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What Is Behind the Controversy in El Salvador’s Recent Elections? · Global Voices
NACLA

A voter casting their ballot in El Salvador’s 2009 presidential elections (Amber / Creative Commons)
This article by Angeles Rodríguez-Domínguez was originally published on NACLA's website.
It is already past midnight in Nejapa, El Salvador. Poll workers at the Jose Matías Delgado School voting center, exhausted after having arrived at 5 a.m., are still arguing over how to fill out the new count sheets introduced for this year’s electoral process. Scenes just like this were repeated all across El Salvador during the March 1 elections.
Salvadorans took to the polls in relative calm to cast their ballot for mayors, National Legislative Assembly representatives and Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) legislators. Delayed openings, allegations of vote buying in rural areas and isolated confrontations between voters or poll staff did little to impede the active exercise of suffrage throughout the country. The process was declared broadly transparent by visiting international observation delegations, including that of the Organization of American States (OAS).
So why did it take almost a month to get elections results in a system that has been lauded as one of the most democratic and transparent in the region? The answer partly lies in the interventionist role played by the nation’s Supreme Court.
As the Farabundo Martí Liberation Front (FMLN) has consolidated its legislative and executive power, the Constitutional Chamber of the country’s Supreme Court has demonstrated growing loyalty to El Salvador’s political right. They have issued increasingly controversial rulings to undercut elections and curtail legislative decisions.
In 2013, the Constitutional Chamber ruled that the election of Salomon Padilla, head magistrate of both the Court and the Chamber, was unconstitutional because he belonged to the FMLN. A year later, the Chamber ruled the same way in the case of Eugenio Chicas, then-president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and a member of the FMLN’s Political Commission. In both cases, the Court claimed that party membership compromised performance and determined that people with party affiliations could no longer be elected to the TSE or any other national courts. For two decades, court officials routinely had maintained strong political party affiliations, making both of the Court’s rulings most likely politically motivated, as they came when the FMLN is governing and months before elections were held.
Before the 2015 elections, the Chamber had transformed the country’s electoral system. Ever since the signing of the 1992 peace accords, El Salvador has had a multi-party system with a very polarized left-right divide. This arrangement was rarely questioned by the right-wing National Republican Alliance party (ARENA) until it lost the elections in 2009. Ever since, the Salvadoran right has pushed for electoral reforms, some of which have gained approval by the Supreme Court.
In 2012, the Court mandated that the country replace its closed list of candidates with an open one, and then allowed independent candidates to run for the first time. However, the most controversial ruling was made just three months before the elections on November 5th 2014. It permitted the cross-party vote. Salvadorans had previously voted for their preferred party by simply marking a party’s flag, given that only the parties’ logos, and not individual candidates, appeared on the ballots.
The new cross-party vote allows voters to select individual candidates from any party rather than just vote for a single party with an established candidate list. Proponents argued that the ability to vote for individual candidates is a basic right, and would contribute to political pluralism. Felix Ulloa, a jurist who was part of the lawsuit requesting the cross-party vote, said the decision “is a win-win situation. Citizens take back their freedom, elected officials will have the support of the people, and everyone wins with the plurality of opinions.” The ruling came after the Supreme Electoral Tribunal had already officially convened the elections, creating, according to the OAS delegation, administrative chaos and delays that reverberated through to the final count.
Right-wing candidates ran more individualized campaigns with independent financing, uncoordinated from other candidates from their same party. In contrast, the FMLN chose a strategy of calling on its supporters to simply vote for the party’s flag as a symbol of the political platform, and ran a unified campaign.
After the controversial November ruling, the magistrates declared they would make no more electoral decisions with regards to the March 1st vote. But just nine days before Election Day, the Constitutional Chamber released a statement saying that even though voters could still opt for one party, votes for party flags would not be counted as preferential votes for the party’s ranked list of candidates. The unprecedented measure appeared directed at the FMLN, given that the Frente was the only party that asked its voters to mark its flag. It also succeeded in confusing voters into thinking that marking a party’s flag was no longer a valid way to vote, a misunderstanding that was trumpeted across El Salvador’s conservative-dominated mass media in the run-up to the election.
In the end, the Court’s last minute electoral decisions not only introduced enormous complexity into the electoral process, they appear to have been designed to delay and complicate the election in order to sway the results. Abraham Ábrego, president of El Salvador’s Foundation for the Study and Application of Law (FESPAD), argues that the path to preventing a repetition of this scenario involves “a serious evaluation (of the current electoral system) and a push to remove party influence from the TSE.”
Ever since ARENA lost the presidency in 2009, the right-wing party has played a belligerent oppositional role by stalling and sometimes blocking government initiatives in the National Assembly. In 2014, when former guerrilla commander Salvador Sánchez Cerén was elected president in what was roundly deemed the most transparent election in the country’s history, ARENA contested the outcome and went as far as to ask the Salvadoran Military to intervene in what they described as a fraudulent election.
The final count for the 2015 elections was scheduled to start on March 3 and take about 10 days. However, the TSE did not announce the final official results until 27 days after the elections. This created a lot of uncertainty and confusion, a situation that ARENA and other parties from the opposition attempted to exploit.
The new voting rules established an incredibly complex counting system. Legislative seats are now assigned based on the number of votes a party receives but filled based on the voters’ preference for candidates. Since the ruling was made so late, the necessary financial, logistical and operating adjustments could not be made. Nor could adequate training be provided to poll workers responsible for the preliminary ballot count. As a result, most of the vote count was not finalized until early Monday March 2, with exhausted poll workers struggling with the unwieldy new system over the course of some 24 hours. The delay contributed to the atmosphere of unease that the Court rulings had created.
Late on Sunday night the TSE announced that technical difficulties had impeded the posting of the preliminary results on the Tribunal’s website. TSE President Julio Olivo claimed that the difficulties were the result of deliberate sabotage, and the Attorney General’s Office is currently conducting an investigation.
The March 1 elections showcased the historical tensions between the two conflicting political projects and visions of socioeconomic development present in every election since the end of the bloody civil war that ravaged the country from 1980 to 1992. The current administration has sought to continue the progressive agenda established under the first FMLN administration with increased social investment directed at historically abandoned and excluded sectors. The March election results thus have great bearing on whether the government will be able to advance its political agenda in the face of a recalcitrant right-wing opposition.
From the beginning, it seemed unlikely that either of the country’s two major parties were going to achieve the 43-seat simple majority in the National Assembly required to pass or reform any laws. After the dust had settled, Arena had 35 seats (including three won in coalition with the National Coalition Party- PCN), up from its current 28, while the FMLN retained the 31 seats won in the last legislative elections. The Grand National Alliance party (GANA) won 11 seats, the PCN four, and the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) obtained one. A coalition between PCN and Salvadoran Democracy party (DS) won one seat, while the remaining seat went to the PCN-PDC coalition. ARENA grew primarily by eating up the votes of smaller right-wing parties, and won back seats it had lost when five deputies defected from the party after the 2012 elections.
As a result of the Constitutional Chamber’s ruling, PARLACEN representatives were elected by direct vote for the first time in Salvadoran history. The FMLN and ARENA each won eight seats.
In municipal councils, ARENA won 132 mayorships versus the 85 obtained by the FMLN. Even though the number of local governments in control of the FMLN dropped by ten, the left-wing party scored major victories in four of the five most populous cities: San Salvador, Soyapango, Mejicanos and San Miguel, while losing Santa Ana to ARENA.
The FMLN loss of municipalities is attributed in part to the massive media campaigns against the government by ARENA and the right, especially around the issues of violence and security. In addition, the FMLN’s selection of mayoral candidates may not have reflected grassroots interests and concerns. Another element that likely favored the right is that Salvadorans were arguably suffering general electoral fatigue as presidential elections were held just last year.
The introduction of pluralist city councils, one of the few uncontested changes in new voting rules, guarantees that losing parties get proportional representation in city council seats. In the past the winning party filled all the seats on the city council. This change contributes to greater representation, transparency, and accountability within the councils.
In the municipality of San Salvador, which had been in the hands of ARENA for the previous two terms, the FMLN’s candidate, charismatic businessman-turned-politician Nayib Bukele, won by 48.47 percent of the votes versus the 46.49 percent obtained by his closest rival, former Assembly representative Edwin Zamora. In San Miguel, the FMLN’s victory brought an end to the dynastic rule of Will Salgado, a notorious political party-hopper who had served as mayor of the municipality for the past 15 years. The San Salvador suburb of Santa Tecla was won by Roberto D’Aubuisson, Jr., the son of the founder of ARENA who was the notorious leader of the death squads and considered by the 1993 UN Truth Commission to be the intellectual author of Archbishop Oscar Romero’s 1980 assassination.
The March 1st vote has done little to change the balance of power in El Salvador. Although the results prove that the FMLN is still the principal political force in El Salvador, ARENA was awarded major legislative gains. Given that the new legislature will be responsible for selecting one third of the country’s Supreme Court judges as well as appointing a new Attorney General, securing the majority in every decision will be crucial for the electoral future of both parties. Since neither of the two blocks will control the legislature, both will be forced to build alliances with the smaller parties to push their agendas forward.
El Salvador’s electoral democracy has made enormous gains in recent years. But increasing politically-motivated Supreme Court interventions threaten the nation’s democratic institutions. Unfortunately, it does not seem like these interventions will stop anytime soon. On April 28, in a move that was described by Sigfrido Reyes, current head of the Salvadoran Congress, as a technical coup d’état against the March elections, the Supreme Court, ruled that the investiture of 24 elected legislators would be temporarily halted. This ruling was made after the Supreme Court accepted appeals from losing candidates from the PCN, GANA, PDC and CD parties to contest the results.
The Salvadoran electorate demonstrated its civic commitment on election day, with poll workers making heroic efforts to ensure a transparent process despite the cumbersome last-minute changes. In the face of a massive destabilization campaign carried out by the right-wing opposition, the election results had been certified, and the parties were preparing to return to the difficult task of governing until the most recent ruling of the Supreme Court complicated the situation once again.
Despite all the circumstances surrounding the elections and whatever occurs in the aftermath, the majority of the electorate showed signs of maturity and trust in electoral institutions, a promising sign for the future. As President Sánchez Cerén stated: “We have to learn from the Salvadoran people. They have showed that they believe in democracy, that they do not want to return to the times of conflict.”
Angeles Rodríguez-Domínguez is a Mexican writer, journalist, and activist based in Mexico City. She holds a Master's degree in Latin American Studies from UC Berkeley and travels regularly to Central and South America to report on current regional topics. She joined CISPES’ electoral observation delegation for the March 1 elections in El Salvador.

author: NACLA


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What We Know and What Is Still Up in the Air After the Alleged Coup in Burundi · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Celebration and jubilation near Presidential offices in Bujumbura after the overthrow of Nkurunziza. #BurundiCoup pic.twitter.com/WhJzXKfS69
— Robert ALAI (@RobertAlai) May 13, 2015
Following incumbent Burundi President Nkurunziza's candidacy for a third term, General Godefroid Niyombare announced that he has dismissed the current administration and that he is taking over until further notice. The government denies such coup has taken place and calls it a “farce”. The situation is evidently still very fluid in Burundi, but here is summary of what is known and what is still not clear in Bujumbura, the capital from Penelope Starr (via UN Dispatch blog):
President Nkurunziza was not in the country when the coup was announced (but no one knows whether he is back yet): The president was attending a Summit of Eastern African Nations when the coup was announced. He has tried to fly back to the capital city but it is unclear whether he has succeeded.
This is not (just) about ethnic conflicts :
Nkurunziza and General Niyombare are both former Hutu rebel leaders. They also belong to the same governing party, and Niyombare was both Ambassador to Kenya and intelligence chief, a post he was dismissed from earlier this year.
Like in Burkina Faso earlier this year, public opinion in Burundi seems to be in support of the coup as a way to oppose African life rulers:
What’s happening today in Burundi is reminiscent of what took place late last year in Burkina Faso, when long-time head of state Blaise Compaore was deposed by the military after declaring his intention to run for yet another term. While the situation in Burkina Faso is still in flux, it was a key moment, as the public massively supported the coup, fed up with Compaore’s decades-long rule (..)but The situation in Burundi is also different, particularly given the protracted civil war which ended in 2005.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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An Egyptian Official Resigns After Saying Garbage Collectors’ Sons Cannot Become Judges · Global Voices
Mohamed Hassan

The social pyramid of ancient Egypt, the higher you went the more important you became and the more your living standards improved. Even in ancient Egypt, upward mobility was possible
Can the son of a garbage collector become a judge? Not in Egypt, says the country's Minister of Justice Mahfoodh Saber, whose comments spurned a storm of reactions on social media, forcing the minister to resign.
On the May 11, Saber said in a television interview:
The job of a judge requires someone from an environment fit for such a role, with our respect to the janitor and whoever is beneath or above. The environment in which a judge is raised must be suitable. I'm not saying it has to be high but it shouldn't be low. We thank all the janitors who raised their sons to become educated, but giving someone from that background a judge position will make him suffer from a lot, from depression to other problems. It will make him unable to continue.
Even in ancient Egypt social mobility wasn't impossible. The sons of peasants would be sent to learn as apprentices with craftsmen and they would move up to a higher class in the society. The fact that class doesn't only still play a role in Egypt but that upward social mobility is impossible shocked many. The former minister seems to say that even if someone works hard and achieves well in his studies, he will not be able to earn what could improve his social status.
For example, being a doctor is considered as a high-paying job in most of the world. However, Egyptian doctor Riham Abdelstar notes how intern doctors earn about 20 US dollars a month:
و كل المذاكرة دي و السنة اللي دخلت في شهرها الـ 13 دي و في الآخر هبقى بعد عام ونص طبيب امتياز بمرتب 150 جنيه و بركب موصلات يوميا بـ 5 جنيه
— ريهام عبد الستار (@rihamabdelstar) September 12, 2012
After all those years of studying and training, I will become an intern doctor after a year and a half and make 150 Egyptian pounds [20$] a month and pay 5 pounds everyday for transport
The minister's comments made more Egyptian speak out about the growing in inequality and class discrimination in Egypt. On Twitter, Kareem Samy tweeted:
قصص الكفاح اللى كنا بنسمعها زمان بتاعة ابن عامل النظافة او غيره دى بدات تختفى للعلم بالشئ المجتمع بدات تزيد فيه الطبقية والبرجوازيه
— kareem samy (@kareemsamy17) May 13, 2015
The success stories of janitors’ sons and others that we used to hear are disappearing. For your information, our community is being transformed by classicism and the bourgeois
The reactions to the statements forced the minister to resign. That didn't stop the debate about social classes to become the talk of the Egyptian social media sphere. Cartoonist Islam Jawish made fun of the incident with this sketch:
- It's true, a janitor son isn't fit to be a chancellor – Why? Because of the prestige? -No, Because he's clean.
The resignation, however, doesn't mean the end of discrimination for Egyptians. Bassel Khaled asks a very good question:
يعني هو كدة ابن عامل النظافة هيبقي قاضي #اقالة_وزير_العدل #استقالة_وزير_العدل
— Bassel Khaled (@Bassel5aled) May 11, 2015
So now [after the resignation] can a janitor's son become a judge?
Another Twitter user noted the illegality of such rhetoric according to the Egyptian constitution:
وزير العدل مش عارف القانون و ان العمله جريمه يعاقب عليها القانون #اقاله_وزير_العدل pic.twitter.com/DQZAUu1JQ0
— BaبومبوHa2 (@BahaaBme) May 11, 2015
The justice minister doesn't know that he just committed a crime punishable by the law
[picture translation: All citizens are equal before the law. They are equal in rights, freedoms and general duties, without discrimination based on religion, belief, sex, origin, race, color, language, disability, social class, political or geographic affiliation or any other reason.
Discrimination and incitement of hatred is a crime punished by law.
The State shall take necessary measures for eliminating all forms of discrimination, and the law shall regulate creating an independent commission for this purpose.]
The debate even drew the sarcasm of diplomats. The British ambassador to Egypt John Casson tweeted:
عايز تشتغل في السفارة البريطانية؟ نرحب بالجميع و نرحب بابن عامل النظافة. https://t.co/bNnQRFkwSs
— British Amb in Egypt (@FCOJohnCasson) May 13, 2015
Do you want to work in the British Embassy? We welcome everyone and we welcome the janitor's son
The reactions to the ambassador's tweet were diverse, between those who wanted to kick him out of the country and those who cheered him for his sense of humour.
This isn't the first time that this matter was discussed in Egypt. The deputy head of the cassation court Ahmed Ali Abdulrahman said the exact same thing before.
The fact that this incident didn't pass like previous incidents did before might mean that there's a rise in role of social media where people are more capable of getting news and interacting with it. This doesn't make up for the void in parliamentary oversight caused by the delay in elections of course. However, the fact that people from various groups are debating the role of class segregation in the structure of the state is uplifting.
Where I come from such things are barely noticed when they happen and pass without repercussions as this Twitter user Abu Omar Al Shafee from Bahrain notes:
#Bahrain التعيينات الجديدة لوكلاء النيابة تنوعت ما بين ابناء نائب ونائب سابق وكبارية القوم .. ولا عندنا تمييز يا علي سلمان
— أبوعمر- الشافعي (@ALSHAF3EE) July 17, 2012
The new appointments for the public prosecutors in Bahrain were distributed among the sons of Members of Parliament, former members of parliament and people in power…What discrimination are you talking about?

author: Mohamed Hassan


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A Japanese Town Wants UNESCO Recognition for Kamikaze Memorabilia · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Tokko “kamikaze” pilots before their final mission. Image: Wikimedia.
The small town of Chiran in southern Japan has sparked global controversy after announcing it will seek UNESCO recognition for its collection of “kamikaze”-related documents.
In the final days of the Pacific War, as part of its campaign of industrialized total warfare where every element of society was mobilized in the war effort, Japan sent kamikaze pilots, better known as tokubetsu kogekitai (特別攻撃隊) or tokko in Japan, on suicide missions against American warships.
Chiran, now part of the municipality of Minamikyushu on the southwestern tip of Kyushu, once served as a base and departure point for tokko pilots. More than 1,000 pilots from Chiran alone went on to die on such suicide missions.
Before the young pilots flew to their deaths, many left behind letters, personal diaries, photographs, commemorative headbands and other memorabilia. Many of these items are preserved and are on display at the Chiran Peace Museum.
Minamikyushu is applying for these documents to be given UNESCO's “Memory of the World” status.
“With 70 years now passed since, this period of human experience is quickly vanishing from the realm of living memory,” Kampei Shimoide, mayor of Minamikyushu, said in a news release to the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Japan (FCCJ) announcing the UNESCO application. “It is in this solemn spirit that the city of Minamikyūshū is submitting for UNESCO ‘Memory of the World’ recognition its collection of documents related to the tokko campaign in Chiran.”
UNESCO's Memory of the World programme is devoted to preserving historical documents, and sometimes confused with the UNESCO World Heritage list, which highlights natural heritage sites and human cultural achievements.
“This is not an attempt to glorify or rationalize Japan’s kamikaze legacy,” said Shimoide. “Rather, it is an attempt to share with the world this unique documentary record of a unique human experience to serve current and future generations of all nations as a permanent reminder of the horror of war and as a contribution to the cause of world peace.”
Comments about the announcement were mixed on popular English-language news Japan Today, which reported on Minamikyushu's bid for Memory of World status. Several commenters were unaware that the purpose of the Memory of World programme is to preserve important historical documents rather than celebrate cultural achievements.
One commenter on the Japan Today story said:
Some kamikaze pilots also violated the Geneva Convention by attacking hospital ships. This was a war crime, and the UN shouldn't entertain the underlying suggestion here in this UNESCO application that military combatants in “desperate conditions” can be forgiven for violating the Convention. If Japanese soldiers had followed the Geneva Convention (which they were required to do), their “horror of war” would have come to an end much sooner.
According to another commenter:
This is part of Japan's history and should be preserved, hopefully as cautionary artifacts, and made available for public viewing. However, I do not believe they should receive UNESCO certification.
Another commenter pointed out that, in order to achieve Memory of the Word status, the Japanese Ministry of Education must approve the application. According the Minamikyushi website, the commenter says, so far the Japanese government has rejected the application.
M.G. Sheftall, a history professor at Japan’s Shizuoka University and an adviser for Minami Kyushu's Minamikyushu project, said the group would drop the plan if any effort was made by the authorities to distort its message.
Sheftall is the author of Blossoms in the Wind, a book about the Kamikaze pilots that incorporates interviews with tokko corps survivors and extensive research of primary sources, such as the letters, diaries and other documents that Minamikyushu hopes preserve with Memory of World status.
The full press conference can be viewed here:

author: Nevin Thompson


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Bahrain Court Upholds Six Month Sentence Against Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab Over Tweet · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Nabeel Rajab. Photo by Conor McCabe via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)
A Bahrain court today upheld a six month sentence against human rights defender Nabeel Rajab over comments he made about ISIS on Twitter.
The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights president is already in custody, under investigation for other tweets, and risks a lengthier jail sentence.
A friend, running Rajab's account which has 261K followers, made the announcement, reposting the tweet Rajab was prosecuted for:
BREAKING: Appeal court in #Bahrain upholds 6 months sentence to Nabeel Rajab on charges related to a tweet. pic.twitter.com/f76VeEPQha
— Nabeel Rajab (@NABEELRAJAB) May 14, 2015
This is the latest in a series of legal actions against Rajab, who was initially convicted of “denigrating an official body” in tweets that likened Bahrain's security apparatus to an “incubator” for fighters of the radical group ISIS. The tweet for which he was convicted suggested that Bahrain's security institutions had a number of staff that had joined terrorist groups, including ISIS.
Rajab, who heads the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights — not recognised as a legal entity by the government — was only released from prison in May 2014 after serving two years for “disrupting public order.” That sentence came after Rajab was arrested for trying to investigate human rights violations that took place during Bahrain's popular uprising in 2011.
On April 2, 2015, Rajab was arrested from his home in Bani Jamra, for tweets concerning the welfare of individuals incarcerated in Bahrain's Jaw Prison as well as news about the Saudi-led coalition that has waged airstrikes against Yemen since the end of March.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Bolivia’s Civil Service Wracked by a Series of Social Media Slip-Ups · Global Voices
Mary Aviles

Election Day in La Paz, Bolivia. June 28, 2006. Photo by Rocco Lucia. CC 2.0.
Over the last few weeks, Bolivia's civil servants have been falling like dominos. Some have been temporarily relieved of their duties, while others have been dismissed outright. The reasons vary, but they all share a common thread: an appalling lapse in judgment for individuals occupying such key positions.
In March, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) decided to fire one of the officials in charge of managing its social media presence after he posted a message containing a spelling mistake on the eve of regional and local elections, in which opposition candidates gained ground against the governing MAS party in the country's four biggest cities: La Paz, El Alto, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz.
“Do you know where you will be boting?” [sic]. That was the question officially tweeted by the electoral body and also posted on Facebook—a glaring mistake that generated widespread criticism on the Internet.
TSE Vice President Wilfredo Ovando explained to the online newspaper El Deber that once the person responsible for the error was identified, they were formally given notice for having compromised the institution's image. But the repercussions went beyond a mere fumbled keystroke, and it was suggested that the incident had been a deliberate attempt to subvert the electoral process:
“Son funcionarios del Sifde los que se encargan de difundir esa información, lo hemos identificado y se lo ha despedido. No creemos que haya sido un error porque es algo muy elemental, por eso nosotros “, aseveró la autoridad al medio.
It is officials in Sifde [the Bolivian department responsible for strengthening the democratic process] who are in charge of broadcasting this information; we identified him [the culprit] and he was fired. We don't believe that it was an error because it was something so basic; that is why we believe that it was intentional and meant to harm us,” the TSE authority asserted to the newspaper.
This was not the only controversy linked to social media and the TSE. Spokesperson Dina Chuquimia was temporarily recused from the elections for having retweeted comments by Guillermo Mendoza, the government's mayoral candidate in La Paz.
Chuquimia defended herself against the accusation of violating electoral impartiality, stating that her Twitter account had been “hacked.”
Congressman Amilcar Barral published Chuquimia's retweet, dated March 5, 2015, on his Facebook page. The comment originally made by mayoral candidate Mendoza, which Chuqimia allegedly shared, reads: “We were in different markets in Panpahasi publicizing our platform and listening to all the suggestions and proposals.”
Chuquimia questioned why Congressman Barral would publish a message 20 days after it was originally retweeted and accused him of harassing her via telephone. She indicated that a couple of years ago, Barral had called her continuously requesting the TSE issue resolutions in his favor.
More recently, a cabinet-level blunder caused Bolivian President Evo Morales to remove Jorge Ledezma from the Defense Ministry, after he showed up to deliver aid to Chilean flood victims wearing a vest with the slogan “The sea is Bolivia's.”
Ministro de Defensa boliviano que uso chaleco con frase “El mar es de Bolivia” para ofrecer ayuda a Chile destituido pic.twitter.com/CzqDjSmSgb
— VVSincensura (@VVperiodistas) April 1, 2015
Bolivian Minister of Defense who sported vest with the words “The sea is Bolivia's” as he offered help to Chile is sacked.
Bolivia has been embroiled in a territorial dispute with Chile for decades, having lost crucial access to the sea during the War of the Pacific at the end of the 19th century. Bolivia has taken its neighbor to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the hopes of resolving the bilateral conflict. Despite nationalist tension following the latest incident, President Morales publicly apologized to Chile and reiterated his commitment to offering humanitarian aid freely and without any political motivation. In the meantime, however, the Chilean Senate passed a motion of protest in which it rejected aid used as propaganda on the part of the Bolivia, accusing the Morales government of “taking advantage of an unfortunate situation” to further its objectives.

author: Mary Aviles


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Chilean Campaign to Prevent Child Grooming Goes Viral · Global Voices
Global Voices Latin America

The Chilean Police campaign against grooming, in which adults earn the trust of minors online to later abuse them, has already reached more than 5 million views. It has become a success going way beyond the borders of the South American country, according to Verne website.
The video was published on Facebook to raise awareness among young people. It tells the story of a teenage girl who sets up a date with a guy she met on a social network. The man, who has been asking her for “sexy” pictures is older than she imagined. The video leads to think the girl was abused.
Augusto Schuster, a very popular Chilean teen actor and singer with a base of 270,000 Twitter followers, was part of the campaign. At the end of the video, which is also available on YouTube, Schuster questions kids: “How many of your social network friends do you really know? Grooming is not a game. It is abuse. Remember that on Internet, the pictures are not only yours, they belong to everyone.”
Groomers pretend to be teenagers to take advantage of minors on social networks, wining their trust little by little, then asking them for intimate images, or setting up meetings that can end up in sexual abuse. Besides the video, the Chilean campaign offers tips — and even a test — to help kids recognize dangerous behavior. Verne adds that the police are promoting the hashtag #todoscontraelgrooming (everyone against grooming).
Self-evaluation: Am I exposed to grooming?
1. I have a profile in more than one social network.
2. I have more than 250 friends on Facebook.
3. I have accepted friendships requests from people I don't know.
4. I have established strong ties with people I never met in person.
5. I have dated people I have never met on real life.
6. Have spoken on a webcam with strangers.
7. I have set up dates with people I met online.
8. I have taken pictures of myself on my underwear.
9. I have taken pictures of intimate parts of my body.
10. I have been asked to strip infront of a webcam or send intimate pictures.
11. I have been forced to send intimate pictures.
If you have answered YES to the questions:
1-5 You are vulnerable to be contacted by a groomer
6-8 You have probably been contacted by a groomer and you are at risk.
9-11 You have been a grooming victim.

author: Global Voices Latin America


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Gaza Rolls Out Red Carpet For Film Festival in War-Battered Neighborhood · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

Jordan-based Karama Human Rights Film Festival has rolled out the red carpet in Gaza's Shuja'iyya neighborhood.
It is highly symbolic for Shuja'iyya, also spelled Shejaiya, to be chosen to host the Karama Gaza Film Festival. One of the poorest and most-crowded neighborhoods in the enclave, Shuja'iyya was the scene of a brutal massacre during Israel's military operation in Gaza last summer. The massacre killed at least 90 Palestinians on July 20, 2014.
The Karama (Arabic for ‘Dignity’) Festival, which started yesterday and ends today, describes itself as “a platform that utilizes screen arts that involve human rights and justice issues as their subject matter in order to create a cross-cultural platform for the wider general public together with filmmakers, artists, activists and other stakeholders, in order to raise public awareness and encourage their engagement in actions that would eliminate violations of Human Rights.”
Among the movies being screened at the Karama Gaza Film Festival are “I'm Human” (Razan Haikal, Jordan/Germany), “Baghdad Messi” (Sahim Omar Kalifa, Iraq) and “Roshmia” (Salim Abu Jabal, Palestine).
Gazans watching a screening during the Karama Gaza Film Festival (Source: Karama Gaza Film Festival Facebook Page)
Gaza-based American journalist Dan Cohen interpreted this event as symbolic of Palestinians’ resilience:
The red carpet was rolled out through the rubble of Shujaiya. What a deep display of resilience from these survivors! pic.twitter.com/d320Nmg4B4
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) May 12, 2015
A couple of months after the massacre, DemocracyNow! interviewed Eran Efrati, the Israeli army whistleblower who was arrested by Israel after he posted details about the massacre based on interviews he conducted with Israeli soldiers who were in Shuja'iyya. Efrati spoke of the massacre, including the killing of 23-year-old Salem Khaleel Shamaly, whose murder was filmed by the International Solidarity Movement.

author: Elia J. Ayoub


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Israeli Professor Shows the World: ‘This Is What a Feminist Looks Like’ · Global Voices
Maya Norton

The photo that launched a million “likes” on Imgur, May 11, 2015
The most famous feminist in Israel this week is Dr. Sydney Engelberg, a professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who shot to internet stardom after his photograph comforting a fussy baby while continuing to teach went viral.
In Israel, where students begin their university degrees at a later age than the rest of the world due to army service and the near-mandatory gap year of travel following, many students are married with children.
The photograph was first posted on Imgur three days ago (May 11, 2015), and has since been shared over a million times on that site alone. A re-post on the personal Facebook page of Engelberg's daughter has garnered 50,000 likes.
In Imgur's comments, user Cbarbz remarks:
I can't even begin to imagine how much that probably meant to her [the student mother] – knowing that someone valued her education and supported her that much.
EveryonesHiro adds:
Good for him for understanding how hard it is for her to be a student and a mother and that she's trying to better herself for her son.
The rapid spread of the story and the overwhelming positivity of the comments, rare for any article with “Israel” in its name, indicate that people are both connecting with it as a tale of human kindness and hungering for real life examples of feminism and support of the daily labor of women's lives. This image provides a rare taste of both within the construct of an institutional setting, revealing a glimpse into a world in which women's lives and responsibilities are organically supported by the community at large; an embodiment of the proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.”
As a grandfather of five and a professor of social psychology for 45 years, Dr. Engelberg told Yahoo! Parenting:
The reason is that education for me is not simply conveying content, but teaching values. How better than by role modeling?
As to how often babies attend his lecturers, he says:
It is certainly not uncommon, but I wouldn’t say it is the norm. It does seem to be much more acceptable in Israel, which is a very family oriented society and culture.
Jonathan Kaplan, vice provost of Hebrew University's Rothberg International School, explains that the university's policies are a reflection of Israeli values:
Israel is a very familial society, and it is not at all strange for young mothers to bring children to classes. Babies are often brought to weddings or formal occasions, and during school holidays it is not uncommon to see children running through the halls of office buildings or university departments.
On the Facebook page New Wave Feminists, women are discussing whether it is more woman-friendly to allow babies in class or if it is too distracting to the class as a whole. Kelly Smith writes:
I was pregnant in high school. [Had] to give a final speech in class. Climbing onto the stool in front of the room was a challenge. There was some whispering, I was embarrassed. The teacher simply offered to deliver if needed. Everyone laughed and calmed down. Best encouragement ever… No need to make a big deal, just be supportive and move on.
On the same thread, Judy Caldor Linderman concurs:
I had an English Prof that told me to let my 14 month old wander around the room. A great guy. That was almost 30 years ago when i was working on my second BS. Guess it paid off since that kid just finished his masters degree.
Prof. Rivka Carmi, M.D., President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Photo credit: Dani Machlis
Hebrew University's child-friendly policies are not the only ones that deserve recognition. Prof. Rivka Carmi, M.D. is the first women to lead an Israeli university and the first to chair Israel's Committee of University Presidents. Upon taking the helm, President Carmi proclaimed one of her top missions was promoting gender equality in the university system, stating:
The whole system is really tailor-made for men. Women have different needs, different lifestyles, and different roles that are not being at all taken care of in the system.
Under President Carmi's leadership, Ben-Gurion University became the first Israeli university to open nursing rooms on campus for breastfeeding mothers, establish an on-site daycare facility (one of only three universities to do so), as well as take significant steps to make the Ivory Tower friendlier to women and families, including providing funds and establishing policies for women researchers to advance in the academy with an understanding of their family needs.
The Facebook page of the Israeli Student Union proves that Israeli professors are more child-friendly than most in the classroom, posting photographs from around the country of the babes of academe.
Among them are this baby being comforted in class by a yellow rubber duck (professor unidentified).
Source: Israeli Student Union page, Facebook
This infant being cared for by her mother's professor in what appears to be a heavily female class. The photo is aptly labeled by one commenter, “Male multi-tasking.”
Source: Israeli Student Union page, Facebook
And this photo shared by Hadass Arussi, where she explains:
Source: Hadass Arussi on Israeli Student Union page, Facebook

author: Maya Norton


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Khamenei’s #Letter4U Bots Still Active Four Months After Its Launch · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

A #letter4u campaign photo tweeted on the Supreme Leader's Twitter account.
On January 21, during the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France,  Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah  Seyyed Ali Khamenei penned an open letter to the ‘youth in Europe and North America’ defending Islam, and the Western world's skewed reception of the religion. He also started tweeting the sentiments of the letter on his @khamenei_ir twitter account, starting the hashtag #Letter4U. A closer look of this hashtag indicates it remains active through bots, which are still crawling through Twitter four months after the launch of the campaign.
Don’t allow the arrogants to hypocritically introduce their own recruited terrorists as representatives of Islam. #ISIS #BokoHaram #Letter4U
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 21, 2015
In late March Morgan Carlston noted that spam bots were promoting the hashtag on Twitter.
well this is friggin creepy. #pro-#iran hackers seem to have been busy on @twitter… #IranTalks #nuclear pic.twitter.com/921cSU3NNx — Morgan Carlston (@MorganCarlston) March 22, 2015
Morgan elaborated in a blog post:
There are hundreds if not thousands of accounts, most of them with over 10000 tweets. Twitter has a limit of 1000 tweets per day, and the accounts seem to have been created with this in mind.
Many of the accounts use fake photos taken from a variety of places. Some of them show celebrities, while others journalists or other media personalities.
.@AnnaLindow thought you should be aware of this: someone using your photo and spreading pro-#Iran govt propaganda pic.twitter.com/CzqlZAJY97
— Morgan Carlston (@MorganCarlston) March 22, 2015
David Masad, a computational science researcher retrieved the tweet rhythm for the hashtag between May 8th to the 11th, and found the image below, which indicates that bots are still being deployed to spread tweets with the #letter4u hashtag, along with a link to Khamenei's website. Mason explained in an email to Global Voices,
The chart shows the exact same number of tweets using the hashtag being tweeted at precise, regular intervals, with no changes based on the time of day. Human conversations go in bursts, exhibit cycles based on times of day that people are in Twitter, and in general are *not* regular.
The tweet frequency for #letter4u from May 8th to 11th. Image provided by David Mason, and used with permission.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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One Year of #LunesDeBlogsGV (Monday of Blogs on Global Voices) · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

A year ago, Global Voices in Spanish began dedicating the first day of the week to listening to readers’ recommendations about blogs. This idea came out of a exhaustive discussion about whether blogs are endangered or not and what the real reach of what we call citizen media. The Twitter hashtag #LunesDeBlogsGV (Monday of Blogs on GV) was born, and since then has curated blogs that you, the users, don't want to see lost in the abundance of information offered in cyberspace.
While some Mondays had more participation than others, the truth is that this initiative was maintained throughout the year thanks to everyone's collaboration. From our experience, we can confirm and conclude:
The Spanish-speaking blogging community has shown us a great deal of support. For instance, Ivan Lasso, a blogger behind several projects on the web, says:
me parece una iniciativa que ayuda a visibilizar contenido interesante, algo que siempre es bueno con todo el contenido que nos inunda a diario. Además, he visto que un par de enlaces de los que recomendé los habéis convertido en posts, por lo que imagino que es una práctica habitual. Así que añadiría que al tomar algunas recomendaciones y elaborar posts a partir de ellas, ayudáis a resaltar aún más el contenido, realizando así una labor de curaduría bastante completa al ir más allá de la fugacidad de Twitter.
To me, it's an initiative that helps give visibility to interesting content, something that is always good given all the content that we are overwhelmed with every day. In addition, I saw a couple links I suggested turned into posts, which I suppose is common practice. So I would add that by taking some recommendations and developing posts from them, you all help highlight content even more, curating more completley by going beyond Twitter's transience.
Our friends from SocialTic, an organization that promotes good technology uses, also devoted us a few words (thank you Indira!):
#LunesDeBlogsGV es una iniciativa que ha logrado tejer redes entre blogueros a través de la publicación y recomendación de blogs cada semana en Twitter. De corrupción hasta hábitos de lectura, los contenidos que se comparten a través de este espacio semanal muestran lo diversa que es la comunidad de Global Voices. Iniciativas como esta son de gran importancia hoy en día para seguir nutriendo a internet de contenidos diferentes y generando redes entre usuarios, manteniendo a Internet como un espacio de intercambio abierto. Para SocialTIC hemos encontrado muy buenas recomendaciones de blogs en el hashtag y nos alegra ver que la comunidad participante cada vez es más grande.
The #LunesDeBlogsGV initiative has managed to weave connections between bloggers through the publication and recommendation of blogs every week on Twitter. From corruption to reading habits, the content shared by this weekly space demonstrates how diverse Global Voices’ community is. Projects like this are of great importance nowadays to keep encouraging diverse content on the Internet and generating different connections between users, preserving the Internet as an open exchange space. For SocialTIC we have found great recommendations for blogs through the hashtag, making us feel gratified to see how the contributing community keeps increasing.
Mujeres Construyendo (Woman Building), a group of women bloggers who use information and communications technology to encourage women to speak up, lead and participate, was one of the more regular contributors this year. Claudia Calvin, the founder of the project, shares:
Desde hace un año, los lunes han cambiado de significado. En Mujeres Construyendo es el día de darle vuelo a la difusión del talento de las blogueras de nuestra comunidad y de poner una lupa global para que el mundo conozca lo que las mujeres valientes y talentosas dicen, escriben, piensan y proponen. ¿Por qué? Porque es el día que #lunesdeblogs, iniciativa impulsada con visión y asertividad por Global Voices, tiene lugar y es cuando conocemos también a las y los blogueros de otras latitudes que comparten sus bitácoras.
Gracias Global Voices no sólo por pensar en la importancia de magnificar las voces de la blogósfera en español, el tercer idioma más importante en la red, sino por invitarnos a formar parte de esta iniciativa. Compartimos un interés común y una visión: los blogs y su importancia como herramienta de empoderamiento para las voces diversas. El mundo actual no se puede explicar sin ellos y son, sin duda, un factor relevante de cambio, de información y de denuncia.
Un abrazo al equipo de Global Voices y ¡sigamos construyendo historia!
The meaning of Mondays changed since one year ago. On Mujeres Construyendo, it's when the talents of our blogger community take flight and when we have a global audience to let hte world know what brave and talented women have to say, write, think and propose. Why? Because it's when #lunesdeblogs, an initiative driven with vision and assertiveness by Global Voices, takes place and that is when we also know about bloggers from other parts of the planet sharing their own blogs.
Thank you Global Voices, not only for thinking about the importance of magnifying bloggers in the Spanish language, the third most important language on the web, but for inviting us to be part of this initiative. We have a common interest and vision: blogs and their importance as tool of empowerment for diverse voices. The current world cannot be explained without them, and without a doubt they are an important factor of change, information and reporting
A hug for the Global Voices team, and let's keep building history!
Thank you all for joining us in this first year of #LunesDeBlogsGV. There's much more to come!
You can find some of the Spanish-language posts here and their English-translations here.

author: Juan Arellano


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The Marshall Island’s Momentum-Changing Proposal for Shipping Carbon Emissions · Global Voices
350.org

A large cargo ship full of shipping containers sailing into port. Photo: stockarch.com. CC BY 3.0
This article is based on a piece written by Aaron Packard for 350.org, an organisation building a global climate movement, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
UPDATE: The International Maritime Organisation shelved the Marshall Islands’ proposal on May 13 after it failed to win much support among member states.
This week as the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) meets in London, they’ll be considering a proposal from the Republic of the Marshall Islands calling for a binding global reduction target on shipping carbon emissions. After years of slow movement on reducing shipping emissions, the proposal brings new momentum at a critical time.
The Marshall Islands is in a curious position of on the one hand being the holder of the world’s third largest shipping registry, and on the other hand being at very real risk from the unchecked emissions of shipping. Foreign Minister Tony de Brum highlighted this in a statement:
We are an island nation and shipping is one of our lifelines. At the same time, carbon emissions, including those from shipping, pose an existential threat to our people and our country.
Since 1990, shipping emissions have increased by approximately 70%, and in 2012, represented 2.7% of global CO2 emissions. If these emissions were reported as a country, maritime transport would rank between Japan and Germany on a table of CO2 emitters. Yet these emissions are not held accountable through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and predictions are that emissions will grow even more rapidly in coming decades if left unchecked. It has been left up to the IMO to make progress, which has been slow – as the infographic below from Transport & Environment, an umbrella group representing European environmental and sustainability organizations, highlights.
If the Marshall Islands proposal is adopted by the IMO this week, it would bring a crucial breakthrough for reducing shipping emissions, and beyond that, an important momentum builder as the world builds to the UN climate talks in Paris later this year.


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‘They Belong in the Classroom, Not in Prison’: Myanmar’s Detained Student Protesters · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Ei Thinzar Maung, student leader from Mandalay. Arrested last March 10. Portrait by Kenneth Wong, republished with permission.
Seventy students remain in detention in Myanmar for joining protests against the proposed National Education Law, which critics believe would give the central government excessive power in managing the country’s higher education institutions. Most of the detained students were arrested in a police crackdown on March 10, 2015.
There have been several street protests across the country since last year when the parliament introduced the measure. Because of the demonstrations, lawmakers called for negotiations with several student groups. The bill was approved last month, but protesters have continued to oppose the new draft.
The violent dispersal of student rallies last March generated a public outcry that forced the government to announce a probe into the incident. Human rights groups and students from around the world also demanded the release of the detained student protesters.
One of the people supporting the campaign calling for the immediate release of Myanmar's students is San Francisco-based artist Kenneth Wong. As a former student activist from Myanmar who joined the historic 1988 uprising, he deplors the imprisonment of the students who were merely voicing their views on legislation that could affect their schools.
To show his solidarity, he made digital portraits of five of the student prisoners, which have been widely shared on the Internet. In an email interview with Global Voices, Wong urged global leaders to speak up about the issue and demand accountability from the Myanmar government. He added:
25 years later, I'm sad to see these young students — the future of the country — paying a heavy price for demanding reform. I don't want them to have to spend the best years of their lives in prison. I think they belong in the classroom, not in prison. That's why I painted their portraits.
Po Po, 20-year old student leader arrested last April 8. Portrait by Kenneth Wong, republished with permission.
Min Thway Thit, student leader from All Burma Federation of Student Unions. Portrait by Kenneth Wong, republished with permission.
Phyo Phyo Aung, 27-year old student leader arrested last March 10. Portrait by Kenneth Wong, republished with permission.
Honey Oo, 27-year old student leader arrested last March 13. Portrait by Kenneth Wong, republished with permission.

author: Mong Palatino


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‘Uber Is Doomed to Be Investigated in China’ · Global Voices
Jack Hu

Photos showing a street confrontation between Uber drivers and traffic police on May 10 in Chengdu. Photos taken by Weibo user Wong Pok.
The latest raid on the offices of popular US-based crowd-sourced taxi service Uber, this time in the southwestern city of Chengdu on May 6, has sparked public criticism of local Chinese authorities. Some accused them of showing a vested interest in the taxi industry while ignoring that same industry's poor service, while others were dismayed to see officials clamp down on yet another foreign Internet company .
Uber has established a presence in about 10 Chinese cities. The crackdown on their offices started in Guangzhou, where officials from the city transportation department, police and business-licensing departments seized cellphones and other equipment, and later spread to other major cities.
An official at the Chengdu city transportation commission said the raids were part of a comprehensive investigation into Uber's role in the unlicensed private taxi business. The Chinese government in January banned drivers of private cars from offering such services through mobile apps.
In addition to the office raids, traffic police have targeted Uber drivers. Wong Pok, a training consultant, described on Twitter-like Weibo a confrontation he witnessed on May 10 in Chengdu:
【成都Uber不哭】今晚成都牛市口海椒市附近，交警吊销Uber司机的驾照并没收手机，众多Uber司机到现场声援斥责钓鱼及暴力执法。顺便提一句，今晚#张惠妹成都演唱会#结束，诸多歌迷打不到车，有出租司机喊出不打表百元起价。世间总有一些事，转发也是力量。我下周将申请成为Uber司机，就这样。
Don’t cry Chengdu Uber: Tonight near Nuishikuo and Haijiaoshi in Chengdu, a traffic police officer confiscated a Uber driver's license and mobile phone. Many Uber drivers arrived at the scene to protest against “fishing operations” [undercover police officers pretending to be customers to lure drivers online]. It happened when the Chang Hui Mei concert finished and Chang's fans could not find any taxis available. Some taxi drivers asked for a RMB100 [approximately US$16 dollars] as a starting price without a receipt. In such a world, forwarding what happened is a show of strength. Next week, I will join Uber as a driver. That's it.
The post was quickly removed, but not before it received about 1,000 comments and was reposted a few thousand times.
Though it was one of the first on the ride-sharing scene, Uber has lagged far behind its Chinese imitators who have grown fast and found backing from major investors.
That doesn't mean, however, that web users haven't complained about the crackdown. A number of commenters argued that the role of the government should be to encourage innovation, facilitate transportation and improve the terrible service in the existing taxi industry, but instead authorities are preventing innovation in order to protect business interests.
MRJERRYZHOU, an auto specialist, was discontented about the reality of the industry:
ZF应该赶紧出台一些游戏规则来合法化这个产业，而不是让某组织通过知法犯法的下三滥手段来执法，在人民心中的标准不是Uber，而是便捷和温馨，如果还是那些拒载、脏乱差、爆粗口的出租车来垄断这个行业，那我（ren)们(min)只能力挺Uber！
The government should release new rules to justify the ride-sharing industry, rather than allow some authorities to enforce the wrong laws. What the people need is convenience and good services for taxis. We, the people, will only support Uber if the market is still monopolized by taxi companies, which often offer dirty cars and awful services and whose drivers often deny or even abuse consumers.
Zhu Hai, an economist, believed local authorities were working on behalf of the taxi industry:
①Uber动了一些地方政府的奶酪，于是被查；②利用权力是地方政府获得利益的最有效方式；③专车打破旧秩序时，不愿失去利益的旧势力进行抵抗
1. Uber was investigated because it threatens the interest that local authorities have in the taxi industry; 2. Abusing power is the most effective way for local authorities to get what they want; 3. The traditional taxi power wants to resist change when special cars break the monopoly.
Some even questioned if the crackdown is part of the government's desire to further restrict the country's access to the internet or even build a state intranet, and that Uber being a foreign internet company is a natural target. Weibo user Mr. Tuixiang Moda shared his thoughts:
继广州Uber被查封之后，成都Uber也刚刚被查封，很多人将之归结于地方交管部门的利益，也有人阴谋论为其国内竞争对手的图谋，但从更大的背景来看，杜绝国外互联网应用的壮大，扶持本土替代应用，乃是国家互联网长期战略，其最终指向的是国家局域网，从这一角度来看，Uber在劫难逃！
Uber’s Chengdu office has been visited by Chinese police after a raid in Guangzhou. Many people attribute it to the interests of local transportation regulators, others link it to the manipulation of Uber’s competitors in China. However, from a larger perspective, it could stem from Beijing’s longtime internet strategy which curbs the growth of foreign internet companies and supports domestic alternatives. All of this would lead to a state intranet. So Uber is doomed to be investigated in China!
This certainly isn't the first time a foreign internet company faced a clampdown. In the past, the Chinese government has curbed access to Google, Facebook, Twitter, and now Uber joins them.

author: Jack Hu


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A Viral Music Video in China Pokes Fun at Xiaomi CEO’s Imperfect English · Global Voices
Patrick Wong

Screen capture from YouTube.
Lei Jun, the founder and CEO of Chinese tech firm Xiaomi, is the latest public figure to be autotuned.
The company unveiled its latest smartphone, the Mi 4i, which is specially designed for the Indian market, in New Delhi on April 24. Near the end of the launch event, Lei joined Vice President of International Hugo Barra on stage and announced that they would give everyone in the audience one of the brand's fitness trackers called Mi Band. As the crowd cheered, Lei asked the gathered Indian Mi fans in English, “Are you OK?” — a phrase which usually implies something is wrong. Lei probably meant “Do you like that?” or “Are you happy?”
Mr. Lemon, an user on Chinese cartoon video website BiliBili, remixed that phrase and others to the tune of German singer Lou Bega’s “Angelina,” creating a music video titled “Shaking with Boss Lei Jun! Are you OK?” The video has since gone viral on the Chinese web:
Responding to the attention that his English-language address was receiving, Lei wrote three days later on microblogging platform Sina Weibo:
上周四小米印度发布会，@HugoBarra 主讲，我上台讲了几句英文，主要是想娱乐一下印度米粉。万万没想到，视频火速传到国内，全国人民都笑了[吃惊][吃惊][吃惊]
现在国际米粉越来越多，我的确应该把英文学好，不让大家失望！加油！
At the launch event last Thursday, over which Hugo Barra presided, I wanted to delight Indian Mi fans by speaking a bit of English. It never occurred to me that [my speech] video would rapidly spread across the country and amuse my fellow Chinese [Awkward Emoji][Awkward Emoji][Awkward Emoji]
As Mi fans grow in numbers around the globe, indeed, I should learn English well, and I will not disappoint everyone. Cheer up!
Many Chinese netizens have poked fun at Lei's English in the comments section of his post, like this one:
雷总，这不怪你，当年我们隔壁班的英语老师就是这样教的！[嘻嘻]
Boss Lei, forget about it. The English teacher next to our classroom back then had a same teaching style as you demonstrated! [Giggle Emoji]
Wang Sicong, the celebrity son of Asia’s richest person Wang Jianlin whose fortune was estimated over $35 billion, even commented on Lei's language skills:
其实英语不好的企业家，我真建议你们就干脆别出国掉这脸。
I advise entrepreneurs who have poor English to not disgrace themselves overseas.
Wang's remark stirred a flurry of responses rebutting his criticism, as “Allen-Running” wrote:
雷军是程序员出生，加入了求伯君的金山，写出了 WPS (求伯君的 WPS 是 DOS下的， Windows 下的 WPS 主要是雷军写的)，扛起了国产软件的大旗，虽然被盗版软件逼得差点破产，但是人家成功了！这么个白手起家的人物，那些靠爹吃饭的人有什么资格嘲笑他？没错，我指的就是王思聪！
Lei Jun was a programmer who joined KingSoft, founded by Qiu Bojun. He developed word processing software WPS (WPS for DOS was made by Qiu Bojun, its Windows version largely made by Lei Jun.) and led the domestic software industry at the time. Though pirate software nearly forced [KingSoft] to go bankrupt, the company still succeeded! He is self-made man, do these people who relied on their fathers have the qualifications to laugh at him? Right, I'm talking about you, Wang Sicong!
Soon after, Wang deleted his previous post and apologised:
对昨晚关于雷布斯的微博致歉，毕竟上一代的企业家没有我们这代人的条件。雷总，Are you OK？下次需要翻译你私信我。
I apologise for the post about Lei Jun last night. Earlier generations weren't given the same education as us. Boss Lei, are you OK? Send me a private message if you need help with translation next time.
Lei’s poor English did not seem to damp Indian Mi fans’ enthusiasm for the India-tailored smartphone, nor does it seem to have gotten in the way of his pugnaciously global ambition.
When Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO of Facebook, visited China in 2014 and stumbled through Chinese during a talk at the Tsinghua University, the audiences still responded positively.
Though, with Chinese companies increasingly wading into oversea markets, part of their success hinges on how well they convey selling points in an understandable way to reach targeted markets.
Echoing Lei's comment on the importance of learning English for the global market, Machonoki contended:
确实要学好英语。要问为什么不能让全世界学好中文，这是典型的儿童思维。说明现在的中国还不够资格！英语作为国际语言的格局已经形成，由不得你说不。雷军是个成功人士，从自身找问题，要赞一个。至于王思聪，可以不用理会。
Learning English well is necessary. Many people often think, why can’t we just let everyone in the world learn Chinese, which implies Chinese still lack qualifications! English has the lingua franca of the world, you have no right to reject it. Lei Jun is a successful figure realizing one of his shortcomings, which should be praised. As for Wang Sicong, just ignore him.
“More companies should consider how to improve their global reach. Their English websites too often today tend to read like too much “blah, blah, blah,” said Huang Youyi in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal. He is a prominent Chinese translator who had translated and interpreted for three Chinese presidents and also participated in translating the book “Xi Jinping: the Governance of China.”
“They know how to speak to 1.3 billion Chinese people but do not know how to speak to the world’s other 5.7 billion people,” Huang added.

author: Patrick Wong


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Amid “Intelligent” Censorship Discussions, Iran Affirms Facebook Will Remain Blocked · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

A user logs onto Facebook from their phone. Photo from Flickr User: Maria Elena (CC: AT)
Discussions regarding the implementation of “intelligent” filtering have proliferated Internet policy discussions within Iran. “Intelligent” filtering is a process whereby they filter select content on a social media platform, rather than the entire site. Our recent research covered the extent of this program on Instagram. In response to “intelligent’ filtering discussions, Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, an advisor to the Committee Charged with Determining Criminal Content (CCDOC) told Tabnak news on May 5, “Facebook will definitely not be included in this type of [smart] filtering, and will remain completely blocked.”
Commenting on the policy on May 14, the New York based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran stated,
The continuation of the Facebook ban reflects the profound fear with which Iranian officials view social media networks, which have proved enormously popular in Iran, particularly among the younger generation.
Previous Iranian discussions of “intelligent” filtering on social networks never breached how the government would implement this program on networks that use HTTPS protocol, such as Facebook. The only known implementation of this program has been through the unencrypted Instagram API.
For further information on this announcement see the International Campaign for Human Right's recent report: “Iranian Officials Re-Affirm Facebook Will Remain Completely Blocked in Iran.”  For technical understanding of “intelligent” filtering, see Frederic Jacob's Instagram testing and analysis on GitHub.


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Award-Winning Photos Capture the Indigenous Tao People on Taiwan’s Orchid Island · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
The indigenous Tao people on Taiwan’s Orchid Island have long struggled to preserve their home and culture as the world around them changed.
In 2014, the island saw its first chain convenience store open. And in recent years, the island has become a popular tourist destination because of its beautiful coral reef and the Tao people’s distinctive culture.
Many are worried that the increasing number of tourists will only mean more trash and pollution, not jobs and income. The Tao have traditionally relied on fishing for survival, but that way of life is now under threat.
Wen-Yen Wang has regularly visited the island and captured the stories of the Tao people in a photo essay, which recently won awards in several categories in a national photo contest held by Taiwan News Photograph Study Group. Below are some of his photos and descriptions.
This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
退潮的夜晚，一位蘭嶼人到海邊抓螃蟹。
他在黑色的礁岩上跳躍，浪花不時拍打上來，不見他什麼動作，手中卻已多了幾隻螃蟹。他偶爾也跳進水裡，尋找躲在水底岩縫中的龍蝦。
At night when the tides were low, an Orchid Islander went to the sea to catch crabs.
He jumped on black reef rocks. The waves crashed on the rocks from time to time. I did not see him move, but he had already grabbed some crabs with his hands. Sometimes he jumped into the water to find the lobsters hiding between the rocks under the water.
達卡安是位在蘭嶼新舊時代交替下典型人物，他從小就不愛上學所以識字不多，但卻是漁人部落中有名的海王子，對於海洋的知識極其豐富，許多蘭嶼人都會前來向他討教捕魚技術。 在傳統的達悟文化中，會抓魚的男性是女性絕佳的擇偶對象，但達卡安至今仍然單身一人，因為早已進入貨幣經濟社會的蘭嶼，對於男人的捕魚能力已不那麼看重。而達卡安即使徒手潛水抓魚功夫一流，在蘭嶼也無法靠此獲得什麼金錢收入，所以他也開始在飛魚季過後，到臺灣找尋工作賺錢。
Dakaan is a typical character who represents the transition between old and new ways of life on Orchid Island. He could not read much as he did not like to go to school when he was a kid. However, he is a famous ‘prince of the sea’ in the fishing village. He knows a lot about the sea, and many Orchid Islanders come to him to learn how to catch fish. In the traditional Tao society, a man who can catch fish is the best match for women. However, Dakaan is still single today, because the Orchid Islanders who step into the monetary economy do not value fishing skills anymore. Although Dakaan has a terrific ability to catch fish with his bare hands underwater, he cannot earn much money that way. As a result, he has started earning some extra money on the main island Taiwan after the flying fish season.
This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
達卡安早上下海巡視他所設置的沉底網。
Dakaan goes to the sea in the morning to check the fishing net he set up on the seafloor.
This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
達卡安在海浪拍打的岩岸邊，游泳撿拾蠑螺。
Dakaan swims between the reef and surface to collect turban snails.
This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
達卡安正在將他所網獲的十多尾白毛魚收起。
Dakaan collects a fishing net with a dozen rudder fish in it.
This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
為了設置沉底網，達卡安必須潛入6米多的海底，搬時[石]頭壓住網底。
To set up a fishing net on the seabed, Dakaan must dive to reach the 6-meter-deep bottom to fix the net with rocks.
This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
在上浮至海面的途中，達卡安正與他方才捕捉的章魚搏鬥。
Dakaan fights with a freshly caught octopus on his way up back to the surface of the sea.
This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
夜間潛水的達卡安，正在找出藏在岩洞內休息的魚。
Dakaan searches for fish hiding in the reef caves during a night dive.
This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
在一個冬天夜潛結束後，達卡安使用山壁間的泉水洗澡取暖，即使在寒流來襲，他下海依然不穿任何防寒衣。
Dakaan washes himself in the river to warm up his body after diving during a winter's night. He does not wear the wet suit even when the cold front arrives.
This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
在海上開船捕飛魚以及釣魚的達卡安。
Dakaan ridea a boat to catch flying fish and to fish.
This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
飛魚季過後，在臺灣工作的達卡安沒有機會下海，與朋友吃飯以及唱歌成了唯一的娛樂。
After the flying fish season, Dakaan goes to Taiwan to work. Away from the sea, dining with friends and singing becomes his only entertainment.
This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
阿文在蘭嶼長大，經營著雜貨店與機車租賃，雖然幾乎不下海，對於蘭嶼的海與土地，他卻比任何人更加關切與擔憂，深怕自己美麗的家鄉土地總有一天會因會環境破壞而消失。他開始續投入島上的資源回收工作，自己接洽的回收廠商，購入一台壓縮機，到全島各處放置網袋，甚至為此還買了一台貨車。每隔幾天就開著這輛貨車，去收回已裝滿瓶罐的網袋，並放置新的空網袋。 為了置放這些瓶罐，他還向那不贊成他作此事的父親要了一塊土地，把本來應該種植芋頭的良田，變成他的儲存場地。別人的田是種出芋頭地瓜，他的田卻是長出一堆垃圾。
Awen grew up on Orchid Island. He owns a grocery store and runs a motorcycle rental business. Although he rarely goes into the sea, he cares about the sea and the island more than anyone or anything else. He is worried that his beautiful homeland will disappear due to environmental destruction. He has started working on recycling: he contacts recycling companies, collects bags full of bottles and cans, and puts in new bags. He even bought a van for the endeavor. He drives the van to pick up the bags filled with bottles and cans and sets up new bags every few days across the island. To store these bottles and cans, he asked his father, who disapproves of his work, to give him a piece of land, which should be good for planting taros, as a storage site. Others’ plots of land grow taros and sweet potatoes, and his land grows trash.
This work by Wen-Yen Wang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.
江民軍是朗島部落的其中一為大船船主。傳統的蘭嶼船團組織是以家族為單位，而能擔任船主的人，除了要家族興旺，也必須受眾人敬重。現今因為社會文化變遷，傳統的船團組織早已不再，而碩果僅存的幾位大船船主年事都已高。
Min-Jun Jiang is the chief of a big ship in I-Raraley. Traditionally, fishing vessels in Orchid Island are run by family. The chief of a vessel has to be a respectful figure with a big family. As a result of social and cultural change, these kind of family vessels no longer exist. And the few vessel chiefs are all getting old.
Related articles:

author: I-fan Lin


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Ethiopian Blogger Atnaf Berahane: Young, Courageous, and in Jail · Global Voices
Kofi Yeboah

Atnaf Berhane, member of the Zone 9 Bloggers, was jailed for blogging about human right violations in Ethiopia. (Image Credit: digital drawing by Melody Sundberg. Image used with her permission)
In April 2014, nine bloggers and journalists were arrested in Ethiopia. Several of these men and women had worked with Zone9, a collective blog that covered social and political issues in Ethiopia and promoted human rights and government accountability. And four of them were Global Voices authors. In July, they were charged under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. They have been behind bars ever since, their trial postponed time and again.
Last week, we featured our debut post from a series – “They Have Names” – that hopes to highlight the individual bloggers who are currently in jail. We wish to humanize them, to tell their particular and peculiar stories. This week, Ghanaian author, Kofi Yeboah, writes about the youngest of the Zone9ers, Atnaf Berahane.
Atnaf Berahane, 26 years old, is the youngest of the Zone9 bloggers. He was arrested in Ethiopia on April 25 and 26, 2014 alongside Abel Wabela, Befeqadu Hailu, Mahlet Fantahun, Zelalem Kibret, and Natnael Feleke (all members of the Zone 9 blogging collective) and journalists Asmamaw Hailegeorgis, Tesfalem Waldyes and Edom Kassaye.
Ethiopia is a country where freedom of expression is repressed by the government. There is strict media regulation in the country, especially when it comes to discussions of politics and human rights. As a result, citizens read news mostly from the Internet.
Atnaf's passion for civic engagement and interest in disseminating information to citizens to understand what the constitution says about their right and freedom led him to co-found the Zone9 Blog: his passion for human rights activism ignited the interest to co-found the organisation. But his passion for human rights and freedoms left him in chains.
In real life, Atnaf is an ICT specialist who works with Addis Ababa city administration at Bole sub-city. The trailtrackerblog, where supporters post regular updates about the case and the bloggers’ condition, describes him as a young Ethiopian who is “known for his use of Twitter handle for hyper local updates.” Atnaf also runs his own blog and is a digital security expert.
The sad reality of the muffled aspirations of one so young as Atnaf is best captured by this post:
Is it the “Federal Republic of Ethiopia” or the “Republic of Dystopia” (police state)?
Has Ethiopia crossed into the Twilight Zone, the Fifth Dimension?…
Ethiopia today might as well be called the “Republic of Dystopia”. Young men and women barely in their 20s are arrested and jailed for “terrorism” merely for blogging on Facebook and speaking their minds on other social media.
Atnaf, together with other incarcerated Zone 9 bloggers, deserve praise and not a jail sentence. It is not only the future of Atnaf that is on trial but that of every aspiring young man/woman who dares take a repressive government to task on free speech.

author: Kofi Yeboah


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Facebook’s Zuckerberg Responds to Ukrainians’ Complaints, But Is His Answer Enough? · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg during his live Q&A. Screenshot from Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg has addressed the appeals of Ukrainian Facebook users for better content moderation and calls to create a dedicated Ukrainian office. His answer? Facebook “might consider” opening an office in Ukraine some time “in the future.”
Earlier this week, numerous users in Ukraine complained of their posts and accounts being taken down or blocked without any discernible violations of Facebook's community guidelines. They claimed these takedowns were politically motivated and the posts were being reported for violations by masses of “Kremlin supporters.” A mass appeal to Zuckerberg even garnered the support of Ukraine's President, Petro Poroshenko, who publicly joined the calls for a Ukrainian Facebook office.
In a Townhall Q&A with the Facebook founder, livestreamed online, Ukraine was the top item on the agenda, with the initial appeal to Zuckerberg gathering 45,000 likes—a record for the Townhall, according to the event moderator. Support for the issue from Poroshenko also got a mention.
Zuckerberg said he “did some research” ahead of the Q&A to “make sure he had the right answer” to Ukrainian complaints. Besides the creation of a Ukrainian HQ, he also addressed the content takedowns and unfair moderation practices that users claimed were “politically motivated.”
Zuckerberg said some of the Ukrainian posts in question did contain content that violated Facebook's community standards, namely the rule against “hate speech,” though he did not give specific examples.
We don't allow content that is overtly hateful, contains ethnic slurs, or incites violence. There were a few posts that tripped that rule, and I think we did the right thing according to our policies by taking down that content.
Acknowledging the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Facebook's founder also addressed the “meme” perpetuated by many Ukrainian users that the content of the Ukrainian segment was moderated from a Russian office by “Russians who were anti-Ukrainian.” He reiterated what other Facebook representatives had previously confirmed: that Facebook has no Russian office, and that the reported content for the Ukrainian segment is reviewed by an international team speaking different languages based in the Dublin office.
Zuckerberg admitted to the Facebook team making one mistake when reported content from Ukrainians was being taken down.
We did make one mistake. When we reached out to people to tell them why we took stuff down, there was a bug in the software: the reason [for blocking] content was given as ‘nudity’ instead of ‘hate speech.'[…] But we fixed that and apologized. And we'll try not do this again.
Zuckerberg then addressed the question of a dedicated Ukrainian office, which many Ukrainians believe would help mitigate unfair blocking. His response, though, was rather vague.
Are we willing to put an office in Ukraine? Over time, it's something we might consider in the future. There are advantages to people working for Facebook not spread out around the world, but in a smaller number of offices. it makes sense to have local teams for sales, marketing, but for engineering and things like that it makes sense to centralize. But as we look to expand over time, we will, of course, consider all of these countries.
These answers are unlikely to satisfy Ukrainian Facebook users, many of whom have come to view Facebook as “a platform where truth can be sought for and found, thoughts shared and discussed and many moves of civil society coordinated.” While they address some of the issues, like why some of the posts were taken down for nudity when they didn't contain any, they fail to explain why content like this photo of a late Ukrainian soldier's daughter or a portrait and a quote from a classical Ukrainian poet were taken down (they hardly qualify as hate speech). Ukrainian Facebook community, it seems, will have to fight harder for their right to free expression and might have to continue their demands for more granular and more sensitive content moderation.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Global Voices Partners With Thai News Site Prachatai · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Image from the Facebook page of Prachatai
Global Voices’ new partner in delivering independent news is Prachatai, a non-profit online newspaper from Thailand.
Prachatai was established in 2004 by senior journalists and NGO leaders to provide alternative reporting of news and current events in Thailand. In the past decade, it also focused on human rights issues and other advocacy championed by civil society movements and organizations.
Prachatai, which means ‘Free People’ in Thai, has consistently promoted the protection of free speech in Thailand. In 2011, its director was arrested at Bangkok airport for allowing the posting of ‘offensive’ comments by anonymous readers on the website.
Prachatai has defied authorities by making a stand against martial law, which was declared by the army a year ago. The coup regime has enforced severe restrictions on the media, but Prachatai continued its mission of informing the world about the situation in Thailand and the various efforts of Thai citizens to restore democracy in the country.
Through this partnership, Global Voices will focus on the delivery of news and commentary that the mainstream media in Thailand are not able to give adequately because of the continuing media regulations imposed by the military-backed government. We will continue to highlight anti-coup voices and other perspectives which are either repressed, silenced, and distorted by censors.


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‘I’m Not a Swindler’: A Campaign Against Romani Discrimination Takes Aim at the Dictionary · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Screenshot of video on YouTube
On April 8, on the occasion of the International Romani People Day, the organizations that form the Romani People Council started a campaign using social networks to request the Royal Spanish Academy to change the definition of the word gitano (Spanish word for gypsy) in the dictionary.
The purpose of the campaign, which is using the hashtags #YoNoSoyTrapacero and #YoNoSoyTrapacera (I'm not a swindler, in both grammatical genders), is to raise awareness of the discrimination against ethnic Romani people. The campaign video is being widely shared on social networks.
It's worth noting, though, that in the definition that appears in the Royal Spanish Academy Dictionary, the word trapacero doesn't appear, but the fourth definition states “that swindles or acts with tricks”, as noted by user @MonicaEHM:
La Campaña #yonosoytrapacero #yonosoytrapacera es una buena idea pero podrían decirme donde en @Rae usan ese término pic.twitter.com/atE3Nlq7dA
— Monica EH (@MonicaEHM) Mayo 14, 2015
The campaign “I'm not a swindler” is a good idea, but could someone tell me where in the dictionary does the Royal Spanish Academy use that term?
#yonosoytrapacero #yonosoytrapacera https://t.co/TiSz2iOOwK
— Maite (@Maitenaiz) Mayo 12, 2015
I'm not a swindler.
Merece la pena escuchar a estos niños http://t.co/MJe4LHnkXB #yonosoytrapacero @gitanos_org No a la discriminación ni en el lenguaje
— mabe molnar (@mabemolnar) Mayo 10, 2015
Worth listening to these children. I'm not a swindler. Stop discrimination, even in language.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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In Japan, a Social Network Dedicated Entirely to Weather News · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Typhoon Noul hits Naha, Okinawa. YouTube screencap courtesy WEATHERNEWS
If you are an otaku (obsessive fan, or nerd) for all things weather, Japan has the social network for you.
WEATHERNEWS broadcasts (big surprise!) weather news 24/7 on SoLive24 specialty news channel.
Thanks to digital broadcasting technology and IP-enabled cable boxes, viewers can interact with the hosts in real time. Viewers ask questions, make comments and also share weather updates (and photos of weather) from all over Japan.
In this screenshot, more than 6,500 viewers have shared local weather conditions from all over Japan.
Announcers respond to comments in real time on-air.
Caption: How to send a weather report (to us). Image Credit: WEATHERNEWS
While the SoLive24 live-streaming service is intended to be viewed on television and via a live streaming app, WEATHERNEWS also uploads every single hour of its 24/7 broadcast to its YouTube channel.
The channel also provides extensive live coverage of major weather events, including the recent Typhoon Noul (Typhoon 6) that brought heavy rain to much of Japan's eastern coastline. WEATHERNEWS set up a camera in Naha, Okinawa, live-streamed the approach of the typhoon over several hours, and uploaded the video later.
While WEATHERNEWS in Japan doesn't seem to have a Twitter handle, you can follow the conversation, and see some great photos of weather around Japan by following the #SOLiVE24 hashtag.


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Not Everyone in Nepal Is Happy with the Indian Media · Global Voices
Sourabh

Nepalese victims of April 25, 2015 earthquake pictured inside an Indian Airforce aircraft as they are evacuated from Trishuli Bazar to Kathmandu airport in Nepal. Image via hemantrawat1234. Copyright Demotix (28/4/2015)
Just after a week of the April 25 Nepal earthquake, the hashtag #GoHomeIndianMedia began trending on Twitter in India. While the Nepalis thanked India for the immediate help offered after the earthquake, the Indian media has been criticised largely in Nepal for its insensitive reporting.
Some thought that the relief work has been used as a public-relations opportunity for the Indian government.
Some Nepalis accusing Indian media of using quake to promote Modi. #GoHomeIndianMedia trends: http://t.co/XSMvj9zTED pic.twitter.com/y5IPLqdbat
— Shreeya Sinha (@ShreeyaSinha) May 5, 2015
Others accuse the coverage itself of being insensitive and sensationalist. In one prominent example, an Indian reporter asks a Nepali mother crying uncontrollably over her dead child’s body, “How does it feel—what are your emotions right now?”
An indian news reporter to a mother who's learnt her only son has been buried under their house. Q. How do you feel? #GoHomeIndianMedia
— Prasanna KC (@KC_Prasanna) May 3, 2015
Times Now reporter asks an injured woman did someone of yours die? She says my 10 year old daughter. He asks her the same thing 6 times ??
— Ratna Vishwanathan (@ratnadv) April 26, 2015
Angered by the irresponsible reports in the Indian media, Nepalis online have started using the hashtag #GoHomeIndianMedia, which trended on Twitter for several days.
Have you seen the Chinese media interviewing anyone? Less talk and more work please. Respect is earned, not publicized #GoHomeIndianMedia
— Rubina (@RubinaKharel) May 3, 2015
The anger has expanded beyond social media, as well. An autorickshaw was seen advertising the hashtag in streets of Kathmandu, for instance.
If u got chance to travel around #Kathmandu in #Tempo then u'll see #GoHomeIndianMedia poster -Photo @aesmriti pic.twitter.com/oPJ1ALxr2F
— Prakash Timalsina (@prakashujyalo) May 5, 2015
Others say the Indian media has resorted to dirty gimmicks and showed a lack of basic humility in the earthquake's aftermath. This is not, incidentally, the first time India's reporters have faced such criticism. During the Uttarakhand flash floods, which killed over 5,000 people, some Indian media outlets saturated the airwaves with scenes of extreme grief, depicting flood victims at very vulnerable moments, which some critics said was closer to disaster exploitation than news reporting.
Some Indians have signaled online that they are ashamed of their own media's behavior.
#GoHomeIndianMedia @TimesNow @HeadlinesToday @mediacrooks and all Media Crooks out there feel shame on you pic.twitter.com/W74xDhTBLC
— Keerthivasan (@kvasan_c) May 4, 2015
Other Indians have started using the hashtag #DontComeBackIndianMedia.
This is the reason why #GoHomeIndianMedia is trending worldwide. Utterly shameful. So #DontComeBackIndianMedia pic.twitter.com/a3l243Pu5T
— SINGH (@Punjabi_AAPian) May 3, 2015
For some, like Krittivas Mukherjee, who published an op-ed in the Hindustan Times, much of the problem with Indian reporting in Nepal has to do with a “self-serving narrative” and “sense of condescension.”
Not everyone, of course, is eager to close the door on India's news media. Smita Sharma, a journalist based in New Delhi, wrote on Dailyo.in that naysayers should take a moment to consider if they're seeing the bigger picture:
It is time for course correction before #GoHomeIndianMedia hashtags overshadow all the good work done by many journalists, who too are mortals, and brave challenges to tell the world stories of those in pain.
While some grievances might lose perspective, general concerns about the Indian media do raise questions about its sensitivity, or lack thereof, in disaster situations. India has more than 100 news channels, and they all compete with one another in a fierce pursuit of “target rating points“. Every news channel wants to be the first on the ground and with an exclusive report. In the race to be first, especially during major disasters when so many people are tuning in, some media outlets fail to prioritize ethics and professional standards.
Others worry that networks are hiring too many amateurs, putting people in front of cameras before training them properly. Sunita Shakya, a writer of Nepalese origin, complained about this alleged trend in a blog post for CNN, where she compared the Indian media's reporting to soap operas.
Natural disasters present enormous ratings opportunities to the news media, but they can also fundamentally challenge the integrity of the press. The Indian media's struggles in Nepal are a fresh reminder of the difficulties in responding to mass suffering.

author: Sourabh


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PayPal Blocks Donations for Printing Boris Nemtsov’s Ukraine War Report · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Boris Nemtsov was murdered in February 2015  before he could finish the report on the war. His photo is seen here at a memorial rally in St. Petersburg on March 1, 2015. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
PayPal, the US-based electronic payment service, has blocked the account set up by Russian activists to collect donations for the print publication of the “Putin.War” report. Based on material gathered by the late opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered in Moscow in February 2015, the report presents evidence of Russia's involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and asserts that at least 220 Russian soldiers have been killed in fighting in Donbass.
Russia-focused independent news outlet Meduza reports that one of the activists behind the report, Vsevolod Chagaev, tweeted a screenshot of the message from the PayPal support team, which states that PayPal does not allow using the service for “collecting funds to finance the activities of political parties or for political aims in Russia.” Chagaev later told RFE/RL that employees of the Russian PayPal office confirmed that “this is the official position of the company.”
Нау итс офишиал: PayPal заблокировал счет сбора денег на печать доклада Путин.Итоги по политическим мотивам pic.twitter.com/JrvA59k2iJ
— Vsevolod Chagaev (@SevaChagaev) May 14, 2015
Now it's official: PayPal has blocked the account for collecting funds to print the Putin.War report on political grounds. [Excerpt from Paypal's email screenshot: “We've analyzed the information connected to the account and we regret to inform you that the limitations on the account cannot be removed at present. This is connected to the fact that today PayPal does not offer the opportunity to use its system for collecting funds to finance the activities of political parties or for political aims in Russia.”].
In a comment to Russian news website RBC, a PayPal spokesperson said Russian users were not allowed to collect funds for political parties or projects in Russia because of the “complications of implementing the applicable control procedures.” The spokesperson did not specify how PayPal determined that the money from this particular account was intended to fund a “political project.” Yandex.Money, the Russian electronic payment service that the activists also use to collect donations, told RBC they had no issues with the project, since Russian law allows citizens to raise funds for printing books.
Update: A PayPal spokesman provided this statement to Global Voices to clarify the company's position on the incident: “PayPal Russia does not currently allow any political parties or political causes in Russia to receive donations due to the complexity of complying with local rules which require validating the identity of donors. We regret any disappointment this may cause our customers.”
Internet users in Russia speculate that PayPal may have caved to pressure from the Russian authorities simply because it did not want to lose its business in the country.
@SevaChagaev @maglov ну не хочет PP уходить из России
— Легкая Невыносимость (@PtichkaFo) May 14, 2015
Well PP (PayPal) just doesn't want to leave Russia.
PayPal wasn't alone in this. Prior to their decision, 14 different printing houses refused to print the Russian opposition's report citing “the situation in the country.” One printing house agreed to print did so on conditions of anonymity.
PayPal has blocked accounts that could be deemed political in Russia before: in May 2014 the accounts of RosUznik, a human rights organization advocating for the rights of Bolotnaya square protest prisoners, were blocked by PayPal and Qiwi, another e-payment service. At the time, PayPal cited “security concerns” as the main reason for blocking the account.
In 2010, PayPal famously froze the account collecting donations for whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, claiming that WikiLeaks (presumably by leaking classified information) violated the service's Acceptable Use Policy that forbids users to “encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity.”
All the while, Russian-supported separatists in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics continue to use electronic payment systems for collecting donations to fund their activities. On May 12, Ukraine's State Security Service announced they were able to expose and block 17 accounts connected to DPR/LNR, although they did not specify which service the accounts belonged to, saying only that they cooperated closely with an “international electronic payment system” to find and block the accounts. Although this was touted as a success, Ukraine's civic hackers led by Eugene Dokukin report they have been blocking separatist accounts on various e-payment systems for many months, and claim they were able to block over 200 “terrorist” accounts since June 2014 on systems like WebMoney, Yandex.Money, PayPal, and others.
PayPal's message to “Putin.War” account holders explicitly states that they don't offer support for financing political activity “in Russia.” So it is unclear if the same rules apply to PayPal accounts registered in other countries. PayPal's current Acceptable Use Policy (both its US and international version) does not mention collecting funds for political parties or political aims among restricted or unacceptable activities.


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Peruvian Girl Finds the Way Back Home, Thanks to Her Dog Perla · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Screencapture from YouTube.
The story of a three-year old girl, who left her home in the Peruvian city of Huancayo, had a happy ending thanks to Perla, her faithful pet.
Persistent dog barking drew the attention of two police officers to a little girl crying on the sidewalk. Ángel Quispe, one of the two policemen, approached her as he suspected the girl was lost. Perla's first reaction was to attack the officer, but Quispe managed to pet the dog and ask the little girl where she lived.
The girl was unable to say her name, so the policeman took her hand and started asking around to find out if anyone knew who the girl was, but to no avail.
During their walk, Perla played guide by running ahead of them, and after passing eight blocks, the dog suddenly sat down at the door of a house, that turned out to be the girl's family home.
Lindo canito huanca … !!! http://t.co/VqCsXwY6UN
— fororepublicano (@fororepublican1) Mayo 5, 2015
Nice Huancayan dog… !!!
It emerged that the little girl had escaped when her mother went to the marketplace, without shutting the door properly. The woman believes that her daughter followed her for a time until she lost track and began walking aimlessly.
So, while it is well known that a dog is a man's best friend, this one was a very good friend to a little girl, too.
Apparently, hero dogs are not rare in Huancayo. Back in 2013, three canines refused to abandon their dead owner, a homeless man who had died after falling and hitting his head. The dogs attempted unsuccessfully to climb into the car that took the body to the morgue, and ran alongside the vehicle as people on the streets observed the scene.
The news was so moving that several animal welfare groups began searching for them to try to find a home for the dogs as recognition for their loyalty. No further news was published about this particular search, though.
Back then, Twitter users said:
Hoy Volví a ver este vídeo. SIMPLEMENTE ¡EXTRAORDINARIO! Por eso condeno a quienes maltratan a los animales…. http://t.co/Bn1ADbKnjC
— JG ALVAREZ RAVELO (@ALVAREZRAVELO) junio 30, 2013
Today I watched this video again. SIMPLY EXTRAORDINARY! That's why I condemn those people who mistreat animals…
Huancayo: Perros quisieron evitar que se llevaran el cuerpo de su dueño a la morgue http://t.co/JghpDnHz3r vía @larepublica_pe
— Flor Maria (@florgabriell) marzo 19, 2013
Huancayo: Dogs tried to prevent the dead body of their owner to be taken to the morgue.