text:
Art series sheds light on the marginalization of indigenous Tharus in Nepal · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Ostracism. Artwork by Lavkant Chaudhary. Photo by Sanjib Chaudhary. Used with permission.
Some castes and ethnicities have been and continue to be marginalized in Nepal, and the Tharus, the fourth largest ethnic group in the country, are one of them. Through his art series ‘Masinya Dastoor’, Tharu artist Lavkant Chaudhary strives to tell their silenced stories by delving into the history of Tharu marginalization.
Chaudhary cites a six-month art research project looking into the history of the Tharu people as an eye-opening experience into the one-dimensional stereotypes about his own community :
All I came across were recurring stereotypical ideas about the Tharu. We were just water snail eaters, jungle dwellers, alcohol drinkers, and an honest tribe. That was our identity.
Global Voices author Sanjib Chaudhary caught up with Lavkant to talk about the history of the Tharus and how it has influenced his work.
Sanjib Chaudhary (SC): What inspired you to create artwork around social issues?
Lavkant Chaudhary (LC): I came to know about the marginalization of Tharus and other indigenous peoples only after completing my Bachelors of Fine Arts. Searching the history of Tharus, I came across the preconceived notions about the Tharus — like people living in the jungle and eating water snails, alcohol drinkers and honest tribe among others. However, the question kept hovering in my mind: Why was the history of Tharus always kept in dark in Nepal? So, I thought of asking this through my artworks.
Masinya. Artwork by Lavkant Chaudhary. Photo by Sanjib Chaudhary. Used with permission.
SC: What does ‘Masinya Dastoor’ mean? What are the artworks all about?
LC: My artwork revolve around displacement and resistance of Tharus, and the discrimination the community has faced at the hands of the state. Various ethnic groups including the Tharus were categorized as masinya matwali, which literally means enslavable alcohol drinkers, by the state through the Muluki Ain (National Code of 1854). The installation ‘Masinya’ comprises 13 ghaila (clay pots) with texts from different periods carved on their surfaces. The text ranges from statements from King Prithvi Narayan Shah who is credited for unifying Nepal to the Constitution of Nepal, 2015 – all of them have helped marginalize the indigenous peoples.
Dastoor. Artwork by Lavkant Chaudhary. Photo by Sanjib Chaudhary. Used with permission.
The ‘Tamasuk’ series tells the stories of systematic marginalization of Tharus. During the regime of autocratic rulers, the land belonging to Tharus were distributed and rewarded to different royal administrators and bureaucrats, leaving the Tharus landless in their own place. The kamaiya and kamalari system were introduced by which Tharu men, women, and their children could be traded as commodities.
In the ‘Dastoor’ series I have used official documents from different time periods in Nepali history as a backdrop for portraits of day-to-day Tharu activities. The documents, issued by the Sen, Shah and Rana rulers of Nepal, record the way different rulers issued dastoor (legal orders) to control native people in their own land by enforcing taxes. Heavy taxes, imposed on nearly everything, from land to water, forest to agriculture, and crops to animals, impoverished the Tharus and others.
Also read: ‘Opposite Dreams: The Politics of Local’: Art raises awareness around social issues in Nepal
SC: Your artwork ‘Ostracism’ contains grains and bullets. What does this mean?
LC: The cereals and grains symbolize the traditional land of the Tharus. The bullets then are placed on top of the grains to connote the systematic violence through which these lands were taken away. Although the grains get older and decompose, they still have the power to procreate. Perhaps resistance functions in a similar manner, growing out of centuries of violence.
SC: You’ve chosen an unusual and less attractive theme, a pesticide, as the inspiration for your artwork titled, ‘DDT’. Why did you choose it?
LC: DDT, also popularly known as ‘Dangerous Dose to Tharus’, is based on one of the silenced histories of the Tharu community.
DDT. Artwork and photo by Lavkant Chaudhary. Used with permission.
During the 50s and 60s, with support from the United States of America and the World Health Organization (WHO), the Nepali Government led a campaign to eradicate malaria in the Terai region. This led to a mass migration of hill people to Terai and large scale of deforestation in the region. The spraying of DDT not only eradicated malaria and the Anopheles mosquitoes but also reduced the Tharus to a minority in their own land. In this painting, I have used a Tharu wall relief technique to paint various objects including images of humans. Each image is approximately the same size as a mosquito.
SC: You are quite vocal about the Tikapur incident and claim that mainstream media hasn’t dug out the real stories. What does ‘Citizen From the Land of Inequality Series’ say?
LC: During the Tikapur incident of August 24, 2015, and its aftermath seven police officers, a young child, and more than fifty people from the area were killed. The state played a big part in terrorizing the Tharu community by performing targeted arrests, killings and burning their houses. The Tharu community was portrayed as being ‘violent’ by the Nepali media, while the violence the community faced at the hands of state forces was ignored.
My artwork ‘Once There was a Village’ comprises a video of a miniature traditional village recreated using clay, bamboo, cardboard, ceramic pots, printed maps, glass, plywood, LED tubes. This work questions indigenous identity, rights, equality, and social discrimination. In the aftermath of the Tikapur incident, more than 88 houses were burnt, specifically targeting the houses of Tharus. The video begins with a Tharu folk song while eye witness accounts of the harsh suffering faced by Tikapur locals is heard as the houses burn.
Also read: Calls to Investigate Retribution Against the Tharu Community in Nepal’s Far West Grow Louder
SC: You’ve dealt with the issue of marginalization of the Tharu community in your artwork. Have you also tried telling the stories of Tharu individuals?
The Diary: Barefaced Truth of the Suppressed. Artwork and photo by Lavkant Chaudhary. Used with permission.
LC: My artwork ‘The Diary: Barefaced Truth of the Suppressed’ tells the story of Jokhan Ratgainya, a Tharu journalist, writer and revolutionary. I have recreated his diary by etching the texts and images on wood. Jokhan was murdered on June 11, 2001, by the then Royal Nepal Army at the time of the Civil War. This series depicts the situation of that period. It is rooted in the instability and killings faced by the Tharus of Far-Western Nepal at the hands of the Government of Nepal. People were arrested, murdered, and forcefully disappeared by the government in what came to be known as the ‘Operation Kilo Sera II’.
Some of Lavant's artwork can be seen on his Instagram page.

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


text:
Has COVID-19 worsened or improved Jamaican family dynamics? · Global Voices
Shakira Leslie

A Jamaican mother feeds her toddler. Photo by Carlotta Tofani on Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0.
Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a slowing down of economic activity. In Jamaica, the mainstay tourism industry has taken a hard hit, with the sector expected to lose billions of dollars. Agriculture suffered due to disruptions in food systems and other businesses have experienced pay cuts and layoffs.
Jamaica's Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) — a conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme — acts as a cushion for many low-income families, who are particularly vulnerable to the economic fallout of the pandemic. But, despite the government's development of various COVID-19 assistance programmes to act as a buffer, many parents are feeling the effects of their shrinking economic power.
In addition to being tasked with covering household expenses, the majority are also being asked to homeschool their children while working from home. To figure out how different families have been coping with this new normal, I interviewed a trained, Jamaica-based marriage and family counsellor, Marcia Hamilton, and asked her about the effects of the pandemic on parent-child relationships:
While the pandemic provides opportunities for bonding, many parents — especially mothers — are currently overwhelmed by the added responsibility of homeschooling while working from home.
Hamilton noted that the socioeconomic standing of the family plays a critical role: Some families in rural Jamaica do not have electricity, others do not have internet access. The demand for parents to secure these resources so that their children can continue to get an education may leave such families frustrated, and could interfere to some degree with parent-child bonding.
The type of family structure is also a key contributor, in that nuclear families may fare better than single-parent households, as additional responsibilities can be shared. In fact, the merits of extended families have come into focus during the pandemic.
A recent study, which surveyed 223 individuals, found that single-parent households account for 41 percent of Jamaican families. A substantial number of children born from unmarried couples live in single-parent households, typically with the mother. This often happens as the result of unplanned pregnancies that occur before parents are self-sufficient. Thus, such family structures tend to be low-income.
Dr. Ralph Thompson, a highly respected Jamaican educator, noted that effective socialisation is often compromised in single-parent households. In addition, children's growth and development are often stunted, due to a lack of nutritional needs.
One teacher who requested anonymity  to protect the identity of her school and students said that the pressure on such families is enormous:
A working-class single parent just requested [that] we speak, because she cannot cope with the demands of working while trying to properly homeschool one of her children, and that at this rate she is tempted to leave the child on the street.
This particular parent, the teacher explained, has a minimum-wage job and more than three mouths to feed, proving that pre-existing family structures and socioeconomic conditions influence whether the COVID-19 pandemic is fostering or harming family life.
In a 2006 article, professor Maureen Samms-Vaughan of the University of the West Indies campus in Mona, Jamaica, noted, “Parents living in poorer circumstances have higher parenting and life stress levels.” She made mention of work done by Jamaican sociologists, showing that “highly-stressed Jamaican parents do not spend as much time interacting with their child[ren] and much of their interaction is inappropriate, with high levels of harsh discipline”.
While this does not mean that the pandemic has harmed parent-child relationships in all low-income, single-parent households, it does point to the reality of dynamics in families that that struggle economically.
There are both working- and middle-class families in Jamaica, with parents who actively participate in the development of their children. The majority of these households follow Christianity, a religion that places a strong emphasis on marriage at the core of its value system. Religious influence aside, however, nuclear families are more likely to cope better with increased parental demands because the workload can be shared.
The parents I interviewed, all of whom preferred to remain anonymous for the sake of their families and the schools their children attend, admitted the restrictions required some adjustment. One parent said the pandemic left her feeling overwhelmed, even though her husband shares in the additional responsibilities:
My experience has been one of exhaustion and frustration. I have to monitor three children to ensure that they are completing their schoolwork; the younger ones require closer supervision. I also study online, and I go into work a few days a week. When I do go into work, however, my husband stays home with the children. We have always been a tight-knit family, so nothing has really changed. We usually speak with [the children] about what is happening, and they ask questions.
Another mother who is part of a two-parent household added:
I am a teacher and have to maintain a normal teaching schedule while parenting my two children who are at home. In the first few weeks we were happy to be together at home; we would go on morning walks and watch movies together. Now, we are also able to attend online church meetings together. Before the pandemic, Sundays and Saturdays were usually very busy […] but now, we are more relaxed; in this forum we [are] bonding as a family.
She emphasised, however, the importance of both job security and support:
There are many positives of being home. This COVID-19 pandemic has helped me to give my family my best self. I must thank God that we are managing, [that] we also have job security. For the most part, we are getting our full salaries, so at least we don’t have that financial burden to think about.
My husband has been an exceptional support system, I could not do this quarantine without him. When he goes to the supermarket, I will clean and sanitise the items when he gets home. When I start my classes in the mornings, he feeds the kids. When he has early meetings, I take over. There are some hours of the day when I get my alone time. Sometimes my husband gets his alone time.
Counsellor Marcia Hamilton says that extended families can be immensely helpful in challenging situations, especially in cases where single parents may have a child with special needs. Having a reliable extended family network, whether they live in the same household or close by, allows a parent to leave the child in the care of extended family members while they work or run essential errands.
One parent highlighted the merits of living in an extended family during the pandemic:
Sometimes [my son] gets to do other activities with his aunty and grandparents, so I get time for myself; they also help to socialise him. I would say the pandemic has fostered bonding because [with reduced work hours] we spend more time together, which has helped me to know more about him. We also get to do more fun activities together.
On social media, some parents have shared their experiences and voiced their concerns about family life during the pandemic. In response to a United Nations Children's Fund Jamaica Facebook post highlighting the possibility of child abuse during the pandemic, Janise Keene commented:
In conversations with some of these young minds and their parents I have come to realize and have concluded that they are mentally and psychologically distraught and stressed. There is also going to be long term psychosocial ill effects on our children. Did you know many adults are also not managing? Some of you are behaving as though this pandemic is an easy walkover. How are we going to help our children?
Several netizens empathised with a teacher speaking about her hectic schedule, with one Facebook user noting:
I'm doing the very same thing but with a 7 yr. old in grade 1 and a 5 month old baby. All this while teaching my grade 3 classes online.  At nights I literally feel like crying. I wish schools could reopen tomorrow.
While Jamaica's current work-from-home orders will expire at the end of May, it is still unclear when schools will physically reopen. Citizens who are not in high-risk groups (over age 65, immunocompromised, et cetera) will also be able to return to work on June 1.
While many Jamaicans will be elated by this decision, it begs another question: With schools still closed, who will homeschool the country’s children once parents go back to work? One concerned citizen wrote a letter to the editor highlighting the fact that childcare must be considered.
As the government has not yet outlined what structures it intends to put in place in this regard, whatever unfolds come June 1 may yet be another novel experience that families across the island will need to adjust to in the time of the coronavirus.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Shakira Leslie


text:
Kremlin expands online voting possibilities amid COVID-19 fears · Global Voices
Maxim Edwards

Remix of image by Mohamed_Hasan / Pixabay. Published under a simplified Pixabay licence.
In Russia, socially distanced voting has just become a lot easier.
Russia's parliament has passed a law to extend the possibility of “distance voting” — particularly online. The amendments to the country's Law on the Basic Guarantee of Electoral Rights now allow citizens across Russia to cast votes by post and online. The law was submitted for consideration by deputies from ruling party United Russia on March 2 and passed on March 13.
If that turnaround seems unusually quick, that could be because of the bill's provenance. On May 12, independent investigative outlet Proekt.Media reported on its Telegram channel that it was an initiative of the presidential administration.
The bill essentially removes any federal legal obstacles to expanding distance voting. This includes postal voting, which has not proven particularly popular in the past. In 2011 the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) clarified that postal voting was only permissible if allowed by regional law and if the voter could not visit the polling station in person. It also allows elections and referenda to be postponed if more than two districts of the region in question have declared an emergency situation.
Discussion about the bill's implications has been quite incoherent. For example, Dmitry Vyatkin, one of the bill's co-authors, told Interfax on May 13 that the bill did not oblige any regions to carry out voting in this manner but simply permitted them to do so if the CEC deemed it necessary. Vyatkin also implied that distance voting could have a very practical use in light of Russia's COVID-19 epidemic:
Сколько эти ограничения продлятся, и какая будет эпидемиологической ситуация, мы не знаем, но такие поправки надо принимать до объявления даты голосования
We don't know how long these restrictions will last, nor what the epidemiological situation will be. But these amendments must be passed before the election date is announced
In recent weeks, state officials have busied themselves with working out the practicalities of online voting.
So far, we know that voters will have to apply on the government's public services portal or to other sites approved by the Central Electoral Commission to cast a vote online. But it is not yet known which regions had taken steps to prepare for online voting themselves; CEC head Ella Pamfilova said on May 26 that while it was up to regions to request to the CEC to assist them in establishing online voting, none had yet done so as the date of Russia's next general election had not yet been determined.
It is fair to assume that no large-scale elections will be held under current conditions. This gives the Russian authorities more time to prepare, and perhaps perfect, methods of online voting based on past experience — which have seemingly brought only mixed success.
Voting online, before it was cool
Although the context of the COVID-19 pandemic may have increased the urgency of this bill, it's important to remember that Russia has a long history in experimenting with online voting.
In 2008, online voting was permitted as a non-binding option for voters in a handful of regional polling stations. President Dmitry Medvedev's government presented it, along with voting by telephone, as an ideal solution for both the government and its citizens — it could make elections cheaper to hold and would be convenient for Russian citizens overseas and in remote areas. By 2017, Russia's Central Electoral Commission had declared online voting to be its main priority, to be delivered by 2021 under the country's Programme for a Digital Economy.
But it is Moscow which has blazed a trail. In 2014, the capital's mayor Sergey Sobyanin launched the “active citizen” app, a system which allowed residents of the capital to have their say on non-political municipal decisions.
By the time Moscow's municipal elections came around in 2019, internet voting was ready to be rolled out and was put to the test in one single-member district of the capital. Absentee ballots were replaced by a “mobile voter” system which allowed voters to switch districts ahead of the vote either online or in person. But opposition members and election observers expressed doubts about the system; when its initiator Vyatkin was asked how it would function, he simply responded that it would use “blockchain technology” with little further elaboration.
Read more: Outrage in Moscow after opposition candidates barred from local election
Moscow's election day was marred by accusations of electoral fraud; protests erupted after dozens of independent opposition candidates were barred from competing on spurious bureaucratic grounds.
While these hurdles were linked to the usual system of collecting signatures in support of independent candidacies, the experimental online voting system was not free from criticism. The opposition figure Alexey Navalny alleged that two independent candidates in Moscow would have won had it not been for the results of online voting, and denounced it as a tool of electoral fraud. One of them, Roman Yuneman, even vowed to take his allegations of electronic voting fraud to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) if necessary.
Ultimately, only 9,810 Muscovites voted online. But this number seemed more significant when it emerged that these voters’ personal details were leaked around a week after the vote, suggesting problems with digital security.
Alexander Isavnin, a researcher at the Internet Protection Society, a Russian NGO defending digital rights, stated in an interview with RuNet Echo that the outcome of the Moscow elections did not give cause for hope:
«Удачей» московского «эксперимента» стало то, что общество крайне вяло среагировало на его проведение, хотя там был совсем ад: не было никакого контроля над флрмировпнием списков голосующих, всё работало на технике и управлядось работниками мэрии, не было уверенности что происходит надёжная анонимизация, не было уверенности в том что голосуют сами избиратели, что не были проведены демонстрации уязвимостей итд, итп. Смысл в том, что для тайного голосования нет надёжных алгоритмов сохраняющих тайну и одновременно обеспечивающих надёжную идентификацию голосующего. Не только в России – вообще.
The “success” of the Moscow “experiment” was the fact that society reacted rather sluggishly towards it, even though it was completely hellish. There was no control over voting lists, everything was simply conducted technologically and was supervised by employees of the mayoralty. There was no certainty as to whether voting was reliably anonymised, there was no certainty that it was the voters themselves who were voting, no tests or demonstrations of vulnerabilities were conducted, and so on. The point is that there are no reliable algorithms for secret voting which simultaneously guarantee secrecy of the vote and provide reliable identification of the voter. Not only in Russia, but in general.
Despite criticisms like these, the Duma also passed a bill this month extending Moscow's experiments with local electronic voting throughout 2020 and 2021.
To vote correctly, click here
Although COVID-19 is dominating the airwaves, these new electoral changes have not escaped the attention of more critical observers.
Sergey Smirnov, editor of the independent media outlet MediaZona, voiced concern at the use of a social welfare portal for voter registration:
Голосование введут через Госуслуги, наверняка. Где сейчас будут активно регистрироваться для получения выплат для детей. Вообще правильно будет выдавать пособие только в случае, если человек приходит на “выборы” в Госуслугах. Нет, ну а что?
They'll institute voting through the state services portal, probably. Where people are now registering to receive payments to support their children. So, the correct thing to do would be to only make those payments to somebody if they also sign up to vote on the state services portal. Well, what about that?
Sergey Smirnov, Telegram, May 12, 2020
That same day Lyubov Sobol, a prominent member of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, argued on Facebook that the authorities’ turn to online voting was its response to her colleagues’ “smart voting” initiative. This data-driven online tool allowed Muscovites to identify the strongest challenger to pro-government candidates in their precinct, regardless of their political allegiance.
Read more: Russian opposition divided over online ‘smart voting’ campaign
United Russia politicians have justified the move by saying that it will allow voters to exercise their rights during an emergency.
Politicians from the “systemic opposition” (the three other parties permitted parliamentary representation alongside United Russia) also fiercely criticised the law after the vote. Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Communist Party (KPRF), told Svobodnaya Presa that “the entire system of administration in Russia is aimed at the theft of votes… everything concerning electronic voting is a complete scam.” As Oleg Sheinin, a deputy from A Just Russia, told Novaya Gazeta: “pretty much the entire opposition voted against this… it is a law which destroys voter privacy.”
Other analysts stress the potential role of expanded online voting in topping up the turnout, in order to enhance the legitimacy of future elections.
In his statement on the amendments Grigory Melkonyants, head of the Golos election monitoring NGO, lamented a “black day” for voters’ rights in Russia. Melkonyants pointed out that while the amendments technically empower regions to choose whether to use distance voting, the CEC can decide which requests to approve and deny — formally giving an institution under heavy influence of the federal authorities arbitrary power over the extent to which certain regions can implement online voting.
In a column for Novaya Gazeta on May 13, political scientist Vitaly Shklyarov raised Switzerland's experience with online voting, which was eventually abandoned due to perceived vulnerability and hacking attempts. What had the Kremlin learnt from overseas examples? Would the software be open source for full transparency? Unlikely, he argued — the Kremlin would declare it a state secret. Could these problems be overcome if blockchain technology were used? Unlikely, continued Shklyarov, given the small number of people familiar with it and the time pressure to prepare it in time for September 2020.
But most importantly, Shklyarov noted that internet votes have always amounted to a minimal share of the total. As such, officials wouldn't need to interfere with their content. If digital security proves to be brittle, then voters could easily be pressured by corrupt officials to vote as instructed — and this time, he stressed, it's impossible to spoil a ballot. The system will only accept completed votes.
An online referendum?
The Duma has already approved holding electronic voting for Russia's next big election day; on September 13, 20 regions will elect their governors and 11 will elect members of their legislatures. In the event of another wave of COVID-19 infections breaking out in the autumn, citizens in quarantined regions would still be able to cast a vote — forgoing the need to delay election day any further.
But the burning question is whether these amendments will apply to a much-discussed referendum on constitutional amendments. The proposed changes are controversial as they will essentially “reset” the limits on Vladimir Putin's presidential terms, allowing him to hold onto power. That referendum was supposed to be held on April 22 but was reluctantly postponed in light of the pandemic, potentially until September.
Read more: Putin supports proposals paving the way for his continued rule
There has been very little clarity so far as to whether the new amendments can apply to the referendum. Some legal experts claim that the voting procedure for the referendum was established when it was declared. In an interview with RIA Novosti, Vyatkin suggested otherwise; CEC secretary Maya Grishina stressed on May 13 that the amendments were made to a law which regulates elections and local plebiscites, not nationwide constitutional referendums.
Yet the very next day Nikolai Bulayev, deputy chairman of the CEC, told Kommersant that he could not rule out the use of online voting in the constitutional referendum.
The solution to this puzzle will soon become clear. As the Russian authorities cautiously relax their lockdown restrictions and permit large public events to take place once more, attention has returned to the referendum. As Bloomberg reports, Putin and his entourage appear eager to hold the referendum in June or July, before the president's approval ratings slip even lower.
The ever-present issue of ratings, as political scientist Maria Snegovaya has noted, may play a role the Kremlin's interest in holding the referendum on the same day as the delayed Victory Day parade.

author: Maxim Edwards


text:
Protests, police crackdowns return to Hong Kong as Beijing tightens grip · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Police fired pepper rounds at Central District on May 27. Photo from inmediahk.net.
Hong Kong’s mass protests are back after China moved decisively to impose a series of mainland-style national security laws on the city, threatening what little remains of its autonomy.
After a rally last week against Beijing’s decision to promulgate tailor-made security legislation for Hong Kong, about 100 workers, business and student unions called for a general strike May 27-28.
Police responded by swarming the city to prevent protesters from getting near to the Legislative Council (LegCo) where a second reading of the controversial National Anthem Bill — another import from Beijing — had been scheduled. At least 300 protesters were arrested as of 5:30 PM local time.
Hong Kong-based Human Right researcher Patrick Poon said the police presence in the city on May 27 was similar to that witnessed in the Chinese capital during the National People's Congress (NPC) that finishes its work May 28:
Looks like what #Beijing deploys police during #Lianghui (#NPC & #CPPCC). #HongKong has really become #PoliceState. https://t.co/b6XNImKjPf
— Patrick Poon 潘嘉偉? (@patrickpoon) May 27, 2020
Alongside the police concentration at government headquarters, heavy armed riot police were stationed along major roads and highways all around Hong Kong to prevent roadblocking.
Below is a screen capture from a protest map which indicated police checkpoints as of 6:47 AM on May 27.
0647 全港各區 https://t.co/F9O1jCdY8P telegram: https://t.co/2H9Uf97O4Y #5DemandsNot1Less #HKmap #StandWithHongKong #antiELAB #HongKongProtests #HongKong #HK pic.twitter.com/vzQd0XXjnb
— HKmap.live 全港抗爭即時地圖 HK Protest Live Map (@hkmaplive) May 26, 2020
Despite the heavy presence of police, protesters started gathering at shopping malls. Young people soon became targets of police harassment:
#NOW at HK Cwb #Hysan Place. More than 50 people are stop and search by #police. pic.twitter.com/L2MRGCklBM
— 民權觀察 Civil Rights Observer (@HK_CRO) May 27, 2020
At around 1 PM protesters started walking from Causeway Bay and Central District towards the LegCo, Apple Daily reported on Twitter:
Protestors are gathering in #Central & #Causewaybay to oppose the #NationalAnthemBill. Police fired pepper balls in response.
Watch LIVE: https://t.co/r9lNeiq0cO pic.twitter.com/G4Mn7CsxwW
— 香港蘋果日報 Apple Daily Hong Kong (@appledaily_hk) May 27, 2020
At Central District, riot police fired pepper ball rounds to disperse protesters:
Breaking : #hkpolice just shot peppy balls to civilians in D Aguilar Street. Very chaotic pic.twitter.com/UjF5IamspT
— Studio Incendo (@studioincendo) May 27, 2020
In addition, civil servants and office workers entering office buildings located near or at the government headquarters had to show ID to police officers at various checkpoints. Some were searched:
#HK feels like a police state this morning. We’ve just been searched, as has nearly everyone heading towards Legco #HongKongProtests pic.twitter.com/VV8i4MPPUR
— Lianain Films (@LianainFilms) May 26, 2020
The China National Anthem Law was enforced in mainland China on October 1, 2017 and was inserted into Annex III of the Basic Law of Hong Kong a month later.
Laws listed in Annex III can be enacted in Hong Kong either by promulgation or by means of local legislation.
While the resolution tabled at China's National People’s Congress (NPC) on May 22 specifically stated that the Hong Kong National Security Law inserted into Annex III of the Basic Law would be enacted by means of promulgation, Beijing has allowed local legislation to determine how and when the national anthem law is enacted in Hong Kong.
The draft national anthem bill became a source of public concern as soon as it was published in January 2019.
The bill seeks to criminalize disrespect of the Chinese national anthem by requiring Hong Kong people to stand up whenever the anthem is heard in public.
Insults directed at the anthem — for instance, by changing its lyrics — will be punishable by up to three years imprisonment if the bill passes in the pro-Beijing LegCo.
By the time the legislation entered a second reading in the LegCo in June 2019, civil society's sights had been retrained on an even more controversial piece of legislation — the China Extradition Bill.
The scale and intensity of the anti-China extradition protests, which brought the city to a months-long standstill, caused readings of the National Anthem Bill to be suspended along with other legislation.
Deliberations on the bill were set to resume as the LegCo reopened in October 2019, but minority pro-democracy lawmakers used filibustering to postpone the election of the Chair of the House Committee, further delaying the second reading.
On April 13, Beijing stepped in, accusing opposition lawmakers of paralysing the legislature and not taking their oaths seriously.
Beijing’s statement was viewed by the general public as a threat to disqualify the filibustering lawmakers. A total of six pro-democracy lawmakers have been disqualified in recent years over oath-taking controversies.
Under pressure from the centre, pro-Beijing lawmakers in the LegCo had to act tough.
On May 8 and May 18, opposition lawmakers were physically thrown out of the House Committee by security guards under the instruction of LegCo president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen.
The May 22 NPC resolution on the Hong Kong national security law added fuel to the fire as the LegCo returned to business May 27.
Thousands of protesters gathered at Causeway Bay on May 24 to express their anger over Beijing's move in the largest demonstration since the COVID-19 lockdown forced citizens off the streets.
Police fired tear gas, water cannon and pepper ball rounds at the protesters, leaving at least six people hospitalized and one woman in critical condition.
A total of 193 protesters were arrested during the day-long demonstration.
Nathan Law, a former lawmaker disqualified during the 2017 oath-taking controversy, predicted the return of ‘Tear Gas City':
Tear Gas City:
The police fired TG once again in the city center of Hong Kong, without any forms of disorder from the people. This is the future of Hong Kong under National Security Law: No freedom of assembly and speech.
Source: CUHK student press#HongKong#Protest pic.twitter.com/dYy8iOCCLI
— Nathan Law 羅冠聰 ? (@nathanlawkc) May 24, 2020

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
COVID-19 tune educates, empowers Indonesia’s remote Marapu community · Global Voices
EngageMedia

Jungga, a traditional Sumbanese musical instrument from Indonesia. Photo by Joseph Lamont. Source: Coconet
This article by Fendi Widianto and Joseph Lamont is from EngageMedia, a non-profit media, technology and culture organization. This story was edited and republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
As the COVID-19 pandemic retains its tight grip on life across the planet, the need to convey public health recommendations to remote communities that speak minority languages is more pressing than ever.
In Indonesia, both the government and civil society has regularly used song to convey these messages, with songs about personal hygiene and health, the importance of vaccinations and the dangers of illegal drugs among those that have found their way into the diversity of languages spoken across the vast archipelago in recent times.
Linguistically, Indonesia faces a unique challenge in terms of communicating government platforms.
The country hosts over 700 languages — almost half of which are now considered endangered.
The state language (Bahasa Indonesia) is spoken by less than two thirds of the population. ‘Message music’ moreover needs to consider diverse local cultural contexts, avoiding a blanket nationalistic approach.
A bottom-up cultural strategy for remote communities can have positive effects beyond getting the message out, such as empowering local cultures to be adaptive, by finding contemporary contexts for their traditional forms of expression.
The Marapu community is one community that has benefited from the bottom up approach after officials threw their weight behind a young singer-songwriter called Jekshon, who used a traditional song in the Kambera language to warn people about the dangers of COVID-19.
Shortly after Jekshon released the song “Rimanya na wiki nda”, which translates as “Take Care of Ourselves”, local officials began inviting him to perform the song at government events and at local health facilities.
Jekhshon's song encouraged people in the East Sumba region, where Kambera is widely spoken, to fight COVID-19 by avoiding large crowds, staying home, and practicing personal hygiene:
Ai kupanawa yia kata ana mbawa mangganya ni na ana nduma lurinda a ai
E ngiara ningu angu nama wandata lamambabu angu dedi dangunggu a ai
A ai ambu eti nu katundu njarangu angu ta ana mangganya na nduma luri kinda angu kana rehi napa hangganda a ai
Kata nguduwa la umakinda angu
Kata maranawa lapa baha lima kinda angu kata mangganya ni na anna nduma luri a ai
I sing this song so we will all take care, to protect our lives
If someone invites us to an event with a large gathering of people, my brothers and sisters
It is a mistake to attend, because we need to protect each other’s lives during this time
Let’s just stay at home
Let’s diligently wash our hands to protect our health and lives
In addition to writing music, Jekshon is also a ritual speaker (wunang), a maker of traditional musical instruments, and a builder and farmer from Kamanggih in East Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.
Sumba Integrated Development (SIDe) — a civic organization that is part of the Indonesia Inklusi Learning Network — has initiated a VOICE Empowerment project for the Marapu community in East Sumba.
Their project aims to work in collaboration with the Marapu community to organize workshops and local performances.
This project is fronted by Ata Ratu — one of East Sumba’s most beloved female role models and talented singer-songwriters, and is distinguished by the fact that it mandates equal participation from women in a field of traditional music that is generally male-dominated.
In keeping with the vision of the Indonesia Inklusi network, SIDe holds to the ethical principle of “first voice” to ensure cultural bearers are empowered and actively collaborate or guide the activities of the program.
All of the Marapu songs recorded in Kambera are produced with Indonesian and English language translations. The translations help amplify the voices, stories and songs as well as the rich culture of the East Sumbanese Marapu community.
Ata Ratu has herself written a song about another important theme in the pandemic — the inability of stranded populations of migrant workers to return to their home villages because of the travel restrictions due to COVID-19.
“Mbawa Rimangu na annanduma luri mu”, translating as “Please take care on your life journey”, is aimed at the diaspora of Sumbanese people who have left Sumba to look for work or study opportunities in Bali, Jakarta and Jogjakarta, and cannot return to Sumba due to travel restrictions.
Many of these Sumbanese people have lost their jobs and are experiencing economic hardship and psychological stress as a result of this situation.
Aiha dama ni dunjaka angu la kota bali a ai.e angu la jakarta angu ni
Ai hali nggunya nu mi ana mbawa rimangu nu ha ba ninggai ha la tana tau ma aka nu
Ai ninda la hidu eti biaka nu bata pamalirungu nu ha rimanya na nduma luri amu ka
Ai ambu mbawa luangga mai dupa nu ha jiaka ningu nu lambabu ndapngu
My friends who are in Bali and in Jakarta
I remember you all and urge that you be careful when travelling, as you are in the land of another people where there is a dangerous situation my friends
We are in a state of heartache because we are far apart, please take care of yourself
Don’t go back and forth in a place where there is a large crowd
In the East Sumbanese Marapu community, songs are written in traditional poetic couplets called lawiti.
Lawiti comes from the fast-paced ritual speech spoken by priests and ritual speakers (wunang) that accompany all Marapu rituals in Sumba. Sumbanese songwriters like Jekshon and Ata Ratu improvise by adapting Lawiti verses to the specific purpose of a song.
Jekshon’s song was released through his YouTube channel with help from SIDe. This song and other videos have been distributed from handphone to handphone via Bluetooth sharing, or ‘share it’ (a filesharing application). The song is currently being played via the public address systems of local markets around East Sumba, while SIDe has distributed the song via mini SD cards (for handphones) and flash disks at local market hubs.
Fendi Widianto of EngageMedia is a communication enthusiast who is motivated and dedicated to community development, creative participatory development for vulnerable groups (including disability groups and disadvantage children), and youth empowerment.
Joseph Lamont is an Australian producer, composer and film documenter. Joseph has recently assisted projects supported by the Ciptamedia/Ford Foundation and Voice concerned with supporting female traditional musicians and documenting and sustaining Marapu traditional music in East Sumba, Indonesia.

author: EngageMedia


text:
Netflix blockbuster ‘Extraction’ draws criticism for portrayal of Bangladesh’s capital · Global Voices
বিজয়

Screenshot from the trailer of Netflix Original movie Extraction showing a bridge in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
American action thriller and Netflix original “Extraction” (previously titled Dhaka) debuted on April 24, and quickly became the topmost watched title with 90 million views in its first 4 weeks. The movie drew a lot of interest from viewers in Bangladesh because the plot is based in the capital, Dhaka. However, it wasn't long after the film began streaming that it attracted criticism and debate for its inaccurate and stereotypical portrayal of Bangladesh and Bangladeshis.
The way Dhaka was shown in Extraction, the Netflix Original movie, it was ridiculous. They made it seem like Dhaka is full of slums which portrays how they look down to us. It's pathetic how they've shown the worst places in the world to be in Dhaka. Pathetic! #ExtractionNetflix
— Tazreen Alam (@AlamTazreen) April 26, 2020
Extraction stars Chris Hemsworth of Avengers fame and is the directorial debut of famous Hollywood stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave. The film's protagonists, Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) and Nik Khan (Golshifteh Farahani) take a mercenary job to rescue the son of an incarcerated Indian drug lord who was kidnapped by a Bangladeshi drug lord and smuggled somewhere in Dhaka. The movie was based on Ciudad, a graphic novel written by Ande Parks which is set in the real-life Paraguay town of Ciudad del Este. Joe and Anthony Russo adapted it for the screen, basing the story in a South Asian city instead.
Although the movie takes place in Bangladesh for most of its duration, it was predominantly filmed in the Indian cities, Ahmedabad and Mumbai, and also in Ban Pong, Thailand. However, some real images of Dhaka were used in the film, as Hargrave shared on his Instagram account.
Dhaka in “Extraction” versus Dhaka in real life pic.twitter.com/OdaqNcMkcs
— m? (@mhaanbiizba) May 6, 2020
Bangladeshi film critics complained about the lack of research into the local culture and the yellow filter used to depict Dhaka as a sickly, exotic location. They also criticized the portrayal of Bangladesh as a failed state as the storyline involves a drug lord who makes a senior Bangladeshi law enforcement officer deploy his army against Hemsworth's character.
Aminul Islam Emon, an architect based in Dhaka, commented on the movie after watching it:
বেশি মারপিট। স্টোরি বলে কিছু নাই। স্টান্টবাজি দিয়ে কভার করার চেষ্টা।
বিদেশীদের চোখে ঢাকা শহরকে দেখার জন্যই আগ্রহ নিয়ে ছবিটা দেখলাম। বাংলাদেশিদের বেশির ভাগই এই ছবি দেখে অপছন্দ করবে। কারন ঢাকাকে খুব বাজে ভাবে দেখানো হয়েছে।
Too much violence. There is no compelling story. The stunts and actions tried to compensate for this.
I watched the movie with interest to look at Dhaka city in the eyes of foreigners. Most Bangladeshis will dislike watching this movie. Because Dhaka has been portrayed in a very bad way.
Banker and film buff Muqit AL Rahman sent this review to Global Voices, highlighting the fact that the local casting was inaccurate:
How Dhaka has been portrayed can certainly irritate any Bangladeshis without a doubt. There are certain details which are at times annoying and at times funny e.g. many Bangladeshi characters speaking in Kolkata (from West Bengal, India) accent. Characters based in India having generic Bengali names such as Ovi and Saju is also unacceptable and last but not the least, the way Bangladeshi defence forces were portrayed in the movie was far from the truth.
Honestly speaking, in such movies over-exaggerated ultra-fantasized portrayal is definitely not something new. For a movie, with such a simple storyline, Dhaka could just be any random city from certain countries in Asia, South America and Africa. But, I would like to look positively at why Dhaka was chosen.
এক্সট্রাকশন একটানা কুড়ি মিনিট দেখলাম। বাংলা ভাষা শুইনা বন্ধ কইরা দিছি… যা দেখছি এনাফ…
— Sifat Nazrul Islam (@sifat2188) April 24, 2020
I could only watch the first 20 minutes of Extraction. The Bangla accents are pathetic… enough for what I have seen…
However, the reviews weren't all bad. Global Voices also interviewed copywriter and movie critic Reza A. Rabbi via email, who saw the film as an enjoyable action movie:
Screenplay, Actions and Locations are the areas where the director could show his magic and I think he did it pretty well. Especially the action sequences.
I did not see such raw and vibrant action sequences in any other Hollywood movie in recent past. Hargrave changed the original region – a city of Latin America where the events in the graphic book took place and replaced it with Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. If you are a Bangladeshi, you will spot the discrepancies in a minute. From the accent of local people to the details of the police forces and everything in between will be unsettling for you.
But if you look at other Hollywood movies set in an international location, you will see that lack of proper details and resemblance is not a new thing and you rather have loved those movies if they were not set in your own backyard. Apart from some drone shots, the whole Dhaka part of the movie was shot in India and Thailand.
And here I have to give full marks to the team. Although it had its issues, the details of their portrayal of Dhaka was eye-catching. Even in a 5-second shot, there were both static or dynamic things happening in the background that reminds you that it's Dhaka that you are watching.
So, as per story and screenplay goes, ‘Extraction’ is just another enjoyable action film from Hollywood which had a pretty much cliche story – Mercenary, Kidnapping, Extraction etc. But all in all, it was enjoyable and you got a previously undiscovered location.
The inclusion of this Bangla rap probably did bring some authenticity to the movie:
Expatriate Bangladeshi Javed Iqbal also shares some positivity on Facebook:
যে কোন পাবলিসিটিই ভাল পাবলিসিটি। [..] তারা দর্শকদেরকে নতুন লোকেশন দিতে চেয়েছে। নেটিফ্লিক্সের প্ল্যান, আগামী ৫ বছরে তারা ইন্ডিয়াতে দশ কোটি নতুন গ্রাহক চায়। তাই ওরা ইন্ডিয়ার ওপর প্রচুর টাকা ঢালছে। এই সিনেমাও সেটার একটা উদাহরণ। বাংলাদেশেও তাদেরকে আসতে হবে।
Any publicity is good publicity. [..] They wanted to give the viewers a new location. Netflix plans to have 100 million new subscribers in India in the next 5 years. So they are investing a lot of money on India related contents. This movie is an example of that. They also have to come to Bangladesh.
In view of the success of Extraction, Joe Russo has announced that a sequel is already in the works. However, Rafeul Hasan reminds Hollywood to take authenticity seriously the next time around:
Next time Hollywood centres a movie around Dhaka, they better get everything right down to the last details.

author: বিজয়


text:
Russian doctors’ union launches ‘map of problems’ faced by medics during COVID-19 · Global Voices
Maxim Edwards

Screenshot of the Alliance of Doctors’ Interactive Map. Red circles represent general problems, black represents deaths of medical staff, and green represents resolved problems.
At the time of writing, Russia has 370,680 confirmed COVID-19 cases according to the Johns Hopkins University Map.
In recent days, Russian health officials have claimed that the situation may stabilise. However, severe regional outbreaks such as the recent spike of infections in Dagestan could jeopardise any slow recovery.
In these conditions, the country's medical system is under enormous strain.
That's why on May 20, the Doctors’ Alliance of Russia, an independent trade union founded in 2018, released an interactive map detailing the problems faced by hospitals across the country. A contact form allows medical staff to report a problem. Once these cases are verified by the trade union's staff, they are added to the map. In less than a week, the map has recorded 490 such problems, many connected with insufficient supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), unpaid wages, or failure to test medical staff for COVID-19.
Tragically, the map records 268 fatalities of medical workers.
In the video below, founder of the Doctors’ Alliance Anastasia Vasilyeva introduces the new interactive map and calls on Russian officials to use the data to understand the true scale of the problem. Further categories for complaints will be added based on the nature of the appeals, she adds.
The Doctors’ Alliance has become increasingly prominent as Russia's COVID-19 crisis has developed. Its founder Anastasia Vasilyeva has shot to fame with her strident criticisms of the Russian authorities’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic; she has also cast doubt on official COVID-19 statistics. Vasilyeva, a trained opthalmologist, became an activist after she attempted to challenge her mother's dismissal, and that of many other employees, from a Moscow clinic in 2018. One of the public figures she appealed to was the prominent opposition activist Alexey Navalny, whom she had treated a year before after an attacker threw chemical dye in his face. Navalny supported Vasilyeva's cause. Ever since, his Anti-Corruption Foundation has fought with the Doctors’ Alliance for better pay and conditions for medical staff, as part of its own bid to engage with independent trade unionism.
Like Navalny, the doctor-turned-activist regularly records short, accessible, and fiery YouTube videos. Vasilyeva has no shortage of material; the Doctors’ Alliance's VKontakte page brims with comments by medical staff voicing their frustrations with their workload and provisions.
Public attention has also been drawn to the plight of medical staff by several recent cases of frontline workers jumping to their deaths from windows. While some international publications have suggested foul play, more thorough reporting from The Independent suggests that many of these incidents may have been suicides — very probably prompted by the same conditions now being recorded on the interactive map.
In a YouTube interview taken two days after the interactive map went live, the trade union's press secretary Ivan Konovalov appeared to have high hopes for the project. Konovalov said that the issue of PPE supply had generally been the easiest to resolve in recent weeks; the Doctors’ Alliance not only delivers equipment itself but has also run a high-profile campaign on the issue for well over a month.
Самая эффективная, конечно, это публичность… Почему они все так резко заговорили о своих проблемах? Мы об этом говорили, наверно, три недели назад. Когда май начался, медики начали понимать что за Апрель никто им платить не собирается. И они начали к нам обращаться. Мы им говорили – обращайтесь публично. Все конечно же боялись но, по-тихоньку, одна больница стала публично обратиться, потом вторая, и запустилась волна. И эта волна, ну, может не очень правильно, но она как сама коронавируса распространилась очень резко. Две неделей казалось, что ничего не происходит, а буквально за три или четыре дня, волна обращений. И на эти проблемы обратили внимание. Если просто жаловались, писали письмо к прокуратору и все, то вряд ли бы эти проблемы решились.
The most effective thing, of course, is publicity. Why do they speak so directly about their problems? We spoke about them, I guess, three weeks ago. As soon as May began, medics realised that nobody was planning to pay them for [their work] in April. So they began to turn to us. We told them to raise the issue publicly. Of course, at first they were all afraid, but bit by bit, one hospital started to appeal publicly, then another, and then there was a wave of appeals. And that wave, well, maybe it's not proper to say so, but it spread dramatically, almost like the coronavirus itself.
Interview with Ivan Konovalov, YouTube/VKontakte, May 22, 2020
Konovalov acknowledged in the same video that not all Russia's medics were even aware of the Doctors’ Alliance.
Nevertheless, such public appeals from doctors are a long-standing phenomenon among Russia's beleaguered medical staff. The Doctors’ Alliance did not start this trend. Neither did the coronavirus — Russia's healthcare system has been famously brittle for years, with staff regularly complaining about poor pay and overtime. According to reporting from Deutsche Welle last November, about ten percent of Russia's medics turn their backs on the state healthcare system every year.
But these angry messages have reached a fever pitch since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Medics from dozens of hospitals are now recording video appeals protesting against their lack of resources. Members of the Doctors’ Alliance who have tried to raise concerns about the state of medical provision have come under pressure in recent weeks (Vasilyeva herself was detained in April while delivering surgical masks to a rural town).
On May 7, police in Sochi opened an administrative case against Yulia Volkova, a doctor in a city clinic and local coordinator for the independent trade union. Following a video in which she requests personal protective equipment for local medical staff, Volkova was charged with “disseminating false information,” or fake news. “Ninety percent of employees are wandering around without face masks, but I'm the one destabilising the situation,” protested Volkova.
Volkova's protest was not unusual. In Ufa, several doctors have recorded videos to complain about the general conditions of their work; others, such as in Rubtsovsk, focused on the failure to pay promised bonuses to medical staff.
These bonuses, says Konovalov, feature in the majority of appeals he and his colleagues receive via the interactive map. In early April, President Vladimir Putin decreed extra monthly payouts of between 25,000 and 50,000 rubles (US$300-600) for frontline medical workers such as nurses, paramedics, and ambulance drivers. Doctors treating COVID-19 patients were to receive 80,000 rubles ($1,000). The Russian government set aside some 45.6 billion rubles ($619.7 m) for these payouts.
In mid-May many medical staff started to complain that they had yet to receive a kopek. An online petition demanding payment of the promised bonuses has now received over 116,000 signatures.
The Russian authorities appear to have taken notice: on May 19, the prosecutor's office launched a criminal case against the administration of a hospital in Armavir for non-payment of the promised bonuses.
It is not known whether this case was initiated due to the Doctors’ Alliance. However, the trade union's own social media accounts are now celebrating similar successes in holding hospital administrations to account for the treatment of medical staff during the pandemic, as shown by this letter, announcing a case against a hospital administration in the Krasnodar Region:
А вот и первые результаты! Медицинский работник пожаловался на нарушения через наш сайт, мы передали жалобу в надзорные органы, Роспотребнадзор провёл проверку и выписал протоколы на больницу и главного врача. Говорите о проблемах, это работает: https://t.co/iI71QSG7vo pic.twitter.com/cw4WHnVRi2
— Альянс врачей (@alyansvrachey) May 25, 2020
Here are the first results! A medic complained via our site about a violation, we filed a complaint with the supervisory bodies. Rospotrebnadzor launched an investigation and opened a case against the hospital and its head doctor. Speak up about your problems, it works.


text:
A conversation with Udmurt language digital activist Artyom Malykh · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

Artyom Malykh speaks at the Eshkolot cultural festival in Moscow. Photo courtesy of Artyom Malykh.
Udmurt is a Uralic language spoken in Russia's autonomous Republic of Udmurtia, where it shares official status with Russian. Speakers can also be found across a large area between the Volga River and Ural Mountains, such as in the Perm and Kirov Regions and neighbouring autonomous republics of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and Mari El. It is one of several related Uralic languages spoken in this diverse area of Russia, such as Mari, Erzya, Moksha, and Komi.
Russia's 2010 census recorded 324,338 Udmurt speakers, a number which has almost certainly decreased substantially over the following decade. According to the UN's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, it is classed as “definitely endangered.”
Nevertheless, there are some young Udmurts who are fighting to change that, increasingly online. Artyom Malykh is one such activist. He spoke to Global Voices about digital activism and language preservation, and his hopes for the future of the Udmurt language.
Global Voices (GV): Last year, the Russian government passed a law which removed obligatory study of other languages in schools.  In practice, this means that many under-resourced schools could simply stop offering studies in indigenous languages. How was that move interpreted by Udmurt speakers? How are language activists working to advocate for the use of the Udmurt language?
Artyom Malykh (AM): The new system has resulted in even more Russian language study. But it's important to remember that despite its official status, Udmurt has never been taught as an obligatory subject in every school across the region. In fact, it was only ever taught to ethnic Udmurt pupils in the rural areas of the republic where Udmurts are in the majority; meaning 30 percent of all the region's schools.
After the law was passed, the total number of Udmurt language lessons was cut back to one or two hours a week, and parents had to indicate Udmurt as their child's native language in order to ensure that they received an education in it. But in some places, parents chose Russian as Russian language proficiency is an obligatory part of the final school exam. Most people understood that the language's position would worsen as a result of the law. However, in comparison to nearby regions with indigenous languages such as Tatarstan and Mordovia, Udmurt already had a negligible place in state institutions so the loss was not felt as painfully as elsewhere. Likewise, Albert Razin and other Udmurt intellectuals urged local politicians to make a stand against the new amendments. Online petitions with the same demand also appeared. Unfortunately, the politicians didn't pay attention.
There were different interpretations. Russian nationalists and some from the mainstream of society tried to portray his self-immolation as an act of madness. In general, people were shocked but also surprised that the fate of the Udmurt language was the reason for his suicide. The language issue never had a place in politics; most residents of Udmurtia are aware that the language is disappearing but don't acknowledge that its disappearance has any connection with institutions and the state. They believe that the only reasons for the vulnerable position of the language are the Udmurt people's  failure and laziness in protecting it.
Nevertheless, many Udmurts are worried that due to Razin's act, the language issue has become newly politicised. They fear that there will be more scrutiny towards them, which will harm minority and linguistic institutions and projects. Researchers and intellectuals at state academic institutions generally weren't allowed to voice their positions in public or provide contextual information about the state of the Udmurt language. Nevertheless, some activists launched a petition demanding that the regional government support the Udmurt language. Their only response claimed that the Udmurt language faces no problems.
Activists from other indigenous peoples in Russia showed a lot of support and empathy for the Udmurt people, particularly since many of their languages face the same existential crisis. Their organisations sent official condolences to the Udmurt people, claiming that Razin's act was devoted to all Russia's indigenous languages and demanding that Russia's state policy towards its languages must be changed.
AM: Udmurt is mostly used for personal communication in informal contexts. In formal contexts, people usually use Russian. The language is used in local media: in printed newspapers, radio, and television. Nevertheless, Udmurt-language media outlets are all state-funded and their readership and circulation is steadily falling. However, Udmurt is used online, particularly in social media. Udmurt-language bloggers are becoming more popular. There are a few websites in Udmurt, which are mostly the online versions of Udmurt-language newspapers (Udmurt Dunne, Udmurt.media, Oshmes) or websites about the language itself (Udmurt language corpus, regional encyclopedia or site of the Udmurt language day). There's even an Udmurt version of Wikipedia, and VKontakte, Russia's largest social network, has offered an Udmurt-language interface since 2010. There are also a couple of mobile apps for Udmurt language learners.
AM: I've used the internet for my language activism ever since I became digitally literate. In 2009, I founded the first social network for Uralic peoples, called Uralistica. For several years, it was a real competitor to Facebook and VKontakte among its target audience. In 2013, we launched a competition to create Udmurt-language terms for new concepts, such as those from IT and marketing. We crowdsourced new Udmurt words needed for modern life.
AM: The main challenge for Udmurt speakers online is that the Udmurt alphabet is not present in Russia's digital ecosystem. The Udmurt-language keyboard is not a standard layout for Windows; Udmurt speakers have to install it themselves, despite the fact that there are already Udmurt language keyboards for PCs and mobile OS users. Most Udmurt speakers use the Russian alphabet online, leading to improper and inconsistent spelling. Furthermore, popular search engines such as Yandex or Google don't recognise Udmurt or other indigenous languages from Russia. They give poor search results in Udmurt, and often see an Udmurt word as a misspelled Russian word. We dream of having an Udmurt keyboard layout within the standard packages offered by Microsoft, Google, and Apple, and would like to localise some applications and programs (for example, including an Udmurt dictionary with text editing software). Nevertheless, there have been achievements, mostly thanks to enthusiasts with no state support. Just ten years ago, there were no online dictionaries. Now there are several.
Tolerance is another big issue. Many people prefer to use Russian in most situations because of the narrow audience of Udmurt speakers and sometimes because those who don't speak Udmurt bug them to use Russian, because they want to participate. So using Udmurt publicly is still an issue for most people because of the language's low prestige.
AM: IT Udmurtlyk is a group of passionate people who create keyboard layouts, Udmurt spellcheckers, e-textbooks, and apps. Other remarkable project is a special online Udmurt course launched during the COVID-19 quarantine provided by Udmurt teacher Olga Urasinova. Then there's my own educational programme MAFUN Academy; we deliver free webinars on Uralic and other Indigenous languages and related topics like language revitalisation and bilingualism. We've held two lectures where Udmurt was the medium of instruction. Another is the first Udmurt-language podcast called Olokin no Olomar no, run by Lukerya Shikhova and Maxim Agafonov. Another great project is the short video lectures about Udmurt language and culture made by Kuara with state support. Finally there's Daur TV, which broadcasts in Udmurt via VKontakte.

author: RuNet Echo


text:
Côte d’Ivoire withdraws from African Court on Human and People’s Rights · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Photo by Guillaume Colin and Pauline Penot of the 47th session of the African Court of Human and People's Rights on  Flickr via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
In a further rebuff to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, after Benin's partial withdrawal, Côte d'Ivoire has decided to also withdraw its recognition. It is highly likely that this decision is linked to a court judgment in favor of an opponent of the Ivorian government.
The court was created under Article 1 of the associated Protocol of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) which allows a citizen or organization direct access to the court.
he AfCHPR is part of an African continental convention under the aegis of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), with headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
On April 29, Ivorian government spokesperson, Sidi Touré, announced Côte d'Ivoire's decision to withdraw its June 9, 2013, Declaration of Competence from the AfCHPR.
This decision follows a judgment by the court against Côte d’Ivoire and in favor of its opponent in the case, Guillaume Kigbafori Soro, a former member of the government who is now critical of his country.
Former prime minister Soro had complained to the AfCHPR about a 20-year prison sentence and a fine of 4.5 billion West African CFA francs (about $7.5 million US dollars) for “covering up the misuse of public funds” and “money laundering.”
This sentence also required him to pay 2 billion CFA francs (about $3.3 million USD) in damages to the Public Treasury of Côte d’Ivoire. He was also to suffer five years’ suspension of his civil rights and the confiscation of his house. The Yamoussoukro (capital city) judiciary also issued an international arrest warrant against Kigbafori, who currently lives in France.
On April 22, the AfCHPR ordered the state defendant to suspend the arrest warrant it had issued against Soro. It also required Côte d’Ivoire to produce a report on the implementation of the provisional measures mandated in the verdict within 30 days of the date it was received.
Since the announcement of Côte d'Ivoire's withdrawal from the AfCHPR Protocol, human rights defense organizations have issued a stream of press releases and statements of protest against this decision.
Some of them see in the refusal of the authorities to comply with the AfCHPR's judgment a bid to stop Soro from standing in the presidential elections, set to take place in October 2020. The lawyers’ collective engaged with Soro's defense published a message on Facebook on April 30, saying:
Cette décision de retrait confirme, s’il en était encore besoin, que le jugement correctionnel du 28 avril 2020 rendu par le Tribunal de Première Instance d’Abidjan contre M. Guillaume Kigbafori Soro, en violation de la décision de la CADHP du 22 avril 2020, s’inscrit dans une série de manœuvres politiques afin d’écarter sa candidature à l’élection présidentielle, au prix d’une grave instrumentalisation de l’institution judiciaire.
This withdrawal decision confirms, were it still necessary to do so, that the criminal conviction of 28 April 2020 returned by the Abidjan Lower Court against Monsieur Guillaume Kigbafori Soro, in violation of the AfCHPR's decision of 22 April 2020, joins a series of political manoeuvres aimed at removing his candidature from the Presidential election, at the cost of a serious politicisation of the judiciary.
It seems the current Ivorian government is determined to put pressure on Guillaume Soro. Côte d'Ivoire journalist Djakaria Touré notes Soro's younger brother, an American national, was arrested in the context of another case:
Côte d'Ivoire ??: violation des droits humains.
SORO SIMON, prisonnier Politique et d'opinions, Incarcéré à la Prison civile d'Abengourou
Très malade, empêchement de ses médecins de lui fournir des soins.
le pouvoir l'utilise comme moyen de chantage sur son aîné Guillaume Soro.pic.twitter.com/ve1B9fJiru
— djakaria Toure (@2bd0b186acb2424) May 3, 2020
Côte d'Ivoire: human rights violation.
SORO SIMON, political prisoner and prisoner of conscience, incarcerated in the Civil Prison of Abengourou.
Very sick, and his doctors prevented from attending to him.
Regime using him to blackmail his elder brother Guillaume Soro.
The president of Côte d'Ivoire, Alhassane Ouattara, has announced that at the end of his current term, which expires on October 31, he will follow the constitution, which limits the number of terms to two, and will give way to the winning candidate.
In a press release issued on May 1, the Ivorian Human Rights Observatory (OIDH) expressed grave concern at this withdrawal months away from the presidential elections:
Cette décision de retrait, à quelques mois des échéances électorales de 2020, et au regard de la crispation du contexte socio-politique actuel, pourrait priver les citoyens de recours pourtant essentiels à la reconnaissance de leur droit.
Elle s’apparente ainsi à un recul démocratique pour notre pays qui se veut un parangon en matière de respect des droits humains et de l’état de droit en Afrique. Pour preuve, la Côte d’Ivoire a été membre du conseil des droits de l’homme de l’ONU de 2012 à 2016, membre du conseil de sécurité de l’ONU, puis postule encore à cette fonction au conseil des droits de l’homme.
This withdrawal decision, coming months away from the 2020 electoral deadline, and in the light of the ratcheting up of tension in the current socio-political context, could deprive citizens of opportunities which remain essential to the recognition of their rights.
It thus amounts to a democratic setback for our country which claims itself a paragon of respect for human rights and the state of law in Africa. As proof, Côte d’Ivoire was a member of the UN Human Rights Council from 2012 to 2016, has been a member of the UN Security Council, and is once more seeking the Human Rights Council role.
The Convention of Ivorian Civil Society (CSCI) judged:
…par ce retrait, le citoyen ivoirien et les Organisations de la société civile (OSC) se trouvent fortement fragilisées en matière de promotion et de protection des droits de l’homme dans notre pays. D’autant que cet instrument juridique chèrement acquis de haute lutte est le fruit d’un engagement collectif.
…by this withdrawal, the Ivorian citizen and civil society organisations (CSOs) find themselves greatly weakened in promoting and protecting human rights in our country. After all, this legal instrument, dearly won by hard struggle, is a fruit of collective endeavour.
Numerous Twitter users have published comments:
Après le Bénin, c'est maintenant la Côte d'Ivoire qui retire la possibilité à ses citoyens de saisir la Cour Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples. Quel recul pour les DH et la justice ?!?
Les effets enivrants du pouvoir mêlés à une domestication honteuse de la justice! pic.twitter.com/Cfwaz2WzWa
— Koné Katina Edmond (@edmond_katina) April 29, 2020
After Benin, now it's Côte d'Ivoire removing its citizens’ access to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. What a setback for human rights and justice ?!?
The intoxications of power mixed in with a shameful curbing of justice!
Stéphane Kipré, president of the political party Union of the New Generations, writes:
Renoncer à son engagement auprès de la #CADHP parce qu'une décision nous est défavorable est indigne d'un homme d'État. C'est humiliant pour notre pays surtout qu'on a soutenu les décisions antérieures. Vivement que la Côte d'Ivoire se débarrasse de ce type de dirigeants. PSK
— Stéphane Kipré (@stephane_kipre) April 29, 2020
To renege on our commitment to the #AfCHPR because a ruling went against us is unworthy of a statesman. It's humiliating for our country, particularly when we've supported previous rulings. Côte d'Ivoire, get rid of this type of leader!
As user Cedric Emmanuel notes online:
IMPORTANT COMMUNIQUE DU GOUVERNEMENT-Cour Africaine: “La Cote d'Ivoire a retiré sa Déclaration de compétence. La décision relative à l'affaire Soro viole la souveraineté de l'Etat”. Le compte-rendu du Conseil des Ministres, de ce mercredi 29 avril 2020. http://iciabidjan.com/le-compte-rendu-du-conseil-des-ministres-de-ce-mercredi-29-avril-2020/
La décision du retrait s'est fait après que la #CADHP ait décidé de la suspension des poursuite à l'encontre de @SOROKGUILLAUME donc au moins, faudrait que l'État de ?? respecte cette décision parce qu'elle était au moment de cette décision encore membre de cette COURS.
— Ced-Emma (@CedricEmmanuel) April 30, 2020
IMPORTANT GOVERNMENT PRESS RELEASE – African Court: “Cote d'Ivoire has withdrawn its Declaration of Competence. The ruling in the Soro case violates the sovereignty of the State”.  Briefing to the Council of Ministers, this Wednesday 29 April 2020.
The withdrawal decision was taken after the #AfCHPR ordered the suspension of the prosecution of @SOROKGUILLAUME so the State of ?? should at least respect that judgment because it was, at the point it was taken, still a member of this COURT.
Pape Ibrahima Kane, a human rights activist working for the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), draws an important conclusion:
… il faut savoir que cette décision-là ne prend effet que dans un an. Et donc que d’ici l’année prochaine, il peut toujours  y avoir des plaintes contre la Côte d’Ivoire…
Parce que, cette décision n’exclut pas la possibilité de toujours porter plainte contre la Côte d’Ivoire. Mais maintenant, quand on porte plainte contre la Côte d’Ivoire, ce sera devant la commission africaine et c’est la commission africaine qui portera l’affaire devant la cour.
…you have to realise that this decision only takes effect in a year's time. And therefore that between now and next year, there can still be complaints against Côte d’Ivoire…
Because this decision doesn't preclude people making complaints against Côte d’Ivoire. Only now, when someone does make a complaint against Côte d’Ivoire, it will be to the African Commission [on Human and Peoples’ Rights] and it will be the African Commission which will bring the case to court.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


text:
Could COVID-19 help push peace forward in Yemen? · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

In October 2015, buildings in a neighborhood in Sana'a, Yemen lie in rubble months after an airstrike. Photo by Almigdad Mojalli. Public domain by Voice of America.
By Hooria Mashour
Yemen, which has been embroiled in an armed conflict since Iran-backed Houthi rebels ousted the government in September 2014, is considered the worst humanitarian crisis of this century. Around 80 per cent of the population is in need of urgent humanitarian assistance and this month, as Yemenis celebrated their fifth Eid-Al-Fitr since the conflict began, they suffer the accumulated agony of war and related diseases—and also COVID-19.
Although the first case of COVID-19 was officially confirmed in Yemen on April 10, today the virus has spread all over the country; the number of infections now stands at 278 and 57 people have died. The unreported numbers are feared to be much bigger. The novel coronavirus also circulates in Yemen alongside other deadly diseases such as malaria, cholera, dengue fever and Chikungunya.
On March 25, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on warring factions in Yemen to cease hostilities and focus their efforts on dealing with the virus. Saudi Arabia made a unilateral ceasefire decision in April, but the conflict in Yemen continued. While leaders have stalled on a unified response to ending the violence to deal with the virus, several activist groups are pushing forward a ceasefire agenda, calling for an end to the long-standing conflict.
It is estimated that by the end of 2019 more than 233,000 people were killed in the armed conflict occurring in Yemen on different fronts—between Houthis and government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition in the north, and between UAE-backed separatists and government forces.
These factors, in addition to ongoing threats from extremist groups in some parts of the country, have rendered Yemen a fragile state with a collapsing economy. Yemen’s fragile infrastructure and feeble economy cannot withstand the potentially devastating impact of COVID-19, which has brought far more robust economies to their knees.
Despite the fragility of Yemen’s health system, there is widespread social and political denial about the gravity of COVID-19. Although some temporary curfews have been imposed by the de facto authorities in various regions, people are not staying at home or adhering to social distancing measures.  While half of the world’s population lives under varying degrees of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, Yemenis have continued to go about their daily business—including religious and social gatherings related to the recently concluded holy month of Ramadan and Eid celebrations—despite warnings that COVID-19 could turn Yemen into an even worse disaster zone.
Meanwhile, local politicians have neither acknowledged the enormity of this challenge nor suspended their internal disputes even for a brief moment, in order to collaborate and fight against this urgent public health challenge.
Secretary-General Guterres’ call for a ceasefire went unheeded and the Saudi-backed government continues to face two challenges: from separatists in the south and Houthis in the north. The armed conflict in the north includes a regional element, as Houthis continue to launch ballistic missiles toward Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia responds with airstrikes on Sana’a, the country’s largest city.
While leaders have failed to unify against COVID-19, however, Yemenis activists are working to transform this public health crisis into an opportunity for a ceasefire to be imposed.
The Women Solidarity Network, of which I am a member, issued a joined statement with eight other women’s groups on April 15, calling for a ceasefire and demanding that authorities from all political sides collaborate with civil society organizations to prepare for COVID-19 by creating quarantine areas, testing systems and training. Particularly at risk are internally displaced persons (IDP) and poor people.
COVID-19 has forced millions across the world to take their activities online. Perhaps this shift could present an opportunity to better facilitate the peace process in Yemen, by removing many of the usual logistical obstacles related to travel, visas, and accommodations. Online peace negotiations are not unprecedented. The Women Solidarity Network, which includes more than 250 women leaders spread across the globe, has also been holding regular virtual meetings facilitated by the Peace Track Initiative.
Moving Yemen peace talks online could allow leaders to dedicate more time to discussions that include stakeholders from around the world in different time zones. For example, the UN secretary-general’s envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, has been holding talks online with various Yemeni political leaders.
Holding peace talks online would also allow essential stakeholders who are usually excluded from traditional peace talks—such as women and civil society groups—to participate.
Millions of Yemenis are suffering as a result of the war. Before thousands fall prey to COVID-19, politicians must realize they cannot fight the disease without collaboration.
Hooria Mashour is a political activist and human rights defender specialized in gender and transitional justice. She was minister of human rights in the Consensus Government between 2012 and 2014 and an official at the Women National Committee before that. Mashour is a member of the Women Solidarity Network and a recipient of the Peace Track Initiative Feminist Peace Fellowship.

author: Guest Contributor


text:
Cryptocurrency scammers flood Facebook users with ads for fake Forbes.com articles · Global Voices
Metamorphosis Foundation

A Facebook page about Cookies advertising cryptocurrencies. Suspicious? Photo by Meta.mk, used with permission.
This story is based on reporting by Global Voices’ content partner Meta.mk News Agency, a project of Metamorphosis Foundation.
Scammers using fake Forbes articles and anti-EU disinformation as bait continue to target Facebook users across Europe, the Skopje-based Metamorphosis Foundation has warned.
Metamorphosis is a civil society organization from North Macedonia promoting digital rights and media literacy.
Its monitoring of social networks has revealed that scammers continue to use Facebook advertisements masked as links to articles from the respectable Forbes.com, continuing disinformation trends involving not only China, but also European Union members like Sweden.
Sample of the Facebook ads promoting a fake Forbes.com article, actually leading to website run by scammers. Photo by Meta.mk.
On May 19, the Ministry of Interior Affairs of North Macedonia warned citizens that scammers use social networks and e-mail to distribute links misrepresented as articles from Forbes.com to promote the purchase of a supposed new Chinese cryptocurrency.
Citizens who click on the links and provide personal data to the scammers are then targeted by phone calls persuading them to start ‘investing’ by paying instalments of $250 dollars.
Other manipulation techniques are then deployed to make users increase the fee.
The anti cyber-crime unit of the Macedonian police claimed the malicious links lead to a website hosted in Ukraine, allegedly run by a Russian citizen in a manner similar to the debunked OneCoin Ponzi scheme run by Bulgarian fraudster Ruja Ignatova, which inflicted damage worldwide of over $4 billion.
Data publicly provided by Facebook about the geographic reach of the advertisements promoting these links suggest they go far beyond the borders of North Macedonia, activists warn.
Metamorphosis identified several similar ads that are active on social networks. Users who click on these ads are redirected to addresses such as https://fishing2510.myshopify.com/blogs/news/dollar-faces-the-threat-of-being-displaced-by-chinadigital-currency?fbclid=IwAR3x_uvBatgzsr_wLZtDF1z5A1L7cb5F-T_-kefu36mP7n2I4dPk4jzf8N4 instead of pages on the Forbes.com website.
Bardhyl Jashari, Executive Director of Metamorphosis, explained:
Преку манипулативни огласи, измамници продолжуваат да допираат до корисниците на социјалните мрежи низ целиот свет. Користејќи ги податоците кои „Фејсбук“ ги прави јавно достапни како почетна точка на истражувањата, тимот на „Метаморфозис“ откри дека истите огласи им се покажуваат на корисници во скоро сите европски земји, како и во земји од Блискиот Исток и други региони. Измамниците користат Фејсбук-страници навидум на теми од културата, дури и за колачиња, како платформа за пуштање огласи кои ги водат корисниците до веб-страници или блогови што изгледаат исто како оние за кои предупреди МВР
Misleading advertisements continue to target social network users across the world. Using the public data provided by Facebook about the ads targeting the audience based in North Macedonia as a starting point, the Metamorphosis team revealed that the same ads are served in almost all European countries, as well as countries in the Middle East. Scammers use pages about culture, even about cookies, to launch ads that lead the users to web pages and blogs that look almost the same as the ones the Macedonian police warned about.
Metamorphosis, a member of the European Digital Rights – EDRI network, has been working on promoting human rights online, including child safety online since its founding in 2004.
Jashari also noted:
Многу загрижувачка карактиристика на овие групи на организиран криминал е што исто така користат страници кои тематски се наменети за деца и тинејџери за да ги камуфлираат своите злонамерни содржини. На пример страница претставена како заедница за популарната игра „МајнКрафт“ (со име напишано малку поинаку „Минекравт“) објавува огласи што продолжуваат да шират дезинформации за Шведска, насочени кон корисници во десетици земји – од Русија, Австрија и Белгија, до Сингапур, Катар и Обединетите Арапски Емирати.
A very worrisome development is that these organized crime networks also use pages aimed at children and teenagers to camouflage their malicious content. For instance a page branded as community for the popular game MineCraft (titled Minecravt) had been running ads that continue to disseminate disinformation about Sweden, aimed at users in Russia, Austria, Belgium, but also in Singapore, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, and dozens of other countries.
Facebook transparency tools reveal that a MineCraft themed page is used as platform for ads by scammers.
Users clicking on these ads are taken to a page providing an incentive for them to leave their personal data. In the case of Sweden this was disguised as a discount coupon.
Content of a page set by suspected scammers promoted through Facebook ads.
While MineCraft has a huge adult following, it is a particularly popular game among children aged between 9 and 11. This practice helps condition future audiences particularly susceptible to both disinformation and scamming.
Facebook ad from November 2019 promoting a scam page and amplifying disinformation about Sweden and the EU.
In November 2019, Metamorphosis’ Critical Thinking for Mediawise Citizens – CriThink project warned that scammers benefit from established disinformation narratives about Sweden.
Sponsored Facebook posts lure people who had been previously primed, through right-wing populist propaganda media networks based in North Macedonia, to believe media manipulations about unrest in the country and the European Union (EU), originally published by pro-Kremlin media.
In the same manner, these articles promoted fake news that Sweden has introduced a cryptocurrency opposing the Euro.
To launch these geo-targeted ads, scammers used series of pages with general interest topics, including some branded as unofficial fan clubs of Western celebrities like actors Liam Neeson and Anthony Michael Hall.
CriThink, which is an initiative supported by the EU Delegation in North Macedonia, educated local social media users on how to use the transparency features of Facebook pages used by the scammers, in order to flag and report the suspicious pages using the mechanisms provided by the platform.
In order to boost citizen engagement in raising media literacy levels, CriThink articles related to social networks provide instructions on how users can use reporting features to alert administrators about harmful content, ranging from hate speech to scams.
Notification from Facebook about removal of ads by scam pages targeting users in North Macedonia.
Several weeks later, in December 2019, Facebook informed some of its users who participated in the online action that they had removed the ads reported as scams.
Since Forbes magazine enjoys a good reputation as a source of credible business information, it has also become the subject of various media manipulations in North Macedonia.
The government that ruled the country from 2006 to 2017 used taxpayers’ money to publish advertisements or sponsored content in Forbes magazine and other Western media.
These articles mainly concerned the advantages offered by the country to foreign investors.
However, the pieces also had a domestic propaganda use. The media close to the populist ruling party misrepresented the paid-for-content as articles written by economic experts or Forbes staff praising the economic policies of the then-government.
This media swindle was repeated periodically, and was debunked several times in2014 by the Media Fact-Checking Service, established by Metamorphosis with USAID support.

author: Metamorphosis Foundation


text:
Desecration of three religious sites in Iran signal the Islamic Republic’s continued oppression of minorities · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

The interior of the tomb of Esther. Photo courtesy of Pooyan Tamimi Arab. Used with permission.
The desecration of three religious sites in Iran in the space of less than a week is a stark reminder of the insecure circumstances under which Iranian religious minorities have been living since the Islamic Revolution.
An attempted attack on May 15 on the tomb of Esther and Moredchai in Hamadan, an important pilgrimage site for Jews in Iran, attempted attack to Esther tomb, was followed a few days later by a fire in a Christian cemetery in Eslamshahr, just south of Tehran, and another fire at a Hindu temple in Bandar Abbas.
The authorities in Eslamshahr blamed the cemetery’s guard for burning grass. The Hindu temple fire was deemed accidental.
The threat made by members of Hamadan’s Basij militant student group to destroy the tomb of Esther and Mordechai as an act of revenge against Israel and Washington made headlines, and provoked reactions from several Jewish organizations, as well as the US government.
The tomb—believed to house the remains of the Jewish Queen Esther, wife of the ancient Achaemenid king Xerxes, and her cousin Mordechai—is also a protected Iranian Cultural Heritage site.
The Iran-based journalist Farzane Ebrahimzad  that according to a local source, someone had thrown an object at the tomb. Iran officials confirmed that there was “minor damage” by fire at the site.
This incident is neither new nor isolated: since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the symbols, places of worship, cemeteries and other buildings belonging to religious minorities have been attacked by unidentified perpetrators and official agents.
Mansour Borji, executive director of Article 18, a leading London-based Christian advocacy organization, told Global Voices that:
“The elimination of Persian-speaking churches has not always been violent, but more often than not this elimination has been accompanied by a gradual and systematic approach. Forcing churches not to accept new members, drying up their financial resources, limiting the days of meetings, forcing leaders to exile or threatening them to send to jail….there are pieces that are put together to rot the official churches, and finally, by removing their identity marks (such as the church and their tombs and other properties).”
Pooyan Tamimi Arab, assistant Professor of religious studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, shared with Global Voices his experience of visiting the tomb of Esther and Mordechai:
“I have been there myself several years ago, and already then a closed atmosphere surrounded the gated building. The person present at the time was clearly nervous when showing me around, asking not to be filmed, and avoiding sensitive topics. While the Islamic Republic may honor its Jewish citizens on occasion, this does not mean that Jews are not discriminated against in Iran or that anti-semitic tropes are not rampant as they have been for decades. The list goes on, attacks against Dervishes and persecution of Christian converts, which leads to a steady flow of religious minorities fleeing Iran to countries like the Netherlands, where I live.”
Hate speech
For 40 years, attacks on religious minorities in Iran have gone hand in hand with hate speech by the authorities and media, ranging from denials of the Holocaust to vilifying Baháʼís, Christian converts and even Sunni Muslims.
Regarding the impact of these actions, Pooyan Tamimi Arab said:
“[that] there is an impact should be without any doubt. Those who attack a Jewish mausoleum may feel emboldened by anti-semitic discourses. In other instances, when the state resorts to using concepts such as “superstition” (khurafat) to describe other minorities’ practices, this may give license to discrimination. In the anthropology of religion, we know of such cases, for example when white Americans designated native American dances as “superstitious”, this could be used to argue that that practice was not properly religious and hence did not fall under constitutional freedom of religion. In Iran, which does not even formally recognize all religions as equal, hate speech against religious minorities should thus be considered as having great potential for violence.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, recently sparked outrage after releasing an anti-Israeli poster bearing the message: “Palestine will be free. The final solution: Resistance is referendum.”  The term “final solution” was used by the Nazi regime to refer to the genocide of Jewish people during the Holocaust.
Pressure on religious minorities has also taken the form of persecution of individuals by accusing them of promoting “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” or “belonging to hostile groups”—actions that have been condemned by international organizations such as the United Nations.
But these reproaches have had little effect, and Iranian authorities have continued, if not intensified, the discrimination against religious minorities.
One example of this is the recent change in ID card application forms. According to Pooyan Tamimi Arab:
“the pressure on Baháʼís has increased because the option of “other religions” than the officially recognized is no longer there. We know from other countries like Egypt, which also does not recognize the Baháʼí religion on ID cards, that such illiberal bureaucratic policies can have grave consequences for people’s status as citizens and for their everyday lives.”

author: Fred Petrossian