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A Quick Guide to Trinidad & Tobago Carnival   · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

It's Carnival weekend in Trinidad and Tobago!  Yesterday, Fantastic Friday, saw two of the biggest and most hotly contested events for the season –  the 2014 Soca Monarch competition and the finals of the Kings and Queens of the Bands.  Today, the spotlight will be on the nation's children during the Junior Parade of Bands, while tonight is the much-anticipated steelband Panorama finals.  Even for the most seasoned Carnival lover, it's a demanding schedule to  to keep up with, but one blogger, TriniGourmet, has decided to break it down, so that the whole Carnival experience is easier to understand.
Youngster in traditional “Indian Mas” costume.  Image by Mark Morgan, used under a CC license.
Naturally, she begins with an overview of the entire festival:
In Trinidad the Carnival season begins almost immediately after the Christmas leftovers have been put in the fridge and ends with a final 3-day frenzy that ends on Ash Wednesday. ‘Dimanche Gras’ takes place on the Sunday night before Ash Wednesday. Here the Calypso Monarch is chosen (after competition) and prize money and a vehicle bestowed. Also the King and Queen of the bands are crowned, where each band to parade costumes for the next two days submits a king and queen, from which an overall winner is chosen. These usually involve huge, complex, beautiful costumes.
She goes on to explain the meaning of “J'ouvert” [Jour Ouvert; literally “the opening of the day”]:
J’ouvert, or ‘Dirty Mas’, takes place before dawn on the Monday (known as Carnival Monday) before Ash Wednesday. Here revelers dress in old clothes and cover themselves in mud, oil paint and body paint. A common character to be seen at this time is ‘Jab-jabs’ (devils, blue, black or red) complete with pitch fork, pointed horns and tails. Here also, a king and queen of the J’ouvert are chosen, based on their representation of current political/social events/issues.
Jab Jab, image by Quinten Questel, used under a CC license.
Then, she describes what happens on Carnival Monday and Tuesday:
Carnival Monday involves the parade of the mas bands, but on a casual or relaxed scale. Usually revelers wear only parts of their costumes, and the purpose of the day is more one of fun than display or competition. Also on Carnival Monday, Monday Night Mas is popular in most towns and especially the capital, where smaller bands participate in competition.
Carnival Tuesday is when the main events of the carnival take place. On this day full costume is worn complete with make up and body paints/adornments. Each band has their costume presentation based on a particular theme, and contain various sections (some consisting of thousands of revelers) which reflect these themes. Here the street parade and eventual crowning of the best bands take place. After following a route where various judging points are located, the mas bands eventually converge on the Queen’s Park Savannah to pass ‘on the stage’ to be judged once and for all.
This year, there is some controversy over parade routes.
Image of a band on stage on Carnival Tuesday by Georgia Popplewell, used via a CC license.
In another post, TriniGourmet blogs about the accompanying music of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival – soca:
The best places to see, hear, experience soca and calypso are the numerous fetes, reviews and tents that pop up over the Carnival season. Growing up there really was only competition that mattered, that was the one to be named Calypso Monarch on Dimanche Gras night. However nowadays, as the genre has grown and splintered, numerous concerts and competitions have popped up to meet the demand for musical expression and recognition.
Nowadays Trinidadian Soca music (itself a sub-category of calypso music) has spawned 3 distinct sub-categories.
1. Rapso: Trinidad dialect ‘hip-hop’ with smooth calypso melodies and bold socially conscious lyrics
2. Chutney-soca: A fusion of traditional Indian percussion and style of singing and Calypso
3. Ragga Soca: A fusion of Jamaican Dancehall and Trinidad’s Soca – uptempo calypso beat with moderate bass and electronic instruments.
Part 3 of her series is dedicated to the steel pan, the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago:
The steel pan (not drum) was invented in Trinidad and is the only [surviving] acoustic musical invention of the 20th century. It should then come as no surprise that it is our national instrument and one that we hold dear!
Just like an orchestra, different types of pans combine to form ‘bands’. Steelbands.
Once a year the various steelbands (often with corporate sponsors) compete at Carnival time in a festival called Panorama.
One of the things that never fails to amaze me is the sheer passion and dedication of the panplayers who volunteer countless hours, memorizing 20 to 30 minute arrangements without the aid of sheet music, formal training (for the most part) or the visual metronome of a conductor.
Pans being cleaned in preparation for a performance.  Image by caribbeanfreephoto, used under a CC license.
Next, she tackles one of the most popular parts of Carnival – the myriad of parties, called “fetes”, leading up to the big event:
If you are getting the sense that Carnival is one big long party you are right! So it only makes sense that one big long party would be made of many many big long parties as well. These parties in Trinidad…are attended by hundreds, sometimes thousands. Fetes feature the biggest soca artists of the season and can go on until daybreak. As the Carnival season draws near the number of fetes grows exponentially, and are not restricted to weekends either. It is not uncommon for people to attend a fete until well after midnight and then to go to their day job as usual.
Fetes are often held by schools and non-profits as fundraisers, by corporate sponsors and of course, by party promoters.
At a fete you will usually see people waving huge flags and other such colorful ‘accessories’. And of course no Trini worth their red, white and black would think of showing up at a fete without their own rag or ‘kerchief to wave and jump with.  Fetes sometimes have ‘rhythm sections’ that add to the frenzied sound and atmosphere.
Finally, she blogs about “Dimanche Gras” or “Big Sunday”:
Here the Calypso Monarch is chosen (after competition) and prize money and a vehicle bestowed. Also the King and Queen of the bands are crowned, where each band to parade costumes for the next two days submits a king and queen, from which an overall winner is chosen. These usually involve huge, complex, beautiful costumes. In recent years however this traditional format has been tweaked and adjusted so that all of the above fall on different nights leading up to the Sunday Night.
The compositions performed on Dimanche Gras night tend to be socio-political commentaries on the issues of the day.
Image of traditional Carnival character “The Bookman” by Quinten Questel, used under a CC license.
Of course, there are always fringe events that include aspects of the festival not mentioned here, including traditional Carnival character shows and re-enactments of the Canboulay riots, which birthed modern-day Carnival celebrations centuries ago.
The image of the Jab Jab is by Quinten Questel, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license.
The image of a band crossing the Savannah stage on Carnival Tuesday is by Georgia Popplewell, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license.
The image of pans being cleaned prior to a performance is by caribbeanfreephoto, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license.
The image of “The Bookman” is by Quinten Questel, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license.


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Damn Provocateurs vs. Couch Potato Liberals: Russian Nationalists Debate Invading the Crimea · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

“Damn Provocateurs vs. Couch Potato Liberals.” Images mixed by Kevin Rothrock.
There are very different kinds of nationalists in Russia. As the label implies, they’re all concerned with protecting the interests of the Russian people, whom they define in various terms: ethnicity, language, culture—you name it. With so much concentration on constructing a better “imagined community,” you might expect Russian nationalists to be of one mind about the Ukraine crisis. When it comes to the current unrest in the Crimea, however, nationalism produces wildly dissimilar views about what Russia ought to do.
Even basic disagreements about Russia’s next steps in the Crimea are possible among Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics. For instance, since the beginning of the political crisis in Kiev, Egor Prosvirnin, author of the nationalist blog “Sputnik & Pogrom,” has cheered the idea of reintegrating Eastern Ukraine into the Russian polity.
Today, February 28, 2014, as rumors about a Russian military intervention in the Crimea flooded the news, Prosvirnin celebrated S&P’s longstanding support for restoring Russian sovereignty over the Crimea. Prosvirnin published an editorial [ru] confronting critics, who he says wrongly accuse his blog of “selling out” to the Kremlin. “Unlike many other publications,” he boasts, “we [S&P] are proud of the fact that we don’t change our views for decades.” Prosvirnin went on to argue that Russian ethnic unity is a necessary precondition for toppling Putin’s “authoritarian regime,” explaining that the fall of the USSR scattered ethnic Russians outside Russia’s post-Soviet borders, draining the “nation” of the lifeblood necessary for “successful, strong, and free development.” That is to say, the Crimeas of Russia’s periphery (also found in Belarus and northern Kazakhastan) must be regained, before Russians can challenge Putin effectively.
Egor Prosvirnin, interview screenshot, April 29, 2013, YouTube.
While S&P is certainly an anti-Putin blog, Prosvirnin saved the best of his venom for fellow opponents of the Kremlin, attacking liberal democrats as “couch potato” dissidents who fail to appreciate that absorbing the Crimea would ultimately hasten the consolidation of the Russian nation (and therefore the downfall of the Putin regime).
Hearing about Prosvirnin’s contempt for Russian liberals, Vladimir Milov—an oppositionist politician and an active blogger—had this to say on Twitter:
@KevinRothrock response from liberals: FUCK HIM
— Vladimir Milov (@v_milov) February 28, 2014
Milov, a former deputy energy minister of the Russian Federation, now heads the opposition political party Democratic Choice. A proponent of what he calls “liberal-nationalism,” he has participated in the “Stop Feeding the North Caucasus!” movement, a campaign to reduce federal subsidies to Chechnya and its neighboring areas, possibly with the eventual aim of jettisoning the entire region from the Russian Federation.
On the question of the North Caucasus, Milov and Prosvirnin largely agree. Indeed, attitudes about Chechnya, and the related push to require visas for people traveling to Russia from the Caucasus and Central Asia, are the bread and butter of nationalist consensus in Russia. Kirill Rodionov [ru], another Democratic Choice figure, has published opinion articles in this vein, promoting the visa regime idea and the needs [ru] of the Russian ethnicity in broad cultural and economic terms. Rodionov has even published [ru] in Sputnik & Pogrom—eight times.
How is it possible that one of Milov’s party allies collaborates with a man Milov says is a “damn provocateur”?
The first thing worth noting is that Milov has said publicly [ru] that he welcomes a diversity of opinions within Democratic Choice about Russia’s Ukraine policy. “Foreign policy issues are not why we created this party,” he wrote in a LiveJournal post on February 23, 2014, adding, “Our purpose is working to democratize Russia.”
Vladimir Milov, interview screenshot, October 31, 2011, YouTube.
Milov’s apparent open-mindedness about this subject is curious, especially given his own position on the crisis in the Crimea, which he laid out in a February 24 Slon.ru opinion article [ru]. In that piece, Milov argued that Russians shouldn’t expect the Ukrainian elite—even in the Russian-speaking East—to embrace being “trampled under the boot of a Putin dictatorship.” Indeed, he denounces the Kremlin’s foreign policy writ large as “exporting dictatorship.” In other words, Milov rejects Moscow’s reabsorption of eastern Ukraine in part because of an inherently domestic issue: Russia’s unconsolidated democracy.
The debate among nationalists over intervention in Ukraine oddly centers on opinions about the nature of Russia’s democracy. This is strange because nationalists in the Russian opposition tend to agree about the state of the Putin regime, condemning the Kremlin in unison as corrupt and unwilling to protect ethnic Russians. When it comes to aiding the Crimea, however, some (Prosvirnin) are happy to grab what they can today and democratize tomorrow, while others (Milov) insist on tidying up at home, first.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Japan’s Endangered Languages Still Considered Mere Dialects · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

Map of Ryukyuan languages located in the southernmost islands of Japan. Image by (C) Fija Byron, used with permission (English translation in blue was added by Keiko Tanaka)
In 2009, eight languages spoken on the Japanese archipelago were listed among endangered languages in the UNESCO Atlas of the World, including Ainu, Amami, Hachijō, Kunigami, Miyako, Okinawan, Yaeyama and Yonaguni. This post looks at Okinawan, one of the endangered languages in the southern half of Okinawa island in the Ryukyu region, which now constitutes Japan's Okinawa prefecture. We interviewed Fija Byron, a lecturer and advocate of “Uchinaguchi”, an Okinawan language.
Japan is often referred as a small, “homogeneous” island, and its linguistic diversity often is under-represented or discounted overseas as well as among the Japanese themselves. Many Japanese are aware of different dialects in their country, but are not as clued in when it comes to the existence of these diverse native languages.
The Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs’ website [ja] lists all eight of the endangered languages recognized by UNESCO, but with an important difference: it adds in parenthesis “dialect” next to “language”, with the exception of Ainu, the language of indigenous people from the northern part of the Japanese archipelago. The government finally recognized them as indigenous people in 2008.
Fija Byron holding a sanshin, an Okinawan instrument. Image used with permisison.
This shows that for Japan, these endangered languages are considered dialects. In Japan, language is considered as something that unites a nation state, and dialect is considered as something unsophisticated, a way of speaking in the countryside. In a country where the myth of Japan being a “one race nation” is widespread, people often feel compelled to conform to social norms instead of striving for diversity. Without being aware of doing so, minorities are pushed aside, both in terms of language and how people see each other.
Fija Byron, who was born to an American father and an Okinawan mother, describes himself as American Uchinanchu (American Okinawan). He has had to deal with people constantly asking him if he is a foreigner or if he spoke English because the way he looks.
He teaches Uchinaguchi (Okinawan), one of the endangered languages in the southern half of Okinawa island, and was born and raised in Okinawa. In an interview with Global Voices, he said that cultural attitude toward languages is hurting minority languages in the country.
方言でなまっているからおかしい、教養がないというふうに考える傾向が、自分の文化や言語について自信をもつ障壁となってしまっているのです。
The idea that these languages are referred to as dialects in Japan and that they are corrupted and wrong and unsophisticated is hindering people in speaking their own language and making them shy away from their own culture and language.
Even linguists don't agree on how to classify language from dialect. One measurement they use is so-called “mutual intelligibility”.
Here's how Byron introduces himself in Okinawan[Uchinaguchi]. If Okinawan is to be considered a dialect, consider this first: As a native Japanese speaker, I don't understand a word of what he's saying:
[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');</script><![endif]
According to Byron, people 80 and up can speak perfect Okinawan in the region, but younger generations of Okinawans do not have an environment to practice their language. In fact, he did not grow up speaking it. He learned it from Kochu Makishi, a master of Okinawan theater play performer. Byron explains that Okinawan theater play (沖縄芝居:Okinawa shibai), a performing folk art in the Okinawan language, emerged in the late 1880s and derived from the Ryukyu kingdom, where performances like Kumi Odori was presented to entertain Chinese diplomats:
沖縄芝居は王府のあった首里の言葉と那覇語がまざった言葉で演じられる。これが一般的にうちなーぐちと呼ばれているもの。芝居の中には様々な登場人物―侍から百姓まで―が出てくるので表現が豊富。
Okinawan play is performed in a mixture of the language of Shuri, the capital of Ryukyu kingdom, and the language of Naha, where common people lived. This language is the so-called Uchinaguchi[Okinawan]. In Okinawan play, there are a variety of roles such as farmers and samurai, so it has a good variety of expression.
Ryukyu kingdom was annexed by Japan in 1879, and after Japan introduced standardized Japanese to Okinawa's elementary school education in 1897, the Okinawan language gradually faded from public places, especially in honorific expressions, parts of speech which show respect:
わたしのうちなーぐち講座に78歳の方が来るのです。78歳といったら、わたしの親の世代。教えることがあるのかと思うかもしれませんが、きちんとした敬語がわからないから習いたいということで来ているのです。なぜかというと、日本語小学校の設立で沖縄の独自の文化や言語を教えなくなり、同化政策が進んで行った世代だからです。当時、公的な場で沖縄語を使うことがよくないという風潮で、きちんとした表現などは日本語で話すようになっていきました。
There is a 78-year-old Okinawan student who is about my parent's age. But he comes to my class saying that he wants to learn appropriate honorific expressions. Because of the assimilation policy and school education they've been through, they didn't have an experience in speaking Okinawan in public because they were supposed to speak standard Japanese in public.
In general, standardized Japanese is often considered to be the heart of Japanese, the most sophisticated version. All other dialects with “provincial” accents are often considered to be beneath it or unsophisticated. Standardization does play an important role in forming a protocol, something agreeable for people to collaborate upon. On the other hand, conforming to a standard has sometimes become the opposite of empowerment.
Fija writes in a journal [ja] that if a language dies, its world will also vanish:
日本の少数言語である「アイヌ語」や「琉球諸語」が危機だというのは、この世から消滅するかもしれないということなのである。「アイヌ」も「琉球」も地球の一地域であり、その文化の根源である「言語」は日本にとって、また、人類にとっても「宝」なのである。その「宝」が今まさにこの世から失われようとしている。
The fact that Japan's minority languages, such as the Ainu language and Ryukyuan languages, are in danger means that these languages are on the verge of extinction. Both Ainu and Ryukyu are part of the earth, and their languages are the origin of their cultures – which means they are precious to Japan as well as to humankind. Such precious things are about to disappear from the world.
Fija Byron teaching at a university in Okinawa. Photo used with permission
He is not optimistic, but the dim reality doesn't stop him from being enthusiastic about Okinawan. In an email asking him for the interview, he replied saying that he would be happy to do anything for the sake of Uchinaguchi. He actively appears in media and keeps his website updated about the state of Okinawa:
5年間、うちなーぐちで放送する番組をやっていました。今は新聞にも執筆していますが、[その言語での]放送局や新聞社があるわけではありません。
数年前、インターネット放送の番組に出演したところ、ブラジルやハワイ、アメリカからたくさんアクセスがあり、むしろ海外で反響が多くて驚きました。
I've done radio shows in the Okinawan language for five years and I write for local papers, but it's not like there are stations and papers where they publish or broadcast in Okinawan.
I did a show on the Internet a few years ago to lecture in the Okinawan language. Surprisingly, I noticed more response from overseas, people from Brazil, Hawaii, the US were watching the show on the Internet.
Fija Byron teaches Uchinaguchi in Okinawa University as well as in various community centers. You can reach him in his website http://fijabyron.com/

author: Keiko Tanaka


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The Russians Have Weaponized Photoshop · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

A Russian boot kicks out the US-Israeli war machine before it can reach Ukraine. Image anonymously circulated online.
As a war looms between Russia and Ukraine, it's no surprise that Russian bloggers are now skirmishing in cyberspace, duking it out over the proper frame for the crisis. Armed conflict being what it is, these exchanges often become emotionally heated and even downright nasty. Indeed, the popular Russian news portal Lenta.ru officially suspended [ru] all reader comments on its website, until tensions in the Crimea subside. In an explanation [ru] posted to Facebook, Lenta.ru's chief editor, Galina Timchenko, said that she came to the decision on her own, not wishing to spend company money on financing “readers’ right to shit in our comments.”
As the Lenta.ru comments shutdown implies, Russian Internet users have blasted the Web with commentary relating to the conflict over Crimea. As Twitter feeds overflow and news changes too fast to accommodate longer-form blogging, one of the most successful ways to grab attention has been an old medium: political cartoons. If we're generous and include in our definition of political cartoons all the meme imagery traded online, then it seems safe to say that Russian bloggers have weaponized Photoshop in the debate about Ukraine.
One of the most amusing political cartoons to circulate online has been a drawing of Death going door-to-door with a bloody scythe. The Death cartoon appeared earlier today in a tweet by Ira Zak (an abbreviated name, presumably), when she sent it to popular pro-Kremlin blogger Anton Korobkov [ru]. The anti-American cartoon is self-explanatory:
@korobkov еще и такой вариант есть……. Думаю так и будет pic.twitter.com/DS03gzelYO
— Ира Зак (@zak_ira) March 1, 2014
Korobkov: The Americans called us the “Evil Empire,” and now we're calling them the “Empire of Lies.”
Zak: There's also another way to go about this… I think it looks like this: [image]
When RuNet Echo's “RuNet Memes” Twitter account disseminated this image, BuzzFeed's Miriam Elder picked it up, retweeting it with the caption, “Return of Soviet-era propaganda”:
Return of Soviet-era propaganda via @RuNetMemes pic.twitter.com/KQOu61dyEj
— Miriam Elder (@MiriamElder) March 1, 2014
As it turns out, the political cartoon may postdate the Soviet Union by two decades, apparently originating in the modern-day Middle East. David Guy, a pro-Israel blogger at “Five Minutes for Israel,” claims that the cartoon was initially created as a criticism of the Wahhabi movement's role in the Arab Spring. In fact, several Twitter users noted the Israeli flag painted on Death's scythe in the image tweeted at Korobkov. (While it's entirely possible that the author of this cartoon's Ukraine-focused iteration harbors anti-Israel sentiments, the Star of David does seem out of place with general Russian criticisms of US policy in Europe, which do not typically vilify the state of Israel, suggesting that it could be a remnant from an older template meant for the Arab world.)
While the image may lack the historical Russian roots that so endear Crimean soil to Moscow, the exploitability of the cartoon has already inspired several responses. Critics of Russian military intervention might enjoy this example, which recasts Death as Russia, and the opened doors as Russia's former war zones: (left to right) the Caucasus, Chechnya, Dagestan, Abkhazia, North Ossetia [sic], and Ukraine:
@KevinRothrock @RuNetMemes This one is much better. pic.twitter.com/re7vJLekab
— La Russophobe (@larussophobe) March 1, 2014


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Ukraine’s Capital After Yanukovich, Through a Kyrgyz Blogger’s Eyes · Global Voices
Mahina Shodizoda

A portrait of Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, released from jail after the ousting of Yanukovich, is seen in Kyiv's Maidan. Image by Bektour Iskender, used with permission.
This post is part of our Special Coverage Ukraine's #Euromaidan Protests.
Kyrgyzstani blogger Bektour Iskender visited Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, where after months of protests the country's President Viktor Yanukovych was recently ousted. Iskender presents a detailed photo report about “the first days after Yanukovich” in Kyiv.
In a three-part series of blog posts so far dubbed “Travels in Kyiv”, Iskender poses some questions that many are asking, and provides answers to some. In the first part of his reports from Kyiv, he writes:
Я буду в Киеве до пятницы и попытаюсь, в первую очередь, запечатлеть эти моменты установления новых правил игры. А ещё я хочу попытаться понять, почему ситуация в этой стране так резко изменилась за какие-то два-три дня? Почему Янукович так долго сопротивлялся «Евромайдану», а потом так быстро сдулся и сдался?
I will be in Kyiv on Friday to try to, above all, capture these moments of establishing new rules of the game. I also want to try to understand why the situation in this country changed so dramatically in just two or three days? Why did Yanukovich resist “Euromaidan” so long and then so quickly gave up and fled?
The posts also include dozens of pictures of everyday life and activities of the protesters and citizens of Kyiv during this transitional period. In the second blog post written during his visit, Iskender describes in detail everyday life in Kyiv today:
На второй день пребывания в Киеве как-то уже привыкаешь к Майдану, баррикадам, людям из самообороны. Наверное, потому, что все они никак не мешают повседневной жизни города.
В Киеве почти не работает государственная милиция. То есть, на улицах я не вижу ни участковых, ни дорожно-патрульной службы, никого из официальных правоохранительных органов. Казалось бы, тут весь криминал и мародёры должны выползти и начать свои тёмные дела.
Но нет. В Киеве я себя сейчас чувствую безопаснее, чем в большинстве городов, в которых я бывал за последний, скажем, год.[…]
И водители зачем-то ездят, не нарушая правил. На красный свет останавливаются. Пешеходов пропускают на зебрах.
Мало какой город в мире сейчас более сюрреалистичен, чем Киев.
On the second day in Kyiv, you get used to Maidan, the barricades, the self-defense people. Probably because they don't interrupt everyday life in the city.
In Kyiv, the state police almost doesn't work. Or rather, I don't see any [working] police stations or police patrols in the streets, no one from official law and order services. One would think that thieves and criminals must be lurking in wait to commit their dark deeds.
But no. In Kyiv, I can feel safer now than in most cities I have been in say the last year. […]
And drivers, for some reason, don't break the rules. They stop at a red light. Pedestrians use crossings.
Few cities today are as surreal as Kiev.
In part 3 of his “Travels in Kyiv”, Iskender exclusively covers the topic of what he and many have called the “true heroes of Maidan” – the doctors and other medical staff that have joined forces and often risked their own physical safety to keep Euromaidan protesters healthy and alive. A set of photos in this post shows the improvised clinics set up around the city and the cheerful faces of medical workers who have dedicated their life-saving skills to the movement in the past weeks and months, some of whom have come from Moldova, Iran and other countries to Ukraine to help.
Iskender financed the trip himself and could only stay for a few days, but has promised to return to Kyiv soon and continue reporting on everyday life in the aftermath of Euromaidan protests in Ukraine.
This post is part of our Special Coverage Ukraine's #Euromaidan Protests.

author: Mahina Shodizoda


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[Video] Decoding Indian Headshakes in Less Than Two Minutes · Global Voices
Rezwan

Many people are confused about the meaning of Indian “headshakes” and how to communicate using them. That may explain why a satirical video deciphering different types of Indian headshakes has gone viral.
The 1:44 minute-long video, titled “Indian headshakes, what do they mean?“, has attracted more than 1.2 million views since it was published in YouTube on February 16, 2014. And it has generated interesting reactions on social media platforms such as Reddit and Twitter:
I have always loved the Indian headshake – but now I LOVE it even more. This is brilliant. http://t.co/eHxIyKqJjc
— geeta pendse (@geetapendse) March 1, 2014
Paul Mathew, the video's writer and director, told the BBC: “If we had known that this video was going to get such awesome viewership we would have shot it better.”

author: Rezwan


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VIDEO: #KholoBC Viral Music Video Fights Pakistan’s YouTube Ban · Global Voices
Qurratulain (Annie) Zaman

#KholoBC is a Pakistan for All campaign opposed to all forms of state censorship and content regulation on the Internet.
It's been over a year since Pakistanis have had to go without YouTube or resort to proxy servers and VPN services to use the site.  The world's most popular video-sharing site has been banned in the country since September 2012 after an anti-Islam film on YouTube, “Innocence of Muslims”  sparked protests in many parts of the world.
There has been steady resistance since. This time, unhappy Pakistanis registered their protest in a music video.
#KholoBC, a rap song sung partly in Urdu, partly in English by hip hop and rock singer and comedian Ali Gul Pir and rapper Adil Omar, has gone viral on social media. The tongue-in-cheek music video is part of a youth initiative, Pakistan For All, against Internet censorship in Pakistan. Last year, Pakistan for All released another video to make a noise against the YouTube ban in the country, “If you want me back, hug me“; the YouTube mascot from that video makes an appearance in this one.
Part of the song's success is in it's clever title, “Kholo Ban Chor”. “Kholo” means “open”, “ban” means “ban”, and “chor” means “thief”, so the English translation, “open the ban, you thief” seems more than appropriate to the subject matter. But “ban chor” sounds like another word in Urdu, “bhen chod”, which means “sister-fucker”, and “BC” is a commonly used acronym for the term.
Adil Omar shared on his Facebook page:
Unfortunately Facebook doesn't count video views, but according to insights, #KholoBC has reached 647,521 people on Facebook so far, with over 125,000 active clicks – 14k hits on Vimeo and 5k on YouTube, making it the most viral video in Pakistan so far this week. Let's not stop there. We could make a difference. Keep pushing the video and keep using the #KholoBC hash-tag. State censorship should be fought, and to all in opposition of #KholoBC, or in favor of the YouTube ban, do us a favor and stay the f*ck off YouTube when it's finally opened. www.smarturl.it/KholoBC
Ali Gul Pir, one of the singers of this song tweets:
You cant keep the people of Pakistan in the dark!YouTube ban is political!So the masses dont have a uncensored medium of expression #KholoBC
— Ali Gul Pir (@Aligulpir) February 23, 2014
The video has stirred many conversations on Facebook and Twitter.
M. Omer Khalid tweeted:
Excellent song #kholobc we dont need dharnas we need song like these to get things done @Aligulpir @Adil_Omar #kholobc
— M.Omer Khalid (@MOmerKhalid) February 24, 2014
[Editors note: dharna= protests/demonstrations]
@Zeemayn commented:
This has got to be the most harami song in the history of harami songs #KholoBC https://t.co/sjDPzkbTHu
— couch enthusiast (@zeeemayn) February 24, 2014
[Editors note: Harami = curse word similar in sentiment to asshole, but not in transliteration. Means a really awful person who does unlawful things.]
Aina Syeda didn't find the lyrics funny:
If some1 thinks dat insulting language,race &the name calling in songs is something FUNNY should Consult Doctor ! #waderykabeta #KholoBC
— aina syeda (@SIRF_SACH) February 24, 2014
But Adil Omar had an answer for those who found the language offensive:
Pakistanis in real life: “bhanch*d, madarch*d, cho*t”, but when they hear “kholo ban, chor” in a song: “STOP USING ABUSIVE LANGUAGE!”
— Adil Omar (@Adil_Omar) February 25, 2014
Pakistani writer Bina Shah enjoyed the video:
The best thing about this video, amongst so many others, is the fake news ticker. http://t.co/YCTK8CJ6Yx #KholoBC
— Bina Shah (@BinaShah) February 26, 2014
Atiqa Odha, a Pakistani actress, is mentioned in the lyrics and commented on the video on her Facebook page:
Atiqa Odho is my favorite person on the planet right now. #KholoBC @AliGulPir pic.twitter.com/0tBUyWWO4V
— Adil Omar (@Adil_Omar) February 27, 2014
The video was timely – just two days before the 17th hearing of “Net Freedom Case” dealing with the YouTube ban, pitting ICT organization Bytes for All against the government at the Lahore High Court. The 17th hearing was the first hearing to a larger divisional bench for the case.
Bytes for all shared the update on the case:
The court ordered for the third and last time the Minister for Information and Technology, Ms Anusha Rehman, to appear before the court on Tuesday, 11 March and provide the government's statement and intentions with regard to opening YouTube. Should this not be forthcoming at the next hearing, the Bench would rule on the matter, given that 95% of the content on YouTube is educational.
The IT minister didn't come in the last two hearings. The counsel for the petitioner expressed his reservation that Ms Rehman might go for Umrah once again instead of appearing for the hearing. It has been over a year since this case was filed.
The petition as filed in the court is accessible here.
The feature image used in this post is from the Pakistan for All Facebook page.

author: Qurratulain (Annie) Zaman


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China Blames “Xinjiang Terrorists” for Deadly Attack in Kunming  · Global Voices
Abby Liu

China’s officials have blamed militants from the western region of Xinjiang for the killings at a railway station in China’s Southwestern Kunming city. The attack on March 1, 2014, has left 29 dead and more than 130 injured according to state news agency Xinhua.
The attack coincides with the arrival of deputies from around the country to Beijing for the second session of the 12th NPC (National People’s Congress), the annual meeting of parliament, which opens on March 5.
The Kunming government says “evidence at the crime scene showed that the Kunming Railway Station terrorist attack was carried out by Xinjiang separatist forces.” State news agency Xinjiang described the incident as “an organized, premeditated violent terrorist attack”.
The Kunming attack has left 29 dead. (Photo from Sina Weibo)
It’s not the first time state media and local officials have defined violent incidents as Xinjiang terrorist activity. This official definition has turned random individual criminal acts into the collective responsibility of an ethnic minority and resulted in the labeling of its members as terrorist suspects. In October 2013, Chinese authorities called an ethnic Muslim Uyghur who plowed his car into a crowded part of Tiananmen Square a deadly terrorist act. After the Tiananmen crash, China has stepped up security in Xinjiang.
On Sina Weibo, the Kunming mass stabbing became the most discussed topic on March 2, 2014. Some witnesses described details of what happened, though many of the posts were quickly deleted.
While the government’s label of “Xinjiang terrorists” has triggered another round of irrational hatred for Xinjiang people among netizens, some intellectuals have warned not to put terrorist labels on Xinjiang people.
Outspoken journalist Li Chengpeng wrote[zh]:
无论是谁，无论出于何种目的，无论什么种族，选择火车站这种人流密集场所，目标对准无辜的平民，这等邪恶，这种不择手段制造影响，其心必诛，必下地狱
No matter who, for whatever reason, or of what race, chose somewhere so crowded as a train station, and made innocent people their target – they are evil and they should go to hell.
A native Xinjiang netizen “vicki” wrote:
从昨晚开始在各种网络媒体都看到昆明事件，为此感到非常难过，但是做为新疆人不得不声讨个别媒体同胞，恐怖分子是被世界所排斥的，不能够代表新疆一个地域！请大家别把屎盆子扣在自己同胞头上！新疆为昆明死难者默哀！
From last night we can see the Kunming incident on a variety of network and media, I feel very sad, but as someone from Xinjiang, I have to say something.  Terrorists are being rejected by the world, it cannot be representative of the whole Xinjiang region! Please do not put this label on your fellows! A moment of silence for the victims of Kunming from Xinjiang!
Media research expert “Du Zijian” wrote:
我不支持新闻媒体在报道中添加的“新疆”两个字。恐怖分子就是恐怖分子，是全人类的人渣；跟民族和地域都毫无关联。这个标签不对，这样的标签是一种地域撕裂甚至是民族撕裂。我反对！
I do not support the word “Xinjiang” in the news report. Terrorists are terrorists, the scum of humanity; it shouldn’t be related to a nation or a region. This tag is not right, such a label tears the whole nation apart. I object!
Online personality “Jiazhuang zap niuyue” wrote:
请不要把对恐怖分子的愤怒，扭曲成对一个民族的恐惧和隔膜，那正是他们想要的效果。请不要把对暴力的还击，扭曲成对一个民族的歧视和敌意，那正是他们想要的效果。
Please do not twist your outrage for the terrorist into the fear and segregation of a whole nation, that is what they want. Please do not twist your fight against the violence into discrimination and hostility of a nation, that is what they want.
Alternative blog Qiwenlv commented:
面对恐怖袭击，我们不应将此迁怒于新疆人或维吾尔族，而应该去审视造成这一切悲剧背后的根源。没有人希望看到无辜民众被恐怖分子屠杀，但是抛开事情的原因而仅仅追究结果，是找不到出路的。
In the face of terrorist attacks, we should not vent anger at Xinjiang people or Uighurs, but rather to examine the root cause behind this tragedy. No one wants to see innocent people being massacred by terrorists, but putting aside the reasons to pursue the result cannot find a way out.

author: Abby Liu


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Chinese Journalists Launch Documentary Series: Chinese Word · Global Voices
Abby Liu

A group of Chinese journalists launched a new media production platform for history related content — the New History Cooperative (新历史合作社). Their products — including books, magazines, events and videos — are shared through the internet and through WeChat and Weibo. One of the latest projects is documentary series about 100 “Chinese words” — terms like zheng shen, or “examination of one’s political record,” and jiating chushen, meaning someone’s “political pedigree”.
According to China Media Project, many intellectuals find the project meaningful. Writer Hu Fayun said: “Chinese words are words particular to China, they are words that reveal how China’s unique character came to be.” This documentary series is an opportunity to reflect back on China's history and admonish many aspects of China's present political and social circumstances. Watch the video below about the project overview.


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#DZ2014, a Hashtag against Fraud and Dictatorship in Algeria · Global Voices
Abdou Semmar

[All links forward to french articles unless stated otherwise]
Algeria is about to witness crucial presidential elections. The country's future is at stake. Election day is penciled in for April 17. Having ruled the country for 15 years, Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his intention to run once more for a 4th term. This announcement is far from being saluted and many have voiced their opposition to this political project. The protest movement is mobilizing through social networks and the web.
It all started on Facebook. On February 22, Algerians from various backgrounds gathered in front of the University of Algiers [en] in Bouzareah [en], a suburb and a district in the capital. Their slogans describe their rage and anger. Their demands are a reflection of a profound desire for change. But no sooner had they started demonstrating than the police cracked down on those protesters and arrested them. This is a video of the gathering :
A woman who took part in this event, explains why she is against a 4th term for Bouteflika:
On s'y attendait pas du tout déjà en 2008. C'était tellement gros que c'est passé. Cette fois-ci avant même sa déclaration pour briguer un 4ème mandat on veut lui dire stop ! On n'en veut pas ! L'Algérie n'est pas une monarchie. L'Algérie n'est pas une dictature. C'est un état de droit et on voudrait tous oeuvrer pour çà.
Previously in 2008, we weren't expecting it at all [Bouteflika running for a third presidential term]. It was so surprising that it went ok. But this time before he even declares his intention to run for a 4th term, we want to tell him STOP. We don't want you! Algeria is not a monarchy. Algeria is not a dictatorship. It is a state based on the rule of law and we all want to work towards that.
Amira, Idir, Leila and others were certain they will be outnumbered by the Algerian police during the protest. Yet they still gathered. But whether consciously or not, they also proved that social networks are highly monitored by the security apparatus in Algeria. They also proved that for any democratic mobilization to possibly take place in Algeria it has to channel through social platforms. When their call for protest was first initiated on Facebook [ar, fr], nobody took them seriously. But then day after day, the number of those supporting this call started growing. They are moved by one goal: Saying no to a 4th term of 77 years old Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the Algerian President who has been governing the country since 1999. A president seeking to keep his hands on the reins of power while he had promised, just two years before in 2012, to pass the torch to the youth of the country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPH6iGiMfCc
Consequently a protest movement was organized with gatherings taking place every week in front of the Algerian universities trying to impede the reelection of Bouteflika for 5 more years.
Many other initiatives were also set up by cyber-activists. But in a spirit of the unity of the cause, these efforts were pooled under one hashtag: #DZ2014. Through this hashtag, netizens are redirected to a multitude of Facebook Pages that keep them updated on the latest: the Presidential Election scheduled for April 17 in Algeria. Pages like 1, 2, 3 win rayah ya Si, DZ Wikileaks, Envoyés Spéciaux Algériens, Antichitadz  Algérie Discussion, Algérie Election Présidentielle. These pages became tools to fight the alleged fraud in the pre-electoral period.
But Facebook and Twitter are more than just news sources. Mobilization can be as successful when achieved through humor and satire. For instance, Radio Trottoirpage became really popular in that respect for its photo-montage, jibes, and mocking videos. This photo designed by Kamel Labiad, an “Algerian graphic designer and film maker living in the UK” went viral on Facebook is an example of Algerians’ dark humor:
The caricature translates as follows: They ask you to vote? Answer them by 4 (no's): 4th mandate, hereditary transmission, corruption, dinosaurs
YouTube  has also been put to good use to mobilize as many anti 4th-term supporters as possible. Youtubers are demanding accountability from their leaders. Some of them are even speaking directly to Abdelaziz Bouteflika and asking him to leave. This young Algerian doesn't mince his words:
même les serviteurs du régime s'opposent à ce 4e mandat qui humilie l'Algérie. Nous aussi on doit dire non et refuser d'accorder 5 années supplémentaires à Bouteflika
Even the regime servants are opposed to this 4th term which humiliates Algeria. We as well should say no and refuse to grant Bouteflika 5 more years in power.
Citizen Groupies are filming their protests and try to raise the awareness of the public opinion. These videos have been heavily shared on social media. Their dissemination has been made more possible through the hashtag #DZ2014.

author: Abdou Semmar


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In Cuba, Everything Increases Except State Workers’ Salaries · Global Voices
Elaine Díaz

The price of food products has been increasing in Cuba, while workers’ wages remain unchanged. (Photo courtesy of the author.)
The recently finalized congress of the Workers’ Central Union of Cuba (CTC), the only organization of its kind in the country, concluded with the confirmation that unless there is an increase in productivity, there will be no increase in the salaries of Cuban state workers.
In Cuba, the median salary of state workers stands at 15 dollars per month, according to the exchange rate of Cuba's national currency. Meanwhile, the cost of living has increased in recent years, after the implementation of economic measures such as the elimination of certain food products from the basic food basket subsidized by the State. In addition, there has been a significant increase in food prices in the private market.
According to the president of Cuba, Raúl Castro,
sería irresponsable y con efectos contraproducentes disponer un aumento generalizado de los salarios en el sector estatal, ya que lo único que causaría es una espiral inflacionaria en los precios, de no estar debidamente respaldado por un incremento suficiente de la oferta de bienes y servicios.
“It would be irresponsible and counterproductive to order a generalized salary increase in the state sector, because it would only cause an inflationary spiral unless it is fully backed by a matching increase in the goods and services on offer.”
Making a salary increase conditional on increased productivity has refocused the debate on the vicious cycle that has ensnared Cuba in recent times.
The recently elected secretary of the CTC, Ulises Guilarte, pointed out the consequences of this cycle [es]:
Los problemas del salario se identifican como el principal obstáculo para el incremento de la productividad y la eficiencia, señalándose en no pocos lugares como causa de desmotivación, apatía y desinterés por el trabajo, con las consiguientes afectaciones en la disciplina laboral, el éxodo de trabajadores calificados hacia actividades mejor remuneradas pero menos exigentes desde el punto de vista profesional, produciéndose sin dudas un proceso de descapitalización de la fuerza de trabajo, lo que ha impactado fundamentalmente en las ramas industriales básicas, el Ministerio de la Construcción y otros, además de la negativa cada vez más frecuente a ser promovidos a responsabilidades de dirección.
Salary problems are the main obstacle to increasing productivity and efficiency in many places, causing apathy and lack of motivation and interest in work, with consequent effects on discipline and the exodus of qualified workers towards better compensated and less demanding professional activities, resulting in a tangible decapitalization of the work force, which has fundamentally impacted the basic branches of industry, the construction ministry, and others, as well as ever-increasing denials of promotions to leadership positions.
In his speech, Raúl Castro confirmed that medical workers would receive a salary increase, “given that the country’s fundamental income at this time is a result of the work of thousands of doctors offering their services abroad.”
In January 2011, the Brazilian ambassador in Havana announced [es] that there would be 11,000 Cuban doctors working in the poorest and most remote parts of his country that year.
The South-South Cooperation, a partner of the Pan-American Health Organization, will give around $500 million dollars to Cuba annually.
On his blog Esquinas de Cuba, Alejandro Ulloa argues [es]:
(…) De no lograr abundantes inversiones extranjeras, al igual que la recapitalización de importantes sectores productivos, la economía cubana estará moviéndose en este círculo vicioso, que atenta a todas luces contra el incremento del poder adquisitivo de los salarios, verdadero problema que afecta a la población hoy.
(…) Without significant foreign investments, as well as the recapitalization of major productive sectors, the Cuban economy will continue in this vicious cycle, which clearly threatens the increase of the purchasing power of wages, the real problem affecting the population today.

author: Elaine Díaz


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Messages of Support Pour in From Abroad After Kunming Attack in China · Global Voices
Jeff South

Citizens throughout the world took to the Internet on Sunday to offer their condolences and prayers after a group of knife-wielding attackers killed at least 29 people and injured 130 others at the railway station in Kunming in southwest China.
Dressed in black and armed with long knives and meat cleavers, “more than 10 terrorist suspects” hacked and stabbed passengers and passers-by at the station in the capital of Yunnan Province, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
It said the attack, which began at 9:20 p.m. Saturday, ended when police shot and killed five of the assailants. Chinese authorities said the massacre had been “orchestrated by Xinjiang separatist forces.”
The attack elicited an outpouring of sympathy in China and beyond. On Twitter, Sarah Moir, a college student in Michigan in the United States, stated:
Just in complete shock over the #KunmingRailwayStation attack. Such senseless killing. The world is praying for you, China.
— Sarah Moir (@marahsoir) March 2, 2014
William, a blogger of Chinese descent who lives in Sydney, Australia, simply tweeted: “#prayers #KunmingRailwayStation #unreal”
On Facebook, Jade Melville of Australia posted:
So horrible. R.I.P. to all the people killed.
News of the killing spree broke on popular microblogging site Sina Weibo, which posted video and audio from the scene. A professor at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou noted that the first reports from witnesses appeared at about 9:25 p.m.
Guobin Yang, a communication and sociology professor at the University of Pennsylvania professor and author of “The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online,” said on Twitter that such postings show Weibo remains a powerful channel in social media.
Amid recent buzz about Weibo's decline, Weibo responses to violent attacks at Kunming rail station reclaim Weibo's central importance
— Guobin Yang (@Yangguobin) March 2, 2014
Several social media users urged television stations, websites and newspapers to refrain from publishing the goriest images from the railway station.
The overwhelming reaction throughout China was one of shock. As the website ChinaFile.com, put it:
#China horrified as mass stabbings at Kunming rail station leave dozens dead—via @guardian http://t.co/iw6uC4QNso
— ChinaFile (@ChinaFile) March 1, 2014
The day after the attack, Chinese President Xi Jinping “urged the law enforcement to investigate and solve the case of Kunming terrorist attack with all-out efforts and punish the terrorists in accordance with the law,” Xinhua reported.
It said that “Premier Li Keqiang asked local authorities to chase and punish the suspects severely.” On Sunday, the South China Morning Post reported that police had “one female suspect in custody.”
Chinese authorities blamed the stabbings on Uighur separatists. The Uighur people (sometimes spelled Uyghur or Uigur) are a Turkic ethnic group. More than 10 million Uighurs, who are predominantly Muslim, live in the Xinjiang autonomous region in northwestern China.
Many Uighurs say they face religious persecution and other oppression by the Chinese government — an allegation the government categorically rejects. In 2009, there were deadly clashes between Uighurs and Han people, or ethnic Chinese, in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. The Chinese government said at least 197 people died; the World Uyghur Congress put the death toll at about 600.
Last October, China blamed Uighur Xinjiang separatists for a suicide attack in which an SUV killed two people and injured dozens more at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
After the attack in Kunming, several netizens urged tolerance. “Don't think of all Uighurs as terrorists,” one Weibo user posted.
Others said China won't yield to violence. “What happened won't scare us; it will make us stronger,” said another Weibo posting.
The overwhelming sentiment online was concern for the victims. On Weibo, pop singer Sam Tsui posted:
Yes, We have always lived alongside evil. Global Civilization must root out this evil, wherever it hides. Unimaginable! Deeply concerned about the common people of Kunming and everyone affected. Truly messed up and scary. RIP.
Stephon Marbury, an American basketball star who plays for the Beijing Ducks, posted on Weibo:
I heard about the horrible news that happened at Kunming train station. It's sad that people can commit such a crime. Pray for the families that lost loved ones and those who were injured during this tragedy. I'm encouraging all to give your positive energy to those in need.
Jim Rothnie, a United Kingdom resident, offered a similar thought on Facebook:
Simply incomprehensible. My condolences and thoughts go out to all those involved.
Several video clips from Kunming were posted on YouTube. Some were so graphic that users were required to sign in and acknowledge that they had been warned about the “potentially inappropriate content.”
After watching one clip, a viewer named vikings426 commented:
I may be ignorant to what's going on in China but killing innocent people solves nothing.
Another YouTube user, Talha Kamran, stated:
I am a muslim and live in China. I can never think of such barbaric act. Such groups and their supporters should be prosecuted by Chinese authorities with extreme strictness. This is simply inhuman.
The slaughter at the railway station was the subject of intense discussion in the Reddit.com online community. A young man who goes by testosterOWN posted:
As an American student, studying abroad in Shanghai, this news was incredibly frightening. My program has a trip planned in two weeks to the Yunnan province and our flight is supposed too [sic] arrive in Kunming. My roommate's family also lives there and I got to see firsthand how this attack is affecting people.
Those pictures (my roommate was sent them by friends back home) of the casualties and bodies were gruesome, and it breaks my heart to hear about this senseless violence taking innocent lives.

author: Jeff South


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Sentiment Analysis of Russian Tweets about War in Crimea · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

Sochi Olympic mascots driving a tank into Krym. Anonymous image found online.
President Putin's request to Russia's upper house of parliament for a resolution that would allow him to send troops into Ukraine to protect “Russian interests” in the Crimea, has thrown Russian-speaking Twitter into a frenzy of speculation.
“War” (orange) and “Peace” (blue) trends according to Topsy analytics. Screenshot.
As the chart above shows, in the last couple of days there have been hundreds of thousands of tweets mentioning the potentially impending “war” with Ukraine. This makes sense — the Crimean crisis has been sucking up air from news of the Ukrainian “Maidan” on the RuNet. Add war to the mix, and the result is obvious.
“Maidan” (orange), Crimea (blue). Topsy analytics screenshot.
For some Russians, Crimea is a Russian region that is only part of Ukraine through a historical mistake. These are probably the Russian speakers driving the trends for words like “independence,” “autonomy,” and “sovereignty” in the last few days.
Independence (orange), sovereignty (blue), autonomy (green). Topsy analytics. Screenshot.
Other parts of the RuNet (including Russian-tweeting Ukrainians) are understandably against any sort of invasion, even if it is in the trappings of a “peacekeeping mission.” These are likely the folks driving up the use of words like “provocation,” “intervention,” and “occupation.”
Provocation (orange), intervention (blue), occupation (green). Topsy analytics. Screenshot.
We felt that it might be useful to look beyond simple search frequencies, and try to get at some underlying emotions associated with the conflict. We performed sentiment analysis of just under 10,000 Russian language tweets tweeted between 5:30PM March 1 and 7:00AM March 2, which mentioned “война” (“war”). These were collected from users with more than 10 followers (to cut down on spam), and excluded retweets to capture more original tweets. We found that while there are tweets expressing both positive and negative sentiments towards war in our data, the negative sentiments expressed about the war hold an edge of almost 2-to-1, when they are mapped on a “Negative-Neutral-Positive” scale. Neutral tweets are by far the most numerous, however, making up over 53% of the population.
Russian tweets expressing negative, positive, and neutral sentiments about war.
Negative tweets are also more strongly negative — when broken down on a more detailed scale, we can see that a large portion of negative tweets falls into the highly negative values of (-4,-3,-2) as opposed to positive tweets, which mainly fall into the weakly positive (+1).
Russian tweets of “war” broken down on a more detailed sentiment scale.
Even then, the strongly positive tweets tend to be ironic — irony is something that sentiment analysis software isn't great at picking up. So a tweet like:
ну ахринеть теперь! супер просто! да война! тебя то нам не хватало!
well goddamn! fabulous! yes war! all we were missing is you!
gets classified as positive, which means that there are even fewer positive sentiments expressed about war. This doesn't mean there aren't truly positive sentiments being expressed. For example,
@Rogozin @holmogorov Война до победного конца!Покажем этим хохлам с палками ,как стреляет АК -12.
@Rogozin @holmogorov War to the bitter end! Lets show these “khokhly” [derogatory term for Ukrainian -A.T.] with sticks, how and AK-12 works.
Negative tweets appear to be more correctly classified. Here are some examples that were classified as strongly negative (-4)
А ваще, это же пиздец, ребят! Война в Украине? Путин, ты ебанулся? Я все понимаю, амбиции и все такое, но подумай о жизнях миллионов людей!
This is f*cked up guys! War in Ukraine? Putin, have you gone off your f*cking rocker? I mean I understand, ambitions and all that, but think of the lives of millions of people!
Господи.. война – это всегда очень страшно и грозит серьезными последствиями..
Jesus.. war is always very scary and has very serious consequences..
но в первую очередь, конечно, не хочется, чтобы была война или кто-то погиб
in the first place, of course I don't want for there to be war and for anyone to die
Unfortunately, taken on the whole, this does not bode well for anti-war efforts, at least on Twitter. Although there is a sizable and vocal minority of users who appear to be opposed to war, the large majority of users seems to be ambivalent about it. In this situation a strong political leader like President Putin can pretty much do whatever he wants. Especially when the West cares much more about the Oscars than Crimea:
English Twitter search results for “Crimea” and “Oscars”. Topsy analytics. Screenshot.

author: Andrey Tselikov


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Ukrainian Journalists Take Regime’s Corruption Public With YanukovychLeaks · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

YanukovychLeaks.org, a new website created by Ukrainian journalists to publish documents that were found in Victor Yanukovych's residence. Many of them document evidence of massive corruption of the regime.
This post is part of our Special Coverage Ukraine's #Euromaidan Protests.
After former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych fled Kiev in the wake of escalating protests, regime violence and major reshuffles in Parliament, one of the things he left behind was his massive, opulent residence on the outskirts of the capital, Mezhyhirya. The palatial estate soon opened its doors to protesters, journalists and ordinary citizens, who wanted to see for themselves how their President had lived.
But among the many grandiose buildings and signs of an excessive lifestyle (a zoo! a galleon ship! a golf course!), journalists and activists found a more important treasure – reams of paperwork on the estate, blacklists of journalists and activists, and financial records. Some of them were half-burned, others dumped in the water of the Dnieper river and the Kyiv Sea on the edge of the land.
Journalist Oleksandr Aronets, now famous for his endless live streams from Euromaidan, was one of the first to spot the papers in the water:
Документи просто плавають у Дніпрі! pic.twitter.com/ANhKGVXFcy
— Олександр Аронець (@aronets) February 22, 2014
The documents are just floating in the Dniepro!
Katya Gorchinskaya, a journalist for local English news outlet Kyiv Post, tweeted about how the documents were rescued:
diver about to dive into freezing Kyiv Sea to keep looking for Yanukovych files in #Mezhyhirya pic.twitter.com/PajSkwj2rx
— Katya Gorchinskaya (@kgorchinskaya) February 24, 2014
As the documents were rescued and set to dry, a group of journalists came together swiftly to start photographing and cataloging the newly discovered information, to preserve it for future investigations. Katya Gorchinskaya posted this photo of some of the work:
sorting thru Mezhyhirya files. day 2. @natasedletska @annababinets @MichaelShchur @akymenko_y #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/3fuCmYbbLK
— Katya Gorchinskaya (@kgorchinskaya) February 24, 2014
Later, Sergii Leshchenko, a journalist from Ukrainska Pravda, known for his investigations of Yanukovych's property, including Mezhyhirya, posted a photo of more documents drying in the sauna on the premises:
Те, що відбувається зараз в Межигір'ї – це унікальний навіть за світовими мірками проект. Кілька десятків журналістів копіюють тисячі сторінок знайдених тут доказів корумпованого нутра Януковича. На фото – включена сауна будинку для гостей Януковича, де сушаться виловлені в Київському морі документи.
What is happening now in Mezhyhirya is a project unique even by world standards. Several dozen journalists are copying thousands of pages of evidence of the corrupt nature of Yanukovych found here. This is a photo of a working sauna in Yanukovych's guest house, where the documents fished out of the Kyiv Sea are drying out.
As the journalists worked, they posted select findings on social networks – like these outrageous finds from Katya Gorchinskaya and Christopher Miller of Kyiv Post:
Jun 24,2009 Yanukovych's game-keeper spent Hr7,660 on medical aid for fish in #Mezhyhirya. hope they r well pic.twitter.com/AxujtuUqy3
— Katya Gorchinskaya (@kgorchinskaya) February 22, 2014
"Mezhyhirya problems: out of control deer devour lawn." Pic via Denys Bigus https://t.co/DQk2vBWX7j #YanukovychLeaks pic.twitter.com/R0bbh8kiKU
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 26, 2014
A group of journalists from English-language Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Post, Ukrainska Pravda and several other media realized that the treasure trove they were looking at needed to be preserved at all costs – so they decided to cooperate in the documentation, preservation and cataloging of everything – and to report later.
They also cooperated with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a consortium of investigative centers from  Europe to Central Asia. The result of their quick thinking is a website called YanukovychLeaks, which currently houses the growing collection of photos and scans of the documents found at Yanukovych's estate. Katya Gorchinskaya tweeted happily about the new arrangement:
documents fished out in river by #Mezhyhirya are going up here. http://t.co/0nwitdoRWo proud to have been part of the initial recovery team
— Katya Gorchinskaya (@kgorchinskaya) February 25, 2014
Local and international journalists also expressed their excitement at the new website. Maxim Eristavi, journalist and editor of a local radio station, thought the site would be popular:
In revolutionary Ukraine that's the hottest place on the Web right nowhttp://t.co/0IqVobW1q6#yanukovychleaks
— Maxim Eristavi (@MaximEristavi) February 25, 2014
Global Investigative Journalism Network also tweeted about YanukovychLeaks and reported in-depth on how the Ukrainian initiative came together:
How journalists in #Ukraine fished out documents from a lake #Yanukovychleaks http://t.co/u0hDN72srJ pic.twitter.com/I7O2dEKNDh
— GIJN (@gijn) February 25, 2014
The reporters soon learned that if the waterlogged piles were not separated and dried, they would turn into a pasty clump that could never be rescued. The team took over a boat shed the first night and then the next day moved to an opulent guest house on the grounds to lay out more documents.  It became their headquarters. A sign outside reads “Journalism Investigation in Process – Do Not Disturb.”
— from GIJN piece “YanukovychLeaks: How Ukraine Journalists Are Making History”
New York Times The Lede blog also ran a story about the project:
Ukrainian Journalists Launch YanukovychLeaks http://t.co/rBKU16hy6g
— NYTimes Lede Blog (@thelede) February 25, 2014
On February 25, a member of the YanukovychLeaks team, Natalie Sedletska of RadioLiberty, reported on the massive traffic to the new website:
1.5 million hits reached #yanukovychleaks
— Natalie Sedletska (@natasedletska) February 25, 2014
Besides the main website, YanukovychLeaks.org, the team also created a Facebook page, inviting other journalists and citizens to collaborate and follow their work.

author: Tanya Lokot


text:
Ukrainians, Russians on Social Networks: ‘In Case of War, Everyone Will Lose!’ · Global Voices
Tetyana Bohdanova

30,000 rally against Russian troops introduction to Ukraine on Independence Square in Kiev, March 2, 2014. Photo by Danil Prikhodko, copyright © Demotix, March 2, 2014.
This post is part of our Special Coverage Ukraine's #Euromaidan Protests.
Almost a week after being ousted, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych surfaced in the Russian Federation, while Russian military forces have flooded Crimea, an autonomous region of Ukraine located on the Crimean Black Sea peninsula.
At first, Russian military forces refused to identify themselves. Russia later acknowledged its military presence. On Saturday, March 1, the Russian Federation Council officially authorized Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to deploy Russian troops in Ukraine, de facto announcing war on its neighbor. Putin's government has used the pretext of defending the lives of ethnic Russians in Ukraine, claiming they were in immediate danger. Any information about Russians being hurt in Crimea, however, was later disproved [ru] by human rights defenders.
Reactions from Ukrainian and Russian social media users quickly followed.
Russian Facebook user Yevgeni Yuriev warned [ru] his fellow countrymen that war with Ukraine would mean a loss of Russia's reputation globally:
Пройдет совсем немного времени, и большинство поймет, что Путин безумен. Но проблема в другом. Его просто не станет, и все. Куда потом встроить человечеству миллионы людей, которые поддержали безумие. И смерти чужих детей, и смерти своих детей. Никогда уже у России не будет прежнего места в мире. И детям нашим. Все, о чем так красиво и благородно недавно вспоминали, ничего этого больше никогда не будет. Ни медалей Олимпиады, ни Пушкина, ни Толстого, ни балов, ни супрематистов. Ни загадочной и красивой русской души. Ни победы в Великой Войне с фашистами. Все это станет скотство и ложь. По красной площади 9 Мая уже никогда не пройдут победители.
Россия не проживет долго за новым железным занавесом, это понятно. И вот когда он рассыплется снова, мир будет смотреть молча на нас. Всегда. Это будет вечный позор.
A little time will pass before everyone will understand that Putin is mad. But the problem lies somewhere else. He will simply disappear and that is all. But [what is to be done] with millions of people who supported the madness. And with the deaths of other people's children, and deaths of our own children. Never again will Russia hold the same place in the world. Neither will our children. All that we've recently recalled so proudly, all that will be no more. Neither Olympic medals, Pushkin, Tolstoy, balls, the supremacists. Nor the mysterious and beautiful Russian soul. Nor the victory in a Great War with fascists. All of this will turn into filth and lie. No victors will walk the Red Square on the 9th of May again. Russia will not survive long behind the new iron curtain, that is clear. And when [the curtain] crumbles again, the world will silently stare at us. Forever. This will be [our] eternal shame.
Echoing the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition of Forgiveness Sunday, Moscow-based activist Roman Udot brought a small icon of the Mother of God to the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow and wrote [ru]:
Я никогда не просил прощения у целой страны. Вкусной, веселой, бесшабашной страны. Близкой и уютной. Я не знаю правильного ритуала. Есть ли он? И хотя мои отношения с концепцией бога неоднозначны, я все-таки решил использовать этот древний символ нашего родства, общности культуры и истории.
Оставлю у ограды украинского посольства. Попрошу прощения. И пусть потом суеверные полицейские – а все бандиты суеверны – ломают голову как это выбросить.
Боже, храни Украину.
I never asked for forgiveness for the whole country. A “tasty”, fun, careless country. A nearby and cozy [country]. I don't know what the appropriate ritual is. Is there one? And even though I have a complicated relationship with the concept of god, I decided after all to use this ancient symbol of our kinship, shared culture and history.
I will leave [the icon] by the fence of the Ukrainian Embassy. Will ask for forgiveness. And let the “sovereign” policemen – all bandits are sovereign – think hard about how to throw it away.
God, keep Ukraine safe.
Needless to say, many Ukrainians were more than surprised with the Russian government's decision to deploy its troops to Ukraine.
A Kharkiv-based Facebook user Yevgen Bessonov wrote [ru]:
Мы не убили ни одного россиянина, не взяли ни пяди их земли, не ввели войска на их территорию, не захватили их ресурсы. Мы просто на неделю стали свободной страной. И этого хватило, чтобы Россия объявила нам войну ЕДИНОГЛАСНЫМ решением СФ и при тотальной поддержке населения!!! За что они нас так ненавидят? За свободу? За инакомыслие? За что мы удостоены такой лютой и всенародной ненависти, что война оправдана в глазах россиян? 1 марта 2014 года – …..?
We did not kill a single Russian, did not set a foot of their land, did not send troops to their territory, did not seize their resources. We just became a free country for one week [since ousting of Russian-backed President Yanukovych from power]. And this was enough for Russia to announce a war on us in a UNANIMOUS decision of the Federal Council and with the support of their citizens!!! Why do they hate us so much? For freedom? For dissent? Why are we facing such fierce and widespread hatred that justifies war in the eyes of the Russians? March 1, 2014 – …?
In the meantime, Russian media has justified sending troops to Ukraine, citing the need to defend ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in Ukraine. Many Russophone Ukrainians have emphasized the lack of reasons for such “defense” and even petitioned Putin to stop military intervention into Ukraine.
A Kyiv-based Russian citizen, Mitya Gerasimov, posted [ru] the following on his Facebook page:
Я гражданин РФ, русский еврей, пять лет живу в Украине. У меня ни разу не возникло здесь проблем ни с моим русским языком, ни с моей еврейской музыкой. Ни во Львове, ни в Киеве, ни на Майдане. Никаких «фашистов-бендеровцев», нацистов и антисемитов я не видал в глаза, это миф. Путин при широкой поддержке населения России ввел войска в Украину, и это никакая не защита от экстремистов. Это война против мирной независимой страны. Позор России. Беда.
I am a citizen of the Russian Federation, a Russian Jew, have been living in Ukraine for five years. And I never had an issue here with my Russian language or my Jewish music. Neither in Lviv, nor in Kyiv, nor on Maidan. I have seen no “fascist-Banderites“, Nazis or anti-Semites – they are a myth. Putin, supported by a large portion of Russian people, has sent troops to Ukraine, and this is not a protection from extremists. This is a war against a peaceful neighbor. A shame for Russia. A tragedy.
A Kyiv-based Ukrainian art critic, Ekaterina Stukalova, posted [ru, uk] the following on Facebook:
Устройте мне встречу с Путиным, Обамой, Баррозу. Даже не встречу, нет, перекрестный допрос. Я могу рассказать им, как ущемляются мои русскоязычные права в Украине. Я – на три четверти этническая русская, на одну четверть этническая армянка, получившая советский паспорт в 16 лет и украинский в 19. Училась в русской школе, украинский язык в ней преподавался, но настолько спустя рукава, что я его так и не имела возможности нормально выучить. Поступила в Киевский Государственный Художественный Институт в 1990, на втором курсе всех преподавателей лихорадило, что в связи с независимостью их заставят преподавать на украинском, а как они будут это делать, если все книжки на русском? Так никто и не заставил за 20+ лет, более того, студенты-первокурсники с Западной Украины, вынужденные пользоваться русско-украинским словарем в библиотеке при чтении литературы, к третьему курсу переходили на русский. Аналогичная ситуация была везде, где я потом работала.
Мои дети говорят по-русски, старшая учит украинский в школе, но на переменках дети общаются между собой по-русски. Ні, зачекайте. Десь з грудня 2013 вони намагаються і на перервах спілкуватися українською. І я це підтримую. Але дуже хотілося б краще опанувати українську, щоб не робити помилок і знати, як виправляти помилки в зошитах моїх дітей. Може, є якісь курси, де в Україні дорослим російськомовним можна вивчити українську? Ні, не чула. Мене це дуже непокоїть, панове Путін, Обама, Баррозу. Мої україномовні права вочевидь порушені.
Organize a meeting for me with Putin, Obama, [President of the European Commission José Manuel] Barroso. No, not even a meeting, a cross-examination. I can tell them how my right [to speak Russian] is being infringed in Ukraine. I am three-quarters ethnic Russian, one-quarter ethnic Armenian who received a Soviet passport at the age of 16 and a Ukrainian one at the age 19. I went to a Russian-language school, where Ukrainian was taught rather half-heartedly, and so I never really learned it well. In 1990 I enrolled into Kyiv State Institute of Arts and when I was a second-year student, professors were concerned that because of Ukrainian independence they would be forced to hold lectures in Ukrainian while all their books were in Russian. And no one actually forced them during the 20+ years [of independence]. Moreover, first-year students from [predominantly Ukrainian-speaking] Western Ukraine had to use a Russian-Ukrainian dictionary to read books at the library at first and by the third year switched to Russian. And a similar situation happened everywhere where I worked after graduating.
My children speak Russian, my older [daughter] studies Ukrainian at school but speaks Russian during breaks. No, wait a minute. As of December 2013 they started trying to speak Ukrainian during the breaks, too. And I support that. And [I] would have liked to know Ukrainian better in order not to make mistakes and help correct mistakes in my children's homework. Perhaps there are courses to learn Ukrainian for Russian-speaking adults. But I haven't heard of any. And I am very concerned about this Mr. Putin, Mr. Obama, and Mr. Barroso. My rights to speak Ukrainian are actually infringed.
A Kyiv-based Ukrainian from Crimea, Vitaliy Dyshlovy, wrote [ru] the following:
Я родился и вырос в Крыму. Так как живу в Киеве, последние несколько дней провожу консультации на тему “Что думают крымчане?”. За всех не скажу, но мои родственники по своему окружению судят так: все хотят спокойной жизни и никакой защиты им ни от кого не нужно. В целом впечатление – пассивность: ни позицию Украины, ни присоединение к России активно поддерживать не собираются. Конечно, конфликта не хочет никто. Действия же России невозможно объяснить никак – от войны проиграют все. На голову эти действия не налазят никому – ни мне, ни родителям, ни знакомым в Крыму. Желающим жить в России и махающим триколором в некоторых городах неделимой Украины предлагаю решать вопрос индивидуально – переезжать в Россию и наслаждаться. Слава Украине!
I was born and raised in Crimea. Since I now live in Kyiv, in the last few days I have been informing [others] on “what the Crimeans think”. I cannot speak for all of them, but my relatives and acquaintances believe the following: Everyone wants a peaceful life and needs no protection from anyone. The general impression is that of passivity: they nether actively support Ukraine's position nor want to join Russia. Naturally nobody wants a conflict. And no one has an explanation for the actions of Russia – in case of war, everyone will lose. Nobody can grasp these actions – neither I, nor my parents or friends in Crimea. Those who wish to live in Russia and wave a [Russian flag] in some cities of indivisible Ukraine, I propose they act on this individually – by moving to Russia and enjoying themselves. Glory to Ukraine!
A Cherkassy-based Russian, Dmitri Zorin, appealed [ru]to both nations:
Я живу в Украине 14 лет.
Я убежал сюда из России.
Я объехал всю Украину с востока до запада и с севера до юга.
Я официально заявляю, что за время моего пребывания Я ни разу не встретил ни малейшего неуважения ко мне.
[…]
Я безмерно благодарен Украине за то, что Я и моя семья – Граждане Украины.
Украинцы! Что бы ни случилось, Я с ВАМИ!!
Я не побегу.
Я бился в беспомощности с 2009 года. Я не верил в Майдан. Я верил в украинцев.
Борьба за свободу сплотила нас. Я благодарен ВАМ за это!
Я знаю, что МЫ УЖЕ СВОБОДНЫ!
Даже, когда понимаем беспомощность нашей армии перед захватчиком.
[…]
Россияне!
Я знаю, что вы не объявляли войну Украине.
Я знаю, что большинство из вас не обдурить инфой из ящика. И нет смысла говорить, что есть правда. Вы её и сами берете из ленты.
Я официально заявляю, что никого из своих друзей не считаю врагом.
Я знаю, что вам не легко. Вы чувствуете себя достаточно сыто и разрозненно, чтобы предпринимать резкие движения. Я понимаю это.
Я официально заявляю, что если вам вдруг понадобится уйти в Украину, Я приму вас. Я буду помогать вам. Я не назову за это цены и никогда не предъявлю.
Я знаю, что жить в страхе долго не получится. Одно кончается. Или жизнь или страх.
Я официально заявляю, что когда у вас исчезнет страх, Я подскажу и помогу морально. Когда бы это ни произошло.
I have been living in Ukraine for 14 years.
I ran away here from Russia.
I have crossed Ukraine from east to west and north to south. And I officially state that I have never faced any disrespect.
[…]
I am eternally grateful to Ukraine for the fact that me and my family are Ukrainian citizens.
Ukrainians! Whatever happens I stand with YOU!!
I will not run.
I have felt helpless since 2009. I did not believe in [Euro]Maidan. I believed in Ukrainians.
A fight for freedom had unified us. For this, I am grateful to YOU!
I know we are FREE ALREADY!
Even when we understand the weakness of our army before the occupier.
[…]
Russians!
I know you have not declared war on Ukraine.
I know that most of you cannot be fooled by the information on TV. And there is no need to point out the truth. You yourselves are able to pick it up from the [news].
I officially state that I do not consider anyone from my friends an enemy.
I know this is not an easy time for you. You feel too sated and disunited to act. I understand this.
I officially state that if you would need to come to Ukraine I will welcome you. I will help you. And will not put a price tag on my help.
I know that one can live in fear only for so long. Something gives. Either fear or ones life.
I officially state that when you run out of fear, I will offer advice and support. Whenever this happens.
On March 2, citizens of both countries held demonstrations against Russian military intervention into Ukraine.

author: Tetyana Bohdanova


text:
Expensive Plants for a Poor Country: Tajikistan Spends Millions on Belgian Trees · Global Voices
Mahina Shodizoda

The authorities in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, have decided that expensive foreign trees are the best replacement for the hundreds of decade-old sycamores they fell annually. According to Ozodagon [ru], a local news agency, the authorities have imported over 3,000 chestnut trees from Belgium. Each tree costs about 1,500 US dollars, bringing the total cost of imported plants to about $4.5 million.
Angered by the news, Tomiris writes [ru] in her blog:
…Мы что живём по принципу “дорого = хорошо”?
Ответьте мне, ну какого х.. покупать такие дорогие деревья такой бедной стране? Чем их не устраивают бесплатные деревья, которые можно вырастить самим? 1500 долларов это средняя месячная пенсия 37 человек! Это средняя месячная зарплата 10 учителей или врачей!..
Мне одной кажется, что наше правительство окончательно е..нулось?
…Do we live according to the principle “expensive = good”?
Can someone tell me why the f..k does such a poor country buy such expensive trees? What don't they like about the free trees that can be grown locally? $1,500 makes 37 average monthly pensions! It makes 10 monthly salaries paid to teachers or doctors!..
Am I the only one who thinks that our government has gone f..king crazy?
Tomiris also tweets the story, sparking many reactions:
Tajikistan has bought 3,000 Belgian chestnut trees for Dushanbe. Each tree costs about $1,500 #whatthefuck #insane #onlyintajikistan
— Томирис (@tomiristj) March 3, 2014
For a perspective: $1,500 (cost of one tree) is 37 average monthly pensions or 10 monthly teacher or doctor salaries #onlyintajikistan
— Томирис (@tomiristj) March 3, 2014
@tomiristj Dushanbe has a confused Mayor & passive residents. I just hope the trees will survive in the hell of summer & city's mismangement
— eTajikistan (@eTajikistan) March 3, 2014
@tomiristj Вот увидите, они еще землю закупят особую, в которую эти деревья высаживать – по $2000 долларов на дерево.
— Джура Охотник (@jurathehunter) March 3, 2014
@tomiristj You'll see, they will also purchase special soil for these trees – at $2,000 per tree.
@eTajikistan @tomiristj Wow. I wonder how much they will spend on grass to plant under the trees.
— Mahina Shodizoda (@mahinashodizoda) March 3, 2014
@tomiristj Why would they cut the beautiful massive shade trees to begin with?! What the city government is doing is ecocide, criminal …
— eTajikistan (@eTajikistan) March 3, 2014


text:
Funding Challenges for Scientific Research in France, African Countries · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

The importance of the role of scientific research in the economy of the world's countries is rarely disputed. However this impact is mostly indirect, or direct but with only a long-term impact, due to the benefits of scientific discoveries. So the problem of research profitability in the short- to medium-term remains for many countries.
Research financing follows a variety of rules, with funds coming from the public or private sector. For public research, the French National Research Agency uses a few numbers to explain how research is financed in France [fr]:
Les laboratoires de recherche publics sont en partie financés par les crédits budgétaires des universités, des organismes de recherche publics et des agences de financement, dont l'Agence nationale de la recherche (A.N.R.). Ils bénéficient d'autres dotations provenant des régions françaises, des associations caritatives, de l'industrie et de l'Europe. […] 7 000 projets financés rassemblant plus de 22 000 équipes de recherche publiques et privées entre 2005-2009 et le montant cumulé des financements 2005-2009 est de 3 milliards d'euros.
Public research laboratories are partially funded by budget appropriation from universities, public research bodies, and financial agencies, such as the French National Research Agency (A.N.R.). They also benefit from allocations from French administrative regions, charitable groups, industry, and from Europe. […] 7,000 projects funded, bringing together over 22,000 private and public research teams between 2005-2009. The cumulative amount financed between 2005-2009 is three billion euros.
Public research funding in France – Public domain.
Research in France is financed by universities, research bodies, and the National Agency for Research (ANR). It also gets contributions from the pharma industry and European Commission.
Despite the resulting efforts of the government to re-energise the sector [fr], French research is suffering in comparison to its Anglo-Saxon neighbours and is showing signs of running out of steam. David Larousserie puts forward the premise that scientific research in France is competitive but brings little return, in an article entitled “The limited efficacy of public research funding” [fr]:
Les experts soulignent aussi “les bonnes performances en recherche de la France” mais les jugent “moyennes en termes d'innovation et de retombées économiques”. La France publie beaucoup (6e rang mondial) et dépose bon nombre de brevets (4e rang sur les dépôts en Europe), mais des indicateurs “d'innovation” la placent au 24e rang.
Experts also emphasise “the good performance of research in France” but judge it “average in terms of innovation and economic return”. France publishes a lot (ranked 6th in the world) and files a good number of patents (4th place out of all European filings), but ranks 24th according to “innovation” indicators.
He adds that:
Pour expliquer la réduction des marges de manœuvre en dépit d'une enveloppe globale en croissance, les magistrats rappellent que la cause essentielle est l'augmentation des frais de personnel dans les organismes de recherche. Au CNRS, avec des effectifs de fonctionnaires stables, la subvention publique a augmenté de 293 millions d'euros entre 2006 et 2011
To explain the reduced room to manoeuvre despite a growing global budget, magistrates recall that the root cause is the increase in personnel costs in research organisations. At the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), with a stable employee workforce, public subsidy increased by 293 billion euros between 2006 and 2011.
Others think that there are different factors involved, like Patrick Fauconnier, who believes that coordination between the different research organisations leaves a lot to be desired [fr]:
Quand on veut monter une Unité mixte de recherche (UMR), la structure qui permet de partager des contrats de recherche, par exemple entre une université et le CNRS, beaucoup de temps et d’argent sont gâchés en gestion de problèmes administratifs complexes.
When we want to create a joint research unit (UMR), the structure which enables the sharing of research contracts (between a university and the CNRS for example), a lot of time and money is wasted in dealing with complex administrative problems.
NASA researchers on Project Stardust – Public domain
Research in Africa
If research is experiencing financial difficulties in France, it's still in its early stages in most African countries. Thus only South Africa appears in the top 30 countries in terms of investment in research and development (R&D). Worse, no French-speaking African country appears in the top 70 of countries investing in research.
And yet Juian Siddle explains that the African continent has everything it needs to become the next large global scientifc hub:
The groundwork is there – knowledge, ingenuity, willingness to learn and adapt, coupled with the rapid expansion of digital technology. All of this is really allowing Africa to play a major part in global scientific collaborations.
Calestous Juma, a professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard University, adds that the context for the African continent is different:
The strategic focus for Africa should therefore be on generating research that has immediate local use. It is through such strategies that Africa will be able to make its own unique contributions to the global scientific enterprise
Chemistry lesson in Kenya from un.org, with their permission
Are we really helping research?
But perhaps, despite promises of help from many governments, scientific research is missing the real support of public opinion, support which would allow it to put pressure on politicians to help research in a sustainable way. That's John Skylar's argument, in an article which responds to the fact that the page “I fucking love science” is a viral phenomenon on the web, but in reality few countries are ready to invest in quality research:
The pattern you’re seeing is a steady drop in funding of science by the government over the last 10 or 20 years. […] You know what budget doesn’t match this trend? U.S. defense spending. […] If you loved science, you’d vote based on candidates who want to increase funding for it. You’d make it an issue that actually generates media debate, that sees equal time with the wars we fight

author: Rakotomalala


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“Iran cannot block Facebook Forever” · Global Voices
Farid

author: Farid


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Iran: Student Sentenced to 7 Years in Jail · Global Voices
Farid

PersianBanoo reported “expelled Qazvin International University student activist, Maryam Shafipour has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment.Previously it was reported by her family that she was beaten by her male interrogators during interrogation sessions”.


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“It Ain’t Easy Being Indian” in the USA · Global Voices
Styliani Giannitsi

Ricey Wild, a Native American blogger at the Indian Country Today, writes about wolf slaughtering in Minnesota, USA.
[…]My beloved friend Melissa came to get me last month to rally against the wolf hunt in Minnesota and everywhere. We went way up north and joined other people who care and are disgusted with the massacre taking place upon the wolf population.
[…]I look at my Mitzi and I can’t tell that her nearest relatives are okay to slaughter just because. I imagined a pack of Mitzi’s being pursued by ‘hunters’ and her wondering what she ever did to them? Why are they murdering her family? So yes, I cried and vowed to make my voice and presence acknowledged..
Her original post, entitled “It ain't easy being Indian”, was published in December 2013 and you can find it here.

author: Styliani Giannitsi


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K-Pop Music Booms, But Censors Still Loom · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

The K-pop girl group SNSD. Photo by Alexander William Varley (via K-pop Decoder)
K-pop has dominated the Asian music market for several years, making South Korea seem like the perfect place for any young artist dreaming of producing a mega-hit.
South Korea was ruled by a dictatorship in the 70s and 80s and music was frequently banned as subversive if it could be seen as challenging of authority or the status quo. With democracy came the lifting of bans on both Korean and foreign music, which led to an explosion in creativity and eventually the mass export of K-pop.
But in spite of the relative freedom enjoyed today, even artists represented by big record labels face considerable hurdles navigating South Korea's multi-layered censorship system.
First, there's the television networks. They have strict guidelines against artists performing too sexually or “controversially”.
Second, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family will randomly pick songs on the market and label them as “dangerous for impressionable young ears.” Even the most innocuous lyrics are sometimes singled out.
And finally, a song can suddenly be found too ‘sexist’, ‘political’, ‘anti-government’ or ‘pro-North Korean’ by any government body according to their own logic. Even songs that have been played for decades sometimes run afoul of the authorities.
The vagueness of regulations intended to protect children and the public morale makes it possible for the government to censor music they simply dislike.
In April of last year, South Korea made global headlines when a new music video by Psy, the artist behind the international phenomenon Gangnam Style, was banned by a major TV station as “un-airable” for the laughable reason that it depicts public property damage.
On a talk show [ko], Korean teen idol Lee Joon made fun of the guidelines he was given by TV producers before a dance with the famous boy band MBLAQ.
“One nip’ slip is okay, but two nip’ slips at once are not. I find it so confusing,” he said.
The TV guidelines are always good for a laugh on talk shows. It is the form of censorship that affects artists most directly, but it is luckily also the most manageable.
In an email interview, Lee Youn-hyuk, an independent artist and a manager at the Record Label Industry Association of Korea (L.I.A.K) says he doesn't always understand the TV regulations, but that he respects their right to chose what they want to air.
“Their judgements are based on their identity as TV station and it is their editorial right,” he says, adding that he is far more critical of the censorship performed by government authorities.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family took over the task of censorship in 1996, a year after a pre-censorship system on music and cultural contents was finally abolished.
The censors of the ministry are notorious for accusing several thousand songs of being “hazardous” whenever they notice references to liquor, cigarettes or sex in the lyrics. Once a song is labeled as “inappropriate for youth under the age 19″ it can only be broadcast after 10:00 PM, and children are forbidden from buying it as well as from listening on the internet. Many young people get around this by using the IDs of their parents to login to Korean portal websites or watch on YouTube.
Music industry people, such as Lee, say it is troubling that the censorship is applied only to some randomly selected albums after they have hit the market, and not universally to every album. Many people see this as part of a new reality where the South Korean government is tightening control over citizens and free speech.
Recently, several unpopular decisions to censor music by various government bodies have been mocked. Part of the ridicule stems from how randomly the targets appear to be chosen.
Last month, it was a decade-old, famous children's song that was labeled as “hazardous” for being too sexist [ko] by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
In December, the South Korean Military, which is known for banning books, films and songs which they find too “controversial”, removed the nation's most historically important song, ‘Arirang‘, from karaoke machines supplied to Korean army bases. The Defense Ministry later explained [ko] that that particular version of the song was once sung by North Korean artists and that wouldn't boost army morale.
Culture critic and writer Park Ji-Jong says by email, “Back then [during the dictatorship] censorship was strictly politically motivated, but now it has evolved and they wield standards such as too ‘explicit’, ‘unethical’ or ‘immoral’ based on arbitrary decisions.”
Today there may be more money and more glamor in the world of K-pop, but a long history of censorship and regulation still affects the music markets of today.
Watch a video interview with the author of this article, Yoo Eun Lee: GV Face: Beyond Gangnam Style – Censorship and Korean Pop Music

author: Lee Yoo Eun