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How Sinophobia is instrumentalized in Kazakhstan as a form of oppositional politics · Global Voices
Yevgeniya Plakhina

March 27, 2021 anti-Chinese demonstration in Almaty. Photo taken Zhanbolat Mamay's Facebook page, used with permission.
In the past few years, protesters in Kazakhstan have rallied numerous times against growing Chinese influence, despite severe restrictions on the right to demonstrate publicly. Yet a close analysis indicates that Sinophobia may be a tool instrumentalized by protest organizers to mobilize people against the government, while avoiding serious crackdowns.
Sinophobic attitudes have brewed in Kazakhstan for decades, often resting on conspiratorial rather than solid ground. The announcement in 2013 of China’s far-reaching infrastructure and investment project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), was a catalyst of a new wave of anti-China sentiment.
Since then, Chinese businesses have flocked into Kazakhstan alongside government loans. Now, China is among the five largest creditors in Kazakhstan. In 2020, trade with China amounted to 15.4 billion U.S. dollars, a 4 percent increase compared to 2019.
For some Kazakhs, however, increased cooperation with their eastern neighbor poses more of a threat than new economic opportunities. A part of society is afraid that China will not only make Kazakhstan economically dependent but will soon begin to encroach on the country's territorial sovereignty.
Over the past five years, the phrase “Chinese expansion” has regularly appeared on the agenda of opposition rallies and demonstrations, been heard on the lips of civic and political activists, and has been thoroughly discussed in the media. For example, in 2020, Kazakhstan’s state media published an article highlighting how the country’s diplomatic corps pushed back on allegations made by their Chinese counterparts, who had argued that Kazakhstan could become a part of China.
Kazakhs regularly oppose the lease of agricultural land to China, the construction of Chinese factories in the country, the migration of Chinese workers, the growth in imports of Chinese goods, and an increase in external debt towards their eastern neighbor. The persecution of ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang also made a significant contribution to the strengthening of anti-Chinese sentiment.
The latest wave of anti-Chinese rallies took place on March 27 in several large cities: Almaty, Nur-Sultan, Shymkent, Aktobe, and Uralsk. The demonstrations were organized by Zhanbolat Mamay, the leader of the Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, and Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former banker and opposition figure living in France. The rally in Almaty gathered around 300 people and received permission from the government — a rare concession in Kazakhstan, where the authorities carefully control public expressions of discontent.
Protesters demanded the abolition of the “construction of 56 factories,” a project to transfer Chinese factories to Kazakhstan, and a ban on the lease and sale of land to foreigners.
“The large number of participants in the rally showed the authorities that the Kazakh people are ready to fight,” said Mamay in a live broadcast on Facebook. If Chinese influence continues to grow, Mamay believes that many more people will take to the streets.
“People are against Chinese expansion and for independence. People are ready to defend their nation, the independence and integrity of the country,” he concludes.
Despite their strong sentiments and patriotic spirit, some of the trends and figures that protesters have voiced are a distortion of reality.
Take the external debt to China: It cannot be considered “critical” to the local economy. In 2020, China only ranked fifth among the largest creditors in Kazakhstan, while in 2013 it was third. In overall terms, Kazakhstan's debt towards China has in fact diminished by $6.4 billion to just above $10 billion.
Then there's the construction of 55 (not 56) Chinese factories. In September 2019, a few dozen activists in several cities protested against the transfer of 55 old Chinese factories to Kazakhstan.
Sparked in the oil town of Zhanaozen, in the west of the country, the protest was organized before the first official visit of Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, to China.
That the protest began in Zhanaozen is symbolic. The oil and gas sector accounts for about 44 percent of Kazakhstan’s state budget. In 2011, the wind-swept town was the theater for a six-month-long oil workers’ strike. In December 2011, the authorities violently ended the strike, shooting at the protesters and leaving at least 16 oil workers dead.
Kazakhstan and China have been part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) for twenty years. In 2014, the SCO Heads of Government Council attempted to combine two initiatives: the BRI, led by China, and a new Kazakhstani economic policy called Nurly Zhol, which translates as “Bright Path.” As part of that effort, diplomats of the two countries agreed to transfer 55 factories from China to Kazakhstan.
However, as director of the China Center for Chinese Studies and political scientist Adil Kaukenov said in an interview with Forbes Kazakhstan, this plan has mostly not materialized:
At the time, the talks were about real business exchange projects, as a result of which 55 new production lines would appear on the territory of Kazakhstan, which, in turn, would have contributed to an increase in jobs, tax revenues, and so on. To date, of these 55 announced enterprises, only a handful have actually been implemented.
Despite the fact that the Nurly Zhol programme was concluded in 2019, without the completion of most of the factories, the issue is still used by activists to warn about Chinese influence.
One of the thorniest issues on the agenda of protesters has been a request to ban the leasing of Kazakhstan's arable land to foreigners. In February 2021, a month before the latest protests took place, President Tokayev instructed the government to prepare a bill that would do just that.
“Land is a foundation and a sacred symbol of Kazakhstan’s statehood. I have repeatedly said that Kazakh land cannot be sold to foreigners. Rumors about this need to stop,” Tokayev said, in February. In May, he signed into law the bill which explicitly bans any sale or lease of land to foreigners.
Five years prior, a wave of rallies against proposed amendments to the Land Code that would have eased the procedures to lease land to foreigners shook the country. The largest rally took place in Atyrau, in western Kazakhstan, on April 24, 2016, in which approximately 4,000 people gathered.
The proposed amendments were eventually scrapped. Meanwhile, the leaders of the protest, activists Maks Bokaev and Talgat Ayan, received prison sentences for “inciting social discord.” Bokaev was released in January 2021 after serving four years and nine months in prison. He denies that his activism played a role in Tokayev's proposed bill, but believes that it's an attempt to remove the incentives to protest. He told Global Voices:
This law appeared as a preventive move to reassure the citizens of Kazakhstan that the land issue is resolved once and for all. I will not exaggerate my role — my personal factor played a microscopic role. Apparently, Tokayev and the people around him believe that this issue is a political slippery slope.
The “Chinese issue” in fact, could prove to be a catalyst for further anti-government protests, according to Bokaev. He believes the real reason for the land protests in 2016 was not China, but economic problems, the lack of democratic institutions, and endemic corruption.
“People realized that they could have the earth taken from under their feet,” he says.
The economic and legal environment where foreign businesses now operate, in his opinion, creates conditions for predatory agriculture. In the case of leasing agricultural land to China or any other country, the businesses work for short-term, maximum profit without worrying about the consequences of their actions, such as chemical spills that can pollute the soil.
Overall, anti-Chinese sentiment retains the capacity to mobilize public opinion in Kazakhstan, as Temur Umarov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center writes:
Without these fears, there would be no violent reaction to fake news or rumours. And, as recent rallies have shown, Sinophobic sentiments can be used by various forces in the internal political struggle.
This story is part of a Civic Media Observatory investigation into competing narratives about China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and explores how societies and communities hold differing perceptions of potential benefits and harms of Chinese-led development. To learn more about this project and its methods, click here.

author: Yevgeniya Plakhina


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New report details gross violations of humanitarian law in Second Nagorno-Karabakh War · Global Voices
OC Media

Screen shot. New report “When Embers Burst Into Flames”, https://www.iphronline.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/NK_final_report_2021.pdf
This article was first published on OC Media. An edited version is republished here under a content partnership agreement.
A new report published by IPHR/Truth Hounds has detailed extensive violations by Armenian and Azerbaijani forces of international humanitarian law during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. The violations cited include unlawful bombing, extrajudicial killings, and torture.
The extensive 100+-page report has independently verified 46 reported bombings of civilians and civilian infrastructure. Of those, it attests that 32 incidents qualify as “indiscriminate and/or disproportionate attacks on civilians” and violate international humanitarian law.
It also details seven extrajudicial executions, at least one enforced disappearance by Azerbaijani forces, the death of one civilian in Azerbaijani captivity “as a result of the conditions of his detention” and what appear to be two extrajudicial executions of wounded Azerbaijani soldiers by Armenian forces.
The International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) is a Brussels-based independent human rights NGO. Truth Hounds is a Kyiv-based human rights organisation that documents war crimes and crimes against humanity in war.
According to the report, Azerbaijani forces used “inherently indiscriminate weapons including cluster munitions” and undertook “indiscriminate or disproportionate bombings” throughout Nagorno-Karabakh, including in the cities of Stepanakert (Khankandi), Martakert (Agdere), and Martuni (Khojavend).
The attacks investigated resulted in 20 civilian deaths as well as “numerous injuries and the widespread destruction of civilian housing, shops and other infrastructure.”
In Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, the IPHR/Truth Hounds investigation found that there was only one “potential military target,” a building that “serves as headquarters for the civilian and military leadership” of Nagorno-Karabakh. Attacks using “inherently indiscriminate weaponry” on infrastructure used by both civilians and the military, such as the Stepanakert electrical substation and telecommunications equipment, were found to be “disproportionate to the potential military advantage sought” and to have caused “extensive harm to civilians and excessive damage to civilian infrastructure.”
Additionally, the investigation found that had it not been for the “many bomb shelters” in Stepanakert, “there would have been many more civilian casualties.”
In Martakert, the report notes that only one legitimate military target, an army base, was located within the city, and “it had been badly damaged and all-but-abandoned following the first week of conflict.” As a result, attacks on the city “using inherently indiscriminate unguided artillery and aerial bombs” between September and October could not be justified under international humanitarian law.
In Martuni, investigators found that for most of the war, the “closest legitimate military target” was roughly 1 kilometre from the edge of the city, and that there were no targets within Martuni itself until the final days of the conflict—at which point Martuni had become part of the frontline, and “Armenian/Nagorno-Karabakh forces moved in.”
As a result, the report argues, “repeated unguided artillery attacks on Martuni/Khojavend at the end of September and throughout October 2020, were “indiscriminate” and a violation of international humanitarian law.
IPHR/Truth Hounds also verified 13 attacks on Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian forces during the war, which resulted in 80 civilian deaths. According to the report, nine of the incidents were “indiscriminate and/or disproportionate attacks” that violated international humanitarian law. The report verified attacks in the cities of Ganja, Barda, and Terter, among others.
In Ganja, the investigators verified three separate attacks on the city, two of which featured the use of SCUD missiles. The attacks killed civilians, destroyed homes, and, according to investigators, were a “flagrant violation” of international humanitarian law. Investigators found that in all three cases there were no legitimate military targets in the areas that were hit. The only legitimate military target, the Ganja city airport, is located “outside of the urban area that came under attack.” Further evidence gathered by investigators appears to show that one of the attacks on Ganja was launched from the municipality of Vardenis in the Republic of Armenia.
Investigators also verified a cluster munition and blast fragmentation warhead attack on the city of Barda on October 28 by Armenian forces. The attack killed 24 civilians—the largest daily civilian death toll during the entire conflict. According to investigators, “there were no nearby military targets, and no military casualties or damage were reported.”
In the city of Terter and surrounding villages, the report verified “civilian deaths, a multitude of civilian injuries and the total or partial destruction of civilian housing, shops and a school” as a result of “sustained fire” from Armenian forces. According to investigators, “there were no legitimate military objectives located in the areas targeted by the attacks.”
The investigation by IPHR/Truth Hounds has documented a number of violations of international humanitarian law by Azerbaijani forces including the execution of three captured Armenian combatants, the killing of three Armenian civilians, and the “enforced disappearance of two other Armenian civilians. Additionally, one Armenian civilian died in Azerbaijani custody “as a result of the conditions of his detention.” The extrajudicial killings of both POWs and civilians were documented on video and appear to have been carried out by the Azerbaijan Marines Special Forces unit.
According to the report the killings have “no justification” in international humanitarian law and are a “grave breach” of the right to life. Investigators have not found any indication that investigations into these incidents “if any, have been independent, prompt, public and effective or resulted in any criminal prosecutions.”
The investigation has also seen “unverified evidence” of two executions of wounded Azerbaijani soldiers by Armenian forces. If these killings are confirmed, they would be in violation of international humanitarian law. The Armenian government is obliged under international humanitarian law to “conduct independent, prompt, public and effective” investigations into these incidents, but to date “there is no indication that the Government of Armenia has complied with these obligations.”
IPHR/Truth Hounds have documented widespread torture of Armenian POWs held by Azerbaijan, as well as three cases of “ill-treatment and violence against Armenian civilians” by Azerbaijani forces. They have also documented seven cases of “ill-treatment of Azerbaijani POWs by Armenian forces that “meet the threshold of torture. Another three cases, captured on video, including one which ‘may have resulted in the victim’s death’ require ‘further investigation.”
The report also notes incidents of despoilation of the dead by Armenian and Azerbaijani forces, the purposeful targeting of places of “religious/cultural significance” by Azerbaijani forces, including Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shusha (Shushi), and five incidents of “deliberate attacks by Azerbaijani armed forces against hospitals and medical personnel.”
“Armed forces on both sides deliberately and indiscriminately fired on civilians with heavy artillery or air support, sometimes killing or wounding whole families,” Roman Avramenko, Truth Hounds’ director is quoted as saying in a statement released alongside the report.
“The international community cannot let this pass without sanction, for it would render the laws of war meaningless.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: OC Media


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Organiser of online map protest in Russia fined for crowdsourced obscenities · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Screenshot of the Yandex.Maps cyber-rally organised by Aleksandr Rimov in Moscow and St Petersburg. The comment icons on the map represent participants’ messages. Image from Aleksandr Rimov on Instagram.
The organiser of a ‘cyber-rally’ on Russian map platform Yandex.Maps against the new law limiting educational activity has been issued a fine for ‘obscene language’ used by the rally participants online.
Aleksandr Rimov, who lives in Zelenograd, an exclave in Moscow Oblast located 37 kilometers north-west of central Moscow, organized the rally on June 1 to protest the new legislation adopted by the Russian parliament that severely limits academic freedoms and international collaboration.
Screenshot of the Yandex.Maps cyber-rally organised by Aleksandr Rimov in Moscow and St Petersburg. The comment icons on the map spell out the word “вор” (thief) in Russian. Image from Aleksandr Rimov on Instagram.
Posting several screenshots from the cyber-rally on the mapping platform on his Instagram account, Rimov was ecstatic, writing:
The cyber-rally has spilled over Moscow and Piter (Saint Petersburg – GV). Honestly, this is f*cking amazing!!! Guys, you're f*cking amazing!!! Whatever they may say, this is a civic message to the authorities. Somewhat straightforward and a bit obscene, but still, a heartfelt message. The citizens have had enough, just like I have, and instead of thousands of words on posters, people have created a flashmob. This is worth an ovation! This is democracy!
Shortly after the rally, Rimov was detained by police. The police officers issued him with a 10,000-rouble fine for ‘obscene language online’ used by those who participated in the rally. According to Article 5.61, part 2 of the Russian administrative violations code, “public insults perpetrated which the aid of the internet” are subject to administrative fines.
The activist told independent news outlet MBK Media he intends to appeal the fine: “When the police started saying that this amounts to ‘online obscenity’, I said I didn't write it, other people did”. The police then requested Rimov to provide the personal data of those who had registered for the cyber-rally, and when he refused, said that their investigators would “monitor and gain access to participants’ data anyway.”
Virtual rallies are a relatively new, but popular form of resistance in Russia. Unlike street protests, which require prior authorisation from local authorities, online rallies aren't technically subject to the same restrictions. However, it seems Russian law enforcement is being creative in finding ways to suppress even exclusively digital attempts to occupy public space.
Activists usually coordinate their activity to mark their location in specific places (e.g., the Red Square in Moscow) and to add comments with protest messages using the Conversations feature in Yandex.Maps and Yandex.Navigator. Occasionally, the location markers themselves are orchestrated in such a way as to form a word or a phrase (as in one of the images from Rimov's rally posted on his Instagram account (third in the carousel), which spells out an obscene retort indicating the protesters’ ire at state taking control of the education sphere).
2020 saw one of the first large waves of cyber-rallies in Russia. Inhabitants of several large cities organised spontaneous protest rallies on Yandex.Maps and Yandex.Navigator to voice their discontent at the various public health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ironically, the rallies were quickly ‘dispersed’ as Yandex began to delete users’ comments in locations of “mass public digital gatherings”.
The recent changes to the Russian law on education, which Rimov and his fellow internet users were protesting against, came into effect on June 1, 2021. The amendments ban any non-state approved educational activities and cooperation with foreign academics or institutions, ostensibly to counter “negative foreign influence in the educational process” and “propaganda in the guise of educational activities”. The academic community and other experts have condemned the changes for being overly broad and have warned that they could impact important public outreach, as well as threaten less formal educational activities such as online courses, YouTube lectures, and even podcasts.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Women in Chile create thriving community through radio · Global Voices
Melissa Vida

Yankee Lima Chile logo, used with permission.
In a remote corner of Chile, Leticia San Martín Corrial turns on her radio and waits for someone to connect on the other end. After hearing the crackling noise of the radio, she is delighted when she hears the voice of a fellow radio amateur from Mexico, Turkey, or Lithuania.
“This is XQ4NUA,” Leticia exclaims, introducing the personal callsign identifying her as an operator of amateur radio, often referred to by the term ham radio by the aficionados. People who have received ham radio accreditation can call specific stations and have a conversation with the person on the other line. Many radio lovers around the world can listen to these conversations. When the person on the other end of the line speaks Spanish, greetings are exchanged and sometimes international friendships are made. When they speak another language, they use friendly predetermined codes. They say “seventy-three” (in English), which means Best regards, for example, and then simply “good luck.”
Ham radio operators are individuals who made the effort to meet people in a safe environment, and they know that the other person also tuned in with the same intention in mind. The patience required to form bonds by just listening to the voice of the other person seems to add a little something to amateur radio communication. The operators engage in personal communications with fellow radio amateurs, both within their own country and around the world, using radio frequencies.
Members of Yankee Lima Chile. Collage by CE4YLC shared with permission.
“It's pure magic,” Leticia tells me over Zoom. After 29 years as a ham radio operator, she created her own radio club, Yankee Lima Chile, the only one known to be made up exclusively of women.
“We highly value respect and support for each other. We are like a family. If one of us is feeling down, we make sure to try and help or call to give a few words of encouragement,” Leticia explains.
Unlike digital social networks, ham radio is a closed circle: members need to obtain a license from a government regulatory authority after passing an exam on radio standards and technology. Leticia was the first woman in Chile to reach the highest rank in the amateur radio world, the “Advanced Operator” level.
With the pandemic, the hobby has gained traction.”The fact that you're working remotely from home, as I do, the fact that you can't go out because you're in quarantine, it increased a lot more [the use of radio],” Leticia explains. “I think the pandemic, in a way, made it easier for us to be on the radio, to be able to participate. And there are also emergency networks.”
In these conversations, politics, religion, and business are off-limits but countries, customs, and occupations are fair game. Activities on the radio are also organized, such as contests, certifications, activities where listeners can learn about a particular place of interest in the country, a historical event, or the anniversary of a Radio Club.
Still taken during Melissa Vida's interview with Leticia San Martín Corrial over Zoom.
“When I initiate a call, I don't know anybody, but I want to talk to any station, to any country. So you wait and suddenly you get an answer from ecoalfa: ‘Echo, echo?’ A station in Spain is answering. You take their callsign, and you give them yours. ‘My name is Leticia, I am located in the city of Racangua, 85 km south of Santiago de Chile and I am calling to exchange a few words’. And that's where the conversation starts.”
There are about 6,500 ham radio operators in Chile and three million in the world, most of them in the United States, Europe and Asia. Only about 15 percent of the amateur operators are women. Leticia's club's particularity is that it is specifically made up of women only, with members ranging in age from 14 to senior citizens. There are 22 women in the group that was formed in 2018.
Leticia (izquierda, arriba) y otras integrantes de Yankee Lima Chile. Collage de CE4YLC compartido con permiso.
“It is the only one in Chile and some say even in the whole world. We all have the same goal, which is to talk on the radio, to do activities, to make ourselves known as women, and it gives a nice touch to the radio, because generally it is all men. But not here, there are more women,” says Leticia.
The callsign of her radio club, CE4YLC, bears a meaning. “CE” stands for the country, “4” is the region of Rancagua, and “YLC” is the name of the radio club (Yankee Lima Chile). “YL” comes from Young Lady, the old-fashioned nickname for women involved in ham radio.
Ham radio is also expanding towards younger audiences.
“Many people think ham radio is dead because of the internet,” Leticia says. “But that's not true, because nowadays there are also kids joining.” Leticia has a 14-year-old daughter who just became a member of her club. She enjoys “listening to the noise of the radio, having a hard time making contact, and then talking to someone far away,” Leticia adds.
“The radio will always be there and will always be active. I mean, the Internet can be cut off and that's it. It's down. You have to wait. With radio, on the other hand, no no, you can broadcast for many hours without power, and that's even more magical. You just listen, but you don't see the person.”
Ham radio helps in times of natural disasters and power outages – the CE4YLC club is recognized in Chile by the national emergency agency. “We are the first ones to communicate when the power goes out, we are always active and present,” says Leticia. They also helped find survivors during the earthquake that shook Chile in 2010.
“Ham radio enriches my soul and spirit. It keeps you alive, it motivates you, having so many friends all over the world, forming bonds of friendship that never end. It's wonderful,” shares Leticia.
On April 18, International Amateur Radio Day was celebrated. Friends of Yankee Lima Chile sent greetings from all over the world:

author: Melissa Vida


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Green playlist: Asian short films on protecting the environment · Global Voices
EngageMedia

A mining operation in Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines. Screenshot from the film “Dagami Daytoy” (This is our Land). Source: Cinemata
This playlist is from Cinemata, a platform for social and environmental films about the Asia-Pacific. It is a project of EngageMedia, a non-profit media, technology, and culture organization. This is edited and republished as part of a content-sharing agreement with Global Voices.
In celebration of World Environment Day on June 5, EngageMedia curated a playlist of documentaries and short films on how communities across the Asia-Pacific are fighting to preserve and protect their lands against environmental degradation, industrialization, and climate change. These films on Cinemata, a mix of new uploads and works from the archives, take us from Nueva Vizcaya (“Dagami Daytoy”) in the Philippines and Nam Dinh province in Vietnam (“Another Exodus”), to Sawarak in Malaysia (“Melikin”) and Taunggyi in Myanmar (“Plastic Outlive Us”).
The playlist also includes award-winning films, among them “Dagami Daytoy” (winner of the 2020 Gawad Cultural Center of the Philippines Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video), “Anak Pokok” (Films for the Forest, SXSW Community Screening), and “Kaise Jeebo Re!” (winner of the 1997 International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam).
In “This Is Our Land”, Filipino filmmaker Noni Abao chronicles how local indigenous communities in Nueva Vizcaya, northern Philippines, are fighting against years of environmental degradation by calling for the closure of OceanaGold, one of the largest producers of gold and copper in the world. This documentary won the grand prize in the 2020 Gawad Cultural Center of the Philippines Para sa Alternatibong Pelikula at Video and was the second-place winner in the 2020 Yale Environment 360 Video Contest. Since Abao finished filming, dozens of the activists who organized the road blockade have been arrested following clashes with police and company representatives.
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Zakaria Ismail believes it is his divine calling to defend fellow coastal fishermen from a land reclamation project in southern Penang that threatens to bury their fishing grounds under 4,500 acres of reclaimed land. He and other members of his village are labeled B40, referring to the bottom 40 percent of Malaysian households with monthly incomes of RM 3,900 (949 US dollars) and below. In this story about class struggle, tensions between modern and traditional values, and the Machiavellian interventions of political actors, Zakaria turns to his God for wisdom and courage to stand against one of the most ambitious projects being carried out in New Malaysia.
Bagus, a 20-year-old farmer who lives in the fertile area of the Kendeng Mountains, Central Java, is anxious about the environmental damage that has occurred in his region. Together with his punk band Kendeng Squad, Bagus voices this anxiety. He made a video clip “Berani Bertani” to record the sounds of nature and the destruction that occurs. Bagus hopes the music can inspire the younger generation to keep protecting nature.
A fishing village in Vietnam wakes up in the murmur of predawn prayers while the ebb and flow of waves hit the breakers. Fishermen from the older generation quietly recall the good old days, anxiously awaiting what’s coming up next. They know of the exodus every 50 or 60 years, where they'll have to move away from the shorelines because of climate change. Once prosperous neighborhoods have become poor fishing villages, and fertile fields and fruitful orchards have been destroyed by the rising seawater. “Another Exodus” is a short documentary by Vietnamese filmmaker Le Nguyen.
This advocacy film was used to lobby the Myanmar central government to increase the water supply in Myanmar regions affected by droughts. The film was produced in 2016 by participants in the Picture People workshop on visual storytelling for change held in Yangon, Myanmar
The continuing industrialization of Indonesia is endangering its indigenous people and causing massive environmental destruction and social conflict. This documentary follows the Dayak people of Kalimantan in their response to these threats, particularly the forest fires and toxic haze in the region.
This is the story of Melikin. The story of many indigenous peoples in Sarawak who lost their native land to palm oil companies. With the help of corrupt politicians, almost 10,000 hectares of forest and agricultural lands were flattened and fences were erected, barring indigenous peoples from entering their own ancestral land.
“Climate Change is a reality. In order to mitigate its adverse impact, there no doubt that we need to conserve our forests. In this video meet the women and men of the Kouy indigenous peoples of Cambodia to discover more about what the forest means to them and how indigenous women have taken the lead to protect the forest.”
The aim of this Public Service Announcement (PSA) is to influence Taunggyi's residents in Myanmar to change their practices around plastic recycling. This PSA was produced by the participants of Picture People's Visual Storytelling workshop for Social Change in Taunggyi, Myanmar in October 2019. Taunggyi is the capital and largest city of Shan State, Myanmar and is situated on the Thazi-Kyaingtong road at an elevation of 4,712 feet.

author: EngageMedia


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How will Armenians with COVID-19 vote on election day? · Global Voices
EVN Report

Armenia flag, Photo by Leviknikolayan, License CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This story was originally published on EVNReport. An edited version is republished here under a content-sharing agreement. Since its original publication on EVN Report, the text has been updated to reflect the more current COVID-19 data.
On March 18, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that he had come to an agreement with the parliamentary opposition parties to hold an early election on June 20. On May 10, parliament was dissolved, setting the stage for the election.
Like in other countries, COVID-19 is a concern for the safe conduct of the election. As of April 19, 189,017 people in Armenia had contracted COVID-19 and recovered, according to government figures. The real numbers, which include people who never bothered taking a test, are higher. (Since the April peak, the number of active cases has come down to fewer than 4,000, a level not seen since September 2020 before the wartime peak.)
At least 41 countries postponed national elections or referendums since the pandemic. Now that a year has passed, some of those have taken place and election management bodies (EMBs) are looking at risk mitigation measures to allow voters to participate without endangering their health.
In Armenia, unlike in the United States and The Netherlands which held elections on November 3 last year and March 17 this year, respectively, neither mail-in voting nor advance in-person voting are permitted by the Electoral Code. And while the legislation is being amended, opening these avenues is just not feasible, especially given the current political climate. Election observer reports in past Armenian elections have uncovered coordinated attempts at electoral fraud, including outright ballot box stuffing. Advance in-person voting cannot be implemented because the fact is that nobody is going to trust the half-full ballot box sitting in a room overnight, even a locked cabinet. And mail-in voting, being unsupervised, makes it possible for those who hand out election bribes—or intimidate those they hold power over, such as their employees—to watch the ballot being filled out (or just taking it and doing it themselves). With the Homeland Salvation Movement already alleging that the election will be rigged, this is not the time to start loosening election integrity controls.
The bare minimum that can be done is to ask voters to wear a mask when they show up to vote in person. As you don’t want to be turning people away from the polling station, the state will have to fund the purchase of 2.6 million masks so that one can be made available to anyone who doesn’t have their own. Poll workers will have to ensure that reluctant voters actually take one and put it on such that it covers more than just their chin. Then, once the voter scans their passport into the Voter Authentication Device (VAD), the operator will have to ask them to momentarily lower their mask so that they can match their identity with the photo on file for that piece of ID. After hearing them shout about how they were just forced to wear a mask over their mouth and nose, and are now being asked to uncover them, they will have to scan their fingerprint into the VAD. Of course, it would be prudent for them to sanitize their hands before doing so. Thus, ample hand sanitizer will also need to be procured and distributed to the 2,008 polling stations. The fingerprint reader is going to get very wet and probably will not work properly.
From the VAD, they move on to the paper voter list, where they sign next to their name. These voter lists are scanned after the voting is done and uploaded to the Internet so that any citizen who did not vote can check to make sure that no one else voted in their name. Under the current pandemic, they will hopefully have their own pens. Alternatively, the state could buy 2.6 million pens and let the voters keep theirs so that it is not handled by others.
At this stage, they receive their ballots, which consist of an envelope with the corner cut out and a separate piece of paper for each political party in the race. Behind the voting screen, they choose only the one party they wish to vote for, put its corresponding ballot into the envelope, and throw away the other parties’ papers in the waste bin behind the voter screen. (This procedure was introduced in 2017 to counter “carousel voting.”) At least with the elimination of the open list component, nicknamed ratingayin, they will not need to make any marks with a pen on the ballot itself. Finally, they take the envelope to the ballot box, another election official affixes a holographic stamp on the ballot paper peeking out of the cut-out corner of the envelope, and the envelope is dropped into the box.
The process has room for improvement. For one, the Electoral Code specifies that the polling station must have at least one voter screen for every 750 voters. Up to 2,000 voters may be assigned to one polling station. Although these are minimum figures, the Central Election Commission (CEC) argues that they do not have funding to buy more cardboard screens than the bare minimum required by the law. Thus, at polling stations of fewer than 750 voters, every single voter will be standing behind the same screen, handling their papers on the same tabletop. At most, there might be three voter screens at the busiest polling stations.
During sessions of the Parliamentary Working Group on Electoral Reform, I personally brought up the issue of the shortage of voter screens being a bottleneck in the overall process and the cause of unnecessarily long lines. In Canada (where I vote), for example, there might be a dozen voter screens in each precinct so that nobody is waiting for one to free up. However, raising this minimum requirement was not included in the amendment package out of fears that voting locations may not have the physical space to accommodate more voter screens.
Therein lies another issue. Voting locations in Armenia do not have minimum area requirements. Ideally, they would all be school gyms, where there would be room to mark tape on the floor at 1.5 m distance for a socially distanced lineup. However, the voting locations are not even chosen by the election commission; the Electoral Code assigns this responsibility to municipal authorities and the election commission has to work with whatever they get assigned. It might just be a narrow entrance to an administrative office building. It is common for many of these locations to have accessibility issues, which will be felt this year by young veterans who are constrained to a wheelchair since the 2020 Artsakh War. As part of the electoral reform process, it was proposed that the Territorial Electoral Commissions (TECs), the go-between body between the CEC and Precinct Electoral Commissions (PECs), be empowered to choose voting locations itself. However, the CEC did not want this additional responsibility.
As of April 19, Armenia had about 15,000 active COVID-19 cases. Although we can hope that number decreases before June 20, there will be potentially thousands of citizens, who are eligible to vote on election day, who might be subject to a fine if they leave their homes. With no mail-in voting and no opportunity to vote in advance, election administrators face a constitutional conundrum.
Health Minister Decree 17-N is the regulation that subjects those diagnosed with COVID-19 (and theoretically also those they came in contact with, though they are no longer being designated) to a fine for breaking their quarantine. However, Article 48 of the Armenian Constitution provides citizens 18 and over with an affirmative right to vote. Thus, if a COVID-positive patient were to break their quarantine to go vote, they should not be fined; doing so would be unconstitutional. But from a public health perspective, having thousands of contagious patients coughing into their neighbors’ semi-masked faces is not the optimal solution.
The Armenian Electoral Code does have a special provision for immobile voters, meant mainly for residents of long-term care facilities: the mobile ballot box. Facilities providing inpatient care can register their charges for a special voting arrangement where the ballot box comes to them. The administrators of the facility must provide the names of those they wish to register, at least seven days before the vote. If a precinct has any such voters, PEC members will come to them on election day, collect their votes, bring it back to the polling station and mix the ballots into the main ballot box for the precinct.
Skeptics are not very enthusiastic about the mobile ballot box provision. Most PEC members are appointed by a political party and cannot be considered neutral. Even the two PEC members who are appointed by the nominally independent TEC are usually suspected of a bias. Thus, given a low overall level of trust, the mobile ballot box is considered tainted because the secrecy of the vote may be violated (or the ballots outright replaced) in transit. Even if they are not, just the suspicion that they might have been is a burden on the process.
In order for it to be used effectively in the case of COVID-19 patients, changes are necessary. For one, not everyone who gets COVID-19 becomes an inpatient at a healthcare facility. For them to be able to use the mobile ballot box, the law needs to be amended to allow individuals with a positive test result to register for the mobile ballot box (likely through the health ministry). Secondly, the deadline seven days before election day needs to be waived for COVID-19 patients. It is possible for hundreds (hopefully, not thousands) of voters to receive a positive test result the day before the election. Thirdly, while it is reasonable for a PEC member to visit one or two hospitals during the day, visiting hundreds of COVID-19 patients’ homes is not just a side project. For this facility to be used effectively, conducting the mobile ballot box should be the responsibility of the TEC, which can assign multiple teams to ensure all the voters get a visit during the 12-hour voting period. These votes must not be mixed into precinct ballot boxes, but kept separate, with their own tally (per the 38 TECs) publicly reported. That way, if 95 per cent of such votes go to the same party, observers can start raising questions.
Changes to the Electoral Code are needed to protect Armenians from COVID-19 during the election. At the very least, masks need to be mandated during a pandemic and the mobile ballot box system reformed. The president does have the power to interfere with these amendments. As the changes have to do with the right to vote, he could choose to send the bill to the Constitutional Court. Even if he doesn’t go that far, he could delay the process by 21 days by not doing anything. Either move would effectively force Pashinyan’s hand into delaying the announced June 20 election date. The Prime Minister would then be faced with the choice to either (1) continue triggering the election process without any changes to the rules, potentially inflating the pandemic’s death toll, or (2) push back the announced election date so that the provisions can be fully implemented but publicly break his promise and take a different type of hit to his reputation.
Not everything requires a law. Norms and customs are essential foundations of a democracy. Even without legal restrictions, voters can operate on voluntary guidelines to help reduce risks. For example, we can come to an understanding that, during the earliest voting hours of 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., elderly voters are given a chance to vote, before too many others have contaminated the location. If you are COVID-positive on election day and no mobile ballot box has come to your door, you can choose to vote as late in the evening as possible (polls close at 8 p.m.) so that fewer of your neighbors breathe in the germs you give off. Or maybe even, this one time, not exercise your right to vote at all.
Armenians have had a difficult year. This election could make things worse … unless we all work together with compassion for our brothers and sisters.

author: EVN Report


text:
In Kyrgyzstan, an ultranationalist group thrives on rising anti-Chinese sentiment · Global Voices
Aizat Shailoobek kyzy

Screenshot from a Kloop channel YouTube video showing the nationalist group raiding a karaoke bar popular with Chinese businessmen in Bishkek.
Growing Chinese economic influence has brought a flood of goods into Kyrgyzstan’s stores, Chinese traders into its markets, and businessmen into its shops, restaurants and clubs.
The everyday presence of Chinese in Kyrgyzstan’s cities is strongly opposed by an ultranationalist movement called Kyrgyz-Chorolor, also known as Kyrk Choro, which has vowed to defend and strengthen Kyrgyz identity, as they perceive it.
As the trading relationships fostered by the Belt & Road Initiative mature, China has become the largest exporter of textiles and other manufactured goods into Kyrgyzstan. At US$5 billion, imports from China represent more than 50 percent of Kyrgyzstan's inbound trade.
Today, almost half of foreign direct investment in Kyrgyzstan comes from China, with China's Exim Bank owning around 40 percent of the country's debt, according to OECD data.
The volume of Chinese goods and business has created a sense across many parts of Kyrgyzstani society that their country is being occupied by China. This feeling is complicated by Kyrgyzstan’s recent history, as ethnic Kyrgyz under the Soviet Union were a minority in what was then an autonomous republic.
Kyrgyzstan’s recent political landscape has included the collapse of numerous governments, and ethnic violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, which have shaped political parties and allegiances.
The arrival of the Chinese brings potential for access to resources, competition for markets, and another element of instability into an already fraught environment. These conflicts also drive debates over Kyrgyzstan’s national identity, and to what degree it is intertwined with Kyrgyz ethnicity.
The Kyrgyz-Chorolor, or Forty Knights, takes its name from the traditional Kyrgyz epic of Manas, but their roughly 5,000 members include many middle-class professionals, such as physicians, professors, and lawyers. They also have acknowledged ties with Kyrgyzstan’s Interior Ministry, even as government corruption is a target of their attacks.
Its activism draws on nationalist sentiment based primarily on discontent with what it deems as the government's betrayal of the ethnic Kyrgyz.
According to statements made by the Kyrgyz-Chorolor on social media, and in interviews with Global Voices, the group claims that the Kyrgyz government is “corrupt” and “pro-China” as it puts “business interests before people.”
More conservative members also allege that the Epic of the Manas, regarded as a repository of Kyrgyz customs, history, and code of ethics, casts the Chinese as a traditional enemy of the Kyrgyz tribes.
The Kyrk-Chorolor have pursued a dual strategy to push their vision of a pure Kyrgyz ethnic identity, combining online harassment and mobilization with real-world verbal and physical violence, raids on markets and nightclubs, and public demonstrations.
A former leader of the movement, Zamirbek Kochorbaev has used Facebook to post anti-Chinese content.
In 2018, he wrote that his group demands a moratorium on issuing Kyrgyz passports to foreigners. Almost 1,000 people supported the group with comments such as “Chinese should be deported!”
In yet another post, he claimed in December 2018 that “China is envious of the Kyrgyz land and lakes”. Kochorbayev was last year replaced as leader by 35-year-old Ruslan Adylov – a move that Kochorbayev himself supported in order to rejuvenate the organisation.
Kyrgyz-Chorolor have staged high-profile demonstrations, raids on clubs frequented by Chinese, and attacks on Chinese businesses. Their critics allege that they have enjoyed tacit support from the Kyrgyzstani state in many of these actions.
They often document these provocations, or allow journalists to film and broadcast their activities, as part of their publicity campaigns.
Kyrgyz-Chorolor's most active members often wear the traditional Kyrgyz white felt hat, as can be seen in this video by Kloop of the raid of the karaoke bar in 2014.
Their most visible stunts include an extra-judicial operation in 2013 to check work permits and visas of Chinese workers, following which the government deported 35 people.
The raid was conducted at a brick factory located in Kyrgyzstan's Chui district.
In 2014 they raided a karaoke club popular with Chinese expatriates in the capital, Bishkek, physically and verbally attacking the Chinese present, demanding their documents and accusing the Kyrgyz women in the room of being sex workers.
In 2019, they raided a number of Chinese companies, including the Chinese-owned oil refinery in Kara-Balta, about 60 kilometers outside of Bishkek.
Kyrgyz-Chorolor justifies these extralegal actions by claiming that the Kyrgyz government isn't doing its job.
“China knows Kyrgyzstan is a corrupt country. Their plan is to own our land by giving our corrupt officials huge loans,” Kuban Duisheev, a Kyrgyz-Chorolor member, told Global Voices.
Anti-China protests and actions are not reported by Chinese state media or Chinese diaspora media in Kyrgyzstan.
But Chinese companies have increased their use of Chinese private security companies. Zhongjun Junhong, the Chinese private security company working in Kyrgyzstan, has about 20 Chinese clients, mostly mining projects.
The Chinese embassy in Bishkek – the object of a terrorist attack in 2016 – says in its investment guide:
The public security environment is not optimistic. Chinese enterprises and individuals are targeted by criminals regularly every year, in the most severe cases, up to 22 Chinese individuals were murdered or harmed in one year. In 2018 and 2019, (attacks) became more frequent, there were consecutive incidents of our companies being violently targeted by local lawbreakers/ criminals, which adversely affected the normal operation of the companies.
The same report added:
In recent years, Kyrgyzstan’s media have produced negative and extreme reports on China, as a result, Kyrgyzstan’s residents have become more resistant to the Chinese…Since 2018, the Kyrgyz media’s false reports on China have increased significantly, which has a certain impact on China-Kyrgyzstan economic and trade cooperation.
Another member of the Kyrgyz-Chorolor, who asked not to be identified, told Global Voices:
I see a lot of Pakistani, Indian and other immigrants living in Kyrgyzstan, but I do not fear these migrants, because they will go back home after a certain time. But Chinese [people] try to get Kyrgyz citizenship and remain in our country.
While the actions of the Kyrgyz-Chorolor affect the lives of the Chinese business community, they also call into question the model of society that some nationalists are trying to promote.
Not all ethnic Kyrgyz appreciate their actions.
As Oljobai Shakir, a poet and journalist, said in an interview with Radio Free Europe, the Kyrgyz-Chorolor are “no different from skinheads…(their) actions bring discord or harm to our society.”
This story is part of a Civic Media Observatory investigation into competing narratives about China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and explores how societies and communities hold differing perceptions of potential benefits and harms of Chinese-led development. To learn more about this project and its methods, click here.

author: Aizat Shailoobek kyzy


text:
L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science winner Argentine mathematician Dr. Dickenstein: “Follow your passion” · Global Voices
Lucía Leszinsky

Photo courtesy of Dr. Alicia Dickenstein, used with permission.
Women in science and their contributions have always existed even when history kept them hidden. Physics, chemist, biologists, medical and mathematics — among other disciplines — like Dr. Alicia Dickenstein.
Dr. Dickenstein, whom we interview here, was one of the five women awarded in 2021 by Fondation L’Oréal and UNESCO with the award L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards thanks to her work leveraging algebraic geometry in the realm of molecular biology.
She is a professor at the University of Buenos Aires and has held important positions in national and international fields of mathematics and science, specializing in identifying computational mathematical models.
For example, she has detected an underlying mathematical structure in many popular signaling pathways, which she named “Sistema MESSI” (Modifications of type Enzyme-Substrate or Swap with Intermediates) a nod to the famous Argentine footballerLionel Messi. This system helps biologists advance their research with the help of mathematical models. She is also the author of Matemax, a bilingual schoolbook of mathematical for children and young teens.
The interview was edited for clarity.
Lucía Leszinsky: In 1982, you obtained the title of Doctor in Mathematics from the University of Buenos Aires. What prompted you to bet on a career in the world of mathematics?
Dr. Alicia Dickenstein: I had no idea that there was a career in mathematics. I enjoyed mathematics, I explained it to my classmates, but I wanted to study education, or rather, I didn't know what I wanted to do. In the last year of high school I agreed to take a vocational test from the Professor of Philosophy and Pedagogy Elida Leibovich de Gueventter who told me, “Here abstract intelligence is very high. Why don't you study mathematics?” I hesitated, I wondered what I was going to find. But she insisted and made me see that if I started math and I didn't like it, I would always have time to study another career. If I didn't try, I was never going to know.
When I entered the race, I did not know anyone, but there I met others who were like me, and immediately I felt like a toad in my own well.
Where there a significant number of women when you entered?
University of Buenos Aires, October 1940. Photo courtesy of Carlos Borches.
There were quite a few women, but interestingly, there were more women in mathematics years before. There is a photo from 1940 showing mathematicians of the time, and many of them are women. When I started, there were fewer women, there were practically no teachers.
What was it like to face a career in mathematics in such a crucial time for Argentina during the military dictatorship, and experiencing motherhood and a doctorate simultaneously?
I spent many years looking for my way. While I was doing my doctorate with a grant from CONICET [An agency dedicated to the promotion of science and technology in Argentina] when my daughter was born. Later, when I finished my thesis, my son was born. There was no e-mail, my children were very young, the salaries weren't enough, we did not buy magazines or anyone traveled to bring them from abroad, so I spent almost eight years seeing how to get out of here or discovering what I could do. It was a very difficult time.
What other obstacles did you encounter throughout your long career? Do you think that some of these were related to one or more aspects of your identity, such as gender or nationality?
The biggest obstacle I encountered, as I discovered years later when I first managed to travel to a theoretical physics center in Italy, was being away from information. While there, I heard many things about mathematics that I did not know. One day, sitting in one of the imposing auditoriums of the Centro Internazionale di Fisica Teórica de Triste, I realized that if I had had the information I was getting there, I could have started working on something specific earlier. For this reason, the rest of my life I dedicated myself to fighting for information.
Then there were other obstacles, but I didn't care about them. I never thought, for example, that there was something that men could do intellectually that women could not. I recently recalled an episode with a professor and college colleague in which, seeing me with my eight- or ten-month-old daughter in the office, he said to me: “Do you have a daughter? What are you doing here working? You have to go home and take care of your daughter.” At the time, I didn't pay attention to it. I think if one thinks that there is something that she cannot do, then she will not be able to do it.
What is mathematics to you, and how does it relate to everyday life?
Doing math is much more than counting or calculating, but this is important. It is understanding structures and then being able to predict. Is a discipline constantly growing and is present in everything around us. Perhaps we realize when we estimate or compare prices or when we expand or reduce a recipe, but also our cell phones, for example, need math in order to work!
What does the award given to you by the L'Oréal Foundation and UNESCO with the “For Women in Science” award for the Latin American and Caribbean region mean to you?
I knew I had been nominated, but I thought I had no chance of winning because math is not very popular. When they called me I was surprised, I was not aware of the significance of the award. For me, it is a great personal joy and at the same time I feel it as a prize for mathematics because this is not usually a highly awarded discipline. But, in addition, I consider that it is an excellent opportunity so that with the publicity generated by the award, more girls discover that mathematics is for them, that it is linked to emotions more than they imagine.
Any pending projects?
I have some problems that I would like to solve. Fortunately, mathematics is universal, more social than is commonly believed, and that allows me to work with many people from Argentina and from other parts of the world. Interacting with people is that ideas arise and work is more productive. Ultimately, in mathematics, and in life in general, when you have a problem it is best to avoid hitting your head against the wall over and over again, and instead try different things to try to solve it.
My advice is not to censor yourself, if you like it, don't hesitate and follow your passion.

author: Lucía Leszinsky


text:
Privacy and IP concerns as Kenyans find new ways to cash in on their internet fame · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

A screenshot of a re-enacted video that went viral featuring Charles Odongo, now popularly known as Ugali man. The video earned him an advertising deal with online sports betting firm Odibets.
Kenya's internet culture is undergoing a paradigm shift.  The corporate world and advertising industry’s model mainstays of TV, media and sports personalities are slowly being replaced by a new breed of internet stars whose social media posts are no longer just bringing them fame. Many are now cashing in their viral content to make huge fortunes. However, concerns are arising regarding the right to privacy, copyright legalities, and the unintended consequences of such overnight fame and success.
Five years ago, Kenyans saw how the internet could upsend the lives of ordinary citizens, make them into stars, and land them lucrative brand endorsements. Joseph Mburu (Jose the Witnesser), Jane Anyango Adika (Serikali saidia), Francis Kimani (Bonoko), and Alice Wambui (‘Kifikifi Witness’) became the first Kenyan internet stars to be signed by corporate brands after their individual videos went viral.
Their big break came when Kenya’s leading telecommunications company, Safaricom Ltd, recruited them for an advertisement campaign to promote their mobile airtime offerings.  The lives of the four internet stars have never been the same according to a documentary by Citizen TV.
Today the precedent set by the telecom giant seems to have become a winning formula and the benchmark for many corporate brands both at a local and international level.   For the country’s advertising and corporate world, this move to work with everyday regular Kenyans is resonating with a new generation of millennial consumers who, according to recent studies, are seeking experiences over material goods.
Social media has become a huge part of everyday life for Kenyan citizens 75% of whom are under the age of 35. Although a majority use Facebook, Twitter has become the country’s trendsetter and frequently influences the country’s agenda on politics, social issues, or current affairs. For instance, in the run-up to Kenya's 2017 general elections, President Uhuru Kenyatta 2017 was among Africa’s top ten tweeting politicians. Deputy President William Ruto uses his Twitter handle to push his political agenda and share his take on various issues. A recent Global Voices article revealed how the Kenya Police is using Twitter to alter its tarnished image.
The power of Kenyan social media has now extended beyond just producing internet stars. For some, it is launching their careers.
When a video of Charles Odongo, a gym owner and fitness trainer,  was posted to Twitter on May 25th, users were impressed by Odongo’s originality and uninhibited eating prowess.
In the video, there is a mountain of Ugali (a Kenyan staple meal made of maize corn) and a plate of meat, which Odongo voraciously and theatrically consumes on camera. His attitude and enthusiasm captured the fascination of many online. Soon, memes of the #Ugaliman as he has become popularly known were appearing everywhere.
Before #UgaliMan pic.twitter.com/B7MjWiQ4as
-It's Brian (@OrutaBrian) June 8, 2021
For ‘Ugali man,’ that video recently landed him a lucrative advertising deal with an online sports betting company, Odi Bets. The sports betting company confirmed this partnership via a post on their Instagram page.
https://instagram.com/p/CQIt9BmgJ04
As instances of viral videos and content increase, concerns of privacy and copyright are beginning to arise as pundits begin to question whether content creators are indeed getting their true value.
I spoke to Wandiri Karimi, a Kenyan Intellectual Property Lawyer and expert about this new trend. She clarified whether viral videos are subject to intellectual property laws, who is considered the copyright owner, and what factors determine the jurisdiction in case of legal enforcement.
According to Wandiri,
The technical term under the copyright act would be audiovisual works and if they meet the threshold for the relevant branch of intellectual property law in this case copyright they would.
In order for it to be considered as work subject to copyright, the video creator would have to be creating something original, they have to have put work/effort into creating that work and then communicate it to the public in a permanent form which is the audiovisual work.
In cases where the video goes viral, it often becomes a challenge for the original content creator to enforce copyright laws against replicas and/or variations of the same content shared online especially on social media.
On privacy, Wandiri expressed concerns about the increasing number of children who are involved in viral online content.
One such case involves Gracious Amani, 13, whose video was taken by Brit Chantel, an American who was doing charity work in Nairobi when she met Amani. She took a video of Amani singing a cover of Alicia Key’s “Girl on Fire” and uploaded it to her Facebook page. The video went viral and even earned Amani a compliment from the musician. However,  as Amani’s mother revealed during an interview with a local TV station, she and her daughter only learned about the video when friends and relatives called them offering congratulatory messages.
As Wandiri noted,
There is a worrying trend of minors (children under the age of majority 18) who go viral for all the wrong reasons and in my view, there should be the protection of children even in these spaces because a lot of the time some of these uploads are to drive traffic and hence increase monetisation without consideration of what that means for the minors on screen.
In Amani’s case, although the video launched her music career  — even earning her a recording deal — her family became victims of threats and attacks as some wanted to exploit their new celebrity status. As Amani's mum explained during the media interview, the perpetrators assumed that the family received money from the several interviews Amani has attended.
I asked Wandiri what her thoughts were on news of the #UgaliMan advertising deal,
My concerns are centred on the ability to engage with advertisers on the value of the content creators work. The revenue from new media has not been favourable towards the creator in the past for example for a long time the ringback tone revenue split is heavily skewed towards the conduit disseminating it rather than the actual creator of the content and many discussions have been had on that and they are allegedly still ongoing.
Another concern is while there is a measurable audience available online via these content creators there is a danger for actual content creator versus meme culture. This is the creation of a huge amount of traffic at the expense of a netizen going about their lives there are underlying issues of privacy and furthermore the dumbing down of content creators who actually expend effort into creating work being overlooked by meme culture type content. This also goes for children being part of the content that is detrimental to their development.
As Wandiri explained, there is a much better understanding of copyright law in Kenya than there was 10 years ago, however, there is still room for growth and increased awareness around privacy and content creation.

author: Njeri Wangari


text:
Size matters: US donation to Trinidad & Tobago sparks conversation on vaccine equity · Global Voices
Jada Steuart

Photo by Marco Verch Professional Photographer on Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
On June 13, the United States Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago tweeted that its government had made a vaccine donation to the twin-island Caribbean nation—a tweet that has so far garnered 2,500 comments and 8,574 quote tweets, the majority of which were negative:
USA Donates Vaccines to Trinidad and Tobago pic.twitter.com/5S0OTQfJU5
— U.S. Embassy POS (@USinTT) June 14, 2021
The main critique from Twitter users has been not the donation itself, but its size in relation to the country's population of about 1.4 million, prompting a widespread online conversation about vaccine equity and the role of “first world countries” in global vaccine distribution:
This donation is enough vaccine for 240 people.
Trinidad and Tobago has a population of 1.4 million.
So, this is enough vaccine for 0.017% of the country.
Meanwhile, the US has 66 million doses sitting in freezers right now.
This should not be celebrated. This is not enough. https://t.co/8wRq41xEyS
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) June 14, 2021
(Actually, the donated vials are enough for 400 doses of the vaccine.)
80… vials. The boxes that contain the Pfizer vials come 195 vials per box. The US isn’t even sending them a full damn box. https://t.co/6RxyNZ6yim
— Houses of Tisci & Balenciaga stan account (@THEEBlackleftie) June 14, 2021
Twitter users reacted strongly to the tweet, with many responses coming from netizens in the United States, United Kingdom, India and other countries, where conversations on vaccine inequality have been rampant, even as Global North countries continue to increase their vaccine rollout.
Such discourse has been fuelled by the recent G7 summit, at which the leaders of member states promised 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines to “poorer nations” within the next year—a goal that has been met with criticism, most notably by the World Health Organization's director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus:
This is a big help, but we need more, and we need them faster. Right now, the virus is moving faster than the global distribution of vaccines. More than 10 thousand people are dying every day […] these communities need vaccines, and they need them now, not next year.
His opinion has been echoed by other health officials and world leaders who believe the pledge is insufficient and will not reach those in dire need of vaccines fast enough.
In contrast, one Twitter user noted that India, for instance, has been far more generous with its vaccine donations to Trinidad and Tobago:
America is all about ?? and India is all about ❤❤❤❤
America donated 80 vaccines versus India's 40,000 vaccines
?? <<<<??
America First policy wins.
— Om ????? Koo ID @omisohm (@omisohm) June 15, 2021
Others quipped:
I think you donated extra vials. Take some back
— Burhan Hayat (@burhanhayatt) June 14, 2021
It is the equivalent of “thoughts and prayers ?”
— Ari ☭☆ (@GoodfellaCommie) June 14, 2021
Some social media users felt the country shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, no matter the size of the gift:
Half a sandwich is still better than nothing, right?
— Samuel S. Chin (@samuel_s_chin) June 14, 2021
Others disagreed:
You might’ve been better off just sending none because this is genuinely insulting
— August/Finch ?⬛ (@calliope963) June 14, 2021
This is an absolute joke, why would you even advertise this?
— SK@thryn (@MissHislop) June 15, 2021
In Trinidad and Tobago, the tweet was met with confusion, but Trinidad and Tobago's minister of national security, Fitzgerald Hinds, quickly explained that the donation was intended for personnel belonging to his ministry. While members of the protective services received vaccines as early as April, then minister Stuart Young noted that “not everybody is going to [qualify for] this first [round] of vaccines that [have] been provided at national security.”
In an interview with i95 FM radio, Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Dr. Amery Browne added that this was a “small gift” from “one security arm to their counterpart with whom they work very closely in Trinidad and Tobago […] it is my understanding that this particular type of arrangement is not unique.”
Trinidad and Tobago has been able to increase its vaccine rollout over the last two months with the help of donations from China, India, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Bermuda and Grenada. Added to these donations, on the same day the U.S. Embassy posted its contentious tweet, the Chinese ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago announced the expected arrival of 200,000 more vaccines procured from China:
I am glad to update that the consignment of 200k doses of Sinopharm vaccines procured by the T&T government are en route to PoS! Delighted to be invited to welcome this second tranche of Sinopharm vaccines tomorrow at the airport! pic.twitter.com/aVehgirJo0
— FANG Qiu (@AmbFangQiu) June 14, 2021
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago, Shante Moore, noted that the 80 vials are in addition to the vaccines that the Biden-Harris administration has pledged to Latin America and the Caribbean, to be distributed on a per capita basis.
Even if Trinidad and Tobago eventually benefits from this promised larger donation, the U.S. Embassy's tweet has only served to echo the frustration of many people when it comes to vaccine inequity. However, as this Twitter exchange between Patrice Grell and Karen Walrond—both members of the Trinbagonian diaspora living in the United States—suggests, there is hope:
From what my father says, the PM has been refusing to “beg for help.” Eighty vials is a pittance, but let's hope the US ups its generosity, and Trinidad graciously accepts it.
— Karen Walrond (@Chookooloonks) June 14, 2021

author: Jada Steuart


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Yemeni artist Hakim Al-Akel: ‘War imposed itself, but art will remain’ · Global Voices
Clara G

Acrylic on Canvas. Used with the artist's permission.
After six years of armed conflict, Yemen is the site of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The civil war and the Saudi-led military campaign, sponsored by the UK and the US, have displaced over 4 million people, and more than 20 million Yemenis are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. Central governance has been  eroded almost to nothing, and the country is deeply fragmented.
Yet, artists in Yemen today can still see things in colour. Renowned artist Hakim Al-Akel, who lives in Sana’a with his family, paints from his childhood memory vibrant scenes of a Yemeni daily life that preceded the ongoing war.
Al-Akel, 56, is a founding member of Yemen’s first fine arts association, established in 1986. Today, he is considered one of the most significant figures on Yemen’s fine arts scene, having exhibited in over 80 countries. His paintings have sold around the world, including at Sotheby’s auction house. Alongside his successful career as an artist, he has held official positions, including that of advisor to the Yemeni Minister of Culture.
Al-Akel's paintings illustrate simple, everyday urban scenes, rural landscapes, and female subjects in vibrant colours. He often adopts a bird’s-eye-view to observe intimate and seemingly mundane scenes in public and private spaces. He doesn't give his works titles, and his subjects rarely look him in the eye.
Clara Guest spoke with Al-Akel by email about his childhood in Taiz, studies in Moscow and on painting war and peace.
Tell me a bit about yourself. How was your childhood growing up in Taiz?
Hakim Al-Akel: I first became aware of the world in the green meadows, running, climbing trees and playing games with my friends. The games changed by season and when the fruits ripened, we infiltrated the orchards and stole them despite the dangers of being caught by the guards… As for school, I hated it to the extent that I was always met with some sort of punishment. Instead of paying attention and concentrating, I was obsessed with drawing in school notebooks. I enrolled to study with Hashem Ali and from that moment the real change that occurred in my life began.
Untitled. Used with the artist's permission
HA: My acquaintance with Hashem Ali had a great impact that changed the course of my life. Under him, I read books of philosophy, myths and the history of art. I developed a clearer idea about art, and the constant conversation with Hashem gave me great confidence in defining my goals. Myself and the other students exhibited our paintings in exhibitions held annually by the teacher Hashem, so it changed the course of my life.
HA: Straight after high school, I entered the world of compulsory conscription in the army. This is a mythical world, another world of crushing humiliation and backwardness… It is necessary to turn into a real monster because those around you are a group of humans wearing masks of monsters.
HA: The army is a compulsory service after high school and every student is required to serve for a year and then go to university. It seemed to me that I was the worst soldier and I hated the military in general. During this period, I drew paintings and participated in exhibitions, and my relationship with Hashem continued until I completed military service with difficulty and went to study art in Moscow.
Acrylic 100 X 140 cm. Used with the artist's permission
HA: In Moscow, I saw all my dreams come true before my eyes and between my hands, culture, arts, theatres, galleries, museums, all the pleasures of the world. The seven years I spent in Moscow passed quickly. During this time, I lived through all the changes, got married and our child was born in Moscow. Moscow is unforgettable. I still have dreams of studying, of my friends, and of all the places with which I have had a cultural, visual, spatial and temporal relationship in that wonderful, frightening city. I studied for seven years in Surikov Institute where I gained academic knowledge and a formal artistic training. I was lucky to study drawing and painting under Russian Professor Troshev so I was able to study colour for two years before moving to the mural department that exposed me to a wide horizon of knowledge, from the Renaissance to Islamic miniatures.
HA: All my experiences depend on the reference of the place and the specificity of the Yemeni environment, including the uniqueness and privacy it bears…. In my experience, I rely a great deal on memories of scenes, and visions that have been etched in my mind from childhood until now. I try to employ the memories in my paintings and everything is fused together—time and place, reality and imagination.
HA: In 1996, we founded the Syndicate of Plastic Artists and we were self-appointed to manage the association. We published the first newspaper that specialised in the plastic arts, known in Arabic as Tashkeel. I was later appointed a consultant for plastic arts and art houses within the Ministry of Culture. But all this ended because of the war. There is no longer any government support and there are no salaries for employees. Everything is completely cut off. Talking about the past has become a forgotten thing.
Untitled. Used with the artist's permission.
HA: In 2015, the bombing began suddenly, and it created a strong and unexpected shock. Particularly as I lived next to the presidential house at the time which was bombed daily without stopping. Many of my neighbours moved to safer places. In a state of shock, I began to work on my sketches and plans for paintings that embodied this tragedy. This inspired the paintings in the exhibition “Ruins and Peace” which was inaugurated in January 2016. After this exhibition, I then exhibited in Bahrain in 2018 [Titled: A mantra for the Earth]. From that moment, I decided to focus on peace and coexistence as the primary goal for my art.
HA: I have painted both war and peace but I choose to give peace more space. It is human nature to live in peace whereas wars are an exception in people’s lives. It is necessary to give war less time. War imposed itself as a sudden reality that we are living in.  And this surprise needs to go away in order to restore our lives and our stolen hopes. In the end everything will come to an end and art will remain.
HA: Life has become a thing of the past and the most dangerous part in this ongoing war is the drain of minds and creators, so that its only warriors and images of martyrs that fill the streets. This is a painful and sad thing, especially since we lost a lot in everything, and the war is still going on and nothing will return as it was.

author: Clara G


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Chile’s new constitution offers unique opportunity to rethink workers’ rights in the digital age · Global Voices
Claudio Gutiérrez

‘Remote work’ by oi-oi illustrations, used under their license.
Since the installation of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in 1973, workers’ living and working conditions throughout Chile have suffered. Pinochet’s regime reduced the size of the government, removed social protections, and completely liberalized the economy. These policies initially caused the Chilean economy to boom and were praised by major international financial organizations, including the IMF and World Bank. Pinochet’s reforms, however, left the Chilean people without social protections and with drastically reduced power to voice their needs in the political arena. They worked longer hours for less pay in worse conditions.
In this regard, little changed with the return of democracy in 1990.
This situation exploded in October 2019 after nearly 50 years of worker oppression. Following a series of countrywide protests against the regime of the current president, Sebastián Piñera, the Chilean people voted to fully empower themselves and rewrite their constitution from the ground up. Since then, a wave of political and philosophical inspiration has swept across the nation focused on a single (complex) question: “What do we change?”
As a philosopher and a computer scientist, we believe that the impending constitutional reform in Chile is a prime opportunity to address what is both a critical and underappreciated issue facing workers in our new, digital age.
The rapid advancement of technological solutions in the workplace over the last two decades has dramatically affected working conditions around the globe. Often, the benefits of these technological solutions include increased efficiency and productivity. However, when technological solutions are implemented in unchecked environments (as has become an issue in Chile’s completely open economy), they also threaten to bring about over-automation, and unhappiness in workers.
To the question: What do we change? As for many countries, Chile’s current stand on workers’ rights is based on Article 23 of the UN Charter of Human Rights:
“Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to the protection against unemployment.”
The current interpretation of this phrase falls short in our technologically advanced world as the evidence of warehouses, app-based gigs, and virtual work shows.
We suggest that the phrase ‘just and favorable conditions’ of the Human Rights Charter be enriched in Chile’s new constitution to account for justice and favorability in physical and digital work environments.
While the ultimate goal would be to see this change made in the Charter itself, Chile’s progressive constitutional redevelopment is a first opportunity for reform. Our hope is to begin a conversation about how to best protect workers’ rights in the digital age. With such reform, Chile has the chance to become a world leader.
Although the challenges of digital work are often unique to the particulars of any given job, we believe that there are at least three substantial harms that commonly arise from digital work:
‘Robotics’ by Storyset under Freepik license.
Computers are now able to make operational decisions faster and with fewer errors than humans. This has led to the wide-scale implementation of digital automation to direct human workers through their workflow. This has increased productivity; yet, the substantial human cost has, so far, gone largely unchecked.
With increasing automation in warehouses, for example, there is a correlative decline in employee wellbeing due to an increased demand for productivity and the inability of the employee to critically intervene in their workflow without sanction.
For instance, when warehouse workers at Amazon do not collect a specific quota of orders determined by an automated computer program, they can be automatically fired. The pressure of expected productivity forces warehouse workers to follow directions without fail; to become the arms and legs of an external, machine-intelligence. The effect of this pressure and automation on workers is unquestionable. Between 2013 and 2018, across 46 different Amazon warehouse locations, there were 189 emergency suicide events, including “attempts, thoughts, and other mental episodes.” This statistic does not include similar events that occurred outside of the workplace.
We believe that it is a human right to act freely, and while we must all tailor our individual liberties to the needs of our employers for the duration of the workday, this right ought not to ever be wholly discarded.
‘Visionary Technology’ by Storyset under Freepik license.
Workers hired through app-based platforms such as Uber, Taskrabbit, Rappi, Fiverr, etc. are managed through their corresponding software. Rather than orders coming from a human supervisor or otherwise distributed through a team, tasks are given and directed by a digital stand-in: a software program and its algorithm.
And where workers would normally perform as a team, gig workers are distanced from their colleagues. Gig-working colleagues often represent competition and a decrease in the value of their gigs. The more people who offer the same service, the less that service will be worth, causing a  “race to the bottom” for scarce gigs at ever-lower prices.
Hence, in addition to the stress of job insecurity, generally low pay, and threats to mental health, app-based work now also threatens workers with pervasive isolation from their peers through stigmatization and the inducement of competition between coworkers.
‘Completed steps’ by Storyset, under Freepik license.
To date, workers are afforded the right to a chair so as not to have to stand for hours, to safety measures when a job presents the possibility of physical danger, and to building standards such as heating, proper ventilation, illumination, and so on. All of these precautions are taken so that the physical conditions in the workplace remain just and favorable for workers. Yet, when the workspace is made virtual, new concerns arise that are distinct from their physical counterparts.
Importantly, virtual workspaces, which are here to stay, do not yet have analogous tools or social protections. Teachers are a paradigmatic example of the increasingly ubiquitous problems related to virtual work. The energy to teach, very often derived from the direct human engagement and interaction with students and colleagues, is no longer possible as it was previously.
Globally, including in Chile, depression and the general degradation of wellbeing are on the rise since the COVID-19 quarantines because of social isolation. This is especially true among lower-income workers, for example, teachers.
In this spirit, we believe that worker’s rights are human rights—and it is time to take workers’ rights into the digital age.

author: Claudio Gutiérrez


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Nepal’s wild elephants are also on the move · Global Voices
Nepali Times

Elephants at Bardiya National Park in Nepal. Image by Salik Ram Chaudhary for Nepali Times, used with permission.
This article by Salik Ram Chaudhary, secretary of the Khata Wildlife Corridor Homestay Management Committee, was originally published in Nepali Times and an edited version is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Several hundred elephants migrate from India to Nepal through different corridors each year. While Nepal's local elephants live in small herds, it is believed that these migratory elephants are vital for maintaining diversity. This year, because of the lack of human movement caused by COVID-19 restrictions, elephant herds shifted their usual path of annual migration, marching right through areas of human habitation.
At this time of year, before COVID-19 and lockdowns, I would be guiding tourists around Bardiya National Park in midwestern Nepal. However, the pandemic has meant empty homestays along the Khata Wildlife Corridor that connects wilderness areas in India and Nepal. While local villages may have lost their income from ecotourism, the absence of people during the lockdowns means that wild animals have reclaimed their space.
I am involved with the Khata Wildlife Corridor Homestay Management Committee, which means I used to organise jungle safaris and wildlife excursions, showing visitors what Bardiya has to offer. But it is not merely a job for me—I have been roaming these forests near my home since childhood and I'm passionately involved in nature conservation. Even with the restrictions on travel and the scorching pre-monsoon heat of the plains of western Nepal, I cannot bring myself to stay indoors.
On June 10, I was on my way into the forest when I saw a herd of about 40 elephants, ranging from calves to adults, moving just half a kilometre from the village. To say it was a sight to behold is an understatement; it is extremely rare to see such a large herd of elephants this close to human settlements—just as rare as it has been to see the closely-watched herds moving across Yunnan province in China.
Elephants in Bardiya usually migrate through the Shiva Community Forest in Madhuban Municipality near the Indian border to the Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in India’s Uttar Pradesh state during September and October, and return to Nepal as the monsoon approaches. It is a rhythm dictated by tens of thousands of years of migration of the ancestors of these great herds.
And although this group was the largest I have ever seen, it is quite common to see smaller elephant herds within the Shiva Community Forest.
This year, possibly because of the lack of human movement that's due to COVID-19 restrictions, the herd didn’t bother to stay within the jungle corridor in their annual migration back into Nepal, but marched right through the village.
I followed the elephants along the village roads for quite some time, taking many photographs and videos along the way. I was so excited, there was no time to be afraid. These matriarchal herds can be nasty if they feel their calves are threatened.
The herd sliced right through roads and grasslands, stopping to graze before lumbering peacefully past farms. Had there been a lack of fodder, they might have broken into the fields of maize.
Image by Salik Ram Chaudhary for Nepali Times, used with permission.
I posted the photos and videos I had taken on Facebook, tagging my friends so that I could share my experience and these animals with the world.
The elephants, however, were not the only bonus wildlife sighting I have had in the past two weeks. On May 28, I came across a tiger 400 m away on the outskirts of the village. This was so unusual that I threw caution to the wind and tracked the tiger from a distance, following it, taking photographs. The tiger knew I was there but left me alone; both of us were at peace with the world.
I followed the tiger to a watering hole in the buffer zone of Bardiya National Park, half a kilometre away from the Dalla Homestay village that we had built with help from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Nepal a decade ago. It drank deeply, raised its head, looked around, and then drank some more.
Despite being a wildlife tracker and guide, I had never seen a tiger that close before. In fact, it is quite rare to see these elusive cats. I was trembling with sheer excitement and delight at being given this opportunity.
During the hot summers, the water sources within the Bardiya National Park that fill the natural watering holes for wildlife begin to dry up, forcing many wild animals to rivers and ponds near towns and villages. And, as the numbers of wild animals rise because of Nepal’s conservation successes, there has also been an increase in animal-human contact.
The elephants and the tiger that I encountered during these two weeks had not veered off their usual routes or lost their way. Their proximity to human settlements was made possible because of decades of hard work and the conservation effort of communities, local governments and conservation groups.
Thanks to this achievement, wildlife sightings are now quite common, making it possible for us to share these animals with the guests and visitors who use our homestay services when the lockdown is over.
And, as in Bardiya, we need to ramp up conservation efforts across Nepal so that we can use the lockdown lull to learn to share space and live in proximity with Nepal’s vast and rich biodiversity.

author: Nepali Times


text:
Trinidad & Tobago marks World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, even as some seniors struggle at vaccine centres · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

An elderly woman enjoys the view from her balcony in Trinidad and Tobago. Photo used with permission.
On the heels of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, which was marked on June 15, has come video footage, shared on social media channels like Facebook and WhatsApp, showing pensioners sitting on chairs in the street outside the La Romaine Health Centre in south Trinidad—where they waited in the hope of getting vaccinated—in heavy rain.
Why can they not offer a covered tent area for these poor folks. This is madness to expect elders to deal with these conditions!
— Sheila “I’m bored” Carew (@SheilaCarew) June 16, 2021
CNC3 News, one of two local media houses that filmed the scene, posted the video on its Facebook page, where it attracted close to 48,000 views and hundreds of comments, most of which expressed disbelief and disapproval. One Facebook user commented:
This is inhumane treatment
While the vaccination drive is excellent [there] should [be] shelters to accommodate them […]
Viena Parmashwar—along with other social media users—felt that in some measure, society at large was to blame for how the elderly are treated in general:
Ok the rain came. No fault of anyone. But [don't] these senior citizens have children or some loved one to accompany them [and] ensure they are safe and taken care of? […] We are part[ly] to blame.
Gemma Mills replied:
We always have a choice. Get up and go to the Health Center entrance. If they do not allow you in then go home. Don't stay there and get wet and catch a cold. Then you won't be able to take the vaccine. If no one is thinking about you then think about yourself. Bad weather has been forecasted for the day.
Facebook user Rita Bailie, however, thought that other safety considerations were just as pressing:
Heartless ppl out there… You telling me these citizens who serve this country in some way have to sit on the side of the road… What about if a driver of a car lose control and run into these innocent ppl who’s to be blame?????
Meanwhile, Patrice Lendore asked:
Aren't they given appointment times to avoid long lines? Can't those waiting be accommodated inside under a tent at least? Can't they be given a number and remain in the vehicle they came in, while the rain is falling? I feel like all this should take 2 minutes to resolve.
It was a question that Trinidad and Tobago's South-West Regional Health Authority addressed in a statement on its Facebook page:
The SWRHA notes videos and pictures circulating on social media of persons 65 years & over outside a few of our health facilities. While we strive for an efficient system overlay for the vaccination process, these valued citizens were without confirmed appointments. These persons were so advised by our attending staff to resolve the situation. We continue to remind that SWRHA will call and schedule appointments for persons 65 & over.
This process avoids congregation in breach of the current public health regulations.
Linda Ashton played devil's advocate:
OK so lets say they did not have an appointment. How else are they gonna make an appointment? #Failure
Other than showing up in person, citizens can make vaccine appointments via telephone and WhatsApp.
One Twitter user reported a completely different experience at the same health facility:
My mom had her 2nd vaccination shot appointment at this same health centre this morning. She arrived at 9:45 a. m. and was immediately attended to by the staff. Very smooth process. ????????
Mummy is now #FullyVaccinated
— ???? (@Allyciosa) June 16, 2021
In the same vein, a south-based resident who lives close to the health centre claimed that the media houses were misleading the public. His Facebook post included photos of tents placed outside the building, and inoculated people receiving light refreshments.
The country's president, Paula-Mae Weekes, in observing World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, said that she viewed the occasion as “an opportunity to promote the dignity of older persons and advocate for their protection against all forms of abuse and discrimination.”
Her address, which was posted on the Office of the President's Facebook page, lamented the fact that many seniors, after contributing to society throughout their lives, “become victims of the most demeaning and degrading forms of mistreatment, often at the hands of their loved ones”—abuse that often goes unreported and undetected, “due in part to the culture of shame and secrecy that silences victims and harmful stereotypes which paint older persons as more expendable than other groups.”
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Weekes made the point that “the failure to plan inclusively for the elderly” when shifting to online and tech-based service delivery, for example, is a form of abuse. She added:
The recent, appalling display of disregard for our senior citizens which left them standing—and when they could no longer stand, sitting—on the ground unshielded from the elements lining the nation’s roads is a less than subtle form of elder abuse.
She was referring to the many elders who waited at health centres throughout the country last week, when there was a massive turn-out for the ‘walk-in’ vaccine arrangement. This has since been discontinued, but one man, seeing the long lines at a health centre in Ste. Madeline in south Trinidad, took it upon himself to supply chairs so people could be more comfortable. Another made a similar gesture on June 16 in La Romaine.
“While we dig ourselves out of this Covid-19 hole,” the president pleaded, “let us all be alert to the forms of elder abuse that might arise during this crisis […] let us make treating older persons with care and respect a priority.”
Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory to the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA), and on June 9, at a webinar hosted by the Development Bank of Latin America, Colm Imbert, the country's minister of finance, expressed concern about the issue of longevity risk, whereby longer lifespans could translate into people running out of resources to support themselves, thereby putting additional pressure on state pension systems.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco