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Was Afghanistan’s long-delayed and stretched-out parliamentary vote a success or a failure? · Global Voices
Khojasta Sameyee

An Afghan elder shows his inked finger to show he voted during the heavily anticipated Afghanistan elections in Barge Matal, Afghanistan, Aug. 20, 2009. Afghanistan village elders are considered to be the role models and leaders among the Afghan civilians. U.S. Army soldiers helped provide security during the elections. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Christopher Allison. Public domain.
Afghanistan's parliamentary elections this month broke with international convention, stretching the ballot out over two weekends. Now Afghans are anxious to know whether lessons from three chaotic days of polling in different parts of the country will be learned in time for next year's nail-biter presidential vote.
Kandahar was in the back of my head. & like always, the people of Afghanistan came out bravely and voted for peace, hope and stability. This is the ultimate tribute to General Raziq.
God Bless, Afghanistan!#Kandahar #AfghanistanElection2018 #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/k0pfOXrCU0
— Madhuvanthi Srinivasan (@madhuvanti_s) October 27, 2018
Kandahar was the last province but one to cast votes in an election that itself was overdue by three years.
The cause of the delay there was a security panic triggered by the assassination of General Abdul Raziq whose personal guard was infiltrated by the Taliban.
Raziq was typically portrayed in media as an uncompromising foe of the militant group and the government's best hope of pinning it back in the southern regions where it has secured an ominous foothold.
KANDAHAR- an elderly voter in Kandahar asked residents to cast their votes and elect young and educated candidates if they want a bright Afghanistan and a capable parliament. pic.twitter.com/VJzhDGB1z8
— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) October 27, 2018
The elections as a whole  were overdue by three years, indicating extreme difficulties in the political processes of a country that, 17 years on from the US-led invasion which ousted the Taliban, remains mired in war.
While parliamentary elections were held in 32 provinces on October 20 and 21 and in Kandahar on Saturday, October 27, the war-torn province of Ghazni did not vote at all, and will likely have to wait until next year to send new representatives to the legislature.
Logistical flaws were replete on all three voting days — October 21, 22 and 27 — as polling stations opened late and were unable to handle the throng of voters.
Biometric equipment supposed to smooth the process did the opposite in many regions, thanks to incompetence and mismanagement.
According to this inside report, many power banks of the biometric machines are missing since the election day and that a large number of the machines have not been returned. #AfghanistanElections2018 https://t.co/AIHO8lTE2a
— Ali Adili (@ali_adili) October 29, 2018
Irregularities and lack of coordination can be seen in this @IECAfghanistan’s tweet. It’s 7:00 pm and they have asked people to cast their votes today if they haven’t been able to do that yesterday!#AfghanElections2018 https://t.co/QB2ML2akWV
— Muhib Shadan (@muhibshadan) October 21, 2018
Nevertheless, given deteriorating security, the country's leadership was tempted to hail the vote as a success.
Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak said that 17 civilians and 11 security personnel died with scores injured in attacks on the first day of voting. This number could undoubtedly have been much higher after both the Taliban and ISIS’ affiliate in Afghanistan declared open season on the vote.
A spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani sounded an upbeat tone in his tweet on Sunday, October 21.
#AfghanElections2018 panned out, and the voter turnout was large besides looming threats because people had trust in ANDSF. It did a better job securing polling stations all over AFG than foreign troops did in previous elections. 100s of attacks were foiled in the past two days.
— Samim Arif (@SamimArif) October 21, 2018
Of 8.8 Million registered voters
3.8 Million (%45)
33% Women
67% Men
Casted their votes in the past two days.
-Kandahar, Badghis excluded
-76 of 4576 polling stations haven’t been counted yet
No election in Ghazni.#AfghanElections2018
— Sultan Faizy (@SultanFaizy) October 21, 2018
#AFG Prople with full resolve and determination – those with disability being carried to cast vote in ….. As they realize their vote matters and we shall honour this. #Kunar pic.twitter.com/cE7Lidu6Qt
— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) October 20, 2018
But beneath the celebrations over the fact that Afghanistan managed to stage a vote at all lay several bad omens for next year's more important presidential vote. A key opposition coalition had already accused the IEC of inflating the size of the electorate in a bid to secure the passage of pro-presidential lawmakers into the parliament in the run up to this election.
Subsequently, complaints of fraud and other irregularities featured heavily among 13,000 issues reported by citizens to the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC), and a further 5,000 issues to the Whatsapp group of the country's leading private media, TOLO News.
In the 2019 presidential vote, when the stakes will be higher, these flaws will have greater costs.
The last presidential vote proved deeply divisive, with Ghani beating rival Abdullah Abdullah in a second round contest whose result Abdullah did not accept until a compromise was reached and he was given a newly created position of Chief Executive Officer (similar to prime minister) in the government.
Can we hold presidential election with the same @IECAfghanistan leadership? Today’s logistical and technical failures are beyond frustrating.
— Shaharzad Akbar (@ShaharzadAkbar) October 20, 2018
The focus is slowly shifting to the presidential elections. Ismail Khan asks CE Abdullah not to try his chance again for the presidential race. #Afghanistan https://t.co/kzlLKTPRss
— Ali Adili (@ali_adili) October 29, 2018

author: Khojasta Sameyee


text:
For Calypso History Month in Trinidad & Tobago, #metoo does a double-take on empowering tunes · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A screengrab from the YouTube video “Lucy” by Destra Garcia, in which the song's heroine manifests self-possession through Carnival.
In honour of Trinidad and Tobago's Calypso History Month, the Global Voices Caribbean team put together a (non-comprehensive) list of songs whose lyrics empower women. The post drew a lot of attention, sparking wonderful discussion threads in which social media users added their own favourites, or questioned why one calypso or another was left out — or, in some cases, included.
Activist and cultural enthusiast Tillah Willah disagreed with the inclusion of Kitch's “Miss Tourist” and “Flag Woman”, as she thinks “they fall into the category of men giving women instructions about what to do with their bodies.”
True, much of calypso and its spin-off, soca, is quite instructional and often zeros in on what women should and should not be doing. In the case of “Flag Woman”, though, it could be debated that the woman is the one who holds the authority:
You have no band without an experienced flag woman
The band will have no control, the music will have no soul
The revellers couldn't play their usual mas’ on Carnival day …
Let's continue the conversation with a follow-up:
The Mighty Shadow, that one-of-a-kind calypso groove master, did not make the initial selection — and indeed he should have for this song, which tells the all too common story of a woman having to fend off unwanted male attention at a party:
Your hands around my shoulder like if you are de owner … shift yuh carcass, shift yuh carcass
I might pelt a big stone and mash up yuh jawbone … you better leave me alone, mister
Drink if yuh drinkin’, dance if yuh dancin'; leave me let me do my ‘ting …
The voice of the woman — her wants and needs — are given priority in this tune, and it is interesting that Shadow, who could have used any other synonym for the man's presence, chose “carcass”. The stark image of a lifeless body strips him of all power and places the emphasis exactly where it should be: on the woman's wishes.
Suggested by writer and historian Kim Johnson, this danceable number by Winston Henry, whose sobriquet is Explainer, deals with the same issue as “Shift Yuh Carcass”, except the female character, as a Rastafarian, adds dimension with her “ras”, or dreadlocks.
But when Explainer, as the narrator of this tale, attempts to get more “familiar” with her than he should, “ras” becomes interchangeable with “rass” (note the additional “s”), Caribbean slang for the derriere. That subtle pun, coupled with the song's danceable beat and underlying message, made this offering a really popular one at Carnival when it was released:
Doh touch meh ras, doh feel meh ras, yuh hand too fas’, mister run de grass
All all yuh brothers love to do, feel up, feel up
But I is a sister doh like to deal up, deal up
In other words, no permission? Stop the action.
One of Tillah's picks, Francine Edwards’ standout calypso deals with the issue of domestic and gender-based violence, which remains a glaring problem in Trinidad and Tobago, and in other regional territories.
When a relationship goes sour, women can feel trapped mentally, emotionally, and financially, but when Edwards sings the chorus, suddenly options present themselves:
Child does run away, fowl does run away, cat does run away when you treating them bad
Cow does run away, dog does run away, what happen to you?
Woman you could run away too …
While the lyrics, in isolation, may simplify the complexities involved in escaping a dangerous relationship, Edwards was brave enough to put the topic in the national spotlight in an era when discussing such things was still quite taboo.
Veteran calypsonian Sylvester Lockhart sang this enlightened tune the very same year that he won the Road March competition with “Ah Tell She” which, like many calypsos, was instructional: “Find a party, smoke a watty, when you finish, drink a Guinness, find a corner, snatch a fella, now yuh head bad, squeeze de man hard…”
“Women of the Land”, however, was a complete 180-degree turnaround. The music had a chant-like, almost cinematic feel to it, which played up the importance of his message:
Women hold your heads high; to get respect today should be your cry
Let all the men understand: respect the women of this land.
This is a pick from journalist Soyini Grey, who calls it an “incredibly empowering” song for women:
It is literally Destra [Garcia] singing about a sort of sexual awakening through soca, at a secondary school fête. Many Trini[dadian] women can relate. Rent-a-tile, sweaty schools fêtes are a tradition, so much so that many of my friends were calling themselves Lucy for that entire Carnival season.
Part of the potency of this soca song is that it takes the “bacchanalian” behaviour usually associated with male entitlement and flips the script. Does a woman look sexy? Is she dancing sensually? Attired in skimpy clothing? That does not, and never will, equate to mean she is “fair game”. “Lucy” bestows power upon women to “free up”, while making it clear it's not an invitation to unwanted sexual advances. In the video that accompanies the song, the male characters are on the sidelines — they look, but they don't touch. Loosening up, in other words, is not a synonym for being promiscuous:
I grew up as a real good girl, always home, don't go nowhere
As soon as I was introduced to Carnival they say I loose
All down on de ground, wukkin’ wukkin’ up my bottom and it draggin’, draggin all over town and they say I ‘loosey’ […] when I drop it hot and I wining on top de speaker box and I grinding and I doh want to stop and they call me Lucy…
As Grey explains it, “The empowerment comes from self-discovery. That makes societal concerns irrelevant — she owns her body, she owns her pleasure, and you better come good if you coming.”
For a playlist of feminist Calypso music from the Caribbean, see Global Voices Spotify profile.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Israa Al-Ghomgham, a Saudi woman facing the death penalty for peaceful protest · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Human rights advocate Israa Al-Ghomgham is facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, for her non-violent human rights related activities.
Al-Ghomgham was arrested in 2015 along with her husband, activist Mousa Al-Hashim, over their roles in anti-government protests in Al-Qatif back in 2011, when pro-democracy protests spread across the Middle East and North Africa.
A #FreeIsraa campaign photo, circulated on Twitter.
Al-Qatif is located in the Eastern Province, where most of the country’s Shiite minority — who make up 10 to 15 percent of the population live. Shiite Muslims in the Sunni-dominated kingdom face ”pervasive discrimination”, including unfair treatment under the justice system, government interference with their religious practices, exclusion from public sector jobs, in addition to stigma and sectarian speech, according to Human Rights Watch.
Alongside many other Saudi Shiites, Al-Ghomgham and her husband were protesting these injustices and demanding that the Saudi government uphold their human rights.
Al-Ghomgham faces eight charges including “preparing, sending and storing material that would harm the public order” under Article 6 of the Cybercrime Act of 2007. She also stands accused of “inciting rallies and young people against the state and security forces on social networking sites”, and posting photos and video of these protests online. State prosecutors for her case are seeking the death penalty.
She was put on trial in early August 2018 before the counter-terrorism court, the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC). A second hearing took place on October 28, but neither her nor the other defendants in the case were brought to court, the Gulf Center for Human Rights reported. The next hearing is scheduled for November 21.
Today #IsraaAlGhomgham second court hearing did take place, but neither Israa nor the other activists being trialled alongside her were present.
It is unknown why the Saudi authorities failed to transport them to the courtroom
Third court hearing will be Wednesday 21st November
— #IsraaAlGhomgham #إسراء_الغمغام (@IsraaAlGhomgham) October 28, 2018
In addition to Al-Ghomgham, five more individuals are standing trial before the SCC this week for charges related to exercising their peaceful rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, according to Amnesty International. The human rights organisation documented eight cases where activists are facing the death penalty:
The Public Prosecution’s recurring calls to resort to the death penalty in the past three months for at least eight individuals raises the alarm about the fate of dozens of activists who are currently detained without charge or trial and for those currently on trial before the SCC.
Among those who stood trial this week was religious cleric Salman al-Awda. State security officials arrested him in September 2017 and charged him with a litany of offenses, including calling for reforms and regime change in the Arab region. He also faces the death penalty.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's attorney general Saud al-Mujib arrived in Turkey on Monday, October 29, to join an investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Al-Mujib has often been sent after political rivals of the monarchy, and those who challenge the kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Leaders around the world have pointed at Bin Salman, accusing him of playing a role in the journalist's murder.
Many are wondering how Bin Salman can endeavor to bring justice to Jamal while at the same time seeking the death penalty against those practicing their rights to freedom of expression.
The same Saudi Attorney General who sought death penalty against my father @salman_alodah and others because of their peaceful activism, is going to Turkey to discuss the death of #khashoggi who was killed because of his peaceful activism!
?
— د. عبدالله العودة (@aalodah) October 27, 2018

author: Afef Abrougui


text:
Madagascar citizens demand transparency in a fishy deal with China · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Whales swimming off the coast of northwestern Madagacsar by Salvatore Cerchio et al. / Royal Society Open Science CC-BY-4.0 (http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/10/150301.article-info)
In September 2018, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, the incumbent president of Madagascar, announced that a 10-year fishing agreement had been finalized between the Malagasy Agency for Economic Development and Promotion of Enterprises and Taihe Century Investments Developments Corporation, a Chinese business consortium.
According to sources in Madagascar, the president had negotiated the deal with almost no input from his administration, parliament or civil society.  Madagascar's main development partners, including the World Bank and the European Union were not informed of the deal either.
A press release from the president's website announced that the 10-year agreement comes with a promise of investment by the Taihe corporation of up to 2.7 billion USD. It is not clear precisely how this money will be used, although it says the funds will go toward building fisheries infrastructure and supporting fisheries management. Part of the investment will also go toward a bamboo forestation project.
In return, the Chinese consortium will be allowed to deploy up to 330 vessels in coastal fisheries.
The deal was unilaterally conducted by the office of the president, raising concern and anger from Malagasy citizens. The Fishing Ministry confirmed that they have not been involved in the agreement either and expressed concerns about the risks of over-exploiting the island's sea resources.
In Madagascar, the fisheries sector is both a source of income and a vital means of subsistence for the coastal population. This fishing deal may very well endanger the lives and overall survival of 250,000 Malagasy citizens.
Citizens launched a petition to demand more information on the agreement and ensure the protection of Malagasy sea resources. As of October 28, more than 15,000 signatures have been collected. Madagascar Locally Managed Marine Area Network—MiHARI has raised a red flag as well. MiHARI President Hermany Emoantra stated in an interview:
The livelihoods of Madagascar’s coastal communities will be seriously threatened if they must compete with the potential catch capacity of these fishing boats. We mustn’t forget that with the arrival of just six industrial fishing boats in the Toliara region this year, some communities are already struggling to make ends meet. So, imagine what could happen with (the projected) 330 boats — how will these people live, where will they go?
The signing of the agreement between Chinese and Malagasy delegations via Fishing Ministry webpage / Public Domain.
Transparency International Initiative—Madagascar also published a communiqué emphasizing the risks resulting from the opacity of this agreement:
[Cet accord] représente en réalité une menace sans précédent sur notre environnement marin déjà fragile. L’accord a été signé en présence de M. Hery Rajaonarimampianina, sans concertation aucune avec les acteurs concernés, en ignorant les probables répercussions négatives à long terme pour l’environnement et la population malagasy. L’opacité entourant les conditions d’attribution de ce contrat est particulièrement inquiétante. Aucune garantie n’est offerte sur les supposées retombées économiques importantes de ce projet d’investissement. La seule certitude à ce jour est qu’il doit démarrer dès cette année. Les gains potentiels avancés par l’AMDP sont par ailleurs sujets à caution dans la mesure où, à notre connaissance, aucune étude d’impact économique ou environnemental n’a été faite.
[This agreement] is, in fact, an unprecedented threat to our already fragile marine environment. The agreement was signed in the presence of Mr. Hery Rajaonarimampianina, without any consultation with the actors concerned, ignoring the likely long-term negative repercussions for the environment and the Malagasy population. The opacity surrounding the conditions of the award of this contract is particularly worrying. No guarantee was offered on the supposed significant economic benefits of this investment project. The only certainty so far is that it must start this year. The potential gains  are also questionable insofar as, to our knowledge, no economic or environmental impact study has been done.
This fishing controversy is happening a few weeks prior to the presidential elections on November 7.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


text:
One dead in Sri Lanka amidst a constitutional crisis · Global Voices
Rezwan

Protesters in the Sri Lankan capital asking the president to reconvene parliament and settle the issue of appointment of Prime Minister there. Image via GroundViews Facebook page. October 30, 2018.
On 26 October, the political situation in Sri Lanka began to deteriorate when incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena appointed the former president and opposition Member of Parliament Mahinda Rajapaksa prime minister — a move that ousted the sitting PM Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The ensuing power struggle between ousted PM Wickremesinghe and the newly appointed PM Rajapaksa has led to the death of one protester who was shot when the bodyguard of a sacked minister fired at a crowd in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.
The sacking of Wickremesinghe has led to a constitutional crisis in Sri Lanka with many questioning the legitimacy of the President's actions.
After PM Wickremesinghe was sacked, President Sirisena suspended the country’s parliament for three weeks and withdrew Wickremesinghe's personal security details and vehicles.
The security detail of UNP Leader & sacked #SriLanka PM #RanilWickremesinghe has been reduced to 10 personnel from 1,008 on the directions of IGP. It is reported that the 10-member security detail would be comprised only of Ministerial Security Division members & no STF members. pic.twitter.com/pScTmOKvFy
— Prassanata (@Prsnnta) October 29, 2018
What has ensued is a power struggle between the newly appointed PM and the recently ousted PM who both believe in the legitimacy of their position. After the news broke, supporters of the two men took to the streets — eventually leading to the death of one protester.
On 28 October, the President dissolved the cabinet of ministers and supporters of  Mahinda Rajapaksa began blocking ministers from the old cabinet from entering their offices. That same evening, a mob prevented ousted cabinet member Arjuna Ranatunga from entering his office, leading Ranatunga's bodyguard to fire live rounds into the crowd.
According to the police, one 34-year-old person died and two others were wounded. The guard was immediately arrested. On 30 October, the police also arrested minister Ranatunga over the shooting incident.
“They tried to kill me, around 50 mob entered with poles & one of them tried to grab the weapon of my PSD officer, Then he shot, There is CCTV evidence, Media can get them and see how they behaved” Arjuna Ranatunga explains what happened pic.twitter.com/4brwA1QliB
— Mohamed Arkil (@mrmarkil) October 29, 2018
Hearing about his removal, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, reiterated that he had no intention of leaving his post.
“I am still the PM” says Ranil Wickremesinghe. Speaking to News 1st he said he retains the position of PM & the swearing in was unconstitutional- Newsfirst
— Mohamed Arkil (@mrmarkil) October 26, 2018
Wickremesinghe also said that at least 128 MPs in the 225-member assembly have signed to call for an immediate reconvening of parliament. Hundreds of Wickremesinghe supporters showed their support by gathering outside his official home waving party flags and denouncing President Sirisena and newly appointed PM Rajapaksa.
Meanwhile, Rajapaksa’s supporters occupied the state-owned Rupavahini television studios by force because of the station's believed support for Wickremesinghe.
Chaos at @rupavahinitv
Several pro @PresRajapaksa MPs seen along with their supporters.
Rupavahini has suspended its transmission.
STF has been brought in.
Footage Courtesy @NewsfirstSL #LKA #SriLanka #PoliticalCrisisLK #Media #Rupavahini pic.twitter.com/ekyvs7IAXJ
— Munza Mushtaq (@munza14) October 26, 2018
Can #SriLanka and SriLankans spare their lunch break tomorrow, for the sake of our own future? Let us clearly tell the people in power, that a #coup will not be tolerated. This is beyond Ranil or UNP. Lets stand up for ourselves. Our futures!#CoupLK #ConstitutionalCrisisLK #LKA pic.twitter.com/dZMaJhzbVR
— Fayaz Mahroof (@fayazmahroof) October 29, 2018
On 30 October, thousands took to the streets of Colombo to demand that Parliament be reconvened in order to resolve the ongoing political crisis:
Protest has begun at Liberty Roundabout. Tens of thousands are asking @MaithripalaS to immediately summon Parliament so democracy can be restored. #SriLankanPolitics @officialunp @RW_UNP pic.twitter.com/tDhaRvDzJ9
— Harsha de Silva (@HarshadeSilvaMP) October 30, 2018
While the ousted PM saw the protest as an implied call for his reinstatement, other groups saw it as an opportunity to speak out against what they saw as the “proroguing of Parliament”. What remains to be seen is whether or not the next days and weeks will bring more violence.

author: Rezwan


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A thespian, a journalist and a politician. Three minority women busting barriers in Georgia · Global Voices
Chaikhana.media

The following is a version of a partner post by Global Voices’ partner Chai-Khana.org. Text by Nurana Mammad. All photos by Elene Shengelia and Ian McNaught Davis.
Throughout the Caucasus, many believe that the community in which you were born determines who you are and what you become. But three ethnic Azerbaijani women in Georgia have found ways to defy those barriers and to craft their own identities as independent professionals.
Tbilisi-born actress Aida Tagiyeva, 29, prepares for a rehearsal at the Azerbaijani State Dramatic Theater in Tbilisi. Tagiyeva graduated in journalism, but acting is her real passion.
Aida Tagiyeva is one of just three female actresses who make up the Heydar Aliyev Azerbaijani State Dramatic Theater’s 11-person ensemble. Some people in Georgia’s ethnic Azerbaijani community, she says, believe that, as a woman, she shouldn’t be there at all.
“Society does not normally accept a woman actress who performs in the theatres,” she says of these individuals. “They accuse us of immorality because of our work.”
An intense portrait of Tagiyeva in a stage costume. The 29-year-old says she relishes the opportunity that acting gives her to interpret different roles.
With that mentality in mind, the ensemble censors some of its performances, often leaving out love scenes. Tbilisi-born Tagiyeva, who has been acting with the Azerbaijani State Dramatic Theatre since she was 16, laments that “there is no culture of theatres” among those Azerbaijani Georgians who adhere to conservative, patriarchal norms.
“People don’t like plays which will make them think and enlighten them. It’s very hard to force a society which does not like reading to love theatres.”
Tagiyeva in a scene of “Under The Ground,” a psychological drama in which she plays the role of Aisha, a mother who confronts the generation divide.Though not a mother herself, Tagiyeva says she feels the role deeply since clashes between generations are common in Georgia’s ethnic Azerbaijani families.
Attendance at the theatre’s performances is sparse, according to Tagiyeva — anywhere from five to 40 people.
With their building in disrepair, the ensemble must perform in other Tbilisi theatres and make its own costumes to save money.
Theatre, though, has not been the only stage for Tagiyeva. With friends, the broadcast journalism graduate co-founded in 2015 a website, Rennesans.ge, to cover Georgian politics and social issues.
Tagiyeva poses on the smaller of the Azerbaijani theatre’s two stages. Most actors in Georgia struggle to make ends meet. Performers in the Azerbaijani theater earn, on average, 250 – 300 laris ($102 – $122) per month, Tagiyeva says, but that amount has to cover all their expenses, including travel costs.
“This website gave a voice to the society we live in. We wanted somehow to change this society,” she says.
But a backlash from the site’s publication of a cartoon that depicted young people with books walking out of an encaged mosque led to its closure after jut a year.
Threatened by “radical Muslims,” Tagiyeva says she turned to the police. She brought the project to an early end but claims the cartoon was not the reason.
Posters from past performances of the Heydar Aliyev Azerbaijani State Dramatic Theater hang in the theater’s foyer, located in the center of Tbilisi. The ensemble is driven by pure passion – the actors and actresses face hard work, low income and suspicion from those who not value the performing arts.
She has no plans to give up on the theatre. Her identity is as an actress. Though salaries are low (averaging between 250 and 300 laris, or $102-$122, per month), the ensemble puts their hearts into their performances, she says.
“In our theatre, nobody works for money. The theatre is our love. It is hard, but we have to work in order to change our society.”
Kamilla Mammadova, 33, in her home in Marneuli, a town in southern Georgia.
Kamilla Mammadova did what many would love to do: she turned a hobby of listening to the radio into a career in her hometown. But, as the founder of Radio Marneuli, the only community radio station in southern Georgia’s predominantly ethnic Azerbaijani town of Marneuli, she has to assert her right to that career every day.
Mammadova with her dog Khanna, whom she calls her child. Unmarried and with two degrees, the 33-year-old contrasts starkly with expectations for more conservative women in Marneuli of the same age.
Her station, established in 2006 as part of a BBC project, covers local news and issues in both Georgian and Azerbaijani. It emphasizes its editorial independence from any political influence and does not shy away from criticizing the government. An open-microphone policy allows anyone to come on air and discuss their grievances.
Radio is Mammadova’s passion. She spends most of her day at work and listens to the radio each day before bedtime. “This was my favourite hobby. It turned into a job.”
“There are many problems in our region. It was necessary to bring these problems to the public’s attention.”
For some in Marneuli, however, that spells trouble.
Mammadova with one of Radio Marneuli’s journalists. Until it received an FM license in 2016, Radio Marneuli depended primarily on their website to get their content out. They also handed out audio cassettes and broadcast shows via loudspeakers in Marneuli parks.
More traditionally minded individuals believe unmarried women — particularly those seen as beyond the usual age of marriage — should not assert themselves in public and challenge the government.
Some have asked Mammadova to respect these customs, she says.
“They call me lesbian, immoral,” Mammadova comments. “By using such slander, they try to prevent me from providing accurate information. But this will not happen. I'm a human being and, as a journalist, I will continue to convey the truth.”
Aside from work, family is part of the reason why Mammadova has never thought of leaving Marneuli, she says.
Mammadova, who holds a double degree in journalism and law, describes her aim as encouraging ethnic Azerbaijanis to speak Georgian and use their knowledge of current affairs to hold the government accountable to voters.
But Mammadova says its commitment to editorial independence has often been at odds with local authorities as well as with those locals who avoid challenging the government.
But doing so required a struggle. Radio Marneuli only received an FM license in 2016.
The Georgian National Communications Commission attributed the delay to technical reasons. Mammadova contends the station’s editorial independence and Azerbaijani-language broadcasts made officials wary.
She believes they still may be, but intends to persevere:  “[W]e are free and we bring the truth to people.”
Ismayilova splits her time between the UNM headquarters and her office in the town of Bolnisi.
As the first ethnic Azerbaijani woman in Georgia to head a district branch of a major political party, Samira Ismayilova is used to standing out. But in conservative rural communities in her native district of Bolnisi, that can be a potential handicap.
Ismayilova, a member of the opposition United National Movement, claims that threats and slander about her personal life dogged her 2016 campaign for parliament. This was all part of a broader attempt “to close off female politicians” and “scare me out of the campaign,” she alleges.
That attitude can be common in Georgia in “areas where ethnic minorities live,” she asserts.  “[A]n Azerbaijani woman who has been active in politics in our region is (something) almost never seen.”
Ismayilova wants to change that.
A native of Georgia’s Bolnisi region, 27-year-old Ismayilova got involved in politics as a university student and was elected in 2016 to the municipal council of the town of Bolnisi.
Born in the ethnic Azerbaijani village of Darbazi in Bolnisi, Ismayilova, partly educated abroad, first got involved in politics as a student at Tbilisi’s Georgian Technical University.  After an internship in parliament, she began working as an adviser on ethnic minorities to the education ministry and, later, to former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Her next step was to become a politician herself. “As a citizen and mother, I want to see a more developed Georgia,” she says. Her 2016 bid for parliament failed, but she now sits on the town council of Bolnisi, seat of the homonymous district.
Shown here in the UNM’s headquarters, she is the first ethnic Azerbaijani woman in Georgia to head a district branch of a major political party.
She describes her work as visiting ethnic Azerbaijani villages and listening to residents’ problems with infrastructure, unemployment and education. She tries to prevent early marriages and to prompt ethnic Azerbaijani women to speak out and campaign for change themselves.
Whether her efforts will succeed is unclear, but Ismayilova keeps her focus on the future.
“I believe I can change many things by using my power as a politician.”
“When I was in the election campaign in 2016, I faced a lot of things. I've come across . . . threats, threats to family members and other pressures. People were discussing my personal life. They are trying to find dirty ways to defame me.”


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Jordan reclaims lands ‘rented to the Israelis’ under 1994 peace treaty · Global Voices
Maram Alkayed

A present-day memorial in Baqoura/Naharayim. Photo by Yoavd via Public Domain. Source: Wikipedia.
Jordanian King Abdullah II's decision to terminate sections of the Wadi Araba Peace Treaty, restoring several areas of Israeli-rented land back to Jordan, was well-received by Jordanians, who called the move an “historic win.”
Jordanians long referred to the lands of Baqoura (Naharayim in Hebrew) and Ghumar as “Jordanian lands rented to the Israelis” under the 1994 Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty. In a March TV interview with the prime minister and chief peace negotiator Abdel Salam Majali, he revealed that these were “privately-owned Israeli lands under Jordanian sovereignty,” shocking both the Israelis and Jordanians.
Jordanian citizens, political parties, and parliamentary figures revisited the terms of the peace treaty and confirmed that the annexes concerning the two areas indeed do not mention the term “lease” despite prevailing public perception.
The peace treaty, in fact, places the Baqoura and Ghumar lands under “a special regime” between the two countries for a period of 25 years, ending in October 2019. The agreement meant that the areas were not subject to customs or immigration legislation. It also granted unlimited Israeli travel and Israeli property rights.
In the case that neither country wishes to renew the terms of the agreement, it is obliged to give a one-year notice to the other of its intention to do so, or the terms are automatically renewed.
The revelation made in March angered the public, who thought of the continuous use of the term “lease” when speaking about the issue in previous years was “a deliberate attempt to fool the public”, reiterated in a press conference by Ibraheem Tarawneh, president of the Professional Associations Council.
Tarawneh said:
We were fooled into thinking it was a lease to be terminated after 25 years, but now we know that there is no lease, and that we were actually under what qualifies as Israeli occupation and exploitation all this time.
The Jordanian public spent the next seven months demanding a clear statement from the government regarding the approaching deadline of the announcement that Jordan should make if it wishes to terminate the annexes.
With the government refusing to comment on the issue and only four days left before the deadline to renew the terms, Jordanian activists took to the streets on October 19, 2018, to express a strong stance against the renewal, which they called “a stain of shame that long haunted the Jordanian people.”
Two days after the protest, the King's announcement of Jordan's wish to terminate the annexes of Baquoura and Ghumar in the treaty was made via Twitter, signaling positive reactions from Jordanians over the Kingdom who had grown anxious over the government's silence over the issue.
لطالما كانت الباقورة والغمر على رأس أولوياتنا، وقرارنا هو إنهاء ملحقي الباقورة والغمر من اتفاقية السلام انطلاقا من حرصنا على اتخاذ كل ما يلزم من أجل الأردن والأردنيين
— عبدالله بن الحسين (@KingAbdullahII) October 21, 2018
Baqoura and Ghumar were at the top of our priorities. Our decision is to terminate the Baquoura and Ghamar annexes from the (1994 Jordan-Israel) peace treaty out of our keenness to take all decisions that would serve Jordan and Jordanians.
The government has not yet released next steps in terms of land reclamation, but political analysts predict that in the case of Baqoura lands —privately owned by Israelis — the government will have to buy it back from their rightful owners.
As for Ghumar, the “special regime” will be annulled along with the treaty, simply restoring the lands into Jordanian sovereignty and reinstating regulations such as immigration and customs legislation once absent under the treaty.
Following the King's announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted the same day:
سندخل في مفاوضات مع الأردن حول امكانية الاستمرار في الإجراءات الحالية. ولكن بدون شك, من منظور عام, المعاهدة برمتها تشكل ذخرا مهما وغاليا للبلدين.
— بنيامين نتنياهو (@Israelipm_ar) October 21, 2018
We will enter negotiations with Jordan about the possibility of extending the existing agreement. But without a doubt, the treaty forms an important and valuable asset for both countries.
There was no further discussion from either side after the Netanyahu tweet, although rumors started circulating that Israel was going to cut off its water supply to Jordan. This was immediately denied by the Jordanian government.

author: Maram Alkayed


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Netizen Report: How WhatsApp (and $3 million) helped carry Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro to victory · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Stencil art in Wisconsin, US. Photo by David Drexel via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
The Advox Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world. This report covers the events we tracked in October 2018.
On October 28, Latin America's largest democracy elected a president whose campaign was propelled by violence, vicious rumors of fraud and a cascade of online news and information that has proven to be false.
President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has served in Brazil's National Congress since 1991, openly expresses misogynistic and homophobic views and recently vowed to “put an end to all activism in Brazil.’’
Just ten days before the final vote, Bolsonaro’s campaign was found to have spent $3 million to spread news on WhatsApp. Folha de São Paulo, one of the most important news outlets in Brazil, uncovered the scheme that laid bare the possible roots of many of the viral, divisive messages and false reports that spread on social media in Brazil during the months before the election. Despite efforts by multiple fact-checking groups, and some interventions by Facebook, disinformation appears to have played a major role in Bolsonaro’s campaign.
Those who have sought to expose disinformation efforts have also paid a price for it. Shortly after Folha de São Paulo reporter Patricia Campos Mello wrote about the $3 million WhatsApp scheme, she began receiving threats and had her personal WhatsApp account hacked. The attackers erased a few of her conversations and sent pro-Bolsonaro messages to her contacts.  A reporter at Estado de São Paulo, a different newspaper, was doxxed after writing a follow up to Mello’s story. According to the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (ABRAJI), there have been 141 cases of threats and violence against journalists registered during the coverage of 2018 elections.
Bolsonaro’s campaign may face tough questions from Brazil’s judiciary, as the WhatsApp scheme may have violated Brazilian election and data protection laws. But for now, the far-right candidate is sitting proud, preparing for his inauguration and actively communicating with his followers on WhatsApp.
Two Indonesian men were arrested for “transmitting and spreading electronic information containing immorality”, a crime under Indonesia’s Electronic Transactions and Information Law. The two were running a gay meetup and match-making group on Facebook. On October 18, police raided their apartment and confiscated five mobile phones and 25 condoms.
Three journalists in Myanmar were arrested on October 11 and charged with causing “fear or alarm to the public” after they published an investigation on Eleven News Media into public spending on Yangon’s city transit system. The Burmese free speech advocacy group Athan has recorded 43 legal cases filed against journalists in Myanmar since April 2016.
Vietnamese journalist Do Cong Duong was convicted of “abusing democratic freedoms” and sentenced to five years in prison on October 12, over his efforts to report on corruption, land misuse and forced evictions on Facebook and YouTube. He was sentenced separately in September 2018 for “disturbing public order.”
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency has made 209 arrests so far in 2018 under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act. Passed in 2016, the law criminalizes some forms of online harassment (defined as “indecent” communications) but also grants the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority significant powers to remove speech from the Internet “if it considers it necessary in the interest of the glory of Islam, or the integrity, security, or defence of Pakistan.”
Nigerian journalist Jaafar Jaafar went into hiding after receiving multiple death threats in mid-October after publishing video evidence of a local governor accepting USD $5 million in kickbacks from private contractors.
Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi went missing on October 2. Khashoggi went into the Saudi embassy in Istanbul to collect paperwork for his marriage and never returned. Istanbul’s chief prosecutor issued an official statement on October 31 saying that Khashoggi was strangled upon entering the embassy, and that agents of the Saudi government then dismembered his body. An op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, Jamal Khashoggi had previously worked as an editor for Al Watan, one of the most pro-reform media outlets in the kingdom.
It has been one year since the murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Best known for her independent news blog, Running Commentary, Caruana Galizia was the first to break the news of Maltese politicians’ involvement in the Panama Papers in April 2016. Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb on October 16, 2017. Her supporters say the investigation of her murder has “not been done independently nor impartially” and continue to call for justice in her case.
On the eve of elections, ISPs in Cameroon slowed down social media and mobile messaging services. This is nothing new for Cameroon, where the country’s anglophone region has sustained more than 230 days of internet shutdowns since 2016.
Internet access is too expensive. The World Wide Web Foundation’s latest Affordability Report shows that internet access is unaffordable in 60% of countries. In November, the Web Foundation will release a new report showing that global rates of internet adoption (i.e. people coming online for the first time) are falling fast — from 19% in 2007 to just 6% in 2017.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Nwachukwu Egbunike, Rohith Jyothish, Talal Raza, Elizabeth Rivera, Juke Carolina Rumuat, Taisa Sganzerla, Filip Stojanovski and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Sarajevo awards honorary citizenship to UK heavy metal star Bruce Dickinson · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

A screenshot from the documentary “Scream for me, Sarajevo” with original footage from the 14 December 1994 concert featuring Chris Dale and Bruce Dickinson.
In a unanimous vote, Sarajevo City Council decided to grant the title of “Honorary citizen of Sarajevo” to UK musician Bruce Dickinson.
Session of Sarajevo City Council on 31 October 2018. Photo from the official website of Sarajevo City Council.
The honors have been bestowed in remembrance of Dickinson’s visit in the midst of the Siege of Sarajevo, at the peak of Bosnian War. It included a concert performance on 14 December 1994.
According to the City Council’s press release, the move was initiated by an NGO, the association of artists Concept Media.
Dickinson is best known as lead singer of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden, which has had (and still has) a huge following across former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe.
The story of Dickinson’s concert had been a subject of the 2016 documentary film “Scream for me, Sarajevo,” inspired by a 2010 post on the blog MetalTalk by band member Chris Dale.
The film was made by a group of Bosnian authors, including the producer Adnan Ćuhara. In an interview, years after his visit, Dickinson recounts how the experience in the besieged city changed him:
I was quite naive about it. They wouldn't be asking us to go into a proper war […] and it was more than just a proper war. It was a PROPER war. It was harrowing and it changed the way I thought about people.
In a recent statement for Sarajevo newspaper Dnevni avaz, Ćuhara said Bruce Dickinson expressed gratitude to all, especially the citizens of Sarajevo. In his characteristic modest manner, the musician noted that he shares the credit for the award with the band who came with him to the perilous journey, and the people from the UN who supported the event.
Bruce Dickinson o tituli Počasni građanin Sarajeva: Emocije se miješaju, hvala svima https://t.co/o3x2vdVtpj
— Edita Gorinjac (@EditaGorinjac) October 31, 2018
Bruce Dickinson about the title Honorary citizen of Sarajevo: My emotions are swirling, thank you all.
Dickinson has not confirmed whether he will be able to come to Sarajevo on November 25 to receive the award in person.
@alex_hefner You gotta watch “Scream For Me Sarajevo” and read Bruce Dickinson's autobiography. You'll gain a whole new appreciation for the God of Metal
— Tim Brown (@Brimtown) October 26, 2018
A total of 13,952 people were killed during the siege of Sarajevo, including 5,434 civilians. It lasted almost 3 years and 11 months and is considered the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare.
At the time, contacts with foreign artists meant a lot to the besieged citizens who spent their lives isolated and under artillery and sniper fire from the nearby hills. Over the years, they have been expressing their gratitude to artists who boosted their morale with various expressions of support, including paying homage to UK music star David Bowie.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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The Cop and the Showgirl, or how China’s newest tool of repression targets the rich and powerful · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Actress Fan Bing-Bing and Interpol chief Meng Hongwei are two of the prominent and powerful Chinese citizens detained under liuzhi, the new detention law that “consolidates the graft-fighting powers of various governmental departments.” Photo of Fan Bing-Bing by Georges Biard via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Photo of Meng Hongwei by Diarmud Greene/Web Summit  (CC BY 2.0)
By Karen Kao
“The Cop and the Showgirl” sounds like the title of a hard-boiled detective novel. Or a screwball comedy with lots of feathered costumes. But this story is about Meng Hongwei, the supercop, and Fan Bingbing, the starlet—the most famous victims to date of China’s newest form of repression: liuzhi.
Human Rights Watch defines liuzhi (留置) as “retention in custody”. It’s a new form of detention for graft suspects. China's National Supervision Commission (NSC) can hold suspects up to 6 months. The NSC must videotape the interrogations. But the detainee has no right to see the tape or, for that matter, a lawyer. The investigators must notify the family within 24 hours, unless that would impede the investigation. There is no independent oversight.
Liuzhi is Chinese president Xi Jinping’s newest tool to combat corruption. It consolidates the graft-fighting powers of various governmental departments. According to Xinhua, the state mouthpiece, liuzhi will:
add to people’s confidence and trust in the party, and consolidate the foundation of the party’s rule.
Fan Bingbing is China’s most famous actress. She is the star of numerous Chinese productions and one of the few to make it to Hollywood. Western viewers know her as the character Blink in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Or as the face of Guerlain, Montblanc and De Beers diamonds. Fan has 62 million followers on Weibo, China’s Twitter.
In May 2018, a former TV anchor accused Fan of tax evasion. Fan denied the allegations and promptly disappeared. Her fans went into a frenzy. Chinese officials refused to confirm or deny whether Fan was in custody. The New York Times obtained this statement from the Wuxi Public Security Bureau:
The situation is that we all speak with one voice from top to bottom: that is that we don’t accept interviews and we have no comment.
In early October, Fan resurfaced. She confessed to under-reporting her income. She called her actions a betrayal of China.
Was Fan Bingbing a victim of liuzhi? She doesn’t appear to be a Party member or a government authority, but the Chinese film industry is controlled by the state. China Film Group Corporation is a state-owned enterprise. Its subsidiary, China Film Co., has a 58% share in the Chinese movie distribution market. It also
plays a leading role in controlling sale and distribution to movie theaters across the country. It sets the quota for foreign movies allowed to screen domestically, and works closely with the government’s censorship agencies.
Maybe that’s enough of a nexus for liuzhi. Or Fan’s true crime was her conspicuous consumption. Fame, rather than protecting Fan, may have caused her downfall.
While a world-famous actress may be unsafe in China, surely a supercop can protect himself. Shortly after Fan Bingbing confessed, Meng Hongwei disappeared. At the time he was the president of Interpol and the first Chinese national to hold that post.
Meng was last seen leaving the Interpol offices in Lyon, France, en route to China. His wife reported him missing after she received the macabre message “wait for my call” and a knife emoji.
Two days later, Chinese authorities confirmed Meng’s detention under the liuzhi system. Meng resigned from his position at Interpol. We now know that Meng is accused of taking bribes.
Are the bribery charges true or, as some critics claim, is Xi Jinping eliminating his rivals? Just one year ago, the two men were allies. Now there is no question that Meng will be convicted. Maybe he’ll be given a show trial like Bo Xilai. It hardly matters, as China prides itself on its 99.9% conviction rate. A court appearance is no more than a gesture.
If all of this sounds familiar to you, that's because it is.
First, show trials and coerced public confessions are not new in China. You might even say they’re a time-honored tradition since the days of Mao Zedong. Briton Peter Humphrey was jailed on charges of illegally acquiring personal information of Chinese nationals. A confession was the quid pro quo for medical care or release. What inducements would a corruption suspect like Fan Bingbing need to confess?
Second, there is no system of checks and balances in China. All power is political. Even the constitution now says that the liuzhi agency ranks higher than the judiciary and the prosecutor’s office. According to Professor Stanley Lubben, an expert on Chinese law reform, this act of formalism merely confirmed the obvious.
The Party, while formally parallel to the courts, has always been superior in power to all of China’s legal institutions.
Finally, enforced disappearances have become an everyday occurrence in Xi’s China. Ai Weiwei, booksellers in Hong Kong, the entire Uighur people. Activists seeking redress for a state-sponsored program using tainted vaccines. When Meng Hongwei was elected Interpol president, human rights organizations were concerned that China would use Interpol to pursue its enemies beyond China’s borders.
In fact, the problem is worse than ever. Professor Lubben calls liuzhi a reflection of
the Party’s paranoid fear of serious weakening by corruption and its deep commitment to control over Chinese society.
Just two months after liuzhi became law, on 8 May 2018, the first liuzhi related death took place. According to the RSDLmonitor:
Chen Yong (陈勇), 45, from Nanping city in Fujian province had been detained for 26 days under liuzhi on a bribery case when the family received notification that he was dead. They said his torso was covered in bruises.
Chen was no corruption suspect. Instead, he was once the driver for someone who is. The scope of liuzhi’s potential victims is vast.
Amnesty International initially estimated that liuzhi would affect
Communist Party members or public sector personnel–virtually anyone working directly or indirectly for the government. Judges, academics and personnel of state-owned enterprises….
The Communist Party has 90 million members. The South China Morning Post adds to that group:
managers of state-owned enterprises, hospitals, educational and cultural institutions, sports organisations and even village governments and research institutes.
The rich and powerful can no longer buy or bully their way out of trouble, as the cautionary tale of the supercop and the showgirl shows. These days in China no one is safe.
Karen Kao is a poet, fiction writer and essayist based in Amsterdam. This original version of this essay was published on Inkstone Press.

author: Guest Contributor


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A 15-year-old rape victim is the latest collateral damage of Duterte’s drug war · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

Screenshot from news channel News5Everywhere/Youtube.
Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war has reached a new low this week when a police officer was arrested for raping the 15-year-old daughter of detained drug suspects in the capital Manila.
Photos of officer Eduardo Valencia of the Philippine National Police (PNP) pleading with his superiors for having brought the teenager to a motel in exchange for the release of her parents have gone viral. Medical tests showed signs of rape.
Critics of President Duterte say it is his misogyny, rape jokes, and repeated assurances to defend police and military in the course of his government’s anti-drug and counterinsurgency operations that has normalized a macho culture of sexual abuse.
Reprimanded by the police chief while on live television, Valencia tried to justify his actions with the following line which seem to amount to an admission that rape was, in fact, nothing out of the ordinary in the police force:
Sir, may pamilya po ako. Sir, hindi na po bago sa ating mga operatiba yan ‘pag may nahuli tayong drug pusher.
Sir, I have a family. Sir, this is not new for our operatives whenever we arrest drug pushers.
Earlier this month, three upper-class cadets of the PNP Academy came under investigation for allegedly forcing two first-year police academy students for sexual assault.
A report by the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) released on October 31st shows there have been 33 documented cases of police abuse against women and children since Duterte took power on June 30, 2016, until October 2018. Of this figure, 16 involve rape while the rest include other forms of physical assault, sexual harassment, blackmailing, and trafficking.
SOME MONSTERS ARE REAL. They live on people's taxes, wear uniforms, and prey on vulnerable women and children. The more horrible part is that the President condones their crimes. #LabananAngAbuso pic.twitter.com/jhEIlYKw00
— Gabriela WomensParty (@GabrielaWomenPL) October 31, 2018
Among many other instances, Duterte told troops last year that he will answer their rape cases:
Trabaho lang kayo. Ako na bahala. Ako na magpakulong sa inyo. Pag naka-rape ka ng tatlo, aminin ko na akin ‘yun.
Just work on it. I'll take care of everything. I will be the one to jail you. If you commit rape three times, I'll take responsibility for it.
Here are some of the outraged reactions on Twitter:
This is Duterte’s gift to the Philippines: enabling the police to extort, kill, and rape the most vulnerable families. Akala ko ba adik ang nagnanakaw at nagrerape? If there is a hell, I hope you all rot in it. https://t.co/2trSbglkCu
— Ica Fernandez (@icafernandez) October 29, 2018
I thought it was the addicts who steal and rape?
The Philippine National Police idolizes President Duterte. From the merciless killings of poor drug suspects to the rape of women and children, these are all blatantly encouraged by the president himself. His words and actions has brought misery to the Filipino nation.
— Veronica L. Gregorio (@veronixgregorio) October 29, 2018
Oplan Tokhang, Oplan Tambay, Oplan Kapayapaan, Martial Law, Rape Culture, Red October etc.
Ang gobyerno ni Duterte ang pinakanakakagimbal na horror story! #DuterTrickorThreat
— Angelica Reyes (@anjkabataan) October 31, 2018
Duterte's government is the most horrendous horror story!
Three times in the last two months the #Duterte gov has said the #Philippines will put the lives of police officers over the lives of “drug suspects”. That ideology in the Palace is what enabled this pig to rape a 15yo girl bc the parents were “suspects”.https://t.co/EoNL0k3RFf
— לוֹחְמָנִי (@alders_ledge) October 30, 2018
It's not solely his fault, but look at it this way: Think of Duterte as a father (we call him “Tatay” even), and he tells his kids it's OK to rape and jokes about it regularly. When his children rapes, wouldn't you hold the father accountable for being an enabler?
— Juan Bisaya (@unlucky911) October 31, 2018
Kung ano ang puno sya rin ang bunga! Hindi lang pumatay ang ibig sabihin ng Tokhang kundi RAPE.
Karumaldumal ang mga kriminal sa gobyerno sa pangunguna ni Despicable Duterte, who has emboldened his goons- AFP & PNP to kill the poor & rape women w/ impunity, at may pabuya pa nga. pic.twitter.com/hFfm3OqYOh
— Einstein Z. Recedes (@Enteng_Itneg) October 29, 2018
A tree is known by its fruit. Tokhang does not only mean murder but also rape. The criminals in government have become more brazen under despicable Duterte, who has emboldened his goons — AFP & PNP to kill the poor and rape women with impunity, and with rewards to beat.
“SOP” Rape as SOP. Blood curdling.
But this is a country ruled by Duterte, a despot who thinks the only debatable issue on rape is who gets first dibs. https://t.co/hkVmOHDJWH
— inday espina varona (@indayevarona) October 29, 2018

author: Karlo Mongaya


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A project in Nepal is documenting and sharing testimonials from the 10-year armed conflict · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Ram Ratan Chaudhary of Banke had kept a piece of wood to make a plow. On 14 February 2001, the Maoists beat him with this piece of wood and made him disabled. Photo by Bikkil Sthapit. Used with permission.
The Nepalese Civil War, known popularly as the Maoist conflict, was a bloody 10-year armed conflict between the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the government of Nepal which saw forced disappearances, rape, torture, death, and the displacement of thousands of Nepalese citizens.
To ensure that the victims of this violence won't be forgotten, an online multimedia project called Memory, Truth & Justice is documenting, archiving and sharing personal stories of survivors and families of the victims who were lost to the conflict.
The mission of the Memory, Truth, and Justice project is “to preserve and dignify their memories by recording testimonies from survivors and families of the victims, and by sharing them with the community at large with a purpose of education and remembrance.”
To do that, the project is sharing video, audio and photo testimonials from around the country — paying homage to the memory of survivors, victims, and the affected families.
For Hemraj Tharu and many others from Bardiya district in midwestern Nepal, the Maoist insurgency in Nepal was a lose/lose situation of the worst kind. Tharu was interrogated and tortured by the Nepalese Army on the suspicion of aiding the Maoists, but he was also mercilessly beaten by the Maoists who left him to die. Fortunately, he survived the ordeal — but he lost his hand.
Palsang, one of the hundreds of torture victims, is still scared of salt, electric iron, electric wire – the items used to torture her.
Another testimonial tells the story of Krishna Ghising who wanted to go to South Korea to earn money for a better future. After visiting his village in Dolakha district to get a passport made, he boarded a bus bound for the capital Kathmandu. During the ride, an explosion ripped through the bus, injuring his spinal cord and leaving him in a wheelchair.
Ratna Kumari Mali has safely kept the Bible her son used to recite. Photo by Bikkil Sthapit. Used with permission.
Other testimonials tell the stories of those who were left behind, like Ratna Kumar Mali from Lalitpur district in Kathmandu Valley. She has safely kept the Bible her son Baburaja used to recite with the hope that one day he will return to claim it.
Ramkali Devi Tharu has kept the sickle that her husband Guru Prasad Kathariya used to carry with him to the rice field. Sharmila Chaudhary from Dang district still puts some food in a steel plate and bowl every day before eating. She still hopes her son Jagi Ram Chaudhary, disappeared 16 years ago, will come and join her.
Seeing packets of biscuits and noodles, Sapana Suwarnakar from Gorkha district in the Western region thinks there might be hidden letters from her brother who used to send letters hidden in the packets from the Central Jail in Sundhara area of Kathmandu.
Surjan Tharu of Bardiya has safely kept a faruwa, an iron hoe, she and her son used while working in the forest. When he was disappeared, he had just become the chairperson of the nearby community forest. Photo by Bikkil Sthapit. Used with permission.
These are only some of the many stories related to the mass killings, enforced disappearances, sexual violence, and torture during the 10-year armed conflict which killed 17,886, disappeared 1530, and disfigured and disabled 8,191 people.
Screenshot from the Archive “Memory, Truth & Justice”
In early October 2018, the project exhibited audio-visual stories and memorabilia of the survivors and families of victims in Kathmandu:
Over a thousand students from mostly community schools visited the exhibition. They left comments, all of them appalled, felt 'sad for the victims and families who their lives and happy for those who survived the war' #Nepal pic.twitter.com/vt27de55Bi
— Memory, Truth & Justice (@MTJNepal) October 5, 2018
A room of a young woman who was raped and killed by armed forces brought tears to many visitors’ eyes:
The room of the one who was taken. I couldn't stop my tears when I enteted this room. It was recreated by the artist to show how the armed forces forcefully took young women from their houses, raped them and then killed them. As you enter the room, you would hear the knock on the door and a shrill voice of the woman, "ko ho, ko ho?" (Who's there?) Then you'd hear her cries. You'd shiver as you see the scene, the book rack turned upside down, the trunk thoroughly scoured by the forces, the mattress and the bedsheet pulled down from the bed, a lamp flickering on a small cutout on the wall, a transistor (read radio) belching out ominous sound, belongings of the owner scattered here and there in the room, and a dreadful red light blinking from the closed window! A room of horror, it helps you visualize how the rural people survived the atrocities of the armed forces and Maoists during the People's War (1996 – 2006). If you've time, make sure to visit the exhibit 'Memory, Truth & Justice' at Nepal Art Council. Using audio, video, art and photography, the project has recorded the horrendous memories of survivors and families of victims. Wait for more stories of torture, pain, agony and anguish. ———————————— #memorytruth&justice #peopleswar #exhibition #stories #abduction #rape #killings #armedforcesatrocities #maoistatrocities #horror #warmemories #artproject #EverydayNepal #nepalartcouncil #instablogger #picoftheday #instapic #instalike #instaart #instaartist #history #chronicle #survivorstories #warstories #instastories #instahistory
A post shared by  Sanjib Chaudhary (@sankuchy) on
The audio portion of the exhibit shared stories of pain which left people speechless: Stories of Ram Narayan Tharu of Banke whose wife was raped to save his life; Pushpa Shrestha of Dhading District who was gang-raped by army soldiers when she was a small girl; Khushiram Chaudhary of Dang in Western Nepal who was tortured by the army; Mahesh Chaudhary of Dang who was arrested by the army for offering food to Maoists; Ruku Chaulagain of Kavrepalanchok district who protested sexual violence attempts during imprisonment and many more.
In an email interview with Bikkil Sthapit, the brain behind the project, he said:
The idea about exhibiting the stories of People's War survivors [was conceptualized] with a simple thought of recording individual testimonials to create a rich personal history of the armed conflict, and to share these accounts using multimedia for the historical record, education, and advocacy. An accurate account must be created and the real cost of this period of conflict for victims, survivors, and the society must not be forgotten.
Memory, Truth, and Justice, simply took off with an urge to start documenting these stories as the people fighting in search of truth and justice were gradually dying and fading away.
He shared one of the interesting anecdotes during his fieldwork.
I remember interviewing Moti Maya Paudel, mother of Purna Paudel, which ended with half an hour of crying after she said she saw her son's face on me. Coming back from the field, I saw myself on the mirror and figured that I do look somewhat close to her son with similar beard and face-cut.
Most of the time we would encounter heart-breaking moments and realizations like these. Among around 120 families, there are rarely any houses where we didn't cry. It’s an emotionally challenging field work to carry.
Unfortunately, amputee Hemraj, one of the storytellers of the project, passed away two days prior to the start of the exhibition.
Hemraj Tharu, one of the storytellers of M,T& J, a survivor of torture and a man made disabled by the beatings of the Maoists in the People's War passed away 2 nights ago. Rest in Peace Hemraj. We hope you are in a better place. #mtjnepal #memorymatters pic.twitter.com/GyKq8xVLdd
— Memory, Truth & Justice (@MTJNepal) September 29, 2018

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


text:
Lynch mobs in India, fake news in Brazil — when disinformation goes viral, should Facebook take action? · Global Voices
Taisa Sganzerla

“In WhatsApp we trust.” Screenshot from YouTube video by Estudio Fluxo.
When a spate of mob lynchings driven by rumors spread on WhatsApp killed over 20 people in India over the course of June and July in 2018, the company was forced to act.
On the heels of a reprimand from India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT, WhatsApp made two major technical changes. Globally, the company limited message forwarding from 256 to 20 groups or contacts at a time worldwide. In India, it reduced this number to just five. The company also created a help page, only available in India, with contact details of a WhatsApp grievance officer.
Of course, other factors helped lay the groundwork for these mob lynchings to occur — dysfunctional and corrupt law enforcement, weak rule of law and Hindu nationalist policies and rhetoric all played a role. Nevertheless, when it seemed to recognize its role as a catalyst in these crimes, Facebook responded.
When we see a strong correlation between disinformation on social media and threats to public safety or democracy, when are the stakes high enough for a company like Facebook to take action? What actions can it take that will actually prove effective?
The question is painfully relevant for many Brazilians this week, where far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro was elected president on October 28.
A former army captain and congressman, Bolsonaro ran a divisive, emotionally-driven campaign propelled by fake news shared on social media — especially on WhatsApp. He has promised to end government corruption and street crime, while also openly expressing misogynistic and homophobic views and praising the use of torture during Brazil's military dictatorship.
Disinformation promoting Bolsonaro had been circulating on social media in Brazil for months before the election, and there’s ample evidence from fact-checking groups that these messages — while not all in favor of Bolsonaro — overwhelmingly supported him.
But the engine behind some of these disinformation campaigns only became publicly known when Folha de S. Paulo, Brazil's largest newspaper, found that a group of companies were secretly bankrolling the mass spread of slanderous messages about Bolsonaro’s rival Fernando Haddad via WhatsApp.
Just ten days before the final vote, Folha reported that business associates of the campaign paid around USD $3 million to the companies that ran the scheme. Alongside the legal implications of this scheme for Bolsonaro’s campaign (it appears to have violated campaign finance laws), the revelations raise serious questions about how WhatsApp’s technology and market predominance helped to make the scheme possible.
Over the course of election weekend, a coalition of fact-checkers flagged 20 false or misleading stories circulating on multiple platforms — 16 of them were partial to Bolsonaro's campaign promises or overall ideology.
From August – October, the well-regarded fact-checking group Agência Lupa was able to conduct research on the circulation of misleading images in 347 different WhatsApp groups where political discussion was taking place. The agency found that out of the 50 top-forwarded images, only four were completely truthful.
The most popular image among these groups was a black and white photo of Fidel Castro from 1959, doctored to have replaced the face of a woman at his side with that of Brazil's ex-president Dilma Rousseff (see the real photo here).This is an example of an image that doesn't explicitly mention Bolsonaro, but backs his public claims that the Worker's Party, and specifically Haddad, are associated with communism.
When Brazilian fact-checkers approached WhatsApp in early October, proposing changes similar to those that the company made in India, WhatsApp replied that “there wasn't enough time” to make such changes. But after the Folha revelations, WhatsApp banned over 100,000 accounts in Brazil for spam.
After the account removals, WhatsApp CEO Chris Daniels wrote an op-ed for Folha, in which he listed the measures WhatsApp had taken to combat disinformation on its platform. But the technical tweaks he mentioned were implemented worldwide in July. None of them were specific to Brazil.
As far as we know, it is only in India that the company taken action at the technical level, by actually altering the message-sending capacity of the service. This week, many Brazilians may look to India and wonder, why couldn’t Facebook do the same for us?
On WhatsApp, end-to-end-encryption makes it virtually impossible to moderate content. The only way to change the dynamics of information flow on WhatsApp is to technically alter its capabilities, as it has by changing the number of groups that can receive a forwarded message. But even then, it is incredibly difficult to know what kinds of interventions can work to quell the spread of disinformation at this scale. Have the measures in India proven effective? This is almost impossible to measure, given the way WhatsApp is built, and the presence of external factors.
What is clear is that, even with the changes the company made worldwide this past summer, schemes like Bolsonaro’s still can be extremely effective on WhatsApp.
Could Brazilian electoral officials have pushed Facebook to take further action? Maybe, but in contrast to India (a country that has shown no fear when it comes to blocking internet services) Brazil's Bill of Rights for the Internet, locally known as the “Marco Civil”, shields companies like Facebook from liability for the effects of content posted on their platforms, similar to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in the United States.
Brazil’s judiciary has not been shy about punishing companies when they do cross the lines of liability. But in this case, though the Electoral Court has acknowledged the profusion of election-related disinformation flooding social media sites in Brazil since December 2017, it failed to act. Even if they had made recommendations or found a way to force Facebook to make greater changes, it’s not clear that these would have helped — and they may have hurt in other ways, too.
What has happened in Brazil shows that Facebook may still not know its power when it comes to disinformation. With or without regulation or technical changes, the limits of WhatsApp are hard to decipher.
What we do know is that the 45 million people who voted for Fernando Haddad, Bolsonaro's defeated opponent, have watched a candidate who openly calls for his political opponents to be shot be carried to victory, helped by disinformation spread primarily on multi-billion-dollar private platforms.
Bolsonaro himself continues to openly vilify the traditional press. And with his inauguration fast approaching, he continues encouraging his supporters to connect with him on WhatsApp.

author: Taisa Sganzerla


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“The people’s voices” prevail: Sri Lanka’s prime ministerial crisis to be put to a parliamentary vote · Global Voices
Rezwan

The Parliament of Sri Lanka. Image from Flickr by Kolitha de Silva. CC BY 2.0
Since October 26, when Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena ousted Ranil Wickremesinghe, the country’s prime minister, and replaced him with former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, the ensuing political crisis has many in the country analyzing the constitutional legitimacy of appointing a prime minister without wider consent. The president also suspended the country’s parliament for three weeks and dissolved the cabinet of ministers.
Quote from “Of Constitutions, Cabinets and Coups” https://t.co/4WVo4zmYKE #lka #SriLanka #ConstitutionalCrisisSriLanka #CoupLk pic.twitter.com/T6YkxDu60S
— Groundviews (@groundviews) October 29, 2018
On October 30 and 31, in response to the questionable legitimacy of Wickremesinghe's removal and the temporary suspension of Parliament, thousands took to the streets of Colombo to demand that Parliament be reconvened in order to resolve the ongoing political crisis.
Massive Demonstration in Colombo demanding President Sirisena to convene Parliament “The people have spoken. Summon Parliament. Restore democracy now” says @RW_UNP #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/oUk51v5mTK
— Azzam Ameen (@AzzamAmeen) October 30, 2018
Thank you! Tens of thousands of people thronged the entrance to Temple Trees. They were orderly, not drunk and didnt climb lamp posts. They came only to demand that #SriLanka parliament be summoned and dislodge #FakePM. Huge success. @MaithripalaS don’t trample democracy. @RW_UNP pic.twitter.com/RS1fh37d2N
— Harsha de Silva (@HarshadeSilvaMP) October 30, 2018
Live updates from the people's protest at the Liberty Plaza roundabout calling for the re-convening of Parliament #lka #srilanka #Democracy #ConstitutionalCrisisSriLanka #CoupLK pic.twitter.com/e9gAvqEMfL
— Vikalpa (@vikalpavoices) October 31, 2018
In a news conference, Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya urged the president to let Wickremesinghe prove his majority support on the parliament floor, and warned of a bloodbath if the impasse continues.
Diplomats from UN, EU, UK, Canada & Germany met the Speaker today and urged to convene the parliament and to ensure democracy is protected #lka #SriLanka #PoliticalCrisisLK #CoupLK pic.twitter.com/BVXPvo0crh
— Nusky Mukthar (@NuskyMukthar) October 31, 2018
Pressure from protests to reconvene Parliament have borne fruit, as Sirisena has scheduled a parliamentary vote to decide who is the lawful prime minister on November 7.
A dysfunctional coalition
The events of the past few days have stoked fears among some Sri Lankans of a return to the period of Mahinda Rajapaska's presidency, when sectarian violence, state-sponsored repression and censorship were rife. As a group of students has noted in a statement on the matter published by GroundViews:
The resort to violence and coercion is a chilling reminder of what dictatorship looks like. The coup is being followed by a return to the norms of self-censorship, violence, and fear that were characteristic of Rajapaksa-era politics. State media institutions were stormed in the night and security for the Prime Minister and Ministers  arbitrarily withdrawn. Moreover, many private media stations are already becoming vehicles for misinforming the public and spreading disinformation.
Sirisena told reporters that he removed Wickremesinghe after discovering that the latter was involved in an assassination plot against him. But it is believed that the current situation is, in fact, a by-product of the existing power struggle between Sirisena, Wickremesinghe, and Rajapaksa.
In January 2015, then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa called for a presidential election in a bid to consolidate his power and to seek a third term in office. Sirisena, a former minister in Rajapaksa’s government, defected from Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and was nominated as a candidate by the Wickremesinghe-led United National Party (UNP) to contest the presidency against the incumbent. Sirisena emerged the surprising winner—securing 51.28% votes against Rajapaksa’s 47.28%—and took over as the new president of Sri Lanka.
After the election, Rajapaksa handed over leadership of the SLFP party to Sirisena in accordance with the party's constitution, which states that any member who is President is automatically leader of the party. During the parliamentary elections in August 2015, Siresena's and Rajapaksa's factions joined forces to contest the election under the banner of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). Wickremesinghe's UNP-led coalition, however, won 106 seats out of 225, with the UFPA winning 95—55 by the pro-Rajapaksa faction, and 40 by the pro-Sirisena faction.
After the parliamentary elections, Sirisena appointed Wickremesinghe prime minister and created a National Government after signing a memorandum of understanding in order to address issues which were not resolved after the end of the 30-year ethnic conflict. Since then, the Rajapaksa-led SLFP faction has been the de-facto opposition party.
Over the past two years, however, Rajapaksa has been gaining significant ground, and his party swept the local elections in February 2018. In April 2018, Wickremesinghe survived a no-confidence motion in Parliament brought by supporters of Rajapaksa, a move clearly meant to weaken the already unstable ruling coalition.
The growing popularity of Rajapaksa's SLFP party and existing tensions between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe over the latter's leaning towards India as a geopolitical partner instead of China, may be one of the many reasons that Sirisena has chosen to appoint Rajapaksa as prime minister.
“The people's voices have been heard. . . ” Wickremesinghe stated optimistically on Twitter on November 1, after it was learnt that parliament would be reconvened next week. “Democracy will prevail.”


text:
Apple censors sensitive words from device-engraving service in Hong Kong and China · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Image by Georgia Popplewell, used with permission.
The following post was written by Chris Cheng and published on Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) on November 2, 2018. The republication is based on a partnership agreement.
The names of some Chinese state leaders and activists have been deemed “inappropriate words” and censored from the latest versions of a device-engraving service offered for the iPad, iPod Touch and Apple Pencil, Hong Kong Free Press has found.
When customers order one of these devices from Apple’s website, the company offers to have the device engraved free of charge. However, Apple's Chinese-language websites for stores in Hong Kong and mainland China have banned certain words from the service.
For instance, if a customer types “Xi Jinping” (the name of China's president) in Chinese characters, the following warning appears: “Inappropriate words are not allowed.” Customers are unable to save the engraving text or proceed with the purchase.
“Xi Jinping” is not allowed in traditional and simplified Chinese characters on Apple’s mainland China store. Photo: HKFP.
Tests by HKFP showed that the issue is location and language-specific. “Xi Jinping” is still permissible in English when entered into the English-language Hong Kong website.
If one tries to “Xi Jinping” in Cyrillic, however, on either the Chinese or English-language Hong Kong stores, the website returns the message: “These characters cannot be engraved”. However, the mainland China store accepts the name in Cyrillic.
“Xi Dada,” a common nickname for Xi, is banned in traditional Chinese characters in both the Chinese-language Hong Kong and China stores, but it is permitted in simplified Chinese.
The Chinese-language sites for Hong Kong and mainland China stores also ban the names of other current and former Chinese state leaders in Chinese characters. These include Li Keqiang, Liu He, Deng Xiaoping, Mao Zedong, and Hu Jintao. But names of many other current and former Politburo members are allowed, such as Yang Jiechi and Wen Jiabao.
The names of some — but not all — of the state's most prominent critics are banned too. The name of late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo is accepted, but the name of his wife, the prominent poet Liu Xia, is banned. “Falun Gong” is also banned.
“Guo Wengui,” a Chinese billionaire in self-imposed exile who often attacks top state leaders, is not allowed in simplified Chinese characters. But if a customer requests that “Guo Wengui” be engraved using traditional Chinese characters, it will be accepted.
At the mainland China store, the full version of the phrase “Taiwan independence” – comprising the four characters 台灣獨立 – is banned in both traditional and simplified Chinese characters. But the shorthand version of “Taiwan independence” – comprising the two characters 台獨 – is allowed in both forms of the language.
“Hong Kong independence” is allowed in all forms on the store website, but the phrase “one-party dictatorship” is banned on the Chinese language local site.
The word “fuck” and Chinese equivalents such as 操 and 屌, are also banned. As a result, words containing those Chinese characters are banned too, such as the name of ancient Chinese warlord “Cao Cao” (曹操) and the word “gymnastics” (體操).
Another Chinese character – 幹 – meaning “fuck” is allowed. But if customers use the character to create profanities, the word is banned. Other profanities such as “shit” and “piss” are also banned.
Wong Ho-wa, a software engineer, told HKFP that the results showed that censorship was taking place, but “it seems broken.”
“I suspect it was done by artificial intelligence,” he said. “I believe the original intention was to prevent words with negative sentiment or obscene words from being engraved, but Apple did not realise that some politically sensitive words – which are not negative – were not allowed as well.”
Reflecting on the inconsistency in prohibited words and phrases between the different languages and sites, Wong suggested that it was unlikely the banned keywords were manually entered as a list: “Otherwise, we’re unable to explain why Taiwan independence in the short form was allowed, but Taiwan independence in the full form was not allowed,” he said.
HKFP has reached out to Apple for comment.

author: Hong Kong Free Press


text:
From football fans to bookworms: the many faces of Brazil’s resistance · Global Voices
Global Voices Brazil

Women marched against Bolsonaro in Rio de Janeiro before the elections. Photo: Tânia Rêgo, Agência Brasil
It's likely that all the news that you've read about Brazil in the past few days were about its president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain and congressman who publicly expresses homophobic, misogynist and racist views, advocates violence against his opponents and threatens the press.
What you might not have read, on the other hand, was about the different ways Brazilians have found to express their opposition to Bolsonaro — and how they're pulling forces together to resist what the next four years will bring.
Speaking with newspaper Valor, political scientist Wanderley Guilherme proposed a non-partisan front to face the new government. He says:
O país não é fascista. Pode ser conservador e ter um conceito limitado da democracia, mas fascista não é. Vamos ter muitos motivos de continuada intranqüilidade social. Esta eleição não vai acabar. Agora é que vai começar porque os conflitos não vão ser resolvidos. Não tem nada que permita antecipar que essa polarização vá diminuir. Muito pelo contrário.
The country isn’t fascist. It might be conservative and have a limited concept of democracy, but it is not fascist. We will have a lot of reasons for ongoing social unrest. This election will not be over. It’s just getting started because conflicts will not be solved. There is nothing hinting at a decline of all this polarization. On the contrary.
We have listed here a few of the Brazil headlines that didn't make it across to English-speaking media.
Brazil's upcoming Congress will have 51 percent more women — they still only make up 15 percent of the total number of seats — and many have pledged to beef up the opposition to Bolsonaro.
One of them is Joênia Wapixana, elected federal deputy by the center-left, environment-friendly Rede party. She is the second indigenous person to ever be elected to the National Congress and the first indigenous woman to ever become a lawyer in Brazil.
Also elected federal deputy, Taliria Petrone is a black feminist professor and activist who was a childhood friend, fellow city councilor and party member of Marielle Franco, the Rio de Janeiro politician assassinated in March. In the wake of Marielle's murder, which remains unresolved, Talita was subject to death threats.
They will join Tabata Amaral, whose journey from the outskirts of São Paulo to Harvard as a double major honors graduate in astrophysics and political science has inspired many girls in Brazil. At only 24, Tabata is the founder of a national education movement that aims to involve secondary schools students in politics. She was elected federal deputy.
Fernanda Melchionna, a former city councilor at the southern city of Porto Alegre, is also poised for a seat at the Chamber of Deputies. In 2012, she made an unforgettable speech at the local legislature after her male colleagues tried to lecture her on her outfit choices.
Few people seem to know this, but the first backers of the #NotHim (#EleNão) movement were football fans. They began rallying behind it in September, following a couple of big Bolsonaro endorsements by famous football players and after some fans echoed the army captain's homophobic rants in stadiums.
It was around the same time that one of Brazil's largest football fans associations, “Gaviões da Fiel”, took an official stand against Bolsonaro. Their club Corinthians, from the city of São Paulo, has a history of resistance: its players led a pro-democracy movement at the height of Brazil's military rule in the 1970s called Corinthians Democracy. When Brazil transitioned to a democracy in the mid-1980s, the movement was a pioneer in advocating for amnesty to all political prisoners.
“Gaviões” note about Bolsonaro — which laid the ground for other football associations who followed suit soon thereafter — said:
É importante deixar claro a incoerência que há em um Gavião apoiar um candidato que não apenas é favorável à ditadura militar, pela qual nascemos nos opondo, mas que ainda elogia e homenageia publicamente torturadores, que facilmente poderiam ter sido os algozes de nossos fundadores.
It is important to underline the incoherence of a “Gavião” who supports a candidate who not only speaks in favor of the military dictatorship, which we were born opposing, but who still praises and publicly honors torturers who could easily have been the executioners of our founding members.
Book party
While Bolsonaro is a former army captain, his defeated opponent Haddad is a philosophy professor. In his honor, his supporters cast their votes on October 28 while carrying books.
Indo votar com um livro pic.twitter.com/ZOzpgf5fgj
— Rafael (@FariasRafa) October 28, 2018
Going to vote with a book
Partiu votar!!! Democracia nos é muito cara e é preciso defendê-la com todas as armas, e a minha é o livro! pic.twitter.com/92FvFQBxg0
— Prof Zé Rafael82 (@profjoserafael) October 28, 2018
Time to vote! Democracy is valuable to us and it's important to defend them with all weapons, mine is the book!
Levei o livro Harry Potter e o Prisioneiro de Azkaban para votar no professor Haddad, pois é nesse livro que Dumbledore diz: ”Pode-se encontrar a felicidade mesmo nas horas mais sombrias, se apessoa se lembrar de acender a luz.” Eu acredito na virada Brasil! pic.twitter.com/9anMjG7t3Y
— Vinícius Potter (@ViniiciusPotter) October 28, 2018
I took Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to vote in profesor Haddad, because it's in this book that Dumbledore says: “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” I believe in the upturn, Brazil!
OS CARA VOTA COM ARMA? NÓIS VOTA COM LIVRO! #ViraVirouHaddad
ELE NÃO!!!!
ps: fiz minha vó de 70 e poucos anos ir votar a favor da democracia, e você aí votando nulo. pic.twitter.com/RFKZCNsa0h
— Ana Cegatti (@AnaCegatti) October 28, 2018
Do they vote with guns? We vote with books!
Ele não!!!!
PS: I convinced my +70 grandmother to come and vote in favour of democracy while you're casting a blank vote
After Bolsonaro's victory was confirmed, an image began to circulate on social media. It says “no one lets go of anyone's hand”.
Tattoo artist Thereza Nardelli drew the poster just a few weeks before the vote. To website G1, she said that the inspiration came from something her mother used to say:
A gente atravessava um momento difícil na nossa vida pessoal, mas o país também passava por dificuldades. Aí ela virou para mim e disse, ‘ninguém solta a mão de ninguém’.
We were going through a difficult time in our personal lives, but the country was also going through difficulties. Then she turned to me and said: no one lets go of anyone's hand.
Seguiremos juntos e juntas! pic.twitter.com/mIhDE8EQlS
— Mídia NINJA (@MidiaNINJA) October 28, 2018
We will continue together!

author: Global Voices Brazil


text:
Indian ambassador’s farewell gift paintings create a media stir in Croatia · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (left) and Indian Ambassador Sandeep Kumar (right). Photo by Embassy of India in Zagreb, posted on Facebook.
Indian Ambassador Sandeep Kumar bid farewell to Croatia's government officials by giving away some of the paintings he made during his three-year term in the country.
The unusual gift-giving, which created quite a stir on social media, was first revealed through a Facebook post by the Indian Embassy in Zagreb, on October 31, 2018.
During farewell calls, Amb presented paintings done by him on various Cro themes including Parl Elections; Agrokor Crisis; Zagreb Cathedral ⛪; Croatian FIFA 2⚽18 success journey; Cro landscapes ? & portrait of Cro President. – “Soft Power” diplomacy to capture minds and hearts! ?
Most of the paintings depicted major events in Croatia in recent years including landmarks that made an impression on the ambassador.
For instance, he gifted a painting titled “Elections 2016″ to the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. In an interview with N1 TV, Kumar explained that he wanted to depict Croatia which has a stable political process with the people “voting and marching towards a new Croatia, not the former Yugoslavia.”
Indian Ambassador Sandeep Kumar (left) and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković (right). The
text in Croatian on the painting reads “My choice, my life.” Photo by Embassy of India in Zagreb, posted on Facebook.
As an abstract piece of art, it is open to interpretation. A comment by the Total Croatia News website noted that it is “realistic, since it shows how elections are done in Croatia – chaotically.”
Another painting inspired by current events is named “Agrokor Crisis,” given to the Croatian Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts Darko Horvat. Agrokor is an agribusiness and retail conglomerate which enjoyed regional expansion but became insolvent in 2017. As it was deemed ‘too big to fail’ the government enacted a special law in attempt to rescue the company from bankruptcy. Its management was subjected to criminal prosecution for false accounting, fraud and abuse of economic position.
Croatian Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts Darko Horvat (left) and Indian Ambassador Sandeep Kumar (right). Photo by Embassy of India in Zagreb, posted on Facebook.
Kumar explained that the cracks on the painting (like a broken mirror) are reflective of the impact of the scandal on the Croatian economy.
A far less controversial painting was given to the manager of the Croatian National Football Team Zlatko Dalić. This painting depicts the success of the team at the FIFA World Cup in Russia during the summer of 2018.
Croatian Football National Team Coach Zlatko Dalić receiving the painting titled “You are gold” by Indian Ambassador Sandeep Kumar. Photo by Embassy of India in Zagreb, posted on Facebook.
Several Croatian media outlets reported about the gift paintings. The tone of the coverage in regard to Kumar's gesture was quite positive. An article published by the newspaper Jutarnji list noted that during his tenure, the ambassador was known to be a sports enthusiast with his passion for active bodybuilding and yoga; and a patron of the arts who frequented local museums while collecting some paintings by Croatian artists.
But some reports also highlighted sarcastic comments by readers about the paintings, especially about the portrait of the president.
Kad gledaš na ebayu vs. Kad ti stigne s ebaya pic.twitter.com/6c1ML17wlZ
— Iris (@Thaumantis) October 31, 2018
When you look at the eBay [photo] vs when you receive the actual product from Ebay.
Some media outlets published articles with titles like “Kolinda got her portrait as a gift: Twitter users can't decide which is funnier, the painting or president's facial expression” and “Unrecognizable: Take a look how the Indian ambassador painted Kolinda.”
Through his interview with N1 TV, Kumar thanked all the Croatian people who offered him so much love, affection and generosity of spirit:
I know in my future post when the going gets difficult for me, all I have to do is to look at Croatia and I know my heart will be filled with inspiration and with joy.