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Prisoners Lists Stir Informbiro Memories in Former Yugoslav Republics · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

The recent publishing of lists of prisoners of Goli Otok, victims of communist purges in Yugoslavia from 1949 to 1956, has reignited dormant debates and opened some old wounds, across all the former Yugoslav republics.
Goli Otok is a Croatian island that was used as a prison camp during the so-called “Informbiro era” – the post-World War II breakdown between the communist leaderships of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. For many Yugoslavs, “Tito's historical ‘No!’ to Stalin” was a source of pride, especially because it solidified their country's role as an intermediary between the Western and Eastern Bloc. The purges that were part of the clash officially included persecution of alleged “pro-Soviet communists”. According to the victims and dissidents of the time, this was often just an excuse by the country's power-mongers to get rid of anyone they disliked for any reason and, thus, people of many other political affiliations were sent to the notorious camp.
Abandoned prison area of Goli Otok. Photo by Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
During the last two months of 2013, Croatian portal Novi Plamen (New Flame) published two lists compiled by UDBA (Yugoslav State Security Service) from the State Archive of Croatia – the list of the 413 people [hr] who died in the camps, and the list of all 16,101 prisoners [hr] who had served sentences there. The second link spread widely through social networks and then through news portals in all six former Yugoslav republics.
Scan of the second page of Goli Otok prisoner list, displaying names, birthdates and codes for municipality, ethnicity, type of crime, dates of start and end of emprisonment… Published by Novi Plamen.
Slovenian right-wing blogger Pavel noted [si] that the publishing of the lists coincided with the recent December 9, 2013, death of Jovo Kapičić [sr], who had allegedly been the man in charge of Goli Otok. In an August 2013 interview, Kapičić, a Serb, claimed [sr] that the Serbs had made up the majority of prisoners at the camp.
Twitter user @flusteredcooler from Montenegro commented on this issue as well and, while people from all of the former Yugoslav republics often claim that their nationals made up the majority of those sentenced to serve time at Goli Otok, he noticed:
Legenda kaže da je na Golom Otoku najviše bilo CGoraca?Po spiskovima se može videti da je to bila jugoslavija u malom http://t.co/ZUU9jWyGSQ
— Mockingbird ®™ (@flusteredcooler) January 12, 2014
Legend says that most of the population of Goli Otok consisted of Montenegrins? The lists show that it was Yugoslavia in a nutshell [representing everybody]
A senior Macedonian blogger, among the oldest members of the local blogosphere, and a World War II anti-fascist resistance veteran, Buv (“Owl”), posted an announcement [mk] by the Association of former Goli Otok prisoners, advising caution in relation to the lists and offering first-hand consultations to all interested parties:
Темата за “голооточаните“.“информбировците“затвореници што ја издржувале казната во логорот Голи Оток е дел од пошироката историска тема за конфликтот меѓу СССР и СФРЈ.Не може да се зборува за казнениците на Голи Оток,без да се разгледуваат во комлесот на историските збиднувања.
Независно од тоа колку биле свесни/идејно свесни/за својот однос кон конкретните настани,учесниците во збиднувањата,што подоцна се нашле на Голи Оток,се учесници во еден политички судир кој има исклучително историско значење,за нив,за нивната земја,за пошироките светски движења.
Ова отклонување го направивме за да обрниме внимание на оние лесно искажани карактеристики што се даваат по повод на објавените списоци за голооточаните/информбировците/ и во други прилики.Без да се има во вид поширокиот контекст на случувањата,може паушално да се кажува се и сешто.Важноста на историската проблематика бара сериозен пристап.
Здружението Голи Оток,меѓу другото,ја има и таа задача да ја објасни,документира,да ја покаже историската вистина за настаните во кои независно од нивната волја се нашле и овие страдалници,што така строго ги казнила историјата.
The topic of the “inhabitants of Goli Otok,” the “Informbiro prisoners” is part of a larger historical topic about the conflict between the [USSR] and the [SFRY]. One cannot talk about the Goli Otok prisoners without taking into account the complexity of historical events.
Regardless of how much they were aware or ideologically involved in these concrete events, the participants who were detained on Goli Otok were engulfed in a political clash with exceptional historical importance, for them personally, for their country and the wider world movement.
We publish this notice to draw attention to the reactions that have been published with great ease after the lists of prisoners were exposed, as well at other occasions. Without taking into consideration the wider context of events, anyone can say anything without arguments. The importance of the historical issues requires a very serious approach.
The Goli Otok Association has the mission to explain, document and disclose the historical truth about the events which unwittingly encompassed these sufferers, who were so severely punished by history.
Informbiro activities left deep trauma in the collective former Yugoslav memory, parts of which were artistically expressed through popular cult movies like When Father Was Away on Business (1985) by then young Bosnian/Serbian director Emir Kusturica, and Happy New Year '49 (1986) by Macedonian director Stole Popov.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Remembering Dr Alison Jolly, Lemurs of Madagascar Expert   · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Dr. Alison Jolly, Primatologist 1937-2014- Public Domain
After leading a distinguished career as a primatologist at the Berenty Reserve of Madagascar, Dr. Alison Jolly has died at home in Lewes, East Sussex, aged 76. Dr. Jolly, a PhD researcher from Yale, made her name as the first scientist to do an in-depth account of the behaviour of the ring-tailed lemur, L. catta, beginning field work in 1962. David Attenborough recently wrote : ‘not only they but the people and land of Madagascar captured her heart’.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Russia’s Patriotic Overdrive in Sochi? · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Hans Woellke (left) and Julia Lipnitskaia (right) compared. Ashley Wagner's reaction-face meme responds. (Images mixed by Kevin Rothrock.)
The Soviet Union may have defeated Hitler, but modern-day Russia’s war against fascism wages on. In just the last month, Russian authorities have used their battle with “the rehabilitation of Nazism” as a pretext [ru] for attacks on three different media outlets.
In late January, Russia’s only independent TV station got into hot water, when it aired a survey asking viewers if the USSR could have saved more lives by abandoning Leningrad to the Germans. On February 7, 2014, a Russian Senator demanded [ru] that officials temporarily suspend the broadcasting of CNN, after it published a story (later deleted) calling the Brest Fortress World War II memorial in Belarus “one of the world’s ugliest monuments.”
Most recently, there is trouble at Echo of Moscow, Russia’s premier liberal radio station (and a major hub for opposition-leaning materials online), where satirist Victor Shenderovich (best known for creating a political puppet show that aired in the 1990s) published a controversial blog post [ru] about the politics of Russia hosting the Winter Olympics.
Speaking on the floor of parliament today, Vladimir Vasilyev, the deputy chairman of the Russian Duma, demanded that Echo of Moscow apologize for Shenderovich’s post. (Curiously, Vasilyev addressed only Echo of Moscow, though the text was originally published on the less-trafficked website Ezhednevnyi Zhurnal.) Echo’s chief editor, Alexey Venediktov, wasted no time refusing to apologize [ru], pointing out that Shenderovich’s piece was never broadcast over the radio and only appeared in his blog (hosted on Echo’s site). (Shenderovich has also refused to apologize [ru].)
The post in question, titled “Olympic War: Putin and the Girl on Skates,” describes how liberal oppositionists suffer from a certain “schizophrenia” during the Olympics, struggling to reconcile their love of Russia’s historical accomplishments (Tolstoy, constructivist art, and so on) with Vladimir Putin’s apparent exploitation of these feats to boost his own popularity. Most memorably, Shenderovich also likens fifteen-year-old Julia Lipnitskaia’s performance in Sochi this week to Hans Woellke’s triumph in the men’s shot put competition in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. “Something, however, prevents us from enjoying [Woellke’s] victory today,” Shenderovich adds, warning against pride in an authoritarian state’s Olympic athletes.
While many things undoubtedly do keep us from celebrating Woellke today (in the war, he served as a captain in the Waffen SS, and his murder precipitated the massacre of a village in Belarus in 1943), Shenderovich’s comparison has proved controversial for many Russians. Though the Internet-savvy might regard it as nothing more than quick service of Godwin’s law, Shenderovich’s decision to equate Russia’s newest national treasure—a charming adolescent girl, no less—with a Nazi jock couldn’t have come at a worse time.
With the Winter Games underway in Sochi now, Russia is (understandably) in patriotic overdrive. That means anyone toying with the World War II narrative—to this day, Russia’s most sacred unifying myth—better be careful. TV Rain’s survey about ditching Leningrad crossed the line. CNN’s mockery of the Brest Fortress went too far. Shenderovich seems to have committed an even greater sin by abusing young, pretty Lipnitskaia, but it’s possible that any of these offenses would have passed as minor kerfuffles, were it not for the Olympic adrenaline now filling the country’s veins.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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When Algeria’s Police Fail to Act, Citizen Journalists Step in · Global Voices
Abdou Semmar

Not long after evidence of police abuse was exposed by citizen journalists there last month, cyber activists in the city of Ghardaïa have once again uncovered failings of Algeria's police forces, this time for not stepping in to protect a man who was killed in public after being kidnapped by a group of local gangsters.
Sectarian tensions in this region situated in the heart of the M'zab valley are high. Cyber activists and citizen journalists are doubling their efforts to expose the violent clashes between the Ibadites minority (also known in this region as Mozabites) and the majority made of Muslim Sunni communities, publishing video evidence on YouTube. The publicity generated by the activists’ first videos showing police abuse against Ibadites prompted Algerian authorities to launch an investigation and sanction the officers involved.
The goal of these citizen journalists is clear: share the reality on the ground with the Algerian population, whose awareness of the situation is obscured by the lack of reporting in the mainstream media. In fact, many facts and elements of the situation are not reported. For instance, the media seldom reports on the complicity of security forces with local thugs who vandalize and wreck havoc in the city to increase sectarian conflict between the Ibadites and the Sunni. The photos below taken by Mozabites activists show the reality of the crimes occurring in Ghardaïa right under the nose of police:
Photo posted on Facebook by Ghardaia activists showing crime evidence in the city. Used with permission.
Among the crimes exposed by the activists was the case of 21-year-old Mozabite youngster Babaousmail Azzedine. Azzedine was attacked in public after being kidnapped by local gangsters on February 5, 2014. The youngster succumbed shortly after to his injuries, as a result of 20 knife wounds he received.
The crime shook Ghardaïa to its core. Yet Azzedine assassins are still free. Activists retrieved amateurs photos of the murder captured by eyewitnesses and assembled all the video and photographic evidence adding captions as well as geographical and historical annotations. The footage shows Azzedine's aggressors as they assaulted him:
Disseminated via YouTube, citizen journalism website Envoyés Spéciaux Algériens (Algerian Special Envoys) [fr, ar] and independent news site Algérie-Focus [fr], the video went viral and sparked public outcry. It comes at a time when the Interior Minister and the Chief of the Algerian Police were visiting the region in an attempt to appease the situation. Still, local authorities have yet to arrest anyone in the murder, but an investigation was launched by the national armed forces to track down Azzedine's murderers, who can be clearly identified in this video:
In the meantime, numerous online communities are working together to alert Algerian authorities to the situation in the region and to pressure them into acting against sectarian violence in M'zab. Ghardaïa News [fr] and Ahdath Ghardaïa  (Gharadaia Events) [fr, ar] are two news sites that regularly fight to report on the violence against the Mozabite population.
The tremendous work of these activists was not in vain. The impunity of the criminals was publicly revealed, putting the Algerian authorities in a compromising situation and forcing them into action. Violence hasn't stopped in Ghardaïa, but this a positive step forward for the local population.

author: Abdou Semmar


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South Korean Film About Samsung Worker’s Death Slowly Winning Over Moviegoers · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

A film about the tragic death of a Samsung worker is slowly gaining traction in South Korea, the birthplace of electronics giant Samsung and a country notoriously nicknamed “The Republic of Samsung” for the corporation's enormous power and influence there.
“Another Promise” faced many hurdles from the very beginning. According to an extensive interview with local media [ko], the director recalls getting countless rejections from investors and production houses, adding that without the help of many generous citizens, the movie would not have been possible.
Poster for the film “Another Promise.” Fair use.
The film, which depends entirely on crowdfunding and small, private donations, tell the story of a Samsung worker who died from acute leukemia and her father's draining legal battle with the corporation as he struggled to prove that disease was linked with the company's harsh and unsafe working conditions. A series of legal fights continue between Samsung and labor groups who allege that employees suffering from leukemia and other rare diseases contracted them because of working at the company's factories.
Amid rising suspicions [ko] that some multiplex theaters are too afraid to expand the number of screens showing the movie even without pressure from Samsung, the movie seems to have deeply touched and inspired moviegoers, many of whom took their reviews to Twitter and popular South Korean online venues, encouraging other users [ko] to see the movie.
자신의 택시 뒷자리에서 딸이 숨지고,아버지가 노무사에게 전화를 한다.”윤미가 갔어요.근데 어디다 말할데가 없네요.”하소연할데도 편들어주는 이도 없이,그렇게 숨진 목숨이 밝혀진것만 쉰여덟.또 하나의 약속을 보는건 그 억울한 목소리를 듣는 일이다
— 김진숙 (@JINSUK_85) February 8, 2014
After his daughter died in the back seat of his own taxi, the father calls the labor attorney and says, “Yumi has just passed away. There is no one around I can tell this.” No one to complain to, no one willing to take their side. There are over 58 cases of similar deaths. Watching this movie is listening to those voices.
또 하나의 약속, 두번째. 현실과 너무 닮아있어서 다큐멘터리를 보는 것만 같다 꼭. 버스로 막았던 그 장면 나는 실제로 보기도 했으니까.. 안으로 들리는 외침에 그저 시끄럽다고만 생각했었는데.. 왜 그때부터 관심 가지지 못했을까 이 사회를.
— 강 지 은 (@wantu_) February 8, 2014
It's my second time watching the movie. Since it is so realistic, it almost felt like watching a documentary, especially since I witnessed that particular scene with my very own eyes – where people blocked with the bus. But back then, I merely found that people's cries coming from inside were just bit too noisy. Why did I not take interest in what was going on in this society back then?
사람들은 낭만적인 영화를 보고 그것이 현실이 되길 바란다.반면 어두운 현실을 드러낸 영화를 보고 난 뒤엔 그것을 영화 속 이야기로 남겨두려 한다. 이 둘이 바뀔 때 현실은 영화보다 나아질 수 있다.<또 하나의 약속>은 영화 밖에서 바꿔야 할 현실이다.
— 말러의 인간적 독서 (@books79) February 8, 2014
After watching a romantic film, people wish it would happen in their real life. However, after watching movies depicting ugly facts of reality, they wish to keep them where they were, as something that exists only on the screen. But actually, when these responses are reversed, people can bring positive changes to the real world. “Another Promise” is a reality which needs to be changed outside a movie theater.
Many of the comments were about the seemingly unfair treatment that the movie is getting – less active promotion by distributors and not many screens are showing the film. People also mentioned that the title of the movie, “Another Promise”, is a satirical use of Samsung’s famous advertising slogan “Another Family”.
광고 카피로 썼던 ‘또 하나의 가족'이 ‘또 하나의 약속'이란 부메랑으로 돌아올 줄은 몰랐겠지. 소비자에 대한 책임, 노동자에 대한 책임, 피해자에 대한 책임 따위 안중에도 없었던 값싼 가족팔이의 댓가 톡톡히 치루시길.
— 하늘걷기 (@actwalk) February 8, 2014
That ad slogan “Another Family” – they would have never imagine this would come back to bite them like a boomerang. I really hope they pay the full price for taking advantage of their “family” in the ad without really taking responsibility for the customers, labor workers and victims.
국민의 명령 회원들과 ‘또하나의 약속’ 단체 관람 했다. 인증샷을 찍으려고 했는데 포스터는 물론이고 입간판 단 한개도 배치되지 않았다. 그리고 하루에 두번만 상영된다고 한다. 참! 한심하다. pic.twitter.com/UB9wop6PT0
— 신비, 김상호 (@sinbi2010) February 8, 2014
With members of my group “Power to the People”, I watched the movie “Another Promise”. I've tried to take a confirmation photo proving that we watched it, but there was no movie poster displayed inside the theater, and not even one banner stand. And they say the movie is screened only twice a day. What a pathetic situation.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Tajik Team at Olympics Opening Ceremony Included a Russian “Tourist” · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Following the Olympics opening ceremony, many people in Tajikistan were shocked to find out [ru] that one of the individuals who walked into the ceremony in Sochi alongside Tajik athletes under their nation's flag had little to do with the country. Vladimir Vladimirov, a Russian entrepreneur and member of a municipal assembly, wore the Tajik team's outfit and waved the country's flag as he walked into the stadium where the event was held with an athlete and several officials from Tajikistan.
In an angry outburst on LJ, Icekandar writes [ru]:
Pardon my French, but this is a total f**k-up!!! Letting some foreigner walk with our country's athletes behind our flag is much worse than all that crap that everyone ridicules us for. Only a very miserable country could stoop so low. We always feel insulted when they laugh at us, and when Russian media portray us as uneducated savages. But perhaps we deserve such treatment? Which other country showcases foreign tourists instead of its own athletes at the Olympic Games? Which mother-f**ker gave a Tajikistan team's outfit to this Russian? And why the f**k did this all happen under the president's nose as he waved his hand at our athletes with a happy smile?..

author: Alexander Sodiqov


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Tokyo Snowfall Sends Voter Turnout Plunging in Governor Election  · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

As a winter storm dumped the heaviest snowfall in 45 years on Tokyo, only 46.16 percent of voters went to the polls to cast their ballots for governor on Sunday, February 9, 2014, the third-lowest turnout in
People holding umbrellas in heavy snow. Photo taken on February 8 in Tokyo by flickr user lestaylorphoto (CC BY NC-ND 2.0)
Tokyo's governor election history.
The newly elected governor is Masuzoe Yoichi, former cabinet minister backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komei Party, winning 2,112,979 votes, or about 43 percent of the vote.
Twitter users shared their criticism of the low turnout. Philosopher Tatsuru Uchida [ja] expressed his disappointment:
都知事選の結果、脱力するような数字でした。日本人はこれまでのままの価値観で、これまでのままの政治手法で、「そっちに行くと崖っぷちだよ」という方向に粛々と向かってゆくように僕には見えます。
— 内田樹 (@levinassien) 2014, 2月 10
The number of voters who went to the polls for Tokyo's governor election made me feel washed out. It seems to me that the Japanese with conventional virtue and conventional political means, are silently heading in a direction where it's like, “hey, there's a precipice ahead.”
Illustrator Nigirikopushi drew a caricature, linking the coldness of the weather and the losing anti-nuclear candidates. In the center, winning Masuzoe is holding three umbrellas representing “Walfare”, ‘”Olympics” and “Economy” while wearing a warm jacket with the Liberal Democratic Party's and Komei Party's emblems on it. On the left is a portrait of a shivering Kenji Utsunomiya, an anti-nuclear human rights lawyer who came in second place. On the right is anti-nuclear candidate Morihiro Hosokawa, who took third, standing next to his supporter, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, saying “it's cold out here”. The writing in the snow reads “anti-nuclear”:
【風刺風似顔絵】雪の都知事選 pic.twitter.com/aPtpp3Fny0
— にぎりこぷし (@ncopsi) 2014, 2月 10
Caricature portrait for Tokyo's governor election.
Former newspaper reporter Eiken Itagaki argues [ja] that Masuzoe may run afoul of Japan's Public Officers Election Act, saying he distributed Tokyo Olympic badges worth 3,000 Japanese yen (about 30 US dollars) each to gain support, an act that could violate the law prohibiting political contributions for campaign. The complainant is the same activist group that has filed a complaint against former Governor Naoki Inose late last year for allegedly receiving contribution. Inose claimed that it was a personal loan but he resigned over the issue. The complaint against new Governor awaits whether or not the court will take his accusation.

author: Keiko Tanaka


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Trinidad & Tobago: A Deeper Carnival  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Mas is beauty and horror. Mas as a whole can’t and shouldn’t be a version of reality that edits out the blood and pain.
Tillah Willah explains why she is so excited about the character she is portraying in this year's Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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“Vegetarianism Equals Evil” in Tajikistan · Global Voices
Iskandar

It is one thing when locals tell about their cuisine. It is a completely different thing when people visiting a country share opinions about local food.
A foreigner tweeting under @onlytajikistan has become popular among Tajikistanis and people interested in Tajikistan on Twitter since his first post in October 2013. In addition to describing things this person finds strange or unique about the country, @onlytajikistan tells his followers about Tajik food and about the way the country has changed him from a vegetarian to meat eater.
Below is just a handful of tweets by @onlytajikistan. For more, follow him on Twitter.
Only in #Tajikistan, when you admit you're a vegetarian, people say you should go see a doctor. Vegetarian = ill #onlyintajikistan
— Only in Tajikistan (@onlytajikistan) November 8, 2013
In #Tajikistan, bread tastes like it was baked in heaven #onlyintajikistan pic.twitter.com/QfJAIu04xq
— Only in Tajikistan (@onlytajikistan) November 14, 2013
Four courses have already been served. The host says it is “just the beginning”. And endless bottles of vodka #onlyintajikistan
— Only in Tajikistan (@onlytajikistan) November 15, 2013
I can't believe I was a vegetarian when I first arrived in Tajikistan #onlyintajikistan
— Only in Tajikistan (@onlytajikistan) November 16, 2013
I never liked green tea. But the green tea they serve in Tajikistan is simply fabulous. #onlyintajikistan
— Only in Tajikistan (@onlytajikistan) November 18, 2013
Having lived in #Tajikistan for several months now, I feel vegetarianism = evil pic.twitter.com/czkz6Gmq1j
— Only in Tajikistan (@onlytajikistan) November 20, 2013
Another proof that vegetarianism = evil pic.twitter.com/PBCIXxjQvr
— Only in Tajikistan (@onlytajikistan) November 20, 2013
One thing I will definitely miss about #Tajikistan when I leave is the great food.
— Only in Tajikistan (@onlytajikistan) February 11, 2014

author: Iskandar


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Why the Western Media Loves Hating on China · Global Voices
Jeff South

When journalists stumble onto a story that sounds too juicy to be true, it may well be – so they're taught to double-check the facts before publishing.
But a British newspaper last month ran a piece of blarney with the headline, “China starts televising the sunrise on giant TV screens because Beijing is so clouded in smog.” The story about natural light-starved China's virtual sunrises went viral as news organizations around the world picked it up, with headlines like Smog-bound Beijing resorts to virtual sunrises and Smog in Beijing is so awful you have to catch the sunrise on a big screen.
It took bloggers to expose the hoax by pointing out that the sunrise on the TV monitors in Tiananmen Square was part of a tourism commercial that plays year round, regardless of the time of day or level of pollution. Even then, many news outlets refused to retract or correct the initial erroneous reports.
The episode isn’t just about shoddy reporting on one inconsequential story, several netizens debated. They said it reflects a bias that many Western journalists have toward China and other developing countries: to always believe, and report, the worst. As Immense_Rainbowman posted on Reddit:
The western media love any kind of story that puts a bad light on China. It's part of the whole current anti-China sentiment that has risen steadily since China's economic growth. An easy follow-on from the anti-communism sentiment from the last generation.
The narrative is that life is terrible in China, and it's to distract the Western population from our own troubles, where quality of life is taking a downturn because of recession and debt.
Another Reddit user, “wetac0s,” added: “never trust any news about China from Western media.”
How the story got started
The story originated in the UK's Daily Mail on January 17.  James Nye, a Daily Mail reporter who lives in New York, wrote:
The smog has become so thick in Beijing that the city's natural light-starved masses have begun flocking to huge digital commercial television screens across the city to observe virtual sunrises.
The futuristic screens installed in the Chinese capital usually advertize tourist destinations, but as the season's first wave of extremely dangerous smog hit – residents donned air masks and left their homes to watch the only place where the sun would hail over the horizon that morning.
The article was accompanied by four photos from Tiananmen Square, the iconic plaza in Beijing, which does indeed feature gigantic TV monitors. One of the pictures showed a sunrise being displayed on a screen, with the caption, “Virtual sunlight”.
Nye's story got picked up by dozens of media outlets around the world, from CBS and The Huffington Post to Business Insider and AOL. Invariably, they echoed the Daily Mail hogwash, saying the digital screens were “the only way people were going to see the sun.”
Within a few days, the misinformation had polluted the social media environment. On Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, people passed along the bogus story:
Photo: Beijing Citizens, Shrouded In Pollution, Flock To Giant Screens To View Artificial Sunrise | Zero… http://t.co/ojrD5TKPAl
— New Aesthetic Bot (@newaestheticbot) January 20, 2014
Exposing the hoax
There were signs from Day 1 that something was amiss. Shortly after the Daily Mail put its story online, a reader, Cole Ranze, posted a comment questioning its veracity:
To be fair, the billboard with the image of the sun is clearly displaying a tourism advertisement for Shandong province, no doubt just one of many in a string of beautiful images meant to illustrate the beauty of that region. I think this article is a bit misleading, to be sure.
But it wasn't until January 20 that the blog Tech in Asia definitively exposed the Daily Mail report and the stories it spawned as a hoax. Under the headline “No, Beijing residents are NOT watching fake sunrises on giant TVs because of pollution,” editor Paul Bischoff called the entire story “complete bullshit”:
In truth, that sunrise was probably on the screen for less than 10 seconds at a time, as it was part of an ad for tourism in China’s Shandong province. The ad plays every day throughout the day all year round no matter how bad the pollution is. The photographer simply snapped the photo at the moment when the sunrise appeared.
Bischoff chastised news organizations that were so eager to carry the Daily Mail fabrication without checking the facts. “International media should be embarrassed for not taking even a moment to second guess the Daily Mail, one of the least reputable news sources in the UK,” Bischoff wrote. He added:
Shame on any media that ran this farce. China has its problems, but they have proven themselves far too eager to criticize just to attract hits from the shock factor. Beijing pollution is bad enough without the added dishonest sensationalism.
Bischoff tweeted his knock-down …
No, Beijing residents are NOT watching fake sunrises on giant TVs because of pollution http://t.co/dRGUL502GC via @Techinasia @jamesnye111
— Paul Bischoff (@pabischoff) January 20, 2014
… and it rippled through the blogosphere. On the same social media platforms where the sham earlier circulated, correction alarms sounded.
“Well, we’ve been duped,” an environmentalist in Washington, D.C., posted on his Tumblr. On a blog ordinarily devoted to video games, a man called the initial Daily Mail story “disingenuous.” And a UK political blogger, Tom Pride, noted that “Daily Mail story about sunrises being shown on big screens in Beijing was made up.”
The bigger story: failed media ethics
Of course, the belated corrections will never catch up to the initial falsehoods. As the 19th-century preacher C.H. Spurgeon once said, “A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.”
Even now, only a few outlets that ran the fake sunrise-on-TV story, such as Time, have pulled or corrected it.
But the issue is far bigger than one false news report. It speaks to the state of media ethics, or lack thereof.
“How do relatively respectable outfits like Time, HuffPo and CBS jump onboard with circulating fake stories? Simply by not checking, for one,” reporter Gwynn Guilford wrote in the online business publication Quartz. Her article was titled, “Westerners are so convinced China is a dystopian hellscape they’ll share anything that confirms it.”
To many reporters, if the meme fits, they'll go with it, no questions asked. In this case, the Daily Mail concoction fit the impression many Westerners have of China.
“And by interweaving the themes of pollution and the government’s Orwellian-tinged attempts to control daily life, the Daily Mail offers a double-whammy of Western reader stereotypes about China,” Guilford wrote.
That enticed other publications to serve up the phony story to their readers as well.
“This isn’t the first China lie that gets picked up and broadcast by Western news media. Mike Daisey’s fabricated NPR story on ‘This American Life’ comes prominently to mind,” wrote Patrick Lozada, managing editor of the news and culture blog Beijing Cream. The headline of his post was “Why the Fake Pollution Billboard Story Matters.”
Many countries besides China get this treatment.
Earlier in January, U.S. news outlets breathlessly claimed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had his uncle executed in December by stripping him naked and feeding him to 120 hungry dogs. That report originated in a sketchy Hong Kong newspaper, was picked up a paper in Singapore and then burst into American media.
However, the story clearly was fraudulent, according to Max Fisher of The Washington Post. He listed several tip-offs, including: The initial story had no sources; and the media in China and South Korea, where reporters are most knowledgeable about North Korea, ignored the report.
“But all of this raises the question: why are so many people – and so many major U.S. media outlets – still willing to treat this implausible story as plausible?” Fisher asked.
A blog called Pacific Side then aggregated substantial evidence that the fed-to-the-dogs story was fed to the media as satire on Weibo, China's microblogging service.
For many news consumers, the episode said more about the media's behavior than Kim Jong Un's:
Jesus, media too lazy to check sources in internet age: ‘Kim Jong-un's uncle being fed dogs originated with satirist http://t.co/LvJJbCU61m
— Suzanne Williams (@suziegwilliams) January 20, 2014
Jeff South is a journalism professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is currently visiting Changchun, China, as a Fulbright scholar.

author: Jeff South


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An “Increasingly Uncertain” Future for Central Asia’s Fergana Valley · Global Voices
Mahina Shodizoda

On the Caravanistan blog, Cycloscope writes about radioactive landfill sites in the Fergana Valley, a region “absurdly divided between Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan”:
Unaware of the dangers of radioactivity, the locals take the equipment in the old abandoned mines and sell them as scrap, risking not only their own lives but also the spread of radioactivity. A further problem is the use of rock from landfills as a building material for houses and roads.
The threat coming from radioactive waste is aggravated by unsettled borders, water scarcity, and a history of ethnic riots, making the future of the region “increasingly uncertain”.

author: Mahina Shodizoda


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China: Cleaning Up The Yellow · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

扫黄 pic.twitter.com/GuCIkzcRF3
— 变态辣椒 (@remonwangxt) February 11, 2014
In Chinese language, the color yellow also signifies sex and pornography. The crackdown of sex industry and pornographic materials is termed as “cleaning-up the yellow”. Political cartoonist @remonwangxt's latest work is about the “Cleaning-up yellow” campaign in China.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China Dissidents Going to the U.S · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Patrick Lozada from Beijing Cream discussed the phenomena that many dissidents who have left China would turn up joining the Right Wing organizations in the U.S. He pointed out the dilemma of the current situation:
I understand why they do it. You can say bad things about China in China and go to jail, or you can have conservatives pay you enormous amounts of money to do it in the US. Regardless it causes these activists to lose credibility as agents of change in China, and the impact they can have from the States is minimal.


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Controversial Sindh Festival Accused of Risking Ancient Ruins for Flashy Kickoff · Global Voices
Sana Jamil

Fireworks during the opening ceremony of Sindh Festival held in Moen Jo Daro. Image by Jamal Dawoodpoto. Copyright Demotix (3/2/2014)
The people of Sindh  province in the south of Pakistan, the site of one of the oldest civilizations in the world, are currently celebrating a festival to pay tribute to their rich and vast cultural heritage. The brainchild of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the festival aims to revive the history of Sindh, his home province, with a 15-day celebration in various cities showcasing local art, music, sport and more.  However, critics accused him of playing the Sindh card by exploiting the peace loving innocent Sindhi people.
If that was not enough, before the celebrations had even begun, the festival drew ire from some for its decision to hold the theatrical opening ceremony at the ancient ruins of Mohenjo-daro.
Mohenjo-daro, an UNESCO World Heritage site, is one of the earliest urban settlements in the world, dating back to 2600 BCE. A stage and other event infrastructure was built nearby the delicate ruins for the opening ceremony of 1 February 2014, to which about 400 or more dignitaries were invited. Some leading archaeologists did not give the green light for holding the festival there. However, the organizers of the event and the PPP government in Sindh assured that the ceremony was being planned with painstaking attention to details, ensuring that the ruins were not threatened.
Pakistani writer Bina Shah wrote on her blog that she wasn't convinced:
So the Sindh Festival opened last night at Mohenjodaro, but it didn't remain untouched by controversy: the accusation that the ruins were being damaged by preparations for the festival, including the building of a stage, construction of steel pillars, and other things that shouldn't be happening on or around delicate ruins from a five-thousand year old civilisation. In addition, the vibrations by the construction and the loudspeakers during the concert, and the bright spotlights would possibly degrade the site even further. Furore erupted on social media, petitions were signed, and letters written. The Festival went ahead as planned and by all accounts was successful, but it's still a sensitive subject as we wait to assess the impact of the concert on the site post-event.
Labourers prepare for the Sindh Festival at Moenjo-daro (Mound of the Dead), the location of the remains of an ancient Indus Valley civilisation. Image by Jamal Dawoodpoto. Copyright Demotix (3/2/2014)
Local journalist and environmental activist Amar Guriro's photographs of the stage being constructed at the ruins first drew the attention of many to the choice of venue when they viral on social media. Debates emerged over the use of wooden and steel scaffolding over and near the ruins, heavy spotlights and lasers for a light show, and sound systems for the ceremony that could possibly damage the area.
While commenting on Amar Guriro's photographs, Shah added on her blog:
I was very concerned when I saw the photographs and I retweeted them so that people might pay attention to the issue. The Festival organisers responded by claiming they'd had archeological experts both local and foreign approve the plans and help build the site in a safe way.
Journalist Mohammad Malick wanted someone to inform Bilawal Bhutto Zardari about the importance of the ancient city:
pl send a tweet each to bilawal bhutto urging him to change venue. 5000yr old civilisation is way more imp than any individual's ego
— Mohammad Malick (@MalickViews) January 30, 2014
Senior Editor of The News Talat Aslam tweeted his thoughts about the opening ceremony:
The 5,000-yr-old ruins of Moenjodaro, which survived conquests, floods, pestilence, were finally destroyed by The Great Festival of 2014…
— Talat Aslam (@titojourno) January 29, 2014
Environmental communicator and cricket journalist Afia Salam was also against the idea:
Moenjodaro is a UNESCO World Heritage site… and it is illegal to even move a brick or add anything there… http://t.co/V9i0Orw2nb
— afia salam (@afiasalam) January 29, 2014
The official Twitter handle for the Sindh Festival was quick to clarify their position:
1/3 Pls do not confuse pics of wooden scaffolding & protective sheets for the stage.These are only to protect the site from any potential
— Sindh Festival (@sindhfestival) January 29, 2014
2/3 damage in unlikely event of accident. Done specifically on instructions of Dir. of Archaeology to protect the site. It is NOT the stage
— Sindh Festival (@sindhfestival) January 29, 2014
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari defended the choice:
inspected MD site with Director Archaeology (30yrs experience).
Explained how every precaution has been taken. Remains are safe. More soon.
— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) January 30, 2014
The ruins of Mohenjodaro
According to UNESCO, Mohenjodaro is the best-preserved urban ruin on the Indian subcontinent. The ruins, unearthed by a British archaeologist Sir John Marshall in 1922, are already threatened by harsh climatic conditions, floods and saline action of the Indus River water.
Ever since the news broke on social media, protests and online petitions signed against the opening ceremony at the Mohenjodaro ruins marred the main event. According to a news report published in Dawn Newspaper, UNESCO was unhappy with the idea of holding an event at the ruins. The report said that a week before the festival at Moenjodaro, the director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites declared the opening ceremony as an “improper” activity.
But here is what the organizers had to say after the opening ceremony of the Sindh Festival at Mohenjodaro:
A picture worth thousand words, says it all. Moenjodaro after inauguration on Feb 1 is open and unhurt. pic.twitter.com/yw2vDBNQGK
— Sindh Festival (@sindhfestival) February 4, 2014

author: Sana Jamil


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Drug Bust Holds Lessons for Caribbean Distribution Chains  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Of the recent drug bust originating out of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados Underground says:
The fundamentals are clear. Supply chain security in the Caribbean is weak, and known local and regional solutions need to be applied and strengthened.


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Calls to #FreeIranianSoldiers Abducted at Iran-Pakistan Border · Global Voices
Farid

Five abducted Irani soldiers. Photo released by Jaish al-Adl's Twitter account
Iranians are using the #FreeIranianSoldiers hashtag to spread awareness about five Iranian border guards abducted at the Iran-Pakistan border. The Baloch Sunni Muslim insurgent group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) claimed responsibility and published the above photo of the abducted soldiers through their Twitter account.
Jaish-al-Adl operate in Sistan-Baluchestan, one of Iran's largest and poorest provinces, which is home to 2 million Sunni-muslims. The ethnic Baloch and Sunni-muslim insurgents in the area have been demanding more autonomy from the Shia-government in Tehran in recent years.
In October 2013,  Jaish-ul-Adl, which is called aterrorist group by the Irani state, ambushed and killed 14 Iranian border guards. In response, authorities in the Shia-dominant country executed 16 people from Sistan-Baluchestan allegedly associated with Jaish-ul-Adl.
Mohammad Reza Aref, an Iranian reformist politician, tweeted:
the Iranian soldiers are defending our borders for, our Justice, security and peace #FreeIranianSoldiers
— MohammadRezaAref (@MohamadRezaAref) February 9, 2014
Iranian social media researcher and blogger Narima Gharib tweeted:
Why a terrorist group have an account on #Twitter ? ” @BalouchRightsAd ” #FreeIranianSoldiers
— Nariman Gharib (@ListenToUs) February 10, 2014
Canadian-Iranian Maryam Nayeb Yazdi tweeted:
Iran citizens tweeting on #FreeIranianSoldiers regard the soldiers as their brothers rather than regime forces. They're defending their own.
— Maryam Nayeb Yazdi (@maryamnayebyazd) February 10, 2014
Iran-based Twitter user Opium called for unity:
Hey you, don't tell me there's no hope at all Together we stand, divided we fall. #FreeIranianSoldiers
— opium (@opiums) February 10, 2014
Since 2006, Baluchis, who make up 2 percent of Iran’s population, have accounted for about 20 percent of state executions, according to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, a US-based group which tracks human rights abuses in Iran.
The Irani government believes Jaish-ul-Adl is hiding in Pakistan's Balochistan province, which borders Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province. Pakistan is battling its own Baluchi insurgency and has been criticized by Iran for failing to crack down on militant camps in its territory.

author: Farid


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Journalists in Hong Kong and Taiwan  Battle Beijing’s Influence · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Committee to Protect Journalist released a report on self-censorship practice in Hong Kong and Taiwan under the increasing influence from Beijing:
Self-censorship–it's like the plague, a cancerous growth, multiplying on a daily basis.


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Opponents of France’s School Gender Equality Initiative Wage Misinformation War · Global Voices
Jean-Pierre Wetzels

13 January 2013 – “We want sex, not gender.” A sign in French at a protest for family values. Photo by Mon_Tours via Flickr. CC BY-NC 2.0
[This post was co-authored by Jean-Pierre Wetzels, Elise Lecamp and Suzanne Lehn. All links forward to French-language pages unless otherwise noted.]
A recent pilot study in France about gender equality in schools has encountered heated opposition from those who view it as an attack on traditional family values and gender roles.
Called “ABCD de l'égalité” (the ABCD of gender equality), the initiative aims to break down gender stereotypes in schools, and French education authorities launched a pilot study in a few select schools over the course of four months to see how new teaching tools and materials would work with children.
But opponents see the initiative as an affront to what they call the natural differences between boys and girls and argue that the state should not be teaching children about private matters. A strong anti-ABCD campaign to stop it has been mounted on blogs and social network platforms and protets were organized in several cities under the moniker “Day of Anger“. Text messages encouraged parents to pull their children from schools on designated “School Boycott Days“.
Logo for France's ABCD of gender equality initiative
Public debate on the issue has been polluted by “untruths” to such an extent that the French education minister ordered information sessions at schools for parents to combat the rumors. Daily newspaper Le Monde also attempted to debunk some of the misinformation in an article called “Five rumors about the gender theory debate” published on 28 January 2013. The report highlighted several inaccuracies being cited by opponents, including a misquoted statement by French senator Laurence Rossignol that “children do not belong to their parents, they belong to the state”.
The second part of the sentence has proven to be entirely fictional, as shown by the following video posted by the website “Arrêt sur images”:
In fact, the whole quote goes as follows:  “Children do not belong to their parents, the school must provide them with tools so that they can make choices for themselves later.”
In an interview, Rossignol explained that she never said the words “children belong to the state” and that she will take to court anyone who claims otherwise:
Another misconception about the gender equality initiative was the notion that teaching gender theory will be made mandatory in schools. Gaëlle Dupont wrote the following about that rumor:
Deuxième intox : l'enseignement de la « théorie du genre » devient obligatoire: Ce climat d'hystérie autour des questions d'égalité hommes-femmes ou de lutte contre l'homophobie débouche sur des phénomènes assez dramatiques, comme cette vague de SMS appelant les parents à retirer leurs enfants des écoles un jour donné pour dénoncer cet « enseignement obligatoire » du « genre ». Derrière ces rumeurs, on trouve l'extrême droite. Plus précisément, des militants proches de l'extrême droite qui ont monté un « jour de retrait de l'école », assurant que « l'Etat, sous couvert de lutter contre l'homophobie, introduit à notre insu la théorie du genre à l'école : homosexualité, bisexualité et transsexualité entrent dans tous les programmes scolaires ».
Rumour number 2: Teaching of  “gender theory” will be mandatory:  The current atmosphere of hysteria surrounding the issues of equality between men and women or the fight against homophobia has given rise to somewhat dramatic phenomena, such as the deluge of text messages inciting parents to withdraw their children from school on a specific day in order to protest this “obligatory teaching of gender”. The far-right wing is again behind these rumors. Or to be more precise, campaigners with far-right sympathies who have initiated this “School Boycott” day. Thet claim that “under the cover of addressing homophobia, the state is introducing gender theory at school without our approval: the notions of homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality are being introduced in school curricula”
Armed with this misinformation, opponents invoked the spectors of gender theory and government intrusion on social media and blogs to mobilize those against the initiative.
Comment Facebook et les SMS servent à blanchir la folle rumeur sur la “théorie du genre” >> http://t.co/CXM9ngXO9C pic.twitter.com/aCEStUDjGe
— Le Plus (@leplus_obs) 30 Janvier 2014
How Facebook and text messages are used to whitewash the wild rumour about “gender theory”
Spearheading the campaign against the ABCD of gender equality is Farida Belghoul [en], who once was an immigrant rights activist in the early 1980s. She set up several “information meetings” and called on parents to keep their children home as a boycott of the initiative and the supposed teaching of gender theory that the initiative implies.
The website Journée de Retrait de l'Ecole (School Boycott Day) was set up to document and organize the movement, and in just a few weeks, the Facebook page for the website, JRE2014, received 18,000 hits. Created on 19 December 2013, the page now counts 20,000 likes. Comments from parents who received text messages requesting them to remove their children from school are posted on the page. Céline Violette writes on the page [fr] :
Y-a-t-il une PETITION OFFICIELLE pour l'interdiction de l'INTRUSION de la théorie du genre à l'éducation nationale? Afin de permettre de compter tout le monde, père ET mère, et tous les citoyens qui n'ont pas d'enfant et qui sont conscients de ce qui se passe.
Is there an official petition to prevent the introduction of gender theory in school  ? It would allow to determine how many people, mother, father and citizens without children but who are aware of the risk at hand.
The more irrational the rumor, the more the public seems drawn to it. In an article published on 1 February entitled “Day of anger, night of darkness”, journalist Jean Birenbaum expressed his concerns:
Pour le moment, ce compagnonnage avec un sombre nihilisme condamne les collectifs colériques à l'impuissance politique. Mais c'est aussi lui qui les rend si difficiles à combattre pour les partis traditionnels, de droite comme de gauche. […] Il y a ici un cauchemar pour quiconque demeure attaché à une éthique de la rationalité, qu'elle soit religieuse ou politique.
[…]
Par-delà les slogans politiques, la galaxie de la « colère » représente donc un défi lancé aux pratiques d'enseignement et aux institutions démocratiques. Si ce défi n'était pas relevé, alors le « jour de colère »pourrait bien devenir la nuit pour tous.
At the moment, this affinity for dark nihilism condemns these angry groups to political impotence. But it is also what makes the fight with them so difficult for traditional parties, be they right-or left-wing […] This is a nightmare for those who remain faithful to an ethic of rationality, be it religious or political.
[…]
Over and above political slogans, this constellation of anger constitutes a challenge to both teaching methods and democratic institutions. If this challenge is not met, then the ‘Day of anger” could quite well become a dark night for us all.
In a somewhat reassuring turn of events, a humoristic page called the “Children's Plea” was created on the parody website Gorafi.fr. The Children's Plea demands that adults put a stop to the rumor fabrication and start acting as, well, adults [fr]:
Les enfants demandent donc que cessent ces rumeurs et fausses informations, qu’on les laisse retourner à l’école. Quant à la théorie du genre, ils estiment qu’elle n’a pas lieu d’être. « Des fois, les filles elles sont fortes comme les garçons, et même que hier Joachim il a perdu toutes ses billes contre Sofia de la classe de madame Dumas, on a bien ri »
The children ask for an end to the rumors and false information so that they may be allowed to return to school. As for the whole gender theory issue, the children don't think that it means anything: “Sometimes, girls are as strong as boys. Just yesterday Joachim lost all his marbles to Sophia from Mrs. Dumas's class and we all had a good laugh”
Other initiatives have also pushed back against the campaign's rumor-mongering. Seeing how easy it was for rumors to take root in some disenfranchised areas with a large minority population, Kaissa Titous asked her former colleague and now campaign leader Farida Belghoul, who is of Algerian descent, to stop her School Boycott movement movement:
Tu voudrais qu’aujourd’hui nous faisions des alliances avec des forces politiques qui n’ont pas arrêté de prospérer sur la haine de nos quartiers et de ses habitants, qui nous agitent comme repoussoirs à chaque élection, qui nous accusent d’être des envahisseurs, qui arrachent les pains au chocolat et le pain de la bouche des Français de souche
Today you would want us to make alliances with political forces that have thrived on hating our people [minorities] and our neighborhoods. They are pointing at us as the culprits for France's aches at every elections, calling us invaders, who take away chocolate croissants and bread from the mouths of the “real” French people

author: Jean-Pierre Wetzels


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VIDEOS: Argentina’s Melting Pot of Culinary Traditions · Global Voices
Laura Schneider

[All links lead to Spanish-language sites unless otherwise noted.]
The diverse migratory flows that have reached Argentina from the 1880's and until now contributed to the richness and variety of the typical [en] cuisine in the country.
The various ‘ferias de colectividades’ (cultural fairs) that take place throughout Argentina are good illustrations of this. In these fairs we can witness not only a display of each community's traditions, folkloric dances, beauty pageants and souvenirs but also their traditional dishes. For instance, during the Fiesta de Colectividades in the city of Rosario that takes place every year, a varied menu is offered representing the multiple communities (Latin, European and Asian) that compose the Argentinian society. In this video, we can see how typical Paraguayan food is prepared and sold during that same fair in Rosario.
On Facebook, the page Encuentro Anual de Colectividades (Annual Gathering of Communities) shows some dishes that will be sold during the 2014 program in the city of Alta Gracia [es]. The city, located in the Córdoba province, is quite famous because it is where the revolutionary Che Guevara [en] lived for 12 years.
Photo posted on the Facebook Page of the Encuentro Anual de Colectividades event
Every September, the Misiones province [en] also celebrates its traditional Fiesta Nacional del Inmigrante (National Feast of the Immigrant). For the occasion, the Polish community, among other migrant groups, cooks Kursak Polski na Royezaj, better known as Polish chicken.
Ingredientes
1 pollo
1 cebolla grande
2 ajo puerro
1 morrón rojo mediano
1 morrón verde mediano
200 gramos crema de leche
200 gramos champiñones
sal y pimienta
Preparación de la salsa
Picar la cebolla bien fina, rehogar con una cucharada de aceite, agregar los morrones cortados en daditos, agregar el ajo puerro picado muy fino. Revolver muy bien, agregar crema de leche y los champignones.
Cocinar durante cinco minutos, agregar sal y pimienta a gusto.
Optativo nuez moscada.
Si queda muy espesa la salsa agregar leche para suavizar. Servir acompañado con pollo a la parrilla o al horno
Ingredients
1 Chicken
1 Large Onion
2 Leeks
1 Medium Red Pepper
1 Medium Green Pepper
200 g. Cream
200 g. Mushrooms
Salt and Pepper
Preparation of the sauce
Chop the onions very finely. Fry lightly with one tbsp of oil. Add the peppers after they've been diced followed by the leeks finely cut. Stir well. Add the cream and mushrooms.
Cook for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. You can also add some nutmeg if you wish. If sauce gets too thick, add some milk. Serve with grilled or roast chicken.
In addition there are community-specific celebrations, such as the one by the Volga Germans [en], who settled mostly in the province of Entre Ríos. The Volga Germans lived in the region of southeastern European Russia, close to the Volga river [en]. They came to Argentina in 1878 and preserved their traditions as well as their language. Cuisine is naturally at the heart of these traditions. This video produced by the Asociación Argentina de Descendientes de Alemanes del Volga (Argentinian Association of the Volga Germans Descendants) demonstrates how to prepare a Kreppel:
There also many restaurants serving foreign food. The Croatian community in Argentina, for instance, keeps its culinary traditions with restaurants like Dobar Tek, offering a rich Croatian menu. This video shows the “art” of preparing an apple strudel.
The Armenian community is also quite influential in Argentina. Romina Boyadjian suggests the 5 best dishes in Armenian cuisine while pointing out that the Community in the diaspora has reinvented the typical dishes:
Algo curioso es que la comida armenia que se come en Argentina es muy distinta a la que se consume en Armenia. Esto tiene que ver con las reinvenciones que hacen los diferentes pueblos al partir de su tierra natal, las costumbres que traen consigo y lo que termina siendo valorado en la nueva comunidad. Hay comidas que acá se consideran típicas y que allá apenas se conocen.
It's quite intriguing that the Armenian cuisine we eat in Argentina is quite different from the one actually consumed in Armenia. This has to do with the reinventions done by the different populations based on their homeland, the traditions that they bring and what ends up being valued in the new community.  Some dishes are considered traditional yet they are barely known there (in Armenia).
One of the cities symbolizing the Jewish immigration to Argentina is Moisés Ville [en], established by the first immigrants who reached the country. On the YouTube account of the initiative Señal Santa Fe we can see the city and get to know how traditions are preserved through well-known dishes such as the strudel or the Knish [en] among others:
But which dish was quickly adopted by immigrants upon their arrival to the country? The asado [en] without any doubt, especially because the majority of the newcomers were peasants and meat was quite cheap. The Club Argentino de Asadores a la Estaca (Argetinian Club of Rotisseurs) has some photos for you to enjoy.
Asado – Photo by Laura Schneider

author: Laura Schneider


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Activists Ask China to Ban Bear Bile Farming · Global Voices
Jeff South

Using social media and other tools, animal rights activists around the world are urging China to prohibit farmers from keeping bears in captivity and harvesting their bile, a digestive juice stored in the gall bladder that is used in traditional Chinese medicine.
The nonprofit group Animals Asia has collected more than 83,000 signatures so far on a petition asking Chinese officials to end the “barbaric practice” of bear bile farming. The foundation said more than 10,000 bears in China are kept in cages – sometimes so cramped that the animals can't turn around or stand – for their entire lives, and that the bile is extracted through painful methods.
The conditions on the farms are documented in YouTube videos.
“This is torture,” a YouTube user named “mogtrader8″ posted after watching that video. “There's no doubt about it.”
The cause has resonated on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking platforms with both individuals, including artists and athletes, and groups like Moon Bear Rescue. (The bears typically used in bile farming are Asiatic black bears, commonly known as moon bears because of the cream-colored crescent moon shape on their chest.)
An animal rights activist in Australia tweeted:
IN A CAGE, WELDED SHUT, FOR LIFE: End Bear Bile Farming In China http://t.co/OAYHuZlGCT PLEASE SIGN/SHARE/RT
— Monica Gilbert (@universalmushie) February 7, 2014
An American environmentalist known as Sprat24 called bear bile farming “despicable” and asked, “Have you seen how these bears live? How could you not help?”
Rescuing moon bears from mistreatment
Animals Asia has been helping moon bears since it was founded in 1998. The foundation has rescued more than 400 animals from bile farms, established bear sanctuaries in China and Vietnam, and urged government officials to outlaw the practice.
There are no accurate estimates on the global population of Asiatic black bears; they may number in the tens of thousands. Experts believe the moon bear population is declining. They are not considered endangered, but the species is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
In China, bear bile farming is legal, but only on licensed farms that have at least 50 bears and meet certain standards.
In January 2013, in what became known on Twitter as the #newyearrescue, Animals Asia and China's State Forestry agency rescued six moon bears from an illegal bear bile farm in Sichuan province. The bears, which had injuries and other evidence of mistreatment, were resettled at the foundation's shelter outside Chengdu.
First pics of the rescued bears coming through. No news yet as to their condition #newyearrescue pic.twitter.com/NVhN6Pee
— james walkerr (@wackstar2) January 9, 2013
Hong Kong photographer Peter Yuen recently documented the progress that the rescued bears have made:
Peter Yuen documented Animal Asia's moon bear rescue effort. Photo via Animal Asia's campaign page in Facebook.
What a difference a year makes…
One year on from her rescue, Manuka forages in her habitat without a care in the world.
But rescuing bears one at a time isn't enough, Animals Asia says.;
Petitioning China's US ambassador
In its latest campaign against bear bile farming, the group hopes to garner at least 100,000 signatures on a petition asking China to end the practice entirely. Animals Asia plans to present the petition to Cui Tiankai, China's ambassador to the United States. The petition reads:
On January 9th 2013, six lucky moon bears arrived at Animals Asia's Bear Rescue Centre in Chengdu — the only sanctuary in China built to care for bears rescued from the barbaric practice of bile farming. Battered and broken from their time on an illegal bear farm, these bears are already starting to mend under the expert care of Animals Asia's dedicated vet team.
And while the nightmare is over for these six bears, across China more than 10,000 moon bears remain in tiny cages never feeling the sun on their backs or grass under their feet. They can be kept like this for up to 30 years. This cruel practice continues despite the availability of many effective and affordable alternatives.
Animals Asia applauds the Chinese Government for rescuing these six bears and closing the illegal farm, but the suffering of 10,000 must be made a priority and a firm date set when bear farming will end!
Many of the people who signed the petition added comments. “Cruel and disgusting,” wrote a woman from California (signer No. 82,965).
A women from the Netherlands (signer No. 82,526) posted: “Never believe that animals suffer less than humans do. Pain is the same for them that it is for us.”
“Not all traditions are worth continuing!” stated a resident of British Columbia (signer No. 83,014). “This is an archaic practice that needs to stop.”
The use of bear bile is a centuries-old tradition in Southeast Asia. Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine use bear bile to treat hemorrhoids, sore throats, sores, bruising, muscle ailments, sprains, epilepsy, fever and other ailments; some men tout it as aphrodisiac or hangover cure.
Bear bile is used in more than 120 Chinese medicine products, from heart medication to eye drops. Because of the demand, the bile can sell for astronomical prices – up to 24,000 US dollars a kilogram, about half the price of gold.
To obtain the bile, farmers insert a metal tube permanently into the belly of each bear; the animal wears an iron vest to hold it in place. The bile then is extracted two to four times a day.
The active ingredient in bear bile is ursodeoxycholic acid. Scientists disagree on whether it has significant health benefits.
Ursodeoxycholic acid can be obtained from many other sources, such as herbs and synthetic processes. Groups such as Animals Asia, the World League for Protection of Animals and Wildlife Worldwide have been urging practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine to shift from bear bile to alternative sources.
Celebrities support for moon bears
Prominent personalities have spoken out against bear bile farming. They include basketball legend Yao Ming, pop singer Han Hong, movie stars Maggie Q, Karen Mok and others.
Prominent personalities have spoken out against bear bile farming. They include basketball legend Yao Ming, movie stars Maggie Q, Karen Mok and others. Animals Asia Poster.
Many Chinese celebrities stepped forward to protest bear bile farming in 2011 and 2012 when the pharmaceutical firm Gui Zhentang, which extracts and sells bile, was applying to be listed as a publicly traded company on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
In the face of the public backlash, Gui Zhentang last year withdrew its application to issue an initial public offering.
Then, last August, animal rights activists scored another victory: As part of Animals Asia's “Healing without Harm” campaign, about 150 Chinese drugstores announced that they would no longer sell bear bile products.
That prompted an outpouring of support for the pharmacies on social media:
China:~ Show your thanks to the Chinese pharmacies who have already pledged to stop selling bear bile products… http://t.co/mdloFwHZPR
— Sofia Goncalves (@SofiaGoncalves) August 29, 2013
On petition website ForceChange, user Judy Thorpe commented:
Bears have suffered for so many years and I cannot express enough praise in your decision for refusing to stock bear bile on your store's shelves. We are now in the modern era and animal abuse will not be tolerated. You have set a positive example by taking stand against bear bile products. Thank-you so very much.
Besides China, South Korea also allows bear bile farming; nearly 1,600 bears are being raised in that country. Vietnam banned the practice in 2005, but Animals Asia says about 2,400 bears still are being illegally raised on bile farms there.
Animals Asia isn't the first group to start a petition against bear bile farming. In 2011, Wildlife World obtained 15,000 signatures on a petition calling on Hu Jintao, then president of China, to close the country's bear bile farms.
If Animals Asia's petition proves unpersuasive, the group has another tactic to get its story across: an interactive storybook for children.
The foundation teamed up with Microsoft and on January 29 launched a website in both English and Chinese to tell the story of the rescued bear Jasper and his buddies.
Wonderful that @Microsoft have launched ‘Exploring Moon Bears’ to raise awareness & help end bear bile farming. https://t.co/bDpqapl4So
— Madeleine Anderson (@TheAgentMaddi) January 30, 2014


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Another Journalist Dies in Mexico: Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Mexican authorities have confirmed the murder of Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz, aka “Goyo”.
The lifeless body of Jiménez de la Cruz was found in a clandestine grave on February 11, 2014, according to reports in El Universal [es] and La Jornada. [es] [Report in English by the BBC here]
The electronic version of the weekly Proceso [es] had previously reported the disappearance of the reporter, demanding answers from the authorities.
On Twitter, the hashtag #HastaQueAparezcaGoyo [es] was used to express support for the family and colleagues of Jiménez de la Cruz during the darkest hours.
The journalist Paola Rojas was one of the first to spread the word on Twitter:
Confirma la Procuraduria de Veracruz que el periodista Gregorio Jiménez fue asesinado.
— Paola Rojas (@Paola_Rojas_H) February 11, 2014
The Special Prosecutor of Veracruz has confirmed that journalist Gregorio Jiménez was murdered.
The activist Jesús Robles Maloof asked for the resignation of the governor in Veracruz, where Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz practiced his profession as a journalist:
Ya es hora que @Javier_Duarte sea removido del gobierno de #Veracruz #HastaQueAparezcaGoyo
— Jesús Robles Maloof (@roblesmaloof) February 11, 2014
It's time that Javier Duarte is removed from the government.
On the morning of February 11, the activist shared this photo:
Mexican Journalists demostration against violence in #Veracruz. #HastaQueAparezcaGoyo [pic]. pic.twitter.com/1zPd1w8heb
— Jesús Robles Maloof (@roblesmaloof) February 11, 2014
Twitter user Másdel131 also shared a photo from the same protest:
Desde la representación del gob de Veracruz en el DF protestan periodistas #QueremosVivoaGoyo #HastaQueAparezcaGoyo pic.twitter.com/tptnJJ9X8C
— MásDe131 (@masde131) February 11, 2014
From the Veracruz’ government's representation in the Federal District, journalists protest
While Pertaesus asked:
La demanda planteada por el hashtag #HastaQueAparezcaGoyo plantea otra pregunta igual de dolorosa, ¿hasta cuándo recuperaremos nuestro país?
— Pertaesus (@Pertaesus) February 12, 2014
The demand raised in the hashtag #HastaQueAparezcaGoyo raises another equally painful question–how long until we get our country back?
“Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists,” according to Reporters Without Borders. The organization adds that “more than 80 have been killed in the past decade, and 17 have disappeared”.  The death of Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz must be added to this number.
In Mexico there is an atmosphere of uncontrolled war and violence, ever since the previous President, Felipe Calderón, launched an attack on drugs in 2006. Judging by the death of Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz, the violence in the country continues under the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto.

author: J. Tadeo


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Argentina’s Polar Bear ‘Arturo’ Will Stay at the Mendoza Zoo · Global Voices
Laura Schneider

Image from the Facebook page OSO POLAR Arturo (Arturo the POLAR BEAR). Text: “I'm a polar bear – what part of polar don't you understand?”
A group of medical specialists determined that Arturo the bear, the only polar bear in captivity in Argentina, should stay in Mendoza instead of being transferred to Canada, after an intense heat wave put his health at risk.
The blog Un Mundo en Paz (A World of Peace) [es] explains:
Por unanimidad, los especialistas decidieron que el  se quede en . Analizaron que por su edad, 23 años, no puede ser sometido a una serie [de] análisis necesarios para el traslado y en  no podría recibirlo porque el animal no cumple con los requisitos que exige el protocolo de ese país.
Unanimously, the specialists decided that  would stay in . They determined that because of his age, 23, he could not be submitted to the series [of] analyses needed for the move, and in  he would not be received because he does not meet the requirements of the country's protocol.
In January of 2014, due to the demands and pleas made by different groups that the bear be put in a place more suitable for his species, the governor of the city of Mendoza, Francisco Pérez (@PacoPerez), announced from his Twitter account that the bear was being evaluated physically to determine the possibility of eventually moving him to Canada:
Comunico que nuestro Gobierno, en caso que la junta médica así lo determine, aprueba y apoya la decisión de trasladar al Oso Arturo.
— Francisco Pérez (@PacoPerezMza) enero 24, 2014
Let it be know that our Government, if the medical board decides it is best, will approve and support the decision to move Arturo the bear.
Durante Febrero, una junta médica conformada por Veterinarios locales, nacionales y extranjeros, evaluará la salud del Oso Arturo.
— Francisco Pérez (@PacoPerezMza) enero 24, 2014
In February, a medical board made up of local, national and foreign veterinarians will evaluate the health of Arturo the bear.
Esta junta determinará si Arturo está en condiciones de soportar un traslado, teniendo como principal propósito salvaguardar su salud.
— Francisco Pérez (@PacoPerezMza) enero 24, 2014
This board will determine whether Arturo is in good condition to deal with a move, being that the main goal is to safeguard his health.
Si la junta médica lo aprueba, y el Oso Arturo puede ser trasladado, dos entidades canadienses estarían interesadas en recibirlo.
— Francisco Pérez (@PacoPerezMza) enero 24, 2014
If the medical board approves it, and Arturo the bear can be moved, two Canadian entities are interested in receiving him.
This news brought about a lot of happiness and gratitude towards the governor, and the community was waiting for the medical board to arrive on February 7th to do the evaluation.
As one might expect, the news that the bear will stay in Mendoza has generated reactions from those who were waiting for the results. On Twitter, Argentines are commenting on the case under the hashtag #OsoArturo.
For their part, the Association of Civil Servants and Lawyers for the Rights of Animals (AFADA) [es] presented a statement [es] announcing the request for a habeas corpus for the polar bear's illegal loss of liberty.
The Facebook page Ecológicos Unidos [es], calls for continuing to fight [es] for the polar bear:
MENSAJE URGENTE A AQUELLAS PERSONAS QUE TIENEN GANAS DE AYUDAR AL OSO POLAR ARTURO Y TIENE IDEAS NUEVAS PARA LOGRAR SU TRASLADO
Nosotros probamos con todo y no lo logramos … pero no quiere decir que alguien más preparado y con más herramientas no pueda hacerlo !
NO DISCUTAN CON NOSOTROS , HÁGANLO URGENTE ! ARTURO NO TIENE TIEMPO !
URGENT MESSAGE TO THOSE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO HELP ARTURO THE POLAR BEAR AND HAVE NEW IDEAS FOR MOVING HIM
We tried everything and we weren't successful … but that doesn't mean that someone more prepared and with more tools can't do it!
DON'T ARGUE WITH US, DO IT QUICKLY! ARTURO DOESN'T HAVE TIME!
The page OSO POLAR Arturo [es] does the same, and reports [es] that the result is “the worst news” they could have imagined.
Image from the Facebook page OSO POLAR Arturo (Arturo the POLAR BEAR)
The AFP [es] news agency shared a video of the news, showing the protesters awaiting the result:
Meanwhile, Greenpeace Argentina [es] calls for joining the fight [es] to improve the conditions in the enclosure where Arturo is now.


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Barbados, Guyana: Peas & Rice, Very Nice  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

tastes like home puts a Guyanese twist on a favourite Barbadian dish.


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‘Costa Ricans Are Fed Up’ · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

A myriad of articles about the recent Costa Rican elections have proclaimed the country’s “turn to the left.” Perhaps some do this because it is simply too convenient to whip up an article or op-ed about leftist victories in El Salvador and Costa Rica. Or perhaps some are still trapped in the Cold War. But these headlines miss the more salient point of Costa Rica’s elections – Costa Ricans are fed up. And they’re fed up with the status quo.
Christine Wade writes a guest post in the blog Central American Politics where she discusses “the general political malaise amongst Costa Ricans”. She concludes:
It’s time to move beyond the left-right discourse that all too frequently characterizes the analysis of Central American politics if we are to better understand the political dynamics of a region in flux. As the case of Costa Rica demonstrates (and this is true for El Salvador as well), such superficial explanations obscure more than they enlighten.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Government Threats Silence Venezuela Media, as Student Protests Leave Three Dead  · Global Voices
Jessica Carrillo

Student protesting on February 12th, 2014. Photo by Carlos Becerra, copyright Demotix.
[All links lead to Spanish language pages, unless otherwise noted]
Venezuela saw a wave of protests [en] in the streets of its major cities on February 12. Citizens, mainly university students, took to the streets to demand that authorities release a group of young people who had been arrested in previous demonstrations. They also demanded improvements in the food supply (food shortages [en] are around 27%) and public safety.
The march, which aimed to reach the federal prosecutor's office, was organized mainly by opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. The protest unfolded peacefully until the demonstrators neared the center of Caracas, where a group of riot police and members of armed security forces, hooded and on motorcycles, had taken control of the zone. The majority of the protesters left the area, but a small group remained and clashed with the security forces.
The confrontations in the center of Caracas resulted in two fatalities: a student and a member of a collective. Users uploaded videos of the moment when Bassil Alejandro Da Costa Frías was hit by a bullet and killed.
The protests spread to the east of the city, and during the night, another student was killed. The day ended with a toll of three deaths and dozens of people injured and arrested.
Young people protesting in Caracas on February 12th, 2014. Photo by Carlos Becerra, copyright Demotix.
During the events, including the march and the ensuing violence, Venezuelan media continued to air their regular programming, after authorities threatened [en] to sanction any media that covered the protests. Those who sought information about what was happening had to tune in to the cable news channel NTN24.
In reaction to these events, Hilda Lugo Conde posted on Facebook:
Mientras se reportan heridos graves y hasta un muerto según la agencia Reuters en la marcha de hoy en Caracas, esto es lo que se ve en las pantallas de televisión de señal abierta en el país en este momento:
1- Venevisión: telenovela En nombre del amor
2- Globovisión: las películas más taquilleras en Estados Unidos este fin de semana según NTN24
3- Canal I: Mundo Fitness
4- VTV: Diosdado Cabello en la sesión especial de la Asamblea Nacional por los 200 años de la Batalla de la Victoria
5- Televen: telenovela Las Santísimas
6- La Tele: telenovela Cada quien a su santo
7- Tves: Pocoyo
Y la radio, también, en su mundo paralelo. Ese que impone la censura, la autocensura…
While the agency Reuters is reporting serious injuries and even a death during the march today in Caracas, this is what is being seen on open-signal television in the country right now:
1. Venevisión: Soap opera “En nombre del amor”
2- Globovisión: The highest-grossing movies in the United States this weekend, according to NTN24
3- Canal I: Mundo Fitness [Fitness World]
4- VTV: Diosdado Cabello in the special session of the National Assembly for the 200-year anniversary of La Batalla de La Victoria
5- Televen: Soap opera “Las Santísimas”
6- La Tele: Soap opera “Cada quien a su santo”
7- Tves: Pocoyo
And the radio, too, exists in a parallel universe. One that is under censorship, self-censorship…
In the afternoon, journalists of the news channel NTN24 condemned the fact that the government had pressured subscription television companies to remove NTN24 from their selection of channels. Minutes later, the complaint had become reality, and Venezuelans could see the channel only via internet.
Fran Monroy posted on Twitter:
A las 6:17 PM hora de Caracas, murió la señal de @ntn24 en @movistarve pic.twitter.com/GyiJrXeoW3
— Fran Monroy Moret (@fmonroy) February 12, 2014
At 6:17 PM Caracas time, the signal for NTN24 went dead on MovistarVe.
Rodrigo Blanco posted an alert about the situation:
A los panas fuera de Venezuela: 2 estudiantes asesinados y blackout informativo del gobierno. Los milicos reprimiendo.
— Rodrigo Blanco (@rodrigoblancoc) February 12, 2014
To our friends outside of Venezuela: two students killed and information blackout by the government. Police are repressing.
Students protesting in Caracas. Photo by Juan Hernandez, copyright Demotix.
Daniel Prat questioned the state of democracy in the country after what took place in the capital:
No protestes porque te disparo. No reclames porque te meto preso. No informes porque te saco del aire. Linda democracia no?
— Daniel Prat (@DanielPrat) February 12, 2014
Don't protest, because I'll shoot you. Don't make demands, because I'll take you prisoner. Don't inform, because I'll take you off the air. Nice democracy, right?
However, Gabriel Lopez expressed his disagreement with the protests proposed by Leopoldo Lopez and marked by the hashtag #LaSalida:
“La salida” que algunos proponen carece de sentido democrático. Hay lapsos y formas para “salir” del gobierno, RR entre otros. No a golpes
— Gabriel López (@GaboVzla) February 13, 2014
“La salida” [The Exit] that some people are proposing is undemocratic. There are loopholes and ways to “exit” the government, including a recall referendum. Not by force.
The night ended with a national parade where President Nicolas Maduro celebrated Youth Day and the bicentennial of La Batalla de la Victoria.
Furthermore, a judge issued an arrest warrant for Leopoldo Lopez. This morning, the office of his party, Voluntad Popular, was searched.
The protests have not stopped.
The Facebook page Rebelión 2014 is collecting reports and photos (unverified) of the current protests.

author: Jessica Carrillo


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Did Turkmenistan Get Cold Feet Before the Sochi Winter Olympics? · Global Voices
Anna Fergana

There were many plans to send a team from Turkmenistan to the Winter Olympics 2014 in Sochi, but none of them materialized.
“We will certainly take advantage of the Russian invitation to take part in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, for which it is necessary to begin the appropriate preparations already today,” President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov said back in 2007.
In the event, Turkmens awaiting the appearance of their national team in Sochi saw only their president at the star-studded opening ceremony.
Turkmen President meeting with Russian leader in Sochi. Scree capture from video uploaded February 12, 2014, by Emma Harding.
Turkmen netizens have been fairly active in their discussion of the Sochi Olympics. On etir.com, a micro-blogging service, many expressed a sense of envy towards the President, as well as surprise not to see a single participant from Turkmenistan. ‘A MEMORY’ comments [tr]:
Ýa nesip!
Lucky him!
Berdymuhamedov, who has taken a back seat in the sporting stakes ever since an infamous face-plant took the sheen off an otherwise uncontested victory in a horse race back in Ashkhabad, pleased many by attending the games in a business suit rather than a sport suit. NepesX joked [tr]:
yarysha gatnasmasa bolyala
as long as he doesn’t participate in the race, it’s alright
At the same time visitors to the opposition website chrono-tm stressed the deterioration of the country's youth as the main reason for the absence of Turkmen athletes at the Olympics.
‘Sochustvushii’ [Сочувствующий] comments [ru]:
А кого посылать вся молодёж сидит на норкате тесты на употребление допинга из туркмении никто не пройдёт
There is no one to send [to the Olympics]. All young people use drugs. No one in Turkmenistan will pass the doping tests.
Turkmenistan had built a fine winter stadium in 2011, and seemed on the cusp of entering their first winter games, so their non-entry is even more perplexing.
Jorabay asked [ru] hopefully:
Pochemu turkmenskix hockeistow ne otpravit’ w sleduyuschiy raz — w 2018 godu?
Why not send Turkmen hockey players for next Olympics in 2018?
And ‘lale’ took solace [ru] in the country's hotter climate:
Zima y nas teplaya …vot pochemy nety spotsmenov k zimney Olimpiade,
Our winter is warm…this is why we have no winter athletes.
‘Anonim’ [Аноним] disagrees:
скоро подрастут фигуристы и хоккеисты …. а так больше не вижу ни в каких вида спорта переспектив
Soon our figure skaters and hockey players will come of age…Other than that I don't see any other promising types of sports [for us].
Turkmenistan has a sport and health-oriented public policy. The country is preparing to hold the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games and is building an Olympic Village. The country’s ambitions also include hosting the Asian games and Olympics in 2023.
These occasions would certainly give the country with the fourth largest gas reserves in the world a chance to show off its wealth, but one gets the impression that for all the records he has won in his own country, what President Berdymuhamedov craves more than anything else in the world is that elusive Turkmen Olympic medal. So far the republic's forgettable record at the games reads: Entered 5, Won 0.

author: Anna Fergana


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Doubts Arise Over Nigerian Journalist’s Undercover Human Trafficking Exposé   · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

A screenshot of the exposé.
A gritty undercover exposé of a human trafficking in Nigeria is making waves in the African country – but not for all the reasons you may think.
Tobore Ovuorie (@DaughterofMit), a reporter for Nigerian online newspaper Premium Times, wrote about her experience going undercover to shed light on a ruthless human trafficking syndicate. The motives for the story, according to Ovuorie, were:
It had all started in Abuja, with me deciding to expose the human traffic syndicates that caused the death, through Aids, of my friend Ifuoke and countless others. As a health journalist, I had interviewed several returnees from sex traffic who had not only been encouraged to have unprotected sex, but who had also been denied health care or even to return home when they fell ill. They were now suffering from Aids, anal gonorrhoea, bowel ruptures and incontinence.
The human traffickers were not only involved in recruiting and exporting young Nigerian ladies to Europe as prostitutes, but were also training them to pickpocket. Ovurie also recounted an incident of cold-blooded murder:
What happens next is like a horror movie… As we ‘unlucky’ four, are standing aside, Mama C talks with five well-dressed, classy, influential-looking visitors.The issue is a ‘package’ that Mama C has promised them and that she hasn’t been able to deliver. The woman points at me, but Mama C refuses and for unexplained reasons Adesuwa and Omai are selected. We all witness, screaming and trying to hide in corners, as they are grabbed and beheaded with machetes in front of us. The ‘package’ that the visitors have come for turns out to be a collection of body parts. The mafia that holds us is into organ traffic, too.
Ovurie however was able to escape from the mafia and publish her story, which stunned the Nigerian blogosphere. It also prompted an investigation by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and Other Related Matters.
However, the shock had barely worn off when doubts over the veracity of Ovurie's report began to surface.
Literary critique Ikhide R. Ikheloa picked holes in Ovuorie's investigation in post entitled “Tobore Ovuorie's Story: Fact or Fiction”:
Ikhide R. Ikheloa (Image sourced from his Twitter profile – @ikhide – and used with his permission)
Tobore Ovuorie (whose twitter handle is @DaughterOfMit) is enthusiastic, if anything else, as evinced by her vociferous testimonies on her timeline. If her narrative turns out to be true, Ovuorie and her sponsors (Premium Times and The Zam Chronicle deserve the Pulitzer. And her sponsors deserve to be censored for reckless endangerment of a reporter. As far as I can tell, Ovuorie is walking the streets of Nigeria unprotected after making serious claims against powerful interests. It is a mystery to me why she so brazenly attached her name to the story. If indeed there is a mafia, she is being quixotic and reckless to boot. She could be badly hurt or killed. As for the external sponsor of the adventure, The Zam Chronicle based in Amsterdam, it seems highly unusual for a Western outfit to sign on to such a risky venture without putting many things in place to minimize actuarial risk, the financial consequences may be too much to bear. What if she had been murdered? Her family could have sued the sponsors.
Ikhide asked seven questions:
1. Why is the Nigerian Police silent on this story? Ovuorie seems to know many geographic details of the places where she was taken to and where she witnessed horrific crimes. She knows names of important personalities, there is even a name of a policeman provided. Has Premium Times contacted the Nigerian authorities? …
2. When she witnessed the beheading of two abducted girls, she had her phone (or seemed to). Who did she text? Who did she call? Forensic experts can learn a lot from these transcripts.
3. At what point did she and her sponsors realize that this was possibly an unwise venture and she needed to be rescued? Where there any discussions about this?
4. I am having trouble believing that she did not text any of the pictures that were in her cellphone to someone else. That just seems unlikely. Does anyone have pictures or anything?
5. How sophisticated can this syndicate be if they allow the girls keep their cellphones and presumably let them continue to chat with the outside world?…
6. Ovuorie seemed close to the two girls who were beheaded, does she have their phone numbers? Can they be traced back to their families? Why are people silent about all this?
7. The report talks of a “multibillion dollar syndicate” but the “syndicate” doesn’t appear very sophisticated, a reporter walks the streets asking for the leader and is promptly hooked up with one, gains the trust of the syndicate and along with the other “abducted girls” has access to her cellphone and even a charger. Interesting, but then we are talking about Nigeria. Nothing seems to stretch credulity:
Ikhide received a response from Editor of Premium Times Dapo Olorunyomi:
In amusement, I notice the ambivalence in your review as you tried to challenge the veracity of the story.  This is how you put it: “How sophisticated can this syndicate be if they allow the girls keep their cell phones and presumably let them continue to chat with the outside world? There are so many tracking devices on a cell phone, you wonder if and why the game plan of the reporter did not include these free tools.”
Let’s cut to the chase. The logic in your question is erected on the assumption of the implausibility of infiltrating a syndicate and still use a cell phone. Thus, on account of your logic, if one gets to operate a cell phone in the environment of the syndicate, then the story automatically becomes false. Seriously? Sorry, this is either empty or dubious.
This twist has split the Nigerian blogosphere into those standing by Ovuorie's story and others swayed by Ikhide's scepticism. “Onas” wrote on Facebook:
If she went undercover in November, when and where did she receive treatment for the trauma she allegedly underwent? When was she discharged? For how long was she there? Which hospital did she go to? Can we have the medical records? (Even though we know that her medical records are private and personal but the controversy surrounding the story has made the issue a matter of public interest). The Tobore that was at the conference in December was the life of the conference. She was bubbly, talkative and the soul of everything that transpired there. Someone that almost got beheaded, did stunts at the border and checked into a hospital won’t be the most talkative person with the brightest makeup in a human trafficking class. She did not betray any sign of distress even when the heart-rending stores of those who have been victims were told in the class.
Another blogger, Semiu A. Akanmu, asked for more clarification from the Premium Times. This time, Managing Editor Musiklu Mojeed responded:
I can tell you categorically that the story is not fiction. It was well reported by the reporter. It is cruel that Ikhide and others are casting aspersion on a reporter who risked her life to tell us an important story. I agree the story could have been better done, but it was such a dangerous assignment. We warned her against pushing too hard. Her safety was more important to us…
…We knew what our organization and the reporter went through to tell that story. So, for anyone to declare, without any shred of evidence, that the story was a fabrication is simply cruel and annoying. It's an injustice to us and the woman who risked her life and dignity to tell us this story. But this is not the first time Ikhide has mounted a campaign to discredit our work…
Nigerian blogger Akin came up with a series of questions and scenarios to question the authenticity of the story. He concluded his post by saying:
Too convenient and sadly expedient
Finally, it is all too convenient that critical evidence that could give the real truth to this story was lost, like why she had not immediately transmitted pictures, conversations and much else for most of the time she had her mobile phone. At worst, there should have been an electronic dead drop to collect all this data for the use of the expose.
In the end, we only have Tobore’s word and the threatened reputations of Premium Times and ZAM Chronicle through obfuscation, bluster, bullying and ad hominem attacks to go by, the rest in text messages and Facebook posts is hardly independently verifiable. It is a crying shame.
You cannot trust this
If Tobore was exposed to such evil and unconscionable human traffickers with connections to people in high places in Nigeria and abroad, she and her handlers must be recklessly bold, careless, and utterly irresponsible to reveal her identity where she must daily be at risk of being apprehended and assassinated.
I am sorry, it is time for Premium Times to cut loose of this travesty or both it and its reputation would sink with it, considering the reporter they are supporting has hardly been with the outfit for 6 months, the level of naïveté demonstrated by the seasoned journalists at Premium Times is befuddling to the point of bafflement.
The end of this story is no where in sight, yet one thing is certain: human trafficking is a vicious business in Nigeria, and it's about time attention is given to it.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike