text:
COVID-19: Switching online is not an option in conflict-stricken countries in the Middle East · Global Voices
Saoussen Ben Cheikh

Street scene in Sana'a, Yemen, where the majority of those with internet access are young men, April 28, 2015. Photo by Rod Waddington via Flickr by CC BY-SA 2.0.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments across the world to impose lockdowns, sending billions of people into home confinement. This exceptional situation has caused a lifestyle paradigm shift.
Working, learning and socializing online has become the norm, as people severely restrict their time outside  to limit any prospects of catching the novel coronavirus.
The use of the internet is not new, but COVID-19 fast-forwarded this global shift where the internet dominates all aspects of life for those who have access to it.
If online is the way forward in these times of a pandemic, what about countries stricken by conflicts with limited internet access?
The COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented measures taken to stop its spread have changed our lives. It has led to fundamental shifts in how societies and businesses operate.
As the deadly virus disrupts the world and may continue to do so until a vaccine is discovered, the internet has taken over. Studies show that internet traffic has surged by between 50 percent and 70 percent since COVID-19 began.
Trapped at home, people turned to the internet en masse to continue their daily routines including shopping, working and learning, communicating and socializing. This will likely have a lasting impact well after the pandemic ends.
The internet is widely available and provides a lifeline in wealthy countries during COVID-19, but this is not the case for almost half of the world’s population, which has no internet access. The majority of this population lives in poor, war-stricken countries where infrastructure is failing and yet, the need for information is most urgent.
In conflict-stricken countries, many citizens face this additional crisis without the internet. Meanwhile, in wealthy, peaceful countries, the internet has enabled citizens to mitigate the impact of lockdowns by allowing them to continue to work, study, communicate, socialize and access information.
In some countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), COVID-19 struck at a time of economic crisis, and wide-scale conflict or uprisings. Years of conflict in Yemen, Syria, and Libya have brought immense suffering, displacement and destruction. Infrastructure has been targeted by warring parties with disregard for civilian life.
In Syria, for example, over 50 percent of the infrastructure is no longer operational.
In Libya, much of the telecom infrastructure has been destroyed or stolen, including about a quarter of the country’s mobile tower sites. As a result, basic services — electricity, sanitation, water and the internet —have been brought to a standstill.
In Yemen, labeled by Relief Web as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, internet access is a major obstacle. Only about 27 percent of Yemenis, mainly young men located in urban areas, have internet access.
The majority of youth are striving to find ways to connect to the external world.  “The internet is our oxygen and is as important as food. I moved from my town to the capital to be able to connect,” said Ghomdan, a Yemeni journalist who asked Global Voices only to use his first name.
Women in the region are disproportionally affected by this digital divide. Fewer women have access to the internet than men, which reflects a regional gender inequality gap with Yemen, Syria and Libya ranking near the bottom of all countries.
A combination of conservative social norms, less access to learning and financial resources and a hostile online environment impede women’s ability to connect and access information online and minimizes participation in online discussions.
In Libya, Syria and Yemen, strained by conflict and economic chaos, users face low-speed internet and prohibitive costs.
Yemen has the slowest internet speed globally with an average speed of just 0.38 megabits per second in 2019: It would take over 30 hours to download a 5-gigabyte film. In January 2020, damage to a submarine cable plunged Yemen into an internet outage for over a month.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced massive school closures, affecting 90 percent of the world's student population, which has led to a culture of virtual learning, online education, but learning proves nearly impossible without a reliable, high-speed internet connection.
This also prevents people from communicating and journalists from reporting and reaching a large audience. Low speeds make it difficult to browse, download or upload materials and communicate with sources. It also deprives access to valuable resources critical to writing reports, news stories and daily events.
Without reliable internet, online conversations, or phone calls via Whatsapp or Facebook often get disrupted or disconnected.
War often includes a war on information with various warring parties trying to maintain a tight grip over their populations. They censor the internet and keep citizens under tight surveillance.
For example, authorities in Sana’a, Yemen, and Damascus, Syria, block a large number of websites, including national, Arab and foreign news websites. These restrictions limit access to critical information on the pandemic.
To bypass censorship, tech-literate users turn to virtual private networks (VPNs) to access blocked content. Though many are reluctant to use a VPN, “as it adds an extra load on the already limited bandwidth, further slowing download speeds,’’ according to Coda Story.
Although native Arabic speakers represent about 4.5 percent of the world population, less than 1 percent of total global online content is in Arabic.
The rapid increase in the number of Arabic-speaking internet users has not yet translated into more Arabic content — Arabic remains one of the most under-represented languages online. Nearly 70 percent of websites are in the English language. Most online resources about the pandemic are not available in native or indigenous languages, which makes it harder for those with limited English language and literacy skills to access critical public health information online.
Internet access is considered a fundamental enabler of human rights and governments around the world have committed to providing universal and affordable internet access by 2020, but large swaths of the world's populations are left behind.
COVID-19 has exposed the gap between those with reliable internet access and those for whom internet access is a distant prospect. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East only exacerbates and widens these gaps.


text:
In Bangladesh, criticism of government response to the COVID-19 pandemic is risky · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

#FreeCartoonistKishore banner by Kawser Shakil. Used with permission.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
As if the danger of the Covid-19 infection is not the primary concern of Bangladeshi citizens, criticism of the government and the country's politicians is becoming increasingly dangerous for them. During the first week of May 2020, authorities arrested four people and charged seven others for their social media posts and cartoons criticizing the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
There has been criticism of the government's lack of preparedness and lack of transparency, management, coordination to deal with the pandemic. Until May 11, 15, 691 people have been infected with the novel coronavirus in Bangladesh and 239 people died.
The four individuals who were arrested were cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, writer Mushtaq Ahmed, activist Didarul Bhuiyan, and businessman Minhaz Mannan. They were all arrested under the Digital Security Act (DSA).
Ahmed Kishore and Mushtaq Ahmed were sent to jail on May 6, 2020, and Didarul Bhuiyan and Minhaz Mannan were sent to jail on May 7, 2020, after their bail requests was denied.
According to the First Information Report (FIR) the charges against them include: “knowingly posting rumours against the father of the nation, the liberation war, and the coronavirus pandemic to negatively affect the nation’s image.”
Would it be wrong if someone says that the authorities in #Bangladesh, equipped with Digital Security Act, launched a crackdown on those critical to the government?
Eleven people were charged with “spreading rumors and carrying out anti-government activities” yesterday!
— Adnan Akib (@iamadnanakib) May 7, 2020
In the same lawsuit, similar charges were brought against seven people including expatriate journalists, a Facebook page admin and social media commenters. According to a BBC Bangla report, more than 50 people have been arrested for spreading rumours about the spread of coronavirus in Bangladesh since March this year.
These arrests and prosecutions represent a serious threat to freedom of expression in the country during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. “It is only an insecure and authoritarian government that uses a pandemic to arrest cartoonists, journalists, and activists,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said.
Since the beginning of the health crisis, the Bangladeshi government has maintained that they are well prepared to deal with the coronavirus. But shortages in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and an N-95 mask scandal brought to the fore the government's mismanagement of the crisis. Moreover, the government's labelling of the lockdown as a ‘general holiday‘ sent mixed messages to the public leading to confusion. The latest decisions to reopen garments factories, restaurants and markets while the infection is still on the rise has been widely criticized across the country. Many activists think that journalists and activists are being sued or arrested to create fear in the minds of the people to stop criticism of government mismanagement.
Talking to BBC Bangla in early May, Kaberi Gayen, a professor of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Dhaka, said:
এটা কখন হয়? সহিষ্ণুতার এমন অভাব হয়েছে যে তারা (সরকার) সমালোচনা নিতে পারছে পারছে না। যখনই কেউ ভিন্নমত পোষণ করে তখনই মামলা দেয়া হয়, তুলে নেয়া হয়
When does it happen? There is such a lack of tolerance that they (the government) are not able to take any criticism. Whenever anyone disagrees, a case is filed and they arrest them.
Vidyut, an engineering student, tweeted that criticism of the government does not mean opposition to the state:
State and government are different. Being critique of government doesn’t mean they are against the state. It’s a shame that the government is not differentiating between them like most of the autocratic states.#Bangladesh#dailystarnewshttps://t.co/Carhduz4Xd
— Vidyut (@BeingRashedul) May 6, 2020
People like cartoonist Kishore took social media spaces like Facebook to criticise government mismanagement and measures to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.
Collage of cartoons of Kishore. Used with permission.
Cartoon on the left - ”Don't (In Bengali Korona means don't)! (If you do) Will beat you with brooms, you will disappear. And we will sue you under the Digital Security Act as a Bonus.”
Cartoon on the right – ”May Day is great!” (In Picture, one day labourer without work is resting and browsing on a laptop, inside his bucket with a sign “Footpath home office, Karwan Bazar”)
Md Russell Talukder shared on Facebook more of Kishore's cartoon's and commented:
People in the talk shows in the television directly and nakedly criticize the government for its policies and underperforming ministers from time to time, and compared to what they say and how they say, the cartoons of Kishore are just symbolic depiction of present realities, which can be coined with different explanations.
If the government's mechanisms are not directed to allow this sort of space to the citizen, it may be a direct violation of freedom of expression at a gross level.
On Facebook, Belayet Hossain Mamun thinks that any sort of criticism of the state is becoming risky for a person:
রাষ্ট্রীয় বিষয়ে সমালোচনা করা ব্যক্তির জন্য ঝুঁকিপূর্ণ; এতে আপনার ক্ষতি হতে পারে… এই রকম এক বার্তা পাচ্ছি চারপাশে… কী দুঃখজনক নিমজ্জন…
I am getting a message like this everywhere: “it is risky for a person to criticize the state affairs; it can hurt you.” What a sad degradation of freedom of speech.
According to the UK-based freedom of speech organization Article 19, the number of cases and arrests under the Digital Security Act of 2018 has increased in Bangladesh. From January 1 to May 7, 60 cases were registered. More than 110 people, including 22 journalists, were arrested in these 60 cases during the same period. In 2019, there were 63 cases under the Digital Security Act across the country.
In 2018, the Digital Security Act was passed in Bangladesh replacing the notorious Information and Technology Act, which was also used as a tool for silencing critical speech online. There were strong criticisms of this new law from the beginning.
Leftist political activist Feroz Ahmed writes that freedom of speech in Bangladesh has never been so hampered:
মনে হয় না বাংলাদেশের ইতিহাসে বাকস্বাধীনতা কখনো এত বেশি বাধার মুখে ছিল। [..] ব্যক্তিগতভাবে তাদের কাউকে দোষারোপ করবার কিছু নাই, জনগণের সংগঠনগুলো যদি শক্তিশালী না হয়, কথা বলবার সংস্কৃতিটা কারও কারও ব্যক্তিগত সাহস হিসেবেই থাকবে, সমাজের স্বাভাবিক অভ্যাসে পরিণত হবে না।
I don't think freedom of speech has ever faced so many obstacles in the history of Bangladesh. There is nothing to blame individuals for specifically. If the people's organizations are not strong, the culture of speaking will remain as the personal courage of some, it will not become a normal habit of society.
Meanwhile, the government has issued a circular for its officials requiring them to refrain from uploading, commenting, liking or sharing posts, pictures, audios or videos that tarnish the image of the government or the state through social media. Earlier, on 18 April 2020 the government's health department also directed doctors and nurses not to speak to the media or social media about the coronavirus crisis.
Although the government has been saying from the beginning that digital security laws have not been enacted to harass anyone but to protect people from harassment and rumours. However, the reality is very different.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


text:
Promoting coronavirus education through indigenous languages · Global Voices
Subhashish Panigrahi

Screenshot of a Bafut-language video from Cameroon. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Ensuring that local communities have access to reliable information about COVID-19 is a challenge for governments and organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) — one that is compounded for speakers of minority languages.
In response to this challenge, the virALLanguages initiative is working with local community leaders around the world to share basic COVID-19 health information via audio and video through the use of “proverbs, metaphors and diverse rhetorical strategies” to speakers of minority languages.
VirALLanguages is a collaboration between the KPAAM-CAM project/Community for Global Health Equity at the State University at Buffalo in the United States, and the School of Oriental and African Studies’ World Languages Institute at the SOAS University of London in the United Kingdom.
The initiative provides supporting materials for videos distributed on YouTube and Facebook under a Creative Commons license. As more language communities from across the world join, the coverage in more languages will grow. Videos are downloadable from the Internet Archive.
So far, the project has worked with seven different languages — all from Cameroon, one of the most coronavirus-affected countries in the region with at least 2,265 cases as of May 9. In a country of 250 different languages, a linguistic divide exists between speakers of majority French and minority English — both languages brought through colonization. The three-year-long French-English linguistic conflict has led to the displacement of 500,000 people.
In October 2019, Rising Voices spoke with linguist Mandana Seyfeddinipur who heads the SOAS Endangered Languages Documentation Program, during the Decolonizing the Internet's Languages Conference in 2019, to learn about the critical role of indigenous languages in the access of information. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Seyfeddinipur's insights informed a podcast episode entitled: “Indigenous Languages In The Times Of A Pandemic”:
Rising Voices recently reached out over email to linguists Mandana Seyfeddinipur, Pierpaolo Di Carlo and Jeff Good — all project directors of the virALLanguages initiative — to learn more, and they responded as a group:
Subhashish Panigrahi (SP): Tell us a little bit about this project. What is the key issue you are trying to address and what is your larger goal?
virALLanguages (VL): We're targeting marginalized languages which also means languages that may not have a writing system, and languages that are spoken by relatively fewer people, or are not used for official purposes like spreading information about a pandemic. As public authorities tend to share vital health and other public information related to coronavirus, many marginalized communities might not understand sufficiently. There are also social and cultural barriers in addition to such linguistic barriers. Experience from other health crises has shown that pure translation into major languages does not seem to be enough for life-saving behavioral changes. We are aiming to fill this gap with our work based on our experience working with marginalized communities.
We're working to create a network of people who are willing to not only translate key messages in marginalized languages but to adapt them to local contexts so that people will understand what to do in potentially endless circumstances.
SP: How you are trying to deal with these challenges at virALLanguages?
VL: So, we use reliable health advice (WHO) which speakers of marginalized languages then translate by making it as culturally appropriate as possible. We are also attempting to enable acceptance and trust by involving spokespersons who are trusted locally, like traditional authorities, local medical doctors, or other figures that are respected and listened to by the local communities.
The recording is played back to the other speakers for checking and if there is a larger agreement for the distribution through the relevant channels in a given community — social media channels or community radios or even mobile apps.
SP: How many languages or communities are you targeting?
VL: Well, the project title is telling. We target the other languages — those that major institutions cannot target, so that important messages reach as many people as possible in different ways.
SP: What kind of languages are you focusing on and why?
VL: We are focusing on marginalized oral languages, and those languages in which vital and general health information are rarely distributed. We are trying to reach out and to build a network of people who can then use the workflow and resources built by us for their own languages. So, we are responsive on the one hand and proactive on the other. We have started proactively in Cameroon, considering our past experience there and the presence of a very close network. … We're also reaching out to those who worry that information only in writing or in majority languages will not reach many people, and may not be trustworthy by all. Our effort is to help communities disseminate crucial and life-saving information in oral languages, and extend the usage of such languages.
SP: What is expected from any interested indigenous language speaker or a community of a marginalized language?
VL: The project website has resources that can be used as guides for local communities to create their own video content. We encourage the communities to include anything that is culturally appropriate while still retaining the essential health advisory intact. They can look at the scripts in English to create a script of their own while addressing local context including proverbs, metaphors, and other culturally appropriate features to make the messaging more impactful. Those who are interested to join us are required to read a reference text and pass a short quiz. This test ascertains that the potential contributors can produce a message that, while culturally appropriate, will still convey accurate information.
SP: How are you sharing the videos apart from YouTube and Facebook, especially in the target languages?
VL: Our local collaborators know best what the appropriate channels are in a specific demography. … We are now downsampling our recorded files to make them available on Archive.org … for viewers to download. Some teams have proposed to engage with radio channels to broadcast the audio content in local radios. We have done this for the Mafa language that is spoken in the extreme north of Cameroon, through a local radio channel, “Radio Échos des Montagnes.”
SP: As marginalized and oral language speakers are your focus, how do the communities and you yourself plan to spread these videos more widely?
VL: …Communities [are] key. Once audios and videos are downloaded and shared as files by the communities, we have no way of measuring their impact. We must rely on our local collaborators to tell us if our output is effective.
The project directors told Rising Voices that VirALLanguages intends to grow its coverage in more languages by inviting contributors to form teams of marginalized speakers to create content. Those with connections to communities of minority language speakers can also form local language teams, and the project is actively looking for volunteers and support for local radio stations, who help disseminate audio files in local languages. Anyone can also get in touch with the virALLanguages volunteers to donate to such language teams who need financial assistance for the video production.
Remarkable efforts are underway to create critical public health advisories related to the coronavirus in indigenous languages. For example, the Endangered Language Project lists resources in approximately 366 languages.
Indigenous communities face a greater risk because of the coronavirus, prompting the United Nations  Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and other experts to urge the sharing of critical health advice in more indigenous languages.
Editor's note: The author of this post has volunteered for the virALLanguages project.

author: Subhashish Panigrahi


text:
Russians in lockdown celebrate a subdued Victory Day online · Global Voices
Maxim Edwards

Russia's “Immortal Regiment” held online for Victory Day, March 9, 2020. Screenshot from 2020.polkrf.ru
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit Russia hard, with over 10,000 new cases confirmed every day. At the time of publication, the Johns Hopkins University online map indicated 221,000 confirmed cases in the country. Strict quarantine measures were announced on March 5 and have been extended several times since.
Following much speculation, on April 17 President Vladimir Putin did the unthinkable — and cancelled a large military parade for Victory Day, celebrated every May 9 to commemorate Nazi Germany's capitulation in 1945. Russia's latest military hardware and soldiers in period uniforms were to parade past the Russian leadership, Second World War veterans, and several foreign dignitaries.
Unable to lay wreaths and attend parades, Russians commemorated online instead.
That Putin appeared to delay for some time before postponing the parade and other public events is testament to the immense importance of Victory Day in modern Russia. On the other hand, the fact that even veterans’ organisations had asked him to call off the parade demonstrates the level of worry about the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the sociologist Mischa Gabowitsch noted in his recent essay for Eurozine:
In Russia, surveys document the increasing importance of Victory Day. Between 2010 and 2018, the number of those who named it as one of the three most important holidays went from 38% to 71%, overtaking New Year’s Day and religious festivals such as Easter or Christmas.
Cancelling Victory Day celebrations was a major disappointment, particularly as this year marked 75 years since the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany. The traditional military parades and immortal regiment marches were cancelled across the country; instead, President Vladimir Putin laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow to an audience of government officials and reporters. The opening of an immense new Cathedral of the Armed Forces outside Moscow, which had been scheduled for Victory Day, was also postponed (the building achieved notoriety when it was discovered that one of its many mosaics featured depictions of Putin, Minister of Defence Sergey Shoigu, and other security officials. According to some reports, the mosaics were later removed.)
Meanwhile, 75 military jets staged a flyover above the Russian capital, and the day concluded with a traditional fireworks display. “We are invincible when we are united,” declared the president.
Nevertheless, a handful of Russians broke ranks by attempting to hold public celebrations themselves. On the afternoon of May 9, several Communist Party (KPRF) deputies from the Moscow City Duma were detained by police when staging a Victory Day rally in the capital's Pushkinskaya Square. One participant protested to newspaper Novaya Gazeta that they intended to comply with social distancing regulations. The local governor claimed that 880 residents of Yekaterinburg, a major city in the Ural region, had been fined that same day for violating the quarantine regime. Several had attempted to hold Victory Day marches or attend commemorations.
May 9 is no less important in other post-Soviet states, which have cancelled planned parades and public events. The only exceptions were neighbouring Belarus, where President Aleksandr Lukashenka, who referred to COVID-19 as a “mass psychosis,” held a mass rally anyway where 4,000 troops marched in front of crowds of spectators. Turkmenistan also marked Victory Day with a parade; the country's opaque government continues to claim that there are no coronavirus cases.
Lukashenko at WW2 parade: "In this insane, disoriented world, there will be people who condemn us for time and place of this sacred act… Don't rush to conclusions or condemn us, descendants of victorious Belarusians. We couldn't have acted differently. We had no other choice." pic.twitter.com/EUdxloxvQv
— Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) May 9, 2020
Several ubiquitous symbols of Victory Day are more recent creations, popularised as the festival has gained prominence in Russian public life. The Immortal Regiment processions, in which thousands of Russians take to the streets holding portraits of ancestors who fought in the war, was first launched as a local initiative in Tomsk in 2012, while the orange and black St George's Ribbon were first distributed en masse in 2004-5. The latter have also come to be associated with patriotic initiatives and support for the authorities.
Therefore, the day is both an opportunity for ordinary citizens to launch grassroots commemorations and for the government to burnish its credentials with Russia's public and enjoy a surge of patriotic fervour.
Faced by these restrictions, the Russian public turned towards the RuNet to commemorate Victory Day — with a little encouragement from the state. Alongside the standard hashtag #ДеньПобеды (#VictoryDay), Russians also shared their thoughts with the hashtag #ДеньПобедыВстречаемДома (#WeCelebrateVictoryDayAtHome). In a gesture reminiscent of Italians clapping for medical staff from their balconies, Russians went to theirs in unison to sing a popular Soviet-era Victory Day song by David Tukhmanov (giving rise to the hashtag #ОкнаПобеды, or “windows of victory”, and #ПоёмДвором, or “the courtyard sings”).
Moscow's city authorities launched a “virtual tour” allowing users to “visit” historically significant locations in the Russian capital and learn about the role they played during the war. The initiative was linked to the Russia-wide Eternal Stars app, in which mobile users can move from historically significant locations around the country and test their knowledge about the war in an online quiz about each location.
Online historical resources such as these aren't unusual. Recent years have seen several high-profile attempts to “digitise” popular engagements with history, the most prominent among them being Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar's “future history” series. Zygar's latest creation is The Real 1945, social media retelling of the Red Army's advance into Germany. All social media “posts” are based on real archival and diary materials from the period (Zygar previously tried the same approach with an online retelling of the Russian revolution, supported by digital giant Yandex).
The RuNet's resourcefulness prepared Russia well to commemorate Victory Day in lockdown — seamlessly converting the largest public holiday into a mass online event.
The most noteworthy new initiative was the online Immortal Regiment, hosted on the website 2020.polkrf.ru. Instead of marching on the streets with a placard, users uploaded images of themselves alongside an ancestor, which then cycled past the viewer in a live feed of a virtual “procession.”
The initiative was widely praised by state media, which claim that this year's Immortal Regiment set a historic record, with three million people “attending” the online march across the country:
? Участниками акции «Бессмертный полк онлайн» стали почти три миллиона человек!
Трансляция акции будет вестись на протяжении нескольких дней.
Это самый масштабный «Бессмертный полк» за всю историю. О памяти, которая сильна как никогда расскажет Алексей Лазуренко.#ДеньПобеды pic.twitter.com/6W5KQqIjlq
— Пятый канал Новости (@5tv) May 10, 2020
The Telegram user SuevernayaDemokratiya (“Superstitious Democracy”, seemingly a pun on the concept of Sovereign Democracy) noted that these initiatives reflected the deep commitment towards May 9 from above and from below, and predicted that they could grow into new forms of commemoration:
Сейчас можно уже констатировать, что праздник Дня Победы коронавирусного 2020 года прошел успешно. И не просто прошел, а обрел новые смыслы.
Люди не смогли собраться на площадях и улицах, но вышли на свои балконы, пели песни, зажигали фонарики, делились эмоциями и чувствами на различных интернет-площадках, принимали участие в Бессмертном полке в формате онлайн. Коронавирус 9 мая у граждан нашей страны забрать не смог. Этот день запомнился большим количеством новых искренних инициатив и акций, которые вполне могут перерасти в новые традиции празднования Дня Победы. Те же ОкнаПобеды или ПоемДвором вполне можно повторить в следующем году и без всяких самоизоляций.
Хорошо, когда праздник есть и его празднуют, но по-настоящему живет он только тогда, когда новые поколения наполняют его чем-то своим. Мы помним великий подвиг нашего народа, и проклятой китайской заразе нас не сломить. Это наша собственная победа в войне с невидимым врагом.
It can already be said that the Victory Day celebrations, in the coronavirus year 2020, were held successfully. And not just held successfully, but took on a new meaning.
Although people couldn't gather in the squares and streets, they went onto their balconies to sing songs, they lit lanterns, shared their emotions and feelings on various websites, and took part in the Immortal Regiment online. This day will be remembered for the large number of earnest new initiatives and acts which could well develop into new traditions for Victory Day. The same “windows of victory” or “singing in the courtyards” could easily be repeated next year without any self-isolation measures.
So it's great when a festival is observed and celebrated, but a festival really lives on when new generations make it their own. We remember the great struggles of our people, and this damned Chinese infection will not break us. This is our own victory in a war against an unseen enemy.
— Суеверная Демократия, Telegram, 10 May 2020
Comparisons between the struggle against the coronavirus and the German invasion are widespread — it's the most resonant historical parallel in Russia today. In March, Metropolitan Tikhon of Pskov said that the world was facing “a third world war, 75 years after the second.”
The Soviet soldier statue in Berlin's Treptower Park slices the coronavirus; Marshal Zhukov orders a legion of doctors. The front cover of the European version of Russian tabloid Argumenty i Fakty, May 9, 2020. Photo (c): Maxim Edwards.
Understandably, veterans have drawn on their experiences during the Second World War when discussing the COVID-19 crisis. Zinaida Korneyeva, a 98-year-old veteran from St Petersburg, has shot to fame with a series of YouTube videos in which she reminisces about her wartime service as an anti-aircraft gunner. Inspired by the example of British veteran Tom Moore, Korneyeva has launched a crowdfunding campaign in support of medical staff infected with COVID-19. To date, she has raised over 1.5 million rubles for her cause.
Many Russians expected to hear these parallels in Putin's Victory Day speech, given the president's fondness for historicising Russia's current woes. On April 8, for example, the president reassured a group of regional governors that Russia would overcome the coronavirus, just as it survived invasions by the Pechenegs and Polovtsians.
However, other than a few appeals to resilience and collective support, Putin instead chose to focus his May 9 speech on the events of the Second World War, making no explicit statements about the pandemic his government is desperately trying to contain.
Russia is not alone in appealing to martial valour in urging public vigilance against the coronavirus. In the UK,  “Blitz spirit” rhetoric has not returned to public life without criticism.
But as in other countries, experts question the accuracy of doing so and what it might obscure about the effectiveness of state responses: as the psychologist Olga Makhovskaya told Radio Svoboda on May 9:
Военная риторика сегодня, когда говорят о врачах, создает демагогическую вату вокруг их реальных проблем. Меня зацепило и очень понравилось высказывание молодого уставшего доктора, который просил: “Не называйте нас героями”. Самая большая проблема, помимо физической угрозы жизни, – это стигматизация в обществе. Какие-то группы обозначают как привилегированные, героические, предполагается, что их ожидают почет и уважение, а остальные – больные, переносчики. Но сами врачи против этого возражают, потому что для них чрезвычайно важно (даже внутри врачебного сообщества) оставаться солидарными. Это значит, что каждый в равной позиции и один может заменить другого. Риторика солидарности – не военная, это риторика ратного труда. […] Пандемия – стихийное бедствие, оно должно развиваться и активно купироваться по законам борьбы со стихийными бедствиями, а не по законам войны. У войны есть враг, идеология. Здесь более благоприятные перспективы. И что очень важно, сейчас идет борьба за будущее. Вопрос, который задают с утра до вечера: когда это все закончится?
The militarist rhetoric used when speaking about doctors these days is demagogic. It sugar coats a discussion about the actual problems they face. I was enamoured by a statement from an exhausted young doctor who said: “Do not call us heroes.” The biggest problem they face, apart from a threat to their lives, is their stigmatisation in society. Some groups are hailed as heroic, superior, people deserving of honour and respect, while others are sickly and potential carriers of disease. Doctors themselves object to this; for them it is important (even within the medical profession) to stay united. Everybody is equal, and doctors can replace each other. The rhetoric of solidarity is not about militarism, it's about equal labour. […] A pandemic is a natural disaster, and must be stopped according to the laws of crisis management, not the laws of war. War has an enemy, a discrete ideology. There are more favourable prospects here. And now, most importantly of all, there is a struggle for the future. And the question being asked every day, from dawn until dusk is: when will it come to an end?
Tragically, this is not just a metaphorical struggle; some Russian soldiers today are reportedly fighting the coronavirus for real.
When journalists from the Perm Zvezda news outlet reported that the local government had cancelled Victory Day parades because of cancelled orders of fireworks and St George's ribbons, the local authorities denounced their findings, leading Russia's state media watchdog Roskomnadzor banned the offending article. Three weeks later, the parade in the city was actually cancelled.
During this period, preparations for a Victory Day parade in Moscow's Red Square were still being held — according to the independent investigative project Proekt.Media, thousands of soldiers came to Moscow for parade rehearsals, after which hundreds of them actually became ill from the virus.
Russian officials are determined that the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory will be celebrated with the appropriate fanfare. Two dates have been proposed for a belated Victory Day parade: September 2 (recognised as the formal date of the end of the Second World War), or November 7 (the anniversary of the October Revolution).
Whether that can happen, of course, depends on whether the current struggle is won by autumn.

author: Maxim Edwards


text:
The nightmare in Syria continues amid new coronavirus fears · Global Voices
Sylvain Keller

Atmeh refugee camp in Aleppo, Syria. Photo by IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation via CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Since March 2011, the Syrian war has claimed over 400,000 lives and displaced an estimated 6.5 million people. This ongoing conflict has turned into one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history.
The coronavirus only adds a new layer of potential threat to thousands of displaced Syrians.
Between February 1 to March 31, 2020, 312 civilians were killed in Syria as a result of airstrikes, improvised explosive devise (IED) explosions, and targeted killings carried out by all warring parties, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR). Warring parties include Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and its allies from Russia and Iran, fighting against various rebel groups for power and control.
A record number of internally displaced persons (IDP) are gathering in the northwestern province of Idlib, — the last important rebel-held city in the northwest, and a potential outpost to reach Turkey. The area— with nearly 4.5 million displaced persons — remains under the control of the militant group Tahrir al-Sham.
This gathering of IDPs has sparked international concern that this community — living under the harshest conditions — could be deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
An agreement carried out on March 6 between Russia and Turkey aims to limit aerial bombings on Idlib, in northwestern Syria, but the humanitarian situation remains alarming. No airstrikes have been reported since the March 6 ceasefire, but regime forces have pursued intermittent shelling.
Indiscriminate attacks against civilians — while prohibited under international law — continue nonetheless, including large-scale terrorist attacks. Multiple strikes on kindergartens and schools occurred in Idlib in February, during which at least 7 teachers and 10 children were killed, according to the United Nations. On February 10, one child was killed and two injured in an airstrike on a camp in Idlib.
Meanwhile, the spread of the coronavirus in an already strained region has begun to loom as a potential threat. As of May 3, 45 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Syria, mainly in government-controlled provinces. However, no cases have so far been reported in Idlib.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), since last December — when hostilities intensified with repetitive airstrikes from Russia and the Syrian government in Idlib, — 846,000 people have been displaced and remain in displacement, and half were displaced to Idlib just in the month of February 2020. Children make up 60 percent of those displaced.
The fighting in Idlib province displaced a huge number of civilians under horrendous conditions. Fleeing on foot or by truck in very cold weather, babies and young children reportedly died on a daily basis. Once they arrived in Idlib, some people only managed to find refuge in open spaces under trees or on the street.
Food prices are soaring and food access remains difficult. The malnutrition rates among pregnant and breastfeeding women are devastating: 1 in 5 women is currently acutely malnourished compared to 1 in 20 in 2019. An increased stunting rate among children under five in Idlib has also been reported.
The coronavirus and a lack of resources could worsen this situation and limit humanitarian access. Experts expect the number of people with the need for humanitarian aid to double to 265 million by the end of the year, including in conflict zones like Idlib.
Abdulrahman Muhajir, an IDP from Homs, said:
Now, we are suffering from expensive prices, we are suffering from this epidemic, and we are suffering from a thousand things and no one is helping you with anything,
To prevent potential contagion in Idlib, one laboratory initiated testing procedures. The World Health Organization has also procured additional ventilators. Health infrastructure and trained personnel are generally missing in warring areas. Between 2011 and 2019, over 900 medical personnel were killed in Syria while many others fled.
Still, medical professionals in Idlib are doing what they can to prepare for potential COVID-19 cases in area hospitals:
Hospital in #Idlib being sanitized by the @SyriaCivilDef to prevent the spread of #COVID19 (left) versus ‘hospital’ in an area terrorized by #Assad, who has been receiving billions of #UN donor money for years. pic.twitter.com/nEpXFzrF5u
— Simona Jeger (@simonajeger) April 5, 2020
IDP camps are a critical concern for potential contagion. After a first COVID-19 death was reported in northeastern Syria, Kurdish authorities in control of the area set up a dedicated hospital in the area and authorities in Idlib expect to do the same.
In Rukban, a refugee camp located near the Jordanian border, the spread of the coronavirus could spell greater disaster, reported one midwife in the camp:
We don’t have the right medicine or the appropriate place to quarantine the patients, There is nothing we could offer to them.
The camp has organized an awareness campaign to limit the spread of the coronavirus and UN authorities are working to implement testing supplies, but mainly in government-controlled areas, limiting the possibility of access for IDPs.
The last time a humanitarian aid convoy reached the camp was in May 2019. Under such dire living conditions, dozens of children died from hypothermia in 2019. Humanitarian assistance has not stepped up and neither Jordan government or the Syrian Assad regime are expected to provide assistance.
In recent weeks, a planned humanitarian mission by the UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent was suspended due to a disagreement.
James Jeffrey, the United States ambassador to Syria, said an agreement made between Russia and Turkey offers the chance for talks in Idlib.
But according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Syrian regime is currently using the media focus caused by COVID-19 pandemic to ramp up the violence and violate the March 6 ceasefire without attention. A recent exchange of fire in Idlib has been reported between Syrian and Turkish forces.
Despite the current constraints, the United Nations Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) managed to deliver more aid to Idlib in March than it did at any time since 2014, citing reduced military activity in the area.
In January 2020, Resolution 2504  voted by the UN Security Council extended the “authorization of cross border aid delivery” to Syria until July 10. António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, recently reminded the Syrian government that since 2012, under OHCR resolutions S-18/1 and 19/22, it should allow for a UN field presence to protect human rights.
Yet, after nine years, this has still not been implemented.
The window of opportunity to prevent a further humanitarian crisis from COVID-19 is now — but it will close very soon. The international community should make every effort to protect affected civilians who face insecurity — and death — on a daily basis.

author: Sylvain Keller


text:
Amid COVID-19 pandemic in Niger, government violates whistleblowers’ freedom of speech · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

A nurse returns from testing patients at the entrance of a hospital in Niger, April 2, 2020. Photo by Anna.psiaki via Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0
Information transparency seems to be the best way to fight the COVID-19 pandemic — as demonstrated by Taiwan, for example — but the government of Niger seems to be expanding censure beyond journalists to whistleblowers and medical personnel.
This makes for an even more volatile situation in Niger, a country that is already under threat from Islamist extremism.
The first case of the virus in Niger was reported on March 19, 2020. As of May 8, there are now 781 cases reported, including the death by COVID-19 of the Nigerian Labour Minister on May 3. Despite the clear presence of COVID-19 in Niger, the police detain doctors and journalists whose only “crime” seems to be the mere mention of the virus in interviews or on social networks, as decried by the human rights organization Amnesty International:
On March 14, the judicial police summoned the editor-in-chief and a journalist from Television Labari, following an interview with veterinarian Zoulkarneyni Maiga, concerning COVID-19. Dr. Maiga was also summoned and later released on the evening of March 16. Amnesty International was able to obtain video of the interview, in which he simply speaks about the origin of the virus, explains the steps in its development and asks the public to apply preventive measures.
Another journalist, Kaka Mamane Touda, has been arbitrarily detained since March 5. He had published a Facebook post calling attention to another possible case of COVID-19 in Niger.
According to Reporters Without Borders, Niger comes in 57th place in the World Press Freedom Index and in 10th place for Africa. This is a respectable position in the Pan-African context since this Sahelian country is the target of Islamist extremism.
However, it seems that the government is becoming less and less concerned with its image as it multiplies the arrests of human rights activists, journalists, and whistleblowers.
A recent victim of Nigerien censorship is activist Ali Idrissa. He knows Nigerien prisons well, having already been arrested in 2005, 2017, and 2018. As the coordinator of the Network of Organizations for Transparency and Budget Analysis (ROTAB), a Nigerien collective of several nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations, and unions that participate in the global “Publish What You Pay” campaign, he does indeed seem to displease authorities.
Idrissa is also a member of the framework for cooperation and action in civil society and the general director of the press group Labari. Following a complaint linked to defamation charges, he was held in police custody between April 9-14, 2020.
This period exceeds the legal duration of police custody in Niger, where it is limited to 48 hours and perhaps one renewal. It also runs contrary to the Ministry of Justice’s March 20 decision aiming to curb police detention during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, partner of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), reveals that he could face up to three years in prison if convicted:
Mr. Idrissa was granted provisional release at the end of the hearing. … Mr. Idrissa was arrested in connection with revelations of the alleged embezzlement of funds initially intended to equip the Nigerien army in the fight against terrorism. The Observatory noted that in the same context, a peaceful protest was violently repressed on March 15, 2020, in Niamey, [the capital] and numerous people were arrested, including defenders of human rights.
Though Idrissa was released on April 14, 2020, other members of civil society who were arrested at the same time are still being held. On March 31, the framework for cooperation and citizen action published a press release saying:
As you know, the only misdeed of these honorable sons of the nation who are today imprisoned is to have organized peaceful assemblies not only in support of the FDS [security forces] in the ever so dangerous combat that they lead against terrorists, but above all to demand the judicial handling of the extraordinary case of predation of public resources allocated to the Ministry of Defense. This intimidation will not work! the citizens’ struggle must and will continue its tireless efforts.
The struggle will continue, even as we are faced with the new and difficult test imposed upon us by the necessary, collective fight against the murderous CORONAVIRUS or COVID-19 pandemic.
In an article published on 18 April, the website nigerdiaspora.net reports:
Other arrests followed. Just as voices rose to demand the release of these civil society actors, incarcerated since March 19, other [arrests] of activists and civil society actors were made in the last two periods of 24 hours. Among them were Dr. Mallah Toudjani and Nassirou Saidou, president of the nonprofit organization, Voice of the Voiceless. Dr. Mallah Tidjani was arrested for audio attributed to him and which made the rounds of WhatsApp groups over the last 48 hours. In this audio clip, he speaks about the management of the covid 19 pandemic. For Nassirou Saidou, who has been under arrest since last Tuesday March 14, an audio clip is also at cause.
Nigerien civil society reacted strongly to the embezzlement of funds intended for the purchase of arms, refusing to see the future of its country mortgaged and to stand by while its military battles better-armed Islamist extremists. In a press release by Turn the Page Collective Niger, Issa Garba, communications manager, writes:
After the Ministry of Defense financial audit revealed major embezzlement of funds intended for military supplies, civil society was mobilized. They condemned those responsible for the embezzlement and demonstrated their support of the Security and Defense Forces, who are the primary victims and find themselves deprived of quality military equipment in wartime.
It is quite clear that the Nigerien government did not succeed in managing the crisis of this pandemic, as described in the report, “When anti-terrorism justifies the restriction of civic space,” from the same Turn the Page Collective Niger, which noted on April 24:
Today, the freedoms of demonstration, assembly, and speech are truly endangered, flouted by the unelected administrative authorities of various municipalities in the country. As the security situation in Niger deteriorated, the administrative authorities prohibited more and more demonstrations organized by civil society [OSC]. On multiple occasions, even meetings in private locations were prevented without any real justification.
Indeed, the strong-arm break-up of a demonstration in Niamey caused three deaths in early March. Amnesty International asked authorities to open an independent inquiry into the circumstances of their death.
Furthermore, the Anadolu Agency warns that several neighborhoods in the Nigerien capital of Niamey were rocked by demonstrations.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


text:
China to its anxious youth: ‘Believe us, things are better in your day!’ · Global Voices
Jack Hu

Screenshot from Back Wave via Youtube.
Chinese officials are keen to make the country's younger generation feel fortunate for what it has, and it isn't difficult to see why.
The post-90s generation is the least happy among all age groups in China according to research by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, followed by the post-80s generation.
Many face stress related to housing issues, education, healthcare, employment, excessive exposure to social media and identity crises.
While the Chinese Communist Party has been able to contain dissatisfaction among mainland youth it is wary of the example set by Hong Kong, which was roiled by months-long, student-led protests.
Step in actor He Bing, a representative of China's “Front Wave” (older generation) and the star of a viral video titled “Back Wave” (后浪) that aims to celebrate the supposedly free culture and bright future of China's youth.
Released on China's largest animated video sharing platform Bilibili in time for Chinese Youth Day (May 4), the video was republished by a plethora of state affiliated media outlets.
In the four-minute clip featuring footage of urban youth culture and adventurous, cosmopolitan lifestyles, actor He tells the younger generation:
那些口口聲聲「一代不如一代」的人，應該看看你們，像我一樣，我看著你們滿懷羨慕 […] 科技繁榮文化繁茂城市繁華，現代文明的成果被層層打開，可以盡情地享用。自由學習一門語言學習一門手藝，欣賞一部電影去遙遠的地方旅行。很多人從小你們就在自由探索自己的興趣[…]你們擁有了我們曾經夢寐以求的權利，選擇的權利，你所熱愛的就是你的生活。你們有幸遇見這樣的時代，但是時代更有幸遇見這樣的你們。[…] 你們正在把傳統的變成現代的，把經典的變成流行的，把學術的變成大眾的，把民族的變成世界的。[…]因為你們這個世界會更喜歡中國，因為一個國家最好看的風景, 就是這個國家的年輕人。[…]
Those who complain that the next generation is worse than the earlier generation should take a closer look at you, like I have. I look at you and feel envy. […] You can enjoy advanced technology, diverse culture and prosperous city life. The fruits of modern civilization have been unpacked for you. You have freedom to learn a language and a skill. You can enjoy a movie or travel far. Many of you began exploring your interests from a young age…you enjoy the kind of rights that we dreamed of — the right to choose. You love your way of living. You are lucky to meet the era, and the era is lucky to meet you. […] You have turned the traditional into the modern, the classic into the popular, the academic into the mass, the national into the global…Because of you, the world will love China more, because a country's most beautiful scenery is its young people…
Young internet users smelled paternalistic propaganda straight away.
They noted that the liberal, cosmopolitan culture depicted in the video was applicable only to a minority of young people, chiefly those who inherited wealth from the emergent business class (Capitalists), or politically powerful (Red) parents.
One typical comment on Weibo, the Chinese microblogging platform, pointed out that not everything is better for young people:
《其实我们都更希望自己活在那个还买得起房的时代》不知道多少人觉得自己活得根本不像个后浪…
Actually we all wish that we are living in the time when when can still afford an apartment. Many people don't feel that they live like “back waves”…
The video's appearance on Bilibili — posted by the website itself — is notable.
The platform is considered China's most popular youth subculture website with 130 million monthly active users. Bilibi was listed on the U.S NASDAQ stock market in 2018 and is keen to rival more mainstream Chinese video platforms like Tencent Video. The majority of its audience was born after the 1980s and tends towards Japanese, Korean and American popular culture.
The China Communist Youth League established its official channel on the website in January 2017 and has been actively appropriating the youth community's subculture in its political propaganda ever since.
That move came amid the emergence of a new generation of online patriots, dubbed Little Pink, who boost state narratives and conflate freedom with the boom in consumerist culture.
State-owned outlets that republished “Back Wave” included the People's Daily and China Daily, while posts hailing the success of younger generations soon proliferated on Chinese social media, using the “Back Wave” hashtag.
But despite strong orchestration from party loyalists, the video triggered strongly negative emotions among some viewers.
According to a social media analysis report published by online media outlet The Paper, around half of the comments under the People Daily's republication of the video were negative.
Name-checked prominently in critiques of the video were “Chinese Chives” (韭菜) — a vegetable that grows like wild grass and can be harvested by farmers regularly without much effort.
Originally used as a metaphor for Chinese who kept losing money in the stock market, the “chives” moniker has since been used to describe ordinary citizens that live happily, despite lacking human rights and suffering exploitation.
Many users responding to the Youth Day video viewed themselves as part of a “Chives Wave”, rather than a “back wave”.
One tech blogger described the video as “poisonous Chicken soup”:
有钱的叫后浪，没钱的叫韭菜。有人说《后浪》青年宣言视频，内容美好，但不现实；振奋，但不动人。请问现实中，有多少青年人能过上这样的生活呢？内容缺乏普遍的社会意义。对《后浪》的批评，其实是中国青年的觉醒，是对“毒鸡汤”的抵制！
The wealthy ones are the back wave, the poor ones are “Chinese Chives”. Some said the video “Back Wave” is a declaration of youth. The content is rosy but not realistic, glorious but not touching. In reality, how many young people can afford to live like this? The content does not capture the general social reality. Criticism of “Back Wave” is a moment of awakening for Chinese young people — it is a resistance against “poisonous Chicken soup”.
Another commented:
害，生而为韭浪太难了，被一部分50后60后70后割完一茬又一茬，将来还要被达官显贵的后浪们割，太难了呀
Shit, it is so difficult to be in the “Chives wave”. We keep being harvested by the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. In the future, we will be harvested by the privileged “back wave”. Life is so difficult.
A “Back Wave” parody soon went viral on Bilibili. It replaced He Bing's speech with a description of the “Chives Wave” — a generation that enjoys being exploited.
Below is a version published on YouTube:
你们拥有了我们曾经彻底消灭的权利，被剥削的权利，你们没有发言权，[…] 你们有幸遇到了这样的时代，但是富二代们更有幸他们遇见了这样的你们，他们看见你们满怀敬意，向你们的愚昧迟钝致敬，你们正在把自己的钱变成老板的钱 把社会的变成资本的， 把对的变成错的 ,把白的变成黑的， 红二代在海外的千万个房产有你们添砖加瓦， 红三代开着奔驰大G在紫禁城撒欢，每一脚的油门都有你们的贡献，你们把自己的身体变成了老板所席卷的996 ICU的躯壳…
You have the rights that we have eliminated — the right to be exploited. You don't have the right to speak out. […] You are lucky to be in this era and Second Generation Rich are happy to meet you. They pay tribute to you, to you being naive and dumb. You have turned your own wealth into the wealth of your boss, turned the social into the capital, turned right into wrong and white into black. You have contributed bricks used for the construction of millions of overseas properties owned by the Second Generation Reds. You have contributed the oil used in the Benz owned by the Third Generation Reds who are racing outside the Forbidden City. You have turned your own bodies into 996 (9am to 9pm daily, six days per week) working machines which will eventually end up in an Intensive Care Unit.
Other parodies have emerged since, including this one about the Hong Kong protests for freedom and autonomy:
The debate surrounding the Youth Day video reminded some Chinese netizens to reflect on the genuine meaning of freedom and rights.
@CalvinChiu, a mainland Chinese tweeted:
后浪拍的特别好。
我们青年有旅行的自由，那请问其他自由为何绝口不提?
我们青年有学习一门语言知识的权利，那有没有其他权利呢?
中国的青年，被房子、车子禁锢起来，无心国事，这是何等的悲哀！权利是靠自己争取来的，而不是坐着等来的。
中国青年应该大胆地喊出来，我们要新闻自由!
— Calvin Chiu (@CalvinChiu19) May 11, 2020
The production quality of Back Wave is excellent. We the youth have freedom to travel, but why are there no mentions of other freedoms? We the youth have the right to learn different languages — do we enjoy other rights? Youth in China has been locked up by properties and vehicles and does not care about politics. This is sad. We have to struggle for our rights, not sit there and wait. Youth in China should yell out — we want freedom of press!

author: Jack Hu


text:
COVID-19 diaries from Wuhan: ‘People cannot grieve freely for their relatives. How repressive!’ · Global Voices
Winston Chiu

A construction site in Wuhan resumed operation. (Photo credit: Guo Jing. Used with permission.)
The following post is the fourteenth in a series of diaries written by independent filmmaker and feminist scholar Ai Xiaoming and feminist activist Guo Jing. Both are living in Wuhan at the initial center of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the links to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth parts of the series.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
This installment was written between March 23 and March 27, 2020. The original Chinese diaries are published on Matter News.
我今天没有下楼，在房间里工作、写日记。前几天有个被领导性骚扰的女性打074热线来咨询，她把自己的经历发了朋友圈，结果有几个女同事说她们也曾被这个领导性骚扰。她们联合起来向公司投诉，要求公司调查处理。今天，这名咨询者告诉我，公司调查后决定开除骚扰者，并在内部发了公告。真是个难得的好消息。
今天似乎回到了封城前的生活，可是我心里又知道无法回到过去。我们有时候想回到过去是怀念曾经某个时刻的美好，或者想要逃避现在的痛苦。
其实，我内心一直抗拒去适应现在的生活，人为了适应变态的生存环境必然要做出一些妥协。我不想做太多的妥协，更害怕妥协成为习惯，想要坚守那些我珍视的信念。
I did not go out today. I worked at home and wrote diaries. Several days ago, a woman harassed by her superior called the hotline. She shared her experience on social media and some female colleagues of hers said they were harassed by the same person. They filed a complaint together and asked the company to investigate. Today, she told me that her company decided to fire that harasser and announced the decision. This is rare good news.
Today feels like a normal day before the lockdown. However, I know life will not be the same again. The desire to return to the past is associated with our memory of the good old days, or the desire to escape from the pain we have now.
I insist on not getting used to the current situation. When adapting to a perverted environment, it is necessary to compromise. I don't want to compromise too much or else compromise will become a habit. I want to stick to my beliefs.
这几天无症状感染者让大家充满了疑惑和担忧，自己是不是无症状感染者，身边是否有无症状感染者。昨天财新的报道指出，武汉最近每天还能检测出几例或十几例无症状感染者，但并没有计入确诊病例。
无症状感染者的存在无疑增加了疫情的防控难度。
现在很多省份的新增确诊病例都是从境外入境的人。我们要怎么应对疫情的这一新发展趋势呢？我真心希望不要再有封锁了，再次封锁简直就是酷刑，尤其是对武汉人而言，我们经不住这样的折磨啦。我们要做好防护和救治，而不是隔离。
中午，湖北省新型冠状病毒感染肺炎疫情防控指挥部发了通告，4月8日零时起，武汉市解除离汉离鄂通道管控措施，有序恢复对外交通，离汉人员凭湖北健康码“绿码”安全有序流动。
这算是一个好消息。
有人问我会不会离开武汉。短期内没有特别的理由我不会离开。我已经对此类消息变得无感了。我不再每天一醒来就去看最新的疫情信息了。解封不代表这次疫情的结束，可能还是会有人不敢出门，很多后遗症也都需要面对。我现在都很难想象大家都不戴口罩出门的场景。
去年在广州跟一群热爱运动的朋友成立了一个女子登山队，前些日子大家在讨论五一去四姑娘山徒步。那个时候我说好想去。今天，她们倒是高兴地说：“郭晶可以出来啦！！”
我好像没啥信心，说：“哎呀，不知道到时候会咋样呢。”有人说：“还是可以期待一下！”有人说：“到时候就重获自由了！”我收到了一些鼓励，说：“好吧，我期待一下！”
Recently, people are confused and worried about the “asymptomatic virus carriers”. Are we infected without symptoms? Are people around me infected without symptoms? Yesterday a Caixin report pointed out that recently there are several to a dozen people infected without symptoms in Wuhan everyday. However, they are not counted as confirmed cases.
Without doubt, the asymptomatic infected cases will make it difficult to end this pandemic.
Now, in many provinces, the newly confirmed cases are imported. How can we deal with this new trend? I really hope that we won't have to lock down again. It would be torture, especially for people in Wuhan. We cannot bear such torture again. More efforts should be paid to protection and treatment instead of isolation.
This noon, the COVID-19 Epidemic Prevention Center in Hubei Province announced that Wuhan city will lift the traffic ban on April 8. Traffic will return to normal. People in Wuhan can travel to other places with a “Green Code” issued by the Hubei Health Code system.
This is indeed good news.
People asked me whether I will leave Wuhan. I have no such plan unless something unexpected happens. I don't have any feeling about the pandemic news and no longer check the latest information every day after waking up. Lifting the lockdown does not mean the end of this pandemic. Very likely, some people still dare not go out. The sequel of the pandemic is still emerging. At this moment, I cannot imagine people going out without a face mask.
Last year I and some friends in Guangzhou who love outdoor activities founded a female hiking club. Several days ago, we talked about climbing Mount Siguniang during the May Day holiday. I said I would love to go. Today, they said happily, “Guo Jing can join us now!!”
But I am not that confident. I said, “I don't know what will happen.” Someone said, “You should be hopeful.” Someone else said, “You will be free by then.” I was encouraged and said, “Well, I will stay hopeful.“
我羡慕那些在外面的人，就问门口的社区工作人员：“我们什么时候可以出去呀？”他说：“现在有复工证明才能出，现在主要是为了复工。”
I envy those who can go outside. I asked the community staff at the gate, “when can we go out?” He said, “now only people with a Work Pass can go out; the current arrangement is mainly for the purpose of work resumption.”
今天有人在微博上发了一张照片，内容是汉口殡仪馆门口领骨灰的长队，很快这条微博就不见了。有人写下自己去汉口殡仪馆的经历，TA在里面待了两个小时，人们大都是默默地抱着遗照在对接点等待，或抱着骨灰盒离开，殡仪馆很安静。TA要离开的时候一个女人放声大哭，大家呆呆地看着她。
网友说殡仪馆到处都是便衣，甚至一抬手机就有人上前制止。有不少人说去领骨灰盒的时候有社区工作人员的“陪同”。人们的哀悼也被看管了起来，真是荒谬至极。他们的家人去世了，他们很多人都没能跟家人见上最后一面，现在又不能以自己的方式哀悼逝去的亲人，这是何等的压制。
Today someone posted on Weibo a photo showing a long queue outside the Hankou Funeral Home, waiting for the ashes of their relatives or friends. This photo was soon deleted. Someone wrote down their experience in the Hankou Funeral Home. They stayed there for two hours. The majority were waiting at the reception quietly, holding a portrait of the deceased person. Some took the ashes away. When they left, one woman broke the silence and burst into tears. Others just stared at her.
The same netizen said that there were many plainclothes policemen in the funeral home. If a person took out a cellphone, that person would be stopped [by the plainclothes]. Many said that they were “accompanied” by community staffers when they went to take the ashes. It is so ridiculous that people's condolences have to be supervised and monitored. Their family members passed away. Many could not say farewell to their beloved ones. Now they are not allowed to grieve the death of their relatives freely. How repressive!
新冠肺炎在全球范围的传播对全球化的经济结构将会带来什么样的影响？很多外贸厂的外贸订单被取消，涉及的行业有服装、玩具、电子等，很多厂被迫关停。这些外贸厂的工人想复工也没得复了。
很多产业开始大规模地缩水，接下来会有大规模的失业。很多人都没有存款，还背负着房贷、房租等，几个月没有收入生活就会难以为继。很多人在城市里都是外来者，如果在城市里生活不下去，就必然要回到农村。
复工也并非易事。现在武汉关于复工的规定尚不明确，不知道哪些行业可以复工。湖北其它城市去外地复工的人也遇到种种困难，一个交流出城、复工经验的群里有人说，他到重庆后要做核酸检测加居家隔离7天才能上班。
还有的地方依然在拒绝湖北人。今天，江西九江拒绝湖北人入内，在湖北黄梅小池桥头设置封锁线，结果两地警察发生冲突，引来了很多人的聚集。
晚上十一点多，天又下起了雨，连续下了好几个小时。睡觉的时候，风吹得窗户晃荡地响，时而传来工地上的木板、钢条、铝片被吹倒的撞击声。
想到那些无法以自己的方式哀悼逝去的亲朋的人，想到那些在为生计焦虑着的人，想到那些住在桥洞里的人，想到那些和我一样还被困着的武汉人，我久久难以入睡。很多人和此刻的武汉一样在暴风雨的敲击中，在灾难带来的暴风雨后，人们会像那些被吹倒的房屋一样需要重建。
How will this COVID-19 pandemic change the global economy? A large number of foreign trade orders are canceled. Many factories making clothes, toys, electronics, etc. are forced to shut down. Their employees cannot return to work anymore.
As the manufacturing sector shrinks, employees will lose their jobs. Many people do not have much savings, but they need to pay mortgage or rent. After a few months, they will not be able to sustain themselves. Many workers in cities come from rural regions. If they cannot sustain their lives in the cities, they have to return home to the villages.
The resumption of production is not an easy task. Currently we do not have clear instructions in Wuhan. We have no idea which sectors are allowed to resume production. People from other regions in Hubei also face a lot of difficulties if they have to travel to other cities. Someone said in our chatroom that they were requested to do a PCR test and quarantine for 7 days upon arrival at Chongqing for work.
Some regions still don't allow people from Hubei Province to enter. Today, Jiujian city of the Jiangxi province set up a blockade on a bridge in Huangmei city to stop people from Hubei entering Jiujian. The policemen from the two provinces clashed on the bridge and a huge crowd gathered at the spot.
It started raining again at around 11 PM tonight. The rain lasted for several hours. When I went to bed, the wind blew against the windows and made a lot of sounds. I could also hear the clanging sounds of the wooden boards, steel bars and aluminum plates coming from a nearby construction site.
I couldn't fall as sleep and kept thinking about those who could not grieve freely for their relatives and friends, those who worried about their jobs and savings, those homeless who live under bridges and those who are stranded in Wuhan, like me. Many people are in the middle of a storm, just like Wuhan at this moment. After the storm, we will need to rebuild our lives like those blown-down buildings.

author: Winston Chiu


text:
History, landscape, body: A conversation with Pakistani artist Ali Kazim · Global Voices
Omid Memarian

Ali Kazim, Shah-Savar (a good rider). Pigment on wasli paper, 72cm x108cm.
Currently focused on an upcoming solo show scheduled for 2021 at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, UK, prominent Pakistani artist Ali Kazim says he hasn't experienced any significant changes to his work since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But he acknowledges that the art world will be hit hard as economies struggle or collapse in response to the virus that continues to impact almost every aspect of life across the world.
Kazim, 46, was born and raised in Pakistan and received his BFA degree from the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan in 2002 and an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK, in 2011. He currently lives and works as a multidisciplinary artist in Lahore, where he is also an assistant professor at the National College of Arts.
While Kazim works in a variety of genres and techniques, he has stood out for his portraits, which present realistically depicted subjects in surreal settlings against backdrops of powerful color.
Kazim’s works have been exhibited in major international fairs and exhibitions around the world, including New York’s Frieze Art Fair in 2019, and collected by New Yorks's Metropolitan Museum, the Asia-Pacific Museum, the British Museum, Australia’s Queensland Art Gallery, and others.
In an interview with Global Voices, Ali Kazim speaks about his fascination with the human body, the inspiration he takes from landscape, his current work and what we should know about art in Pakistan now. Excerpts from the interview follow:
You have a sort of fascination with the human body, from your body drawings in 2002 up to now. How has this influenced what art means to you?
I think the human body is such a fascinating form. It is complex both in its physicality and as a thematic concern. The body, which is core to performing everyday functions, keeps doing its tasks even most of the time without our conscious knowledge, while it goes through various emotional and spiritual stresses. The figurative works I’ve produced perhaps are glimpses of those moments it goes through.
Ali Kazim, Untitled (ruins series). Watercolor pigment on paper, 206cm x 460cm, 2018.
Is there any connection between your work on the history of landscapes and the human body both in terms of the technique you use (painting-drawing) and the meaning of the work?
I wanted to make some portraits or images based on human figures. I wanted to start with my own explanations, but at that point I didn’t really know where to start until I came across a replica of the Priest King (a small, white, lo- fired steatite statue from the Indus Valley civilization) at Lahore museum.
That is probably the earliest example of a portrait that has survived in this part of the world. It gave me a reason to make sketches of it and then a portrait of the Priest King. I developed a new body of work from there. I wanted to create tales by placing one or two elements next to the portraits, whether it was a prayer cap, a parrot, or a shaving razor.
I fell in love with the watercolor wash technique. I was gradually discovering the possibilities of constructing the images by adding thin layers of colored washes, removing extra pigment from the surface and rendering it with tiny brushes. I guess in that way the formal aspects of the work became important for me.
In early 2013 I started visiting the excavated Harrapan sites near my hometown. The Ruins series landscapes are based on the mounds of the Indus Valley civilization. I think they are in a way collective portraits of the people who may have lived there. I was more interested in these sorts of historical connections.
Ali Kazim, Topi Walah II. Pigment and pressure printing on wasli, 50cm x 75cm.
You have been very active internationally, exhibiting your work in major cities in the world and with museums like the Metropolitan acquiring your work. How is your work received by the art community in Lahore and Pakistan?
It’s such an honor that some prestigious institutions around the world have acquired my work over a period of time. I’ve been actively exhibiting in Pakistan since the beginning of my career. I was invited to make a large human hair sculpture/drawing for the first edition of the Karachi Biennale in 2017.
The project was appreciated well; I received the jury’s prize at the very first biennale of Pakistan. Then the next year for the inaugural edition of the Lahore Biennale I made a large installation called “Untitled (Ruins of the lovers temple)” in a public garden with five thousand life-size terracotta hearts.
Towards the end of the biennale, people were allowed to pluck hearts from the walls of the ruins. I later traced this and was surprised to see how people showed so much care for the fragile terracotta hearts they picked up from the site or gifted it to their loved ones. The project is living its new life.
My recent large-scale watercolor drawing “The Conference of the Birds” was exhibited last year in the Karachi Biennale and this year I did two projects for the Lahore Biennale, including a large installation of 3,000 unbaked clay birds at an abandoned brick factory. The installation lasted until the rain fell. The process of the clay birds turning to earth was very beautiful and poetic.
What is there about art in Pakistan that people in the world should know and look for?
Apart from contemporary art, the region has more to offer. There are fascinating cave engravings from the Paleolithic age in the north of Pakistan. The magical terracotta artifacts from the Indus Valley Civilization are amazing. The Gandhara sculptures, which truly are remarkable in their appearance. It’s hard to take your eyes off the Fasting Buddha at Lahore Museum. These Gandharan sculptures in many ways are the first examples of the earliest form of globalization.
It is fascinating to see how a new genre of sculpture developed when the Indo-Greek styles emerged. Then the Mughal miniature paintings are a visual treat. The two main cities, Lahore and Karachi, have successfully held two editions of the biennales each year since 2017. That has started a new era, with local people getting a chance to see some amazing works from Pakistani and international artists. This year the Lahore Literary Festival’s dates overlapped with the Lahore Biennale towards the closing week.
Ali Kazim, Untitled. Watercolor pigment on paper, 30cm x 35cm, 2018.
Which artist/artists have had the most influence in your work?
There are many artists I admire very much. I am completely in love with Doris Salcedo, Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Cornelia Parker, Robert Gobber, and Vija Celmins’ work. I have just realized that most of my favorite artists are female. Their work is much informed, emotionally charged and very intelligently made with loads of patience. I think everything is there. They have produced immaculate works over the period of time.
My works on paper technique owe much to the Bengal School’s watercolorists. I’ve learned a lot by observing their paintings that are in public collections in Lahore, and have also seen some in Delhi.
Art schools don’t create/produce artists. If that's true, what’s the realistic expectation from such institutions regarding the artistic process of individuals who attend them?
I think art schools provide an environment where one tests ideas and talks about them with the fellow striving young artists. Some of them will continue studio practice; others will advance in related fields such as art writing, curation, galleries, art fabrication etc. They also can create their own circle of creative people while going to the school. Schools offer graduates the ability to showcase their best to the world and take chances. They get connected with the art world. These are important steps to practically enter the art world.

author: Omid Memarian


text:
Honduran congresswoman claims she was blocked from virtual plenary session · Global Voices
Francisco Leon

Montage made by Global Voices, depicting Congresswoman Doris Gutierrez and her screenshot image from Zoom.
Honduras has been under confinement and curfew since March 16 to slow the spread of COVID-19, forcing Congress to convene its parliamentary sessions virtually. Yet, some fear that the use of technology could undermine democratic processes, through sheer inefficiency or by premeditated malice.
On April 24, the legislative assembly convened a virtual plenary session through Zoom to discuss a number of issues related to COVID-19, among them approval for two new loans from the World Bank.
Congresswoman Doris Gutierrez, whose center-left Innovation and Unity Party (PINU) party has criticized the current government in the past for a separate spending bill, alleges that she was “thrown out” after entering the virtual meeting.
On Twitter, she explained that she believed her expulsion was deliberate:
Me siento sorprendida de la acción realizada en contra de su servidora al eliminarme premeditadamente de la sesión virtual del pleno del CN. A la vez indignada por la discriminación de qué he sido objeto.  Pero… no me callarán. pic.twitter.com/AsocHkP7A8
— Doris Gutierrez (@Doris_Gutierrez) April 24, 2020
“I feel surprised about the action being taken against your public servant, in which I was deliberately eliminated from the virtual meeting of the national congress plenary [session]. At the same time, [I] feel outraged by the discrimination I have been subjected to. But…they won’t shut me up.”
The video depicts her phone screen and the email she received with the notice “By instructions of Mr. President Mauricio Oliva, you are invited to the first Virtual Session.” Mr. Oliva is the President of the Honduran Congress, the equivalent to Speaker of the House in the United States.
The screen video goes on to show Congresswoman Doris Gutierrez attempting to join the virtual session and then displaying the following message: “Exit the meeting/You cannot rejoin this meeting because you were previously removed by the host.”
There are no updates on whether she could join the meeting later or whether the meeting was cancelled.
Doris Gutierrez, a lawyer turned congresswoman, represents the center-left opposition party Innovación y Unidad (Innovation and Unity Party) since 2014, although she had been part of other parties before. She considers herself a socialist, close to the ideals of the Catholic Church's social teaching and concern for social justice. She is known for “speaking her mind,” as her campaign slogan says “cero casacas”, loosely translated as “zero lies”, or “zero BS.”
A Twitter user responded to Congresswoman Gutierrez's claim, writing that these are “tricks” that “makes one think that the host eliminated you [from the conversation] because he does not want you to know something,” and that the meeting “should be annulled as it is not reliable.” Another person responded: “And that's how they agree to a budget of 75million [lempiras], these Narco Thiefs.”
On May 6, Doris Gutierrez tweeted again. This time, she worried that the country's controversial new penal code would enter into force on May 10 without a proper virtual plenary session to discuss her party's qualms with the new legislation.
A few days later, under heavy backlash on the new penal code said to alleviate penalties for corruption and drug-trafficking, Mr. Oliva accepted to make the new penal code come into effect on June 25, 2020, to leave more time for debates.
Buenas tardes! Bancada @Pinusd_HN estamos preocupados porque no hay señales que convoquen a sesión de pleno virtual en el CN esta semana…la lectura que hacemos es que CONTRA VIENTO Y MAREA VA A ENTRAR EN VIGENCIA EL CÓDIGO PENAL VIOLENTANDO EL ARTÍCULO 188 CONSTITUCIONAL
— Doris Gutierrez (@Doris_Gutierrez) May 6, 2020
Good evening! We, the people at PINUD_HN are worried because there are no signs that they will call for a virtual plenary session at the Legislative assembly this week… What we understand from this is that they WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO MAKE THE PENAL CODE ENTER INTO EFFECT, THUS VIOLATING THE ARTICLE 188 OF THE CONSTITUTION
Honduras has a poor record on freedom of expression, transparency and democracy. Honduras ranks 146 out of 180 on Transparency International‘s Corruption Perception Index,148 out of 180 on press freedom according to Reporters without Borders, and 89 out of 167 on the Economist's democracy rankings. Since 2009's coup d'état which ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya, and which was later tacitly supported by the United States, Honduras went through waves of social unrest amid high rates of poverty and corruption. In the past year, U.S. officials charged Tony Hernández, the brother of President Juan Orlando Hernández and Honduras’ former police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares alias “El Tigre” of trafficking tons of cocaine to the United States. People have been fleeing the country by the thousands.

author: Francisco Leon


text:
Venezuelans come together to provide food for the elderly of Caracas · Global Voices
Sabrina Velandia

Members of the Good Neighbor Program. Photo used with permission and also available on Instagram.
Julieta, a nonagenarian woman from Venezuela's capital, Caracas, dances with joy and appreciation each time Vicente delivers a bag of food. This week she had the joy of receiving cheese, rice, a prepared roast and pork, soup and bread, among other food items. Like her, 400 other ‘abuelitos’ — the Spanish word for grandparents and a name commonly given to the elderly in Venezuela — receive food parcels on a weekly basis thanks to the Good Neighbor Program (Plan Buen Vecino).
An abuelita (elderly lady or grandmother) registered with the Good Neighbor Program. Used with permission and also available on Instagram.
The government introduced social distancing measures on March 16 the government introduced on 16 March to contain the spread of the coronavirus. However, other difficulties have since arisen. How do members of the most vulnerable population buy food, if they're afraid to go out and have no one to do it for them, or if they don't have the necessary means to do so?
Two days after the measures were introduced in Caracas, a group of individuals set up the Good Neighbor Program, a network of volunteers, which aims to deliver food to the elderly in situations of abandonment. In Venezuela, certain organizations and mass media use the term ‘abandonment’ or ‘orfandad,’ to describe elderly people, whose families have had to migrate as a result of the Venezuelan sociopolitical and humanitarian crisis, and who don't have support from the State. According to Venezuelan NGO Convite, almost one million elderly people have been left alone following the migration of their families.
Yuraima Mercado, a member of the Program's logistics, told Global Voices that following the closure of businesses and restaurants, as part of the social isolation measures, some restaurants were left with a significant amount of food that they weren't able to sell. The Program's founder, Verónica Gómez, who knows some of the representatives of these restaurants, set up a project that would make it possible to distribute this food to the elderly.
After Gómez began the Good Neighbor Program, she was joined by Mercado and Valentina García. Other friends and acquaintances have been helping out by packing, providing equipment and kitchens or distributing the food parcels, mainly on their own motorcycles.
Amongst them is Vicente Velutini, who is responsible for collecting and distributing the donations. He also organizes the delivery route logistics in order to save on fuel — an asset they receive via donation and one that is significantly lacking in Venezuela currently.
Vicente spoke with Global Voices about the impact of the Good Neighbor Program on a country like Venezuela:
No podemos curar la pobreza, pero sí podemos poner un granito de arena y ayudar a la gente que más lo necesita, que en el país es mucha. Por ahora, nosotros nos dedicamos a un pequeño grupo: los “abuelitos” más necesitados.
We can't put an end to poverty, but we can do our bit to help those who need it most, which in this country, is a lot. For now, we are focusing on a small group: the most disadvantaged “abuelitos”.
The project, which came from Verónica's goodwill and initiative, now has approximately seven delivery drivers, three people in the kitchen and five in logistics, all contributing on a voluntary basis. They are all part of a “network,” as Vicente puts it.
An ‘abuelito‘ (elderly man or grandfather) registered in the Good Neighbor Program. Photo used with permission, also available on Instagram.
The deliveries, which at first included a lunch and relied on food donations from a few restaurants, now offer parcels with 10 or more products and 5 prepared meals, thanks to donations from various businesses and civil society organizations. Mercado says that the Good Neighbor Program currently delivers parcels to 100 ‘abuelitos’ per day, and 400 per week.
At present, the growth has been so great that “the Program is 100% sustainable” Mercado adds. By mid-May, they intend to be able to move towards 1000 meals per week. For Velutini, he expects “smart growth, rapid learning and adapting to changes” to be key tools in the Program's development process. Another key tool has been the use of social media — a resource that is widely used as an information alternative in Venezuela.
Velutini believes that the Good Neighbor Program's presence on social media has created a “snowball” effect.  He recalls how members of the program would turn to social media to ask for donations at the outset, whereas now, social media users reach out to them offering useful products. The program has been made possible thanks to the coordination between the dedicated work of its members, the joint cooperation of Venezuelan society and the use of technology. An entire “co-production,” as Mercado describes it.
Hemos estado trabajando y queremos compartirlo: 40 geles antibacteriales han sido donados a ancianos que viven solos a través de @planbuenvecino #leatherheart2020 #Covid_19 pic.twitter.com/jFy1XjVcYh
— leatherheart (@leatherheartfun) April 16, 2020
We have been working and would like to share it: 40 antibacterial gels have been donated to elderly people who live alone through @planbuenvecino #leatherheart2020  #Covid_19  pic.twitter.com/jFy1XjVcYh                                                                                – leatherheart (@leatherheartfun) April 16, 2020
Despite being a spontaneous citizen initiative, the members of the Program follow carefully designed procedures to achieve its objectives. They receive information from neighbors about elderly people in situations of abandonment, which they must verify in order to register them in the database. After being located, they then talk with them about the Program and set out the routes to carry out the deliveries. If the elderly have families or someone who can help and buy food for them, then they are not eligible for the Program.
They have also developed another strategic option: appointing residents in buildings with a significant number of elderly people, who are responsible for delivering the “parcels” in order to reach more beneficiaries and diversify the tasks. What's more, as Velutini explains, the deliveries are made by following strict hygiene protocols under the guidance of a biosafety specialist, who told them to maintain physical distance, wash and carefully pack the food while also use gloves and masks.
Mercado and Velutini would like the Good Neighbor Program to transcend the COVID-19 pandemic and expand to other areas of the country.
Velutini sums it up in a spirit of hope and resilience:
De cada tragedia y cada caos pueden surgir maravillas.
From tragedy and chaos, wonders can occur.
Amidst an unprecedented global health crisis coinciding with the worst humanitarian crisis the country has faced, it is undoubtedly a wonder for 400 Venezuelan ‘abuelitos‘ who are currently benefitting from the Good Neighbor Program.

author: Sabrina Velandia


text:
‘Corona Ciao’: Parody of old revolutionary song goes viral in the Balkans · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Photo: Screencap from YouTube video by Dac & Aleksandar, featuring Brasstet Skopje, Fair Use.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
A COVID-19 spoof of the Italian anti-fascist song “Bella Ciao” is blasting its way through the Balkans and beyond with over two million views on YouTube in the last two weeks.
The song composed by Macedonian actor Dragan Spasov Dac and composer Aleksandar Mitevski is titled “Corona Ciao,” meaning “Corona [virus] goodbye.”
The rest of the song's lyrics are in Macedonian.
The authors wrote:
“Корона Чао” е кавер на познатата Bella Ciao, во придружба на Брастет Скопје, направен за добра забава. Верзијата е направена за еден ден, од идеја до реализација, со многу љубов :) Спотот е снимен во карантин, во домашни услови на учесниците, без користење на професионални камери и светла. Снимен на телефони, а истотака, измонтиран од музичката екипа. Оваа песна е дел од серијалот на Дац и Александар и нивните секојдневни “карантински” online настапи на FB.
Corona Ciao is a cover of the famous Bella Ciao, which we made with the band Brasstet Skopje, just to have fun. This version was made all in one day, from idea to realisation, with a lot of love :) The video was made in quarantine, in the homes of the participants, without using professional cameras or lighting. It was recorded with smartphones, and edited by the music team. This song is part of the series by Dac and Aleksandar and their daily “quarantine” performances on Facebook.
Below is an unofficial translation of the song's lyrics into English:
КОРОНА ЧАО
Што беше фино
Пред карантинов
Корона чао, ајде чао, ајде чао чао чао
Дајте кафана, екипа збрана
Инаку ќе полудиме!
Во четири ѕида
Каде да идам,
Корона чао, ајде чао, ајде чао чао чао
И пак по старо, да живне народ
Ма, ќе се препородиме!
Носиме маски
Ко да сме хаски,
Корона чао, ајде чао, ајде чао чао чао
Покажи фаца, дај да те бацам,
Без љубов ќе се мрднеме!
Како на ланци
Држи дистанци
Корона чао, ајде чао, ајде чао чао чао
Ни фали гужва, ни фали дружба
Да може да се гушнеме!
Не кашлај тамо
Ти млада дамо
Корона чао, ајде чао, ајде чао чао чао
Фаќа нервоза од иста поза
И само да се јадело!
Ама ќе пројде
Живот ќе дојде
Корона чао, ајде чао, ајде чао чао чао
Ни фали плажа, гужва, гњаважа
И ко да ништо не било!
Ни фали гужва, ни фали дружба
само да биде весело!
CORONA CIAO
Our life was fine
Before this quarantine
Corona ciao, come on ciao, come on ciao ciao ciao
Give us back the tavern and our friends
Otherwise we'd go crazy!
Within four walls
Where can I go,
Corona ciao, come on ciao, come on ciao ciao ciao
Bring back the old ways, let people thrive
That would be a rebirth!
We wear the masks
Like muzzles on Huskies,
Corona ciao, come on ciao, come on ciao ciao ciao
Show me your face, so I can kiss you,
Without love we'd go insane!
Put on a leash
Keep your distance
Corona ciao, come on ciao, come on ciao ciao ciao
We miss the commotion, we miss the hobnob
We miss the hugging!
Don't cough over there
Young lady
Corona ciao, come on ciao, come on ciao ciao ciao
Keeping the same pose makes me nervous
And also, this constant overeating!
But all of this will pass
Life will return
Corona ciao, come on ciao, come on ciao ciao ciao
We miss the beach, the commotion, the bother
As if nothing had happened!
We miss the commotion, we miss the hobnob
We want the joy back!
The song's lyrics include the phrase “Don't cough!” which is widely considered a reference to another viral video taken from a press conference featuring Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.
At one point during the presser, Borisov reprimanded an associate for coughing (Не кашляй!).
PM Borisov turned out to be a fan of the Macedonian spoof, and promoted it through a Facebook video that showed him blasting the song through the loudspeakers in his car.
This video also proved popular, with over 477,000 views in its first two weeks online.
Borisov commented:
Само с общи усилия, дух и дисциплина ще се преборим с коронавируса. Благодаря на всички български граждани, които спазват правилата. Само така ще се върнем към нормалния си живот. Благодаря и на Дац & Александар / Dragan Spasov Dac & Aleksandar Mitevski. Северна Македония може да разчита на нашата подкрепа!
We can defeat the coronavirus only through common effort, spirit and discipline. I am grateful to all Bulgarian citizens who obey the rules. Only through such conduct we will return to normal life. Thanks to Dac & Aleksandar also. North Macedonia can count on our support!
Even though the authors described the song as just a bit of fun, its success has also incited criticism.
Some left-leaning social media users considered it sacrilegious to trivialize the original song about the suffering faced by exploited workers and anti-fascist fighters of World War II. These users also pointed out that the original was also recently sung from windows in Italian cities to boost morale during the pandemic, at a time when COVID-19 fatalities were surging in that country.
Macedonian writer Zhivko Grozdanovski disparaged the song as representing “toxic turbo-folk phenomenon” at odds with social realities.
He noted that the lyrics, “Our life was fine/Before this  quarantine” were written from position of “privileged middle-aged men who enjoy various benefits (taverns, beaches, own home…) that are not accessible to a large portion of North Macedonia's population” who cannot indulge in the overeating mentioned in the song.
Grozdanovski furthermore accused Prime Minister Borisov of promoting the song as an “anaesthetic” and a celebration of the pre-COVID-19 status quo that benefited ruling elites.
This, at a time when many on the left are arguing that the pandemic offers an opportunity to end of capitalism as we know it.
The writer also considered the declaration of support for North Macedonia by the Bulgarian Prime Minister hypocritical, coming two days after Bulgaria announced additional terms for allowing its neighbor's integration into European Union.
A large majority of Macedonians, including the pro-EU president Stevo Pendarovski, consider the demands unacceptable and tantamount to a denial of existence of Macedonian language and ethnic Macedonian identity.

author: Filip Stojanovski


text:
COVID-19 in the Caribbean: ‘Looking out, not going out’ · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Living online in Jacks Hill, Jamaica. Photo courtesy of Dennis Jones.
The Caribbean remains under varying levels of curfew and restrictions as a result of COVID-19. While some countries are starting to lift limits on movement and gatherings, many citizens are still staying home for now — but have been recording and sharing their thoughts and photographs while in relative isolation in various ways.
Retired economist and blogger Dennis Jones, for instance, has reached chapter 27 of his “COVID Chronicles,” from his hillside home in Kingston, Jamaica. Like many others online, he has also photographed what is in and around his yard, during “life under COVID,” as he puts it.
Online church service at home. Photo courtesy of Dennis Jones.
Jones shared a photo of his living room and also took photos of the much-anticipated ice cream van that ventures through his neighborhood. Home deliveries of groceries, farm goods — and ice cream — have increased during COVID-19.
The ice cream van cometh! Home deliveries of groceries, farm goods — and ice cream — have increased during COVID-19. Photo courtesy of Dennis Jones.
Blogger, commentator and human rights advocate, Susan Goffe, has also been heeding the admonition to tan ah yuh yaad or “stay home” while carefully documenting the Jamaican government's orders regarding COVID-19.
As the sun rises and sets, Goffe is “looking out, rather than going out,” she says from her Kingston home.
Staying in, looking out from a blogger's Kingston home. Photo courtesy of Susan Goffe.
Kingston-based independent journalist Kate Chappell shared photographs from past family walks, while looking forward to meeting up with friends again — one day.
Remembering a walk in Kingston's Hope Gardens. Photo courtesy of Kate Chappell.
Admiring the beauty of nature at home. Photo courtesy of Kate Chappell.
Even Global Voices contributors got involved, with Caribbean regional editor, Janine Mendes-Franco, taking some time to enjoy her beautiful tropical garden.
Desert Rose. Photo courtesy of Janine Mendes Franco.
Begonias. Photo courtesy of Janine Mendes Franco.
Japanese Hat. Photo courtesy of Janine Mendes Franco.
And Global Voices contributor Emma Lewis has been posting COVID-19 updates on her blog, and sharing thoughts and photographs during the pandemic.
As the region makes tentative steps to emerge from the fog of COVID-19, Caribbean nations are seeking to “save jobs while saving lives.”
Whether this balancing act will be successful —even as COVID-19 lingers among the population — remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, social media users choose to see the positive side of staying home, through their camera lens.
A White-chinned Thrush catches the early morning sun in a Kingston yard. Photo courtesy of Emma Lewis.
After a rain shower. Photo courtesy of Emma Lewis.

author: Emma Lewis