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Mourning Cricket Fans Honor Australia’s Phillip Hughes With #PutOutYourBats · Global Voices
Rezwan

Players and officials of Bangladesh-Zimbabwe and the spectators stand up for one minute silence for Australian batsman Phillip Huges before the fourth One Day International match at Sher-e-Bangla Natioanl Cricket Stadium in Mirpur. Dhaka. Image by Reaz Sumon. Copyright Demotix. (28/11/2014)
A simple tribute from a cricket fan to Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes, who died November 27, has gone viral in Australian and around the world.
Australian star cricketer Phillip Hughes died as a result of injuries he sustained when he was struck by a bouncer on Tuesday during a domestic league game at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Hughes was wearing a helmet, but the ball made contact with an unprotected area, damaging his vertebral artery which caused bleeding in the brain. He died two days later at a Sydney hospital from his injuries, three days shy of his 26th birthday.
In a gesture of respect, IT worker Paul Taylor put his old cricket bat outside the front door of his home in Sydney with a cricket cap slung on the handle and tweeted the picture to his followers with the hashtag #putoutyourbats. The idea soon caught on among mourning fans in Australia and beyond.
The #CricketFamily has united for a powerful tribute to Phillip Hughes: http://t.co/EVLIN8Zf3v #PutOutYourBats pic.twitter.com/kWMd0JNUys
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) November 28, 2014
Very touching tribute for Phillip Hughes at Adelaide Oval.Our sincere condolences to family friends & cricket family pic.twitter.com/596tEAUL8e
— Crows Supporters Grp (@crowssupporters) November 28, 2014
Awesome! Well done Google Australia #PutYourBatsOut #63NotOutForever RIP Phillip Hughes. pic.twitter.com/AZPsXtRcC3
— ★mallyHelen★ (@malsagirl) November 28, 2014
PHOTO: A tribute to Phillip Hughes at the MCG #putoutyourbat @theage pic.twitter.com/vNZKKWFu65
— The Age Photography (@theage_photo) November 28, 2014
63 bats have been placed in the windows of @CricketAus headquarters as a tribute to Phillip Hughes. #9Newscomau pic.twitter.com/MklWwaNYAS
— Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) November 28, 2014
In tribute to Phillip Hughes #putyourbatsout #408 pic.twitter.com/0TNvem5VXa
— Melbourne Renegades (@RenegadesBBL) November 28, 2014
From the Gilly kids xxx #PutOutYourBats #RIPPhillipHughes pic.twitter.com/aeheTLw5dI
— Adam Gilchrist (@gilly381) November 27, 2014
Gorgeous tribute at Macksville Primary School for Phillip Hughes pic.twitter.com/8aXvMD2l4i
— Lucy Carter (@lucethoughts) November 28, 2014
#putoutyourbats for Phil Hughes. A sad day for the sporting world pic.twitter.com/UCDeZ0g4rR
— Saracens Rugby Club (@Saracens) November 28, 2014
The @Momentum_za Proteas wmn have joined the tribute in their innings break v India #PutOutYourBats #CricketFamily pic.twitter.com/a2Ev7eMKVR
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) November 28, 2014
#PutOutYourBats l @BLACKCAPS and Pakistan team mourn the passing of Phil Hughes during the ongoing test match pic.twitter.com/ItmEao3Z5G
— CNN-IBN News (@ibnlive) November 28, 2014
The whole of @BCBtigers team paying their respect to Phillip Hughes after the end of the 4th ODI. #putoutyourbats pic.twitter.com/eBPKXJenph
— Bangladesh Cricket (@BCBtigers) November 28, 2014
Hughes was born in Macksville, a small town on the north coast of New South Wales, and was so talented that he had his grade A debut at the age of 12. To mark his passing, matches were cancelled in Australia and in other countries. Cricketers across the world have tweeted to commemorate him:
From Sydney to Secunderabad, Phillip Hughes is being remembered http://t.co/YtGrBFJG3T
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) November 28, 2014
Phillip Hughes: He died doing something he loved, with a cricket bat in his hand. http://t.co/cgnuFEK9me #PhilHughes pic.twitter.com/SqejYugK9R
— Firstpost (@firstpostin) November 28, 2014
Check out ESPN for more tributes to the cricket star.


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Position-ography: ‘I Know What You Did Last Term’ · Global Voices
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez

Graphic taken from blog Infoactivismo, used with permission
During the economic and political crisis in Argentina in 2001, people shouted in the streets, “Go to hell, everyone (rulers)!” More than a decade after these events, this popular cry was transformed into a digital tool that allows voters to learn about the political background of their candidates. On Infoactivismo, there is a piece about the project Cargografías (roughly translated as Position-ography):
El objetivo es brindar información a la ciudadanía para la toma de decisiones durante periodos electorales y ser un recurso de utilidad para periodistas e investigadores, quienes a partir de la herramienta podrán construir sus propias historias y apoyar sus proyectos de investigación.
The aim is to give information to the constituency for decision making during election periods and serve as a useful resource for journalists and researchers, who will be able to build their own stories and support their investigation projects using the tool.
The tool allows to analyze the political career of public officers in the last 30 years and document situations that might not be found in a regular Internet search.
Project founder Andrés Snitcofsky explains his intention was to show that many officers who were in office in 2001 are still there in spite of people's complaints. Although the information already existed, until now it wasn't collected in one place. So, Cargografías began with a Google Doc and a group of friends who organized the available information that was available on their own time. That database is now available on Popit.
You can follow @Info_Activismo and @Cargografías on Twitter.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez


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Sexual Violence as Weapon of War · Global Voices
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez

Marita Seara, blogging for Voces Visibles, invites us to reflect on the suffering of women sexually subdued during armed conflicts. The author recommends us to watch the documentary The war against women, where director Hernán Zin describes rape as real “weapons of war” and confronts us with the reality of victims of these atrocities. Thus, the documentary shows us some figures regarding sexual violence during the most heinous armed conflicts of the last decades:
Bosnia, 1992 a 1995: 40 mil mujeres violadas
Uganda, 1985 a 2006: 4000 niñas secuestradas y violadas
Ruanda, 1994 entre 250 mil y 500 mil mujeres violadas.
República Democrática del Congo, 2008-2013: 200 mil mujeres violadas.
Bosnia, 1992 – 1995: 40,000 women raped
Uganda, 1985 – 2006: 4000 girls abducted and raped
Rwanda, 1994 between 250,000 and 500,000 women raped
Democratic Republic of Congo, 2008 – 2013: 200,000 women raped
Image from blog Voces Visibles, used with permission
Among the most disturbing data, soldiers from Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda confess been militarly trained from very young age to rape women. Just in one of the hospitals in Democratic Republic of Congo, a third of 300 monthly female patients must undergo major genitalia surgery.
As former UN representative in sexual violence Margot Wallstrom points out, raping women during armed conflicts destroy not only personal lives, but also the society, and instills fear within communities victims of genocide for generations.
You can follow Marita Seara on Twitter.


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Ukrainian Twitter Account Chronicles Euromaidan Protests Day by Day · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

The Euromaidan protests have left behind many photos, videos, and social media content. Image by Mikhail Palinchak on Demotix.
How do you remember Euromaidan? A new Twitter account allows social media users in Ukraine and beyond to relive the history of the Euromaidan protests as they happened.
Сьогодні розпочинаємо проект “Майдан – День за Днем”, де відтворюватимемо події нашої Революції. #МайданДеньЗаДнем pic.twitter.com/4MnvVuAx0E
— Maydan DenZaDnem (@MaydanDenZaDnem) November 21, 2014
Today we begin the project “Maidan—Day by Day,” where we'll be recreating the events of our Revolution.
Created by anonymous Ukrainian users, the account, Майдан День За Днем (Maidan Day by Day), recreates the events of Euromaidan protests (or, the Maidan, for short) day by day. Regular tweets chronicle the happenings of each subsequent day, posting facts, links, photos, and videos.
Перше фото. :) І перший твіт з Євромайдану. Просто раніше прийшли. #МайданДеньЗаДнем pic.twitter.com/gUAp4EmXvG
— Maydan DenZaDnem (@MaydanDenZaDnem) November 21, 2014
The first photo. :) And the first tweet from Euromaidan. They just got there earlier.
[text in screenshot: I went to revolution. No one here. A lonely Christmas tree and the construction guys’ booth. I'm gonna go get coffee with @ja_olga.]
Ніч з 21 на 22 листопада. Перша стрім-трансляція з Євромайдану. Її провів користувач Крус Крус. #МайданДеньЗаДнем pic.twitter.com/cI9abHUHDr
— Maydan DenZaDnem (@MaydanDenZaDnem) November 22, 2014
The night from 21 to 22 November. The first live stream broadcast from Euromaidan. It was started by user Krus.
What began as pro-EU demonstrations in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in late November 2013, when then-President Yanukovych decided not to sign the EU association agreement, soon turned into a “Revolution of Dignity,” a mass movement to take back the country and a fight against the corrupt regime.
Євромайдан. День 8. #МайданДеньЗаДнем pic.twitter.com/Iusw5gIBDV
— Maydan DenZaDnem (@MaydanDenZaDnem) November 28, 2014
Euromaidan. Day 8.
[text in image:
November 28
Euromaidan continues to stand
EU Summit begins in Vilnius. Yanukovych has arrived as well
Merkel: “There are no hopes for signing the agreement”
Transport companies refuse to travel to Kyiv]
The protests escalated to a deadly stand-off between hundreds of thousands of citizens and government forces on February 18, when dozens of protesters were killed and hundreds wounded. Euromaidan ended with Yanukovych deposed and a new interim government taking charge.
Euromaidan activists used social media, digital technology and crowdmapping to organize and sustain the protests, all the while documenting the daily life of the Maidan in Kyiv and other cities around Ukraine. Maidan Day by Day on Twitter draws on the massive amounts of posts, news stories, and visual evidence to tell the story of each day of the protests exactly a year later. Many of the tweets quote key personalities from the protests and their updates from that time.
А. Яценюк: “Україна підпише асоціацію. Якщо не з цим президентом (Янукович), то з новим”. 28.11.2013. http://t.co/qeKtYQco9m
— Maydan DenZaDnem (@MaydanDenZaDnem) November 28, 2014
A. Yatsenyuk: Ukraine will sign the association. If not with this President (Yanukovych), then with a new one. Nov 28, 2013.
28 листопада 2013. Євромайдани у різних містах нашої України. http://t.co/EGdDzSYyKq
— Maydan DenZaDnem (@MaydanDenZaDnem) November 28, 2014
November 28, 2013. Euromaidan protests continue in different cities of our Ukraine.
The new project also has pages on Facebook and Russian VKontakte, where it posts many of the same photos and videos as it hopes to attract a larger audience to follow the daily updates and see the content from particular days of the protest.
To make the collective memory game of Maidan Day by Day even more engaging, social network users can join the crowdsourced living history experiment and share their own memories of each day of the protest using the hashtag #майданденьзаднем (#maidandaybyday).

author: Tanya Lokot


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Morehshin Allahyari’s Art on Iranian Censorship Will Soon Be Out of This World · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Dark Matter, First Series, 3D printed sculpture, used with permission by Morehshin Allahyari.
Discovering Morehshin Allahyari’s art is a treat to anyone who studies Iranian media or is part of the digital activist community. I spend my time studying censorship and Internet controls inside Iran, which represents a very niche interest group that often does not resonate beyond people who do similar research.
A German friend who knows my overly specific fascination with Iran’s Internet sent me a Facebook message this past October saying, “Mahsa, analogue love in digital times: this time with the Internet in Iran.” As if to say, your interest has suddenly become more ‘sexy’ after watching this video.
And indeed, that’s what an artist does — make the ordinary and mundane aspects of our world beautiful. Morehshin in effect does this with less than enticing aspects of Iran. She has taken the subject of Iran’s slow and interrupted Internet and made something of a new media love story out of it. After watching “In Mere Spaces, All Things Are Side By Side”, I chatted with Morehshin through a series of google hangouts and emails, who is now based in San Francisco’s Bay area, to understand her art and her many different projects, including one that is being sent to space.
What was the inspiration for the video “In Mere Spaces All Things Are Side by Side I”?
Morehshin Allahyari (MA): For the last one year I’ve been working on different projects pushing the limits of virtual and physical spaces and my own relationship to them. I moved to the U.S. in 2007 and haven’t been back to Iran for four years, so now my only relationship to Iran is virtual: I talk to my family and friends on Skype or chat with them via Facebook or Viber. In the last seven years, I have celebrated Persian New Year with them online; my sister used to send me pictures of everyday life, even images from my father’s grave. I saw my grandmother last on Google Hangout. Everyday I wake up and read the news or watch videos online to get a sense of what’s happening in Iran (which I think is still far from the experience of living there). I am fascinated about these complex physical and virtual relationships with a place I once called “home”. At the same time that I was reading, thinking, doing research about these concepts, I found a CD where I saved all my old Yahoo chat histories from the time I was a teenager in Iran… this is where the idea for my new body of work “In Mere Spaces All Things Are Side by Side” came together.
GIF from from “In Mere Spaces, All Things Are Side By Side”, used with permission by Morehshin Allahyari.
I think we all relate to the notion of relationships developing through communication technologies, and the story of this particular relationship developing in an environment of filtered and delayed censorship is especially resounding. Can you speak to that?
MA: One reason that I am really interested in this project is that in a country like the U.S. we usually talk and think about our access to technology and internet from the position of privilege… so with this project I wanted to focus on the inaccessibility, failure, and limitation of technology and address the ways that Internet is understood and experienced in a developing country. Raising important questions about the hierarchical and horizontal aspect of the net, its slowness, and broken-ness.
As a teenager in Iran, Internet became a window to the world I otherwise could not have an access to, yet it was limited and censored. My sister thought I was insane for spending so much time every day trying to get online and being so persistent about re-connecting when I would get disconnected every 10-15 minutes… But I learned a lot about the world around me and had a lot of online friends that I talked to, and yeah! this one American guy that I loved and chatted with all the time (for almost five years), and who was my online best friend for years.
So my in progress project “In Mere Spaces All Things Are Side By Side” uses these experiences and a selection of my chat archive as a point of departure to poetically explore the invisible and less discussed aspects of the net in a developing country.
GIF from In Mere Spaces, All Things Are Side By Side, used with permission by Morehshin Allahyari.
There’s a great line in your video where you say, “My slow and interrupted online being cannot resist the oppression of the country I live in.” What do you mean by this?
MA: I always think about how you can never escape certain things in life when you are born in a country like Iran….or what’s called the geographic determinism. So by this line, I mean to say even though I could exist and interact in the virtual world, the circumstances of my physical environment had an influence on my online presence and life. Although I had access to the Internet, my access was limited and I had to pass through Internet filters and censorship. So for me, it’s important to question our assumptions about the virtual and physical binary and how and in what ways they influence one another in certain circumstances. I also think the audio composed by Dan Tramte has an important influence in highlighting these connections and binaries; the gap between the harsh noise (blackness/dis-connection) and the rest of the audio (access/connection/communication).
What happened to your relationship with the guy you were chatting with from Iran in your film (johnny616)?
MA: We lost touch after we met a bunch of times IRL [in real life].
Can you explain the story behind the name “Like Pearls”? And why Iranian spam about underwear?
MA: In the last one year, I’ve been reading through and gathering the Farsi spam emails that I receive. In my “Like Pearls” project, I was interested to delve into the cultural, religious, and social references of romance, sex, and online shopping from these very strange spam emails that I received about underwear. I think you can learn a lot about the adoption and the use of technology through a phenomenon like email spam. In addition, the text and the kitsch aesthetics of these spam was something that caught my attention. The more research I did, the more I became amazed by these Iranian online stores that sold underwear and roses (all in one package) but also mostly encouraged men to buy them for their wives and lovers. Also, the visual aspect of these censored bodies of the women in these online advertisements was surreal… because of the juxtaposition between what the message and purpose of the images were and how they were eventually censored due to limitations for these websites (many based in Iran) in showing nudity. So “Like Pearls” is a net.art piece, a mash-up of GIFs, text, and images that I’ve collaged together. As the audience scrolls through the website, there are pop-up messages that will show if you click on hyperlinked images… the messages highlight the misogynistic aspect of these spam and a critique to the objectification of female bodies using these underwear advertisements as an encouragement of relationships.
Still Image from “Like Pearls”, an examination of misogynistic and censored Iranian spam, used with permission by Morehshin Allahyari.
Still Image from “Like Pearls”, used with permission by Morehshin Allahyari.
Where do you find the most inspiration for your art? Can you explain your new media background and how you use this to represent your ideas?
MA: I use my daily life experiences to create work that is meaningful to me and -hopefully- thought provoking to others. As a new media artist, my work primarily uses digital technologies and tools to explore different concepts. I am really interested in political and social issues around me, my personal and political struggles as a Middle-Eastern artist born and raised in Iran; living in the U.S. and in diaspora; and the life of others who live in similar conditions. These digital technologies that I use in my work offer a limitless possibility that in my opinion doesn’t exist in a more traditional forms of art practice. In many of my 3D animation projects I use narrative and writing and black and white images/3D environments to create a poetic and dreamlike experience.
Tehran#1-Measurements-of-Forgetting (series), used with permission by Morehshin Allahyari.
#AsYouScrollDown is supposed to serve as a digital and analogue archive of tweets and images from the 2009 protest movement in Iran. Can you explain the idea behind the project?
MA: #AsYouScrollDown is a piece that was commissioned by Theory of Survival project curated by Taraneh Hemami for an exhibition at Southern Exposure gallery in San Francisco.  The exhibition took the form of a bazaar and all the artists in the show were invited to create a storefront that reflects back on the revolutions, protests, and in general political history of Iran. My storefront was a record shop and my piece is an archival record of 100 tweets that I gathered from the 2009-2010 Green Movement in Iran (the most shared, favorited tweets), read by a computer voice; suggesting a “scrolling down”, looking back at political and historical archives and in this case the twitter archive of the green movement of Iran.
As the audience listens to the record, the sound starts getting more intense and chaotic; harder to understand at certain points; representing our dreams and nightmares and the bitter memories of the protests by reflecting back on the events; once again connecting the two world of physical/analogue and virtual/digital.
Photo from the #AsYouScrollDown, Printed Records, used with permission by Morehshin Allahyari.
Can you break down what is going in the Dark Matter project? How does it feel to be breaking such a big taboo about an Iranian theme?
MA: Dark Matter is a series of combined sculptural objects that are 3D modeled and then 3D printed to form a surreal and humorous juxtapositions. The objects that I chose for the first series were the ones that are forbidden or unwelcome in Iran. I was interested in finding conceptual and poetic ways to use the technology of 3D printing. In Dark Matter the printer becomes a tool for resistance; a tool for documentation of the lives we’ve lived as Iranians since the 1979 revolution. I think there is something very beautiful about the possibility of 3D printing forbidden objects as an act of resistance. In the case of my Dark Matter project, none of the objects that I’ve 3D printed are functional… they only serve as symbolic representations of lives under oppression.  The objects vary from dog and satellite dish to barbie and Simpson.
Sculpture from Dark Matter, First Series, used with permission by Morehshin Allahyari.
Part two of Dark Matter is going to outer space. Can we pause and just admit that this is very wild. Why? What? How? Please tell me everything.
MA: Six months ago, I was commissioned by Forever Now project to create a new work to be sent to the International Space Station and then into outer space in January 2015. In 1977, NASA did a similar project called “The Voyager Golden Records” which included sounds and images by different musicians and artists and was launched to the space. The Forever Now project is a similar project but with videos and sounds. I think the Voyager Golden Record was more of a utopian message from Earth to the space. I wanted my video (Dark Matter) to represent the dark sides of our lives… a dystopia if you will. In a way this project is a documentation of the monuments of life one can find on Earth, and an attempt to represent some aspects of authoritarianism and dictatorship. I love the idea that these objects will exist beyond human control… there will be free of our obscure laws and bureaucracies and oppression in the space. Symbolical, I am freeing them to the universe.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Selfies, ‘Sandwich Parties’ and ‘The Hunger Games’: How Activists Have Challenged Thailand’s Martial Law · Global Voices
Khun Somchai

Armed soldiers stand on guard during an operation to control anti-coup protesters in Bangkok. Photo by Matthew Richards, Copyright @Demotix (5/25/2014)
Just over six months have passed since a military junta seized control of the Thai government and ousted the country's elected leader, Yingluck Shinawatra, in a coup on May 22. The junta quickly suspended the country's constitution, dissolved the legislature, placed sanctions on free expression and assembly, and temporarily detained a number of political leaders.
Despite this, Thai citizens have used social media to speak out and draw attention to conditions in the country. The following images are from the past six months:
1. Coup selfies
Newsy or a Doozy – ‘Aint no selfie like a Thai coup selfie'… @graciewtaylor pic.twitter.com/H2PIuZcKWT
— George FM Breakfast (@GRGFMBRKFST) May 27, 2014
The junta brought hundreds of armed soldiers and heavy weaponry to the capital on May 22. A number of people quickly approached soldiers to take ‘coup selfies’ that served both as political statements and updates on troop activity to the outside world.
2. Arrests and detention
For those who don't know, the woman with the red tape across her mouth is a journalist (a brave one). #ThaiCoup pic.twitter.com/FBBXzfYUxd
— แก้วมาลา Kaewmala (@Thai_Talk) May 23, 2014
The junta “summoned” political leaders and a number of democracy activists.  Some of those who initially refused to report were captured and detained, and now face several years in prison.
3. Sandwich ban
Some students organized a picnic against the coup but it was stopped by police forces. The police and students shared some sandwiches. Photo by Atiwat Silpamethanont, Copyright @Demotix (6/6/2014)
The junta quickly placed limits on anything perceived to be political dissent. After political gatherings of more than five people were banned, activists organized ‘sandwich parties’ on social media. The junta quickly took notice and warned activists to stop.
4. Textbook revisions
Student activists protesting in front of the Thai Education Department. Image by Nattanan Warintarawet (second from right).
Shortly after taking power, the junta banned lectures, meetings, and demonstrations that they saw as a threat. Students and faculty that defied the ban were arrested and detained. The junta also mandated memorization of “12 Values” that focused on deference to authority, and tracked the movements of those who questioned them. The junta also revised history textbooks that edited out the name of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose party has won all elections since 2001.
5. Censorship
Activists reading books on BTS sky train as a protest against coup. Photo by Yostorn Triyos, Copyright @Demotix (6/13/2014)
Along with other forms of dissent, the junta banned controversial books, such as George Orwell's “1984.”
6. The panda threat
Former Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (left) with her brother, ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (center). Photo from Facebook of Yingluck.
The head of the junta chastised and warned journalists not to report on a photo of the two former prime ministers of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra and Yingluck Shinawatra, cuddling a panda on a visit to China, because it posed a “danger to Thailand's national security.” The photo has been interpreted by some as a sign of Beijing's political support for democratic forces in Thailand.
7. Hunger Games at #DistrictThai
Anti-coup protesters raise their hands in a three-finger salute as a symbol of struggle. Photo by Gonzalo Abad, Copyright @Demotix (6/1/2014)
Shortly after the coup, some activists used a three-fingered salute made popular in the film “The Hunger Games” as a form of political protest.  As a sequel to the movie was released worldwide, Thai activists organized online to raise awareness about political authoritarianism in the country. They staged demonstrations outside cinemas in major cities and forced the cancellation of the film at some cinemas in Thailand.
Thai army leader and now designated Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has vowed to restore civilian rule by holding elections — but only after the junta has implemented the political and electoral reforms needed to restore political stability in the country. In the meantime, Thai activists continue to demand the end of military dictatorship.

author: Khun Somchai


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‘TusovochkaNews’ Delivers Russian Journalists Some Badly Needed ‘Self-Irony’ · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Just some of the Russian journalists and public figures to grace TusovochkaNews. Images edited by Kevin Rothrock.
There are many odd parody accounts on Russian-language Twitter. Josef Stalin has tweeted almost 20,000 times to his 115,000 followers. Someone with nearly 30,000 subscribers poses as a man named Lev Sharansky, who pretends to be a Russian dissident but actually lampoons liberals and defends the Kremlin. Even the mustache of Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, has a Twitter account with more than 60,000 followers.
It’s not even two-weeks-old yet, but the latest thing to hit Russian Twitter is an account called @TusovochkaNews, which translates roughly as “CliqueNews.” The word “tusovka” comes from the verb “tusovat’sia,” which means, “to hang out.” In Moscow, “Тhe Тusovka” includes all the coolest activists, opposition politicians, poets, and so on. But the tusovka is especially about journalists, whose large appetite for writing about the news is exceeded only by their mutual fascination with each other. Whispers, scandals, and dirt are the tusovka’s bricks and mortar.
“The media space in Russia has narrowed to just a couple hundred people who gossip about each other. Sometimes these people don’t get enough self-irony,” TusovochkaNews’ creator told RuNet Echo.
According to the person operating its Twitter account, TusovochkaNews relies on an anonymous collective to author its tweets. The creator says he has written only 20-30 percent of the group’s 253 tweets to date. “I gave access to a few people and then to a few more people. And they don’t know about each other. Now, I myself don’t know who’s writing what,” TusovochkaNews told us.
The account started out as something like an “art project,” its creator says, “but curiously more and more people are now emerging who are really learning about news from our tweets.”
Indeed, TusovochkaNews was one of the first voices on Twitter to report the ouster of Russkaia Planeta’s editorial staff, tweeting:
Сотрудники «Русской планеты» пишут о своей работе в издании в прошедшем времени.
— TusovochkaNews (@TusovochkaNews) November 28, 2014
The staff members at “Russkaia Planeta” are writing about their work there in the past tense.
TusovochkaNews seems to have found that it’s possible to break news, relying entirely on gossip published in social-media posts, while cracking jokes. Consider the group’s first tweet, written on November 18:
Александр Винокуров поинтересовался стоимостью “Эха” у сайта Thequestion.ru
— TusovochkaNews (@TusovochkaNews) November 18, 2014
Alexander Vinokurov asked about the value of Echo of Moscow on the website TheQuestion.ru.
TheQuestion.ru is a new project (launched in late October) that solicits readers for random questions, which prominent members of the Russian intelligentsia then answer. Vinokurov is the owner of Slon.ru and TV Rain, two of Russia’s most popular independent news outlets. There are rumors that Echo of Moscow’s current majority shareholder, Gazprom Media, might be willing to sell its stake in the radio station, if it’s offered a fair price. Echo’s chief editor, Alexey Venediktov, has signaled his intention to make such an offer.
In other words, TusovochkaNews drew attention to the fact that Vinokurov is perhaps considering outbidding Venediktov.
If you’re not ROTFL, don’t beat yourself up. (These jokes aren’t meant for people outside the tusovka.)
More recent tweets, however, like the one about Russkaia Planeta, have addressed breaking news. They’re still humorous, by and large, but readers actually learn about breaking news in Russia’s world of journalism, while enjoying the tweets’ “self-irony.” For instance, when journalist Oleg Kashin appeared on TV Rain on November 27 to talk about the social circles within the tusovka, TusovochkaNews tweeted about it. When journalist Ekaterina Vinokurova wrote on Facebook to criticize the editorial purge at Russkaia Planeta, TusovochkaNews wrote about that, too.
Under normal circumstances—where independent news editors aren’t on the endangered species list and journalists’ social-media faux pas don’t jeopardize entire news outlets—something like TusovochkaNews might be amusing, at best, and utterly useless, otherwise. In modern-day Russia, however, it feels like this bizarre Twitter account is on to something. As the Kremlin and its media-owning friends squeeze the free press, Russia’s remaining independent journalists have become increasingly significant politically. Their squabbles and love affairs, which they catalogue themselves—rigorously—on Facebook and Twitter, are the country’s only unscripted politics, aside from the “clan wars” within the Kremlin, where we can only guess what’s really happening.
Even TusovochkaNews’ anonymity is a sign of the times. The mysterious project emerges as Echo of Moscow is busy drafting a “code of conduct” to restrict staff members in their online behavior. “We’re all journalists from different publications,” TusovochkaNews told RuNet Echo. “We know personally almost everyone we write about.”
If the rules Echo eventually introduces produce a chilling effect on how Russian journalists ponder and pontificate in social media, many might escape to anonymous accounts, like the TusovochkaNews collective. Such accounts can attract readers by merely implying their authors’ identity. In an environment where one errant tweet can risk your whole outfit, TusovochkaNews could be the future of Russian social media.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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If Mubarak Is Innocent, Who Ordered the Killing of 900 Protestors During the Egyptian Revolution? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Protestors trying to get back to Tahrir Square after Mubarak is acquitted. Photograph by Omar Elhadi (Twitter)
Egyptians are back to the streets after a court acquitted former president Hosni Mubarak of killing protestors during the January 25 revolution against his regime. Charges were also dropped against Mubarak and his co-defendants, who included Interior Minister Habib Eladly and his two sons, in relation to corruption charges linked to a gas deal with Israel.
In the 18 days Mubarak remained in power after the start of anti-regime protests, some 900 protestors are estimated to have been killed by regime forces and thousands more arrested until he finally stepped down in February 2011. Mubarak, 86, has since spent around three and a half years in detention, mostly well-cared for at hospitals, under different charges.
According to Mada Masr, the judge in today's trial dismissed charges against Mubarak “citing a procedural error by the prosecutors.”
The progressive bilingual news site adds:
Mubarak was not originally a defendant in the case and prosecutors did not add him to the case until two months after it was filed. This, to the judge, showed that the prosecution had implied “there were no grounds for criminal proceedings” against Mubarak.
The Mubarak trial saga has had its ups and downs, but today's verdict seems to be like one of the final straws Egyptians can take. Despite being muzzled by a controversial anti-protest law which has seen the jailing of countless protestors, Egyptians enraged at the judgement took to the streets to vent off.
Tahrir Square, the epi-centre of the Egyptian revolution, was off-limits, walled by barbed wire and armed personnel when checked people's ID cards. Clashes took place nearby as more protestors gathered to decry the verdict.
“@elmansi: RT @tantalos2: بدأت بـ ٥ شبان جدعان وزادت وبتزيد pic.twitter.com/YnMdtqNsaf #Nov29“
— إسراء فهيد (@EsraaFehead) November 29, 2014
It started with five brave men and is growing and will continue to grow
لسه في ناس بتقول لأ ومش هنخلص “@Lotfy_labyb: #ميدان_التحرير منذ قليل .. pic.twitter.com/t6sKn68M2C”
— Nadia (@NadyaHassan) November 29, 2014
Tahrir Square a few minutes ago. There are still people saying No and we will not hear the end of it
الناس بتنزل والأعداد بتزيد pic.twitter.com/im8XpMa7kg
— marwaan emad (@647MARO) November 29, 2014
More people are joining the protestors and the numbers are increasing
من امام الاسلاك الشائكة في ميدان التحرير احتجاجا علي براءة حسني مبارك #25Jan pic.twitter.com/3y2E4GBtmL
— #FreeSanaa (@Mahmoud_salmani) November 29, 2014
In front of the barbed wire at Tahrir Square in protest against the innocence of Mubarak
#انزل #التحرير الاعداد بيتزيد و الدنيا هاتولع pic.twitter.com/VZlD9NsVC3
— جيمى (@jIMMY_540) November 29, 2014
The number of people is on the rise and the situation will get out of hand at any moment
Very soon, the crackdown begins. Blogger Omar Elhadi, with 136K followers on Twitter, provides the run down of events today:
كدة التاريخ ماشي صح.. مبارك براءة والناس نزلوا يعترضوا والسيسي ضربهم بالغاز والخرطوش وقبض عليهم
— Omar Elhady (@Asadx) November 29, 2014
This way history is taking its course. Mubarak is innocent, people protest and take to the streets and Sisi attacks them with tear gas and gun shot and arrests them
On Twitter, reactions continued to pour in throughout the day. In his first television interview, Mubarak claims he has not committed anything wrong. Johnathan Moremi reminds him:
Can't remember that you did anything wrong during #jan25 Mr. #Mubarak? Here, let me help you. (Photo @mosaaberizing) pic.twitter.com/QGVHpx5K3l
— Jonathan Moremi (@jonamorem) November 29, 2014
Amro Ali resorts to sarcasm to vent off:
During #Egypt‘s 18 days uprising, 840 people took their own lives by getting in the way of police bullets and security vehicles. #revision
— Amro Ali (@_amroali) November 29, 2014
Ahmed Khalil wonders:
الشعب يريد اسقاط النظام ، هل سقط النظام ام ما زال يحكم ؟؟؟
— Ahmad (@ahmad_khalil) November 29, 2014
The people want to overthrow the regime. Have they done that or is the regime still in power?
And Mohamed Emam confirms:
كان لازم مبارك يطلع براءة .. عشان الشعب يتأكد آن لسه النظام ما سقطش
— Mohamed Emam (@memam8) November 29, 2014
Mubarak had to be acquitted for the people to understand that the regime has not been overthrown
Hind, a Libyan blogger with more than 31K followers, says what Egypt needs to end the stalemate .. is a revolution.
Rampant corruption, crackdown on civil society, opaque judicial system, no free speech, impunity -you know what Egypt needs? A revolution.
— Hend (@LibyaLiberty) November 29, 2014
Further Reading:
Q&A: The Mubarak trial verdict – What just happened?
A timeline of the Mubarak trial

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Solar Homes Helping to End ‘Power Discrimination’ in Bangladesh · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

solar panel project at Sandwip, chittagong. Photo curtsey wikimedia.
Electricity, the very thing bringing these words to your eyes, is inaccessible to 45 percent of Bangladesh's population. Fewer than half the people living in the country's rural areas are on the power grid at all. That's why the Solar Home System Project, launched in 2007, is particularly good news for Bangladesh. A partnership between the state-owned Infrastructure Development Company Limited (a World-Bank-funded project) and about 40 NGOs (including private-sector companies and microcredit agencies), the Solar Home System Project has helped bring electricity and lightning to roughly 3 million homes, affecting more than 20 million lives.
Recently, Bangladesh celebrated the successful installment of 3 million solar home systems. The accomplishment reflects years of hard work. Naomi Ahmad celebrated the feat in a tweet earlier this month:
#Bangladesh celebrated installation of 3 million #solar homes systems this month. Remembering all the killer work we put in for last year!
— Naomi Ahmad (@NaomiAhmad) November 11, 2014
Greenpeace has commented very favorably on the project, crediting it with aiding a solar-energy revolution:
Has the world been ignoring the largest #Solar revolution? It's in our subcontinent #Bangladesh http://t.co/tsRrE2fwnM #RenewableEnergy
— Greenpeace India (@greenpeaceindia) October 27, 2014
Bangladeshis are installing solar home systems at a rate of 65,000 every month. Energy specialist Zubair K M Sadeque studies why the solar home system is becoming more popular. He says the reasons include rising rural income, strong microfinance support from local NGOs, and LED lighting innovation.
Bangladesh, in particular, has great potential when it comes to solar power. The country is located between 200 30’ and 260 45’ north latitude and the climate is tropical. This is ideal for solar-power reception. In fact, Bangladesh receives sufficient solar energy 300 days out of the year.
Solar energy is also finding its way into agriculture. Bangladesh has approved the construction of 191 solar-based irrigation pumps. (Sixty-nine are already up and running.) Solar energy also plays an important role in rural businesses. Villagers can now keep their shops, medicine stores, and saloons open late into the night. This has increased working hours, income, and living standards.
Installing solar panels hasn't been cheap in Bangladesh, but blogger Probir Bidhan encourages the country to move ahead with the process:
#Solar is still too expensive in #Bangladesh but needed badly to be spread quickly! http://t.co/eeIKqA1CxD
— probirbidhan (@probirbidhan) November 4, 2014
Currently, 40 percent of the Bangladeshi population is unemployed. The unemployment rate is increasing every year, but solar home systems have helped alleviate this, creating more than 114,000 jobs in the assembly, sale, installation, and maintenance of solar power systems. In fact, the number of solar-related jobs nearly doubled between 2011 and 2013.
Mike Hudema is a climate and energy campaigner. He tweeted about green jobs in Bangladesh:
#GreenJobs Booming in #Bangladesh-80,000 home #solar units a month! http://t.co/PQXiMLojhb #cdnpoli #tarsands #abpoli pic.twitter.com/rMjMMljhKR
— Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) June 21, 2014
Commercial installations of solar home systems in Bangladesh began officially in 1996. Grameen Shakti, a concern of Grameen Bank, started the trend. In the past 18 years, Grameen Shakti has installed more than 1.3 million solar home panels.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


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Ayotzinapa: Duality of Internet Denunciation · Global Voices
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez

Vero Flores Desentis, blogging for Mujeres Construyendo (Women Building), reflects on Internet users’ behavior regarding the disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa and rubs salt in the wound of those of us who use cyberspace for worthy causes, and calls us to an in-depth examination of our conscience: are denouncing and indignation on the Internet enough to make a change or do they just represent a simple catharsis? Thus, the author points out the duality of Internet denunciation regarding the events in Ayotzinapa:
Creo que es un tema que duele a la sociedad, y duele mucho. Lo que me sorprende es la dualidad de la denuncia social. Por un lado, cada vez tenemos más acceso a plataformas que nos sirven para denunciar o para establecer públicamente algún posicionamiento frente a un tema, y cada vez somos más las personas que las utilizamos. Y estas denuncias son una herramienta muy poderosa de denuncia social sin duda. Pero por otro, la denuncia ahí se queda, no hay un eco de ejecución que realmente ayude a disminuir los casos que lamentablemente siguen sucediendo.
I think this is something that hurts society. What amazes me is the duality of social denunciation. On one hand, each time we have more access to platforms that allow us to denounce or set publicly some position about a given topic, and each time more people use them. And these condemnations are a very powerful tool for social denunciation. Burt on the other hand, the denounce just stays there, there is no echo of carrying out that really helps reducing the cases that, unfortunately, keep coming.
Image from Mujeres Construyendo blog, used with permission.
Vero adds that just as in other disturbing cases, social networks channel our outrage about Ayotzinapa, although making it public doesn't change the situation. To change something, we must act outside the cybernetic world, changing our actions.
You can follow Vero Flores Desentis on Twitter.


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Vietnamese David Beckham Fan Shows How Not to Ride a Scooter With a Child · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

David Beckham's photo of a fan on a scooter, wearing no helmet, and a sleeping child riding with her. Photo widely shared on Facebook, from Beckham's page.
Football star David Beckham was in Vietnam in November to promote an alcoholic drink, but it was his Facebook photo which he posted three days after his visit that grabbed global attention. The photo shows a woman on a scooter snapping a photo of Beckham; she was not wearing a helmet and worse, there was a child sleeping between her legs.
Beckham wrote on Facebook:
I’m all for fans taking a picture but not sure this is the safest way to do it!
The photo got more than 686,000 likes, 7,000 shares, and 18,000 comments. It also sparked discussion in Vietnam about road safety and the enforcement of traffic laws. About 14,000 people die each year in Vietnam due to traffic accidents. The police said they will file charges against the woman for violating traffic laws in order to serve as an example for other motorists.
But Scott Duke Harris, an expat in Vietnam, noted that the photo was an accurate depiction of how many Vietnamese drivers and motorists are behaving in the streets:
Yes, the Beckham fan was flouting the law – but don’t very many Vietnamese do this on a daily basis? Helmet laws are often ignored, as are laws restricting the use of handheld devices. Small children are routinely carried on motorbikes without helmets or, it seems, other safety precautions. Only the blind don’t see this.
On Facebook, most Vietnamese netizens said they were embarrassed by the photo and criticized the woman for endangering the child riding with her. Meanwhile, Facebook user Truong Dang reminded Beckham that he could have done better than just simply taking a photograph of his fan:
You should give some signal to remind her of dangerous situation instead of shooting her back. If you care of her and the baby right then, for sure you will not act like this.
Another Facebook user Svein Berg parodied Beckham by telling him that he was in Vietnam to promote an alcoholic drink brand:
I am all for idols, but I am not sure promoting alcohol is the best way?
Hoang V Tan wrote the common sentiment of many Internet users in Vietnam:
This lady doesn't represent Vietnamese culture. However, accepting that so many people carelessly drive. Although most people love their kids, many don't know how to protect them in right manners. It's result from poor or ineffective education, public propaganda and laws enforcement.
Hopefully, Beckham’s viral photo will improve road safety in Vietnam by reminding authorities and educating the general public about the importance of strictly implementing traffic laws and regulations.

author: Mong Palatino


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Do You Know What Sustainable Fashion Is? · Global Voices
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez

After watching Sweatshop TV series, where three Norwegian youngsters travel to Cambodia to discover the miserable living conditions of garment industry workers, Rut Abrain reflects on sustainable fashion.
Foto de marissaorton en flickr, usada bajo una licencia Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Sustainable garments are those that take care of the environment on the electing their raw materials and their manufacturing processes. Likewise, those that respect human rights of individuals involved in the manufacturing and promote a fair international trade, without unfair competition. Rut invites us to reflect on responible use and explains thatl although there is mo regulation for sustainable fashion, there are seals that certify it:
- El más reconocido es GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard), la norma líder mundial en el procesamiento de textiles hechos con fibra orgánica, que incluye criterios ecológicos y sociales, y sustentada por certificaciones independientes en toda la cadena de provisión textil.
- Otros como Textile Exchange, también conocido como Organic Exchange, que opera a nivel internacional y está comprometido con la expansión responsable de sostenibilidad textil.
- Un tercer sello es Oeko-tex, que se dedica al control de las sustancias nocivas. Se definen como un sello de garantía para todo tipo de productos textiles inocuos para la salud.
- The best known is GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard), world leader standard in organic fabric processing, that includes ecologic and social critera, supported by independent certifications all along the textiles supply chain.
– Others such as Textile Exchange, also known as Organic Exchange, that operates internationally and it's commited with responsible expansion of textile sustaintability.
– A third seal is Oeko-tex, in charge of damaging sustances. They are defined as a seal of guarantee for all harmless textile product.
You can follow Rut Abrain on Twitter.


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Generations of Latin Americans Say Goodbye to Comedian ‘Chespirito’ · Global Voices
Luis Carlos Diaz

Roberto Gómez Bolaño as El Chavo del Ocho. Image published under a Creative Commons license.
Roberto Gómez Bolaños, known as “Chespirito” (or “little Shakespeare”), one of the most beloved comedians in Latin America, died November 28 in Mexico at the age of 85.
Chespirito was one of the most successful producers in Mexico. He started his career as creative producer in advertisement, and then worked as a script writer for radio and film.
Later, after the 1970s, he became a producer, actor and director of his own show. There, he created numerous characters which circulated around the world and entered Latin America's popular culture. The first character to became famous from his show was Latin American hero “El Chapulín Colorado,” a short and clumsy superhero armed with a plastic hammer (el Chipote Chillón), who resolved every problem because he had everything “coldly calculated.”
In this universe of characters, the letters CH were a personal signature. Later, Chespirito recreated a humble neighborhood and in it gave life to El Chavo, an 8-year-old orphan who shared with his neighbors, went to school and dreamed about a simple “torta” (sandwich) of ham. Others characters were El Doctor Chapatín, El Chómpiras and Chaparrón Bonaparte (under the section “Los Chifladitos” or The Little Crazy Ones). His shows were broadcast on Mexican television and in almost every country in Latin America. Even now, 40 years later, Chespirito's shows air in different languages and continents.
For a long time, false rumors about his death circulated on social media due to his deteriorating health since 2009. He experienced a second wave of popularity in the mid-2000s thanks to the cartoons based on his work and later with his Twitter account, which has more than four million followers and receives daily compliments for all his accomplishments.
People, including Mexico's national soccer team, said goodbye to the legend on social media:
Tu legado estará siempre con nosotros. Descanse en Paz Roberto Gómez Bolaños #OrgulloTricolor pic.twitter.com/8S9ovLusPS
— Selección Mexicana (@miseleccionmx) November 28, 2014
Your legacy will always be with us. Rest in peace Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Cristian Fernando shared the most popular characters in a picture:
Murió Roberto Gómez Bolaño. Los personajes de Chespirito en una foto. http://t.co/R49u5rfvS9 pic.twitter.com/wSQO7n3jbe“
— Cristian FernandoBSC (@cristianfer27) November 28, 2014
Roberto Gómez Bolaño has died. Chespirito's characters in one photo.
Eduardo Marín described how much the character Chapulín Colorado is loved:
Aquí queremos más al Chapulín que a Batman. Qué triste noticia, descanse en paz.
— Eduardo Marin (@Ed_Marin) November 28, 2014
Here, we love Chapulin more than Batman. What sad news, rest in peace.
At the same time, Sergio Marentes and Raúl Ramírez summarized Chespirito's legacy:
Murió Roberto Gómez Bolaños, pero Chespirito es inmortal…
— Raúl Ramírez (@isopixel) November 28, 2014
Roberto Gómez Bolaños has died, but Chespirito is immortal.
¿Quién dijo que los inmortales se mueren?
— Épico bicho agónico (@SergioMarentes) November 28, 2014
Who ever said immortals die?

author: Luis Carlos Diaz


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Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Movement Is Trading Umbrellas for Shopping Bags · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Latest drawing by Hong Kong artist Maxwell about Hong Kong people's shopping protest.
Occupy Central protesters, who have camped out for months in the center of Hong Kong, are trying a new tactic in their fight for genuine democratic elections — going shopping.
Following dozens of arrests and violent clashes between police and demonstrators on November 25 and 26 at the Mong Kok protest site, activists are urging their supporters to go shopping in Mong Kok instead to peacefully reclaim the area. They have turned the Umbrella Revolution's icon upside down into a shopping basket and dubbed the movement the “Gauwu Revolution”. The term “gauwu” is the Mandarin pronunciation of “shopping”.
A Facebook page devoted to the “Shopping Revolution” explained the idea behind the rebranding:
After the clearance of Occupy Mong Kok, the Chief Executive urges Hongkongers to shop in the area to support the local businesses. Instead protesters have flooded back to Mong Kok claiming they are following the Chief Executive's advice and are there to shop. Hence the birth of the “Gauwu Movement”
Hong Kong police began to clear the Mong Kok site on November 25 after an injunction order was granted to a minibus drivers’ association providing legal grounds for the police to help the plaintiff remove objects there that obstructed traffic.
However, the police made use of the opportunity to clear people in addition to objects and arrested 148 people, accusing them of “criminal contempt of a court order.” The tense mood at times boiled over into physical confrontations between police and protesters.
Several witness accounts, videos from the scene and photos published on mainstream and social media showed that the police attacked journalists and onlookers with batons. Below is a video taken by DBC, a local digital media outlet, showing how one of the officers hitting a passerby with his baton on November 25:
The police spokesperson defended the agency's actions, saying officers were trying to prevent people from re-occupying the streets. Yet, some legal experts have said the police had no legal justification to drive passersby away from the area as they had not announced any curfew order.
To express their outrage towards the excessive use of force during the clearing, hundreds of people have joined in the shopping movement and wandered around Mong Kok district at night. The video below shows the collective action of “window shoppers” pressing the police to let them cross the street:
The window shoppers also marched from Mong Kok to the Tsim Sha Tsui area as a symbolic act to reclaim the street. The police checked identity cards and questioned participants along the way.
Anthony Perry, a famous movie star in Hong Kong, criticized the police for their questions in a Facebook post:
点解有人會問啲咁戆鳩嘅問題？：你住旺角，点解要嚟尖沙咀七十一買嘢？旺角冇架？阿sir,而家香港係咪連去邊處買嘢都冇自由呀？係咪警察要管埋去邊度買嘢食嘢消費呀？咁住旺角可唔可以去尖沙咀返工呀？駛唔駛原區工作消費呀？去第二區駛唔駛攞入區証呀？係唔係十点前要瞓覺唔準出街呀？咁阿sir你守尖沙咀又係唔係住喺尖沙咀呀？做乜要去尖沙咀返工呀？阿sir問重点啦，你想問人係咪鳩烏隊族就問啦，問埋D九唔答八嘅嘢，去邊度買嘢關你Q事咩？老豆都管唔到嘅嘢你管，我都想問下，你問D咁戆鳩嘅問題，你係咪真係警察嚟架？阿sir問戆鳩嘢，係咪一定要答架？(哪！同政治無關吓！同係咪正常人有關)不如立例管制禁止去两條街以外購物。
How can people ask such stupid questions? [Police office:] You live in Mong Kok, why did you come to Tsim Sha Tsui's convenience store to shop? There are convenience stores in Mong Kok. Sir, don't we have the freedom in Hong Kong to go shopping wherever we like? Do the police have the authority to decide where we should go eat and shop? I live in Mong Kok, can't I work in Tsim Sha Tsui? Should I work and shop only in the district in which I live? Should I apply for permit to enter another district? Am I required to go to sleep at 10 p.m. and forbidden to go out at night? Sir, you are now stationed in Tsim Sha Tsui. Do you also live in this district? How come you work here? Sir, please be direct. You just want to know if I am shopping protester, right? But even so, you can't decide for me where I go shopping. Even my father can't interfere with that. Are you really a police officer? Do I need to answer such stupid questions? (This is not about politics! This is about how normal people should behave.) [If you dare], draft a law to forbid people from shopping beyond two blocks of where they live.
It's suspected that police have refrained from issuing a curfew order because the Mong Kok district is always crowded with shoppers from all around the world. But without a curfew, how can they legally stop people from shopping? Hong Kong people have always loved shopping, and if it helps further the cause of democratic elections, even better.
Follow our in-depth coverage: Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution

author: Oiwan Lam


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‘Interstellar’: Another World Will Be Possible Only If We Overcome Ignorance · Global Voices
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez

Raúl Morales, blogging on El Blog de Don Ush, brings us a review of recently launched science fiction movie “Interstellar,” where director Christopher Nolan creates a non-encouraging future for the planet that can only be overcame if human beings defeat the prevailing ignorance. Although Morales is critic of box-office earnings and the action plot of the movie, he highlights that this is how the world will be if we go on just as we are:
Me gustan los mundos distópicos, en particular los que tratan de mostrar cómo sería el nuestro si seguimos como vamos. No lo dicen con claridad en la película, pero es obvio que hubo algún tipo de cataclismo que jodió a la Tierra, sin duda el calentamiento global. En segundo lugar, la película da un ejemplo claro de uno de los elementos más graves que nos orillan a ese nivel de autodestrucción: la ignorancia científica.
I like dystopian worlds, particularly those who try to show how would ours be if we go on as we are going. The movie isn't clear about it, but it's obvious there was some kind of natural catastrophe that screwed the Earth, undoubtedly the global warming. In second place, the film is a clear example of one of the most serious that pushes us to that level of self-destruction: scientific ignorance.
He added:
Ahí algunas de las razones por las que me gustó Interstellar. Un día los viajes espaciales a otros planetas podrían ser tan cotidianos como viajar en avión a otros continentes. Ese futuro solo será posible si no nos matamos entre nosotros y, por tanto, si superamos la ignorancia que conduce tantas de nuestras acciones.
There are some of the reasons why I liked Interstellar. Some day, travelling to other planets could be so frequent as taking a plane to other continents. That future will be possible only if we don't kill each other and, therefore, if we overcome the ignorance that leads so many of our actions.
According to Morales, Nolan uses science fiction as a lens to view different possible worlds.
You can follow Raúl Morales on Twitter.


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Promoting Responsible Use of Social Networks · Global Voices
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez

Andrea Collazo, blogging for Mujeres Construyendo (Women Building), proposes educating parents about the resposible use of social networks, so they can promote it among their children.
Photo by George Wesley & Bonita on flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Collazo advises parents on how to socialize their children from very early age with new technologies, promoting responsible use of social networks. She points out that constant dialogue between parents and children about social network and their risks is important, about, for instance, damages to own reputation and other people's:
Habla sobre el sentido común y cómo aplicarlo a las redes.
Hoy en día los teléfonos ayudan a capturar imágenes y videos de situaciones cotidianas.
Recomiéndales que antes de dar al botón enviar, piensen en cómo se pueden sentir los otros con esa publicación.
Talk about common sense and how to use it with networks.
Today, phones help capturing images and videos of everyday situations.
Recommend them that before hitting the SEND button, they should think and how may other people feel about that posting.
Besides, children should be aware of the permanence of contents uploaded to Internet, the so called “digital print”. What's fun today may be a headache tomorrow, when looking for a job or applying to college. On the other hand, parents can speak openly with their children about cyberharassement and how to behave when facing these risky situations.
You can follow Andrea Collazo on Twitter.


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Refugees in Malaysia Face Abuse and Stigma, UN Official Says · Global Voices
Zashnain Zainal

Rohingya Muslim children from Myanmar, who now live in Malaysia, are seen sleeping in class at a School of Rohingya in Kuala Lumpur. Photo by Sammy Foo, Copyright @Demotix (1/31/2013)
In Southeast Asia, nations often deal with the influx of refugees from inside and outside the region. Malaysia is a hub and transit point for many refugees seeking sanctuary after escaping from neighboring communities plagued by conflict and oppression.
However, the government of Malaysia does not recognize refugees and asylum-seekers who are classified as “illegal immigrants”, and they are denied access to basic services provided by the state. Furthermore, under Article 6 of the Immigration Act, people without valid entry documentation are subjected to the full brunt of the law as they are given an “imprisonment term not exceeding five years and shall also be liable to whipping of not more than six strokes.”
According to the fact sheet of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are about 35,000 unregistered asylum-seekers as well as 143,435 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with their office in Malaysia as of end March 2014.
The poor state of refugees in the country was recently featured in an Al Jazeera report. During the interview, UNHCR Malaysia representative Richard Towle talked about the arbitrary arrests conducted by state forces, exploitation of refugees, corruption, neglect of children's rights and lack of resources to effectively assist the growing refugee community in Malaysia. He added:
Refugees are treated as illegal migrants, and illegal migrants are at risk of all forms of vulnerability in society. They are liable to be arrested and detained and live in a grey or dark zone of society where there is a high degree of exploitation or abuse.
The deputy home minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar denounced the interview with UNHCR and defended the government:
Even though we are not a signatory to the convention of refugees, they are being treated with dignity, they are given access to medical treatment and they are allowed visits.
A member of Malaysia's National Legislature, MP Ong Kian Ming, expressed his disagreement with the home minister:
The replies of the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaffar in Parliament on Tuesday showed that he is not aware of the seriousness of the accusations revealed in an Al Jazeera programme even though he was interviewed in the programme. In particular, his replies show that he is totally ignorant of the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) of which Malaysia is a signatory.
But outspoken youth chief of political party Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, Tan Keng Liang, held contrary views from the deputy home minister and the member of parliament:
our country respect human rights. But if the refugee still complain their treatment, then don't come. We don't want u people in Malaysia
— Tan Keng Liang (@tankengliang) November 26, 2014
I think those “refugee” must have been expecting 5 star treatment at the expense of our tax payers money. Get lost!
— Tan Keng Liang (@tankengliang) November 26, 2014
His blusters on Twitter were met with outrage by ordinary Malaysians:
Dear @tankengliang, in the name of freedom of speech I respect your opinion. However that is highly insensitive for a politician in Malaysia
— Kiran Nesarajah (@nesarajah) November 26, 2014
.@tankengliang Surely refugees ought to be treated with dignity. As human beings. It's also about compassion.
— Polarised Bae (@brianlian) November 26, 2014
Will the exposé embolden the Malaysian government and civil society groups to step up the reforms necessary to improve the quality of life for refugees?
These refugees and asylum seekers have fled the repressive and often brutal conditions in their home countries to seek shelter in a modern and peaceful Malaysia only to find that the government's tourism slogan of ‘Caring Malaysia’ is not entirely accurate.
It is important to acknowledge that many areas of legislation impact on the lives of refugees from issues relating to identity, employment, housing, as well as childcare, education and health. An informed society along with rights-based intervention, may bring about positive changes, uplifting them from marginalization in their desperate time of need.

author: Zashnain Zainal


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Russia’s Monument to Steve Jobs, Dismantled to Protest Tim Cook’s Coming Out, Will Be Auctioned Abroad · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Steve Jobs shows off the iPhone 4 at the 2010 Worldwide Developers Conference, 8 June 2010, photo by Matthew Yohe. CC 3.0.
Russia's controversial monument to Steve Jobs is back in the news. Shaped like an iPhone and more than six-feet tall, the statue belongs to the West European Financial Union (ZEFS), which installed it in the courtyard of the St. Petersburg State University of Information Technologies in 2013, only to remove it last month, as a way of condemning Apple CEO Tim Cook's announcement that he is gay. News about the apparently homophobic reason for the monument's removal caused a global uproar. The St. Petersburg university, however, soon claimed that the statue would return after ZEFS completed some necessary repairs.
It now seems clear that Russia's giant iPhone monument isn't coming back. Earlier today, December 1, ZEFS announced it will auction the statue to anyone who promises to take it abroad. The starting price is set at 5 million rubles (about $95,000). “Based on an internal vote, the company has decided to hold an auction. Roughly half of those who voted were against the idea of returning the monument to its place in St. Petersburg,” ZEFS explained in a press release.
Screen capture from ZEFS's website, where it advertises the auction for its Steve Jobs monument.
Technically, the auction is already underway, though ZEFS reports that it has not yet received an eligible bid. The company appears to be receiving bids on the splash page of its main website, rather awkwardly through its general “feedback” interface.
After the removal of the Jobs monument, Vkontakte launched “Save Steve,” offering publicly to cover all repair costs and reassemble the statue at its own headquarters, which is also in St. Petersburg. Following ZEFS's announcement today that the statue costs 5 million rubles and requires a promise to remove it from Russia, Vkontakte Press Secretary Georgy Lobushkin said his company won't be participating in such a “farce.” Without making any concrete promises, Lobushkin said Vkontakte will consider building its own monument to Jobs.


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The Difference Between ISIS and Al Nusra Front  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Satirist Karl Sharro draws a stark comparison between two Al Qaeda offshoots fighting each other in Syria: the notorious ISIS and the Nusra front. He tweets:
You get the sense that the main disagreement between ISIS and Nusra is font-based. pic.twitter.com/ETq95PlIqx
— Karl Sharro (@KarlreMarks) November 28, 2014
Both terrorist organisations use the Islamic prayer “There is no God other than Allah and Muhammad is Allah's prophet” in a different font on their flags.


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UAE Honours Naama Al Qassimi as Country’s “First Teacher” · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Blogger and commentator Sultan Al Qassemi today received an award from the state on behalf of his mother, Naama Bint Majid Al Qassimi, for being “first teacher” in the United Arab Emirates. The avid Twitter user, who has 309k followers, shares those old and rare photographs featuring his mother as a student and then a teacher, some 50 years ago.
He tweets:
Photos of mom when she was a student and when she was a teacher 50 years ago. Mom was awarded today for her work. pic.twitter.com/p4hw9I0gg9
— سلطان سعود القاسمي (@SultanAlQassemi) December 1, 2014
Mrs Al Qassimi graduated from a university in Kuwait in 1964 before returning to the UAE to teach. She shares the award with Amina Al Suwaidi.


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UAE’s First Teacher Naama Al Qassimi Honoured · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Commentator and blogger Sultan Al Qassemi today received an award from the state on behalf of his mother, Naama Bint Majid Al Qassimi, for being “first teacher” in the United Arab Emirates. The avid Twitter user, who has 309k followers, shares those old and rare photographs featuring his mother as a student and then a teacher, some 50 years ago.
He tweets:
Photos of mom when she was a student and when she was a teacher 50 years ago. Mom was awarded today for her work. pic.twitter.com/p4hw9I0gg9
— سلطان سعود القاسمي (@SultanAlQassemi) December 1, 2014
Mr Al Qassimi received the award on behalf of his mother today.


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A Nobel Prize for All Malalas in the World · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Malala Yousafzai. Image by user Jabiz Raisdana on Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).
The blog MujeresMundi is an infoactivism project run by Belgium-based Peruvian Xaviera Medina “committed to gender as a key to development”.
Their most recent post refers to the Nobel Peace Prize that has been awarded to education Pakistani activist, Malala Yousafzai:
[…] Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that Malala is not an isolated case. Education is not an inherent right for girls in many countries, and every day, hundreds of Malalas are threatened for attending to school.
[…]
The 2014 Nobel must remind us that Malala Yousafzai is not an anecdotic case, but a everyday reality of thousands of youngster and children around the world.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Baton-Happy Police Beat Back Pro-Democracy Protesters in Hong Kong  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Violent clashes between police and protesters who attempted to occupy Lung Wo Road on November 30 and December 1. Photo from inmediahk.net
The author of this post is a volunteer editor for news site inmediahk.net, which is quoted in this report.
An attempt by student protesters to occupy roads around the Hong Kong government's headquarters led to a series of violent clashes with police on November 30.
As pro-democracy protests in three major finance and commercial districts in the city enter their third month, the Hong Kong government continues to ignore protesters’ demands of free and fair elections. Instead, it recently worked behind the scenes with pro-Beijing groups to press the court to issue an injunction order to legitimize police efforts to clear the protest sites.
In response to the clearing of the Mong Kok site last week, two student activist groups, the Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism called on protesters to occupy major roads outside the government's headquarters, an area which is not covered by the court injunction.
A series of violent clashes took place late at night when protesters attempted to break through the police line. The protesters managed to occupy Lung Wo road for a few hours, but police beat back the crowds with pepper spray, tear gas and batons the next morning.
The student activist groups admitted their failure and apologized to their supporters, saying they did not anticipate the police's “out-of-control” aggression. On the other hand, the government described the protesters as “rioters” who deviated from the principle of “non-violent protests”.
Jon Hon displayed the bruise on his thigh. He says he was hit by police while lying motionless on the ground.
Meanwhile, a large number of witness accounts have appeared on social media. Jon Ho, who says he was beaten up by the police, described how the police acted and showed off his bruise on citizen media platform inmediahk.net:
凌晨二時，站在龍和道最前線第三第四排的位置，我帶上頭盔和眼罩戒備，突然群眾叫囂，我沒有任何心理準備之下就衝了。
想著前面有很多人，自己應該非常安全，但未幾，前面的人一個又一個被拉走了，只剩下一層保護在前面，再過就是深藍衫最副裝備的特警，然後我就在這個時候被推跌了。
雙眼和面全中胡椒，眼鏡爛了，跌在示威者當中，隨即被踩了幾腳，腦裡一片空白 […]這個時候一個警察大大力捉住我，然後幾個警察對我踩了十幾腳，我想，死硬了，我要被拘捕了，情急之下，裝死躺在路上，警察見我沒有任何攻擊力，就專心對付其他人。
我躺在警察陣營的地上裝作昏迷，然後可怕的事就發生了，一個警察對著我動彈不得的身體揮打警棍，這是暴力，這是泄憤的行為，對一個躺在地上的傷者揮棍在任何情況之下都是絕對的錯，我很憤怒，此時，另一個警察過來制止：「喂唔好毆佢啦。」我才幸運逃過一劫。
At 2 a.m. on December 1, I was standing in the third or fourth row among the front lines of protesters on Lung Wo road. I equipped myself with goggles and a helmet. Suddenly, I heard people scream and without much thought, I pushed forward.
I thought I should be safe as there were so many in front of me. But they were quickly pulled away by police and I was then in the second row, facing the special task force police. Then I was pushed and fell down.
My eyes and face were covered with pepper spray. The goggles were broken. I fell on the side of the protesters and someone stepped on me. My mind went blank […] I was dragged by a police officer and a few others started kicking me. I thought, oh hell, they would arrest me. I lay motionless and pretended to be unconscious. The police then turned their attention to others.
While I still pretended to be unconscious, something horrible happened. A police officer attacked my motionless body with baton. This was pure violence out of rage. In any circumstance, attacking a defenseless person who is lying on the ground is absolutely wrong. I was very angry. Then another cop came and stopped him, “Hey stop beating him.” I was fortunate to avoid further torture.
Hong Li Fong, a writer at inmediahk.net, believed that the “out-of-control” violence of police is a result of the “Lucifer Effect“:
不只一次，我看見警察在清場後面露得意，彷似完成了甚麼偉大的事；我看見警察在揮棍打人噴胡椒噴霧時毫不猶豫，彷彿示威者犯下了不可原諒的彌天大罪。我很想相信還有好警察，但我未曾看過有一個警察面露愧色或無奈[…] 有人說，這是路西法效應，我也相信。現在我們已是完全邪惡，而他們完全正義，我們是切切實實的暴徒，即使我們只是靜坐。
I saw that the police officers were very satisfied with themselves after clearing the protesters, as if they had done something great. I saw that they did not hesitate to hit people with batons and pepper-spray protesters, as if the protesters had committed very serious and unforgivable crimes. I believe there are still some good cops. But I have never encountered any cops who show regret on their face. Some say it is the Lucifer Effect, I believe so as well. [In the eyes of the police], we represent evil and they represent justice, we are rioters, even though we are just having peaceful sit-in.
Gordon Mathews, an anthropology professor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, also protested with his students on that night. On Facebook, he criticized the political elites for their failure to address young people's aspiration:
The news tonight is full of claims by police and Hong Kong government figures that protestors had become violent. Perhaps a few somewhere were—but overwhelmingly the violence was committed by police beating students with their batons with great force. Now, the protesters were indeed engaged in illegal behavior—they were occupying roads around the Central Government Complex, in an expansion of their earlier protest zones. Some force was probably needed to clear the roads. But many police were behaving in an out-of-control way, as dozens of videos on TV and YouTube attest. This does not compare to police brutality in the United States: we have had no shootings, and, I pray, this will continue. Hong Kong is still more civil in its behavior than almost anywhere else in the world. But the police have become politicized, largely because of Hong’s political leaders hiding from sight, and a generation of Hong Kong youth has emerged that see the police as their enemy.
The Occupy Central movement will end very soon, although many more demonstrations will take place in the coming months and years. The long-term legacy of the movement will be a vast generational chasm. On Hong Kong university campuses, the overwhelming majority of students support Occupy Central and its civil disobedience, think that the Hong Kong government is run by incompetents who have no understanding of how ordinary people live, and see the mainland as a foreign dictatorship rather than a motherland. This is totally different from what Hong Kong and Beijing pundits envisioned twenty years ago, and was not even fully imaginable twenty months ago. A generation has been radicalized. Will this generation be running a new, more democratic and open Hong Kong in the future? Or will it suffer a sterile, plutocratic, authoritarian Hong Kong? I feel so proud of Hong Kong students, and so full of a bit of hope and a lot of fear about the future of my city.
Follow our in-depth coverage: Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution


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Cornered by Pakistan’s Blasphemy Accusers, Star Preacher Issues Tearful Apology on Facebook · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

Screenshot from Facebook apology issued by Junaid Jamshed. From his public Facebook page.
Junaid Jamshed, a popular TV preacher in Pakistan, has issued a tearful video apology on Facebook after online religious groups accused him of blasphemy for disrespecting a revered figure in Islam, Prophet Mohammed's wife Aisha, in one of his TV sermons.
In Pakistan, blasphemy accusations are usually directed towards minorities and are taken very seriously, not just by the law, but by vigilantes ready to deliver justice.
In 2011, the Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer was assassinated by his own guard after comments he made defending a Christian woman accused of blasphemy were misconstrued as blasphemy. His murderer was showered with petals as he left court. Last month, a mob burnt a young Christian couple to death, after a local cleric accused them of blasphemy. Forty people have been booked for their murder. Last week, the owner of Pakistan's largest media group was sentenced to 26 years in jail by a local court on blasphemy charges, along with an actress and a TV host.
Junaid Jamshed is one of Pakistan's most iconic pop stars from the 1980s. He left his music career 17 years ago to spread Islam. He regularly appears on religious channels giving sermons, reciting the Quran and praises of the Prophet Mohammad. He also owns an incredibly successful clothing retail line and co-owns a chain of Halal meat stores.
In the one-minute video of his alleged controversial TV sermon, Jamshed narrates an animated story about the Prophet's wife Aisha faking an illness to get her husband's attention. He goes on to say, “This is evidence of the fact that even in the Prophet's company, a woman's nature can't change. A woman can't change, so don't try to change her. She is borne from a crooked leg, if you press too hard, it will break.”
Various groups have re-appropriated the video online; one of them even calls for him to be banned from entering mosques. This blog post translates a part of his sermon.
Pakistani journalist Maheen Usmani tweets:
Basically #JunaidJamshed was on his usual misogynistic streak but this time he did not choose his target wisely so busy was he in cackling.
— Maheen Usmani (@MaheenUsmani) December 2, 2014
Businessman Haroun Rashid comments:
This is called getting run over by your own car while you're driving it. #JunaidJamshed
— Haroun Rashid (@HarounRashid2) diciembre 2, 2014
Jamshed's remarks may seem misogynistic, but for some Muslim groups any disrespect to revered figures in Islam, including Prophet Mohammed's daughters and wives, is considered blasphemy.
On the Quranalyze website, blogger Mo Waseem writes:
Although what Junaid Jamshed said about Hazrat Ayesha seems like an attempt of character assassination, I fail to see how that is more blasphemous than ISIS slaughtering people in the name of Islam, and why the outrage is not directed there.
Within eight hours, Jamshed's apology has been viewed more than 600K times and shared by more than 50K people on Facebook. Here's a translation of his apology:
Respectable brothers, friends, elders and sisters. Sometime ago, during a sermon, because of my stupidity and ignorance, I said some incredibly inappropriate things that were completely against the glory of Honorable Aisha. This is my mistake, and that mistake is because of my ignorance. It is because of my lack of knowledge, I am not a scholar. I am not a legal expert. And I admit my mistake in front of the whole Muslim community and beg your forgiveness. And with a true heart I ask that God forgive me and I put my hands together before you and beg you to forgive me too. I am at fault and I accept and apologize for my mistake.
Many commenters on the video have accepted his apology and pleaded for others to forgive him.
Others, like Mo Waseem, brought up the unequal and unfair status of blasphemy laws in Pakistan:
Needless to say that I do appreciate Muslims forgiving him, I think this partial attitude does more harm than good, for it promotes double standards and hypocrisy! I wonder, why are people who belong to minority groups in Pakistan not given the same privilege, the same benefit of doubt when accused of blasphemy? Why are they not given the luxury of apologizing for their “mistake”, a mistake they may or may not even have committed? Why does the state not recognize that anti-blasphemy laws are mostly used to settle personal disputes and prejudices? What happened to the central Quranic commandment of standing up for justice impartially, even if it be against ourselves, or our family (Quran 4:135)?
Maheen Usmani echoed:
If #JunaidJamshed with his oodles of knowledge & preaching of 17 yrs can be forgiven for #blasphemy, why not the Christian #AasiaBibi?
— Maheen Usmani (@MaheenUsmani) December 2, 2014
Others expressed  concern for the workers who managed dozens of Junaid Jamshed's popular clothing retail stores across the country. A Twitter user posted an image of a store closed with a sign detailing his apology:
Say “hello” to JJ #JunaidJamshed Greetings JAe pic.twitter.com/jTCCvwr5sC
— Fathe (@FatheTiyab) December 1, 2014
Emmad Hameed, a sports journalist, commented in a Facebook post:
Any harm to JJ can plummet us to new depths, how about repealing the blasphemy law altogether…How about playing this card smartly now and forcing these Jahil Maulvis (ignorant preachers) to abandon the law once for all…This might be an actual opportunity of fixing this $%&* forever!

author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


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Secret Footage Allegedly Shows Diamond Diggers Being Tortured in Angola · Global Voices
Manuel Ribeiro

Screenshot of YouTube video reportedly showing security torturing two diamond diggers.
A video purportedly showing employees of a private mining security company torturing two Congolese diamond diggers with a machete in Angola has raised the ire of many social media users.
Journalist and human rights activist Rafael Marques, who authored the book “Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola,” which reports on the darker side of the diamond industry, released the secretly filmed footage on November 3 on his website MakaAngola.
According to Marques description, the graphic video “captures K&P Mineira employees hitting the two artisanal diamond miners”, known as “garimpeiros” in Portuguese, with a machete. It is dated September 8, 2014, and was allegedly filmed inside the Luminas diamond-mining concession in Angola's Lunda-Norte province.
Empresa privada de segurança de chefes da Polícia Nacional de #Angola tortura garimpeiros http://t.co/WqgTse6BZz. http://t.co/mJyK2DYuLB
— Rafael Marques (@RafaelMdeMorais) November 3, 2014
A private security company of National Police chiefs from Angola tortures artisanal diamond miners
[] The company, K&P Mineira,  provides security to the Luminas mine, of which Israeli mining magnate Lev Leviev's Leviev Group holds 40% stake. K&P Mineira and other similar private military companies have been accused of numerous human rights violations such as torture and sexual abuse. Teacher, writer and human rights activist Marcy Jane Knopf-Newman detailed some of the past allegations in a 2008 post on her blog body on the line.
Marques has spent much of his career reporting human rights violations in his home country Angola, particularly in this region where diamond mining is very active. “For the past 20 years, bloodshed and diamond mining have been two sides of the same coin,” he said in a 2007 seminar given at Oxford University. The activist explained how during the 30-year civil war in Angola, the diamond fields of the Cuango Valley were fiercely contested by the government, and the rebel movement, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA – Portuguese acronym). Cold War superpowers armed and financed both sides, but UNITA lost the backing of its old allies in Washington and in South Africa in the early 1990s. The rebel army turned to the sale of diamonds to fill the funding gap.
It was during this period that activists began to expose the links between diamonds and war, both in Angola and Sierra Leone. The term “blood diamonds” started to be used to refer to precious stones that had been mining in rebel-controlled areas and therefore could be seen as financing the war. The United Nations defines “blood diamonds” as, “Diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognised governments and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments”.
Cases of private military companies targeting “garimpeiros” in Angola are not new. Marques has reported that “garimpeiros” actually contribute more to the profits of some of the state diamond-mining firms than big industrial operations. They are usually desperate people, who because of the failures of the Angola government are forced to resort to the illegal activity of artisanal diamond mining to survive.
While his work has earned him praise — Marques was recently given an “Integrity Award” by anti-corruption NGO Transparency International — he has also been accused of defaming Angolan military allegedly involved with mining companies.
Readers of Maka Angola´s Facebook page have expressed their outrage at the humans rights violations exposed in the video released by Marques. André Cesalpini wrote:
DIAMANTES DE SANGUE E HISTÓRIA SE REPETE
BLOOD DIAMONDS AND THE STORY REPEATS
Miguel De Jesus Migas commented:
Não importa os motivos, estes actos de barbaridade em nada nos dignifica, é muito triste. E pior ainda mesmo com esse vídeo vão dizer que em Angola cumprisse na íntegra os direitos humanos.
Regardless of the reason, these barbaric acts are very sad and are not dignifying, it's very sad. Worst of all, even with this video they are still going to say that Angola respects human rights fully.
Amadeu Lausana feared:
É triste! E depois duma surra mandam fazer exercício. Parece que aconteceu o pior fora das câmeras…
Its sad! After being beaten, they are forced to exercise. It seems something worse happened after filming…
For a more in-depth look at the history of diamonds in Africa, watch “The Diamond Empire” by Janine Roberts. You can preview the 1994 documentary here:
According to a Leviev group representative who reached out to Global Voices, neither the Leviev group nor the Luminas mine are directly or indirectly the owners of K&P, and they condemn any violence or abuse of human rights. For its part, K&P says it “has taken disciplinary procedures and legal measures against the personnel involved” in the video.

author: Manuel Ribeiro


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‘Grito de Guerra’, a Cumbia Composed to Fund the Family of #Ayotzinapa Victims · Global Voices
Sandra Abd'Allah-Alvarez Ramírez

Mexican artist Michelle Solano has composed “Grito de Guerra,” a song set to the rhythm of cumbia that intends to raise funds to support the family of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa Normal School students, who disappeared on September 26 in Iguala, Guerrero state, Mexico.
According to TV network CNN, the students were intercepted and taken away by police forces at the behest of the local mayor, and had set members of the Guerreros Unidos cartel on the abducted students. In the ensuing clash, six people were killed and 25 were injured, with 43 others remain missing.
Global Voices has dedicated special coverage to the Ayotzinapa case.

author: Sandra Abd'Allah-Alvarez Ramírez


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Historic Church Building Razed in Trinidad & Tobago Is ‘Still Worth Saving’   · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A demolished portion of the historic Greyfriars Presbyterian Church in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The church was built in the 1800s. Photo by Joshua Lue Chee Kong, used with permission.
A centuries-old Presbyterian church in Trinidad and Tobago's capital city was partially bulldozed last Sunday, despite the new owner of the property being in talks with the organisation Citizens for Conservation to devise a plan allowing development at the site while still preserving the historic building.
Demolition on Greyfriars began during the wee hours the morning. Once Rodger Samuel, the minister of of social integration, was alerted, his presence on site halted further destruction of the building. Samuel confirmed that the government, through bodies such as the City Corporation and Town and Country Planning, was in the process of having the building listed as a heritage site, a classification which would have given it legal protection with regard to preservation. But such legal manoeuvres have only come after the sale of the property was announced three months ago.
From as far back as 2007, the church was crying out for assistance. The building needed extensive restoration work, which was well beyond the financial means of Greyfriars dwindling congregation. Nevertheless, repairs began in 2009, and in 2010 the church began soliciting contributions from the wider community. Clearly, these were not sufficient, hence the eventual decision to sell to a private developer.
But this has not quelled the public outrage over new owner Alfred Galy's plan to erect offices where the church once stood. Activist Joshua Lue Chee Kong, who actually stood inside the church while it was being demolished, created an online petition addressed to Galy, Citizens for Conservation and various arms of the government to preserve the church “at any cost”. The petition attracted over 1,200 signatories, stating:
As of today, there is too much ambiguity about the future plans for the structure from the owner, who has already removed most of the roof from the Manse and much of the roof from the church itself, before a stop order was issued by the City Engineer to prevent the removal of any more building materials. Currently Citizens for Conservation of Trinidad and Tobago has provided a proposal to the Minister of National Diversity and Social Integration, the Honourable Rodger Samuel, for the church to be listed as an official National Heritage site. This is very crucial and the matter must to be expedited as the interior of both structures are now exposed to the elements.
Activist Joshua Lue Chee Kong stares down an excavator as it razes part of Greyfriars church in Port of Spain. Photo courtesy Joshua Lue Chee Kong, used with permission.
Similar change of use developments have taken place all around Port of Spain, with historic buildings being given a second life as restaurants, and office buildings, while preserving the integrity of the colonial architecture. On Facebook, where the majority of online discussion about the issue has been taking place, Galy's surreptitious move to bulldoze the property before talks were completed did not sit well with netizens, especially since he had been served with a notice of intention to list Greyfriars as a historic site.
On the Citizens for Conservation Facebook page, Rhona Baptiste felt that the fate of the church was a commentary on where Trinidad and Tobago was as a society:
[…] this is sorry news. But it happens only because we allowed it to happen by not putting in place an IDEOLOGY of LOVE OF SELF AND COUNTRY that now find us in this state of cluelessness.
Kathryn Chan agreed:
terribly sad… no understanding of culture and history… no joy and awe for the hand made building and the sweat and tears of our ancestors… who are we? what are we? where are we going?
There were some commenters who felt that the whole affair was tantamount to much ado about nothing. Denith McNicholls said:
We can't save every old building. I have not been told of the historic significance of the building, other than its age.
Danielle Fran offered a solution:
maybe we should make a list of highest priority for conservation, and then split them up into small manageable groups and distributing responsibility of caretaking/advocating its conservation to one or two persons per group.
Geoffrey MacLean, an architect who is an active part of Citizens for Conservation, responded, saying that in 14 years the National Trust has listed only 13 buildings. Citizens for Conservation are apparently in the process of immediately preparing dossiers for 16 more, with a view to listing another 50 historic buildings out of a list of approximately 400.
The National Trust is charged with the responsibility of identifying and listing historic buildings for legal protection and is supposed to have access to funding, which it can put towards the upkeep of these listed properties. The process involves the submission of a dossier that goes to the relevant line minister which, once approved, goes to Cabinet for consideration in parliament, based on a list of qualification criteria.
In practice, however, the process is not always so smooth. Journalist Francesca Hawkins cut to the heart of the matter when she referred to the demolition as a “failure of policy”. Writer Sharon Millar made the point that “if people understood the listing process and where the kinks in the system lie, the average person might know how and where to place civic pressure.”
The aftermath of the demolition of Greyfriars. Photo by Joshua Lue Chee Kong, used with permission.
The strongest criteria in support of saving Greyfriars as a historic building is, first of all, its social contribution — the church played an active role  as a safe haven for religious freedom. It was a sanctuary for Portuguese Presbyterian immigrants who fled from Catholic religious persecution in Madeira and arrived in Trinidad in the 1840s. It was also a key aspect of the landscape vista of Woodford Square, an area of Port of Spain that has been designated as a heritage district. Finally, its architectural significance — the church is designed in the Gothic Revival style — makes it worthy of preservation.
There has also been heated controversy over the demolition based on the fact that the site is hallowed ground, which houses a cemetery. Questions abound as to what this new development means for the integrity of the human remains buried there. Rodney Bridgelal did not mince matters:
I also blame the clergy of that church. Shame on them to leave those bodies there to be desecrated when they knew that their decendants [sic] are still alive.
On December 1, various representatives of the organisations involved in trying to preserve the property, including key government ministries, Citizens for Conservation, the city's mayor and representatives from Town and Country Planning, met with Galy to assess the situation and determine a way forward. President of Citizens for Conservation, architect Rudylynn DeFour-Roberts, who is also a member of the National Heritage Trust Council, said that the meeting was “positive”.
The engineers’ report determined that the structure can be fixed despite its partial demolition, so the building is still worth saving. “We're back in negotiations and discussing options,” she said, emphasising the fact that Greyfriars, as the only historical building on the eastern side of the listed district of Woodford Square, is an important national treasure to be preserved.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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#ISurvivedEbola Campaign Releases First Video · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The #ISurvivedEbola campaign has released its first video that feature Ebola survivors from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The multimedia campaign engages Ebola survivors to highlight stories of hope and resilience:
This is the first video in a series that will be rolled out as part of #ISurvivedEbola, a multidimensional trans-media campaign that places West African Ebola survivors and their stories at the center of efforts to stop the spread of the virus. Ebola survivor William Poopei narrates the video, telling the story of how he and his son, Patrick, contracted and recovered from Ebola in Liberia. In a voice that only occasionally belies the grief he has experienced, William tells the world how he lost his wife and 13 other family members to suspected Ebola, and how early treatment helped him and Patrick recover. He closes the piece with a commitment to continue to educate his fellow Liberians so that they can protect themselves – a commitment that will drive #ISurvivedEbola.
Hope in the Midst of an Outbreak: William's Story of Survival from #ISurvivedEbola on Vimeo.

author: Ndesanjo Macha