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‘Silence and invisibility hide under the sham that is Mexico’s racial intermixing’ · Global Voices
Afroféminas

Scarlet Estrada. Photo: Afroféminas. Used with permission.
The following is a republication of an interview made by Valeria Angola and originally published by collective site Afroféminas. The piece has been re-edited and published by Global Voices with permission.
Scarlet Estrada is a Mexican anthropologist and a student of journalism in the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Her work studies the sexualization of black women in Mexico City. She has also participated in numerous events discussing human rights and debating the self-determination of black peoples. Estrada has been actively advocating for the recognition of Afro-descendant communities in Mexico City statistics, in order for Mexico's National Statistics and Geography Institute to take these figures into account in the upcoming 2020 census.
In this conversation, Estrada explores what lies behind the idea of belonging in Afro-descendant communities, and the difficulty of the process in a country like Mexico, where the national imaginary excludes and invisibilizes Afro-Mexicans.
Valeria Angola: When did you begin acknowledging yourself as an Afro-Mexican woman?
Scarlet Estrada: Reconocerse es un proceso inacabado. La gente siempre ha señalado la diferencia toda mi vida. Esto significa, claramente, que no soy igual a los demás. Recuerdo que desde chiquita me preguntaban de dónde era. Siempre me cuestionaban mi nacionalidad. Eso hace que este proceso de autoreconocerte sea constante, y más en México, donde las poblaciones afrodescendientes están invisibilizadas.
Scarlet Estrada: It's a never ending process. People has always pointed out how I was different all my life. That means, clearly, I'm not the same as the others. I remember that since a very young age people always asked where I was from. My nationality was always questioned. That makes this acknowledgement process an ongoing thing, particularly in Mexico, where Afro-descendant communities are invisibilized.
VA: At what point did you get closer to understanding the reasons behind this?
SE: Nunca me había puesto a reflexionar hasta que entré a estudiar antropología. En una de las clases de segundo semestre de antropología, el profesor llevó a una chica colombiana que hablaba sobre el cabello afro y el afrofeminismo. La chica comenzó a hablar sobre su cabello, sobre el significado de dejarlo suelto, de dejarlo rizo, dejarlo libre, porque dejarlo libre significaba para ella liberar una parte que estaba oprimida. Ella decía que siempre se había sentido obligada a cambiar su pelo para poder ser aceptada, para encajar en la sociedad. Yo también pasé por esto en la infancia y en la adolescencia.
SE: I had never thought about it until I started studying anthropology. In one of my classes during the second semester, the professor invited a young woman from Colombia to tell us about afro hair and afro-feminism. This woman spoke about her hair, about the significance of letting it down, leaving it curly, letting it loose, because for her setting it free meant freeing a part [of her] that had been oppressed. She said that she had always felt forced to change her hair in order to be accepted, to fit in with society. I also went through this during my childhood and adolescence.
VA: Is that how you discovered that you were black?
SE: Creo que siempre lo supe, pero nunca lo había nombrado. Veía las caricaturas de Barbie y siempre me identificaba con la más morenita, por el cabello chino. Veía cualquier serie y siempre me identificaba con los personajes negros. Más a fondo, creo que también tuvo que ver cuando la gente afromexicana comenzó a reconocerme. Tú sabes lo que eres porque te reflejas en los demás.
SE: I think I always knew, it’s more like I hadn’t given it a name. I used to watch the Barbie cartoons and I always identified with the brownest, because of the curly hair. In any TV show I saw, I would relate to the black characters. Furthermore. I think it also had something to do with Afro-Mexican people beginning to acknowledge me…you know what you are because you see yourself reflected in others.
VA: What does it mean to acknowledge yourself in that way in Mexico?
SE: Significa dar cuenta de poblaciones que han sido invisibilizadas por muchos años. Insisto, se debe abrazar y aceptar la diferencia, y empoderarse [con ella] también. No tratar de acoplar tu cuerpo a bellezas que no te corresponden. Además, creo que reconocerse implica no solo decir que eres afro. En lo personal, implica también tomar conciencia de las desigualdades, discriminaciones y racismos que se viven con lo afro y con el resto de las poblaciones indígenas de México.
SE: It means realizing that populations have been made invisible for many years. Again, we should embrace and accept what’s different, empowering ourselves too. We should not try make our bodies and everything else fit into other types of beauty that do not pertain to us. Furthermore, I believe recognizing one belongs to an Afro community also means becoming aware of the inequalities, discrimination, and racism that are experienced, among the African and the rest of Mexico’s indigenous populations.
VA: How does that feel?
SE: [Me siento] libre y empoderada. Ya no siento culpa de tener este traserote grande y hermoso, ya no tengo culpas porque mi cabello se rice. Me siento muy liberada, amando tener este cuerpo. A veces me conflictúa, pero es genial poder darle nombre a esas violencias que sufrimos específicamente las mujeres negras. Tengo la libertad y el poder de nombrar esas violencias y luchar contra ellas.
SE: I feel free and empowered. I no longer feel guilty about having this big and beautiful butt; I no longer feel guilty because my hair curls. I feel very liberated, with love, loving this body. Sometimes I get conflicted, but it’s great to be able to give a name to the abuse that specifically us black women suffer. I have the freedom and the power to put a name to that abuse and fight against it.
VA: How would you describe the functioning of racism in Mexico?
SE: Si bien en México el racismo puede ser evidente de maneras muy explícitas —como cuando se arremete en las redes sociales contra Yalitza Aparicio cada vez que sale modelando en la portada de alguna revista—, también opera de forma muy silenciosa cuando se omite de la historia nacional la participación política, social y cultural de las personas negras. Se dice que en México no hay negros, pero esto no es cierto.
¿Para qué le sirvió el nacionalismo a México sino para acallar las voces y negar las pieles negras de las personas esclavizadas que llegaron de África? El silencio y la invisibilidad son violencias que se esconden bajo el embauco del mestizaje y la democracia racial. El mestizaje como biopolítica negó los cuerpos negros de este territorio.
Hoy, estos cuerpos rebeldes se levantan, hablan, se reúnen, discuten entre ellos y se organizan para reconfigurar las dinámicas discursivas populares que niegan su presencia. La gente negra de México existe, ¡aquí estamos!
Even though racism in Mexico can be evident in very explicit ways — like when there are attacks on social media against actress Yalitza Aparicio every time she appears in a magazine cover — it also comes about silently when the political, social, and cultural participation of black people is omitted from the national history. People say that there are no black people in Mexico. That's not true.
What purpose did nationalism serve Mexico if not to silence the voices and deny the black skin of the enslaved peoples who came from Africa? Silence and invisibility hide under the sham that is Mexico’s racial intermixing and its racial democracy. Intermixing as biopolitics denied the existence of black communities in this land. Today these rebellious communities rise up, talk, meet, discuss among themselves, and organize to reconfigure the popular discursive dynamics that deny their presence. Black people in Mexico exist: here we are!

author: Afroféminas


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Trinidad & Tobago walks the talk for World Conversation Day · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Promotional graphic for Conversation Day TT courtesy Trini Good Media, used with permission.
It's funny how conversations start — and even more interesting where they can lead. Franka Philip and Ardene Sirjoo, founders of the digital startup Trini Good Media, regularly have conversations via their podcast “Talk ‘Bout Us,” but the pair decided to stretch their conversation skills even further when they heard their UK-based friends — who are involved in The Talking Revolution , an initiative dedicated to training and advocacy for conflict management — tweet about World Conversation Day.
The event started in 2013 in the United States and has spread to other countries around the globe. Trini Good Media, in conjunction with Bocas Lit Fest, led the first event in Trinidad and Tobago on June 8, 2019. “Given the way the world is going,” Philip says, “it's very important for people to try to understand each other and their differences by having conversations.”
Philip spends a lot of time online, and she became dismayed by the tone of conversations happening in the Trinbagonian blogosphere. She believes that so many issues could be resolved if people simply spoke to and understood each other. “Not just talking,” she added, “but listening. A lot of people listen to respond without actually listening.”
Screenshot of Franka Philip and Ardene Sirjoo as they co-hosted the Conversation Day TT livestream on June 8, 2019.
Sirjoo suggested they could curate questions, get an interesting group of people together and live stream the discussions. Conversation Day TT was the amazing result.
I sat down with Philip (and one of the event participants, filmmaker Nicola Cross) at a popular coffee shop to talk about how their foray into offline conversations went and why it is important for us not to lose the art of having face to face conversations.
Janine Mendes-Franco (JMF): How did you decide on which people you would throw together in the different groups?
Franka Philip, co-founder of Trini Good Media and one of the organisers of Conversation Day TT. Photo courtesy Trini Good Media, used with permission.
Franka Philip (FP): We just matched people to conversations — not necessarily based on their being experts, but intelligent people who we know think about things. We tried to put people together who did not know each other so you'd get a genuine, interesting conversation.
JMF: What were some of the topics they discussed?
FP: We did six topics. The first topic was a conversation between myself and Kevin Browne, who won the 2019 Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, in which we talked about the creative life. We ended up talking about creativity in so many different ways … including how technology is affecting the way that we are being creative.
The second conversation raised the question of who different people considered to be national heroes and how they would honour them. The third topic was about music: You're stuck on a desert island and can only have three songs. Which would you pick and why? The fourth topic asked people how their mortality motivates them.
The fifth was, “What would you give up to make Trinidad and Tobago better?” It was really provocative in that we got two young people —Jafar Howe, the young man from Laventille [an economically disadvantaged area] who's going off to Princeton University and Jesse Deane-Smith, who will be going to the University of Sussex  — and their view of what Trinidad needs to change is really interesting. They talked about attitudes to productivity, about politicians and how pointless they seem to be in giving us leadership and setting examples. The last conversation asked how people were dealing with the prospect of growing old alone and even though it was a heavy topic, it was a very lively discussion.
JMF: You talked about how technology affects creativity, but technology also affects how we have conversations, many of which happen online now, on various social media platforms. How is the dynamic different and why did you think it was important to take the discussion offline?
FP: Well, like how you and I are talking, you can look at my face, you can see my body language, I can react to you quickly, there's no barrier of a screen and I can really be real with you. What online conversations have done is created a whole generation of what people are calling keyboard warriors. People are able to throw insults, able to be threatening, abusive and all the rest of it and there are no repercussions most of the time. You don't get anything resolved that way. There's no real space when you have a conversation online with strangers to have that deeper reasoning. One of the challenges we found [with the event] is that a couple of people said we weren't engaging with the online audience — but that wasn't really the point. The point was for the people who were there to have those conversations, for people to listen and understand…
JMF: …And for people [online] to have conversations of their own.
FP: Exactly. I hope that people who were following online were able to find some way to have a conversation offline. That's the inspiration.
JMF: Did you have certain expectations of how the “real life” conversations would go?
FP: I was really happy at the synergy and the dynamics among the people who were taking part, because most of them did not know each other. I hoped for people to sit down, listen and engage. I hoped [there would be] some value from having a real life conversation with people that they didn't know, about things that they probably hadn't had to think about for a while.
Most people got the point of the exercise, which was to see people engage in a sensible, agreeable tone, friendly and respectful. I saw connection; I saw enthusiasm. People keep asking us to do it again — and we are! We realise there's potential for a series of conversations, particularly because we have two elections in the next year in Trinidad and Tobago.
The fact that people want to get more involved is a point of action: they were asking how they could participate. Getting people thinking about being involved in something like this is really important. We want people to be guided and inspired by just talking to each other. I don't want to say we want to change the world; just our little corner of it.
JMF: Nicola, what was it like taking part in Conversation Day TT?
Filmmaker Nicola Cross, who participated in the conversation about growing old alone. Photo   taken by Lesley-Ann MacFarlane and used with permission from Trini Good Media.
Nicola Cross (NC): I found the whole process great! It's on the right track — it's going to become whatever it is that it will become and the approach of the people involved is right — the openness, the quirkiness of some of the ideas, it wasn't all serious topics, the conversation flowed. It was really comfortable; the audience was just the right size to get a bit of feedback and there was an intimacy about it that facilitated people's honesty and openness. It felt like being in a living room.
The other thing that I think about a lot is who gets to have voice, because I have a thing about gatekeepers…
FP: Yes, we're being really careful to make sure we don't exclude so we're finding avenues — online, at the community level — for people to suggest who would be a good match to discuss different topics. We also plan to do this in other areas than Port of Spain [Trinidad's capital city] to get people talking.
NC: We [Trinbagonians] don't have a problem talking, but it must be more than that.
FP: It's also to resolve differences; to see that we aren't actually all that different. So when we do go around, especially before elections, we want to try and get people with opposing views to talk to each other. We're very aware of that.
JMF: I love the fact that this interview has now turned into a conversation. Do resolving those differences play a part in effecting change?
FP: I think so, organically.
Cross brought up the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and the ensuing refugee situation that Trinidad and Tobago is grappling with as an example of difficult conversations that need to happen — and possibly be moderated by experts, considering that both online and off, members of minorities and vulnerable groups who have themselves been discriminated against have proven quite intolerant:
NC: How do we address it? That needs to be unpacked. Conversations need to happen that address those things. Conversations need to be mirrors to say, “Hang on a minute here!”
FP: They do. What really strikes me is that culture evolves, but we need to educate people about why it's happening. That's a good idea for a series of podcasts!
View the Conversation Day TT 2019 live stream in full.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Equal and more equal: Separatist Abkhazia’s passport policy · Global Voices
OC Media

The following is a version of partner post written by Stella Adleyba that first appeared on the website OC Media.
Ruslan Yaylyan, an ethnic Armenian from Abkhazia’s capital of Sukhum, told OC Media that when he applied for a new Abkhazian passport last year, it was his second time applying and he did not expect any problems. However, ten days after submitting the required documents, Yaylyan was asked to come to the passport office.
He recalls that the passport officer rudely asked him to bring his military ID, then his birth certificate, and then his conscription card. Yaylyan says the process continued for three months.
During the 1992–1993 Georgian–Abkhaz war, Yaylyan was twelve years old and his family’s house, along with all of his documents, was burnt down by Georgian troops. After the war, the process of recovering the documents wasn’t easy — many people used ad hoc certificates instead of passports.
Yaylyan says he wasn’t officially registered as a resident of Abkhazia until 1999, but that he never left. He even served in the Abkhazian army, which he can prove with his military ID.
The process of exchanging old passports for newer ones in Abkhazia has been in motion since 2016. Abkhazia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs told OC Media that around 140,000 passports are to be reissued.
A rule in the new citizenship law means that in order to replace old passports with the updated ones, citizens of Abkhazia must prove that they lived in Abkhazia between 1994 and 1999.
Issues arose after the 2005 citizenship law annulled the previous citizenship law adopted in 1993, essentially stripping citizenship from people who had been granted it under the previous law.
According to Article 5 of the 2005 citizenship law, to be eligible for citizenship a person must have permanently resided in the territory of Abkhazia for at least five years at the time of Abkhazia’s 1999 declaration of independence and must not have renounced their citizenship.
The passport replacement process has been closely connected to the legal status of the inhabitants of eastern Abkhazia, the majority of who are ethnic Georgians. From 2009–2014, ethnic Georgians in Abkhazia’s Gal District were issued Abkhazian passports. The Abkhazian government later ruled that this was illegal.
According to the current citizenship law, people who didn’t reside in Abkhazia between 1994–1999 are not citizens. Gal’s ethnic Georgian population, most of which was displaced by the war, were only officially allowed to return to Gal in 1999.
On top of this, in 2013, Abkhazia passed a law according to which only Abkhazian–Russian dual citizenship is allowed. This served as an additional legal basis for a mass de-passportisation of ethnic Georgians in Gal, the majority of whom held Georgian citizenship as well.
The head of the passport department at Abkhazia’s Interior Ministry, Eduard Manargiya told OC Media that while issuing new passports there were cases of ethnic Georgians simultaneously having Abkhazian ID documents and being citizens of Georgia.
Others who lost their right to obtain new passports include those who between 1994–1999 studied at Russian universities, served in the Abkhazian army, or were pensioners who travelled to Russia to collect Russian pensions.
Marina Chistyakova is an ethnic Russian native to Sukhum. She stayed in Abkhazia during the war but in 1995 moved to Chelyabinsk in Russia’s Ural Mountains region to care for her ill mother. Chistyakova returned to Abkhazia in the 2000s and obtained an Abkhazian passport, but when the time came to renew it, she ran into trouble.
‘I was brought to tears because of my Abkhazian passport’, Chistyakova tells OC Media. ‘Every trip to the passport office ended in scandal and insults. Passport officers don’t spare words when they find out that you’re not an ethnic Abkhaz.’
‘My husband died during the war, defending Abkhazia. I love my country very much, but seeing this injustice, I just want to leave. Replacing a passport turned into discrimination and that’s not good if we’re to live in a civilised state,’ Chistyakova says.
‘The last time [I went to the passport office] they asked for my diploma. What does this have to do with a passport? We are simply humiliated each time and I’m not at an age where I’m going to endure it. I will probably sue them, otherwise, this problem won’t get solved. It’s not our fault there are gaps in the Abkhazian legislation,’ Chistyakova says.
Although not stated explicitly in the legislation, in practice, the law does not appear to have been applied to ethnic Abkhaz, who have no restrictions in obtaining Abkhazian citizenship.
Despite making repeated inquiries, OC Media was unable to find a single ethnic Abkhaz person who had been asked to bring additional documents or been subject to additional verification processes.
A spokesperson for the Abkhazian Ministry of Internal Affairs told OC Media that an internal manual regulates the procedures for replacing passports and which documents must be submitted.
However, they said the manual specifies that ‘special citizens’ are required to submit a number of additional documents. No public information is available on who these ‘special citizens’ are.
The manual is not publicly available, and the Interior Ministry told OC Media that it was an internal document and would not be published.
The Interior Ministry told OC Media that ‘virtually all’ people of the ‘special’ category who had applied for an Abkhazian passport had received their documents. They also said that of 95,500 passports received for renewal by 1 September, only 520 were rejected.
All place names and terminology used in this article are the words of the author alone, and may not necessarily reflect the views of OC Media’s editorial board.

author: OC Media


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‘I found myself in life’: Armenian barber excels as a counsellor for his elderly compatriots · Global Voices
Chaikhana.media

The following is a story by Chai-Khana.org and is republished by Global Voices under a partnership agreement. Text and video by Anzhela Frangyan and Inna Mkhitaryan.
The 15m2 room is only for men. Located in the suburbs of Yerevan, Tolik’s Soviet-style barber shop is a place for them to relax: to tell their stories, discuss their worries — and cut their hair. The barber shop has become a refuge for men, a place to escape from the new-age beauty salons that have become increasingly popular in the capital.
Tolik, 67, is a respected figure for his customers, many of whom have trusted him for more than 40 years with their hair and their thoughts.  In Armenia’s male-dominated society, this barber shop is one of the very few places where men can be open about their vulnerabilities — including worrying about their hair and their appearance — without being concerned about appearing weak.


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Myanmar disables internet access in conflict areas of Rakhine and Chin states · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Rohingya family in Sittwe, the capital city of Rakhine State. Photo by DYKT Mohigan, Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
The following article is written by a Myanmar writer who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons.
On 21 June the government of Myanmar disabled the internet indefinitely in select locations in the states of Rakhine and Chin allegedly to maintain peace and order in these areas.
Telenor, Ooredoo, Myanmar Post and Telecommunication (MPT), and MyTel companies were ordered by the government to cut off the internet in eight locations in the Rakhine state of western Myanmar and one location in the Chin state of northern Myanmar. Voice calls and SMS remain in operation. As of this writing, the internet is still disabled and there is no announcement as to when services will be restored.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, U Soe Thein, explained that the measure is meant to “maintain security, peace, and order.” Rakhine state and the southern part of Chin state have been the sites of clashes between the Myanmar military and the Rakhine ethnic armed group Arakan Army (AA) since 2015.
Formed in 2009 to demand self-determination in the region, the AA frequently clashed with the Myanmar military and the encounters intensified after August 2015. The most recent fighting broke out in April 2019.
Rakhine state is a multi-ethnic western region of Myanmar with a predominantly Buddhist Rakhine population of around 4 million. Meanwhile, the Rohingya, who are Muslim ethnic minorities living in the state, are estimated to have a population of one million. The Myanmar government does not recognize Rohingya as an ethnic people of Myanmar and many of them are not granted citizenship.
Rakhine state came under international attention again when the Myanmar military launched a ‘clearance operation’ against the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) following the attacks made by the latter on 25 August 2017. This conflict with the ARSA resulted in dozens of killings and the burning of Rohingya villages which forced tens of thousands of people to escape and seek refuge in the neighboring country of Bangladesh.
On the night of 21 June mobile operators sent text messages informing subscribers that “internet and data services are temporarily disabled due to the order of the Ministry of Transport and Communications. Voice call and SMS will still be operational.” Screenshot taken from Narinjara News.
Under the Telecommunication Law Article 77 (2017), the Myanmar government has the power to work together with service providers to control or stop communication services for the public good. Maung Saungkha from the Myanmar Freedom of Speech Organization, Athan, said that disabling the internet is not a new phenomenon in Myanmar, citing as an example the government's decision to disable access to the internet in response to the anti-government protests of 2007 (which came to be known as the Saffron Revolution). Saungkha warned that disabling mobile data and internet connections could be a prelude to more human rights violations, urging the civilian government not to be an accomplice in rights violations and to lift the internet restriction to allow people to share information about their situation.
There is no particular reason provided by the government as to why the internet needed to be disabled at this specific moment. Local advocates see the measure as a tactic to restrict local communication or prevent the latest ground information on the situation of the war from getting out. While voice calls and SMS messages can be intercepted, end-to-end encrypted internet messaging apps are more difficult to monitor. In a recent press conference, an army spokesperson denied knowing the details about the order restricting access to the internet.
On 24 June, three days after the cut-off started, a group of civil society organisations based in Myanmar's second capital city Yangon, published a joint public statement calling the government to lift internet restrictions in the affected areas and review the existing laws making such restrictive measures possible. In addition, the Rakhine State Parliament put forward an urgent request to the Union Parliament to immediately lift the restrictions.
Although the local news agency Narinjara regularly reports news of civilian casualties and even the government's arrests of civilians accused of being connected with the Arakan Army (AA), the Rakhine clashes are still underreported by the national media. The region is also inaccessible to many mainstream media networks because of government orders to control information about the armed clashes and military operations, especially those involving the Rohingya in the past. This partly explains why disabling the internet in a major region in the country for days has received only minor coverage in the media and elicited little reaction from the public.

author: Guest Contributor


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“Language is also a form of resistance” · Global Voices
Alejandra Sasil Sánchez Chan

Photo by Fernando Eloy and used with permission.
To commemorate the International Year of Indigenous Languages, governmental, academic and civil society institutions have joined forces to organize many activities, including participation in government spaces by members of indigenous communities working in defense and protection of their languages. One of these events took place in Mexico's Chamber of Deputies, on April 24, 2019, when Alejandra Sasil Sánchez Chan gave a speech in the Mayan language. Sánchez  made history by directly denouncing, at the country's seat of power, the dangers that contemporary Mexican culture pose for the indigenous heritage of the country. The original text can be read here.
The Maya civilization is mainly known for its architecture that still stands, but in today's world it also survives through its language: a language that is also a form of resistance, which aims to preserve our identity. The power of the word transcends governments and political, social or territorial limits. This is where the wealth of our peoples is found.
The use of our native languages allows them to remain indelible on the linguistic map of Mexico, and this helps the survival of the social values, language and culture that are part of this colonization inherited from the Conquest.
The UNESCO Atlas of World's Languages in Danger indicates that there are 6,000 languages in the world, and that 2,500 of them are in danger of disappearing. The Atlas also points out that Mexico ranks fifth among countries with the most threatened languages. This is because out of the languages spoken in this country, 46 can be considered vulnerable, 35 clearly endangered, 33 seriously threatened, and 19 in a critical situation. In total, 133 languages are in danger.
Currently, speaking an indigenous language means keeping the root of its words intact. It allows our very essence and vision of the world that is woven within language to find new ways of thinking, and our cultural identity to evolve with each voice that finds the legacy of its ancestors in its mother tongue.
It is not by chance that linguists conceive of languages as trees, with thousands of branches growing interconnected. Trees with great roots fell under the weight of discrimination and oblivion. Many worldviews, poems, aesthetic expressions, sounds and knowledge vanish with every language that ceases to exist. This cultural devastation should hurt us profoundly, because it is like we are uprooting a tree that was planted generations ago.
Now we only have words, words that are creative and strong, to show us the road; evolving and leading us towards new ways of surviving in this country, as a testimony of our world. For that reason, the Mayan language and all sister languages must become a written medium, as proof that our roots can survive, and through which the next generations will have a starting point towards new ways of preserving their voices and their roots.
For a long time we were the tree. Now we are the shadow, the fallen logs, dried or burned; the lands that have been taken from us by the factories and big industries, the struggles that have been lost against the strength of the State's official status; the abuses that our people have lived through the years and that have been normalized. We have to raise our voice, indeed. And even more important, we have to go beyond being just spectators. We have to act.
That is why it is critical to put into action what was established in the Constitution, in the agreements and laws. The General Law of Linguistic Rights, in its sixth article, stipulates that: “The State will adopt and implement the necessary measures to ensure that the mass media disseminate the real linguistic and cultural diversity of the Mexican Nation.” ILO Convention 169 states in Article 16: “States shall take effective measures to ensure that State media properly reflect indigenous cultural diversity.”
States, without prejudice to the obligation to fully guarantee freedom of expression, should also encourage private media companies to duly reflect indigenous cultural diversity.
This means the creation of media from our own vision, media that addresses our concerns and shows the world that there are more complex issues than corporate ambition. For example, K'iintsil, the only newspaper in Mayan language in the Yucatan Peninsula, for four years has been publishing articles with a historical significance. The newspaper's motto honors and teaches about our wisdom and our language, making it visible everyday.
There is an urgent need for educational systems that incorporate the wisdom of our peoples, which do not perpetuate the idea of colonization; systems of economy, art, health, entertainment, everything conceived from our worldview.
Each word is like a heartbeat that continues to be heard against all odds, each letter in books and digital media is another form of freedom—a way to end marginalization and racism, because we are the ones who carry the voice of our parents and grandparents with dignity and pride.
That is why it is important to increase the means we have to communicate, to enjoy our language and explore its multiple ways of creating new worlds, and other ways of envisioning our future. We want to have more spaces where we can communicate and live freely; spaces where our mother tongues can exist as they once did before the Conquest.
I do not want my voice, nor those that have preceded or will follow me, to be applauded just for being spoken in this space. As a citizen of the Mexican State, I demand that my language, our languages and peoples, have the same opportunities to survive and exist without the fear of being extinguished. To achieve this requires that those who have the capability to do something within legal and official frameworks must act now, in every way they can.
The start is complying with what the law and common sense stipulate.
Honoring the word is the first step so that wisdom does not fade away.

author: Alejandra Sasil Sánchez Chan


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Kim Kardashian’s ‘Kimono’ clothing line causes consternation in Japan and around the world · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Women wearing kimono in Kyoto, Japan. Photo by Flickr user 2benny. Image license: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
On June 25, American entertainment personality Kim Kardashian announced a new line of clothing and fashion accessories called “Kimono”. Kardashian's plan to market her new products using a word that is both common and iconic in Japan quickly generated headlines and social media buzz—and outrage.
While the direct translation of “kimono” (着物) could literally mean “something one wears”, the word actually refers to a traditional garment still worn in Japan, usually for formal or special occasions.
Today’s #hitoe #kimono is a high-quality silk weave of my favorite pattern – the momiji leaf. Since hitoe can only be used in spring and fall, the delicate green color of this leaf usually associated with autumn makes it appropriate for either season. #kimonooftheday #spring pic.twitter.com/pIPyJftxKM
— Paprika Girl (@PaprikaGirl_JP) June 12, 2019
While Kardashian plans to launch an entire suite of products under the “Kimono” trademark, including luggage, perfume and deodorant, the American celebrity and reality TV star announced her new brand by unveiling a new line of undergarments for women.
Many commentators pointed out that Kardashian's line of lingerie looks nothing like its namesake garment from Japan:
WTAF, Kim, you high? https://t.co/UgEROMdaxQ
— Sachiko Ishikawa?? #ProChoice (@Ishikawa_Sachi) June 26, 2019
The story was quickly reported as a controversy by many prominent English-language news outlets including CNN, the Guardian and the Los Angeles Times. The BBC translated its own reporting on the story into Japanese.
Not everyone was convinced the story was controversial in Japan. Stephen Stapczynski, a longtime Asia correspondent for Bloomberg noted:
Anyone else feel like these types of headlines on the Kimono scandal borderline hyperbole?
Not a single Japanese newspaper has picked up this story. Only blogs/foreign media have reported on it in Japanese. pic.twitter.com/J4YEqcURm3
— Stephen Stapczynski (@SStapczynski) June 26, 2019
As of Thursday, June 27, the story had not been reported in the digital editions of any of Japan's largest newspapers, including the Yomiuri, the Asahi or the Mainichi. Rather than reporting on the launch of “Kimono”, the Sankei newspaper republished a press release promoting the August edition of Vogue Japan magazine devoted to the rise of influencers in marketing, Kim Kardashian among them.
So far, Buzzfeed is the only major Japan-based news outlet that is reporting on how Japanese people are reacting to Kardashian's new brand.
Buzzfeed reporter Sumireko Tomita did need to explain cultural appropriation to her audience in Japan, where there generally is little awareness of the concept:
「文化の盗用」とは、本人の出身や所属とは違う国・地域の文化や伝統を、自己流に利用したり、盗用したりすることを意味する。
米国などでは、著名人が他国の民族衣装を模した衣装を舞台などで着用し問題となっているが、著名人だけでなく、ハロウィンイベントで海外の伝統衣装を模したデザインのコスチュームを着ることなども問題視されている。
“Cultural appropriation” is when one plagiarizes or makes use of the culture or traditions of a country or region different from one's own origin or affiliation.
In the United States and other countries, celebrities are often criticized for appearing on stage in the costumes that imitate the national dress of other countries and cultures. The criticism is not just reserved for celebrities, as it is regarded as a problem when traditional designs and clothing is used as Halloween costumes as well.
In her Buzzfeed article, Tomita also reported that Kardashian's initiative had indeed sparked immediate and significant online discussion online in Japan, with the conversation coalescing around the Twitter hashtag, #KimOhNo.
People inside and outside of Japan used the hashtag to criticize Kardashian's planned business venture, and also shared photos of what a kimono should look like using the phrase “this is a kimono.”
着物は日本の伝統的な衣装です。
下着じゃない！
kimono is Japanese traditional clothes.
It is not underwear!
Don't take Japanese culture.#kimono#KimOhNo @KimKardashian pic.twitter.com/VLqC8Pvmqr
— マサキモノ＠着物男子? (@masakimono_jp) June 26, 2019
Some of the strongest reactions came from the Japanese-American community, such as this comment by the Densho Project, which documents the experiences of Japanese-American internees in the United States during the Second World War:
It's degrading and gross to turn a deeply significant, centuries-old cultural garment into overpriced underwear. It also erases and then turns a profit off the history of forced assimilation of Japanese and Japanese Americans in the U.S. #KimOhNo pic.twitter.com/BhgVY6BRfA
— Densho (@DenshoProject) June 25, 2019
While outrage both inside and outside Japan has focused so far on Kardashian's appropriation of the term “kimono” to sell undergarments, other observers noted she is attempting to trademark the word itself.
As reported by U.S. entertainment news site TMZ, Kardashian's U.S. trademark application for KIMONO INTIMATES can be viewed in various places online.
Popular Twitter account Tokyo Fashion subsequently reported that, “Kim Kardashian filed for a bunch of trademarks on the word “kimono” (even for actual kimono), which, if granted, would allow her to ban Japanese companies from using the word “kimono” in America […]”
In a series of tweets, Tokyo Fashion noted that Kardashian is not the first U.S. celebrity entrepreneur to attempt to trademark a Japanese word to gain exclusive commercial rights in the United States:
This is worse than when Gwen Stefani filed trademarks claiming exclusive use to the word “Harajuku” for clothing. At the time, Stefani was asked to disclaim the word “Harajuku” from “Harajuku Lovers” but refused. Kardashian should disclaim “Kimono” from her brand name trademark.
— Tokyo Fashion (@TokyoFashion) June 25, 2019
This is the appropriate way to file for a trademark with the word “Kimono” BTW:
“No claim is made to the exclusive right to use “KIMONO” apart from the mark as shown.”
That is what Gwen refused to do with “Harajuku” even though it was requested by the trademark examiner.
— Tokyo Fashion (@TokyoFashion) June 25, 2019
Writing for Yahoo! Japan News, Japan's most popular online news aggregator and publisher, Kurihara Kiyoshi, a specialist in Japanese intellectual property law and patents, notes that Kardashian may likely be ultimately successful in trademarking certain aspects of the Kimono brand:
日本でも、指定商品に対して普通名詞化している言葉は商標登録できませんが、それは米国も同様でgenericな言葉（一般名詞）は登録できません。
ただ、普通名詞（一般名詞）か否かの判断はあくまでも指定商品に対してであり、たとえば、KIMONOをコンピューター・ソフトウェアや文房具を指定商品として商標登録することは可能です（実際、米国でもそのような登録例があります）。APPLEを、果物を指定商品にして商標登録することはできませんが、コンピューターが指定商品なら商標登録できることを考えるとわかりやすいと思います。
Just as in the United States, in Japan common or generic words [such as “kimono”] cannot be trademarked for commercial purposes. However, judging whether or not a word is common or generic depends on the product or good being trademarked.
For example, it would be possible to trademark Kimono for computer software or stationary supplies (in fact this already occurs in the United States). While APPLE can not be trademarked as a brand of fruit, it's well-known that APPLE is a trademark of a line of computer products.
In his article Kurihara suggests that while that it's difficult to predict if Kardashian will be successful in her efforts to trademark “Kimono” for her line of undergarments, she may ultimately be able trademark the term for her planned line of luggage, accessories, and deodorant.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Climber who captured viral image of Mount Everest traffic is on a quest to conquer the world’s 14 highest peaks in record-breaking time · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Nirmal Purja, better known as Nims, is on a mission to climb all 14 peaks above 8,000 meters in 7 months. Image from the Project Possible Facebook page. Used with permission.
Nirmal Purja MBE, better known as Nims, is on a mission to climb all the ‘eight-thousanders’ (the 14 mountains above 8,000 meters) in a record-breaking seven months.
As the son of a retired Indian Gurkha, Nims also went on to join the Brigade of Gurkhas and he served with the elite British Special Forces. He plunged into mountaineering after leaving the military and recently climbed six of the world’s highest peaks in less than four weeks.
Even as more and more climbers are paying high fees and queuing to summit Everest — as evidenced by the viral photo that Nims took on the world's highest peak – the climber himself is still short of funds to begin the second phase of his Project Possible mission.
Sanjib Chaudhary from Global Voices caught up with Nims and talked about what drove him to take the speed climbing challenge:
Global Voices (GV): What inspired you to take the Project Possible challenge? Tell us about your project.
Nirmal Purja (NP): There are only 14 mountains on earth higher than 8,000m (Eight-thousander) and they are all located in the Himalayas. The current world record for one individual climbing all 14 peaks is nearly 8 years. I aim to climb all 14 peaks in just 7 months. For me, this project is about pushing myself to see what is possible within human endurance. How far can humans go, can we go beyond what others think is possible?
GV: You’ve accomplished six summits in four weeks recently. Out of the six peaks, which was the most difficult to climb and why?
NP: Without doubt that would be Dhaulagiri due to the weather. We were climbing in winds in excess of 70-75 mph. We could only climb when the wind speed decreased for a bit and when it went up again we would embrace because we couldn’t move and if we did, we would have blown away.
GV: Many say that above Camp 4 in Everest, and the other eight-thousanders, nobody cares about fellow summiteers. The air is thin, the wind blows hard, and the temperature is extreme. What would you do if you found someone in need of assistance while you were on the way to summit a peak?
NP: What would I do or what did I do? In 2016, during the descent from summiting Everest, I rescued a female climber who had been left for dead just below the Balcony at 8,380 m. I brought her down on my own and handed her care over to the Everest Air Rescue Team at the South Col. I would do the same every time.
GV: You had climbed the mountains in the past as well. Did you find any difference while climbing the peaks this time? Did you notice any visible effects of climate change in the mountains?
NP: I have climbed some of those phase mountains before and I did see changes. A lot less snow, glacier melting. It is a pretty stark and obvious change. We had to carry water where we previously melted snow.
GV: What are your next plans? When and which peaks do you plan to scale? What’s the funding situation? What keeps you motivated?
NP: Phase two is delayed for around two more weeks while I get funding and I am currently £150k short. I am motivated as much now as I have ever been, my mind is still positive. I get so much inspiration and motivation from my followers on Instagram and Twitter that drives me.
GV: After accomplishing the project what’s on the radar for you? What are your future plans?
NP: For now, I am 100% focused on Project Possible. After — who knows? All I know is I want to continue raising money for the charities I am working with.
GV: Lastly, climbing eight-thousanders is not an easy task for a regular guy. What does it take to climb the mountains? Is it special genes, training, or will power? What’s your advice to an aspiring climber?
NP: You need to have both physical and mental endurance to climb any mountain, especially eight-thousanders. I believe I have a good physiology developed from being born and raised at high altitudes. I also have the mental approach from my years in the Special Forces. This combination gives me a unique skill set. Take your time, climb 5000, 6000, 7000 meter peaks, learn how your body reacts to altitude. Take it slow, build your experience and enjoy the journey. Don’t rush for an 8000 meter peak.

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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Trinidad & Tobago’s ‘Bike Man’ takes cycling to new heights · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Screenshot of the video of Trinidad's “Bike Man”, which has been widely shared on Facebook.
Trinidad and Tobago is a land of heights —  literally and figuratively.
Its moko jumbies, those mystical stilt-walking characters rooted in West African tradition, are a fixture of the country's annual Carnival celebrations. Oral tradition has it that the height of the stilts — often between 10 and 15 feet high — gives the jumbies the ideal vantage point from which to discern evil and protect the innocent. The stilt-walkers usually dress in long, full skirts or flowing pants to create an illusion of themselves as giants — but Trinidad and Tobago's latest tall tale is not the least bit interested in disguising the mechanics of what makes him able to loom over lesser mortals.
Meet Trinidad and Tobago's “Bike Man”, who has become a bit of a sensation on social media. His name is Jazeel Joseph, a 34-year-old welder who has 21 years’ experience walking on stilts as a moko jumbie. Talking to me by phone, he says he has gone higher than any other stilt-walker in the country, to heights of between 14 and 16 feet.
Some of the bicycles that Jahzeel “Bike Man” Joseph has in his collection. Photo courtesy Joseph, used with permission.
The idea of building these tall bikes occurred to him after he saw a couple riding a tandem bicycle around his neighbourhood. He said to himself, “But Jahzeel, you could build this!” He worked out a design and “just ‘uppsed it’ [made it go up] a little”. He has a fleet of bikes — three of which the designed and constructed himself — that range from seven feet to 12 feet, 9 inches tall. Consider him a moko jumbie on wheels! [Note: there is a language warning for the video.]
The “greatest bike man in the world” hails from Diego Martin, a suburb in the north west of Trinidad. When I asked him what inspired him to create these unconventional bikes, he said, “I like to be different.” But there's more to it than that. He sees riding — and specifically riding these unusual bikes — as a way to encourage youth to discover what makes them different.
“Crime is not the only way of life,” he explains. “You don't have to be a criminal for you to be recognised.” When the “youth men” from his area come to his place, they learn to ride these amazing bikes and in the process, imagine limitless possibilities for their own lives. Joseph goes for rides all over the country, attracting lots of attention in the communities he passes through:
There's a Trinbagonian saying: to be “on heights”. It's a layered and rather complex concept which basically refers to someone taking something to a new level — often in a fun and impressive way — but those heights also have an innate depth to them that take people out of their comfort zone and make them think about things in a way they hadn't considered before. There's an element of admiration and wonderment that gives people pause and often causes them to just shake their head in amazement. Joseph calls the bikes “jaw-droppers” — and they certainly are.
To quote the onlooker in the second video:
Well, yes! The man riding [with] no hands, yes […] 12 feet in the air…you could understand he [him]?
To expand his reach, though, Joseph needs support in the form of sponsorship for his youth outreach initiative, as well as donations of used bikes and parts. In one Facebook thread, there was a big discussion about whether the “Bike Man” could qualify for the Guinness World Records, but it seems he's about 10 feet too short. Joseph is on top of the situation though — he's already got in touch with the Guinness World Records people, who have sent him the relevant guidelines. He plans to enter a new design he's working on and break the existing record for the world's tallest rideable bicycle.
There's no doubt that Joseph's “heights” quotient is right up there — in fact, the #1000 Mokos stilt-walking group has expressed an interest in meeting the “Bike Man”. “That's no problem, man!” he tells me. “I could ride down there easy and take a picture with the moko jumbies.” Now, that  would be “real heights”!


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Turkey’s ‘Academics for Peace’ defend their beliefs from prison cells and exile · Global Voices
Chris Rickleton

Academics for Peace rally. Screenshot taken from a YouTube video posted on the Bostonbul YouTube channel on March 2017.
Three-and-a-half years have passed since the Academics for Peace (AfP in short: Baris icin Akademisyenler in Turkish) boldly told Turkey’s government “we will not be a party to this crime.”
Their declaration amounted to an outright rejection of state military violence in southeastern Turkey, which is home to a large Kurdish population. At the time, civilians were bearing the brunt of violent clashes between Turkish forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), that is banned as a terrorist organisation in Turkey. The petition set more than 2,000 signatories on course for a collision with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had initiated the state military offensive in the region.
Global Voices sat down with Asli Telli Aydemir, one of the signatories, who is currently living outside the country, to discuss the roots of the AfP movement and its future both within and beyond Turkey’s borders.
GV: How did Academics for Peace begin?
ATA: At the end of 2015, the predominantly Kurdish regions of Turkey entered an intensifying spiral of violence. Curfews were enforced in different cities and districts lasting for months. Entire neighborhoods were demolished, leaving people homeless. Many lost their lives. In the face of these developments, more than 2000 academics decided not to remain silent and issued a statement entitled “We will not be a party to this crime!”. The petition called on the government and the security forces to abide by domestic and international law and to return to the peace process that had been interrupted after the national elections of June 7, 2015.
GV: What were the consequences for signatories?
ATA: After the petition was made public on January 11, 2016, the Academics for Peace were specifically targeted by the President and subsequently turned into objects of hatred and defamation in the media. Since then, we have been attacked, threatened and turned into subjects of administrative and criminal investigations. Hundreds of signatories have been dismissed from their positions by order of the Council of Education and university administrations. At least 400 passports were also invalidated, preventing these academics from travelling abroad. In December 2017, judicial proceedings were initiated against the signatories, on the charge of “propaganda for a terrorist organization.” Until mid-June this year, 742 petition signatories have been charged, including myself, with sentences already handed down to about 190. Many verdicts came with prison terms of 15 months. Some of the academics receiving these sentences conceded to waive their right to file an appeal, an option open only to those who were sentenced to prison terms of less than two years. Waiving the right of appeal turns the prison term into a suspended sentence, effective for five years, during which similar “crimes” will result in immediate imprisonment and additional charges. This suspended sentence has served as a powerful silencing mechanism. The close of last year (December 2018) saw sudden increases in the prison terms, above the two-year limit.
GV: AfP began in Turkey but is now a global network. Can you tell us about that?
ATA: AfP found solidarity from academics across the world, with the hypotheses blog, curated by Academics for Peace Germany e.V.  playing a vital role. It serves as an archive of how law is operationalized for the suppression of academic freedom in Turkey and elsewhere. AfP network initiatives in Germany, UK and the US help empower collaborative advocacy regarding acts of persecution by the State against academics. We, as academics in exile, try our best to address rights violations in Turkey and form solidarity collectives, in alliance with democratic organizations and labor unions in Europe and the US.
GV: Can critical academics hope for a fair trial in Turkey?
ATA: Unfortunately not. There have been many cases of arbitrary interpretations of prosecutors and judges. The AfP network in Turkey has managed to create a solidarity and monitoring hub for the trials in dozens of penal courts, throughout the country. The calendar of hearings shows the schedule and number of scheduled hearings on a daily basis beginning from February 2018 and running through September 2019. A quick glance at these court records shows that a 15-month sentence with deferral is the most common verdict. At present, there are 35 cases where convictions have not been deferred (those convicted face jail immediately). None of the verdicts have been overturned on appeal.
GV: Can you tell us about some of your colleagues who are already serving time?
ATA: On May 8, 2019 one of our dear colleagues, Prof. Füsun Üstel began serving time in the Eskisehir H-type women’s prison. She is expected to serve an 11-month (reduced from 15 months due to related legal clauses) sentence unless no other amendments or interim decisions are made. Her deferral application was rejected. Our protests and calls for action have received some attention from the international media and higher education institutions, but the actual bodies responsible remain silent. Furthermore, our dear colleague, Assoc. Prof. Tuna Altinel was detained and shortly after imprisoned in Balikesir on May 11, 2019 simply because he contacted police and enquired about his travel ban. Dr. Altinel cannot go to France and continue his university work in Lyon due to the charge of “propagandizing for a terrorist organization” during an academic a panel discussion in Lyon. During the panel in question, Altinel translated the speech of a former lawmaker for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Faysal Yildiz, from Turkish into French.
GV: What is the future for AfP?
ATA: As of today, around a dozen local academic initiatives linked to AfP have grown up in Turkey: Sans Campus, Kültürhane, Ucurtma Café, Ada-Coop, Birarada Association, Kocaeli Academy for Solidarity, Street Academy, students`solidarity initiative Köstebek Akademi, Association for Migration Research are just some of the most inspiring examples. Critical pedagogies, in some instances anti-pedagogies, are taking root, based on knowledge-sharing without hierarchical structures. Off-University e.V. was established to support academics who have been purged from their institutions, forced to resign, who were legally and politically persecuted and even imprisoned because of their opinion and research. This initiative deserves attention. Another solidarity project is Mapping Funds, a collaborative digital mapping effort to analyze diversified support networks and funds attributed to at-risk scholars in/from Turkey. These efforts ensure that critical knowledge is preserved and disseminated.

author: Chris Rickleton


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China’s censored histories: The evolving blacklist on Tiananmen Massacre · Global Voices
Citizen Lab

In Hong Kong, tens of thousands commemorated the June 4 massacre with candle lights. In mainland China, when the word ‘candle’ in Chinese was published on Weibo at midnight on June 4 2019, it was removed by the platform two hours later. Remix image with screen capture from Weiboscope.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, research teams at the University of Hong Kong's Weiboscope and the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab gathered a collection of June 4 related content that is censored on social media in China. We explain our analysis of the censored contents in a series of articles published on Global Voices. The first post was published on April 17, 2019.
June 4th is one of the most politically sensitive dates in mainland China when the censorship machine is in full gear to stop remembrance of the Tiananmen Square Massacre from surfacing online.
After the bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen student democracy protests in 1989, the Chinese government has systematically attempted to expunge this dark mark of history from the public record in China. History textbooks include no references to the event, media is tightly controlled, and pervasive censorship of social media continues. However, the annual candlelight vigil at Hong Kong Victoria Park, playful images of the Tank Man, or simply a candle image posted on Weibo show a continued effort to recognize and remember the forbidden history. The censored content we compiled show the struggle between those vowing never to forget and authorities attempting to erase this piece of history from collective memory.
This year, in the lead up to June 4, censorship of international websites, media, and domestic platforms increased. Since mid-May, China blocked Wikipedia in all available languages, not just the Chinese version. At the same time, at least five video platforms were forced to undergo “system maintenance” and disable a number of functions, including new user registration and posting “bullet chat” comments on videos.
In early June, 12 major international news outlets from five different countries were blocked, including CNN, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Intercept, the Toronto Star, The Age in Australia, and New Zealand’s Newsroom. Previously, the New York Times, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal have long been inaccessible within China.
Removal of references to the massacre by social media platforms is also pervasive.
In addition to content filtering and the suspension of a large number of dissident user accounts, this year WeChat banned all users from altering information on their profiles, while Weibo suspended its image attachment function.
Under the Cybersecurity Law, all content platforms have to take preventive measures such as updating their content and user management systems and their sensitive word lists to prevent being penalized by the censorship authorities for the spread of illegal content— pornography, rumor, defamation, threat to national security and socialist values. On the other side of the memory battle, some netizens attempt to outwit censors by posting coded posts, images, cartoons, music, and memes.
Since 2009, the Citizen Lab has identified more than 3,500 blocked key terms about June 4. The list of censored terms were gathered from seven social media and chat platforms, including WeChat, Line, TOM-Skype, Sina UC, YY, Sina Show, and 9158. The keywords can be put into three major categories:
In an attempt to circumvent keyword censorship, mainland Chinese netizens developed many coded expressions about June 4. For example, there are hundreds of coded expressions for the term “June 4”, such as “May 35”, “sIxf0ur”, “32X2”, “444444 incident”, “VIIV”, “8×8” and others. Chinese names such as Wuer Kaixi, one of the protest movement's student leaders, has a dozen variations such as “舞而開西“ using Chinese homonyms. The image of Tank man was previously coded as “the man with a white shirt taking a walk” (白襯衫散步). However, as these coded terms become popular they were also added to the blacklist.
In the days leading up to the 30th anniversary of June 4, YY, a popular live streaming platform in mainland China, updated its keyword blacklist. Updates to the list included 306 June 4 related keywords of which one third are related to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is a central site for annual commemorations of June 4. Although the city has been part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since the British left the territory in 1997, it enjoys a certain amount of autonomy from China as a special administrative region under the “one country, two systems” principle.
Each year, tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong gather in Victoria Park to light candles and mark the anniversary. References to these memorials often appear on censored keyword lists (for example, Victoria Park candle light vigil 维园烛光晚会). The updates made to the YY list this year show a spike in Hong Kong related keywords and focus on events planned for the massacre's 30th anniversary.
The keywords include references to the annual vigil (烛光晚会, Candlelight vigil), and other memorial events such as “Kites for Democracy” (風箏行動) and the “Patriotic Democratic Parade” (爱国民主大游行).
Keywords also include the names of people, groups, and locations associated with June 4 commemoration activities:
The increased censorship of June 4 related activism in Hong Kong activism may be due to YY proactively blocking content it envisioned would become viral around the anniversary. It may also reflect a general increase of Chinese government pressure on freedom of speech in Hong Kong.
Regardless of the reasons behind the spike in Hong Kong related censorship, the city remains a key space for preserving June 4 memories in face of China's censorship machine.

author: Citizen Lab


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What will it take to combat digital authoritarianism in Southeast Asia? · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Opening ceremony of the 34th ASEAN Summit, June 2019 in Thailand. Source: ASEAN
This post is based on a keynote presentation delivered by the author at the first Global Voices Asia-Pacific Citizen Media Summit June 2, 2019 in Taipei, Taiwan.
The rise to power of someone like Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who gained global notoriety for launching a bloody campaign against illegal drugs, is linked to the manipulation of online information tools by populists who end up dominating elections.
Indeed, Duterte admitted to hiring a cyber army in 2016 and ran a campaign which prominently featured the use of social media to promote his candidacy. Later, his government was accused of deploying online trolls to distort public debates by spreading disinformation. He has also been also criticized for bullying the media while dangling before the public proposals to police the internet.
It is therefore no surprise to hear many people associating Duterte’s ascendancy with the alarming trend of ‘digital authoritarianism’.
But the internet cannot simply be blamed for enabling the victory of politicians like Duterte, who is in fact a newcomer in a region dominated by authoritarian regimes which came to power years before social media use became ubiquitous. For example, Cambodia’s Hun Sen was first elected prime minister in the 1980s. Thailand's military has staged 12 coups in the past century. Singapore’s ruling party has been in power since the 1960s, and Malaysia’s ruling coalition held power from the 1950s until its defeat in 2018. Brunei has an absolute monarchy, while Vietnam and Laos are communist states.
Applied to the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia, digital authoritarianism refers to how the internet has been weaponized in aid of existing authoritarian regimes. It signifies the use of the online tools that many hoped would empower citizens for mass surveillance and the promotion of divisive hate speech. It reflects the actions of paranoid, repressive states seeking to prevent the rise of opposition forces by destroying connections and solidarities between communities, and online spaces of resistance.
Taming the ‘disruptive’ internet has been the focus of many states in the region. Internet legislation is often framed in aid of boosting national security objectives, protecting the public interest, and preserving law and order. In shaping public opinion, crusading governments have rationalized their actions by invoking the need to protect the public from online evils. They often invoke the need for social harmony, public tranquility, and defending the country’s morals and history. Indonesia, for example, seeks to censor pornography and other ‘obscene acts’, while Malaysia cites racial harmony when removing offensive internet content.
The first set of anti-cybercrime laws sought to update draconian media regulations and make them applicable in the era of social media and smartphones. Across the region, governments passed laws and orders on cyber libel and cyber defamation. What Vietnam’s decree no. 72, Myanmar’s article 66(d), Cambodia's social media prakas (regulation), and Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act combined with the harsh lèse-majesté law have in common, is the intent to criminalize any online activity deemed a public threat or subversive in the eyes of authorities.
The current priority is the building of consensus to justify the passage of laws against so-called ‘fake news’. Last May, Singapore passed a law which defined false news this way: “A statement may be found to be false if it is false or misleading, whether wholly or in part, and whether on its own or in the context in which it appears.” Media groups were right to call the measure Orwellian. Laws like this are too broad and too vague—yet brutally precise in targeting free speech.
The author delivering his presentation at the Global Voices Asia-Pacific Summit in Taipei.
The systematic approach to clamping down on free speech is often characterized in news reports as the adoption of the so-called ‘China model’. It points to the use of sophisticated technologies by security forces to control the local population—in particular, the weaponization of bureaucracy to silence dissent.
This is only partly correct, because China is not to blame for what’s happening in several Southeast Asian countries. Applied to the region, the ‘China model’ is even more sinister because of the way it is fused with built-in or local models of oppression to create a deadly mix of tools and processes that buttress the authoritarian features of governments.
What are these local instruments of oppression? Antiquated media laws, new cybercrime measures, security offices designed to gag the population, agencies toeing the line of the ruling party, and social institutions coerced to self-censor and kill critical thinking.
To speak of ‘digital authoritarianism with Chinese characteristics’ without explaining the region’s machineries of censorship would likely exaggerate China’s role in the overall equation of oppression—and make it more difficult to recognize the impunity perpetrated by evil regimes.
For it is not that governments in Southeast Asia suddenly became authoritarian because they were inspired by what China is doing. They already have repressive laws on defamation, sedition, and whistleblowing. What they got from China, primarily, was that nation's precious political support, and the license to import surveillance hardware and totalitarian techniques to reinforce indigenous methods of controlling the local population. This has resulted in a frightening pattern of mixing digital and archaic tools of oppression to preserve the rule of despots and destroy hope of an alternative future, whose  political impact is not limited to suppressing free speech, since it has the potential to hack elections, undermine political processes, and destroy accountability.
Is there a way out of this situation we are in? How can we break the rule of autocrats? How can we reclaim the promise and potential of the internet to strengthen our democratic vision? How can we assert our demands when voting results are digitally manipulated, public discourse is polluted by disinformation, and institutions are held hostage to archaic rulings?
I will dare to say we must go back to the basics of political organizing. At the grassroots level, we must fight not only fake news but cynicism, while planting the seeds of hope for a new political future. If we want new laws, the starting point is not lobbying, but political education in our communities. We want social movements backed by real political strength that can engage both corporate and bureaucratic powers. Our hope lies in a strong civil society that can make an impact from Asia to Silicon Valley.
Through political organizing, we can form new partnerships with various sectors who can contribute to the campaign. Students, writers, workers, farmers, software developers—each of these groupts have a role to play in this fight against what we call digital authoritarianism.
We must address the roots of conflict in society, attacking the deeper problems engendered by economic policies that are biased against the poor, and building power in the local sphere to challenge the nefarious impact of elite rule. In other words, we must work directly to combat the forces and change the social conditions that allowed authoritarians to claim power in the first place. Technology will be our friend in this long fight, but it is the people—and mainly the people—who will lead the struggle.
So it is neither a social media revolution nor a digital revolution that will save us from the clutches of digital authoritarianism, but no less than a people power revolution.

author: Mong Palatino


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Myanmar unites against anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination after tragic death of a young gay librarian · Global Voices
Juan Cebu

Photo of Kyaw Zin Win by Aung Myo Min, an LGBTQ+ rights leader and director of Equality Myanmar. The photo was taken from a Facebook post announcing a prayer event for Kyaw Zin Win in front of Myanmar Imperial University.
On 23 June 2019, 26-year-old Kyaw Zin Win left a tragic suicide note on his Facebook page before he took his own life. He wrote: “[Myanmar] is a country that mocks the identity and existence of a person”.
He was working as a librarian at Myanmar Imperial University where he was reportedly bullied by colleagues for being gay. His last Facebook post detailed the painful homophobic remarks he received from his seniors.
His story quickly spread across Facebook, Myanmar's largest social media site, where his note was shared 13,000 times and generated overwhelming public sympathy. Many users updated their profile pictures with Pride filters. In just one day, news about his tragic death was picked up by local, regional and international media.
While many people simply expressed their condolences and support to his grandmother, of whom he was the caretaker, others demanded concrete actions from the university. A single post from the university's Facebook page generated 4,400 comments, with the majority supporting Kyaw Zin Win and questioning the school's workplace culture and the enforcement of its anti-discrimination policies.
Outside of social media, a massive public response was organized by many local LGBTQ+ organizations to demand justice from his work organization. On 26 June, his funeral ceremony was attended by hundreds of relatives, friends, LGBTQ+ activists, and sympathetic supporters. Letyar Tun, one of those who joined the crowd of mourners, said that the death of Kyaw Zin Win resonated with many who are reeling from anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. He added that some people in the funeral party have called Kyaw Zin Win a martyr who sacrificed his life to show the suffering of the LGBTQ+ community.
Indeed, Kyaw Zin Win's story highlighted the widespread discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals in Myanmar. Gay sex is still illegal in Myanmar under colonial penal code Section 377.
Hla Myat Tun, deputy director of the LGBTQ+ rights group Color Rainbow, explained to Irrawaddy News how Kyaw Zin Win's experience represents only a small part of the deep-rooted gender and sexual identity discrimination that are embedded in many institutions in Myanmar. He bemoaned that the country's existing law reinforces discrimination:
We need interest from our members of parliament as right now their political interest in the protection of LGBT people is zero.
The government must take responsibility and ensure that schools and workplaces guarantee a safe place for people. If not, such tragic events will not stop. […] People have started becoming aware that discrimination is unacceptable, but we need a set of policies, guidelines and codes of conduct stated in writing.
Nathan, a guest writer from Rainfall Gender Study Organization, wrote more about how the deep-rooted “heteronormativity in the country” was to blame for pushing people to the limit and asked if such events would trigger broader social movements to call out against oppression:
[…] ဖိနှိပ်မှုမျိုးစုံရှိနေတဲ့ ဒီနိုင်ငံမှာ လက်ရှိစံနှုန်းတွေကို ပြန်ဆန်းစစ်တဲ့ လူမှုတော်လှန်ရေးတစ်ရပ် ပေါ်သင့်နေတာကတော့ နှစ်အတီတေကတည်းကပါပဲ။ ဒီလူငယ်လေးနှစ်ယောက်ကို အကြောင်းပြုလို့ လှုပ်ရှားမှုတွေပေါ်လာနိုင်မလားပေါ့။ အဲဒီ့နေရာမှာလည်း LGBT movement ဆိုတဲ့ identity politics ဆိုတာထက်ကျော်လွန်ပြီး ချောင်ထိုးဖိနှိပ်ခံရတဲ့အုပ်စုတွေ (မိန်းမ၊ လိင်တူချစ်သူ၊ လူနည်းစုတိုင်းရင်းသား အခြေခံ အုတ်မြစ်လူတန်းစား စသဖြင့်)အားလုံး ပေါင်းစည်းပြီး လှုပ်ရှားကြမယ်ဆိုရင် ပိုမိုအားကောင်းအောင်မြင်နိုင်မယ်လို့ ယုံကြည်ပါတယ်ဆိုတဲ့အကြောင်း … ။ ။
[…] In this country with so many types of oppression, it has been long overdue for a social revolution that challenges current social norms. [I wonder] if there will be social movements based on the cases these two young men [referring to an earlier LGBTQ+ suicide case]. And here I believe that if [we all] come together for movements beyond LGBT movement and identity politics but for all those who are being marginalized (women, gays, ethnic minorities, and lower class people), we would be stronger and succeed …
Kyaw Zin Win's death was a chilling wake-up call about the abuses endured by the LGBTQ+ community in Myanmar. But the unexpected public support and solidarity in the aftermath of his death also heralded a rare opportunity to unite and talk about strengthening the campaign for human rights protection for LGBTQ+ individuals.

author: Juan Cebu


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Netizen Report: Conflict triggers internet shutdowns in Mauritania, Myanmar and Ethiopia (again) · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Photo by Cory Doctorow. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The Advox Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in technology and human rights around the world. This report covers news and events from June 21-27, 2019.
Struggles for political power in Myanmar, Mauritania and Ethiopia have led to widespread shutdowns of internet services this week, all at the behest of government officials.
Nine regions of Myanmar — eight in Rakhine state and one in Chin state — have been without internet access since June 21, when authorities ordered internet service providers — including Telenor, Ooredoo, Myanmar Post and Telecommunication and MyTel — to cut off connections. Voice calls and SMS remain in operation.
The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, U Soe Thein, explained that the measure is meant to “maintain security, peace, and order.” Rakhine state and the southern part of Chin state have been the sites of clashes between the Myanmar military and the Rakhine ethnic armed group, Arakan Army, since 2015. Rakhine has been the epicenter of the Myanmar military’s attacks on the Rohingya ethnic group, which led hundreds of thousands to flee the country and seek refuge across the border in Bangladesh.
United Nations investigators later identified the internet as a catalyst for attacks on Rohingya people, noting in a fact-finding report that the military had used Facebook to promote messages of hate and violence toward the majority Muslim ethnic group.
Maung Saungkha, from the Myanmar Freedom of Speech Organization, Athan, warned that disabling mobile data and internet connections could be a prelude to more human rights violations. He urged the civilian government not to be an accomplice in rights violations and to lift internet restrictions to allow people to share information.
Disputed presidential elections in the North African nation of Mauritania led to protests in the capital, Nouakchott. Government-backed candidate Mohamed Ould Ghazouani appears to have garnered 52 percent of the vote, but allegations of fraud have been widespread, and three of his leading opponents, including anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, are challenging the results before the Constitutional Council.
The protests triggered shutdowns of major social media and communication services beginning on June 25. The Media Foundation for West Africa reported that Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Viber and YouTube were inaccessible, while Global Voices’ sources on the ground said internet access — including fixed cable connections — was down altogether.
And in Ethiopia, following a week-long shutdown shutdown in early June that was intended to prevent cheating on national secondary school exams, residents once again found themselves cut off from the internet. The shutdown came just after a series of violent attacks against leading state government officials in the Amhara region on June 22, in which the regional president and a top adviser were killed. Hours later, Ethiopia's army chief of staff was shot dead by his bodyguard in the country's capital. Many media have described the attacks as an attempted regional coup.
Throughout the month of June, Cubans on Twitter have been promoting the hashtag #Bajenlospreciosdeinternet (#Bringdowninternetprices) in a campaign directed at ETECSA, the country’s sole telecommunications provider, which is government operated. Although it has become easier and more affordable to get online in Cuba since 2014, the cost of connecting (roughly one US dollar per hour of usage at public wifi spots) is still exorbitantly high by global standards, and internet speeds in Cuba remain very slow.
On Twitter, government employees and supporters have responded to the campaign by tweeting general internet usage statistics and pointing out that many Cubans have free internet access at their places of work and school. Others have accused internet cost campaigners of being traitors to the nation. Cuba’s Minister of Communications warned:
La Constitución aprobada por el 87% del pueblo en su Art 16 m): ” defiende la democratización del ciberespacio,.. condena su uso… con fines contrarios a lo anterior, incluidas la subversión y la desestabilización de naciones soberanas” #CubaInformatiza #CubaMasInternetVsBloqueo pic.twitter.com/emF8XUydWQ
— Jorge Luis Perdomo (@JorgeLuisPerd20) June 15, 2019
The Constitution approved by 87% of the population in Article 16 “defends the democratization of cyberspace [and] condemns its use (…) for purposes contrary to the above, including the subversion and destabilization of sovereign nations.”
The website for Egyptian newspaper al-Tahrir has been blocked in Egypt since May 9. Its board of directors recently reported that the site is in danger of financial ruin. The outlet has continued to produce its weekly print version and publish its journalism online using virtual private networks (VPNs), but the site provided 80 percent of its advertising revenue, its editor-in-chief told Committee to Protect Journalists. Authorities haven't publicly stated the reason for the site’s inaccessibility.
At the 41st meeting of the UN Human Rights Council this week, David Kaye — the UN Special Rapporteur for the protection of freedom of expression and freedom of opinion — called for an all-out ban on surveillance technology. Kaye likened the private surveillance technology industry to a “free for all” in which states have become multi-million dollar clients, purchasing surveillance technologies such as mobile phone spyware and deploying it at-will. Kaye said to the Council:
States and industry are collaborating in the spread of technology that is causing immediate and regular harm to individuals and organisations that are essential to democratic life – journalists, activists, opposition figures, lawyers, and others.
Research by the Citizen Lab, Amnesty International and many national-level groups has proven that these tools are used to target activists and journalists.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, L. Finch, Mohamed ElGohary, Amanda Lichtenstein and Mong Palatino contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Playing against patriarchy: Muslim girls in India own the ‘male Space’ by playing football · Global Voices
VideoVolunteers

Screenshot from “Playing Against Patriarchy: Muslim Girls own the ‘Male Space’ by Playing Football” video.
This post was written by Grace Jolliffe and originally appeared on Video Volunteers, an award-winning international community media organisation based in India. A slightly edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement.
A group of young Muslim girls harbour dreams of becoming footballers one day. They have turned out to practice in a government playground in the Rajabazar slum area in Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. They dream of dribbling and playing on bigger grounds, before bigger crowds. VideoVolunteers community correspondent Debgopal Mondal interviewed some of the young girls, creating a video report which shows how the girls are challenging gender norms through sport.
Shahina Javed is the woman who set up this all-girl football team. As the founder of the NGO, Roshni, which fights domestic abuse, dowry, and child marriage, Shahina has been breaking societal norms for the past ten years. Besides empowering adolescent girls, Roshni also conducts awareness workshops on a women's rights to education.
Although Indian women have long been discriminated against in the world of sports, these Muslim girls are pushing against the idea that it is only a ‘male space’. According to one of the young girls, Mehvi Shira, participating in the all-girls team has taught her that girls are just as good as boys:
We used to think boys can play football, but girls cannot, but then we realised that both of them can play. They are equal. If the boy can study more, a girl can also study more. If a boy can participate, a girl can also participate.
In India, it is not easy for girls to get ahead in sports. Gender discrimination can be seen in the gender pay gaps, biased attitude towards female athletes, and not to mention the frequent sexual remarks and harassment incidents. This disparity highlights problems which are deeply rooted in the sports system and society in general. The lack of facilities, opportunity, and support by the government is also an added factor as to why young girls are giving up on their dreams. Tani Fatima says:
The ground does not belong to [the boys]. It's for all of us. We have the right to go there and play. They stop us from playing. We do not have a proper space to play which is affecting our game.
While many in India think that gender equality in sport is a utopian idea, there has been a growing movement of people who are coming forward to talk about and fix some of the issues faced by women. VideoVolunteer's network of video activists (both men and women alike) are committed towards equality and work around breaking patriarchal norms under the Khel Badal Campaign of VideoVolunteers. This is an example of how VideoVolunteers wants to portray stories about how women, face, negotiate and challenge patriarchy.
Watch the video:

author: VideoVolunteers


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Record sales, empty seats: The dark paradox behind this year’s Copa America football tournament · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

Maracanã stadium, in Rio de Janeiro, shortly before the Peru versus Bolivia match. Photo by Tânia Rêgo/Agência Brasil, reproduction allowed with attribution.
While some of the world's best football players are on the field, TV cameras show thousands of empty seats in the Brazilian stadiums hosting this year's Copa America, South America's regional world cup. That's an unusual sight for such a high-profile international football championship, least of all in the world capital of the sport. Somehow, though, it has been the reality of this year's tournament.
Copa America is a tournament between the national teams of the countries part of CONMEBOL, the South American Confederation of Football. It has taken place every four years since 1916 — the world's oldest football championship of national teams. A few teams from outside CONMEBOL countries are usually invited to participate. In 2019, those are Japan and Qatar.
This year's tournament will take place from June 14 to July 7 in Brazil, a country that has recently hosted the FIFA World Cup (in 2014) and the Summer Olympics (in 2016, in Rio de Janeiro).
CONMEBOL says the first six matches have generated 42 million Brazilian reais (10 million US dollars). The opening match between Brazil and Bolivia had a revenue of 22 million Brazilian reais (around 5,72 million US dollars), making it the most profitable match in the history of Brazilian football.
But such hefty gains are driven primarily by the steep ticket prices rather than attendance. As Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reports, the average ticket price of the match between Brazil and Bolivia match cost 485 Brazilian reais (126 US dollars), almost half of the country’s minimum wage. While prices varied between 190 and 590 reais (49 and 153 US dollars), VIP seats ranged between 1,600 and 4,300 reais (415 and 1,117 US dollars respectively).
The opening match in Morumbi stadium in São Paulo had an occupation rate of 69 percent of its seats, the tournament's highest so far. CONMEBOL says first eight matches had an average attendance of 29,500 people, but that seems to have been driven primarily by games played by Brazil or Argentina. In turn, most other teams are playing for near-empty stadiums.
As reported by news site UOL, Uruguay’s first match totaled 13,611 payees. Venezuela and Bolivia had the poorest attendance so far with only 4,640 payees — less than 7 percent of the capacity of Mineirão stadium where the match was played.
“Vibra o continente” pic.twitter.com/DyJperAnit
— Jack Lang (@jacklang) June 15, 2019
The continent pulsates.
Uruguay’s goalkeeper, Fernando Muslera, who plays for Turkey’s Galatasaray, said in a press conference:
Ninguém gosta de ver as tribunas vazias. Ninguém gosta. E vocês sabem disso, é estranho, complicado. Esta situação chamou atenção de todos nós até agora
No one likes to see an empty tribune. No one does. And you know it, it’s weird, it’s complicated. This situation caught our attention
Journalist Breiller Pires, writing for Brazil's version of Spanish newspaper El País, has noted on the steady increase on ticket prices in the recent history of Copa América:
Em 2007, na Copa América da Venezuela, quando a economia do país ainda estava longe de entrar em colapso, os ingressos mais baratos para assistir à fase final do torneio custavam menos de 10 dólares. Pouco mais de uma década depois, as entradas “populares” dos jogos de menor apelo saem pelo triplo do valor, em que pese a estagnação econômica no Brasil e vizinhos como a Argentina, sem contar a crise crônica dos venezuelanos.
In Venezuela’s 2007 Copa America, long before the country’s economy collapsed, the cheapest tickets for the final stage costed less than 10 US dollars. Just a little over a decade later, the “popular” tickets for less atractive matches are being sold for three times as much, despite the economic stagnation in Brazil and its neighbors such as Argentina, and not counting the chronic crisis in Venezuela.
Mariana Vantine, who researches football and economic policy, compared tickets prices with minimum wages in Brazil and France, the host country of the 2016 Euro Cup:
Sobre a Copa América e as arquibancadas vazias:
Fiz uma humilde tabela comparando com a Euro 2016. A relação salário mínimo e preço do ingresso mais barato nos respectivos países sede é um fator que devemos dar atenção pic.twitter.com/QF2e6p4Sgm
— Mariana Vantine (@mari_vantine) June 19, 2019
About Copa America and the empty stands:
I've made this humble table comparing with the Euro 2016. The relationship between minimum wage and the price of the cheapest ticket in each host country is something we should all pay attention to.
What the comparison shows is that France's minimum wage of 1,446.62 euros could buy up to 57,9 lowest tier tickets (sold by 25 euros), while Brazil's minimum wage of 998 Brazilian reais could only afford 8,3 lowest tier tickets.
Many journalists and fans have pointed that the event itself was poorly promoted by CONMEBOL and the host cities as well. Empty seats don't seem to bother the federation as long as there is a guarantee of profitable sales, says Impedimento, an anonymous Twitter account that comments on South American football:
Mas a Conmebol não se preocupou em nada disso quando precificou a porra toda. E por quê, né? Está fazendo rendas recordistas mesmo sem lotar. Até 2024 ela inventa uns hologramas para nem ter que se preocupar com a inconveniência de acomodar gente dentro do estádio.
— Impedimento (@impedimento) June 16, 2019
CONMEBOL didn't worry about any of this when they've priced the tickets. And why would they? They're breaking revenue records even without packing stadiums. In 2024, they might even come up with a hologram system just so they won't have to worry about the inconvience of accomodating people inside the stadium.
An empty football stadium in high-profile leagues is rare in this corner of the world. Just take a look at the historic images of a swarming Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro in the 1950 World Cup final, when Uruguay defeated Brazil and cast a deafening silence across the stands. Any match in national championships around the region, such as those held in La Bombonera, in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires, will have a sizeable attendance.
In South America, it's impossible to dissociate football culture from social class. Eduardo Galeano, an Uruguayan writer and football fan, wrote in his “Football in Sun and Shadow” (Fútbol a Sol y Sombra, in Spanish) that the first clubs created by the Plata River were organized by the port's blue-collar workers. Anarchists and socialists, Galeano says, at that time accused the teams at that time of “bourgeois machinations” to dissuade striking and mask class differences.
He writes:
Ha entrado usted, alguna vez, a un estadio vacío? Haga la prueba. Párese en medio de la cancha y escuche. No hay nada menos vacío que un estadio vacío. No hay nada menos mudo que las gradas sin nadie.
Have you ever walked into an empty stadium? Take the test. Stop in the middle of the field and listen. There is nothing more empty than an empty stadium. There is nothing more mute than the bleachers without anyone.
Breiller Pires states that the “gentrification process” that is taking over football is to blame for Copa América's poor attendance. Surrounded by corruption scandals, heads of federations and associations have “bought into the idea that by excluding the poor would help end the episodes of violence in the stadiums, as if the violent act of prohibiting passion would justify that experiment,” Pires says.
The question remains: is an empty stadium worthy of South America's football legacy?

author: Fernanda Canofre