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First- and Second-Generation Dutch Wonder Whether They’ll Ever Be Considered Locals · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Linawati Sidarto has lived in Amsterdam almost as long as she lived in Indonesia, but she says she doesn't think she'll ever be able to feel Dutch. Credit: Venetia Rainey
This story by Venetia Rainey originally appeared on PRI.org on May 16, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
Linawati Sidarto surveys the shelves in a small toko, or Indonesian grocery store, in Amsterdam.
“I need to get sambal of course, the hot sauce,” Sidarto says as she selects the biggest jar of a fiery-red paste commonly used in Indonesian cooking.
Sidarto, 51, often comes to this toko to buy food that reminds her of home. She was born in Jakarta, but has lived in Amsterdam for 19 years, almost as long as she lived in Indonesia. She has a Dutch husband and two teenage daughters whom she describes as “very Dutch.” She also speaks fluent Dutch — yet she still doesn't quite feel like she belongs.
“There's a bit of a derogatory word for [non-Western] migrants, which is allochtoon,” Sidarto explains. “My children will always say, ‘Ah yeah, but mum, you're an allochtoon, you would never understand.'”
She laughs before adding: “It’s a running joke, but there's some truth behind it. Emotionally, I will never feel like I'm Dutch. I will probably never ever be able to say that I’m Dutch.”
This question of who is Dutch — and what being Dutch means, and who gets to decide — has been fiercely debated in the Netherlands during recent months, with a divisive election in March revolving around issues of identity, integration and Islam. Extreme right-wing politician Geert Wilders was instrumental in stirring up nativist sentiment. Elements of his rhetoric were also adopted by the incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte. His open letter to people in the Netherlands to “act normal or get out” was widely interpreted as a call for immigrants to integrate — assimilate, even — to the greatest extent possible.
For relative newcomers like Sidarto, however, it's not always so straightforward.
“[The Dutch] don't necessarily easily let other people in their inner circle,” she explains, recalling her first years here when she was in her 30s. “They do not ask you to come around to have dinner at their house or have a drink. They're polite with you at work, and then they leave. That was very, very difficult for me in the beginning.”
Coming from Indonesia, a former Dutch colony, Sidarto spoke the language pretty well before she even arrived and had relatives already living in the Netherlands. Still, she struggled to make it her home. Even now, most of her friends are other immigrants or Dutch people who have lived abroad.
For Kami Zarker, 42, the experience of trying to become Dutch was even trickier.
Zarker arrived as a refugee from Iran in 1994; he was then a 21-year-old with no Dutch language skills and zero knowledge about the Netherlands. At a botanical garden in Amsterdam, where he goes to be reminded of his home country, he explains how, in his first years here, he worked hard to learn Dutch and make friends. His application for asylum was denied, but he managed to get a study visa instead, and eventually was granted citizenship.
Zarker now has an Iranian wife and two kids in Amsterdam. When he goes back to Iran, he says he no longer feels at home — but nor does he feel fully at home in the Netherlands. He jokingly describes himself as 60 percent Dutch and “40 percent myself.”
“I think if I'm here over 100 years, I will not really be Dutch,” Zarker says with a shrug. “I try to be that, but I am not.”
For second-generation immigrants, the question of how Dutch they are is even thornier.
“I get that question all the time,” says Huda Abu Leil, a 22-year-old social work student who was born in the Netherlands. Her father is from Palestine, and her mother is from Morocco. “‘What do you feel? Do you feel Palestinian or do you feel Moroccan or do you feel Dutch?'”
“Sometimes I feel Dutch, but with all these things that happen in the world, some Dutch people don't see me [as] Dutch,” Abu Leil adds, a note of frustration in her voice. “I always think, ‘Oh, OK, what am I?'”
Abu Leil went to an Islamic school here and wears a loose headscarf. She says all but one of her friends are Muslim, which she admits she finds “weird.” Still, she has never felt she had to justify her identity to anyone, apart from one time.
Pouring some sweet Moroccan tea, a staple in her house, she recalls an incident during her first year at the university when her classmates reproached her and her Muslim friends for being too “cliquey.” Abu Leil couldn't see what was wrong — she says everyone at her university hung around in a clique of some sort. It got so tense that a professor intervened and asked Abu Leil and her friends what was going on.
“And we were angry, because we thought, ‘Why are you coming to us, why don’t you talk to the classmates [too]? Why is it always us? What did we do wrong?’ When I think about it, it makes me angry and confused.”
The idea that a newcomer has to go the extra mile to fit in is a common one in the Netherlands, indeed in many countries.
But at what point does someone who has built their life here just get to be themselves and still feel like they belong?
Venetia Rainey reported this story from Amsterdam.


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‘No to Silence’: Javier Valdez’s Murder Highlights Persistent Perils for Mexican Journalists · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

Photo by Héctor Vivas (@hectorvivas) for Derecho Informar (@DerechoInformar). Used with permission.
The award-winning Sinaloa journalist and writer, Javier Valdez Cárdenas, was shot to death on Monday, May 15, on a street in Culiacán, a city in northwest Mexico, in broad daylight. Valdez was the editor and reporter of the local media outlet Ríodoce and was considered one of the top experts on drug trafficking in Mexico.
He was the sixth journalist murdered so far this year. On the same day, a little later, the reporter Jonathan Rodríguez of the weekly El Costeño died in an attack, in which his mother was also injured.
Valdez specialized in reporting on issues related to the government’s “war” against drug cartels, as well as political corruption usually involving Mexican governors. His relentless focus was on the relatives, the displaced, the orphans, the widows. He cared about names, not numbers. This is how he explained why he did what he did in a speech at the book fair in Los Angeles, California in 2015:
Seguimos con un déficit de genitales en el país, hay un déficit de genitales, al país le falta ciudadanía, le falta recuperar la calle, la dignidad y creo eso es hasta tarea de los periodistas, tenemos que dejar atrás el periodismo cuenta-muertos, el ‘ejecutómetro’, y contar historias de vida en medio de la muerte, historias de estoicidad, de lucha.
Muchos podemos morir, y muchos han muerto, y no están dentro del negocio (del narco), y no han estado dentro del negocio, y no son víctimas colaterales, ni son números, son personas.
We continue to lack genitals in this country. There is a lack of genitals, there is a lack of citizenship. We need to recover the streets, dignity, and I think that’s up to journalists. We need to leave behind the kind of journalism that counts deaths, the ‘execution-meter’, and [instead] tell stories of life in the midst of death, stories of stoicism, of struggle.
Many of us can die, and many have died, who were not in the business (of drug trafficking)… [they] were not collateral victims, nor numbers, they were people.
“They are killed for having made the grave mistake of living in Mexico, and being journalists”. Words of Javier Valdez #ADayWithoutJournalism ?. Pictoline illustration. Used with permission.
Image: Have you seen them? Journalists are increasingly disappearing.
Being tortured.
Being assassinated in Mexico.
We can think that it’s only the messengers of the cartels that give the execution order.  But no. It’s not just the cartels that kill journalists.
Politicians also do their extermination homework. Police. Colluding agents.
State prosecutors. Government officials. Soldiers.
They kill them for the sin of denouncing their mismanagement.
“They are killed for having made the grave mistake of living in Mexico, and being journalists.”
Valdéz always knew that exercising his profession in Mexico put his life at risk, as do many of his colleagues. In fact, as early as 2009, a grenade exploded outside the doors of Ríodoce. On that occasion, there was only physical damage to the building and the reasons behind the attack was never clarified. However, his desire to inform and give a voice to those who were silenced by violence always helped him overcome his apprehensions.
In his column, Malayerba, for Ríodoce, he once wrote the following lines under the title “They are going to kill you”:
Pero él tenía en el pericardio un chaleco antibalas. La luna en su mirada parecía un farol que aluzaba incluso de día. La pluma y la libreta eran rutas de escape, terapia, crucifixión y exorcismo. Escribía y escribía en la hoja en blanco y en la pantalla y salía espuma de sus dedos, de su boca, salpicándolo todo. Llanto y rabia y dolor y tristeza y coraje y consternación y furia en esos textos en los que hablaba del gobernador pisando mierda, del alcalde de billetes rebosando, del diputado que sonreía y parecía una caja registradora recibiendo y recibiendo fajos y haciendo tin en cada ingreso millonario.
But he had a bulletproof vest on. The moon in his gaze resembled a lantern that lit up even during the day. The pen and notebook were routes of escape, therapy, crucifixion and exorcism. He wrote and wrote on the blank sheet and on the screen, and foam came out from his fingers, his mouth, touching everything. Weeping and rage and pain and sadness and anger and dismay and fury in those texts in which he spoke of the governor stepping on shit, of the mayor of bills overflowing, of the representative who smiled and looked like a cash register receiving wads of cash and making a “chi-ching” sound with every millionaire's deposit.
In 2011, Javier Valdéz received the International Press Freedom Award granted by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). His speech (beginning at 5:13), re-emphasized the dangers faced by journalists in Mexico:
Reporters, activists, and readers shared their grief over the loss of such a committed voice, many of them recalling Valdez’s own words:
Tears in my eyes, hearing of the murder of Javier Valdez Cardenas in Culiacan, one of the best writers and journalists of Mexico. TRAGEDY.
— Ioan Grillo (@ioangrillo) May 15, 2017
… every time I visited Sinaloa, I would have drinks with him. Javier was a wonderful guy. His loss is devastating to all of us.
— Jan-Albert Hootsen (@jahootsen) May 15, 2017
“El buen periodismo, valiente, honesto, no tiene sociedad; está solo”: Javier Valdez. Lo mataron https://t.co/dnG98isu1Wpic.twitter.com/mXNU1IKrzT
— Sin Embargo MX (@SinEmbargoMX) May 15, 2017
“Good journalism, brave, dignified, responsible, honest, doesn't have society; it's alone”: Javier Valdez. They killed him.
[In the image, Valdez's quote in full]: “Good journalism, brave, dignified, responsible, honest, doesn’t have a society; it is alone, and that also speaks of our fragility, because it means that if they go against us or those journalists and they hurt them, nothing will happen.” – Javier Valdez
La dedicatoria de su último libro.
NARCOPERIODISMO de Javier Valdez.
??pic.twitter.com/l9i0ove6RX
— Risco (@jrisco) May 15, 2017
The dedication of his last book.
NARCOPERIODISMO by Javier Valdez.
Image: To Maicol O’Connor (+) and Tracy Wilkinson, immeasurable journalists, whom I both miss and love.
To the Mexican journalists brave and worthy, exiled, hidden, disappeared, assassinated, beaten, frightened and giving birth to stories, despite censorship and dark canons.
To Tania, Saríah, Fran, Javier Erasmo and Gris. For being with me, supporting me and sowing in me, in spite of clouds. Or maybe that’s why.
A recently created website, El Mañanero Diario, gave an account of the demonstrations that took place to condemn the homicide of Valdez:
Periodistas de todo el país se manifestaron en protesta por el asesinato del periodista sinaloense Javier Valdez. Sinaloa, Ciudad de México, Guerrero, Baja California y Jalisco fueron algunos de los estados en los que los profesionales de la información salieron a las calles para condenar el asesinato de Valdez y exigir mayor seguridad y un alto a la violencia contra el gremio.
En el Ángel de la Independencia [en la capital mexicana], se reunió un grupo de fotoperiodistas quienes, sobre la glorieta, con gis blanco, escribieron: “En México nos están matando” y “No al silencio”, con palabras formadas por los retratos de reporteros asesinados, como Gregorio Jiménez y Miroslava Breach.
Journalists across the country demonstrated in protest at the murder of Sinaloa journalist Javier Valdez. Sinaloa, Mexico City, Guerrero, Baja California, and Jalisco were some of the states in which news professionals took to the streets to condemn the murder of Valdez and to demand greater security and a stop to violence against the profession.
A group of photojournalists met At the Angel of Independence [in the Mexican capital], along the roundabout, who with white chalk wrote: “In Mexico they are killing us” and “No to silence,” with words formed by portraits of murdered reporters such as Gregorio Jiménez and Miroslava Breach.
“In Mexico, they are killing us. No to silence.” Photo by Héctor Vivas (@hectorvivas) for Derecho Informar (@DerechoInformar). Used with permission.
Screenshot of the public post of Ximena Antillón.
Image: “The worst thing would be forbidding us to dream, to have illusions; to want to be better, to long for justice and peace, and maintain dignity. The worst thing would be to stop stoning stars. We can’t allow it. It doesn’t matter if we don’t knock any down.” – Javier Valdez Cárdenas
No bastan sus condolencias por el asesinato de Javier Valdez Sr PeñaNieto. Pare ya está masacre o váyase! pic.twitter.com/5MNdxOX0RK
— epigmenio ibarra (@epigmenioibarra) May 15, 2017
Your condolences for the murder of Javier Valdéz are not enough Mr. Peña Nieto. Stop this slaughter now or leave!
Image:
@GobMx condemns the murder of journalist Javier Valdez. My condolences to his family and friends.
The Mexican State has an office dedicated exclusively — in theory — to seeking justice in crimes committed against those who practice journalism or comment on the right to information or freedom of press and expression.
The official name of the office is the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes against the Freedom of Expression (FEADLE) and operates under the Attorney General of Mexico (PGR).
FEADLE, however, is one more branch of the abstruse bureaucratic framework of the country, which absorbs countless public resources while delivering nothing in return.
Suffice it to say that in relation to the cases of homicides committed against journalists so far this year, not a single person has been arrested.
The Mexican independent website, Animal Político reported:
En algo más de seis años -de julio de 2010 al 31 de diciembre de 2016- se registraron 798 denuncias por agresiones contra periodistas.
Pues bien, de esas 798 denuncias, de las cuales 47 fueron por asesinato, la FEADLE informó en respuesta a una solicitud de transparencia que solo tiene registro de tres sentencias condenatorias: una, en el año 2012; y otras dos en 2016. O en otras cifras: el 99.7% de las agresiones no ha recibido una sentencia.
In just over six years – from July 2010 to December 31, 2016 – there were 798 reports of attacks on journalists.
Well, out of these 798 complaints, of which 47 were for murder, FEADLE reported in response to a request for transparency that it only has three convictions registered: one in 2012; and another two in 2016. Or in other words 99.7% of attacks have not led to a criminal conviction.
The recorded reasons for the closure of the investigations by the attorney general include “incompetence” and “non-prosecution.” These technical and legal terms invariably mean the referral of the file to another authority, and ultimately, the termination of the investigation before a formal accusation has been made in the presence of a judge.
The result is impunity for offenders and the denial of justice for victims.
The website Sin Embargo noted:
En 2010, mediante acuerdo, se creó la FEADLE en las entrañas de la PGR y con el antecedente de otro órgano, la Fiscalía Especial para la Atención de Delitos cometidos contra Periodistas (FEADP). Los delitos en contra de los periodistas se incrementaron sin que se supera de un solo proceso [juicio] que concluyera en sentencia penal.
Ése es el organismo al que el Jefe del Ejecutivo [el Presidente de México] le ha pedido que apoye en Sinaloa para esclarecer el asesinato de Valdez Cárdenas, un periodista que se distinguió por un conocimiento profundo de la región norte donde han operado grupos de narcotraficantes desde los años treinta del siglo pasado.
In 2010, by agreement, FEADLE was created within the purview of the PGR and against the background of another government body, the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Committed against Journalists (FEADP).  Crimes against journalists increased without […] a single process [trial] that concluded in a penal sentence.
This is the government body that the Chief Executive [the President of Mexico] has asked to support in Sinaloa in order to clarify the murder of Valdez Cárdenas, a journalist who reputed for his profound knowledge of the northern region where groups of drug traffickers have operated since the 1930s.
In spite of all these antecedents, in the days after the murder of Valdez, the Mexican State announced a set of measures to protect journalists; the main one being an enlargement of FEADLE's personnel.
The passivity or inefficiency with which the Mexican state responds to violence against journalist has offered a perverse incentive to all those interested in silencing voices to continue resorting to violence, driving threatened voices towards self-censorship or simply stopping work.
This trend is what caused Javier Valdéz to say “no to silence” and that is why today, we join the call #NiUnoMás.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Elizabeth Rivera


text:
Viral Video Triggers Debate Over Patriotic Education in China, Again · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Liu Hulan (1932-1947) is a Chinese communist heroine widely used in school textbooks.
A video showing a schoolboy crying while reciting the biography of communist heroine Liu Hulan went viral online last week in China.
The boy was reading the textbook in a “crying tone”, a recital skill widely taught in schools, and ended up bursting into tears while his classmates burst into laughter. Below is a copy of the clip, via YouTube:
Reactions to the video were divided. Some were touched by the child's patriotic spirit, while others accused China's system of brainwashing.
Born in 1932, Liu Hulan participated in the Chinese Communist revolution when she was a 10-year-old and joined the party in 1946. She assisted the CCP in the assassination of her village chief in Yunzhouxi, Shanxi province and was beheaded by the Kuomintang soldiers in January 1947, when she was just 15.
Similar to Lei Feng, Liu is a prominent figure in modern-day Chinese patriotic education.
The viral video was shared by a number of users on Weibo, and the following two reactions sum up the differing views of the incident:
洗脑教育，不好笑，很悲哀。怂恿一个孩子去送死不被唾弃反被歌颂，所以人性在这社会荡然无存
Brain-washing education. Nothing laughable. Very sad. Encourage a kid to die and praise it. That’s why our society is so inhuman.
有人说刘胡兰的事迹是怂恿未成年人去送死，是洗脑。像你们这种蝇营狗苟的市井之徒怎么能明白先烈的献身精神，她才15岁就懂得保护战友，而你们都已经成年人了，却只知道喷，在你们眼中，出卖战友保全自己大概就是所谓的人性吧，一副汉奸嘴脸，中华民族崛起靠的从来不是你们这帮垃圾
Some said the story about Liu Hulan is encouraging teenagers to die and brainwashing. Vulgar people who live like bugs and dogs cannot understand the spirit of heroes who sacrificed themselves. She knew how to protect her fellows when she was just a 15-year-old. You are all grown up and all you can do is split people up. In your view, betraying your fellows is human nature, [you are] a bunch of traitors. The Chinese nation will rise without such a bunch of craps.
Skipping the antagonistic traitor-patriot discourse, Weibo user @byelove1212 argued that school pedagogy should stress positive role models:
刘胡兰10岁参加革命，14岁参与刺杀村长，1947年15岁被杀，她杀的与杀她的都是中国人，都是自己的同胞。即使在革命的年代，这种精神也不值得提倡，没有任何理由可以让一个本该天真浪漫的花季少女为所谓的“革命”献身。在高度文明的现代，更不该提倡，15岁的她该读书、唱歌、吃零食、无忧无虑、被这世界温柔对待。
所以我的孩子不需要学习杀同胞的所谓“英雄”，而应学习排队、爱护环境、垃圾分类、文明礼让、尊重他人、自信快乐、勇敢善良、伸出援手这些最基本的东西，这些做好了，才是真正的正能量！
Liu Hulan joined the revolution when she was 10 and participated in the assassination of a village chief when she was 14. She was killed in 1947 when she was 15. Those she killed were all Chinese, all are fellows. Even during the revolution era, such a spirit should not be advocated. There is no justifiable reason to let an innocent teenage girl sacrifice herself for the so-called “revolution”. In civilized modern times, [such behavior] should not be encouraged. A 15-year-old girl should be reading, singing, eating snacks, carefree and treated gently by the whole world. My kids do not need to follow the so-called “heroes” who killed their fellow countrymen. They should learn how to line up, love the environment, recycle used items, act in a civilized manner, respect others, be confident and happy, be brave and kind, helpful to others and etc… all the basic behaviours. This would be genuine positive energy.
Another Weibo user “Head of Entertainment” said:
对于刘胡兰，我的观点是让刘胡兰成为历史，不要歌颂，不要倡导，不要让历史重演！
Regarding Liu Hulan, my view is to let Liu Hulan becomes history, don’t glorify her, don’t advocate, don’t let history repeat itself.
Similar debates happened two years back in the form of letters exchanged between a father and a school teacher. The Chinese Communist Youth League republished the two letters on Weibo to facilitate the discussion.
The father’s letter was believed to be written by a liberal opinion leader and published anonymously back in April 2014. Below is a partial translation of the letter:
这些人让一个十三、四岁的孩子去参加你死我活的政治斗争，当同龄人还在草地上天真烂漫地追逐嬉戏的时候，她却和一群大人杀了她们的村长。而后不久又被对方捉到同样残忍地把她的头铡了下来。从这里面我看不到有任何值得称赞的品质和任何值得坚守的理想。相反包括后来那些心智和谋略非凡的大人物对她的嘉奖和称赞都将是耻辱的记忆。我也同样是在这种斗争、仇恨教育中长大，所幸我最终挣脱。…到我的孩子被教导去学刘胡兰，我心如刀绞。出于一个父亲的责任，我本能的想为孩子去抵挡可能对她心灵带来的戕害。望老师理解，以后这个活动请允许我们放弃。
These people let a 13-14 year-old kid get involved in a life and death political struggle. While people of her age were chasing around in the grasslands, she joined a group of adults to help murder her village head. Later she was beheaded in the same brutal manner. I can not see any praiseworthy quality or ideal here. On the contrary, those strategists who praise her are shameful. I grew up in such a kind of struggle-and-hate education. Fortunately, I disentangled myself from that… now that my kids are being taught to follow Liu Hulan, my heart aches as if it were stabbed by a dagger. As a responsible father, my instinct is to protect my kids from such spiritual harm. I hope the teachers can understand and allow us to abstain from such activities.
The response from a ‘teacher’ is widely believed to have been written by a party ideologue. The letter argued that the younger generation should be prepared for the worst. The response featured an image of Japanese soldiers toying with the corpse of a Chinese baby with bayonets during the Second World War.
Below is a partial translation of the letter:
我们的孩子虽然生活在和平年代，但是谁也无法保证他们永远生活在和平年代。大家都想远离是非，远离暴力，远离政治，但这是不可能的，我们离不开政治，也无法让战争之类的伤痛绝迹。…
你孩子这个年纪，不止需要童话，还需要英雄。她早已到了可以有偶像，会去欣赏、仰慕一些人的时候了。你觉得刘胡兰不该是她学习的英雄，不知道该会是谁家英雄，在填充着她的精神世界。这些英雄，真的都不关政治，不带血腥？是屠恶龙的王子，还是蜘蛛侠呢？
Although our kids are living in a peaceful era, no one can guarantee that they can enjoy peace forever. We want to stay away from violence and politics, but this is impossible, we can’t stay away from politics and we can’t stop wars and other painful incidents…Your kids not only need children’s tales but also heroes. She can have idols and know how to appreciate others. You think she should not follow Liu Hulan, but other heroes have occupied her world. Are these other heroes not political, not violent? How about the prince of slayer or the spider man?
In the end, the letter criticized the father’s attitude as shameful:
有这样的思维，大概跟最近“污化英雄”的社会环境有关。
让孩子去认识自己民族的英雄，并没有什么过错。…刘胡兰无疑是个英雄，让这么小的英雄牺牲了，是那个时代的悲剧，但我们不能因此否定英雄，甚至要让孩子“远离”。…
最后说一句，你这样的教育孩子的方式，不但会毁了自己的孩子，而且错误的观念和态度，还将影响许多人。让孩子远离自己民族的英雄，这是可耻的！
Such thoughts are likely related to the recent cultural phenomenon of “stigmatizing heroes”. There is nothing wrong with letting our kids learn about their national heroes… Liu Hulan is a genuine heroine, she sacrificed herself at a young age. It was a tragedy of her time but we can’t simply denounce her and ask our kids to “stay away”…

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Why Doctors and Students Are Protesting Against Sri Lanka’s Only Private Medical College · Global Voices
Rezwan

The main building of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine in Malabe near Colombo. Image by Mediajet via Wikimedia Commons
In Sri Lanka, doctors and students have been protesting for months requesting the government to shut down the private South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), the only private university in Sri Lanka currently training medical students.
They are against the privatization of education and claim that opening private universities will drastically affect children from poor families’ access to education opportunities.
In Sri Lanka, education is state funded and offered free of charge at all levels, including university level. Doctors affiliated to the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) staged a one-day strike earlier this month, protesting police action against students and demanding that the government shut down or nationalize the private medical university.
Defying a court order, about 5,000 members of the inter-university students federation (IUSF) carried on with the protest on May 17. Failing to stop them, the Police tear-gassed the protesters and drove them into a nearby park. Several protestors were injured and admitted to nearby hospitals.
The protests caused severe traffic congestion in the area of Colombo where they took place.
#SAITM Tear gas used on IUSF protest against SAITM pic.twitter.com/d9nxk6jY7p
— Regal Focus (@regal_focus) May 17, 2017
Arrested 8 University Students during protest march, remanded till May 19th #LKA #SRILANKA #SAITM #CEYLON_MESSENGER pic.twitter.com/Bih6vQXL7G
— Ceylon Messenger (@CeylonMessenger) May 18, 2017
Several students and a Buddhist Monk were arrested during the protest.
Since its launch in 2008, SAITM has been the centre of many controversies as students from state-run schools and doctors in government services have questioned its educational standards and medical facilities. More than Sri Lankan Rs 3 billion (US $6.5 million) have been invested by SAITM into the institution including a teaching hospital with 850 beds. The institute claims that its standards and facilities are superior to those of state-run medical universities.
In 2013, the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Sri Lanka granted degree-awarding status to the institution amidst protests from the Inter-University Students’ Federation (IUSF) and the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA).
In July 2016, however, the Government of Sri Lanka suspended new admissions to the medical faculty of SAITM after a series of proposals were issued by a high-powered committee of professors following accusations about the standard of the education there.
Now a legal battle is brewing over whether to allow graduates of SAITM to work as doctors in Sri Lanka.
From July 2016, the Sri Lanka Medical Council has refused to register the first batch of 30 SAITM graduates on the ground that the MBBS programme followed by SAITM medical students does not qualify them to intern at hospitals.
On January, 31, in a landmark ruling, the Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka directed the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) to grant provisional registration to the South Asian Institute of Technology and Management (SAITM) Medical graduates.
The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) vehemently protested this ruling and various student bodies, including the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF), held a series of protests in the Sri Lankan capital in the following week.
On February 7 the CEO of SAITM, Dr Sameera Senarathne was shot at by two unidentified gunmen riding on a motorbike, but escaped unhurt. The attack highlighted the polarisation surrounding the issue of private medical institutions operating in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan Medical Council has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the January 31 judgement by the Court of Appeal.
Hilmy Ahamed wrote in a blog for Groundviews:
The state university students who benefit from taxpayers’ money through free education, and political opportunists have continued to protest the SAITM University’s medical degree programme as a threat to free education. They ignore or fail to protest over the hundreds of other degree awarding programmes undertaken by various private educational institutions. Why is it that only the private medical degree programme is seen as a threat to free education? The medical mafia of the GMOA, which holds the stick to ransom every time the Government takes any decision, which benefits the majority of the citizens of the country, are spearheading a campaign against the verdict of the Appeal Court.
And Devan Daniel wrote in the Echelon:
Three decades ago, Sri Lanka had a shortage of doctors, where for each doctor, there were 6,000 people in the population. Things have improved over the years, and today there is a doctor for every 1,100 persons in the country. But according to Fitch Rating Lanka, a credit rating firm, compared with the world average of 670 people per doctor, demand is growing for doctors and better medical care in Sri Lanka.
With the government’s limited ability to set up medical schools or expand existing ones, the private sector must play a role.
Earlier this month the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena criticised the recent protests and referred to the steps taken by the government to resolve issues with regard to the private medical college, including imposing better education standards on SAITM and taking over SAITM's private hospital.
A SAITM Solution: Take Over Medical & Allow Other Faculties To Continuehttps://t.co/ki0ktkIDbh pic.twitter.com/VnmjLwCH4e
— Thavam (@1island2nations) May 8, 2017
In April, 2017 the government issued this letter describing their decision regarding SAITM students, including the requirement for a further period of clinical training and a mandatory examination under the joint supervision of the Sri Lanka Medical council and the University Grants Commission:
Image via SAITM Facebook page (click on image to enlarge)
Amidst these battles that have dominated the mainstream and social media spaces, the main victim has been the students of SAITM and ordinary people. The Colombo Telegraph recently featured many SAITM students in their ‘My SAITM Story’ campaign, which appeared to be aimed at evoking empathy among readers. There is also a Facebook page titled Why do we need SAITM? that provides reasons as to why the institution needs to exist as a private entity. The page “Know SAITM”, on the other hand, focuses on exposing the institution, by claiming it is not up to the standard and is charging exorbitant fees.
People reacted on Twitter:
Anti-SAITM leaflets being distributed aboard train this morning.
SAITM Death Trap and Your Future it says. pic.twitter.com/SthLh9ovia
— Upul (@UpulTR) May 3, 2017
It's important to note that highly rated medical schools like Harvard, Stanford, Johns Hopkins in the world are all private #SAITM #lka
— Being Yakin ® (@ItsYakin) May 8, 2017
@JustFabulous_S @DilanthaShamal Who said we didn't act ! Not in this scale obviously ! Remember SAITM is for ppl like us, & yet we're trying to stop it ! Find Y
— අවංක උකුස්සා (@coolshakthi) May 8, 2017
I have lost all respect for #GMOA members & Drs in #lka holding public hostage with their selfish demands re #SAITM . #leeches
— Amjad Saleem (@amjadmsaleem) May 6, 2017
Dr. Ruvan Weerasing analyzed most of the opposing views in an Oped titled “To SAITM Or Not To SAITM – Is That The Question?” for the Colombo Telegraph and argued that a more rational debate over ‘whether or not the private sector can provide medical education’ was needed.
The SAITM authorities announced in a Facebook post that they are presently cooperating with the Government on the proposals that have been made and will obey the Supreme Court's decision.
Hilmy Ahamed opined:
It is left to be seen, if the Medical Mafia continues to deprive the right of a private medical education in Sri Lanka for our youth.

author: Rezwan


text:
A Photographer Shines Light on the Abuse Women Suffer at Illegal ‘Conversion Therapy’ Clinics in Ecuador · Global Voices
Yessika Gonzalez

Screenshot from the video “Until You Change”, made by Paola Paredes and shared on Vimeo.
Ecuadorian artist Paola Paredes has created a photo series, titled “Until You Change“, to protest against the existence of underground centers intended to “cure” homosexuality in Ecuador.
Most of these illegal centers are disguised as religious “clinics” to rehabilitate those with drug or alcohol addictions. According to the photographer, homosexual and transgender men and women sent by their families are locked up and subjected to brutal abuse and humiliation. On her website, the artist writes:
It was four years ago that I first learned about the private ‘clinics’ that claim to cure homosexuality in Ecuador. My first thought was that it could be me held there and told that, as a gay woman, I needed to change. Two years later, I came out to my family and was accepted by them. In my country, many young women and men are not so fortunate.
After investigating and interviewing different women who were kept in the “clinics”, Paredes reconstructed their stories using photography. Due to the difficulty of demonstrating these underground clinics’ practices, Paredes chose to play the protagonist in each photo.
As you can see in her work, the women are subjected to specific types of abuse, from the forced use of makeup, short skirts and high heel shoes to “reinforce their femininity”, to physical violence and “corrective” violations:
This is an image of a my new photographic series ‘Until You Change’
In Ecuador approximately 200 facilities exist to ‘cure’ homosexual men and women. Operations are masked under the guise of drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres. Imprisoned against their will those interned are subject to emotional and physical torture.
To raise awareness of an on-going human rights issue that continues to resist mainstream media in Ecuador, I recreated scenes form these ‘clinics’ based upon victim testimony. Being gay and from Ecuador, I chose myself as the protagonist of the images. I incorporated my own emotions and experiences with theatrical methods to explore the abuse of women in these institutions, staging a series of images based on the testimony of the women who I interviewed.
This is not the first time that these “dehomosexualization” clinics, generally associated with Evangelical Christian groups, have been the target of action, creative or otherwise. In 2012, several of these centers were investigated and later closed.
Nevertheless, the work of Paredes reveals that these secret centers continue to exist and implement treatments that violate human rights. In addition to the photography, she uploaded a video to Vimeo that documents the process of making the series and captures some of the specific traumatic experiences that survivors had told her they had experienced:

author: Yessika Gonzalez


text:
An Afro-Colombian Model on “Social Bleaching” · Global Voices
Afroféminas

Juliette Minolta, as photographed by Paloma Fuentes. Used with permission from ‘Afroféminas’, the original publishers of the image.
The following is a testimony written by the Colombian model, Juliette Minolta, originally published by the site Afroféminas, based on her reflections on the Afro-descendant experiences and racism in Colombia and in other parts of Latin America. More than 10% of Colombian citizens are Afro-descendant, and they make up more than 90% of the population in regions like the Pacific/Chocó region. Today, they are one of the most empowered and dynamic Spanish-speaking Afrodescendent communities.
I was barely eight years old when I realized that I was different. When you're young and enter into a school full of kids, that's all you see—kids. I didn't perceive any differences, until one day someone screamed “Black girl!” at me, and everyone laughed.
I didn't get it at all, but that experience caused me to see a psychologist for the first time. Afterwards I understood that I was different. I didn't like that.
Later, when I was in high school, I remember all my classmates having straight hair. I thought their hair was pretty. Meanwhile, teachers talked about black ancestors as slaves. I figured I had come from slaves, and nothing more.
I was never told about Garvey, Mandela or King. No one ever told me about la Negra Casilda—a former slave and leader in the 19th century—and her stories about helping her people reach the palenque, a secret location where black people who had escaped enslavement could hide. There were never discussions about Rosa Parks, or that everyone came from Africa.
I was taught about Columbus and Washington and had to write many papers about people that. Honestly, I no longer remember. No one talked about the histories of black women in my classroom.
And I continued on to high school, straightening my hair and trying to appear as white as possible to gain social acceptance.
I remember a teacher who, every time he'd call on me, would use “black mannerisms”. I would tell myself that it was nothing, that it was only a joke, and that I should move on. And so I started trying to erase my way of speaking, my own black words.
I'm from Bogotá, Colombia, a city of white people. Back then, there weren't as many black people as there are today. I started using chemicals to straighten my hair and I abandoned my traditions. One day I even bought bleaching cream.
It didn't work.
I was desperate—I had to whiten my skin. I hated that I was always the darkest one in the family.
My views hadn't changed upon entering the university. Whenever people called me “black girl” I'd say I didn't like it.
I grew up in a socially white environment, where being black is a bad thing, having kinky hair isn't considered pretty and where people think that being black means having a big butt and tits.
And well, you now know I have neither.
One day I was listening to music and the Barrington Levy song “Mandela Free” came on. That song encouraged me to investigate my ancestry. I realized that society had forced me to bleach myself. Taking “black girl” as an insult is something that so many Afro-descendant women deal with daily. Changing one's hair color just to be socially accepted is bad.
I wonder how many children “whiten” themselves socially without even realizing it. They are discriminated against, and ignorant of their ancestors and of the people who fought so history wouldn't repeat itself. What repercussions might those children have to deal with if we don't condemn this?
We don't come from slaves, we come from human beings who were enslaved. That's a fact school doesn't teach. For instance, a Chilean friend told me that he was never told about slavery or historic black leaders. How is that if Chile, where I'm living now, has always had black Chileans?
Why does education have to be so “white”, and why does the need to eliminate the image of blackness exist?

author: Afroféminas


text:
Beirut’s Municipality Deals Another Blow to the City’s Green Space · Global Voices
Christophe Maroun

Horsh Beirut. Photo taken by Whard Sleiman. Used with permission.
In a meeting earlier this month, the Lebanese cabinet adopted a decree aimed at regularizing illegal buildings in a parcel of land on the edges of Beirut's largest green space, Horsh Beirut. This comes after a decision from Beirut's municipal council to change the zoning of this parcel which would allow the construction of buildings.
In an interview with French-language daily L’Orient Le Jour, Jamal Itani, Beirut's current Mayor, argued that the decree was aimed at a parcel that is not properly part of the park:
C'est une partie du même lot, il est vrai, mais il ne s'agit pas du parc public, affirme-t-il. C'est une terre séparée du bois par une route, sur laquelle se trouvent déjà un cimetière et des bâtiments, l'un pour les Makassed, ainsi qu'une mosquée pour la fondation du cheikh Mohammad Mehdi Chamseddine.
It’s a part of the plot, it’s true, but it’s not the public park. It’s land separated from the “horsh” with a road upon which there is a cemetery, some buildings, one of which is for the Makassed, as well as a mosque affiliated with the Cheikh Mohammad Mehdi Shamseddine foundation.
For Mohammad Ayoub, president of Nahnoo, a Lebanese NGO advocating for public space, these arguments are in no way satisfactory.
He explained in a Facebook post that:
They want to stuff down our throats that “Horsh Beirut” is only a triangle of greenery, but it’s not true. The parcel concerned by the decree is part of the ‘Plot 1925′ where the Pine forest is located. It benefited from a “natural site” zoning that forbade any construction. If buildings were erected in it during the war, is it worthwhile to legalize them?
This is not the first time that Horsh Beirut has been threatened by construction. The recent decision of the municipality to build a field hospital inside Horsh Beirut sparked outrage among civil society figures. On February 9, hundreds of people gathered to protest in front of Horsh Beirut and ask the municipality to stop its ‘nibbling’ policy with banners reading “Horsh Beirut is a protected natural site. Keep your projects away from it”.
Following demonstrations, the municipality of Beirut froze construction. However, due to political pressures, it went back on its decision just a week later, with 9 votes against the hospital and 13 in favor, allowing the planned construction to continue.
Vegetated areas are important in cities like Beirut that suffer scorching summer temperatures. A study by Kaloustian and Diab showed that because of what is called ‘the Urban Heat Island effect’, a difference of up to 6˚C can be found between vegetated and densely or semi-densely built up areas in the summer season.

The Lebanese capital is not the only city suffering from extreme summer temperatures and a lack of green spaces. In fact, Barcelona, Spain’s densely populated second city, badly needs new green spaces to battle its heat island effect, manage air and noise pollution, and generally improve citizens’ quality of life.
That is why the city planned a re-greening program, aiming at doubling the number of trees in the city, increasing park space by two-thirds, and providing each citizen an extra square meter of green area. The urban plan, which will deliver 108 acres of new green space by 2019 and over 400 acres by 2030 is a model of ingenuity that could serve other cities well.

Specifically, Barcelona's municipality is planning on creating ‘green corridors’ to connect Barcelona’s existing parks, greening the interior courtyards of the city’s large buildings, and implementing green roofs.
Taken individually, all these micro-projects are tiny drops in a bucket. Together they work to create a Barcelona that is greener, fresher, more sustainable, and more humane.
Beirut has had its fair share of greening initiatives, but most of them never saw the light of day. Back in 2011, through an agreement between the Ile-de-France region and the Beirut municipality, the “liaison douce” project was born.
The project aimed at linking Horsh Beirut to Beirut’s downtown through the Damascus street, which would become a big garden in the heart of the city with a bike path, pedestrian area, and bus lanes.
Practically, the project would facilitate mobility through the use of public transport and bikes, to make the circulation of pedestrians, cars, and bikes safer and to achieve a pleasant meeting space between Achrafieh and Ras el Nabeh for the citizens of Beirut.
In an interview in September 2014, Nadim Abourizk, Beirut’s then-vice mayor said of the project:
The idea is to create a soft link from the Pine Forest all the way to the downtown area passing through Damascus Street providing cycling, public transportation, and pedestrian walkways. This is a pilot project in the city and the first phase of design has already been validated and hopefully very soon we can proceed with the next phases of the project. The Liason Douce will connect the National Museum next to the Hippodrome, Beit Beirut Museum and the Archaeological Museum which is planned in Solidere area.
Of the historic Beirut hippodrome, which is right next to “Horsh Beirut”, he added:
We envisaged a park with no construction basically, but enjoying environmental, ecological, leisure, and touristic activities within the center of Beirut. This area relates very well to the Horsh Beirut – Pine Forest, a land of 400,000 square meters which is next door. They are only divided by Boulevard Omar Beyhum. Historically it was one huge green lung for the city of Beirut. The caravans used to pass through the park and with time this caravan lane was transformed into a high-speed boulevard. Our objective is to open this green land again to everybody in the city.
This project is one of the many initiatives collecting dust in the offices of the municipal council, however. And matters seem to be getting worse with Beirut warming up due to climate change.
To add insult to injury, Beirut’s pine forest has temporarily been closed to the public to try and fight a fatal disease threatening Lebanon’s historic parasol trees.
The mismanagement of the country's natural heritage, in addition to the pressures of diseases and climate change, has left Beirut and Lebanon's few remaining green spaces under threat.
Beirutis could well be wondering what might have been had Beirut Madinati, the volunteer-led campaign to elect a municipal council of politically unaffiliated individuals back in May 2016, gained access to the decision-making halls of the Council.
With their promise of conserving Beirut’s natural heritage and establishing an interlinked network of public gardens, open spaces, a publicly accessible waterfront and natural and architectural heritage, things might have worked out differently.

author: Christophe Maroun


text:
Diaspora* and Other Free Software Are Available in the Occitan Language, Thanks to Volunteer Translators · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Flickr photo by she_who_must and used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Volunteer translators have made the open-source social network platform Diaspora* available in some of the most commonly used languages on the internet, such as Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese. But take a look at the list of languages with 100% of the site's terms and phrases translated, and one language in particular stands out among the rest: Occitan.
Occitan is a Romance language spoken in Southern France and parts of Spain, Monaco, and Italy. The number of speakers in the region vary from source to source, but it is clear that the figure is declining. The Occitan language has several dialects, but a “Standard Occitan” is emerging that takes into account the different variants. According to UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, the dialects Provençal, Auvergnat, Limousin, and Languedocien are classified as “severely endangered,” and the other two dialects, Gascon and Vivaro-Alpine, are classified as “definitely endangered.”
A small team of translators, who decided that Diaspora* would be another important place to promote the language, have brought Occitan to the social network.
Quentin Pagès, who speaks the Lengadocian dialect on which Standard Occitan is based, is one of the members of the translation team and also collaborated on the Occitan translations of other platforms, such as Jitsi Meet, Wallabag, Framadate and Mastodon. He shared his experiences with Rising Voices in a short interview.
Rising Voices (RV): Why is it important to you that Diaspora* is available in Occitan?
Quentin Pagès (QP): So people can start using it and it gives visibility to the language. I don’t like when people decide that one language has more value than another. In my opinion, every language is as equal as the next. That is why it is important to me that Occitan is available as a complete language. Even though the Occitan language is not one of the most used languages on Diaspora*, by being an open-source project, the translation work can be reused for other projects that may use the same terminology and phrasing.
RV: How did you start this localization project?
QP: I decided to start the translation of Diaspora* because it was included in a list of alternative open-source platforms compiled by a French association called Framasoft through its campaign called “De-Google-ify the Internet”. From that list, I also helped to translate Jitsi Meet, Wallabag, Framadate, and now the new social network platform called Mastodon. For the translation of Diaspora, the team consisted of three people and we primarily communicated via email.
RV: What were the biggest challenges for translating Diaspora* into Occitan?
QP: You might expect that a challenge for translation would be a lack of vocabulary or something like that. But it wasn’t about that, it was about finding people to review the translated texts and to help collaborate with the work. The Occitan language has good flexibility to create new words. So on the one hand, I wish there were more of us to translate, but on the other hand, there was just a few of us, so we could check that a word was translated in the same way everywhere. For the word “reshare,” you may find some instances where it is displayed as “repartejar” and other places as “tornar partejar.” I could change them, but as they both mean the same and both are correct, I decided to leave both.
RV: Do you have a sense of the activity of communities using Diaspora* in Occitan?
QP: Somehow people still haven’t tried this social network. I wish people used tools that are available in Occitan, but at the moment it seems that only a few people value the availability of the language as a strong draw. In the case of Diaspora* in Occitan, it would be a really good way to gather people that want to support the language and so we can collaborate in other projects together. In my opinion “working for the language” has to be done in Occitan so as to be coherent. That is why I prefer to use open-source software because I know that if I have some time, I can contribute and give my language other chances to be seen and used by people.

author: Eduardo Avila


text:
Helping Write The Story of Sex Workers in Uganda · Global Voices
Prudence Nyamishana

The feet of a sex worker in Bwaise, a slum in northern Kampala. Photo Credit: Prudence Nyamishana
If you asked me why I set out to write a sex worker diary on my blog, I would tell you I did it out of sheer curiosity. I had heard stories that in Bwaise, a slum in northern Kampala, women were selling themselves for as little as 500 Uganda shillings (US$0.14). I wanted to get a first-hand view of the situation, and maybe share the story with readers of my blog. So I called up my friend Joseph, a community worker who has worked in this area for years.
The Bwaise slum is located five minutes from Kampala's Central Business District. Joseph was waiting for me when I disembarked from a commuter taxi one afternoon. After exchanging pleasantries, he led me through a narrow corridor. At the end of the corridor, the scene suddenly changed: this was not the Kampala I am used to. I saw mud-walled drinking joints full of men and women at noon. There was rubbish everywhere and Lingala music playing in the background. To navigate, Joseph and I had to jump over streams of sewage. We meandered our way through alleyways lined with wooden- and iron sheeting-walled shacks. I later discovered these were brothels, and that over 300 women come to this area daily to sell sex, by both day and night.
A woman in her late 40s greeted us at our destination. She told us her name and proudly introduced herself as the “Mama” of the sex workers. She invited us into a small room of about eight square meters, with a mud floor. In one corner was a run-down shelf with bottles of local gin. A double-decker bed and single bed were on the other side of the room. A child sleeping on the lower bunk caught my eye.
The Mama told us she rents out these beds to those that buy and sell sex. A bed goes for 500 Uganda shillings per use.
I told the Mama we were interested in raising awareness of the horrible conditions of sex workers in the Kampala slums so that decision-makers could pay attention and, hopefully, do something about it. Because Joseph had worked with her before, and one of her children was a beneficiary of one of Joseph’s programmes, she welcomed us. But she said we would have to pay for the time we spent talking to the women.
The Mama introduced us to a 28-year-old woman who works at her establishment. The woman spoke fluent English and was eager for her story to be told. She mentioned to me that she didn’t want money—all she needed was someone to talk to. I promised that I wouldn’t reveal her identity, but she insisted it didn't matter, as she had nothing to lose. Her story moved me.
When I published the story, it garnered an array of reactions on social media. Some commenters thanked me for telling the story, saying that they believed women were going to benefit. Others, however, questioned my motive for writing about the issue.
One day! Maybe one day! ? Pru, thank you for sharing these ladies’ stories. https://t.co/K5f2jeOP4s
— Bren-Duh©™ (@mac2tweety) April 4, 2017
“I have a plan” #SexWorkerDiaries https://t.co/NK9QaBcY3f via @nyapru1 <<This one made me tear>> ?
— Evelyn Masaba (@NoirEnBlanca) April 4, 2017
Some readers made certain commitments, many of which are yet to be fulfilled. One person promised to buy one of the women a phone; others sent cash. Some people even advised me to start an organization that could support a rehabilitation centre serving the needs of sex workers. I insisted, however, that my job was that of storyteller, and that as readers they, too, had a responsibility to do something about the issue if they really cared about it.
While my initial motive was sheer curiosity, spending time with the women at Bwaise allowed me to uncover deep-seated issues that Uganda hasn't really grappled with. Things like child trafficking, sex slavery, parental neglect, extreme poverty, violence against women and crime. The more I talked to the women, the more I realized that the issues they faced were bigger than I had thought. And it was overwhelming: I almost gave up after listening to the second story.
It was the encouragement I received from organisations that work on these issues that propelled me to continue writing. Not for Sale Uganda, a social enterprise that co-develops ventures, social projects and brands to end human trafficking, said this in response to my story about a sex worker called Kemirembe:
“We must work together on giving hope to the most vulnerable. Kemirembe’s story is very touching. Not For Sale is now incorporated in Uganda and mainly our work will target people in Kemirembe’s situation or a quite similar one, provide social intervention and other sustainable social enterprises that can provide them with alternative dignified work.”
A reader who shared one of the stories on his Facebook page received an email from a friend in the US, saying:
“I’m coming to Uganda in August. I’m looking to help women involved in prostitution,” they wrote. “If you know of anyone or are willing to help me find people or ministries that are wanting to help women please let me know.”
Benjamin Musaasizi, a co-founder of Divine Hearts, a Christian organisation, commented on the blog post.
“We at Divine Hearts Foundation do appreciate your efforts in bringing such realities to the rest of the world and we are committed to working with you so as to find ways of helping these sisters of ours.”
I met with Benjamin in person and he pledged, on behalf of his organisation, that he would pay school fees for two of the sex workers’ children. A pledge like this, if fulfilled, could make a serious difference in the lives of these children.

author: Prudence Nyamishana


text:
In Japan, Plastic Food Models Aren’t Just for Restaurants Anymore · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Plastic food samples (食品サンプル) outside of a typical restaurant in Japan. Image by Flickr user sayot. Image license: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
In Japan, plastic models of food are common outside of just about every eatery. In order to provide potential customers with information about exactly what's on the menu, shokuhin sanpuru (食品サンプル, “food samples”), or highly detailed replicas of every dish served in the restaurant, are displayed near the entrance. Customers peruse the food samples, and then decide to enter the shop or keep looking for someplace to eat.
There is an entire industry devoted to creating these food samples. The Tokyo neighborhood of Kappabashi is home to a cluster of these small businesses that make plastic food samples, which German filmmaker Wim Wenders documented in his movie Tokyo-Ga more than 20 years ago.
While plastic food samples are so common in Japan as to be unnoticeable to most Japanese people, there is a new trend in Japan to turn them into eye-catching cellphone accessories and other knick-knacks. Writing on Naver Matome, blogger itinii has collected a variety of social media links with photos of this twist on shokuhin sanpuru.
吉祥寺東急百貨店にて食品サンプル展示販売中です。#食品サンプル#ストラップ pic.twitter.com/evagZC1PwV
— 食品サンプルのながお食研 (@nagaosample) May 7, 2017
Now on sale: new smartphone straps based on food samples used at Kichijoji Tokyu department store.
Food samples have been turned into a variety of kitschy collectibles including, in this case, refrigerator magnets:
東京駅での食品サンプル展示販売のために、マグネットを貼り付ける。#食品サンプル
#ストラップ#マグネット pic.twitter.com/8wD8wnjQyI
— 食品サンプルのながお食研 (@nagaosample) May 17, 2017
For a new display at Tokyo Station, here are some shokuhin sample fridge magnets.
The food sample novelty boom is becoming increasingly more elaborate. In this case, a kaisen-don (a popular seafood rice bowl) has been transformed into a smartphone stand.
あの、三角コーナーも使えますよ（笑）ついに、スマホスタンドになっちゃった。
今回も、東京駅のために作ってしまった。#食品サンプル pic.twitter.com/JajjOcFjgE
— 食品サンプルのながお食研 (@nagaosample) May 19, 2017
We've found a good use for a triangular serving dish (lol) as a smartphone stand. Once again, we made this for the Tokyo Station exhibition.
And here, it's an apple that holds up your smartphone:
☆りんごモチーフ＿りんごを大胆にカットして作ったデザイン性が印象的。可愛い彩りとみずみずしい雰囲気が素敵な食品サンプル風リンゴのスマホスタンドです。https://t.co/iTnYkwklvo pic.twitter.com/uuu8CRacss
— フェミニン インテリア情報 (@twfeminfo) April 27, 2017
Designed to look like an apple with a notch cut out for a smaphone, this is a striking design.
This is just the beginning of an increasing descent into whimsy. Some smartphone stand and case designers allow you to create your own work of art, in this case, by using ikura, or salmon roe that is a popular topping served with white rice. One Twitter user doubts:
このイクラごはんの食品サンプルiPhoneケース、『えっ！カスタマイズ用に50粒も付属のイクラが！？すごーい！！✨✨』ってなる人いるの？いないでしょ。私しかいないでしょ pic.twitter.com/eSq8yTV2iy
— かのまん (@kanotantan) April 30, 2017
Is there anyone out there who is going to say, “Wow, cool, I can customize my smartphone case with salmon roe?” I think I'll be the only one.
The fake food accessory boom also can take perhaps less appetizing forms, including gag items to startle coworkers and family members.
今日作った食品サンプルはアイス溶けてる風のスマホスタンド✌?✨
あと、おにぎりピアスとシャケのストラップ買った〜? pic.twitter.com/kkxlMq1PWn
— ごやや☀ (@goyaya_ars8) May 3, 2017
Our newest smartphone stand comes in the form of melting ice cream. We also have rice ball (onigiri) earrings and a dried salmon smartphone strap.
To see more quirky uses of fake food, check out itinii's Naver Matome blog post, or follow the Twitter hashtag #食品サンプル#ストラップ.
And to learn more about the original trend that started it all, this video provides a glimpse of Kappabashi in Tokyo, a district devoted to supplying the restaurant industry, including with shokuhin sanpuru.
As well as this video, which gives an overview of how Japanese food samples are actually made.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Lebanese Activists Disturb Talk by Politicians and Call for Better Political Representation · Global Voices
Hassan Chamoun

Snapshot of the video of the You Stink Protest. Source.
On May 19, two activists from the “You Stink” movement disrupted a talk involving prominent Lebanese politicians at the campus of Saint-Joseph University (USJ) in Beirut.
“You Stink”, a Lebanese political movement, which was launched as a response to the 2015 trash crisis, and an array of independent political groups and civil society organizations are calling for a new proportional law with big electorates.
The talk saw multiple Lebanese politicians speak, including parliamentarians and ministers. They included Jamal Jarrah, Telecommunications Minister and Member of the Future Party, Nadim Gemayel, MP for the Lebanese Phalanges Party (Kataeb) and son of former Lebanese president-elect Bachir Gemayel, Alain Aoun, Member of Parliament for the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) party and son-in-law of the current Lebanese president Michel Aoun, Antoine Zahra, MP for the Lebanese Forces (LF) party, and Youssef Saadeh, ex-minister and current Political Affairs Coordinator for El Marada party.
Talk by the politicians at the USJ university. From left to right: Sami Gemayel, Jamal Jarrah, Alain Aoun, Fadi Karam and Youssef Saade.  Source: You Stink. Used with permission.
The politicians were debating the electoral law and the extension of parliament, despite the fact that the MPs are themselves part of the parliament which extended its own term twice.
As Joey Ayoub, regional editor at Global Voices for the MENA region, explained on the March 23:
Elections should have taken place in June of 2013, but the parliament extended its own term for 17 months citing ‘security concerns’. Then, in November of 2014, citing the need to decide on a new electoral law before voting, the parliament delayed elections to 2017. This time, the government is saying the extension is for ‘ technical reasons’, in reality the parliament has reached a deadlock on the new electoral law.
And as the second extension's deadline on June 19 is getting close, a third extension is being talked about. This, to quote Ayoub again, means that most Lebanese youth has yet to vote and won't be able to until further notice.
To put this in perspective, a 28-year-old Lebanese citizen has yet to vote for their parliamentarian of choice despite being legally allowed to vote since they turned 21.
Lebanese politicians have been discussing the electoral law on and off for years. The debate concerns whether Lebanon retains a majoritarian system, or adopts a proportional one, as called for by many civil society groups and independent political parties. The current electoral system is defined by “block voting”.
Critics argue that the current electoral law, called the 1960 electoral law, adopts a ‘winner takes all’ approach with a single round.  For example, if an electoral list gets 51% of the votes, it gets all of the representation. An electoral list that got 49% of the votes gets nothing, resulting in a full victory for the one that got 51%. This, many argue, doesn't allow for the emergence of new political forces and explains why Lebanon has seen the same parties recycled in recent decades.
In addition, the current law is also sectarian because the Lebanese parliament has to be divided equally between Muslims and Christians, meaning each confession has a predetermined number of seats.
The Kataeb for example, are calling for single districts, giving them more control on the district by gerrymandering it by sect. Activists have instead opposed such sectarian thinking, arguing that big electorates reduce sectarianism and corrupt clientelism. With bigger districts, they say, candidates will have to expand their campaign rhetoric beyond their own sects in order to win a bigger constituency.
The event was recorded live on Facebook by a third activist with ‘You Stink’. The two protesters were soon taken away by students supportive of the politicians, however.
The signs held by the protesters read: “proportional electoral law and big electorates” and “eight years of lies and procrastination”, referring to the fact that the current parliament has been in power since 2009. One of the protesters said: “Go home!”. The other continued: “Eight years you've been laughing at us.”
They continued to shout “is this your civilized way to do things?” while being forced out.
Speaking to Global Voices, Tarek Serhan, one of the activists in the video, explained they were simply trying to make a point:
We wanted to tell them “You Stink, your expiry date is passed, you can now go home, you are discussing democracy but you stole people's rights by not allowing them to vote.”
Speaking about the students who pushed them out, he said:
We told them we were peaceful and that they don't need to shove us in that manner.
When the activists were outside, the students continued to intimidate the activists.
We told them that we do not want any fight, they mocked us and said that you cannot even fight us.
A member of ‘You Stink’, who preferred to stay anonymous, told Global Voices that the activist who took the video was also followed and intimidated.
In less than 24 hours, the video has been viewed more than 42,000 times on Facebook, with many comments supporting the two activists who protested, condemning the students who ushered the protesters out and the students who stayed idle.
Elie Rizk asked: “Why the other students didn't react?”
Screenshot from the comments section in the video. Source: Facebook
Mi Chel commented: “Even the freedom of speech is oppressed and denied. Under what authority have these men been assaulted and taken out of the room?”
Screenshot from the comments section in the video. Source: Facebook.
The parliament was supposed to meet Monday May 15 to debate the electoral law, but, as has become typical, the session was adjourned.

author: Hassan Chamoun


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Malaysian Editors Face Cybercrime Charges for Posting a Video that Criticized Attorney General · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Screenshot of the YouTube video posted on the KiniTV channel about the press conference of a Malaysian politician criticizing the country's attorney-general.
Head staff at two independent news websites in Malaysia are facing cybercrime charges for posting a video of a politician criticizing the country’s attorney general.
The government accused KiniTV and Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan and CEO Premesh Chandran of violating the Communications and Multimedia Act of 1998 (CMA), which criminalizes “the improper use of network facilities by knowingly transmitting contents which are offensive, menacing, obscene, false and indecent with the intent to annoy, abuse or threaten another person”.
The charge is related to a KiniTV video posted on July 27, 2016 of a politician criticizing the office of the attorney-general for its failure to identify the role of the country’s prime minister in a corruption scandal involving 1MDB, a state-owned investment bank. The politician, a former member of the ruling party, called for the resignation of the attorney general. The video was taken during a press briefing.
KiniTV is an Internet TV broadcasting news about Malaysian politics. It is part of Malaysiakini, an independent online news website with a large subscription base that has faced regulatory challenges and technical attacks in the past, often related to its political coverage.
If found guilty, both Steven Gan and Premesh Chandran could face a prison term of one year, and could be subject to fines of 50,000 Malaysian Ringgit (roughly USD $11,500). An additional fine of 1,000 Malaysian Ringgit (USD $230) per day can also be imposed for each day the offence continues following conviction.
This is not the first time that a Malaysian media website has been singled out by authorities for reporting about the 1MDB corruption scandal. In 2015, it suspended the license of some news websites for reporting about the 1MDB case.
The corruption issue has sparked a political crisis in Malaysia since it implicated the prime minister, who is accused of pocketing USD $700 million through the 1MDB.
Reacting to the cybercrime charges filed against Steven Gan and Premesh Chandran, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) urged the government to stop harassing the media:
CIJ calls for these charges to be dropped and for the government to cease all harassment and intimidation of the media and journalist. Media practitioners including journalists and directors of media companies should not be penalized for reporting content of interest to the public.
The group also called for an amendment to the law, which is often used to threaten reporters:
The law also places the burden of proof on the accused to show they have taken reasonable precautions to prevent the so-called offence.
Human rights group Article 19 warned that the case could have chilling effects and stifle other dissenting voices in Malaysia:
The increasing use of this law to target independent media and any online criticism of the government is seriously concerning, and also a clear violation of international human rights law on freedom of expression.
The use of this provision in conjunction with Section 244(1) to target an independent online news portal is a worrying development, and will likely have a chilling effect on media and other independent voices in Malaysia.
In a column on Malaysiakini, writer P Gunasegaram bemoaned the fact that authorities are aggressively attacking independent news websites critical of the government:
It is strange that nobody gets prosecuted for producing fake news or for slanting news but there is prosecution of those who merely produced the unvarnished, plain and bare news.
When government officials, mainstream media editors and ruling party politicians talk about fake news on the Internet, the intention appears to smear all operating there with one broad brush for their own propaganda purposes, ignoring the real contributions that news portals and blogs have made to uncovering truths which would never have appeared in the government-controlled mainstream media.
The court hearing of Steven Gan and Premesh Chandran is scheduled for June 15. Both have pledged to file a constitutional challenge in response, since they believe the law is a violation of the country’s commitment to uphold media freedom.

author: Mong Palatino


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Mumbai Technologists Are Using TV Spectrum to Bring More Internet Access to India · Global Voices
Rezwan

The technical schema and the impact of the testbed setup at Palghar. Screenshot from a video uploaded by Gram Marg.
India has made headlines in recent years as overall Internet use among residents has gone up at an increasing rate. Yet most of these gains are in mobile Internet access and public access points.
While people use the Internet on their mobile phones, at cybercafes and public wifi hotspots, less than 2% percent of households have a fixed Internet connection. And even the mobile penetration remains low, at 23% for the whole country. Rural India lacks smartphones and the Internet connections are often patchy and slow, due to a lack of Internet infrastructure.
Internet / Broadband for all does it mean only for people who live in cities or large towns? No infrastructure in rural India. @PMOIndia
— Vivek Tiwari (@Viv2511) May 16, 2017
This leaves the vast majority of Indians with limited ways to engage deeply with Internet technology. While accessing information and posting simple files like images online is easy to do from a smartphone, writing code, studying or building a website really requires a fixed connection.
The government sees the need for massive investment to roll-out broadband to rural areas in over 600 districts via fibre-optic and other technologies, which can be expensive and time-consuming.
But other more efficient solutions are beginning to emerge. One of them is a hardware product that uses television spectrum to provide affordable access to rural communities. The Mumbai-based low-cost prototype recently won USD $125,000 (Indian Rs 8.2 million) in the Equal Rating Innovation Challenge by Mozilla, the non-profit organisation behind the open-source browser Firefox.
The Gram Marg Solution for Rural Broadband was spearheaded by Professor Abhay Karandikar of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) and his team of Masters and PhD students of the institution. Karandikar heads the IIT Bombay Research Park and plays an active role in policy consultation for Internet and broadband in India.
The ‘Gram Marg Solution’ could be a deal-breaker in this situation. The benefit of this “Middle and Last-mile” solution is that it is low-cost, consumes relatively small amounts of energy, and can be installed in quickly, using existing TV broadcasting infrastructure to reach distant rural homes. The project aims to bring 640,000 villages in rural India onto the network. It has been rolled out in 25 villages on a pilot basis in the past two years.
In telecommunications and the internet industry, the term “last mile” refers to the technology which carries signals from the broad telecommunication backbone along the relatively short distance (aka the “last mile”) to and from its final destination, usually a home or business. The current available last mile solutions to carry Internet to rural Indian homes are mainly traditional phone lines and ADSL, coaxial cables and wireless technologies, which mostly use mobile spectrum.
Indian mobile service providers are rolling out 4G technologies for faster internet, but they are still costly for the rural population, where smartphone penetration is also low to harness available high-speed internet.
Gram Marg solves the problem of connecting the unconnected and under-served populations as a “middle mile” and “last mile” solution. It uses the idea of using TV “white space” to enable data to travel between village wifi clusters and a high-speed optical fiber connected distribution base. White space refers to the unused broadcasting frequencies in the wireless spectrum such as television networks. These frequencies are kept empty between channels for reducing interference and buffering purposes. Although mainly used for TV, these are similar to the frequencies used for the 4G technology, and it can be used to deliver widespread broadband internet.
The GSM Association, a trade body that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, has published a report on potentials of using UHF band White spectrum to carry broadband Internet.
Screenshot from the report on Potential benefits from sub- 700 MHz spectrum in India by PLUM for GSMA
Entrepreneur, journalist, publisher and founder and owner of MediaNama, Nikhil Pawa was on the jury board of the Equal Rating Innovation Challenge. On Facebook, he explained what he liked about the project:
1. Open sources technology for delivery of broadband over white spaces spectrum
2. Is cheaper than existing chipsets for broadband over white space
3. Doesn't need line-of-sight connectivity for broadband, which is a major issue (and cost center) especially in hilly areas.
I really hope India doesn't have licensing for white space broadband spectrum.
The other applications I really liked were the community broadband initiatives, where villages and towns take ownership of their Internet infrastructure.
One of the obstacles that this solution may face is the regulatory challenge of making white space spectrum available. Another is that India is phasing out traditional analog TV and switching to digital broadcasting and DTH technologies.
Equal Rating Innovation Challenge Demo Day – Gram Marg Solution for Rural broadband https://t.co/CWCCoxEwHK
Interesting work by @iitbombay
— Anurag Bhatia (@anurag_bhatia) April 8, 2017
Facebook user Anand Rai commented that:
This would be a great “Make in India” initiative to boost Digital India across underserved/ unserved rural India.
Professor Karandikar says they are working on a sustainable business model that can enable local village entrepreneurs to deploy and manage access networks. It remains to be seen how far the project will go towards lessening India's digital divide, but it has inspired considerable hope among participants and telecommunications experts in the country.


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Panic Over Russian Online Suicide Game Sparks ‘Whale Hunt’ in China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Whale-themed street art in Bishkek that was white-washed after panic over the so-called ‘Blue Whale’ game erupted. Image from Kloop.kg, creative commons.
China is cracking down on an online suicide game called “Blue Whale” that originated in Russia.
Authorities have begun blocking keywords related to the game on local search engines, and numerous game groups on social media have been dissolved. On May 12, a Chinese teen was arrested for spreading extremist thoughts online while participating in the game.
The game is organized through social media and players have to complete a series of tasks including waking up at 4:20 am for 50 consecutive days. Some of the tasks involve self-harm and players can ultimately be encouraged to commit suicide.
Russian media outlets have widely reported that the “Blue Whale” suicide game has been responsible for more than 130 suicides in Russia has been widely spread via tabloids in different countries, including China, though news outlets including Radio Free Asia, Meduza and fact-checking website Snopes have pointed out that the claim has not been proven and may be overblown.
The content and culture around the game are troubling, but China's response may be misguided and in fact creating more interest around “Blue Whale”.
On May 8, a number of Chinese media outlets issued a warning against the “invasion” of the Russian suicide game “Blue Whale”, urging Internet users to report to the police if they spotted the game groups. Local news outlet STV summed up the reports on the social media platform Weibo:
【自杀游戏已传入？】昨天（5月8日），国内多家媒体发出了危险警告，因为俄罗斯死亡游戏“蓝鲸”。如果身边有人使用“蓝鲸”、“四点二十叫醒我”等关键词在社交网站发布信息，并以蓝鲸配图，你就要警惕起来了，因为他很可能参加了死亡游戏“蓝鲸”。小坊特别提醒各位爸妈，千万留意你家孩子的QQ群，不开玩笑！
[Suicide game has arrived?] Yesterday (May 8), a number of media outlets issued a warning regarding the Russian suicide game “Blue Whale”. If you know someone using keywords like “Blue Whale” or “Wake me up at 4:20am” on social media with a “Blue Whale” image, please be cautious because he may have participated in the suicide game called “Blue Whale”. We, in particular, warn the parents, to please pay attention to your children’s QQ groups. This is not a joke!
The warning was based on the Chinese cyber police’s call for a boycott on the game. In China, where Internet censorship is systematic and pervasive, the noise around the game has turned into a political campaign. Global Voices also covered this phenomenon in two of China's Central Asia's neighbours, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
Given China's sophisticated online censorship environment, the claim that the “Blue Whale” game had entered China on any serious scale should be viewed with some skepticism. As in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, evidence suggests that the real swell of interest in the game began after the media and online campaign against the groups.
On May 9, the day after the media warning, the Chinese Communist Youth League announced on Weibo the launch of a “Project Whale Hunt” campaign:
为何要将自己囚禁在幽深的海底？你明明可以翱翔在广阔的天空！捕鲸计划，已经启动……
Why are you locking yourself up under the deep sea? You could fly in the free sky! “Project Whale Hunt” has begun…
Another party-affiliated organization, Mama Juries, posted a similar message on Weibo on the same day:
【遇到“蓝鲸”，请举报！】《蓝鲸死亡游戏》（Blue Whale）是发源于俄罗斯的一种自杀式死亡游戏，游戏鼓励玩家在50天内完成各种残忍伤害自己的任务。很多青少年受其蛊惑结束了自己的生命！我国内地也出现了类似于 “4:20叫醒我” 的代号QQ群。QQ安全团队正在进一步进行排查和打击。“蓝鲸死亡游戏”这类行为已经涉嫌组织、教唆他人自杀自残，属于违法犯罪行为。妈妈评审团提醒广大家长警惕孩子手机里类似“蓝鲸”、 “4:20叫醒我” 等字眼的社交群，如果发现这类社交群，请立即举报！
[Please report on “Blue Whale”] is a suicide game originating from Russia. The game encourages gamers to carry out self-harm tasks consecutively over 50 days. Many young people have been induced to end their lives. QQ groups like “wake me up at 4:20am” have appeared in our country. The QQ security team has started cleaning up these groups. Behaviours associated with the “Blue Whale suicide game” are criminal behaviours as it involves organizing and inducing others to self-harm and suicide. Mama Juries reminds parents to check on your children’s mobile phone [to see if they are members of] social groups that have keywords like “Blue Whale” or “Wake me up at 4:20am”. If you spot the groups, please report them!
In this campaign, organizations such as the Communist Youth League and Mama Juries have been mobilized by the Beijing Internet Information Office. The same office has also demanded that major websites and social media platforms fall in line with the mass campaign and public reports.
On May 12, the Beijing Internet Information Office, Public Security Bureau, Administrative Law Enforcement in Cultural Market Team held a meeting with eight Internet companies to report on the crackdown on “Blue Whale”.
Chinese internet police's poster against the blue whale game.
According to a local media report, Internet giant Tencent has closed a few dozen QQ groups and blocked the related keywords from its search engines. Baidu has closed all the forum discussions with keywords like “Blue Whale” or “Blue Whale game”.
A message, “Please stay away from activities that could induce self-harm”, now pops up in the Baidu search engine when users search “Blue Whale”. All associated search results have been cleaned up to make sure that searches do not link to websites that advocate for self-harm or suicide.
Sina Weibo has blocked search terms and deleted messages associated with the game.
Cyber police offices from all across the country have assisted the crackdown either by reposting warning messages or investigating netizen reports. In most cases, the police have asked the group's administrator to dissolve the group.
But in Guangxi province, Zhanjiang city police detained a 17-year-old on charges of “spreading extremism” by posting images and comments encouraging acts of self-harm “tasks” to a chat group on QQ on May 12.
The teenager told the police that he joined the QQ “Blue Whale” game group on May 9, after local media outlets launched the campaign.
According to Guangxi police, his QQ group originally set out to sell computer software and clothes. In order to attract more members he started posting information about “Blue Whale” after he read the authorities’ warning on local media outlets.
He also posted an image showing an arm with a blue whale cut into it and fabricated information that eleven members of the group have ‘finished the task’, managing to attract more than 200 new members to his group in the process.
The teen's experience suggests that media coverage and the aggressive effort to curb participation in the game may be attracting more public attention to “Blue Whale”, and thus having the opposite effect.
Those who cannot repress their curiosity will now inevitably find ways of accessing the game beyond the Great Firewall that defines the Chinese internet. In response, the Youth League has developed another spur to its campaign by spreading the Happy Blue Whale guideline online.
The number one cause for suicide is untreated depression. Depression is treatable and suicide is preventable. You can get help from confidential support lines for the suicidal and those in emotional crisis. Visit Befrienders.org to find a suicide prevention helpline in your country.


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Russian Crooner Joins Effort to Attract Tourists to War-Torn Eastern Ukraine · Global Voices
Isaac Webb

Source: Kremlin.ru
Nearly three years into the war in eastern Ukraine, the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics (DNR and LNR, respectively) are making a renewed attempt to attract foreign tourists to their internationally unrecognized statelets—with support from one of Russia's most famous crooners.
Joseph Kobzon, a celebrated singer and member of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, is leading an effort to memorialize the remnants of eastern Ukraine's once-thriving heavy industry in the latest attempt to support tourism in the Russia-backed separatist republics.
Last week, an exhibit entitled “The Infrastructural Heritage of Donbass” opened at the State Duma in Moscow. The organizers of the exhibit, including the 79-year-old Kobzon, announced plans to create a “post-industrial landscape and recreation reserve” that they hope will “lead to the emergence of a large tourist cluster” in Donbass.
One map displayed at the exhibit imagines a tourist route stretching from Taganrog in southern Russia to Yenakiieve, a city in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast that is currently controlled by the DNR. The route includes a stop in Ilovaisk, the site of one of the bloodiest battles in the War in Donbas.
A burned-out bus in the city of Konstantinovka in government-controlled eastern Ukraine in 2014. Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC 4.0.
The exhibit opened shortly after the DNR launched an initiative aimed at bringing western tourists to the conflict zone: In March, Donbass International News Agency (DONi), a news and propaganda outlet run by the DNR, announced the launch of “Donbass Tours,” a project intended to promote the Donetsk and Luhansk separatist republics internationally.
Though DONi boasted about having attracted tourists from western countries to the separatist republics, business does not appear to be booming: the Donbass Tours website remains under construction more than two months after the project's supposed launch, and it is unclear whether tours planned for the May holidays (May 1-9) were ever held.
Tour companies on the Russian side of the border are also expressing renewed interest in taking tourists to eastern Ukraine: a tour company in Russia's Rostov Region, which borders both separatist republics, announced that it would begin taking tourists on bus tours of the DNR, according to the local news website 161.ru. The website reported that the idea for the tour came from people within the DNR but that the program “is not yet enjoying wide popularity” and that at present most tours are organized individually.
An image used to promote Donbass Tours.
For 20,000 rubles (around $350), tourists on the “Donetsk Unconquered” excursion will travel to newly-famous battlefields, Donbass Arena (a soccer stadium that was shelled in the early days of the war), and a number of historical sites—including Saur Mogila, a prehistoric burial ground that became a battleground in 2014.
As if that weren't enough military voyeurism, tourists will reportedly also travel to a shooting range and have the opportunity to go on several mini-excursions, including one called “War and Peace.”
In February 2015, shortly after the Battle of Debaltseve, which left hundreds of Ukrainian, separatist, and Russian soldiers killed, wounded, or missing, “Megapolis Resort,” a tour company based in Moscow, announced that it was launching excursions to Donbass and charging between two and three thousand dollars.
Over the next year, multiple websites reported that the separatist republics intended to attract tourists by staging excursions in the conflict zone, though the number of tourists traveling to Donbass annually remains small: just 105,000 tourists traveled to the DNR in 2016.

author: Isaac Webb


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Russia’s State Duma Invites a YouTube Star to Speak · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Russian YouTube star Sasha Spilberg addresses the State Duma on May 22, 2017. Photo: Russian State Duma
The past two months have been a hard time for young people in Russia, where teachers and lecturers in classrooms across the country have berated and insulted students for suddenly showing an interest in activism. But it might be Russia’s politicians who are worried most in this new political climate.
Federal lawmakers, at any rate, are concerned enough about Russian youths that they invited 19-year-old YouTube celebrity Sasha Spilberg to address a packed session of the State Duma on Monday.
A woman who once submerged herself in a bathtub filled with potato chips for her 5 million YouTube subscribers, Spilberg visited the Duma as part of a new effort by United Russia, the ruling political party, to explore ways to “prevent the use of young people as a driving force in protests.”
Officials have been in a state of alarm ever since thousands of teenagers and university students joined nationwide anti-corruption protests on March 26, organized in large part by presidential hopeful Alexey Navalny. The demonstrations especially targeted Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, whom Navalny has accused of accepting large-scale bribes through a network of corrupt charities.
“I’m not too great with politics, with the names of all the parties, and so on, but I know how to talk to a large audience,” Spilberg told the State Duma on Monday. “My mission is to help facilitate a dialogue between the state and society, to which I belong.”
Spilberg also shared some advice: “Subscribers are the same as voters, except that the returns are visible in real time. Every one of my videos is a mini-election. I’ve been completely transparent since the age of 13, and any screw up — any falsity or laziness — triggers an instant reaction from my audience. Be transparent: share videos on YouTube, and post things on Vkontakte, or whatever social network you like best.”
After laying out this bold strategy for winning over young people, Spilberg then suddenly backtracked, telling the Duma that politicians have no immediate need for videobloggers. “The age bracket isn’t there yet, and its influence is still too low. I, for one, have voted in elections and will continue to vote, but I plan to vote in the polling booth and not on social networks.”
Spilberg concluded her remarks with a shot at her YouTube “colleague” Ruslan Sokolovsky, the atheist blogger in Yekaterinburg who was recently given a 3.5-year suspended sentence for insulting religious people with satirical videos, including one video showing him playing Pokemon Go inside a cathedral.
“Excuse me for saying this, of course, but he’s an idiot,” Spilberg told the Duma, telling the deputies, “Idiots need to be cured or fined.”
Backtracking again, however, Spilberg then warned that “prosecuting such people” is “harsh and unpragmatic,” and erodes young people’s trust in the government.
Last month, Spilberg made headlines for scoring an interview with Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s minister of culture. Unlike her many videos featuring wacky stunts or music, Spilberg’s interview with Medinsky was a largely straightforward conversation, where the federal minister described the Internet as a modern-day medium for the popularization of Russian culture.

author: Kevin Rothrock