructive, to put it into perspective and not take it personally, is an art.
There is a corrupt judicial system in Iran that cannot protect Iranian citizens. There are criminal forces within the Iranian intelligence community who act like human hunters. That’s why I think our anger and frustration would be better channeled towards making the situation better, to being the voice of voiceless, and to making sure such actions become more and more costly for those who commit such crimes. That’s something that might bring peace to our minds.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Netizen Report: That Time When the Internet in Ecuador Died · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Internet cafe in Ecuador. Photo: Chris Feser / Flickr / CC 2.0. Photo edited by Kevin Rothrock.
According to recently leaked documents from the Spain-based multinational telecom giant Telefónica, a temporary Internet outage that prevented Ecuadorians from accessing Google and YouTube was the company’s response to a government order, rather than the result of a technical glitch as previously thought. The outage only lasted 33 minutes, according to the leaked documents. This appears to be the first documented instance of arbitrary blocking in Ecuador, according to Motherboard, though it is consistent with previous claims that the government censors the Internet.
Tanzanian netizen Isaac Habakuk Emily was charged with “insulting” the country’s president for comments he made on Facebook. The charges were issued under Tanzania’s controversial new Cybercrime Act No. 14 of 2015, which criminalizes publishing information that is “false, deceptive, misleading, or inaccurate,” resulting in fines that start at 3 million shillings and/or a jail term of no less than six months.
A recent investigative report revealed that a group of intelligence agents from the Strategic Center for the Security and Protection of the Homeland, acting under direct instructions from President Nicolás Maduro, unlawfully wiretapped phone conversations, and hacked text messages and email communications between prominent opposition figures, including Henrique Capriles, María Corina Machado, Henry Ramos Allup, and Julio Borges.
Hacking Team’s targeted spyware has been used by Ecuadorian intelligence to infect the devices of activists, judges, and politicians who oppose the government of President Rafael Correa, according to a recent report by Derechos Digitales that extensively documents the company’s operations in the region. Though Hacking Team claims it vets its customers to ensure its products are not abused, evidence suggests that governments throughout Latin America use it widely to target dissidents and political opponents.
Twitter recently announced the appointment of Kathy Chen, a former employee of the People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of Public Security, as its managing director for Greater China. The move has been seen by many Chinese netizens as unsettling, given Chen’s connections to the state. Twitter remains blocked in China, but advertising revenue from the mainland has grown 340 percent in the past year.
A Cambodian human rights group is criticizing the recently passed Telecoms Law, which it claims undermines Cambodian citizens’ rights to free speech and privacy. The law was passed in December 2015, and is said to reflect the ruling party’s desire to stifle online conversations with elections approaching in 2017 and 2018, according to Global Voices’ Mong Palatino. Among other things, the law requires telecommunications companies to provide data about their users to government authorities without a warrant, and allows the secret surveillance of telecommunications with the approval of a “legitimate authority.”
Honduras now has an online, interactive platform dedicated to statistics about the freedom of expression. The Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre) says it is offering the tool as an open space where anyone can analyze the freedom of expression in Honduras. The platform provides graphics by occupation, medium type, direct aggressions, indirect aggressions, aggressor agent, location, and monthly occurrence. People can also request or suggest information to C-Libre by sending messages via social networks. IFEX supported C-Libre in the creation of the platform.
Ellery Roberts Biddle Sarah Myers West

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Netizen Report Team


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Overcrowded Public Transport and Overpriced Uber Rides Mark Mexico City’s ‘No Drive Days‘ · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Traffic in Mexico City. Photo by user Flickr Christian Campbell. Used under CC 2.0 license.
The high levels of pollution, particularly from car emissions, in Mexico City — rated number 10 on the list of the world's most polluted cities according to Deutsche Welle — has caused the government to take a number of unpopular palliative measures. Among them? Restricting the number of vehicles allowed on the road.
The Valley of Mexico, the region where the country's capital city as well as counties of the states of Hidalgo, Morelos, Puebla and the State of Mexico are located, is densely populated (in 2005 there were 20.54 million inhabitants). Its geographic situation adds to the problem since it is a large basin surrounded by the 5,500 meter tall Popocatépetl volcano and other high mountains. On top of this, according to official statistics, there are 4.5 million motor vehicles registered (not counting motorcycles) in the capital city alone. This means approximately 42 vehicles for every 100 inhabitants.
This large fleet of vehicles generate emissions that are difficult to disperse, bringing with them elevated ozone levels and causing poor air quality, low visibility and health risks. In 2013 the government created the Megacity Environment Commission (CAMe) to deal with the issue and to coordinate the efforts of the states located in the Valley of Mexico.
In mid-March and the beginning of April 2016, the air quality declined considerably, forcing CAMe to call for an environmental contingency and to once again take up a program developed in the 1990s called “No Drive Day”. This initiative restricts the use of privately owned cars one day a week (or two days a week under more serious circumstances) based on the color of a sticker assigned to vehicle depending on the last number of the license plate.
The return of “No Drive Day” brought with it an apparent unanimous antagonism against CAMe, especially against Miguel Ángel Mancera, the head of government of the Federal District. Residents of the capital city have been using Twitter to express their anger.
#yoconfieso que tengo mil ganas de pegarle una estampa multicolor a #mancera en la frente para que no circule ya NUNCA! #NoMasContaminacion
— Marisol Fuentes (@marisol823) April 7, 2016
I confess that I really want to put a muticolored sticker on Mancera's forehead so he can NEVER move around! #NoMorePollution
Twitter user Enrique Sandoval shared this meme, which features Mancera in one of the helicopters he usually travels around in:
@retioDF#Mancera-HDTPM pic.twitter.com/ehM1BF7LHI
— Enrique Sandoval (@esandovallic) April 6, 2016
Tweet: Son of a bitch.
Image: I don't know why there's so much drama. I am also not using my car.
María Andrea asked for his resignation:
Ya que renuncie Mancera y pongan a alguien que si sepa lo que hace, por favor #HoyNoCircula
— Maria Andrea (@mariandrearaujo) April 7, 2016
Mancera should resign already and be replaced by somebody who knows what they are doing, please No Drive Day.
User Mr. Catastrophe ventured to address those who are in favor of the No Drive Day:
Insisto todos esos que se burlan o están a favor del #HoyNoCircula son los mismos que no tienen coche pic.twitter.com/OqFt7Edr4U
— Mr. Catastrophe (@jaiirgroz) April 6, 2016
I think that all of those who make fun of or are in favor of No Drive Day are the same people who don't have cars.
Truck drivers blocked two highways, complaining that they couldn't enter the city because their vehicles didn't have permission to drive in.
#FOTOS del embotellamiento en la Autopista México-Qro por el bloqueo de transportistas vs #HoyNoCircula pic.twitter.com/FLxGrCcxBe
— FOROtv (@Foro_TV) April 6, 2016
Photos of the traffic jam on the México-Qro highway because of the truck driver's blockade vs. No Drive Day
Raul O’ shared one of the reasons that the city's taxi drivers might support the measure:
Me sorprendió que el taxista estuviera a favor del #hoynocircula a pesar de descansar miercoles y un sabado, “hay menos competencia”
— Raúl O’ (@rulorjiz) April 11, 2016
I was surprised that a taxi driver was in favor of No Drive Day despite having to be off work on Wednesday and Saturday. “There is less competition”, he says
The environmental contingency of the last weeks has proven how insufficient the capital's public transportation is.
No es una pelicula de Terry Gilliam (Monthy Python) es el metro de México perfeccionado por #hoynocircula pic.twitter.com/SSSkRUCqr8
— Alejandro Piscitelli (@piscitelli) April 7, 2016
This is not a Terry Gilliam movie (Monty Python), this is the subway in Mexico improved by the No Drive Day
Débora Estrella shared these images:
Así las cosas en el metro de la #CDMX en este primer día del #HoyNoCircula general. Fotos de @oct_bolloa pic.twitter.com/UsBbrF6eV3
— Débora Estrella (@Deb_Estrella) April 5, 2016
This is what it's like in the subway in Mexico City on the first day of No Drive Day. Photos by @oct_bolloa
The driving restrictions together with the precarious services offered by the subway and other public transportation services led people with access to technology and credit cards (not available to the majority) to use the private car service Uber — which traditional taxi drivers in the city loathe. The high demand allowed Uber to raise their prices, provoking further anger from the city's residents.
#Uber, qué pena! A río revuelto ganancia de “emprendedores”. Increíble su avaricia #TarifaDinamica https://t.co/DPyBPkxDMf
— Jesús Díaz (@jesusdiazphoto) April 6, 2016
Uber, what a shame! Troubled waters means business for “entrepreneurs”. Your greed is unbelievable. #DynamicRates.
The account of Los Simpsons MX exemplified Uber's conduct with this GIF:
La tarifa dinámica de @Uber_MEX en días de #HoyNoCircula descripción gráfica: pic.twitter.com/Gup0rMZ3ru
— Los Simpson MX (@LosSimpsonMX) April 6, 2016
Graphic description of @Uber_MEX dynamic rate charge during No Drive Day
Leo Zuckermann also described Uber's tactics as “monopoly-like” in his complaint about the price hike:
El decreto de contingencia ambiental y la obligación gubernamental de parar tantos coches generó una práctica monopólica de Uber. El asunto nada tiene que ver con la moral del servicio, sino con una predecible conducta racional para capturar rentas extraordinarias. Vaya que los mexicanos sabemos al respecto: cuántas veces nos han exprimido a los consumidores dinero extra las empresas monopólicas con la complacencia del Estado.
The environmental contingency decree and the government-enforced obligation to stop so many cars has created a monopoly-like practice by Uber. The issue doesn't have anything to do with service but with the predictable and rational drive to get profit. Of course, we Mexicans know a lot about this: how many times have consumers been squeezed dry by monopolies with the complacency of the state.
The newspaper El Universal reported that, according to the head of government of the Federal District, Uber's abuses will not continue and they will be regulated by his administration.
Despite the high levels of pollution, many locals clung to their cars and refused to change them for rental bicycles that are available in some areas of the city, as seen in this image:
Bicycles that are available for the general public. Unused because locals seem to prefer cars even during environmental contingency days. Image taken by the author.
The fact that Mexico City is considered less polluted than Delhi, Karachi, or Beijing could be the result of legal factors, as the Spanish NGO Inspiraction has pointed out:
El problema de la contaminación del aire en México se debe sobre todo a la falta de estándares de control de estas partículas apropiados para evitar los posibles riesgos en la salud de los ciudadanos. Las normas oficiales mexicanas respecto a los límites de partículas contaminantes ambiental están desactualizadas y son bastante permisivas en comparación a las recomendaciones de la OMS.
The air contamination problem in Mexico is mainly due to a lack of appropriate control standards for these particles which would avoid possible health risks for its citizens. Official Mexican regulations related to the pollution particles limits are not up to date and are quite permissive in comparison with World Health Organization recommendations.
Sergio Sarmiento, whose opinion was picked up by the website Politikkon, has questioned the efficacy of “No Drive Day”:
El retiro de un millón de vehículos de la circulación ayer no redujo ni la congestión ni la contaminación. Una vez más se demuestra que el Hoy No Circula no sirve más que para hacerle la vida difícil a la gente que trabaja.
The removal of one million vehicles from the streets yesterday did not reduce traffic or pollution. This is just more proof that No Drive Days only make life difficult for people who work.
The measures adopted by CAMe to alleviate the overwhelming pollution affecting the city will be in place until June 2016. Will they be effective? Will the residents get used to them? We will be paying attention to the developments to find out.

author: J. Tadeo


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What If African Media Reported US Elections Like Western Media Report on Africa? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A screenshot of footage, uploaded to YouTube by Storyful, of a protester who was assaulted by a Donald Trump supporter being restrained by police at a rally in North Carolina.
Coverage of Africa by Western media often portray the continent in a negative light or in a simplistic manner, placing emphasis on conflict, corruption and tribal divisions. But Western media don't adopt that same tone when they report on their own countries.
Following in the footsteps of Joshua Keating’s “If it happened there” series on US news magazine Slate, Tumblr user Ragamberi asked himself, “How would it sound, if African media reported US elections in the same tone as Western media report on polls in Africa and elsewhere?”
His answer became a post titled, “If It had Happened Over Here”. Here are a few excerpts of how he imagined African coverage of the contentious presidential race in the US might read.
Pressure is mounting on the Obama regime to allow international observers and peacekeepers after tribal violence marred election campaigns in the troubled north American nation.
In Addis Ababa, an emergency meeting was called by African leaders to demand a return to rule of law in America, after pro-regime militants attacked a rally addressed by popular opposition leader Donald Trump in Chicago.
“Unless America allows independent international groups to monitor the poll and for peacekeepers to move in and restore order, the poll is a sham and cannot be declared free and fair,” the African Union said.
[…]
Explaining the weekend’s clashes, America experts – based at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique, Southern Africa – say Illinois has longstanding, deep-seated ethnic and sectarian tensions that are sure to boil over if the Obama regime does not allow UN peacekeepers before the hotly contested polls in November.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has seen violence break out several times at his rallies. Trump in turn has used violent rhetoric in speeches and on social media:
Bernie Sanders is lying when he says his disruptors aren't told to go to my events. Be careful Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2016
The election has also been marred by reports of widespread voter fraud. Sanders has complained of voter fraud after a controversial narrow loss in the Iowa region to party rival Hillary Clinton, wife of former regime leader Bill.
Trump himself has claimed voter fraud in the region of Florida, raising serious concern in the international community about the credibility of the forthcoming poll.
Throughout the primaries race, which determines the candidate who will represent the Democratic and Republican parties in the presidential elections, accusations of fraud have been tossed around on both sides of the aisle, and voters have complained the system is unfair.
There are also concerns over blatant attacks on media freedom. The International Committee for the Protection of Journalists condemned attacks on journalists during the campaign.
A journalist for CBS News was arrested while reporting on clashes at a rally for Donald Trump in Chicago in March. A charge of resisting arrest was eventually dropped.
Read the full post here.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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A Little-Known Perspective on the Life of Homeless People in France—Their Own · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Tents from charity ‘Les Enfants de Don Quichotte’ on the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin, Paris. From Wikipedia Creative Commons 2.0
There are many preconceived ideas about the lives of the homeless in France. The most widespread amongst them are as follows:
The total number of homeless people in France (excluding refugees in the camps in Calais) is difficult to estimate, but the FNARS, a national organisation for social inclusion and re-insertion, estimates the figure to be between 150,000 and 240,000 people. The Fondation Abbé Pierre, a homeless charity based on the benevolence of its namesake, a 20th century Catholic priest, estimates that there are 50% more homeless people in France than three years ago — including 30,000 children.
A study shows that only 6% of homeless people choose to live on the streets.
Many homeless people are employed on fixed-term or temporary contracts.
In an attempt to correct the narrative about the homeless, some homeless people in France over the years have told their stories in their own words on social media. Let's meet three of them: Stéphane, Francis and ‘SDF75′, who all have at one point offered insight into their lives on their respective blogs.
SDF75 explained why he wanted to create a different blog:
Pourquoi un Site Internet en tant que SDF ? Je pourrais répondre simplement : Pourquoi pas ? Mais pour être logique, je dirai qu'avant même d'être SDF, je suis d'abord Informaticien et que je désirais déjà avoir mon propre site internet.
Quand on colle sans arrêt à certaines catégories de gens une étiquette complètement irréelle et calomnieuse, notamment à propos des SDF, alors ne vous étonnez pas que soit utilisée une apparence totalement inverse pour la démonter…
Why would a homeless person make a website? I could simply say, ‘Why not?’ But to be logical, I will say that I am a computer programmer first and a homeless person second…I would simply like to have my own website.
When we constantly brand certain groups of people, particularly the homeless, with a completely unrealistic and defamatory label, don't be surprised when I chose to showcase the opposite image in order to disprove these false ideas…
SDF75 doesn’t hesitate to bust prejudices by publishing “show off” photos (to use his own words) and give regular updates on his work as a programmer and of his sporting activities:
J'ai travaillé pendant plus de 13 ans. Des emplois stables, mais aussi de l'intérim, ce qui m'a permis d'exercer des postes très différents, et ainsi de progresser plus vite en compétences. En ajoutant ce que j'ai fait comme services aux particuliers (dépannages, upgrades, installations de Windows, montage de configurations personnalisées, sans oublier de la formation à internet.), j'ai environ 16 ans d'expérience. Actuellement, je perçois le RSA, et bien sûr, en plus je fais la manche. Oui, car si on veut rester clean et vivre décemment, on ne vis pas avec de la morale, mais avec des espèces…
Et c'est ce qui me permet de maintenir mes connaissances.
I worked for over 13 years. Stable jobs, but also temporary contracts, which allowed me to hold a range of different permissions, and in this way to quickly develop a strong skill base. If we include my work with individuals (repairs, upgrades, installing Windows, personalised configurations, not to mention internet training), I have around 16 years experience. Now, I claim job seekers benefit, and of course I beg as well. Because if you want to stay clean and make a decent living, you don't live by morals, but by cash…
And this is what allows me to maintain my knowledge.
SDF75 in the gym – screenshot from a video on his blog
In 2006, Stéphane shared the story of what pushed him to the streets:
Après avoir travaillé comme chauffeur de direction puis un licenciement,  j'ai créé une petite affaire de pressing à domicile sur Paris.  J'y ai mis toutes mes économies et toute mon énergie. Au moment ou les choses ont commencé a aller mieux,  il s'est produit un évènement qui a fait basculer ma vie.  Ma femme ( j'étais marie depuis 7 ans avec deux enfants) décida de divorcer car elle souhaitait une situation stable.  Après en avoir parler avec elle pendant plusieurs jours et essayer de la convaincre de me soutenir, elle décida de partir.  Un après-midi,  je suis rentrer à la maison, et là,  plus personne, plus de vêtements, juste un mots pour m'expliquer son départ. Je me suis retrouvé seul dans cet appartement vide,  ce fut horrible.  Pendant des heures je restais dans la chambre de mes enfants avec ma déprime.  Résultat:  je me suis laisser aller, pendant des semaines, je ne faisais plus rien.  Plus d'argent,  plus de loyer,  et un jour,  c'est la rue.
After being fired from my job as a chauffeur, I started an ironing business in Paris. I put all my savings and all my energy into it. At the point where things started to go wrong, something happened which turned my life upside down. My wife (I was married for seven years with two children) decided to divorce because she wanted a stable situation. After having spoken with her about it for several days and trying to convince her to support me, she decided to leave. One afternoon, I came home and there was no-one there — no clothes, just a note to explain to me that she had left. I found myself alone in this empty flat, it was horrible. I stayed in my children's bedroom for hours with my depression. The result was that I let myself go. For weeks I did nothing at all. No money, no rent and one day, it was the streets for me.
In 2012, Francis was 60 years old and at that point had been homeless for 15 years. He hoped to be able to take retirement soon to be able to change his life.
On his blog, hosted on news site Rue89, Francis tried to set straight a few preconceptions about the lives of the homeless, one being that the homeless are not interested in the evolution of current society. Francis explained that the homeless discuss politics as much as anyone else:
Les gens pensent qu’on s’en fout mais dans la queue des soupes populaires, dans la rue, on parle partout des élections  ! En 1998, une loi relative à la lutte contre les exclusions ouvre l’inscription sur les listes électorales aux sans-abri. Le vote est réservé aux personnes de nationalité française, jouissant de leurs droits civiques et capables de fournir une attestation de domicile. Pour la plupart des SDF, il s’agit de se domicilier dans un centre agréé par les préfectures – Emmaüs, par exemple, gère 400 domiciliations. Mais la complexité des situations administratives et les conditions de vie extrêmes font que la rue vote peu.
People think that we don't care, but in the queue at the soup kitchen or on the streets, everywhere we're talking about the elections! In 1998, a law to combat social exclusionopened registration to the electoral register to include the homeless. The vote is reserved for people of French nationality, exercising their civic rights and able to prove their address. Most homeless people are homed in a centre established by the authorities – the Emmaüs charity, for example, manages the residence of some 400 homeless people. However, the complexity of the administrative situations and the extreme conditions of life mean that the homeless rarely vote.
He added his thoughts about presidential elections in 2002 and 2007:
En 2002, j’avais voté Jospin au premier tour. Chirac au second. Pas de gaité de cœur, mais Le Pen, je peux pas. J'aurais peut-être voté Sarkozy en 2007. Aujourd’hui, plus question: on sait maintenant que ça n’est pas lui qui aidera les pauvres. Il ne réduira pas les inégalités sociales. Comme Hollande d’ailleurs. Sur le social, il fera à peu près la même politique  : il privilégiera l’hébergement d’urgence en hiver et c’est tout. C’est pas assez pour la rue.
In 2002, I voted for Jospin in the first round and for Chirac in the second. Chirac was definitely not my first choice, but I couldn't possibly vote for Le Pen. I might have voted for Sarkozy in 2007 but today I wouldn't even think about it: we know now that it's not him that will help the poor. He won't reduce social inequality. Like [current French president François] Hollande, by the way. His policy will be much the same on social issues: he prioritises emergency shelter in the winter but nothing more. That's not enough for those on the streets.
In France, 3.6 million people are either homeless (895,000 people), living in very difficult — overcrowded or below the comfort threshold — circumstances (2,880,000 people), or in a precarious situation, such as living in a hotel, caravan, or other temporary accommodation. This data is according to the Fondation Abbé-Pierre. Three homeless people in 10 have a job, generally an insecure position, whether a fixed-term contract or temporary work. It is the cost of housing and the lack of adequate social housing provision that keeps them on the streets.

author: Rakotomalala


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Facial Recognition Service Becomes a Weapon Against Russian Porn Actresses · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Photos used in Dvach's doxing campaign. Image: Tjournal.ru.
The developers behind “FindFace,” which uses facial recognition software to match random photographs to people’s social media pages on Vkontakte, say the service is designed to facilitate making new friends. Released in February this year, FindFace started gaining popularity in March, after a software engineer named Andrei Mima wrote about using the service to track down two women he photographed six years earlier on a street in St. Petersburg. (They’d asked him to take a picture of them, but he never got their contact information, so he wasn’t able to share it with them, at the time.)
From the start, FindFace has raised privacy concerns. (Even in his glowing recommendation, Mima addressed fears that the service further erodes people’s freedoms in the age of the Internet.) In early April, a young artist named Egor Tsvetkov highlighted how invasive the technology can be, photographing random passengers on the St. Petersburg subway and matching the pictures to the individuals’ Vkontakte pages, using FindFace. “In theory,” Tsvetkov told RuNet Echo, this service could be used by a serial killer or a collector trying to hunt down a debtor.”
Hoping to raise concerns about the potential misuses of FindFace, Tsvetkov seems to have inspired a particularly nasty effort to identify and harass Russian women who appear in pornography. On April 9, three days after the media reported on Tsvetkov’s art project, users of the Russian imageboard “Dvach” (2chan) launched a campaign to deanonymize actresses who appear in pornography. After identifying these women with FindFace, Dvach users shared archived copies of their Vkontakte pages, and spammed the women’s families and friends with messages informing them about the discovery. The effort also targeted women registered on the website “Intimcity,” which markets prostitution services.
Dvach (2chan) users organize a campaign to dox Russian women appearing in pornography and on prostitution websites.
The Internet users behind the doxing campaign say their motivation is moral outrage, claiming that women in the sex industry are “corrupt and deceptive.” (Tellingly, Dvach users also complained that such women typically ignore the kind of men who make up Dvach’s audience.)
A Dvach user informs one woman's acquaintance on Vkontakte about her nude photoshoot.
Part of the doxing campaign included a community created on Vkontakte, where participants were supposed to upload links to shared files containing copies of women’s social media pages. (This step was intended to preserve any information that would be lost, if the women deleted their accounts, or altered their privacy settings.) Following a complaint by an anti-sexist community, Vkontakte quickly banned the group set up by Dvach users. The group’s page now displays the following message:
Vkontakte responds. “This community has been blocked for organizing an attack on Vkontakte pages or communities.”
Speaking to the website TJournal, FindFace founder Maxim Perlin said there’s no way he can prevent people from using his service to harass women in this way, though he points out that distributing pornography illegally in Russia is a felony. “We are making every effort to protect all Vkontakte users from potential malicious acts,” Perlin says. ”And we’re prepared, if necessary, to provide any information needed to find the users responsible for this harassment.”

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Following Olympics Drama, Trinidad & Tobago Fans Lobby for Gymnastics Board to Resign · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Screenshot of the “Welcome Home Thema” video on Vimeo by Unlock Media TT.
Local support for Thema Williams, the Trinidadian gymnast who was pulled from the 2016 Rio Olympics Test Event — ostensibly because of a knee injury — is stronger than ever, following a contentious move by the Trinidad and Tobago Gymnastics Federation (TTGF) board to replace Williams with Marisa Dick, who is Canadian-born but can compete for Trinidad and Tobago because she holds dual citizenship.
Both athletes were in hot water with the association earlier this year over topless photos they had taken of themselves and posted on their Instagram and Snapchat accounts; their matters are currently before a TTGF disciplinary committee.
She may not have got the chance to prove herself in Rio, but Williams returned to Trinidad to great fanfare — supporters and well wishers greeted her at the airport, where she received a hero's welcome to the strains of cricketer Dwayne Bravo's song, “Champion”, which went recently burgeoned in popularity after the West Indies cricket team won the international T20 tournament.
Williams’ American coach, John Geddert, who some are saying “opened the door” for the TTGF to pull the gymnast from the event because of the overly dramatic wording of his training report, just as dramatically came to her defence, admitting he regretted his choice of words:
I regret sending them a report that was incomplete […] and I regret sending them the ammunition to make the decision that I think they always wanted to make…
Thema had a disappointing practice. Athletes have disappointing practises all the time…
You are supposed to give them an honest report of what is going on … Now, in hindsight, it obviously should not have been.
Geddert told sports website Wired868 that he had “never had to deal with so much drama as I've had in this two year period—ever”, and maintained that the TTGF had a bias against Williams.
Even though Williams’ replacement managed to secure Trinidad and Tobago's first ever position at the Olympics, Geddert insisted that Marisa Dick was the wrong choice and has “zero chance” of medalling.
The TTGF, in a press conference, maintained that its decision was done in the best interest of Williams, saying it didn't want the athlete to “injure herself even more” — but the board seems to be the only one coming to its own defence. LoopTT reported that even as Williams’ supporters continue to agitate for the resignation of current TTGF board members, “word is that a few of the members are indeed looking to step down”:
The reason for their impending resignations. they said, is total dissatisfaction with the board which has done nothing for the development of the sport for the past eight years and the handling of the whole situation with regard to Williams.
‘They have done nothing to develop the athletes. Their focus has been totally on Olympics and even that the preparation has been shoddy and biased. Clifton McDowell (coach) developed Thema without any assistance from the TTGF. The clubs have been so dissatisfied that in fact four clubs boycotted last year’s Nationals, two of which were Olympia and Tots and tumblers. Reasons for that boycott were direct issues with the running of the organization: No AGMs [annual general meetings] for years, no financial statements, and so many more internal issues,’ the members revealed.
The Loop report also revealed that the TTGF's decision may well have litigious consequences, since due process was allegedly not followed in pulling Williams from the competition:
The process is such that the board cannot remove/pull an athlete from competition. The process is that grounds have to be given by the coach doctor/physio and head of delegation who was in this case Nicole Fuentes. It is them and not the board that makes the decision. It is interesting that there are issues now surrounding her (Nicole Fuentes) now that she has confirmed that Thema was in fact fit enough to compete. When it seemed that she was in their corner it was all fine and well for her to go to Rio under the title of Head of Delegation and physiotherapist, paid for by public funds, sanctioned by the board. Now they, the board, are claiming that she is not in fact a physiotherapist but rather a massage therapist. All very convenient since her findings that Thema was in fact fit enough to compete.
Still, the anonymous sources were careful to say that “the gymnastics federation didn’t do anything wrong in theory. They responded to a report from coach. What Brian Lewis [president, Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee] and the TTOC have to do is investigate if the process was followed according to the athlete’s agreement and act accordingly.”
Public opinion is squarely against the TTGF, however. On Facebook, social media user Abeo Jackson said, in a public post that she wanted people to share:
This is bigger than one incident, this is about years of horribly poor stewardship of the board of an organization, for whom it seems the welfare of athletes is nowhere on their to do list. From botched elections, to the withholding of financial statements, to organization wide known preferential treatment of certain athletes. They must step down!!
Fellow Facebook user Natasha Ramnauth added:
Everybody but the board seems to want to leave this organisation. If they are however, receiving public funds I expect that the policy adhering Ministry of Sport shall conduct the necessary investigations.
Most netizens believe that despite the TTGF's protests, there is more in the mortar than the pestle; at this stage, it it still unclear who to believe, though Wired868 gave it a good shot when it tried to reconstruct the timeline of Williams being pulled from the competition and Dick being flown in to Rio. You can follow developments on Twitter using the hashtag #WeSupportThema.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Freeman, the Blog Bringing Mexico’s Little-Known Mountain Culture to the Masses · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Raúl Morales climbing Iztaccíhuatl volcano, with Popocatépetl volcano in the background.
Photo used with his permission.
Mexico is a country of intense sporting activity. Companies and media focus their attentions on macho sports, usually football, and occasionally on Olympic activities with a significant involvement of Mexican competitors, such as diving or taekwondo.
Rock climbing and alpine sports, however, receive little to no coverage in traditional media, despite the fact that many Mexicans participate in these activities.
To address this imbalance, we contacted Raúl Morales, founder of Freeman, a blog dedicated all things climbing and mountaineering, from reviews of mountain routes or products to news of mountain accidents, which are often reported there before any other news outlet picks up the story. The blog even has its own film distribution division.
Global Voices (GV): So tell us, what is Freeman and how long has it been online?
Raúl Morales (RM): Freeman es un vehículo para comunicar cultura de montaña y lo más relevante sobre deportes de aventura –escalada en roca, montañismo, trail running, etcétera- en México, a través de exhibir películas sobre esos deportes en Cinépolis [el más grande exhibidor cinematográfico del país], y por medio de nuestro sitio web www.freeman.com.mx, que está en operación desde el 2014.
Raúl Morales (RM): Freeman is a means to communicate mountain culture and the most relevant information about adventure sports – rock climbing, mountaineering, trail running, etc. — in Mexico, by showing films about these sports in Cinépolis [the biggest chain of cinemas in Mexico] and on our website www.freeman.com.mx, which has been in operation since 2014.
GV: Is Freeman a community project or an independent project? Is it in any way related to the television duopoly that controls the traditional media in the country?
RM: Nuestro sitio es completamente independiente y no tiene relación con el citado duopolio. Creemos que los deportes de aventura tienen un fuerte componente de libertad y cierta rebelión personal, por lo que también intentamos vivir esa independencia hacia nuestras actividades en el sitio. Es precisamente el espíritu de aventura y de cierta emancipación al status quo lo que creemos que los deportes de aventura pueden contribuir a la búsqueda de una sociedad más armónica que en la que vivimos actualmente.
RM: Our site is completely independent and has no relation to the duopoly you mention. We think that adventure sports have a strong element of freedom and a certain personal rebellion and because of this we also try to gear this independence towards our activities with the site. We feel that adventure sports have much to contribute to the search for a more harmonious society than the one which we currently live in, namely the spirit of adventure and a certain emancipation of the status quo.
The expression television duopoly refers to the two consortia that dominate Mexican television content and are expanding their influence to other media such as radio, the press and the internet. Nevertheless, following recent legal reforms, it is hoped that another corporation will be able to enter the market.
GV: What role has Freeman played in recent accidents related to mountaineering and alpine sports in Mexico?
RM: Además de comunicar lo más objetivamente posible los hechos que han ocurrido, siempre utilizando un ángulo especializado en el deporte, también nos hemos involucrado en los trabajos de profesionalización y desarrollo de la industria relacionada a estos deportes. Actualmente somos parte de la mesa de trabajo para la actualización de la Norma Oficial Mexicana sobre turismo de aventura y también pertenecemos al grupo denominado Montañistas Unidos, creado como respuesta ciudadana a los asaltos ocurridos en julio de 2015 a más de 4,500 metros de altura en el Iztaccíhuatl.
RM: Aside from communicating the facts in the most objective manner possible, always from a sport-centric point of view, we have also become involved in efforts to professionalise and develop the industry that surrounds these sports. We are currently part of the work group for an update of the Mexican Official Standard on adventure tourism and we also belong to the group known as Montañistas Unidos [Mountaineers United], created as a civic response to the assaults that occurred in July 2015 at an altitude of over 4,500 metres on Iztaccíhuatl.
Popocatépetl seen from Iztaccíhuatl – the emblematic volcanoes of the Valley of Mexico. Photo from Freeman used with permission.
GV: What challenges does a professional mountaineer find in this country? Can Freeman help to overcome these challenges?
RM: Como deportistas, los montañistas profesionales se enfrentan a los mismos obstáculos que se viven en el resto de los deportes profesionales con las conocidas excepciones, es decir, falta de presupuesto, atención gubernamental limitada, y presencia prácticamente nula en medios de comunicación masivos, por ejemplo. Por otro lado, a pesar de que en México existe una tradición montañera de casi cien años, la cultura de montaña no ha permeado fuera de la pequeña gran familia de montañistas, escaladores, etcétera, algo que ocurre con mayor naturalidad en países donde la geografía y clima demandan conocer más sobre cómo interactuar con el viento, la nieve y la lluvia, por ejemplo, y que en México conduce frecuentemente a que exista “turismo de la nieve”, por ejemplo, o personas intentando subir el Iztaccíhuatl con zapatos de fútbol soccer y tomando cerveza.
RM: As sportspeople, professional mountaineers face the same challenges as they would in any other professional sport with the obvious exceptions, that is to say, a lack of funding, limited government attention, and practically no coverage in mass media, for example. On the other hand, despite the fact that Mexico has a tradition of mountaineering dating back nearly a century, mountain culture has not penetrated beyond the small extended family of mountaineers and climbers, a process that happens more organically in countries where the geography and climate demand a greater knowledge of how to interact with the wind, the rain and the snow, for example, and which in Mexico frequently contributes to the existence of “mountain tourism”, for example, or people trying to climb Iztaccíhuatl armed with little more than a case of beer and a pair of trainers.
GV: What are your ambitions for Freeman in the short term?
RM: Buscamos, por un lado, que el modelo de comunicación pueda ser útil para otros deportes y actividades, no solo para el montañismo, la escalada y el trail running. Creemos que la libertad de la que hablamos puede reflejarse en muchas otras actividades y Freeman puede ser también un vehículo para comunicarlas. Así, también buscamos que la cultura de montaña permee fuera del nicho que ya practica los deportes de aventura.
RM: We want, on one hand, the model of communication to be useful for other sports and activities, not only for mountaineering, climbing and trail running. We feel that the freedom that we speak of can be reflected in many other activities, and Freeman can also be a means to communicate them. In this way, we also want to extend the transmission of mountain culture beyond the niche that already practice adventure sports.
GV: Any message for Global Voices readers who are reading this from outside of Mexico?
RM: La respuesta más frecuente que he recibido al hacer preguntas similares a atletas y cineastas destacados en el medio, es que el espíritu de aventura puede formar parte de la vida de cualquiera dispuesto a enfrentar sus miedos, puede ser a través de un deporte, el arte, de poner un negocio propio o de estudiar lo que en verdad nos gusta, por ejemplo. Algo que enseñan los deportes de aventura es que, en la vida, no hay tiempo que perder.
RM: The most frequent response that I've received when asking similar questions to both athletes and filmmakers in this field, is that the spirit of adventure can be part of the life of anyone ready to face their fears, whether this is through sport, art, running your own business or studying what we truly enjoy. Something that adventure sports do teach is that in life, there is no time to lose.
Photo taken by Raúl Morales, used with permission.
In addition to the blog, you can learn more about Freeman by following @Freemanclimb on Twitter.


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In the Lead-Up to Trinidad and Tobago’s Bocas Lit Fest, a Valediction for a Writer We Should Have Known Better · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

The gathering at Trinidad's Medulla Gallery to pay tribute to the late, remarkable writer Irma Rambaran. Photo courtesy Bocas Lit Fest.
When I saw Salman Rushdie’s name on this year’s Virgin Islands Literary Festival and Book Fair programme, I said a prayer for the festival organisers. Landing a star guest is every festival's dream, of course: a big name raises the event's profile and brings in the non-specialist audiences. But luminaries also suck up oxygen and the attention and energy of organisers and media, and cast their long shadows over other worthy festival invitees. For a fledgling festival on an island of 50,000, a figure like Rushdie, who—thanks to a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, an ex-wife who'd go on to host “Iron Chef”, and his own mediagenic personality—has managed to attain an unusual level of celebrity, was always going to be a bit much.
Then comes the news, two days before the festival opening on April 22, that Rushdie had cancelled. Particularly unfortunate news in light of the fact that the VI Lit Fest isn't free, or inexpensive; those who were coming to the festival especially for Rushdie's keynote must be bitterly disappointed. Even sadder, arguably, is the fact that this would hardly be the eminent writer's most famous no-show, as what could top his exit from the 2012 Jaipur Literary Festival, after learning he'd possibly been targeted by killers commissioned by an underworld don?
On the evening of the day Rushdie's VI Lit Fest cancellation was announced, about 30 people gathered in the white-walled basement of the Medulla Art Gallery, 500 miles south-east of St. Croix in Port of Spain, Trinidad, to pay tribute to a writer who, in every respect except ethnicity, is Rushdie’s opposite.
The event had been quickly pulled together by writers Nicholas Laughlin (who's also program director of the Bocas Lit Fest) and Anu Lakhan, and shoehorned into the pre-festival program for Bocas, whose sixth edition starts on April 23. (And this is probably an opportune time for me announce to disclose my Bocas Litfest bias—I am a friend and fan of both the festival and its organisers).
For the people in the room that evening, perhaps the most important way in which the writer in question is the anti-Rushdie, is that the latter is still alive. Irma Rambaran died at the end of February 2016—quietly, as was her way, at the age of late fiftysomething. She was a writer and journalist, according to the promo for the event, ‘whose literary work was little published but much admired by those lucky to be her readers.’
Trindadian writer Irma Rambaran in her younger days. Photo from her Facebook page.
I'd met Irma a few times, but wasn't part of the small circle who knew her writing well. Three of the people who would read from her work that evening knew it intimately. Nicholas and Anu and fellow writer and poet Lisa Allen-Agostini had met Irma on the St. Augustine campus University of the West Indies (UWI) twenty-odd years ago. In spite of being several years their senior ‘she had a lot of time for people like us,’ Nicholas said in his opening remarks. ‘I think the reason we didn't grasp how much older she was is that she treated us like ordinary, thinking people.’
Irma was also one of the writers Nicholas published in Prometheus, a tiny literary magazine he started while he was at UWI. Irma handed him a sheaf of papers one day with several brief pieces, sometimes comprising just a paragraph or two, or a few sentences, that may or may not have been fiction. She referred to them as vignettes: in today’s literary parlance they’d be called “short short” or “flash” fiction. He remembers reading them and thinking, ‘Wow—she really knows what she's doing.’
Over the years Irma published a fair amount of her creative writing in Trinidadian magazines and newspapers, including The New Voices, Caribbean Beat, Anansesem, Newsday, and the Trinidad & Tobago Review, though self-promotion was not one of her talents. She worked at various media outlets in Trinidad, including the government television unit. From an essay by academic Kris Rampersad paying tribute to Irma, I learn that in the 1990's she was a scriptwriter on the television series “Book Talk” and “Cross Country“, a locally-produced travel show showcasing Trinidad and Tobago's little-known corners that, according to Rampersad, was once the most popular show on television.
Anu Lakhan hinted that Irma may have been schooled in the vignette form by writer and creative writing teacher Wayne Brown, who believed strongly that learning to write these snapshots in words, to tell a story plainly, succinctly and vividly using only material that was immediately available to the senses, was a critical discipline for a budding writer. For most Brown students this was probably a useful and interesting exercise, but not an idiom they cared to perfect. Judging from the evening’s first three or four readings it was one where Irma was completely at home.
“Friday Morning” and “Lunchtime”, two spare, crisp pieces that clock in at just over 150 and 130 words, respectively, are almost transgressive in their economy. Describing moments and small gestures that appear mundane, on the face of it, Irma manages to convey a world of feeling. In “Restless”—93 words—she demonstrates a flair for dialogue and some sharp comic timing. “Eyes and Smiles” telegraphs the sensuality that permeates Trinidad’s carnival in just 240.
Kris Rampersad writes of Irma's talent for ‘draw[ing] some satirical analogy from some great work of literature, or some anecdotal experience, idea or humorous incident. . . which would allow us to refocus and pour our creative energies on the task at hand to shape . . . rather than waste it in a lament.’ Two of pieces on the program do have the ring of narratives inspired by current events, but not so much ripped as lifted carefully from the headlines and re-imagined with those from the periphery in the center as protagonists.
“A Simple Man”, perhaps the most affecting piece read that evening, imagines the events surrounding the mistaken airdrop of a bale of cocaine in a fishing village, and shows Irma’s solid command of the longer story, and a genuine feel for plot and the ordering of details and exposition in order to build towards a powerful revelation. “Circular, Drive”, is a hilarious, pitch-perfect retelling of last year’s dramatic jailbreak in Port of Spain from the point of view of the taxi driver who ended up transporting one of the escapees.
Irma wasn’t uncomplicated (what good writer is?): Rhoma Spencer in the prologue to her reading of “Rum Shop” hinted at a drinking problem, as did Kris Rampersad in her essay. But shining through all of the stories read that evening was a deep humanity. “Even though the plots she inserts them in might be difficult or cruel,” Nicholas Laughlin said in his introductory remarks, “you never thought she felt cruelly towards her characters. There are writers now whom you think, that’s kind of sadistic what you're putting these people through. But you could never say that about Irma.” Her characters appear guided by a moral compass whose needle may float a bit, but which skews generally in the direction of decency, and the picture she paints of Trinidad is unusually gentle. In “Rum Shop”, for instance, a bar owner who cheats a customer turns out to have a compassionate ulterior motive. Even “Circular, Drive”’s prison escapee has a few redeeming qualities.
At the end of an hour of listening to Irma’s work, which lends itself particularly well to being read aloud, the group of us hanging out in the Medulla Gallery basement drinking wine, quoting lines that had struck a chord, agreeing that Irma, with her skill at painting pictures in words and conjuring atmosphere, would have made a helluva screenwriter, wanted to believe that there was a cache of notebooks just awaiting discovery, a hard drive somewhere, that contained more of Irma’s work.
At festivals and conferences the marquee events can be excellent, but as people often say, it's the surprises, the serendipitous encounters that take place in the corridors and interstices, that often turn out to have the most value. I’ll add to that list the sessions where you discover that a writer whose work you didn’t know before is in fact brilliant. Had Irma Rambaran not died last February, the lucky handful in that white room on April 20 would probably not have had the chance to experience as a body of sorts, and to be moved and entertained by, her fine writing. The Bocas Lit Fest hasn’t yet officially started, but one of its most important events may already have taken place.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Marriage Equality Is Now Accepted by Colombia’s Constitutional Court, but Still Not by All Colombians · Global Voices
Marco Sarmiento

Marriage between people of the same sex has now been legally approved, but not by most of Colombian society. Photo by Wikimedia Commons, a public domain (CC BY-SA 2.0)
A gay couple, Fernando José Silva and Ricardo Betancourt, who have lived together for 33 years and want to get married, managed to receive legal permission from the Constitutional Court on 7 April.
This decision reformed a law that had existed since 2011, which recognised that couples of the same sex were able to form a family but forbade them from getting married, a right reserved for heterosexual couples. Instead, it created a contract called a “formal union” (unión solemne, in Spanish) which gave similar rights but was not a true marriage.
Moreover, it gave Congress until June 2013 to properly regulate these unions. But Congress hasn't, and so gay couples were free to formally ask a judge or notary to approve their marriage. This lack of clarity meant that while the authorities were talking of formal unions, dozens of partners were requesting a conventional marriage, although only a few were successful.
This confusion has now been cleared up, thanks to the decision in favour of Silva and Betancourt. From now on, judges and notaries will have to grant civil marriage and will not be able to object based on the sexual identity of the couples. It represented one fo the last major legal battles left for the LGBT community in Colombia to win. Five months ago, they were granted the right to adopt by this same court, and in the last several years they have won several other significant victories.
Voices for and against marriage equality have not held back. Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo has stated, “Marriage equality is a step towards a more inclusive Colombia”, while Senator Armando Benedetti, who has been unsuccessfully fighting since 2006 for legislation in favour of homosexuals, declared that from now on, “The country´s notaries are legally obliged to marry any and all members of the LGBT community who ask them to”. Similarly, Leftist Senator Iván Cepeda let his satisfaction show by remarking that the judgement is “an important step towards democracy”.
However, others were strongly opposed. The attorney general has said he will push for a constitutional reform that forbids same-sex marriage. This then motivated Germán Rincón, a defence lawyer for the rights of this minority, to respond: “The biggest losers are the radical conservatives who attack us. This is a slap in the face from the attorney, he's literally chasing us down”.
Ex-President and current Senator Álvaro Uribe also got involved. He described the decision as political rather than legal, claiming that the court had superceded legislators and the people. He also stated that authorities must respect “the continuation of the human species”.
For his part, Monsignor José Daniel Falla, the general secretary of the Episcopal Conference in which all of the country's Catholic bishops meet, warned, “Now they can do as they please… Everything will end up like Sodom and Gomorrah”, a reference to the Biblical cities present in the Old Testament that were destroyed because of the perversions of their people. He used the hashtag #sodomaygomorra (Sodom and Gomorrah), which soon was where Colombians got into a heated debate over marriage equality. The hashtag #matrimonioigualitario (marriage equality) was also soon trending with 11,000 tweets, along with #GraciasCorteConstitucional (Thank you, Constitutional Court).
Márgara Ortiz, for example, took a political stance and brought up other controversial decisions:
➡Aborto legalizado
➡Dosis mínima aumentada
➡Matrimonio gay aprobado
➡Pisoteada la Carta Magna.
La Corte Constitucional es #SodomaYGomorra
— Margara Ortiz (@MargaraOrtiz66) 9 de abril de 2016
-Legalised abortion
-Maximum quantity raised
-Gay marriage approved
-Trampling on the Magna Carta
-The Constitutional Court is Sodom and Gomorrah
Ortiz was referring to the Constitutional Court´s decision in 2006 to decriminalise abortion in three cases: when the mother's life is in danger, when the foetus is deformed or when the mother was raped. Recently, the Supreme Court of Justice established criteria to define the maximum quantity of illicit drugs a person can have before it is no longer seen as “personal use”.
Others, such as Andrés Cárdens, took a religious standpoint:
Tu venida está cerca #JESUS dijiste q los tiempos finales serían como #SodomayGomorra ergios q nuestra redención de acerca
— Andres Cardenas (@Andres_ACMILAN) 7th April 2016
Your return is close, #JESUS said that the end of days would be like #SodomandGomorrah. Our redemption is coming
Meanwhile, Twitter users like Andrés Velandia fought back, calling attention to the cases of abuse committed by the Catholic Church:
Es increíble que la iglesia se pronuncie cuando aún no han reparado víctimas de escabrosos abusos y violaciones #SodomayGomorra
— Andres Velandia (@andresvzuluaga) 8th April 2016
It´s unbelievable that the Church is speaking up when it still hasn't repaired the damage made to the victims of its terrible rapes and abuse
In what seems to be a response to Senator Uribe's statement that the human species is at stake, popular journalist Pirry tweeted:
Ahora dicen que matrimonio igualitario amenaza a la raza humana, ve, yo creía que era la guerra, el hambre y la desigualdad.Bruto que es uno
— Guillermo Prieto L. (@PirryTv) 7th April 2016
Now they're saying that marriage equality is a threat to the human race. I thought it was war, starvation and inequality. Oh, how dumb we are.
A lawyer and activist for the rights of the LGBT community responded to the claims of catastrophe:
Dos buenas noticias a quienes están en contra del #MatrimonioIgualitario: 1. no es obligatorio y 2. nadie va a prohibir su estilo de vida.
— Monica Roa (@MonicaRoa) 8th April 2016
Two things to remember for those that oppose Marriage Equality: 1. It's not obligatory and 2. No one's going to ban your lifestyle.
Politician Angélica Lozano, whose girlfriend is Senator Claudia López, added her own happiness to the mix:
¡Aprobado #MatrimonioIgualitario!!!!!! #LaigualdadEsImparable!!! 6-3 pic.twitter.com/bR4ZxuFgth
— Angélica Lozano (@AngelicaLozanoC) 7th April 2016
Tweet: Marriage equality passed!!!!! Equality is unstoppable!!! 6-3
Gif: Love wins. Colombia says yes to marriage equality. Our families are respected! Equality is unstoppable!
For her celebration, Lozano received insults. Luz Mireya Carreño supported her, responding to one such aggressive insult from a Catholic Twitter user with images that pose possibly uncomfortable questions for defenders of the Catholic Church:
@AngelicaLozanoC pic.twitter.com/dJZbT05g7d
— Luz Mireya Carreño S (@lumicaso) April 8, 2016
Angélica Lozano's tweet: I respect other people's beliefs. You need to learn to respect those who think differently. Do you pray with that kind of language?
Image on the left: If a DNA test existed that determined if a baby would be born gay, would Christians be against or in favor of aborting it? Explain your answer.
Image on the right: Marriage equality isn't a privilege for gay people, it's equal rights. Privilege would be if gay people didn't pay taxes. Like churches.
The division is obvious, and although Colombia can now claim to be the 24th country to approve marriage between people of the same sex, this legal decision is far from having unanimous approval in society. Those against it are preparing for to fight it however they can, supported by a large percentage of the population. A survey carried out by Gallup last November showed that 59% of Colombians disagree with marriage equality, while 38% support it.
There are still battles to be won. A constitutional reform could soon be presented by the attorney general that would annul the court´s decision, or there could be a referendum like the one put forward by Senator Cristiana Viviane Morales against adoption by homosexual couples. The Husband and Wife Foundation (in Spanish, La Fundación Marido y Mujer) announced that it will denounce the magistrates who voted in favour of marriage equality and  the ministers of the interior and of justice before the Commission of Accusations by the House of Representatives for the presumed crimes of breaching legal duty by action and omission.
Meanwhile, in spite of everything, Colombia´s LGBT community is celebrating their unexpected legal victory:
#GraciasCorteConstitucional #MatrimonioIgualitario @DCoronell @fdbedout @DanielSamperO @VLADDO @CLOPEZanalista pic.twitter.com/NctO1Irgvl
— Mauricio Albarracín (@malbarracin) 8 de abril de 2016
Tweet: #ThankYouConstitutionalCourt #MarriageEquality
Image: Thank you, Constitutional Court. We are the 24th country. #MarriageEquality #Colombia

author: Marco Sarmiento


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#NakedProtest Draws Attention to Rape Culture at South Africa’s Rhodes University · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A screenshot of images of Rhodes University protesters posted on Twitter.
Topless students at Rhodes University (RU) in Grahamstown, South Africa, are protesting against the university's sexual assault policies. All academic activity have been suspended indefinitely due to the demonstrations.
The protest was triggered by a list called the “RU Reference List” posted on social media to name and shame 11 alleged rapists at the university. Protesters and their supporters are tweeting under the hashtags such as #NakedProtest, #RUReferenceList and #RapeCulture. The students had threatened to shut down the university if their demands of reforming the university’s rape policy, changing the definition of rape, removing the burden of proof from victims, mandatory sensitive training for staff and suspending the 11 alleged rapists are not met.
Other demands are that the university proctors, Gordon Barker and Sarah Driver, step down, a task force be set up to investigate sexual assaults, a ban against sexual assault offenders running for Student Representative Council be established, and students receive immunity from disciplinary action for protesting.
The students also claim that the current sexual policy at the university requires victims to prove that their perpetrators intended to rape them and that there is only one Harassment Officer to deal with all cases of abuse and assault.
Police used teargas and stun grenades against the protesters and arrested three students. One student was taken to hospital after suffering from a panic.
Reacting to police actions against the students, Saya Pierce-Jones wrote:
:””(
“Mommy, they are shooting us because we don't want to get raped anymore”#RUReferenceList#RhodesShutDown pic.twitter.com/cgoOiUqtfd
— Saya Pierce-Jones (@saya_pj) April 20, 2016
The university has set up several task teams and will review existing policy on rape, according to Rhodes University Vice Chancellor Sizwe Mabizela.
The so-called “RU Reference List” that inspired the protests fueled debate on how universities treat rape and sexual assault. Protesters and their supporters argued that the sharing of the list was a result of the university failing to take rape seriously, and the demonstrations are necessary to force change.
But the list and the resulting protests have earned some pushback around South Africa, who dismissed the legitimacy of women's complaints or felt all men were being blamed for rape.
Sad thing about #RUreferencelist , is that innocent man will suffer humiliation as a result of a few scornful women.
— Lesego Nkoana (@boltbolaya) 18 de abril de 2016
The Rhodes University #NakedProtest was intended for good..but why are all man projected as rapists whenever women get raped
— PervySage (@Narrator1011) April 21, 2016
Some Twitter users have come to the defense of the protesting nude students after some South Africans criticised them for indecency.
Lindiwe Mazibuko, former leader of the opposition in South African parliament, expressed said:
Saddened by some responses to #NakedProtest. People talking about “indecency” and such. Where are you when indecency of rape needs policing?
— Lindiwe Mazibuko (@LindiMazibuko) April 20, 2016
While Yvette said:
Some men are all about receiving nudes but cringe when women own their bodies for a cause of their own. We see you.#nakedprotest
— Yvette (@Yvette_Aloe) April 20, 2016
Beey asked:
why does a woman willingly showing her skin offend you, but violence committed against her doesn't? #nakedprotest
— beey. (@beeyroyce) April 19, 2016
And another user wondered:
South African Law is funny… how can #NakedProtest = indecency, yet anyone in traditional attire is not, police are bored
— iStarring (@Vuyisani) April 20, 2016
Some traditional African attires leave women bare-chested.
Grootman'bae wrote:
Never use to get why my dad was over protective wen it came to my sister until i grew up and learnt we live amongst animals #RhodesShutdown
— Grootman'bae (@lethu_Hadebe) April 20, 2016
Rhodes University students are a part of a growing trend of student-led mass protests in South Africa in recent months. These protests are usually organised using social media tools. Other movements include #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall and #AfrikaansMustFall.


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Protests in Macedonia Against the President’s Pardon Get a Dose of Color · Global Voices
Vesna Ilievska

“Colorful Revolution” protest in Skopje, Macedonia, on April 21. Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
Streets in several Macedonian cities swarmed with people during the tenth day of protests in reaction to a pardon extended to a number of politicians and businessmen suspected of corruption, electoral fraud and other abuses of power.
President Gjorge Ivanov announced the pardon on April 12. Since then, protesters from the #протестирам or “I protest” citizen movement have been gathering every day at 6 pm in front of the offices of the Special Public Prosecutor's Office created to investigate the alleged crimes, which arose from wiretaps leaked to the public hit Macedonia almost a year ago.
The protests, which at the beginning included several incidents of violence and clashes with the police, have since regained their peaceful character. In addition to using the #протестирам or “I protest” name, during the past two days protests have took on the name #ШаренаРеволуција or “Colorful Revolution,” a result of protesters pelting different monuments and structures from the controversial development project Skopje 2014 with balloons filled with paint.
The name, which circulated on Twitter, seems to have been readily accepted by participants. Many arrived at the protests with colorful T-shirts, banners, face paint and other items.
“Colorful Revolution” protesters in Skopje. Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
On the tenth day of protests on April 21, the streets of the capital Skopje filled with largest number of protesters so far. They were accompanied by a heavy police presence. According to organizers’ estimates, more than 20,000 people joined the rally. The rise in support for the protests came after the announcement that European Union-brokered crisis negotiations were canceled and the EU was threatening sanctions over the situation (Macedonia is a candidate for EU membership).
Similar to other days, the protest began in front of the Special Public Prosecutor's Office at 6 pm and then continued in front of the EU InfoCentre, part of the EU Delegation to Macedonia, where police stopped protesters. After a short address by student and activist Dolores Popovikj, protesters moved towards the government building, where they threw balloons with paint towards the government, left colorful hand-prints on the street and traffic signs, and spilled buckets with paint on the ground.
Скопје! pic.twitter.com/gzBnYmSUb6
— Влатко Васиљ (@VlatkoVasilj) April 21, 2016
Colorful Revolution protesters in front of government of Macedonia. Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
Parallel to the “Colorful Revolution” protests, the Citizen Movement for Defense of Macedonia (GDOM) which supports the right-wing ruling party, VMRO-DPMNE, held their counter-protests before the Parliament building. Estimates in local media put attendance around 15,000, though GDOM themselves claimed they had gathered up to 60,000 supporters. Anti-pardon protesters said many counter-protesters were brought to the capital from other cities, and some Twitter users reported numerous buses parked alongside Skopje’s main streets.
Demonstrators demanded that parliamentary elections be held on June 5 as scheduled. The country's political opposition, many civil society organisations and members of the European Union oppose this, arguing there's no guarantee that the vote would be free or fair and that more reforms are needed.
One of the speakers at the counter-protest, Aleksandar Pandov, publicly asked for constitutional amendments to be made “banning the work of civil organisations and political parties that are destroying Macedonia.” Counter-protesters held anti-NATO and anti-EU slogans and banners, and said they were defending Macedonia from a conspiracy instigated by ‘the West.’
Што е тоа диктатура? За С.Кореја прашувам
ГДОМ со барање до Уставниот суд за времено запирање на невладин сектор https://t.co/ajLeQ00UNz
— Цветко (@SkHornet) April 22, 2016
Another GDOM speaker, Aleksandar Daštevski, whom the ruling party appointed as member of the state Commission for Protection from Discrimination, claimed the movement had the support of “true” Macedonians, while the protests against the president's pardon are supposedly inflated by foreigners — in reference to Greeks and Serbs, specifically — and “foreign and domestic mercenaries.”
Some of the banners at the counter-protests reflected the influence of government officials, like President Ivanov's accusation that NATO and EU ambassadors are meddling in internal affairs. Others tried to respond to messages held aloft at the “Colorful Revolution”. For instance, those protesters wrote graffiti on the Triumphal Arc with the message “your gate is ugly.” Counter-protesters had a banner (pictured below) reading “your ambassadors are ugly.”
didn't know it is a beauty contest pic.twitter.com/jQyhOE8mke
— levraipessimiste (@therealpsmst) April 21, 2016
Both groups were peaceful, and the police did not allow them to meet during their demonstrations, which ended around 9:30 pm. However, there was a point of tension as people began dispersing because counter-protesters were allowed to return to their buses and directly crossed the path of the anti-pardon protesters near the main Orthodox church. Police cordons blocked protesters from continuing while the counter-protesters passed, which resulted in a lot of discontent, with protesters shouting “traitors!” and “sheep!” to counter-protesters. The police did not allow the situation to escalate and the crowds dispersed soon after.
Alongside Skopje, the Colorful Revolution protests are gaining momentum in 10 other cities across Macedonia: Bitola, Prilep, Kavadarci, Kocani, Gostivar, Ohrid, Kumanovo, Veles, Strumica, and Shtip.
гостивар #протестирам pic.twitter.com/Q8n8cxKfil
— Climber® (@1Aleksandar) April 21, 2016
Tweet: Gostivar
Image: “Enough Silence!” [Banner in Albanian, Macedonian, Turkish and Roma language from the April 21 protest in the multi-ethnic city of Gostivar.]
Браво Гостивар! #Протестирам #Protestoj pic.twitter.com/MYblKmj4xZ
— Daniel Anastasoff (@algorit007) April 21, 2016
Tweet: Bravo, Gostivar!
Image: “I protest = I exist!” [Sign in Albanian held by elderly woman in Gostivar]
Even larger protests are expected on April 22 as several ethnic Albanian opposition political parties have announced their support for the movement and called for all Albanians, Albanian NGOs and political parties to join them.

author: Vesna Ilievska


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The Iranian Physicist Jailed for Refusing to Work on Nukes Is Dying Behind Bars · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Omid Kokabee. Courtesy of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran at Iranhumanrights.org
For a brief moment on April 21, attention around the world shifted to 34-year-old Iranian physicist Omid Kokabee, who's spent the past five years in prison for refusing to work on Iran's military and nuclear research. Before the unexpected death of the American musician “Prince” Rogers Nelson, the #FreeOmid hashtag led Twitter's worldwide trends.
برای ثبت در تاریخ
هشتگ #FreeOmid در رتبه اول ترند جهانی توییتر pic.twitter.com/ouOOj3URIq
— Persian Banoo (@persianbanoo) April 21, 2016
For the historic record, the #freeOmid hashtag is in first place for worldwide Twitter trends
Kokabee's supporters in Iran and around the world promoted his story, focusing on his health, which has deteriorated behind bars, where he says he has received inadequate medical care. Kokabee was arrested in 2011 while trying to board a flight back to the US, where he was finishing a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Texas at Austin. He was arrested and remains imprisoned for refusing to contribute to Iran's military research.
While incarcerated, Kokabee has suffered from kidney stones and other serious illnesses. He says the lack of proper medical attention (which is common for political prisoners in Iran) is the reason his health is now in critical condition. On April 20, Kokabee underwent a surgery to remove his kidney, but advocates, friends, and family members believe Kokabee's health will not recover if the conditions of his incarceration remain the same.
Many have tried to bring attention to Kokabee's case, including 31 Nobel physics laureates and the Committee of Concerned Scientists, who published an open letter to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Others have urged US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who were responsible for negotiating the prisoners swaps and recent nuclear deal, to intervene in this case, which is tied to Iran's nuclear efforts.
Sympathetic Iranians all over the world have shared the #FreeOmid hashtag, advocating his release.
امروز همه کاربران توییتر فارسی خودجوش و یکصدا باهم از امیدشان در زندان نوشتند، تا صدای این درد به گوش کل دنیا برسد… #FreeOmid #امیدکوکبی
— Kevin Miston (@KevinMiston) April 21, 2016
Today all the Persian Twitter users united with one voice to write about our Omid in jail so the sounds of this pain reaches the whole world…#FreeOmid #OmidKokabee
#FreeOmid trending among Persian tweeps. They are demanding the release of this young & now ill scientist. #Iran pic.twitter.com/cRuK9teBMS
— Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) April 21, 2016
Young scientist imprisoned for his principles loses kidney to cancer after medical negelect in Iran prison #FreeOmid pic.twitter.com/8PX7d9Jhfu
— Hadi Ghaemi (@hadighaemi) April 21, 2016


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The Most Powerful Man in Pakistan Just Did Something ‘Unprecedented and Bold’ · Global Voices
Sana Saleem

Photo by Flickr user Eric Constantineau, uploaded March 5, 2011. (CC BY-NC 2.0)
In a move that is being called both “unprecedented and bold,” the most powerful man in Pakistan—the country's chief of army staff (COAS), General Raheel Sharif—has dismissed six army officers over allegations of corruption. The dismissals, which include a three-star general, are thought to be significant not only because they're unprecedented, but also because the discharged officers previously served in the Frontier Corps, a branch of the paramilitary forces that operate in the province of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In a Facebook post, Pakistani journalist and Global Voices managing editor Sahar Habib Ghazi argued that the public needs to be told more about what led to General Sharif's decision:
We need to continue to question the most powerful people and institutions in Pakistan. No matter how scary it may seem. Looking forward to hearing what exactly these officers were involved in that led to their very public dismissal. That information is just as important. It needs to be public. Especially considering the officers were with Balochistan FC at some point, the institution responsible for law and order in Pakistan's largest and least developed province. A province where thousands of Baloch have gone missing. A province where human rights organizations have been documenting extrajudicial killings.
General Raheel Shareef. US Army photo by Staff Sgt. Steven Schneider, public domain image from Wikimedia.
The announcement of the dismissals came just a day after General Sharif was quoted as saying, “The ongoing war against terrorism and extremism […] cannot bring enduring peace and stability, unless the menace of corruption is uprooted.”
The former director of Human Rights Watch in Pakistan tweeted:
Commendable that connection between (army) corruption & terrorism has been made by Gen Sharif himself -in the Balochistan context no less.
— Ali Dayan Hasan (@AliDayan) April 21, 2016
Reactions to General Sharif's comments have assumed he was responding to the release of the so-called “Panama Papers”—leaked accounting records that detail controversial offshore accounts belonging to influential people around the world, including Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's children. Politicians, analysts, and Internet users have cited Sharif's remarks as grounds to demand greater transparency and accountability from Pakistan's authorities.
#CorruptionMustEndForPeace
People waiting for the moment when Raheel will drag out Nawaz from Islamabad https://t.co/rP6osIJH6u
— Muhammad Zia Hussain (@RHero_NawazZero) April 20, 2016
#CorruptionMustEndForPeace We want a Peaceful, Progressive, Tolerant Pakistan. Out Zardari's Out Sharifs and all Corrupt Politicians.
— Siraj Khan (@siraj0009) April 20, 2016
Many of our politicians are accused of getting kickbacks r commisions in govt procurements r development projects #CorruptionMustEndForPeace
— Ashfaq Khan Khattak (@AshfaqkhanPTI) April 20, 2016
While many Internet users have welcomed Sharif's comments on “the menace of corruption,” some interpret his concerns as a signal that the military is meddling again in the nation's political affairs. Pakistan's history of dictatorships makes any political statements by high-ranking military officials—especially the chief of army staff—particularly alarming for many people.
On Twitter, concerns about the military overstepping its bounds have been particularly vocal:
In any other country #COAS would never give a political statement and would have been immediately sacked had he made one ….
— eshal mirza (@EshalMirza) April 19, 2016
Blogger Danish Zaidi also weighed in:
The connotation of #COAS ‘s statement is clearly political in nature. Including corruption in security apparatus is out of his mandate.
— Danish Zaidi (@syedmdz) April 19, 2016
Marvi Sirmed, a newspaper columnist and a prominent advocate of democratic reform, reacted on Twitter with her signature sarcasm:
Pak army zindabad. COAS was absolutely right in calling out on corruption. We should have martial law rather than this corrupt Jamhooriat.
— Marvi Sirmed (@marvisirmed) April 19, 2016
Its a political statement, army chief should keep a distance from such issues, beyond his job description & mandate https://t.co/yoZO2JtrnD
— Mush Rajpar (@MushRajpar) April 19, 2016
The news about the dismissals has provoked a broader debate on accountability across the board. Some Internet users have focused their reactions on Pakistan's prime minister, arguing that it now falls to him to take a strong stance against corruption within the government. Others online say the most important thing now is to provide greater transparency about the dismissals themselves.
Irum Azeem Farooque, a member in Pakistan's parliament, endorsed General Sharif's decision, saying the move should encourage more accountability from officials.
Army Leadership promised accountability process & he proved it.#RaheelSharif did great
This is the start & so this should continue
— Irum Azeem Farooque (@Irumf) April 21, 2016
A former director general of Pakistan's Intelligence Bureau (one of the country's many intelligence agencies) also chimed in:
Well done Gen Raheel Sharif/Pakistan Army for action against corrupt senior Army officers and setting an example for others to follow suit
— MasoodSharif Khattak (@MSharifKhattak) April 21, 2016
Setting aside her sarcasm for a moment, Marvi Sirmed joined others in calling for the dismissed officers to be tried in court:
Just the ‘service displeasure’ should not be enough. Allow them to be tried by court of law. @AsimBajwaISPR https://t.co/cEA5eozGGM
— Marvi Sirmed (@marvisirmed) April 21, 2016
Shouldn't corrupt officials be going to jail? https://t.co/F7X4MJyWYE pic.twitter.com/HqKtpc0Aam
— M Ansari (@ansarim) April 21, 2016
What kind of, amount of corruption was done? Why no media trial?
— Fatah (@fatah_pak) April 21, 2016
Pakistan's mainstream media suggests the military began its inquiry into the officers after a car crash (involving a Ferrari) killed two army officials. According to unconfirmed reports, the investigation into the crash and questions the car's owner led to a larger probe into corruption more widely.
Filmmaker and journalist Hassan Zaidi weighed in on the reports:
The Ferrari story is tremendous though. So MI only found out about the corruption once the Lt Col died test driving and totalling the car?
— Hasan Zaidi (@hyzaidi) April 21, 2016
There is also some confusion about how many officers General Sharif actually dismissed on corruption charges. The media says it was either six or thirteen people, but reports are inconsistent.
Dear @dawn_com (and other media), if you update a story like this, make sure to explain discrepancy in link to it. pic.twitter.com/rX1D3PPoAG
— Hasan Zaidi (@hyzaidi) April 21, 2016
Meanwhile, television anchor Ejaz Haider complained that discovering corrupt officers in the ranks of the military seems like strange grounds for patting General Sharif on the back:
similarly, when the chief sacks officers who amassed ill-gotten money and gets #ThankYouRaheelSharif for that, something is amiss.
— EH (@ejazhaider) April 21, 2016
As the story develops, the public hopes to learn more about the investigation that led to the dismissals and the specific details of what corruption was uncovered. Meanwhile, Pakistan finds itself having a much-needed debate about more robust accountability and greater transparency from the country's political and military leaders.

author: Sana Saleem


text:
The Week That Was at Global Voices Podcast: Priorities, Anyone? · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

In this edition, Global Voices News Editor Lauren Finch and I — Managing Editor at Global Voices– take you to China, Mexico, Jamaica, Macedonia and Uganda.
In China, we tell you about Chinese dissidents being horrified after Twitter hired a former Chinese military officer to develop their business strategy in the greater China region. Oiwan Lam brought our attention to this story.
Then we head to Mexico to a story brought to us by our partner Sin Embargo, where the Mexican government's favorite contractor is displacing an indigenous community to build a highway. Next, we set our sights on Jamaica, where our author Emma Lewis wrote a story about students at Deaf Can! Coffee who learn how to make coffee and also learn how to run all aspects of the business. On to Macedonia, where the streets are full of protesters demanding justice. Our contributor Goran Rizaof reported the story.
Finally, we’re off to Uganda, where people are peeved at their government's perceived priorities. The country's only radiotherapy machine for cancer treatment recently broke down. It used to serve over 27 thousand patients every year, but it’s now beyond repair. Our contributor Prudence Nyamishana joins the podcast to tell us more about why Ugandans are upset and what a porn detector machine has to do with it.
In this episode of the Week that Was at Global Voices, we featured Creative Commons licensed music from the Free Music Archive, including Please Listen Carefully by Jahzzar; Dimmy by Podington Bear; Gladiator by Tommy Tornado; Good Riddance by Ars Sonor; Highway 101 by Josh Spacek; and Voodoo Machine by Lavoura.
Many thanks to our authors, translators and editors who helped make this episode possible. Expect to hear our voices again in two weeks.
Image in Soundcloud thumbnail: Photo of a radiotherapy machine by Prof Seegensmiedt. Released under Creative Commons.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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author: Sahar Habib Ghazi