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“In Spain We Have The Best System To Get Rid Of Racism – Denying It Exists.” · Global Voices
Afroféminas

Photograph taken by Pixabay, published under CC0 Licence in the Public Domain.
The following article was originally written by Aitor Gorrotxategi Cortina, a lawyer from Madrid. His analysis was originally published on the Afroféminas website and has been edited and shared by Global Voices with permission from the site's administrators under its publishing protocols.
We've done it. After centuries of fighting against it, there is now no racism in Spain. The cases are anecdotal. Other than a tiny number, the Spanish people are not racist.
We're going to export our method to other countries like the United States (look at them with Donald Trump, the poor things!) or France (the Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen got lots of votes, such Fascists!).
We see films like ‘Mississippi Burning’ or '12 Years A Slave’ and we say to ourselves, those rednecks are such bastards! We see the Ku Klux Klan or the political rallies held by the far-right French political party the National Front, and we see ourselves as different, better.
Because we are not racist. Not at all. We say things like ‘racists are the minority’. They're old people, stuck in their ways, or they're tiny, far-right groups that swarm around some Spanish cities. We see them as Fascists.
Who cares that Nazis and racists have free range on social networks? What does it matter that there are evident discrimination problems in many of our schools, a lack of opportunities and equal access to the same jobs, political persecution, rejection at all levels, huge pockets of poverty, objectification, erasure, etc? Who cares if Spanish sports teams are constantly coming out with racist chants? Or that we have refugee camps where thousands of immigrants are locked up against their will for the crime of seeking a better life, with the approval of the majority of the population? What do the (reported) hundreds of racial aggressions that take place every year matter?
Racism in Spain isn't brutal, it's subtle. It's about a lack of empathy. Normally, the victim is accused of exaggerating, which is very logical in our atmosphere of denying racism. This is very similar to what has happened in the past with other discriminiation. Next comes the feeling of not wanting to integrate.
Integrating in this system means keeping quiet and not interfering.
I recently read a response by ‘Anon’ to a comment on a post on Afroféminas , saying the following about Guillem Balboa, the recently appointed black mayor of a town in Majorca:
La realidad es que estrictamente en su significado, la sociedad española no es racista, lo cual no significa que en España no hayan racistas, obviamente, pero en su conjunto los españoles no son partidarios del racismo, y en nuestra Ley no existe ese tipo de discriminación.
Una sociedad racista fue la que existió en EEUU cuando los negros tenían que sentarse en los últimos asientos del autobús, o incluso mucho antes, cuando existía la exclavitud. Eso es una sociedad racista, por definición aquella que mediante la exacerbación de un grupo étnico discrimina y persigue a aquellos con los que convive y no pertenecen a su “raza”. Una sociedad racista es la que existía en Sudáfrica durante el apartheid.
Lo que tú sufres es una sociedad estúpida con 4 racistas de libro y algunos racistillas de poca monta. Personas en posesión de prejuicios con mejor o peor voluntad, que a pesar de ello, puede elegir y elige democráticamente a políticos negros para ejercer cargos públicos, como lo es una alcaldía. Parece que no te sorprende este hecho, a lo mejor es que imaginas que todos los que han votado a este hombre eran negros, pero la realidad es que seguramente ni el 1% lo son. ¡Ah! No, perdona, los que han votado a este señor fueron los hippie guays, esa gentuza, esos racistas que te hacen la vida imposible, a ti y a tu hijo aparentemente blanco…
In reality, to be strictly literal, Spanish society is not racist. That's not to say that there are no racists in Spain, of course, but as a collective the Spanish do not take part in racism, and there is no racial discrimination in our laws.
The USA had a racist society when black people had to sit at the back of busses, and before that when slavery existed. That was a racist society; by definition, one that encourages discrimination against an ethnic group and persecution against those who live alongside them but don't belong to their ‘race’. A racist society also existed in South Africa during Apartheid.
What you are facing is a stupid society, with a few stereotypical racists and minor racists. People who have prejudices, with good or bad intentions, who have the right to choose and who democratically elect black politicians to positions like the mayor. You don't seem surprised by this; maybe you're assuming that everyone who voted for this man was black, but actually not even 1% of them were. Ah! No, sorry, the ones who voted for him were the cool hippies, that mob, those racists who make life impossible for you and your child who looks white…
His tone is typically condescending. The white man explains to the black woman what racism is, and tells her that she is bitter and suffering from delusions because, of course, she thinks that all white people are bad. This offensive talk is always the same: it's no big deal. You think you can see ghosts all around you, and you're a little ignorant. All together now: Spain is not racist because, look, one of our towns has a black mayor and we've let him live. This is an important thing; the feeling that many of us have that we are doing him a favour, we are good people.
Us white people have a problem. We don't like it when they contradict us. Anything that doesn't cause us to suffer or dominate our lives is unimportant; therefore, racism in Spain is not an important issue.
Moreover, we think that if these little issues have to be solved, who better than ourselves to do it? We can do it. We don't have any idea what it is to be discriminated against for our ethnicity, religion or origin. But who cares? We can be the saviours.
One clear example is the anti-racism policies that institutions carry out. The vast majority of institutions that deal with these issues are directed almost every time to decisions made by white people, who definitely never face racism or exclusion themselves. Imagine a man leading a women's shelter or a gender equality council. There are cases, but they get shouted down nowadays. This should be the case for issues related to racism and immigration, too.
On the other hand, these policies are infantile, if not offensive, to the groups that they are supposed to help. At best, they are ineffective.
While searching for information for my job about the ‘Anti-rumours’ platform in Barcelona, an organisation for preventing racism, I found a photo of some workshops. Was there a single foreigner there? I'll go even further: was there anyone there who wasn't white? No.
This is the ‘white saviour’ complex. Even when we are trying to help, we are talking over others. Even when trying to eradicate something like racial discrimination and xenophobia, we end up practising it. Worse still, we don't realise how damaging these social structures that persist in our world are.
I'm not denying that people have good intentions, but we must listen to those who suffer racism and exclusion. These women and men understand the problem better than anyone, and they must be our leaders in the struggle, the front line. They don't need representatives. They can represent themselves, and they are empowered.
To me, taking up space in this issue that doesn't affect me has been a problem. But I'm not here to talk to the black readers of Afroféminas, but to the people who are on the same rung of the social ladder as me – which exists, whether we like it or not. Origin or skin colour are essential elements in the formation of the different privileges in this ladder.
If you are aware that racism happens but don't deem it important, you are complicit in it. I know it doesn't happen to you, but I'm sure there are other kinds of suffering that don't affect you, don't put up with so calmly; you protest or contribute or do something. So: do something, because, sorry to disappoint you, this is happening in this country, my country, to those who aren't like us.
It is racism.

author: Afroféminas


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Netizen Report: Authorities in China and Indonesia Threaten Whatsapp, Telegram Over Political Content · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Flock of birds. Photo by Christoffer A Rasmussen, via Wikimedia. Licensed to public domain.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology threatened to ban the secure messaging app Telegram on July 15, reasoning that it is being used to “recruit Indonesians into militant groups and to spread hate and methods for carrying out attacks…”
As a partial measure, the government has already blocked access to 11 URLs offering the web version of Telegram. In response, Telegram has vowed to double its efforts to remove “terrorist” content from the platform by forming a team of moderators tasked with monitoring networks in Indonesia and removing such content as swiftly as possible.
Although Telegram may prefer this solution to being banned altogether, it may also increase the likelihood of overcompliance by the company, which could lead to censorship of lawful speech.
On July 18, Facebook’s popular messaging app WhatsApp was blocked in China, following the funeral of Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo. The world-renowned democracy advocate was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power” for his involvement in Charter 08, a manifesto that called for democratic reforms in China, and died of liver cancer on July 15.
Liu’s passing brought a new wave of censorship of social media, also affecting conversations on WeChat and Sina Weibo. Before his death, discussion of Liu on WeChat was allowed as long it did not touch on sensitive topics. After his death any mention of his name has resulted in the blocking of messages, including images sent over one-to-one chat. Until this week, WhatsApp had been the only Facebook app product accessible in the country.
Ten human rights defenders who were arrested while attending a digital security and information management workshop in Istanbul on July 5 received a preliminary ruling from a judge on July 18. Four of the defenders were released on bail and the remaining six will be held in pre-trial detention while they are assessed for charges. They have been detained on accusations that they “aided an armed terror group,” though the authorities have cited no evidence to support this accusation and it is unclear whether they are formally charged. Protests have been held around the world calling for their release.
Ethiopian authorities are now cracking down on musicians. Seven producers and performers of a popular YouTube video were arrested several weeks ago and last week were charged with terrorism for producing music videos and ‘uploading them on YouTube’. Musicians such as Seenaa Solomon, a well-known singer who is among those recently charged, became an important source of inspiration and provided the soundtrack to the resistance movement against government plans to expand the capital, Addis Ababa, into the Oromo region. The plan led to wide-scale protests and a violent crackdown between 2014-2016. Despite her jailing, Solomon’s music continues to flourish on YouTube.
An Emirati man was arrested for showing sympathy with Qatar on social media. Ghanem Abdullah Mattar was detained after posting a video urging Emirati citizens to show respect for their “Qatari brothers” during the UAE’s blockade of Qatar. The UAE has criminalized any show of sympathy towards Qatar, punishable by a jail sentence of up to 15 years and a fine of up to $13,500. Mattar’s whereabouts remain unknown since his arrest.
More than twenty journalists have been sued over the past four months in Bangladesh under the country’s controversial Information and Communications Act, which prohibits digital messages that “deteriorate” law and order, “prejudice the image of the state or person”, or “hurt religious beliefs.” The Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs pledged in May to eliminate the Section 57 of the law, which has been used to file these lawsuits, but has shown no progress on this thus far. Nearly 700 cases have been filed under the law since it was amended in 2013.
On July 10, mobile phone users in the Tianshan District of Urumqi City received a mobile phone notification from the district government instructing them to install a surveillance application called Jingwang (or “Web Cleansing”). The notification from police said the application would locate and track the sources and distribution paths of terrorists, along with “illegal religious” activity and “harmful information,” including videos, images, ebooks and documents. Among other things, the application can negate the password requirement of a Windows operating system and access the computer hard disk with no restrictions.
Two Indian newspapers were blocked by Facebook in the past month for reasons that remain unclear. The first, Vartha Bharati, was blocked on two occasions in June and July, while the second, Kashmir Ink, was blocked once in July after posting a cover image of the militant commander Burhan Wani.
The Australian government proposed a new cybersecurity law that would force Facebook and Google to give government agencies access to encrypted messages. The law, which Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said would be modeled on the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act, would grant the Australian government expansive surveillance powers and require companies provide them “appropriate assistance” in investigations. When asked how the government plans to prevent users from turning to other software not controlled by tech companies that could turn over data, Turnbull asserted the laws of Australia would override the laws of mathematics.
The Association of Progressive Communications launched a survey collecting data concerning threats to and enhancement of sexual expression online. The survey is available at this link.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Netizen Report Team


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Up-and-Coming Trinidadian Soca Singer Devon Matthews’ Journey Comes to an End · Global Voices
Atiba Rogers

Screenshot taken from a YouTube video of Devon Matthews’ cover of Lionel Richie's  “Jesus is Love”.
This is the time of year that Trinidad and Tobago Carnival masquerade bands typically introduce their costume designs for the upcoming season to the thousands of people who participate in what has come to be known as “the greatest show on earth”. The events are usually lavish affairs, with models parading in extravagant costumes and performances by top-level soca music artists.
However, a time to celebrate quickly turned into a time to mourn the sudden passing of Trinidadian soca singer, Devon Matthews, who collapsed after performing at Tribe Carnival‘s band launch. The 36-year-old was rushed to the St. Clair Medical Centre, where he could not be saved.
Tribe Carnival's Facebook page called him “a strong, versatile talent whose star was on the rise”. Matthews had been performing for over a decade and placed third at the 2017 International Soca Monarch Competition with his hit song, “D Journey”, featuring Ella Andall.
Thank You Devon. May you rest in peace our brother. pic.twitter.com/Ubdc9QCH4B
— TRIBE Carnival (@CarnivalTRIBE) July 16, 2017
As friends and fans mourned their loss, a self-identified “close friend” of the singer, who preferred to remain anonymous, did an interview with the Trinidad Guardian in which he suggested that diet pills may have contributed to Matthews’ death. At the time of the interview, an autopsy had not yet been performed. By the time the autopsy report revealed that Matthews had died of a heart attack on June 16, 2017, both the interview and the “friend” were already being bashed on social media.
Radio station owner and soca promoter Tony Chow Lin On observed:
To write an article based on an anonymous friend and suggest that Devon Matthews died from a diet pill , WITHOUT AN AUTOPSY ,,,,I do not comment on the work of media colleagues but this is wrong on several levels , Trinidad Guardian please think about what you achieved with this one
Facebook user Kathryn Stollmeyer-Wight added:
The Guardian Newspaper should apologize to Devon's family […] the reporter & the editor who allowed this ‘speculation’ to make news needs to take an unpaid vacation.
I mean, seriously? […]
Sorry, I maybe [sic] 61 & a little old fashioned, but I find this unacceptable. […]
RIP Devon Matthews.
The Red 96.7 FM DJ's radio station family expressed their grief. Matthews’ unexpected death also met with an outpouring of heartfelt messages from fans.
Cheva Alexa posted this video with the caption “RIP,” on her Facebook page:
Radio host Marc Wood, meanwhile, remembered that “We always ended our all conversations with ‘let's make it happen'”, calling Matthews “a brother, friend and a positive soul who really defines humility, love and persistence in character”.
On Twitter, some used the hashtag #nokilljoy — one of Matthews’ popular sayings — in reactions to his death:
RIP @DevonMatthews till we meet again.
#NoKillJoy the nation is in mourning pic.twitter.com/I1pxh8pxQt
— RedFMBlazers 96.7 (@redfmblazers) July 16, 2017
Until we meet again my friend safe travels ?? R.I.P @DevonMatthews #bigbrotherdev#nokilljoy… https://t.co/3yx6MTLLRt
— Hypa Hoppa (@hypahoppa) July 16, 2017
Others were simply stunned:
This one real hurting me… ? RIP Devon Matthews ?
— Aaron Fingal ?? (@AaronFingal) July 16, 2017
“Always ask Jah for d guidance and protection u need against all evil” everytime Devon Matthews coming off air he used to say dis ? sigh
— ● NubianPrincess ® (@5starSlim) July 16, 2017
Even though the online community could hardly believe he was gone, they had faith that Matthews’ musical legacy would live on, with one Twitter user quoting a line from his 2017 Carnival hit:
If the rumors are true, RIP Devon Matthews. The wise words will live, “Even though the road long no matter what come I know I go make it”
— AvinashM (@maharaj_avinash) July 16, 2017
Matthews’ funeral is scheduled to take place on Monday July 24, at the Arima Velodrome, a stadium in the singer's home town. The service is to be followed by a private cremation.

author: Atiba Rogers


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Between Worlds: The Complicated Life of a Young Japanese Returnee · Global Voices
Airi Sugihara

““Well, if you’re not speaking in Japanese,” he said, “you're not Japanese.” PHOTO: Shibuya, Tokyo, by S. (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Flickr
It's a common perception that living in different countries during your school years is a blessing. What people don't realize is that this blessing comes with its fair share of curses.
I was born in Tokyo and lived in an entirely Japanese environment until I was six. Then my father's job with a trading company moved to New York. He went ahead of us, my mother and I joining him when the school year was over. I still have the album full of goodbye messages from my classmates, wishing me good luck and expressing hopes of seeing me when I returned.
The first few months in New York were a nightmare. Having no English, I didn't understand a word my teachers and peers at kindergarten said. My teacher would get frustrated with me and give me 30-minute time-outs in the hallway, where nobody could be distracted by my crying. The only support I had at school was a Japanese ESL teacher, who aided me when she could, and a half-Japanese friend who used her limited Japanese to the best her ability on my behalf. My mother was worried about me and found me an English tutor. As I was so young, it didn't take long for the language to sink in. After a year of only listening and not speaking, by the first day of first grade, I had somehow learned how to speak and write in English.
The next few years were a blur. I became more and more fluent, to the point where I preferred English over Japanese. I made many American friends and adopted their interests: High School Musical, North Face fleeces, sleepovers. But as the years went by, more and more Japanese kids like me were entering the school. As I interacted with them, I started feeling as if I was American, but Japanese at heart.
Just as I was having the time of my life, the dream was shattered. My father was being moved back to Japan, and, naturally, our family with him. I cried buckets. I will never forget the pizza party my friends threw for me on my last day at school. I promised that I would stay in touch and we would see each other again. I was ten years old.
Back in Japan, I was now a “returnee”. I had to reacquaint myself with activities such as taking the train and navigating the city streets. But the biggest change was the people I thought I knew, who now seemed so different and distant. There was an elementary school attached to my old preschool, so I was going to school in the same location as before. But I knew only about half the people in my small class. Despite that, I thought I would have no problem fitting in.
I was wrong. The first day back my best friend from preschool introduced me to her circle of friends as the “girl that was in America.” Preparing for my English middle school entrance exams while everyone else had a Japanese entrance exam, my homeroom teacher told me not to study English in the classroom because it made the other students nervous. The worst was English class. We were studying types of fish, and the English teacher, who was Japanese, told the class that “cod,” in Japanese, translated to “salmon” in English. When I corrected her, she accused me “disrupting” the class and preventing the others from learning, and told me I should keep quiet. From that point on, I stopped participating in the English class, and the teacher gave me horrible marks on my report card for “not participating.” These things also affected me outside the classroom: I became less trusting of others and fearful of speaking English in public.
The junior high school I went to at age 11 favored returnees, so I believed the discrimination would stop. But as there was a large group of us, junior high ended up being an even crueler place. My grade level comprised six classes. The returnees were divided among two of the classes, while the “normal” students who had entered the school through a Japanese exam were spread among the six. Half of my class were returnees, whom I instantly befriended, as we had all experienced similar discrimination in our elementary schools and understood each other's feelings. The other students, however, didn't look kindly on our bonding together, nor did they like the fact that we spoke English among ourselves or that our entrance exam was easier the Japanese one. They were polite to our faces, but they gossiped behind our backs and judged everything we did. I remember vividly the time the non-returnees in our class made a list of all the returnees and ranked us from the most bearable to the worst, then showed us the list and laughed at our reactions. Some people found this so traumatic they erased it from their memories.
The only positive thing about this first year of junior high was that I became part of a group of friends who relied on each other. After having nobody with whom to share my experiences, I now had friends who understood what I was going through.
The second year of junior high was more relaxed. By then, many were old enough to recognize that being judgmental didn't fix everything. School became fun, and I even started to make non-returnee friends. But with the struggles in the classroom gone, I began to feel judged by society. When my friends and I spoke English in public, adults would stare, whisper, or even point at us. As our dress style was different from other Japanese teenagers, people would stare at us in our skimpier shorts and crop tops. In restaurants when, after talking among ourselves in English, we ordered in Japanese, waiters would act like we were from another planet.
Then my family got the news that we would be moving once more, this time to Australia for two years for my father’s job. I was sad to leave my new friends who understood me, but I also was excited at the prospect of getting a break from the judgment of Japanese society and becoming who truly be who I wanted to be.
In Australia, I made friends who didn't judge me and with whom I felt comfortable with no matter what. My school and my peers encouraged me to try new things and pursue my passions. I believe this helped me develop a better understanding of who I truly am, something that I couldn't figure out in Japan.
I slowly started to lose contact with Japan. I kept up with Japanese news and my friends, as those things were part of my identity, but I began shedding values and judgments about people and viewing others through a less biased lens.
Two years flew by, and before I knew it, it was time to leave. I flew back to Japan armed with the connections and self-understanding that I gained in Australia, ready to incorporate them into everyday life back at my school in Japan. I hoped that people there would have grown up, and would understand how I now perceived myself.
While many of my peers at school had in fact changed and had come to accept and even rely on us returnees for support, the Japanese public hadn't, and I felt the difference in perspective even acutely as I was now more grown up.
When I was 16, I was studying for my SAT World History test with a friend at a local convenience store. As we were discussing the French Revolution, an old man came up to our table and asked if we were Japanese. I replied, as politely as I could, that we were. He then asked why we were studying and speaking in English. We asked him what he thought was wrong with that. His response, for me, epitomizes the Japanese attitude toward things non-Japanese. “Well, if you’re not speaking in Japanese,” he said, “you're not Japanese. If you’re speaking English or French or whatever you’re speaking, get the hell out of my country. Go find another place to live! Nobody here wants you. You don’t belong with us!” His words took me by surprise, and neither my friend or I could muster up a response to the illogical, small-minded, and offensive conclusion the man had reached just by taking a look at our alphabet-covered SAT book.
A similar thing happened when my friend and I were speaking English at the train station like we usually do, and we had bumped into an elderly lady. We said “sorry” in Japanese, to which she replied, “Oh, you're Japanese? Then always speak Japanese, you foreigner!”
In the two years I was away it's possible that the Japanese public had not only failed to change—it had become worse. With so many tourists coming to Japan, among other factors, the Japanese feelings of nationalism seem to have grown stronger, in particular among the elderly.
Now, however. I cannot imagine myself as anything else but a returnee. Everything I am and do is influenced by my experience of living abroad. I now have a broader perspective on things, and understand that there are many different cultures and opinions in the world. In a monocultural society like Japan, it can be hard for my non-returnee friends to understand this point of view, but I know that I can rely on my returnee friends. Since there are only a few of us, we band together. Japanese society may be judgmental towards us, but I always know that my fellow returnees have my back.

author: Airi Sugihara


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Brazil’s First Indigenous Online Radio Station Uses Digital Media to Promote Native Languages and Communities · Global Voices
Thalita Alves

Rádio Yandê producers in Paraty, Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Official Rádio Yandê Facebook page, published with permission.
Rádio Yandê combines a strong sense of community with digital media to bring Brazil’s indigenous cultures and languages to the forefront.
The station, which began streaming online in 2013, is the country’s first web-based broadcast of its kind: created by indigenous people, for indigenous people, with the intention of using technology to shred the stereotypes and misconceptions about Brazil’s native communities that emerge out of mainstream media narratives.
According to news site Agência Brasil, more than 150 indigenous languages are spoken in Brazil – with Tikuna, Guarani Kaiowá, and Kaingang being the three with the largest number of speakers. It is predicted, however, that by 2030 up to 45-50 of these languages are likely to suffer from extinction.
This project in particular, takes a wide-ranging approach to capturing the daily lives and issues concerning Brazil’s indigenous society. The station plays music from indigenous artists, as well as featuring news, debates, stories, poetry and messages that come directly from the communities themselves.
Radio Yandê is involved in all platforms: you can access it on the web, keep up to date with the latest news via Facebook, or even download a mobile app that gives you full access to its content.
While its headquarters are based in Rio de Janeiro, the station’s scope is Brazilian wide. In this YouTube video, for instance, Radio Yandê interviews a healer from the Dessana tribe in the northern city of Manaus – getting his insights on the indigenous perspectives of religion, the differences between traditional medicine and modern medical practices, and the important role the younger generation plays in the protection of indigenous culture:
Because the station’s primary aim is to educate the masses about all things indigenous, content from its YouTube channel is primarily in Portuguese. Even so, some interviews are conducted in native languages before being translated by the station’s reporters. This is shown in the following video, in which a young filmmaker from the Amazonian Kayapó tribe discusses his recent efforts to produce materials that highlight and help preserve his local culture and customs:
Aside from collaborating with a network of indigenous Brazilian correspondents, Rádio Yandê also fosters relationships with indigenous-driven initiatives from abroad: including Canada’s Indian & Cowboy media network, the Latin America-focused Rádio Encuentros, and the Colombian station Informativo Dachi Bedea.

author: Thalita Alves


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Kyrgyzstan Blocks Archive.org on ‘Extremism’ Grounds · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

In an effort to combat extremism, a court in Kyrgyzstan blocked the popular US-based Internet Archive website, media in the ex-Soviet country reported earlier this week.
The Internet Archive (archive.org) claims to have archived almost 300 billion web pages in over two decades of operation. It also stores free-to-use books and music.
For more than a week, local users in Kyrgyzstan have been unable to access the site over the country's largest ISP Kyrgyztelekom, as well as another major ISP, Homeline. Users of smaller ISPs such as Aknet say that archive.org is still accessible.
A representative of Kyrgyzstan's state communications service told local media outlet Kloop.kg that the court blocked the website due to “extremist content” stored there, but did not specify when the court ruling was issued and what specific webpages had triggered the block.
The representative said:
Чтобы сайт разблокировали, он должен удалить со своих страниц материалы экстремистского содержания. Однако так сделать, скорее всего, не получится, так как ресурс накапливает все, что кто-то когда-то опубликовал, соответственно, экстремистские материалы на ресурсе будут только пополняться.
To unblock the website, [archive.org] should remove pages containing extremist content. However, this will most likely not happen, since the resource continually accumulates webpages that are being published [all the time] and accordingly, the extremist materials will only be replenished.
A staff member at the Internet Archive told Global Voices that Kyrgyz officials had not contacted the organization to express their concerns. Prior to Global Voices’ inquiry, the organization had no knowledge of the ban.
Indeed, the Internet Archive is constantly updated using technical tools that crawl the global internet and capture images of websites all across the network. This feature of archive.org, called the Wayback Machine, is useful for journalists and activists investigating the past activities of companies and public figures around the world, including in Kyrgyzstan, which ranks 136 out of 176 companies in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.
Earlier this week, a local activist linked to a nine-year-old webpage snapshot stored on the website to cast doubt over the government's decision to award a strategic hydropower contract to a Czech company.
#liglass удалил свой веб сайт с ложью про миллиардные обороты и ГЭС в Чехии, Армении, РФ. тут архивная копия https://t.co/edsEhQqDZ3
— Edil Baisalov (@baisalov) 17 июля 2017 г.
#liglass deleted its website with lies about billions in turnover and hydro power plants in the Czech Republic, Armenia, Russia. But here is an archived copy.
These factors have prompted some local users to suggest the ban was not really about extremism at all:
В интeрнетах ущeмили дoстоинство трeм гoсорганам, oно тeперь рaспухло и бoлит! https://t.co/qnaFiRU7sJ
— glassy (@0x3f00) July 18, 2017
The Internet kicked the state in their organs and now they are on the warpath!
The governments of the ex-Soviet region have regularly raised the alarm as thousands of citizens have joined up with radical factions fighting in Syria and Iraq.
Internet users in Russia reported being unable to access Archive.org in 2015, with the country's communications regulator Roskomnadzor also believed to have blocked the website on an anti-extremism pretext.
In Kyrgyzstan and Russia's neighbour Kazakhstan, the government has blocked hundreds of websites it views as propagating extremism in recent years. The blocking surge gained fresh impetus in 2014 when a video that apparently featured Kazakh-born minors undergoing military training in Syria was released by one of the ISIS militant group's media outlets.
Tajikistan, another country in Central Asia, also moved to block YouTube and other video-sharing platforms after a top police commander from the country announced his defection to ISIS via a video endorsed by the group in 2015.
The Tajik parliament on July 13 approved anti-extremism legislation that will allow security services the right to track the websites visited and comments made by citizens online. But the discussion in the parliament did not touch on what mechanisms would be used to monitor internet use. The text of the draft law is not publicly available.

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


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Lebanese Government Bans All Protests Right Before a Syrian Refugee Solidarity Sit-In · Global Voices
Hassan Chamoun

A march in Lebanon, July 2016, against racism and curfews faced by Syrian refugees. Photo: Levant Chronicles on Facebook
The Lebanese government banned all protests around the same time activists were forced to cancel a sit-in—in support of Syrian refugees—due to online threats.
It is unclear if the two events are connected. The sit-in was scheduled to take place on 18 July in the capital Beirut.
In a clear violation of the right to assembly and protest, on 16 July, the Lebanese government announced a ban on all protests. Minister of Interior Nohad Machnouk tweeted that any requests to protest will be denied:
… بعد التشاور مع القيادات الأمنية المعنية اتّخذنا القرار بعدم الموافقة على أي طلب من أي جهة للتظاهر حفظاً للسلم والأمن الأهلي.#علم_وخبر pic.twitter.com/Mi2UMfvsNF
— Nohad Machnouk (@NohadMachnouk) July 16, 2017
after discussing [recent developments] with the concerned security forces, we decided to decline any requests, from anyone, to hold a protest, in order to preserve security and civil peace.
Before the ban, the activists who were planning to protest the mistreatment of Syrian refugees faced numerous attacks and threats from Lebanese commentators and politicians, prompting the organizers to cancel the sit-in. The activists were accused of “inciting ” against the Lebanese army and of supporting ISIS.
Syrians make up about a quarter of Lebanon’s population, making it the highest concentration per capita of refugees in the world. Syrian refugees are often the scapegoat of economic and security issues in Lebanon. In 2014, Human Rights Watch documented 11 violent attacks against Syrian refugees or people perceived to be Syrians, and reported at least 45 curfews imposed on Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Vocal opposition to Syrian refugees in Lebanon has been rising steadily over the past year, with senior Lebanese politicians calling for them to return home to war-torn Syria.
The Socialist Forum, a leftist political group in Lebanon, organized the sit-in event, in solidarity with Lebanon's 1.5 million Syrian refugees, following a military operation on June 30 in “search for terrorists, weapons and explosives” in two refugee camps in the town of Arsal.
The raid led to the arrest of more than 350 Syrians. Four of the arrested refugees died while in custody, the Lebanese army announced on 4 July. They blamed their deaths on “health complications” and hot weather. But the news website Middle East Eye obtained pictures showing “huge gashes and bruising on the bodies of three of the four men.” The detainees’ deaths have raised questions about the conditions of their detentions, particularly as pictures showing signs of mistreatment and bruises on the victims’ bodies began to circulate online.
Right before the ban, the threats against the Socialist Forum grew, when the names of three of its activists, who submitted a request for a protest permit to the Beirut municipality, were spread on social media with their telephone numbers and pictures.
Joseph Abu Fadel, a Lebanese political analyst and lawyer, posted a threatening tweet on 15 July in which he referred to the protest as one against the “champion Lebanese army by adulterers of Daesh” and threatened that the planned site for the protest would become “their cemetery.” Daesh is how the Arabic-speaking world refers to ISIS.
Abu Fadel has approximately 30,000 Twitter followers, and the tweet was retweeted more than 250 times at the time of writing.
Wiam Wahhab, a former minister of environment and the leader of the nationalist party, the Lebanese Unification Movement, called on the Ministry of Interior (in a tweet) to cancel the protest.
He also called for a counter-protest the same day in support of the Lebanese army and against Daesh. Wahhab's party is in the 8 March political alliance, which also includes the militant group Hezbollah, which intervened in Syria since 2013 to support the regime of Bashar al-Assad. In a third tweet, he added that if the Lebanese state cannot prevent the protest, people will.
اذا لم تمنع الدولة تظاهرة ضد الجيش اللبناني فإن قوى لبنانية كثيرة ستتولى هذا الأمر وسيتم منع التظاهره
— Wiam Wahhab (@wiamwahhab) July 15, 2017
If the state does not ban the protest against the Lebanese army, many Lebanese [political] forces will take care of it and the protest will be banned
A video posted on Facebook [warning: violent content] shows several men, one of them armed with a rifle, questioning a man who they identify as being Syrian about whether he will join the sit-in. The harassers, after asking the man for his papers, slap and kick him on the ground. They accuse him of being a member of Daesh and order him to repeat:
God with the Lebanese army, f*ck Daesh, God with the commander of the [Lebanese] army and the president of the [Lebanese] republic.
On the Wednesday 19th of July, Interior Minister Machnouk tweeted that the police had arrested the harassers.
In their 16 July statement announcing their decision to cancel the sit-in, the Socialist Forum condemned the Beirut municipality for the leak. The  group also clarified the purpose of the protest:
The goal was to strengthen or restore relations between Lebanese and Syrians, hoping to counter the discourse of hatred and racism.
The group further denied accusations that it is inciting against the Lebanese army, and called on authorities to investigate the deaths of the four detainees.
Contrary to what is being said by some officials and others on social media platforms, we would like to clarify that the Socialist Forum does not cause incitement against the Lebanese Army, as per its statement on July 13, 2017, which calls for:
1. A transparent and independent investigation to uncover all the causes of the suspects’ deaths.
2. The strict public accountability for all those involved in torture, murder, and other forms of abuse.
3. The revealing of the remaining arbitrary detainees, their release and compensation.
4. The end of the exploitation of the refugee issue for political manipulation, and to stop treating it as a security threat.
5. The abolishing of all racist decisions against refugees, and the end of practices that forces them to return against their will to brutal killings and massacres, as the regional and international community remains suspiciously and criminally silent.
In addition to the threats they faced online, Lebanese activists standing in solidarity with Syrian refugees were also subjected to harassment from the authorities.
Fidaa Itani, a journalist who criticized the Lebanese army, Lebanese president Michel Aoun and foreign affairs minister Gebran Bassil in a Facebook post, about the raids on the refugees camps in Arsal and the mistreatment of Syrian refugees, was detained for one night and questioned by the Internal Security Forces cybercrime bureau. He was released on 11 July only after he deleted the post. In another case of harassment, the army seized medical samples collected by Lebanese lawyer Diala Chehade from the bodies of the victims, obstructing any civil investigations into the matter.
The government has not specified the duration of the ban on protesting. But Moulahazat, a blog that analyzes Lebanese politics, believes the reason behind this ban is to avoid any protests during parliamentary talks about tax hikes, which are often met with big protests in Lebanon:
The Lebanese government allowed two rival protests regarding refugees and the army to take place, and then banned all protests after an impression was given that the protesters were going to clash.
You all took the bait: A tax hike parliamentary session is taking place on Tuesday, and the ruling class just directly used the refugees issue to make things easier for them in parliament without you even noticing.
Lebanese Politicians 1 – Panicking Lebanese 0
Welcome to elections season, Lebanon.

author: Hassan Chamoun


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Luxury Lifestyle of the Congolese President’s Entourage Attracts Attention of French Investigators · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Denis Sassou-Nguessou, president of the Repubic of the Congo, left, boards his aircraft to leave the country. ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Washington D.C. a work of the U.S. federal government,- Public Domain
Julienne Sassou-Nguesso and Guy Johnson, the daughter and son-in-law of the president of the Republic of the Congo, are under investigation for money laundering of embezzled funds as part of the high-profile “Ill-gotten goods” inquiry. This development follows the investigation into Wilfrid Nguesso, the president's nephew.
Launched by the French justice system, the wide-ranging inquiry focuses on the assets of three African presidents, their families, and their entourages. The secretive way these funds have been accumulated and held outside the presidents’ own countries has attracted the attention of several anti-corruption bodies.
The French-language website Oeil d'Afrique summarised the background of the case:
Depuis 2010, des juges d’instruction français tentent de déterminer si les fortunes de trois familles présidentielles, celles de feu Omar Bongo (Gabon), de Denis Sassou Nguesso (Congo-Brazzaville) et de Teodoro Obiang Nguema (Guinée équatoriale), ont pu être bâties grâce à des deniers publics détournés de ces pays, avec l’aide d’intermédiaires et de sociétés offshores dans les paradis fiscaux.
Since 2010, inquiry judges have been examining allegations that three presidential families have built large fortunes by taking public money from their own countries and siphoning it through intermediaries and off-shore companies located in tax havens. The presidents in question are the late Omar Bongo of Gabon, Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo, and Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equitorial Guinea.
In this case, the judges also intend to probe links between Julienne Sassou-Nguesso and Guy Johnson and companies registered abroad, for example in Mauritius, the British Virgin Islands, Dubai and Hong Kong. The website afriqueexpansion.com explains:
Les enquêteurs cherchent à savoir si des sociétés offshores à l'île Maurice, aux Îles Vierges Britanniques, à Dubaï et Hong Kong ont servi à financer de nombreuses dépenses en France, selon une source proche du dossier. Entre 2008 et 2011 plusieurs dizaines de millions d'euros du Trésor public congolais auraient transité par ces sociétés.
Les investigations portent également sur la société congolaise de transports maritimes (Socotram), qui perçoit des redevances sur le trafic maritime et le fret pétrolier, et qui est dirigée par Wilfrid Nguesso : une partie de ces fonds auraient été détournés pour servir à l'enrichissement personnel de ce dernier et de son entourage, selon la même source.
De son côté, sa défense conteste le fait que la Socotram puisse percevoir des fonds publics…
Après des premières plaintes en 2007 et 2008, restées sans suite, une plainte avec constitution de partie civile de l'ONG Transparency international avait déclenché l'ouverture d'une information judiciaire en 2010 confiée à des juges financiers.
The investigators are trying to find out whether offshore companies in Mauritius, the British Virgin Islands, Dubai and Hong Kong have been used to fund numerous purchases in France, according to a source close to the case. Between 2008 and 2011, tens of millions of euros from the Congolese public purse are thought to have passed through these companies.
The investigations are also centered on Socotram — the Congolese Maritime Transport Association, which collects license fees from shipping and the transport of crude oil. Wilfred Nguesso is head of the organisation. The same source indicates that both he and his entourage may have benefited from the embezzlement of the association's funds.
Mr Nguesso contests this, denying that Socotram is able to collect public funds.
After the first accusations in 2007 and 2008, which were never followed up, the NGO Transparency International lodged a civil complaint. This led to the opening of a judicial investigation in 2010 by specialist financial judges.
Journalist Eunice Kaoumé has researched the affair closely. She reports that Julienne Sassou-Nguesso was once an insurance agent and that Guy Johnson practises law. Here follows what she has written for afrikmag.com:
D’après les investigations, plusieurs dizaines de millions d’euros en provenance d’entités publiques du Congo-Brazzaville, auraient été transférées depuis 2007 sur les comptes de diverses sociétés offshores basées aux Seychelles, à l’Île Maurice ou à Hong Kong, soupçonnées d’alimenter ensuite, en partie, le train de vie de certains membres du clan présidentiel, selon une source proche du dossier.
Les enquêteurs pensent que le couple aurait financé une partie des travaux par le biais d’une société seychelloise alimentée par le fruit de la vente des parts détenues par Julienne Sassou-Nguesso dans une société de télécommunications, qui serait liée à des “opérations de corruption”, selon la même source. Ils s’interrogent aussi sur le rôle du gendre du président, apparu comme le gérant d’une SCI qui avait acquis en 2007 pour quelque 19 millions d’euros, un hôtel particulier dans le cossu 8ème arrondissement de Paris, et dont des parts étaient notamment détenues par le clan d’Omar Bongo, ainsi que son épouse, Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba, aujourd’hui décédée, qui était la fille aînée du dirigeant congolais.
La justice a déjà saisi plusieurs propriétés du clan des Sassou Nguesso ainsi qu’une dizaine de voitures de luxe.
According to the investigations, it is thought that several tens of millions of euros from public bodies in Congo-Brazzaville have been transferred to the accounts of different offshore businesses based in the Seychelles, Mauritius and Hong Kong since 2007.  A well-informed source says that these funds are believed to partly finance the lifestyle of certain members of the president's circle.
The same source affirms that investigators think the couple may have financed some of the work with the sale of Julienne Sassou-Nguesso's share of a telecommunications company thought to be linked to “corrupt dealings”. Funds are believed to have been siphoned through a Seychellois company. The role of the president's son-in-law, Guy Johnson, is also under scrutiny. He is the director of a private property company which bought a distinctive hotel for some 19 million euros in the well-heeled 8th Arrondissement of Paris in 2007. Notably, the shares of the property company were held by members of Omar Bongo's circle, as well as his wife, the now deceased Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba, who was the eldest daughter of the Congolese President Sassou-Nguesso.
Judicial authorities have already seized properties belonging to the Sassou-Nguesso clan, as well as 10 or so luxury cars.
In a declaration reported by the website dac-presse.com, Lamyr Nguelé, president of the Congolese National Commission against Corruption, Misappropriation and Fraud (CNCCF), noted in July 2016 that corruption is a serious problem in his country:
les secteurs les plus corrompus sont les douanes, les impôts et le trésor. Il a, par ailleurs, rappelé que l’indice de perception de la corruption au Congo oscillait entre 2.1 et 2.3 dans les années 2015-2016, selon Transparency international.
Dans le secteur de la santé, la corruption perdure encore faute d’application effective des mesures de gratuité décrétées par le chef de l’Etat, sur les traitements contre la tuberculose, le VIH-sida, la césarienne, les autres soins obstétricaux et le traitement du paludisme.
Dans les hôpitaux en effet, des agents véreux continuent leur macabre besogne qui consiste à soutirer des médicaments des sacs des personnes souffrantes et de les leur revendre. Les membres des familles de ces personnes sont obligés d’acheter ces médicaments pour réserver la vie de leur patient. «Si on n’achète pas leurs médicaments, ils rechignent à traiter la personne malade pour punir ceux qui ont refusé d’acheter leurs médicaments », a confié un parent dont le fils souffrait de diarrhée et vomissement.
The most corrupt sectors are customs, tax collection and the treasury. Furthermore, Congo's perception of corruption index fluctuated between 2.1 and 2.3 in the years 2015-2016, according to Transparency International.
In the health sector, corruption endures despite decrees from the head of state to introduce free treatments for tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, caesarian sections and other obstetric procedures, and malaria.
Indeed, dishonest officials still practice their dark arts in the hospitals. Taking medication from patient's bags, they sell it back to relatives, who are forced buy in order to keep their loved-one alive. “If we don't buy the medication, they object to treating the sick person as a punishment to those who have refused”, confided a parent whose son was suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting.
But he admitted the commission's power is limited:
Lorsque les faits sont avérés, nous transmettons le ou les dossiers au procureur de la République qui engage des poursuites. La commission n’a pas compétence de les engager. Malheureusement, force est de constater qu’aucun de nos dossiers n’a fait l’objet d’une poursuite judiciaire.
When the facts come out, we send the file or files to the prosecutor to begin proceedings. The CNCCF does not have the power to do so. Unfortunately it must be said that none of our files has been the subject of a legal action.
That is tantamount to calling the institution an empty shell, with no other use than to create a smokescreen to the international community. Moreover, Transparency International's 2016 report ranks the Republic of Congo 159th out of 170 countries, according to its Corruption Perceptions Index.
To find out more about the “Ill gotten goods” affair in Africa, here are several reports for reference:

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Russia’s Parliament Went on a Censorship Binge Today · Global Voices
Isaac Webb

The Kremlin is cracking down on online anonymity. Again. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Russia's lower house of parliament approved a spate of censorship laws today, voting for legislation that will prohibit messaging services from allowing users to communicate anonymously, outlaw the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), proxies, and other anonymizers, and require search engines to hide links to blocked sites.
In the last week before its summer recess, the State Duma passed an astonishing number of bills—69 in the last three days alone. Today's legislation, which is being sold as an important contribution to Russian national security, is the latest attempt by the government to monitor online activity. Many elements of the bills correspond with Vladimir Putin's Strategy for the Development of an Information Society and may presage more repressive regulatory measures.
The bill regulating messaging platforms requires services to provide a telephone number to verify a user's identity. The bill will force popular local messaging services like Telegram, Viber and Whatsapp to deny access to users who do not provide information verifying their identity.
The law also will require companies to prevent illegal content from being distributed across their platforms, a nearly impossible task given the volume of user messages sent across such platforms each day. The bill includes a provision that allows courts to instruct messaging services to block individual users’ messages.
The law also requires companies to allow state authorities to use their networks to send mass messages to their entire Russian user base.
Companies that do not comply with the law risk being blocked by Roskomnadzor, Russia's state censor.
The Duma approved a separate bill that requires internet anonymizers, including VPNs, to restrict access to certain online online content or risk being blocked by Roskomnadzor. The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and the Federal Security Service (FSB) will be responsible for tracking the anonymizing services. This regulation also mandates that search engines prevent links to blocked websites from showing up in search results.
Both bills are already being criticized for their lack of precision, which will likely leave the door open for state abuse.
Worth saying the VPN bill & the messenger bill both vague on enforcement mechanisms. As always, this leaves room for both evasion & abuse.
— Tanya Lokot (@tanyalokot) July 21, 2017
On the same day, the Duma passed yet another bill mandating that SIM-card purchasers present a valid passport so that telecom providers are able to verify the identity of their subscribers.
The legislation must now be approved by Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, and then sent to the Kremlin to be signed by Vladimir Putin before it becomes law.
Some messaging services are already indicating that they will comply with the legislation, which would enter into force on January 1, 2018. The head of the messaging app Viber, which was one of the first companies to comply with a 2015 law mandating that internet companies store data belonging to Russian citizens on Russian soil, has announced that his company will comply fully with Russian legislation.
Telegram recently bowed to pressure from Russian authorities, agreeing to register the company but not to store user information in Russia or turn over any personal data to the government.
The Duma is likely to pass more restrictive regulations when it reconvenes in September: yesterday, at the NextM digital conference in Moscow, Leonid Levin, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies, and Communication, announced that in the near future the government would have no choice but to pass more regulation on big data, the Internet of things, blockchain, and a number of other technologies.

author: Isaac Webb


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Thai Academics to Be Summoned by Military for Raising ‘Anti-Junta Placards’ at an International Conference · Global Voices
Prachatai

Pakawadee Weerapaspong (left) and Chaipong Samnieng (right) holding up placards reading ‘An academic forum – is not – a military camp’. The man in the middle has not yet been identified. Photo from Thai Academic Network for Civil Rights.
This edited article is from Prachatai, an independent news site in Thailand, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The deputy governor of the northern province of Chiang Mai has threatened three academics in Thailand who allegedly put up banners against the junta.
On 18 July 2017, Deputy Governor Puttipong Sirimart submitted a letter to the Ministry of Interior reporting three academics who allegedly held up placards reading, “An academic forum is not a military camp”, at the 13th International Conference on Thai Studies in Chiang Mai.
The letter identified the three as Prajak Kongkirati, a political scientist from Thammasat University, Pakawadee Weerapaspong, an independent writer, activist, and translator, and Chaipong Samnieng, a lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Chiang Mai University.
The letter states that the three will be summoned by the military in Chiang Mai, claiming they used an academic forum to engage in anti-junta activities. The letter, however, does not specify when the three should report to the authorities.
The three are among 176 academics who signed a joint statement at the forum calling for the return of democracy. Here's an excerpt of the statement:
The state must respect academic freedom by returning the space of knowledge in which the people can access different kinds of information and facts, as well as allowing the exchange of knowledge without suppression, control or distortion.
Thailand's army staged a coup in 2014 and has remained in power through a constitution it passed in 2016. It vows to restore elections and civilian rule after political reforms have been implemented.
The deputy governor's letter adds that the three have consistently been involved in movements against the junta through the Thai Academic Network for Civil Rights (TANCR).
In response, the TANCR issued a statement saying that Prajak Kongkirati, although named in the letter, was not involved in holding up the placards and that the group has always called for freedom and human rights.
The statement condemned the measure to summon the three as “shameful”, adding that the 2017 Constitution does not forbid people from holding up placards.
Prajak Kongkirati, a well-known political scientist from Thammasat University, reading the statement which 176 Thai and foreign academics signed at Chiang Mai University on 17 July 2017.

author: Prachatai


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Three Decades After Dictatorship, Theater Aids the Search for Identity and Truth in Argentina · Global Voices
Romina Navarro

Institutional logo and Facebook profile photo of the Theater x Identity “Do not leave them with doubt” initiative.
“My name is… and I can say it because I know who I am.” With these words, the artists of Teatro x Identitad (Theater for Identity, or TXI for short) have opened all of their performances over the last 17 years.
In July 2017, TXI inaugurated a new season. The theater, which was launched in 2000, is an artistic initiative of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo association and aims to support its efforts since 1977 “to locate and return to their legitimate families all the children disappeared during the last dictatorship in Argentina“.
TXI's performances have evolved and diversified to address different themes, but all revolve around identity. The goal is to “act so not to forget, to act to find the truth”. It has been estimated that in Argentina there are still about 400 people living with changed identities. They are the children of young militants who disappeared or were kidnapped and tortured during the 1970s by the dictatorship's forces. They were then adopted by families loyal to the government and their origins kept a secret.
In a recent article from the Página 12 newspaper, TXI member Eugenia Levin said:
Entendemos que la aparición tiene que ser ya, porque las abuelas se van sin conocer a sus nietos, muchos de los cuales ahora tienen hijos, así que hay bisnietos. Ya hay dos generaciones que no conocen su identidad, no queremos que sean tres.
We understand that these children need to appear as soon as possible, because their grandmothers are passing away without knowing their grandchildren, many of whom now have children, so there are great-grandchildren. There are already two generations that do not know their identity, we do not want to witness a third.
The following official video from 2015 was made for the 15th anniversary of TXI, a celebration that gathered several personalities of Argentina's national cinema and television and which was promoted with the “Encontrate hoy” (“Find yourself today”) slogan and the hashtag #notepierdaselabrazo (#DoNotMissTheHug), as a reference to the embraces that have taken place between grandmothers and grandchildren when they have recovered their identity and found each other.
TXI also has developed a traveling theater project, which brings performances to all corners of the country, in schools, universities, theaters, official and non-governmental organizations, squares, cultural centers and other entities where they are invited. Their purpose is to be a pedagogical tool, for reflection and debate, to help the public understand the historical reality and encourage other possible lost grandchildren to ask questions, express their doubts and seek their true identity.
Banner of the TXI's traveling theater for 2017. Photo publicly shared on Facebook.
The performances in educational institutions have been especially important for the members of the movement, as they know that this is where they can generate greater impact:
En los últimos años, los ITINERANTES han tenido una fuerte presencia en las escuelas de nivel medio y del segundo nivel de colegios primarios de todo el país. Muchas instituciones educativas han elegido enseñar una parte tan dura de la historia argentina a través del arte, entendiendo al teatro como una herramienta pedagógica esencial y efectiva. Esta creciente intervención en los colegios se relaciona con el hecho de que TXI, luego de realizar las obras, ofrece un debate donde alumnos y docentes pueden expresar todas las inquietudes y sensaciones que les dejó la puesta en escena.
In recent years, the traveling performances have had a strong presence in middle schools and the second level of primary schools across the country. Many educational institutions have chosen to teach about such a difficult part in the history of Argentina through art, understanding that theater is an essential and effective pedagogical tool. This growing involvement in schools is related to the fact that TXI, after the performances, offers the opportunity for discussion, when students and teachers can express all their concerns and feelings triggered by the performances.
In addition to the Facebook and Twitter pages, the project has a radio theater program that is broadcast live every Friday at 10 a.m. (GMT -03:00).

author: Romina Navarro


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With China Now the Top Market for Initial Public Offerings, One Economist Fears for Ordinary Investors · Global Voices
Jack Hu

China's stock market had one of its biggest crashes in 2015. Image from state-owned Xinhua.
China has overtaken Hong Kong as the top initial public offering (IPO) market. The number of listings in China's stock exchanges has surged 303 percent, with 246 companies raising up to US$18 billion in the first half of 2017.
Good news? Not according to Han Zhiguo, a renowned Chinese economist, who wrote a long post on popular social media platform Weibo slamming China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) for its poor regulation of the market. Small investors, he warned, will be the ones to suffer the consequences:
【 证监会在IPO问题上已经走火入魔 】 美国股市是注册制，一年的IPO才150家；中国股市是核准制，一年的IPO却高达500家。美国股市是开放型市场，今年上半年IPO的融资额才占全球总量的23.2%而屈居世界第二；中国股市是封闭型市场，今年上半年IPO的融资额却占全球总量的28.8%而稳居世界第一。
China Securities Regulatory Commission has gone too far on IPOs: The US stock market adopts a registered system for IPOs with 150 IPO listings last year. China adopts an approval system with 500 listings in the same period. As an open market, the IPO funding from US equities account for 23.2% of the global funding in the first half of the year, the second largest, while the IPO funding from Chinese equities, a closed market, accounts for 28.8% of the global funding, climbing to number one.
The economist pointed out that in the US the stock market has a transparent monitoring system that compels companies to disclose their business information, there are harsh penalties for business fraud, it operates in a free market and that market is currently on the rise. China does not have an open and transparent monitoring system in place and the market is full of fraud. Moreover, investors’ decisions are not based on free market information but political speculation. Currently, the Chinese stock market is very fragile after a series of crashes in the past two years.
The 2015 stock crash wiped out trillions of yuan from the portfolios of small investors, who included tens of millions of ordinary workers, farmers, housewives and pensioners. At that time, price-to-earnings (PE) ratios for Chinese stocks averaged an astonishing 70, against a worldwide average of 18.5, and the value of the A-shares inside China grew to be nearly double the equivalent shares of the same companies on Hong Kong's exchange.
However, the regulators have apparently not learned their lesson. Han alerted that the IPO listing frenzy is another huge trap for small investors:
在上市公司的退市制度、财务造假的惩戒制度和投资者权益的保护制度完全缺失的情况下继续进行IPO大跃进，在市场已经垃圾成山的情况下继续扩大垃圾规模并继续制造大小非“堰塞湖”的巨大陷阱，导致市场哀鸿遍野一地鸡毛民怨沸腾。公司上市就业绩变脸，一季报亏损的新股达到34家，业绩下滑的新股比例高达25%，表明造假上市的现象已经多么严重！
The surge of IPOs without a regulatory system that punishes business fraud, de-lists the poorly performing companies and protects investors’ rights has filled the market with garbage, and expanding the garbage market would create a huge “quake lake” that eventually buries everything and crashes the market as well as the small investors. In the first quarter of 2017, 34 newly listed companies have recorded deficits in their businesses and 25% of the newly listed stocks have seen a decline in their business performance. It reflects the scale of fraud in IPOs.
The above post was shared about 9,900 times on Weibo with more than 3,400 comments.
Most of the comments echoed Han's analysis and proposal for setting up an open and transparent market monitoring system, but some were skeptical given China's current political environment. For example, two of the comments in the thread read:
想法非常好，可惜官老爷们不会同意的，不搞审核怎么拿干股? 权贵怎么赚钱? 现在股市彻底沦落为权贵们的套现提款机了
Good ideas, but it's sad officials wouldn't agree. How could they get free shares with IPOs being reviewed? How could the powerful and rich make a fortune? The stock market has degenerated into the cash machine of the powerful and rich.
说白了中国股市就是国家捞钱的工具
To be honest, the Chinese stock market has become the tool of the state to make money.
Such a poor impression of China's stock exchanges has been fed by a number of cases of business fraud and misconduct involving CSRC's management.
For example, Yabaite, a listed building material company, was exposed by Chinese state television recently for faking overseas deals and cooking its books, but the cap fine imposed by CSRC was just 600,000 yuan — compare that with its 7-billion-yuan market value.
Lv Yongxiang, the president of Yongda, a Shenzhen-listed electronic switch company, and his family members cashed out all their stocks of about 6.8 billion yuan in the bull market of 2015 and resigned from all company positions.
Feng Xiaoshu, a former member of the Public Offering Review Committee in CSRC, gained nearly 250 million yuan by investing 3 million into a company just before its listing. Feng has been under investigation since April for insider trading.
Other senior officials of the commission including Assistant Chairman Zhang Yujun and Deputy Chairman Yao Gang have been investigated amid a financial anti-graft campaign following the 2015 stock market crash.
In response to Han's criticism, four of finance newspapers — China Securities Journal, Shanghai Securities Journal, Securities Times and Securities Daily, which are designated by the CSRC for publishing its announcements and listing companies’ required disclosures — argued that CSRC should not slow down IPO listings as small- and medium-sized businesses need capital investment for further development.
Han fought back on Weibo, criticizing the papers for protecting the financial sector's interest rather than the public interest. This post was deleted soon after it appeared on highly censored Weibo. He urged his followers to copy his views and spread it via other social media outlets:
指定特殊媒体进行上市公司的信息披露，这本身就是计划经济的逻辑结果，这一陈腐的制度沿袭了20多年，既是中国股市市场化进程扭曲的表现，也是信息造假大行其道的根源。作为上市公司信息披露的载体，我们看到这四大媒体为履行信息披露的监督责任向中国证监会建言献策了吗？我们看到这四大媒体对上市公司的财务造假进行揭露了吗？我们看到这四大媒体为维护投资者利益而舍身取义了吗？一次也没有，一个也不见！
The practice of CSRC-designated media disclosing information about listing companies is the very consequence of a planned economy. Such a disclosure system has carried on for 20 years and has resulted in the distortion of the Chinese stock market and the root cost of faking business information. Have we ever seen these four media outlets criticizing CSRC's work on disclosing listed companies’ information? Have we ever seen these four media outlets exposing accounting fraud? Have we ever seen these four media outlets speaking up for small investors? Never!

author: Jack Hu


text:
Arrest Over a Facebook Rant Brings Trinidad & Tobago’s Cybercrime Legislation Into Sharp Focus · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Computer Data Hacker image by Blogtrepreneur, CC BY 2.0. Check out their page at: howtostartablogonline.net
A gruesome double murder took place on June 28 in Trinidad, in which a 13-year-old boy and his babysitter were found with their throats slit.
Police initially treated the incident as a robbery gone bad, but subsequently charged the sitter's brother and an accomplice for the murders.
The time in between the discovery of the bodies and the arrests was a distressing one, with many social media users lamenting the escalation of violent crime in the country and venting their frustration at the apparent impotence of the government and protective services to make a dent in it.
But one Facebook user, Rayad Mohammed, took things to another level when he suggested that someone should rape and slit the throats of the family of Prime Minister Keith Rowley.
His original status update was deleted, but blogger Rhoda Bharath made a screenshot of it and shared the post via Instagram.
Mohammed issued an apology, but was ultimately charged with “inciting violence” under the Summary Offences Act, of which Chap. 11:02 Section 105 deals with contentious “publications”. The charge attracts a fine of TT $1,000 (approximately US $148) or six months’ imprisonment.
The case raised critical questions for many citizens about the degree to which the comment was in fact inciting violence.
The local blogosphere was immediately separated into two camps — those who thought Mohammed deserved to be charged for his reckless post, and those who felt that charging him with an offence was overly harsh.
Facebook user Keith Francis rejected outright Mohammed's explanation that he was simply trying to express his anguish over the murders, saying:
I didn't know yuh does rise up against what going on in the country by advocating violent crime. Miss me wid dat shit.
Maria Rivas-Mc agreed:
A woman on television declares that ‘he's being punished for what is going on in society’. Seriously? That's his defence? So, if some crazy had followed through, their defence would be, ‘that guy on FB made me do it'?
Barrister and lecturer Dr. Emir Crowne, explained the original intention of the clause under which Rayad Mohammed was charged:
The provision was enacted in 1951….to deal with the “misuse of telephone facilities and false telegrams.” The legislature at the time sought to capture offensive messages that may have been transmitted by landlines and telegrams.
It is a stretch, a painful one at that, to suggest that online activities are caught by this section—even if those activities are facilitated through one’s mobile phone. […]
To be successfully prosecuted under the Criminal Law, there must be a statutory wrong. In the absence of clear statutory language, there can be no criminal wrongdoing. […]
Indeed, if so-called cybercrimes were caught under this section—and others—there would be no reason for specific cybercrime legislation in the first place.
Attorney Daniel Khan posted a video to his Facebook page In the Pursuit of Justice DK, in which he asserted his position that the comment was “was not a threat, it was not inciting, it was not sedition.”
He argued that Mohammed's arrest should have all netizens concerned:
That Facebook post was disgusting. It was obscene, it was profane, and there's no defending that. […] But let's put emotions aside: that person committed no offence….He has been taken into custody and not released until three days later because his lawyer filed an application to court — and that is the scary thing. There are markers in society where we could say on this date, society went in this direction [….] we may be moving into [an] oppressive and dictatorship society and there'll be no turning back.
Khan even suggested that “people over 40″ may not understand the internet and social media, and advised that the government and police service “get out of Facebook”.
Mohammed, he insisted, was simply expressing his frustration:
He was fed up with crime….[expressing concern that] those that have the authority….to address the crime situation perhaps do not feel such an urgency because they are surrounded by security where crime may not affect them.
Khan believed that Mohammed's arrest infringed upon his individual right to express criticism of the government.
That freedom to criticise is what many are concerned about when it comes to Trinidad and Tobago's draft cybercrime legislation.
In a preliminary response to Rayad Mohammed's comment, the national attorney general (AG) publicly suggested that Mohammed could be charged under the country's cybercrime legislation.
What the AG might not have made clear in his statement, however, is that this legislation is currently in draft form and has not yet been approved or enacted. In fact, the government recently invited commentary on the latest draft.
In the current draft, Section 18 (1) of the Cybercrime Bill 2017 criminalises anyone who “uses a computer system to communicate with the intention to cause harm [i.e. emotional distress] to another person”.
Factors such as anonymity, “the extremity of the language”, the reach of the communication, its context and veracity would all be taken into consideration, but the offender could be subject to fines of up to TT $250,000 (US $36,904), as well as five years in jail.
Some Facebook users have interpreted parts of the bill as an attempt by the government to control the internet.
Tech blogger KnowProSE.com liked “the spirit of the [cybercrime] bill”, but had recommendations to improve it, including technology education for the police and the legal profession, the need for criminal intent to be established if laying charges, the need for independent audits, the protection of individuals’ privacy, and the importance of having different criteria for first time as opposed to repeat offenders.
Journalist Mark Lyndersay shared his concerns about the bill's potential impact on his profession, explaining:
The 2017 edition of the bill tidies some issues, but leaves others in place in a way that’s clearly intended to punish without overdue attention to the consequences for communicators and activists…
The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) and the Trinidad and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA) have also expressed reservations about the bill, saying that it had to potential to “criminalise journalists”.
Centre for Law and Democracy's senior legal officer, Michael Karanicolas, explained:
Overbroad content offences are always illegitimate, but are particularly dangerous online, where many people are still in the process of discovering their voice. The Bill, if passed in its current form, could have a substantial chilling effect on online speech in Trinidad and Tobago.
The twin island republic is not the only regional territory to wrestle with cybercrime legislation. In a recent case in Jamaica, authorities sought to convict a women's rights activist under that country's Cybercrimes Act for “use of a computer for malicious communication” as part of a campaign against gender-based violence. Charges against activist Latoya Nugent were dropped after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) deemed that it was “not a viable prosecution”.
That dangerous potential for censorship and abuse, many feel, outweighs the outrage that a poorly expressed rant like Mohammed's can generate.
Dr. Emir Crowne, who wrote a post for Wired868 about the problematic aspects of the Cybercrime Bill, summarised the issues this way:
The Bill is an ongoing recognition of the need to protect the citizenry against cybercrimes. In many ways, it is a paradigm shift in the way criminality is traditionally viewed.
However, in addressing this new avenue for criminality, care must be taken to draft legislation that is precise, impairs constitutional rights as least as possible, and sets out clear defences and exceptions, especially where personal liberty is at stake.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Georgian Women March Against Misogyny and Racism · Global Voices
Eurasianet

Giorgi Lomsadze for Eurasianet. Used with permission.
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org written by Giorgi Lomsadze. Republished with permission.
An ethnically diverse historic neighborhood in Tbilisi has become the battlefield for an ongoing cultural war in Georgia over minorities’ rights, with two demonstrations – one by ultranationalists, the second against them —  pounding the pavement of the district’s central Aghmashenebeli Avenue in the space of four days.
Chanting “Women’s disobedience begins!,” scores of female protesters marched down the avenue on July 19 to oppose the misogyny, racism and an alleged gang-rape threat that emanated from last week’s March of Georgians, a protest that primarily targeted migration by Muslims from the Middle East.
“We are here to condemn the harrowing attitude toward women expressed by participants of the so-called March of Georgians and also to express our support for foreigners living in Georgia,” said Rusiko Amirejibi, a rally participant and linguist who has taught Georgian as a foreign language.
“I am also supporting not just legal, but also illegal immigrants, who sought refuge or a better life in Georgia, and are living here peacefully and are not committing a crime.”
“Crime has no nationality and it falls to the government, not to an angry mob, to react to it,” she underlined.
Photo by Giorgi Lomsadze for Eurasianet. Used with permission.
Leaders of the July 14 March of Georgians had fired up anti-immigrant sentiments by citing alleged cases of sexual harassment of minors and desecration of an historical Christian landmark by arrivals from India and Islamic countries.
When University of Georgia lecturer Tatia Dolidze, prominent for a 2016 UN speech, criticized the ultranationalist rally as xenophobic, one of the event’s co-organizers, 57-year-old actor and singer Gia Korkotashvili, responded by commenting on Facebook that Dolidze “should be f — ed.”
“I am too old for group things, so you guys go ahead,” he wrote to his interlocutors.
The police have started an investigation into the dialogue.
For participants in the Women’s Solidarity March, the ultranationalists’ remarks are part of a broader problem in Georgia.
“We would like to make society understand that these fascists, who claim to be defending Georgian culture, are, in fact, defending nothing but their prerogative to insult and subjugate women,” said free media and women’s rights activist Ninia Kakabadze.
Korkotashvili tried to defend his and his supporters’ inflammatory comments about Tatia Dolidze as a private, locker room-style chat. While crude, he claimed, it was not meant as an actual threat.
But Korkotashvili’s choice of words to explain that only added to the controversy.
“This was a private conversation between two people . . . and now the women are picking on it, saying that their bodies are not protected and someone intends to gang-rape them and all,” Korkotashvili told Obiektivi television. “You wish someone had such intentions for you,” he said to his female critics.
Photo by Giorgi Lomsadze for Eurasianet. Used with permission.
Feminist activists say that the comments encapsulate the problems of Georgia’s patriarchal society. “These are the men who raise toasts to women at supras [a traditional Georgian dinner party] , but see them as sexual and reproductive objects, whom they can punish, verbally or physically, at their whim,” Kakabadze commented.
The attitudes toward arrivals from Middle Eastern and Asian countries stem from the same sense of male entitlement, she charged.
RFE/RL journalist and popular commentator Salome Asatiani believes that the surge in nationalism and machismo is largely an attempt by those Georgian men who feel left out of today’s Georgia to reassure themselves.
“They feel that they don’t fit in the modern criteria of success — they don’t speak English, can’t make money, so this whole we-are-the-real-men thing is a way to compensate and react,” she said.
Many policemen, who cordoned off the demonstration area, smiled and joked under their breath as their listened to the feminist slogans.
As the activists, joined by some men and a few transgender women strode along Aghmashenebeli, Middle Easterners working or living in the area looked on. Some could not figure out if the rally was against or in support of foreigners and retreated into shops and restaurants for safety.
“They told me that they came to support us, but I don’t understand why it is mostly women. Is this because Georgian men don’t like foreigners and Georgian women like them?” wondered a Tbilisi State Medical University student from Iraq.
Photo by Giorgi Lomsadze for Eurasianet. Used with permission.
Some Georgians living in the area who took part in the July 14 march sought to distance themselves from the leaders of the rally. “Those terrible things they said about that little girl [Dolidze] are shameful,” said an elderly woman, Nana, who refused to give her last name. “I am glad these people came out against those uncultured men. It will serve them well.”
Nana, however, defended her decision to join the ultranationalist rally. She said that she, like many other Georgians, feels existentially threatened by growing Arab, Iranian and Turkish presence in the neighborhood and, more broadly, in Georgia.
“We are a breed on the verge of extinction,” Nana said of ethnic Georgians. “Look, son, at all these shawarmas and what not, all these men in their robes and women covered from head to toe . . . Give it another 20 years and you won’t see a single Georgian here.”
Women’s Solidarity March participants maintain they will not leave unanswered manifestations of either ethnic bigotry or male chauvinism. “I’m not too hopeful that the change will come soon, but we will do our part to push for it,” Kakabadze said.

author: Eurasianet


text:
In the Depths of the Ecuadorian Amazon, Digital Communications Aid the Process of Self-Determination · Global Voices
Belen Febres-Cordero

Communication is an important element of the strategy of Sarayaku's defense of land rights.
Photo provided by the Sarayaku communications team and used with permission.
Residing within the southern part of Ecuador’s Amazon region, the approximately 1,200-strong Kichwa community of Sarayaku have drawn international attention for their battles over land and indigenous rights—battles that have relied on worldwide support.
Since 1996, when the Ecuadorian government gave concessions for exploration and extraction to corporations without consultation or consent from the community of Sarayaku, its people have fought against oil extraction in their territory. Extraction represented a threat to the land and to Sumak Kawsay, or good living, a community understating of life which, among other aspects, promotes harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.
The Sarayaku community took their fight to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2003, winning the case against the Ecuadorian state in 2012.
Though the group's struggles are about defending the inherited practices and traditional knowledge of their people, that doesn’t mean they avoid modern methods. Members of their community and other indigenous leaders recently shared with Global Voices how communications technologies such as the internet have played a crucial role in building international solidarity for their demands.
For the people of Sarayaku, the use of mobile and virtual technologies is a means of rejecting silence, of connecting more deeply with others and with each other, and of building a bridge to the future. As Mirian Cisneros, Sarayaku’s current president, explained, making themselves heard has been an uphill battle for the people of Sarayaku:
Alguna gente en el poder ha tratado de silenciarnos y nos han privado de la posibilidad de expresarnos con libertad, pero nosotros mantenemos un activismo continuo porque queremos ser respetados y hacer escuchar nuestras voces a través de nuestras luchas. Somos un pueblo que quiere defender su territorio para poder sobrevivir y dejar un legado de resistencia, respeto y fuerza para futuras generaciones.
Some people in power have tried to silence us and to deny us the possibility of expressing ourselves freely. We've continued our activism because we want to be respected and, through our battles, make our voices heard. We want to defend our territory so that we can continue to survive and leave a legacy of resistance, respect and strength for the generations to come.
The community runs a blog, Sarayaku: El Pueblo del Medio Día. José Santi, one of the people in charge of the blog, told us that as they started realizing that the government and others had different perspectives on the extraction issue, the community quickly acknowledged the need to establish their own channels of communication.
That need is also driven by the sense that bottom their culture is neither understood nor respected. According to Hilda Santi, a former Sarayaku community president and current leader of education:
El gobierno habla de interculturalidad pero es solo una expresión sin fundamento. No hay un respeto real por nuestra cultura, solo quieren imponer formas de vida externas que no están alineadas con la nuestra. Tenemos mucho que decir y ofrecer y estamos encontrando nuevas vías de comunicación para que jóvenes, mujeres y hombres podamos ser protagonistas de informaciones.
The government talks about interculturality but it is just a word without foundation. There is no real respect for our culture, they just want to impose external ways of life that are not aligned with ours. We have much to say and to offer, and we are finding new communication channels so that our youth and the men and women from our community are protagonists in the information produced.
The reach of the Internet and other digital communications methods has also been important given Sarayaku’s remote location—the area is accessible only by light aircraft or canoe, after a two-hour drive from the city of Puyo. Internet and mobile coverage in the area is still limited, but community members have employed multiple strategies to encourage the use of online tools. Santi told Global Voices that besides the blog he helps run, they also have a Facebook page and  Twitter account to promote their initiatives at both nationally and internationally.
Source: Tayjasaruta Official Blog of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku, republished with permission.
Andrés Tapia, one of the people in charge of the communication of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE), has worked with the Sarayaku for many years. Tapia observed that internet communication provides an important opportunity for sharing information, especially about culture and land rights, not only with non-indigenous people, but also among other indigenous communities.
While a certain amount of energy is devoted to transmitting community knowledge beyond Sarayaku’s borders, digital communication is also valuable for internal communication. Apawki Castro, the head of communications for the Confederation of the Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) , noted that the sharing of knowledge even internally has in fact been the more crucial part of the strategies employed by Sarayaku and other Ecuadorian communities:
Hay que aprovechar las redes sociales porque tienen la fortaleza de crear nuevas vías de comunicación y complementar las formas de comunicación tradicional como las asambleas.
We need to use social networks because they contribute to create new communication avenues and to complement traditional forms of communication, such as community meetings.
Katy Betancourt Machoa, director of Women for CONAIE. Republished with permission from CONAIE'S web site, https://conaie.org
According to Katy Betancourt Machoa, director of Women for CONAIEC, communicating digitally has also allowed the people of Sarayaku to articulate a diversity of perspectives and opinions among themselves:
Hay puntos de vista diversos y los diferentes canales de comunicación nos ayudan a articular estas posiciones y a encontrar maneras de organizarnos para resistir a los proyectos extractivos y a los otros temas que afectan directamente a la población indígena, pero que también afectan a los intereses del país en general.
There are diverse points of view and the different communication channels help us articulate these positions so that we organize ourselves and strengthen our efforts to resist extraction projects and the other issues that directly affect the indigenous population, but also affect the interests of the country more broadly.
While Sarayaku members use the Internet to communicate their interpretations of traditions connected to the land and environment, the newer forms of communication are equally about their future where, according to Sarayaku President Cisneros, women, children, and grandchildren can play crucial roles:
Queremos que las mujeres tomen un rol activo en la comunicación de Sarayaku porque las mujeres somos fuertes, somos valientes, y podemos liderar. Nuestra lucha no ha sido fácil, pero es el legado que estamos dejando a los jóvenes. No queremos que nuestros hijos y nietos vean solo en un libro nuestra historia, queremos que ellos vivan lo que nosotros estamos promoviendo, y sientan lo que nosotros estamos sintiendo ahora para que ellos también se unan a nuestra lucha.
We want women to take an active role in the communication of Sarayaku because we are strong, we are brave, and we can lead. Our fight has not been easy, but it is the legacy that we are leaving to the younger generations. We don’t want our children and grandchildren to learn our history only from books. We want them to live what we are promoting and we want them to feel what we are feeling so that they too get involved in our fight.
As the Kichwa People of Sarayaku continue to work through their past, present, and future within the larger national and international context, it looks like digital communications will be part of the process. In the end, Castro’s insight on media representation seems key:
El enfoque siempre es la autodeterminación desde los propios pueblos. No queremos que nadie nos dé hablando sino aliados que nos ayuden a visibilizar lo que nosotros estamos diciendo para así seguir rompiendo fronteras.
Our focus is always the self-determination of our own people. We do not want people speaking for us, but allies who who help us render what we are saying more visible so that we keep breaking boundaries in this way.
Sarayaku's president, Mirian Cisnero. Republished with permission from Sarayaku's blog, Pueblo Sarayaku, http://sarayaku.org/.
Through different projects, local organizations continue to join efforts with Sarayaku and communities facing similar struggles, to look for different avenues and tools to strengthen and share their voices, their acts of resistance, and their experiences, with broader audiences.
Stay tuned for more information about our continued conversations with the Kichwa People of Sarayaku in future posts.

author: Belen Febres-Cordero


text:
Mongolian Nomads Say Goodbye to Herding, Hello to Smog · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

A smog-filled Ulaanbaatar in 2010. Photo by Flickr user Einar Fredriksen. CC BY-SA 2.0
This story by Anne Bailey originally appeared on PRI.org on July 10, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
A baby cries for attention while his mother makes tea and tends a stove inside her family’s ger, or yurt. The air inside the heavy canvas walls is thick with the smells of smoke and cheese curd. Two older boys are playing outside.
It’s a scene that could be from any time in Mongolia going back hundreds of years, and just about anywhere in the country’s vast open plains, where families of nomadic herders have followed their livestock for countless generations.
But things are changing fast in Mongolia. And recently this nomadic family set down its portable home in a place they never expected to end up — a sprawling patchwork of dirt roads, makeshift fences and hundreds of yurts in the country’s crowded capital city of Ulaanbaatar.
A few years ago the family gave up on herding and moved to the city after losing most of its livestock in a harsh winter, known here as a “dzud.”
And they weren’t alone.
“So many nomadic families lost their herds” during that time, says Jargalsaikhan Erdene-Bayar, the father of the family. “So they started moving here. And it’s still happening.”
Dzuds have always been part of life in Mongolia, but with climate change, they seem to be coming more often. And that’s contributing to a cascade of problems — lost traditions, displacement, overcrowding. And smog.
Look up on a winter day and you can see it.
“There is this dome over the city, this grey dome,” says local activist Tuguldur Chuluunbaatar.
In the wintertime, many of the city’s new residents burn whatever they have to stay warm.
“Mostly coal,” Chuluunbaatar says, “but some people tend to burn other things, tires, plastics, you know.”
Eight month-old Munkh-erdene sits next to his family’s traditional stove in thier ger, or yurt in Ulaanbaatar. The stoves are meant to burn wood or animal dung, but many families use them to burn coal, causing a spike in air pollution in the winter. Credit: Anne Bailey
Those are very dirty fuels, made worse by inefficient traditional stoves designed to burn only wood and animal dung. And the smoke from all that burning, along with vehicles, power plants, and industry, gets trapped beneath the colder air above the surrounding mountains. Together they contribute to air quality in this city of 1.4 million that can be worse than in notoriously polluted megacities like Beijing and Mumbai.
Erdene-Bayar’s family alone burns three tons of coal a winter.
He knows that heating his family’s home this way is unhealthy. But he doesn’t see another way.
“Burning coal is the only option,” Erdene-Bayar says. “Mongolia has no natural gas, and electricity is expensive.”
The government here has spent millions of dollars in recent years to fight air pollution. And it has plans to spend more to build high-rise apartments with more efficient central heating for families now living in yurts. But progress has been slow, and many migrants don’t want to give up their traditional homes for walls of concrete. Many still hope to go back to their old ways. But that may be an unrealistic hope.
“Desertification is a real, issue,” says Batjargal Zamba, a meteorologist and advisor to Mongolia’s Environment Ministry. “And according to the global warming, the arid area in Mongolia will expand.”
That means less grass for livestock. Which likely means there’ll be even fewer nomadic families, more migration to Ulaanbaatar and more challenges for the city.
Local activists like Chuluunbaatar know there’s not much they can do to solve those big problems, but they’re still pushing for change. Chuluunbaatar is part of a community project that maps environmental and social conditions in the city’s ger district — everything from average distance to a water supply to locations of illegal trash dumps to air pollution. The goal is to use the data to help rally support for action.
“It's really hard to make the government do something when you're alone,” Chuluunbaatar says. “But by the community, the voice is very strong.”
And things are slowly changing. The government has rolled out tax breaks for small businesses to produce better stoves, and it’s created incentives to encourage residents to heat with somewhat cleaner electricity.
But it’s a slow process, and Erdene-Bayar, the former herder, says he hasn’t noticed any improvements.
“Air pollution is a big issue,” he says. “It’s very dangerous for us to live here.”
Against all odds, Erdene-Bayar and his family still dream of returning to the country, where the air is clean.
“I want to continue with my nomadic lifestyle,” he says. “I love herding.”
Jargalsaikhan Erdene-Bayar holds his eight-month-old son Munkh-erdene inside his family’s ger in Ulaanbaatar. Erdene-Bayar herded livestock in the countryside until a harsh winter killed most of his animals and forced him to look for work in the city. Credit: Anne Bailey

author: PRI/PRX's The World