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Al-Qaeda Leader to Speak on “Islamic Spring” in Series of Lectures on Social Media · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Screen Shot of one of the Twitter accounts which announced Al Zawahiri's lecture series, said to be broadcast on social media
Al Qaeda's leader Ayman Al Zawahiri is expected to give a series of lectures on the “Islamic Spring” on social media.
The announcement is being circulated on social media. On Twitter, this anonymous user says:
قريباً بإذن الله سلسلة الربيع الإسلامي للشيخ الأمير #أيمن_الظواهري حفظه الله #قاعدة_الجهاد #بشريات_قاعدة_الجهاد pic.twitter.com/EX3KkjgrP6
— ⭐مِـحبّــــ العلوانـ (@mhteeg24) September 7, 2015
By the will of Allah, the Islamic Spring series soon by Emir Ayman Al Zawahiri, may Allah protect him
A screenshot of the tweet is included above as such accounts which support militant groups usually get taken down by Twitter after user complaints. According to Twitter Rules, posts which promote violence are banned:
Violence and Threats: You may not publish or post threats of violence against others or promote violence against others.
And Twitter reserves the right to suspend accounts which break its rules:
When an account violates our abusive behavior policy, the actions we take against that account depend on the severity of the violation. We may ask users to verify or provide information, delete specific Tweets, or we may suspend or lock the account temporarily or permanently.
DC-based journalist Zaid Benjamin, who closely monitors jihadist social media outlets, makes a similar announcement, without mentioning the source:
Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is expected to speak about “the Islamic Spring” in a series of lectures to be released on social media.
— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) September 7, 2015
Also absent from the announcement is where those lectures will be made available.
Stopping militant groups such as Al-Qaeda and its splinter group, the ISIS, from using social media to spew their poison, spread their message, and recruit more adherents, has become an uphill struggle in recent years. Like most platforms, in their terms of service, platforms like Google and Facebook prohibit content that promotes violence, terrorism, and hate speech, and reserve the right to remove it from their sites. This doesn't stop supporters from riding the bandwagon.
Screen shot of a Topsy search for mentions of Ayman Al Zawahiri, in Arabic, on Twitter
A Topsy search of mentions of Ayman Al Zawahiri, in Arabic, shows more than 360 tweets in the last 23 days, many sharing his quotes and fatwas and praising the terror mastermind. One even provides a justpaste link to his books on Jihad.
Egyptian Al Zawahiri, 64, took over the leadership of Al-Qaeda in 2011, following the death of Saudi Osama Bin Laden.
The series of uprisings which have taken the Arab world by storm since the fall of Zainalabiden bin Ali's regime in Tunisia in early 2011 are collectively known as the Arab Spring. Some have coined the moniker Islamic Spring too as the unfolding events of the Arab Spring have given rise to the emergence of Islamic movements, some of whom have worked within the system, like Ennahda in Tunisia, while others like the ISIS have wreaked havoc in the region.
It is not clear which Islamic Spring Al Zawahiri will be referring to. Nevertheless, we can't wait to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, as journalist Sherine Tadros sarcastically points out:
Can't wait.. https://t.co/qOXUP4o4uP
— Sherine Tadros (@SherineT) September 7, 2015

author: Amira Al Hussaini


text:
Browsing the Web from Cuba’s Public Hotspots · Global Voices
Elaine Díaz

A WiFi symbol in Old Havana, Cuba. Photo by Nano Anderson, taken from Flickr under the CC BY 2.0 License.
It's 10 pm and Agramonte Park, in the central Cuban city of Camagüey, looks like it is going to explode. It is crowded with people focused intently on white screens that illuminate the darkness in the absence of streetlights. At night, the benches barely provide enough space for everyone. During the day, the sun scorches whoever tries to go online here. If you want to sit at a cafe with a WiFi signal, you are required to order something and pay for it.
La Rampa, a downtown Havana thoroughfare, can accommodate up to 100 simultaneously connected users. In parks with WiFi set up in Camagüey, the number falls to only 50.
“It has reached the maximum,” Alejo, a local blogger, tells me. “You realize this when you see a message saying your request cannot be processed when you enter your username and password,” he adds.
To use the Internet in Cuba, one must sign up for an account with ETECSA, the country’s parent company for all telecommunications services. There are two ways to get an account: you can buy a prepaid Nauta card, or obtain a contract with ETECSA that includes Internet browsing and email. In both cases, you are required to present official, government-issued identification, be it a state ID or passport.
Hotels provide Internet access services for prices ranging from the equivalent of US$4.50 to US$10 per hour, and they do not request any sort of personal information. But with an average monthly salary of US$20, this kind of access is unthinkable for most Cubans.
Three weeks ago, a Nauta card cost $2.50 on the black market. Today, prepaid cards circulating in the emerging black market of La Rampa cost $3 for browsing in WiFi zones. At official ETECSA retail outlets they cost $2, but users have to wait in long lines alongside people in need of charging their cell phones, paying their phone bills, or buying different products.
At present, Cubans experience the Internet in fits and starts. It is expensive and short-lived.
The neighborhood of Guanabo, also in Havana, lacks WiFi zones, but an ETECSA outlet with three computers and air conditioning – a real luxury compared to the one in neighboring Casino Deportivo – has become a popular gathering place for teens. Jennifer already has her Facebook account and proudly saves the page on her browser to show it to her mother, from her disconnected computer. “What did you look at most today?” I ask her. She shows me photos downloaded from the page for Los Ángeles, a trendy music group.
In La Rampa, Guanabo, Camagüey, or Casino Deportivo, everyone seems to look at the same things. Internet in Cuba – from public access points – is limited to one social network (Facebook), some email services, video and chat applications. It is barely a basic substitute for an expensive and inefficient telephone service. It's not as though there is only one browsing experience, that assumption would be a mistake. But walking around these places, one can observe generalized consumer patterns.
Young Cubans browsing the Internet in La Rampa, Havana. Photo by Elaine Díaz.
And the lack of full Internet access is only part of the problem. Prices are high. The locations of hotspots give people little choice but to sit on steps, curbs, and sidewalks while using the Web, making an unfavorable atmosphere for browsing. And there is no coherent strategy for teaching everyone how to use the Internet, beyond what is offered for university students and those working in key sectors of scientific development in the country. These factors have left most Cuban Internet users logging on for little more than utilitarian purposes.
At present, Cubans experience the Internet in fits and starts. It is expensive and short-lived. It is an investment, and one that must bring worthwhile returns for those who make it. Several ads posted on Revolico (a Cuba-based informal trade site similar to Craigslist) offer management services for personal Facebook accounts. “There is a man living near my house who manages accounts for three girls who have foreign pen pals. They respond to the messages and he sends them,” a user who did not wish to be identified tells me.
On the next corner, a young girl opens her Facebook account. It features a scandalous profile photo that says “I'm sexy.” Her parents think she is in a park with her friends, which is technically true. But no one has explained to her parents that online you can be in many places at the same time, and that some of these places can be dangerous. Or perhaps they’ve seen it on state television, a report describing this as a danger of the Internet, as something that happens far away in other countries, but never in Cuba, never to their children.
Add to this a new sense of urgency.In the Cuba of 2015, the Internet barely solves one of the most painful challenges that peaked in the 1990s: People's proximity to one another. With almost two million Cubans living in the United States and hundreds of thousands of families separated by immigration, Internet access lowers the barriers presented by visas and the astronomical cost of airline tickets. It unites people. Perhaps that is most important now.
For everything else, there will be time.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Elaine Díaz


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Election Day Has Begun in Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Trini gyul”; photo by Shiv, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.
After an insanely odd season of political campaigning, it is finally election day in Trinidad and Tobago. Netizen accounts on social media suggest that despite conjecture about a passive electorate, the voter turnout has been solid at most polling stations across the country:
132 candidates go after the votes of 1,099,245 electors in 41 electoral constituencies in today's #trinidad and #tobago elections
— Wesley Gibbings (@wgibbings) September 7, 2015
There has, however, been mischief making in the lead-up to the polls, which the opposition People's National Movement, according to the latest research, is predicted to win, though many feel it will be a tight race. At the PNM's final rally this past Saturday, a man who called himself ‘Jesus’ set fire to the stage; there were no injuries and the man was taken into police custody.
There have also been signs posted in the electoral district of San Fernando West suggesting that Faris Al Rawi, the PNM candidate for the area, was ineligible. The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), the body responsible for electoral management, has since issued a statement urging the public to ignore those notices, confirming that Al Rawi is a bona fide candidate.
This morning, there were two bits of concerning news. One was cited confirmation by the Acting Commissioner of Police that the police service is investigating a report that officers allegedly raided the homes of two United National Congress (UNC; the main party in the current People's Partnership coalition government) in search of “political and membership listings”.
The second was a statement by the EBC saying that “they must receive an official complaint about digital/social media campaigning on Election Day, in order to investigate.” It is against the law to solicit votes on election day. Opposition leader Dr. Keith Rowley has since submitted a formal complaint to the EBC:
UPDATE: PNM political leader, Dr. Keith Rowley, says his party has made an official complaint about digital campaigning to the EBC
— CCN TV6 (@tv6tnt) September 7, 2015
On Twitter, netizens posted comments about having done their duty by voting:
Civic Duty. Elections 2015 Trinidad and Tobago. Family. #elections #trinidad #tobago #2015 https://t.co/FhIfzobkNj
— Lea (@love_lea_lyds) September 7, 2015
Others reminded fellow citizens about the importance of voting, and most feedback was that the process was smooth, pleasant and incident-free. Trinidad and Tobago, unlike other regional territories, does not have a history of violent elections.
Today is the day Trinidad and Tobago. The country is in your hands……. #Elections #Trinidad #Tobago #PNM
— LD (@IIILD) September 7, 2015
@tv6tnt Trincity. Pretty smooth. Was in and out in probably 10 minutes. pic.twitter.com/Yp1Qb4PbYT
— Kamla Man (@jbsuperman) September 7, 2015
Other areas reported long waits:
Long lines at Wallerfield Early Childhood Centre in La Horquetta Talparo constituency #pushforpower pic.twitter.com/CnUYomFoub
— CCN TV6 (@tv6tnt) September 7, 2015
Voters in line at Dinsley-Trincity Gov't Primary School #S6TT #PushForPower @tv6tnt pic.twitter.com/TpuoUR9Agl
— Anselm Gibbs (@AnselmGibbs) September 7, 2015
Independent journalist Wesley Gibbings noted that:
the 69.88% voter turnout in 2010 was the highest since 1961 when 88.11% voted in #trinidad and #tobago #elections
— Wesley Gibbings (@wgibbings) September 7, 2015
2010 saw the voting into power of the current People's Partnership coalition government after citizens voted against the excesses and mismanagement of the Manning administration, who was the then-leader of the PNM.
Five years later, there seems to be an overwhelming feeling of deja-vu — the government of Kamla Persad-Bissessar has been plagued with allegations of corruption, poor governance and mudslinging — and according to some, that's just the tip of the iceberg. It remains to be seen whether the electorate is as disgruntled with the direction of the country as it was in 2010; tallying of the results will begin after the polls close at 6 p.m. Trinidad and Tobago time today.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Everyday Life in a Fragile State · Global Voices
Pernille Baerendtsen

Kaya Highway is a “rough road” running through Morobo from the Ugandan border to Yei. South Sudan, the size of France, has about 110 kilometres of tarmac in Juba, the capital, and only one tarmac road of 120 kilometres connecting the capital to the Ugandan border. Some parts of South Sudan become inaccessible during the rainy season. Photo: Pernille Bærendtsen.
One Saturday afternoon in August, I’m sitting with a colleague on the bank of the River Nile in Juba. The sight of the ancient river is tranquilizing. It leaves me with the impression that the river has chosen to ignore all the disturbances surrounding it to pursue its rapid, single-minded flow.
Some distance away to my right a man is about to break a wrecked ship into pieces. He sets the dry grass that has grown up through it on fire. The wind picks up. Black bits of soot rise in the air, blends with the red dust and settles on our white tablecloth.
Here, everything can change within a minute.
We are the khawadiya—the strangers—and we try hard to understand how this place works. We exhaust newspapers for information, conversations for meaning and negotiations for hints of peace. In the meantime, South Sudan exhausts its people beyond capacity.
The River Nile flows north through South Sudan. Photo: Pernille Bærendtsen.
Cars cross the border from Uganda loaded to the brim with human beings and cargo. Their iron bellies score the red earth’s unforgiving surface, which strikes back by wearing them thinner and thinner. We note the creased metal wrecks along Kaya Highway up to Yei.
According to the World Bank, about 38% of South Sudan’s population has to walk more than 30 minutes to collect drinking water. Women and girls fill tubs and jerry cans several times a day, until one day the plastic fractures—some will be stitched back to life, scars now exposed for the whole world to see that they once reached an inevitable breaking point. Kitchenware emerges scratched and bruised by a lifetime of harsh use and too many washings with cold, greasy water.
South Sudan is hard work. People clash and crash. Grow threadbare. Nevertheless, people move forward.
About South Sudan
The Republic of South Sudan became Africa’s 55th—and the world’s newest—country on July 9, 2011, following a peaceful secession from Sudan through a referendum in January 2011.
Conflict broke out in December 2013, and the country's development of faced a severe setback. The current hope is that the recently signed Compromise Peace Agreement will lead to greater stability.
NORMAL LIFE
Time is abundant in rural South Sudan. In fact, it appears as if time manages us. We get our breaking news by going down to the Kaya Highway and talking to passers-by. Newspapers are rare and usually days or weeks old. There is no TV, and the Internet is mainly accessible only to the few who work with NGOs. When it rains too long “the Internet sleeps”. The stuff our conversations is made of cannot be Googled.
Three of the staff at the compound where I am staying are pulling up groundnuts. We make small talk as the sun sets. One man explains how he, as a child, happened to shoot another child in the elbow:
“We used the AK-47s as pillows, because we had to be ready if somebody came to steal the cattle we were sent into the bush to look after. I just pulled the trigger by impulse.”
The wounded boy was taken to the elders. Then to the clinic. A walk of many miles in the dark bush. He survived.
“Do you think South Sudan maybe is the worst country in the world?” asks another after his colleague has finished the story.
My heart sinks. He notes my apprehension, and concludes: “I think Somalia is worse.”
Many people have similar stories to tell, of life in war and life in peace. In between is the “normal”. It pops up as we discuss the planning of radio programmes.
“Let us just have normal life,” our editor at the radio says.
“What's normal?”
“Normal is when food prices are not too high. It is when you don't have to dig deep into your pockets. It is when you don't have to deal with insecurity,” she explains.
We talk about the importance of neighbors. “You cannot live without them. One day you have no cassava flour, and they will give you, or say, ‘take those greens in my little garden for your sauce.'”
A family in Morobo. The majority of the South Sudanese population resides in rural areas. Photo: Pernille Bærendtsen
DEMANDS FOR PEACE
Things have only ever been “normal” for relatively short periods in the history of South Sudan. But there are pockets of peace, and people who draw on incredible personal reserves as they push forward.
On August 27, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir signed his part of a long awaited agreement on peace. The Compromise Peace Agreement, as it is called, comes, nevertheless, with many reservations. It is an agreement designed by people who know much more of war than of peace, and could be regarded more as an agreement on “non-war” than on peace.
On an early Saturday morning in late July, as I drive into the town of Yei, I encounter a protest, a group of women carrying signs demanding peace and co-existence: “We are mothers. We need peace.” Suddenly humbled, I stop the car. From the side of the street I watch the women pass.
Later, I meet with the people at the Centre for Development and Democracy, who have taken an active role in preparing these women for this protest. Back in 2005-2007 I worked with their “sister-centres” on the other side of the border in Uganda. We worked on the premise that if you provided South Sudanese youth with books they would complete their educations and one day return to rebuild South Sudan. “You can bomb schools,” we used to say. “But you can never take education away from the people”.
When I returned to South Sudan in 2013, 2014—and now again in 2015—and I'd meet a South Sudanese born in the 1980s, I'd ask: “Where did you go to secondary school?” I’m astounded by the number I meet who completed secondary school by studying in these resource centres.
The people at the centre in Yei have now shifted towards taking an active role in civil society building. This makes a significant difference in the current situation in South Sudan, where media and freedom of expression suffer badly. During the weeks leading up to the negotiation of the peace agreement, the Centre hosted meetings and talks on the agreement’s content. They also educate citizens on legislation, duties and obligations. It takes extra energy to keep addressing agendas where you might be met with resistance.
We sit under the big mango tree dubbed the “tree of wisdom”, and share stories of former Danish development workers, of mutual friends. “You know, they stayed with us for a long time, so we learnt from them.”
The time factor is essential. Sound development does not create results overnight—it take years and years. Here in South Sudan I have encountered what in other places would be a simple problem, only for it to morph into something far more complicated. Few khawadiya, myself included, can devote the time it really takes. It is too easy to compare South Sudan to other African countries and point at the hardship, the madness and the shortcomings. It is too easy to excuse ourselves, and say this money could be better spent somewhere else. Patience and understanding might be the most difficult thing for us to give, but it is often what makes most sense.
A student in the library at Centre for Development and Democracy in Yei. According to the World Bank, only 27% of the population aged 15 years and above is literate. The literacy rate for males is 40%, and 16% for females.
Photo: Pernille Bærendtsen
24-HOUR MEDIA BLACKOUT
The media and civil society have always experienced tough times in Sudan and South Sudan, but the conflict in 2013 has made working in the media even more dangerous. Journalists explain that they receive threats, often from a person calling from an unknown number to tell you to stop writing, for example, on Facebook.
On the night of August 19, Moi Peter Julius, a young journalist, was killed. Shot in the back with a pistol at close range by an “unknown gunman.” The killing took place shortly after President Salva Kiir threatened to kill journalists for reporting “against the country.” A few days later, the presidential spokesperson withdrew the statement, saying that Kiir did not mean it “that way.”
I meet with some journalists in Juba the night of the August 20. The following morning they decide to honor the murdered journalist with a 24-hour media blackout.
Several newspapers have closed down. One of the most popular English-language papers, The Citizen, was closed in early August and had to lay off staff.
Besides direct threats, journalists, like everyone else, have to deal with the rigors of life in an increasingly intense and unstable political environment. In Juba you can be pulled over at any time and intimidated by men carrying big guns. Politicians, activists and journalists disappear. “Unknown gunmen” remain unknown. It is a daily struggle made up of self-censorship, financial hardship and existential doubts about one’s own sanity and intellectual future. Then there are the journalists who toe the line. The media landscape is complicated. The lack of free media is going to hurt South Sudan not just in the near term, but also in the future.
DISPLACED MEMORIES
On the last Saturday in August I receive an invitation to join a poetry salon. It takes place on the outskirts of Juba, at the foot of the Jebel Kujur mountain in the home of Lawrence Korbandy Kodis, former chairperson of the South Sudan Human Rights Commission, now legal advisor to South Sudan’s president. Later the Minister for Education graces us with his company. Also present are Moses Akol, a former ambassador to Sweden, and Jimmy Wongo, former minister in the government of the Central Equatoria State.
These poetry sessions take place bi-monthly, and the group has kept them going for the past eight months. This one starts with questions about how— in a fragmented country, run by people with selective memories—one could use poetry and fiction to stitch together a more complete history.
A talk follows about how to encourage people to write what they know, about their own history, their homeland. When people are displaced by conflict, memories are displaced too. The history of South Sudan is fragmented and full of gaps.
“If you don’t speak out history will be wiped out,” someone says. “The villains will be our history.”
I get a lift back to my hotel with Wongo. He apologizes that there were fewer women than usual. “But you were there,” he says. I am grateful for having been invited in, and as I explain how special this experience has been for me, the car in front of us is being robbed.
We are stopped at a roundabout, awaiting the green light. The car rolls backwards as the driver jumps out to pursue the robber among the waiting cars. I feel the slow rush of panic as I lock the doors of Wongo's car. We are stuck. We cannot escape. All we can do is wait.
Wongo is completely calm. The red light changes to green, and we continue on our way. He talks about the peace agreement and “the window of hope”—that ceasefires might eventually develop into peace.
A girl and her sibling at the market in Yei. South Sudan is a young nation, with two-thirds of the population under the age of 30. Photo: Pernille Bærendtsen.
IT’S NOT YOU—IT’S ME
On August 27 the president finally signed the agreement. What its impact will be, however, is far from clear, and there are no wild celebrations apart from the usual loud crowd in the hotel bar.
“This is a kind of peace, and all kinds of peace are better than war,” says a guy in the bar who “works in oil” and who can down tequila like there's no tomorrow. I smile back.
I was in South Sudan when the war began in December 2013. On the way to the airport as I was being evacuated from Juba, a young SPLA soldier in khaki military uniform and broken Ray-Ban sunglasses waved our car off the road at a makeshift checkpoint. He appeared to be fuelled by a mixture of alcohol and relief that the fighting in Juba had subsided.
He stuck his head through the open window and stared us, the departing expats, in the face. “Come back! Why do you always have to leave?” he said, looking at each of us in turn, seeking reciprocated contact. His eyes met mine as he completed his inspection. “I love you,” he said. “Just go!”
That declaration of love put all my previous break-ups in perspective. I was embarrassed to leave South Sudan this way. The old break-up cliché “it’s not you, it’s me” had never been more fitting.
The resilience of the South Sudanese—their apparent ability to adapt easily to stress and adversity—is what keeps this country going. But it can also be ruthless. South Sudan is not for the faint-hearted. There were many days when South Sudan got the better of me. I have sat back in resignation and felt I would cry at even the slightest injustice. There have been days where I severely doubted the whole concept of South Sudan—doubts which, in the end, were less about the country than about my own capacity to deal with it.
“Why South Sudan?” a colleague asked before I left this time. It is true, but also a bit feeble, to say that South Sudan is unlike any other place. Freedom of expression is under pressure, but I keep finding people who defy it and think in original and innovative ways. People who get up each morning and move forward in spite of the most impossible conditions. In South Sudan, I’ve always found people who long for deeper conversations about the space in between life and death.
To me, South Sudan is all about them.
In Kakwa, the local language of the areas of Yei and Morobo, “‘Kodyo na…?’”means “What about me?!’. Photo: Pernille Bærendtsen
Pernille Bærendtsen worked with a community radio station in South Sudan from July to September 2015. She previously worked with South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda in 2005-2007, and carried out short term assignments in South Sudan in 2013 and 2014.

author: Pernille Baerendtsen


text:
For Animals and Their Humans, Love Speeds the Post-Quake Recovery in Nepal · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

This buffalo in the village of Kaskikot, Nepal, survived last April's magnitude 7.8 earthquake, but an estimated 55,000 farm animals and nearly half a million domesticated birds did not. The losses were deeply felt in a place where livestock are often thought of a members of the family. Credit: Laura Spero. Used with PRI's permission
This article and radio report by Laura Spero for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on August 29, 2015, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
When a buffalo is born in the Nepali village of Kaskikot, it’s treated a lot like a human birth. Today Aamaa, whom I live with, and I are cooking a special meal in honor of baby O’Neil, a buffalo who was born last week. We’re making rice pudding.
People and animals nurture tender relationships here in Nepal. The earthquake that took nearly 9,000 human lives earlier this year also claimed an estimated 55,000 farm animals and nearly half a million birds, and the effects of these losses have been felt by both people and animals. Especially in villages like Tripureswor, 100 miles east of Aamaa’s house, where nearly every single one of the 947 houses were destroyed.
Tripureswor resident Binda Thapa has a photo of her house after the earthquake — a pile of rocks with two pieces of tin roofing strewn over it. She says her buffalo was pinned down under its collapsed shed for hours, and was jittery for weeks afterwards. For a while it didn’t even provide milk predictably. Maybe, she thinks, out of fear or shock.
Producer Laura Spero has lived with this woman — whom she calls Aamaa —in the Nepali village of Kaskikot for much of the past 12 years. Credit: Laura Spero. Used with PRI's permission
Farm animals play a vital role in the lives of rural Nepalis. Buffalo are raised for milk, and their waste is used for fertilizer and mixed in to the mud in traditional stone houses. Goats are sold for meat, oxen plough and chickens provide eggs. People like Aamaa and Binda spend most of their day caring for their livestock, beginning with milking in the morning, then cutting grass for feed and carrying it home in heavy loads each afternoon.
From the outside, it’s easy to reduce livestock to economics, and that’s certainly one aspect of their existence. But they’re also members of the family.
You have to love the animals you raise more than your children or parents, Aamaa tells me. It’s a lot of work — cutting grass for it, cooking for it, cleaning the dung out of the shed multiple times a day. The reward for providing that love is that we humans get to eat.
And it’s not just humans who suffer when their animals are harmed. The reverse is also true. Livestock often have one primary caretaker, like Binda, who reenacted for me the loving conversation that she has with her animals each day as she’s coming back from the fields.
“These animals are like our mothers,” says Nabin Thapa, who lost three goats and a baby buffalo in to the quake the village of Tripureswor. “We drink their milk and get stronger. Even the old people among us are like babies to them.” Credit: Laura Spero. Used with PRI's permission
They’ll hear her, she says, and respond, “My human is coming!” “Maybe they’re saying, ‘My mother is coming! Give me something to eat!’” Binda says. So she’ll coo at them, she’ll toss some grass to them and say, “Hey guys, are you little ones doing good?” And they say “baaa,” “meh meh,” “moooo…”
What this all means is that, for animals whose people were killed in the earthquake, it’s like losing a parent. And that feeling goes both ways.
Anyway, you look at it, says Nabin Thapa, who lost three goats and a baby buffalo in Tripureswor, these animals are like our mothers. “We drink their milk and get stronger,” he says. “Even the old people among us are like babies to them.”
He shrugs and adds, “Nobody’s even asked how many animals we’ve lost until now. I’m glad you’re asking.”
As villages like Tripureswor rebuild, people and animals alike are left to contend with their mutual losses. Meanwhile, back in Kaskikot, Aamaa and I are preparing an important ritual: the celebration a new life.
Since baby O’Neil’s was born 11 days ago, we haven’t mixed her mother’s sacred milk in to any of our other food. On the 11th day, we held a ceremony to name the baby, just like we would for a human. Today we can inaugurate its milk in to our daily meal. In to the rice pudding it goes.
Aamaa leans back against the clay wall of the kitchen. “These souls we’re raising,” she says, “are souls just like our own.”
This pot of rice pudding marks an important moment in the life of Aamaa's household — the first use of her buffalo's milk 11 days after the birth of a new calf. Maintaining rituals like this are a vital part of restoring normal life after April's deadly earthquake. Credit: Laura Spero. Used with PRI's permission

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
Iranian Newsha Tavakolian Wins Prestigious Prince Claus Award for Her ‘Bold’ Photography · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Portrait of Newsha Tavakolian taken for the Prince Claus Fund by Frank van Beek. Image from the Prince Claus Fund and used with permission.
Tori Egherman contributed translation to this post.
Newsha Tavakolian, considered to be one of Iran's first professional female photographers, was announced as the recipient of the Dutch Prince Claus Award for 2015 earlier this month.
The award honours outstanding achievements in the field of culture and development. In a press release, the Prince Claus Foundation explained Tavakolian's selection due to her “bold reportage of political events to sensitive portraits and evocative series on subjects such as the insecurity of middle-class youth, female Kurdish fighters or the impact of sanctions on individual lives” which “inspires young photographers across the Middle East”.
Her work has been published in Time magazine, National Geographic, Le Figaro, Colors, The New York Times, Der Spiegel, and Iran's first women's newspaper Zan. A recent photo essay of hers entitled “Stress and Hope in Tehran” in The New York Times about ordinary lives of Iranians in Tehran affected by sanctions gained a lot of traction in anticipation of the historic and disputed nuclear agreement achieved between Iran and the P5+1 countries.
A photo essay by Tavakolian on ordinary lives affected by sanctions in Iran. Screenshot of The New York Times spread.
Her husband is Thomas Erdbrink, a Dutch national and the Tehran bureau chief for The New York Times. In an tributary article titled “She is not ‘the wife': Newsha Tavakolian had to fight for every step” for the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant on 5 September, 2015, he described her journalistic ethos, passion and integrity:
In haar eigen land werd haar persaccreditatie haar twee keer afgenomen door de autoriteiten. De laatste keer dat ze niet kon werken, lag ze maanden depressief op de bank. Boos, op alles en iedereen. Ze voelde zich nutteloos.
Uit protest begon ze een project in onze slaapkamer. Het werd een studio waarin ze portretten maakte van haar generatiegenoten, net als zij boos en depressief. Ze noemde het werk Look. Newsha wilde de wereld laten zien dat Iran anders is dan iedereen denkt, en de Iraniërs laten zien hoe depressief ze waren geworden…
Dat succes maakte haar nog vastberadener. In 2014 gaf een Franse bankier haar een prijs van 50 duizend euro voor een project met jonge Iraniërs. Maar toen hij het ‘De verloren generatie’ wilde noemen en persoonlijk haar foto's ging bewerken, pikte ze dat niet. Ze gaf het geld terug.
‘Mijn integriteit is niet te koop’, schreef ze in een open brief die duizenden keren werd gedeeld op Facebook. Uiteindelijk werd de bankier door zijn eigen jury buitenspel gezet en Newsha's project werd precies zo uitgevoerd als zij wilde.
In her own country, her press credentials were revoked twice by authorities. The last time she couldn’t work, she spent long months depressed on the couch. Angry at everything and everyone. She felt worthless.
In protest, she began a project in our bedroom. It became a studio where she made portraits of her generation, who were just as angry and depressed as she was. She named it “Look”. Newsha wanted the world to see that Iran is different from what they think, and she wanted Iranians to see how depressed she had become…
That success made her more resolute. In 2014, a French banker gave her a prize of 50,000 euros for a project with young Iranians. But she wouldn’t stand for his decision to call it “The Lost Generation” and to personally edit her photos. She gave the money back.
“My integrity is not for sale,” she wrote in an open letter that was shared thousands of times on Facebook. In the end, the banker was overruled by his own jury and Newsha’s project went forward exactly the way she wanted it to.
On Tavakolian's struggles to overcome the hurdles before a female photojournalist in Iran, Erdbrink explained:
Iemand vertelde haar over een nieuwe krant, Zan (Vrouw). Newsha smeekte om een baantje als fotografe, maar mocht er alleen als telefoniste aan de slag. Op een dag, toen alle mannelijke fotografen de deur uit waren, was er een spoedklus voor de voorpagina. ‘Ga jij dan in godsnaam maar’, zei de hoofdredactrice.
Die dag stuurde ze vanaf de redactie een fax naar haar vader: ‘Ik heb nu een echte baan met salaris. Ik ga mijn eigen auto kopen en op vakantie naar de Kaspische zee.’
Maar voor vakantie had ze geen tijd, toen niet en nu ook niet.
In plaats daarvan kwam ze als enige vrouw een voetbalstadion vol mannen binnen door over een muur te klimmen. Toen de mannelijke hoofdredacteur haar foto van een demonstratie voor meer vrouwenrechten niet op de voorpagina wilde zetten, maakte ze zo'n ruzie met hem dat ze werd ontslagen – een week later werd ze weer aangenomen.
In 1999, toen woedende studenten zes dagen lang in de straten van Teheran vochten voor meer vrijheid, sliep ze een week tussen de barricades. Ze klom in bomen om foto's te nemen, haar mannelijke collega's kunnen nog levendig vertellen hoe verontwaardigd ze waren dat een jong meisje veel betere beelden had dan zij.
She heard about a new journal: Zan (Woman). Newsha begged for a job as a photographer, but there was only an opening for a receptionist. One day, when all the male photographers were out, there was an urgent need for an image for the front cover. “Go after it, for God’s sake,” the chief editor said.
That day she sent a fax to her father: “I have a real job with a salary. I’m going to buy my own car and vacation on the Caspian Sea.” But she had no time for a vacation, not then and not now.
Newsha climbed over a wall and was the only woman in a football stadium full of men. When the male chief editor didn’t want to publish her photograph from a women’s rights demonstration on the cover, she argued so fiercely with him that she was fired and then a week later rehired.
In 1999, when for six days angry students fought in the streets of Tehran for more freedom, she slept between the barricades. She climbed trees to make photos. Her male colleagues can vividly recall how indignant they were that a young girl took better pictures than they did.
A screen shot of “Our Man in Tehran” on The New York Times, featuring Thomas Erdbrink and Newsha Tavakolian.
Newsha was also prominently featured in Erdbrink's series “Our Man in Tehran”, a documentary produced by Dutch Television channel VPRO and featured on The New York Times.
On her reaction to gaining attention as merely Erdbrink's husband, Erdbrink described her annoyance as such:
Nadat mijn televisieserie over Iran was uitgekomen, hebben we maanden ruzie gehad. Sommige mensen in Nederland noemden haar ‘de vrouw van Onze man in Teheran’. Had ze daar al die jaren voor gevochten, om ‘de vrouw van’ te zijn?, verweet ze me.
After my series on Iran was released, we fought for months. Some people in the Netherlands called her “the wife of Our Man in Tehran.” She reproached me asking if she'd fought all these years to “become the wife of”?
Portrait of an angry Kurdish woman in Northeastern Syria… #onassignment #Timemagazine
A photo posted by Newsha Tavakolian (@newshatavakolian) on
Upon hearing of her 100,000-euro prize for the Prins Claus Award, Tavakolian explained on her Facebook page:
Unfortunately it is hard for me to enjoy this prize as much as I would like to, seeing the region where I work and live in flames and tens of thousands seeking refuge in faraway lands.
She asked for suggestions for organisations she could contribute to that “help people in a good and transparent way,” and dedicated her award to “all colleagues who risk their lives telling stories of others that no one listens too.”
Tavakolian has allocated 15,000 euros of her prize money to an organisation helping Syrian and Iraqi refugees, while 30,000 euros of her prize money has already been set aside for various charities and funds working on independent photography, children's cancer and wildlife preservation in Iran.
On her reactions to the prize, Tavakolian also said:
I am extremely humbled and overwhelmed to have been chosen as the winner of the 2015 principal Prince Claus award. I will never forget this day in my life.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Malian Web Activists Finance Academic Support for Timbuktu Students · Global Voices
Fatouma Harber

Tombouctou high school via Global Voices author Johanne Veilleux CC-BY-20
The Internet community in Timbuktu, Mali, has come up with a new IT project called ” Tombouctou” to support the academic system of a city under duress after the recent civil war.
The main aim of this US$1,000-project, which is being entirely financed by Malian web activists called Recam (The Association of Active Malian Citizens), is to offer a month of catch-up classes to end-of-year exam candidates from Timbuktu High School as well as to the student teachers from Timbuktu's Franco-Arabic teacher training institute Hégire of Timbuktu. These private classes are not only intended to help the beneficiaries with exam preparation, but also to enable a higher exam pass rate in a town which, just like all the other towns in the north of Mali, is dealing with a major security crisis.
Academic support classes at Timbuktu's Franco-Arabic teacher training institute (IFM), Hégire de Tombouctou, with the author's permission
What's more, students from Mahamane Alassane Haidara High School and the student teachers from Timbuktu's teacher training institute have experienced a rocky academic year, with classes being disrupted by numerous social movements such as strikes, teachers withholding marks and problems with diverted scholarships.
So during the month of classes, 200 students, of whom around 50 were girls, were able to benefit from private classes in mathematics, physics and philosophy. The gesture was welcomed by the school's administration and the beneficiaries, who were moved to see Malians outside of the education domain think of them and their futures by helping them to prepare the end-of-year exams for the students (teachers and the baccalaureate [A levels] for the high school students). One student told us:
Je promets de faire de mon mieux pour passer aux examens. C’est la seule manière de leur dire merci. Nous devons étudier, avoir des diplômes pour revenir servir notre pays. Le Mali a besoin de nous tous, grands comme petits.
I promise to do my best in the exams. This is the only way of saying thank you. We must study and have qualifications in order to go back and serve our country. Mali needs all of us, the rich and poor alike.
Academic support classes at Timbuktu High School with the author's permission
The headmaster of Mahamane Alassane Haidara High School in Timbuktu, Mr. Sidibé, stated via email:
Nous ne pouvons que remercier toute bonne volonté qui apporte son soutien pour l’éducation des enfants qui sont les futurs dirigeants du Mali de demain. Vraiment merci au ReCam.
We can only thank any goodwill which lends its support to the education of children who will go on to become tomorrow's leaders of Mali. With special thanks being given to Recam.
In wishing this venture a strong and prosperous future for the students, the Timbuktu education administration authorities have welcomed this effort and this act of generosity.

author: Fatouma Harber


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Mother of Palestinian Toddler Burnt to Death in West Bank Settler Attack Declared Dead · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Eighteen-month-old Ali Al Dawabsheh with his parents. Ali was burned to death in a settler attack on his home in Duma, in the West Bank, on July 31. His father died on August 8. His mother died earlier today. Both his parents and four-year-old brother were injured in the fire which killed him. Photograph shared by @LinahAlsaafin on Twitter
The mother of a Palestinian baby burned to death in an Israeli settler arson attack on her home in Duma village in the occupied West Bank died earlier today. Her death sparked anger and outrage as Palestinians grapple with the loss of the third member of the same family while the culprits are free.
Eighteen-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was instantly killed and his parents and four-year-old brother were injured, with up to 75 per cent of their bodies burned, according to medics in neighboring Nablus, who spoke to Al Jazeera, when the attack took place on July 31.
Their home was torched along with a neighbor's house by a group of settlers who left graffiti reading “revenge” and “long live Messiah” on the burned out walls. A local resident, Mesalem Daoubasah, told Haaretz Israeli newspaper that he saw four settlers fleeing the scene with several local residents following them in pursuit. According to Daoubasah, the settlers fled toward the nearby settlement of Ma'aleh Ephraim.
Riham, a teacher who just turned 27, is survived by her son, Ahmed, who is said to be in stable condition. His father Saad, aged 32, died on August 8.
Gaza Writes Back explains:
Little Ahmed Dawabsheh is fatherless, motherless, brotherless. He is the epitome of Palestine. Israel must pay! pic.twitter.com/rMgbCkbRDN
— Gaza Writes Back (@ThisIsGaZa) September 7, 2015
From Gaza, Dr Bilal Dabour adds:
Riham, the mother, has died. It is confirmed this time. Her very journey close to death several times testifies to the Zionist cruelty.
— Belal Dabour – Gaza (@Belalmd12) September 7, 2015
Israeli journalist Mairav Zonszein points out that no suspects were charged with the crime:
Reham Dawabshe, mother of Ali and Ahmed, died of her wounds this morning. It has been 1.5 months since Duma arson.Still no suspects charged
— Mairav Zonszein (@MairavZ) September 7, 2015
And Palestinian Lina Alsaafin notes:
Israeli police set up hotline-0508386626-for anyone who has info on the murderers. Um, attackers fled to Maaleh Efraim colony, start w/ that
— لينة (@LinahAlsaafin) September 7, 2015
Riham was laid to rest in Duma, in a grave next to her husband and son. Here are some photographs of her students mourning her death, shared on Twitter by Gaza Writes Back:
Jewish settlers murdered a mother, a daughter, a sister, a loving and caring teacher. Rest in Peace Reham Dawabsheh pic.twitter.com/ITz6PY3K0l
— Gaza Writes Back (@ThisIsGaZa) September 7, 2015


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Grand Theft Auto and More: The Grim Reality of Life in ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ · Global Voices
Will Wright

Reports leaked by Anonymous International make DNR seem like a scene straight out of the Grand Theft Auto video game. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
In recent months, the Russian data-leaking group Anonymous International has published a series of communications detailing the grim reality of daily life in the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People's Republic” (DNR). Rampant crime, lawlessness, and horrific instances of rape and murder now plague the residents of this separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine, according to the information released by Anonymous International.
The latest leak, published on September 2, allegedly reveals correspondence between officials from the DNR's office of public prosecutor and Ministry for State Security from late 2014 through early 2015.
«Вожди» приходят и уходят, а пи..ец остается или про некоторые документы МГБ ДНР http://t.co/JIab2pgNPg pic.twitter.com/q95hzkazSd
— Shaltay Boltay (@b0ltai2) September 2, 2015
“Leaders” come and go, but everything remains f***ed up, or some documents from the DNR Ministry of State Security
A lengthy report by the Ministry of State Security, the first page of which is pictured in the tweet above, describes most of the DNR leadership as a criminal group headed by Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko, intent on abusing their positions of authority to reap illegal incomes and solicit bribes. As summarized by The Insider, the report details how DNR fighters terrorize the local population by engaging in kidnapping, robbery, torture, and sometimes murder.
Another report prepared by the DNR public prosecutor's office in January 2015 provides a more specific account of the indignities suffered by Donetsk locals, and also identifies some of the leading culprits behind the abuses. Some of the most commonly filed citizen grievances include the seizure of vehicles, documents, and other valuables, the detention of family members by armed men and their disappearance, and the seizure of commercial and private property. The report also notes that complaints about illegal actions by armed militias most often involve the Oplot and Vostok battalions.
Regarding the Vostok battalion, a battle-hardened unit from Chechnya with close ties to the Russian Defense Ministry that was deployed to eastern Ukraine in spring 2014, the leaked report notes:
Таким образом, противозаконные действия вооруженных подразделений, входящих в состав батальона «Восток», свидетельствуют о создании крупного устойчивого вооруженного бандитского формирования, деятельность которого направлена на личностное обогащение любым способом, не только путем вооруженных рейдерских захватов производственных объектов и установления контроля над субъектами хозяйствования, но и путем тотального контроля территорий некоторых городов и районов Донецкой Народной Республики, что способствует дискредитации и международной изоляции нашего государства.
Consequently, the illegal activities of armed units of the “Vostok” battalion indicate the creation of large, established armed gangs pursuing personal enrichment in any way, not only through armed raids and takeovers of industrial facilities and establishment of control over economic entities, but also through the total control of the territories of some cities and districts of The Donetsk People's Republic, which contributes to the discreditation and international isolation of our state.
The latest leak also details an agreement allegedly reached in a meeting in October 2014 between DNR leader Alexander Zakharchenko, regional crime bosses, and Rinat Akhmetov, one of Ukraine's most powerful oligarchs and a close associate of former President Viktor Yanukovych. The deal apparently involved putting Akhmetov's people in key positions in DNR government structures, cementing Zakharchenko's hold on power, and doling out government positions and industrial assets to regional power brokers, including crime bosses and people linked to Yanukovych, who now lives in Russia after fleeing Ukraine in February 2014. As for the future of the separatist-controlled territory, the agreement specifies the goal of full autonomy for the Donbas within Ukraine and a status equivalent to that given to Crimea in 1991.
In response to media questions about the leak, Akhmetov's press office said he does not comment on “false and provocative” information circulating online.
Intriguingly, the new leak also reveals internal population surveys allegedly conducted on rebel-held territory in December 2014. According to these documents, trust in the DNR leadership is starkly described as “not only declining, but generally absent,” while general sentiment is said to be summarized by the slogan “the authorities are bandits.” A feeling of abandonment and disappointment with the level of humanitarian aid from Russia is also noted as prevalent. The percentage of the population wanting to join Russia is found to have fallen from 77 to 48 percent, with the rest of the population roughly split on full independence for the DNR versus autonomy within Ukraine. The polling identifies former separatist commander and Russian citizen Igor Strelkov as the most popular political figure, while Zakharchenko's ratings are noted to have suffered the sharpest recent decline among local leaders. An account of popular unrest in the village of Shakhtersk by locals upset with looting and a lack of humanitarian aid is also provided.
Earlier this summer, Anonymous International also leaked a series of Donetsk police reports painting a similarly grim picture of life in east Ukraine's separatist-controlled territory.
Оперативные сводки МВД ДНР, криминал среди обстрелов http://t.co/TGJBrkhLNw pic.twitter.com/SaMBnsMx9f
— Shaltay Boltay (@b0ltai) June 29, 2015
Operational reports of the DNR Interior Ministry, crime in the midst of shelling
These alleged police reports detail horrific instances of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder, and also provide accounts of unsanctioned protests by the local population.
The Insider, in a summary of the leaked police reports, notes that while Donetsk has previously been one of the country's most crime-ridden areas, the new information reveals a dramatic deterioration of conditions in the region:
Как мы видим, если верить статистике украинской милиции, в Донецкой области до войны происходило меньше 1 убийства в день. Поскольку ДНР является лишь частью Донецкой области, то там убийства должны происходить еще реже (тем более с учетом снижения численности населения из-за массового отъезда мирного населения). Но судя по открывшимся документам мы видим обратное – ежедневно происходит от 1 до 9 убийств (в среднем около 3), все это, не считая пропавших без вести и найденных трупов, где причину смерти установить не удалось. Таким образом, статистика по тяжким преступлениям выросла в несколько раз.
As we can see, if you believe the statistics of the Ukrainian police in the Donetsk region, less than one murder per day occurred before the war. Since the DNR is only a part of the whole Donetsk region, murder should occur there even less frequently (especially in view of population decline due to the exodus of the civilian population). However, the leaked documents show the opposite – every day there are 1 to 9 murders (an average of about 3), and all this without counting the missing and those found dead where the cause of death could not be determined. Therefore, the occurence of violent crimes has increased several times over.
The Insider also characterizes the kind of crimes described in the leaked police reports as more gruesome, including “kidnapping in broad daylight by men in camouflage uniforms, child rape, and armed robbery (again—all in public places in the light of day),” and concludes that crime has become “more cynical and open.”
While questions continue to swirl about how Anonymous International obtains the information it publishes, and why the group releases certain information when it does, the documents and correspondence leaked by Anonymous International are widely considered to be genuine, if difficult to verify.
These latest leaks appear to again confirm that the greatest tragedy of the conflict in eastern Ukraine has been the terrible toll it has inflicted on the civilian population living there.

author: Will Wright


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Whatever the Weather, Trinidad & Tobago Is Voting · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Rainstorm. Public domain image by Pixabay. Remixed by Global Voices.
Today is election day in Trinidad and Tobago. At around lunch time heavy rainstorms began, causing flooding and raising concerns that the weather could have an adverse effect on voter turnout. Some netizens even wondered whether the weather could be put forward as a valid reason to extend voting hours.
Rain like the proverbial “peas” for #trinidad #elections pic.twitter.com/LNUNREXosD
— Wesley Gibbings (@wgibbings) September 7, 2015
Heavy rainfall in T&T on election day. Photo taken by Achsah Gulston along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway #S6TT pic.twitter.com/sYM5mgjDHf
— CCN TV6 (@tv6tnt) September 7, 2015
Midday rains seemed to have affected the flow of early-afternoon voters in the Couva South constituency.
— Jabari Fraser (@JabariFraser) September 7, 2015
The foul weather contributed to traffic congestion in certain areas of the country, to the point where it was announced that the Priority Bus Route, a roadway usually reserved for public transportation and emergency vehicles, would be open to privately registered cars today:
Lots of cars on the road heading East and Central #traffic #PushForPower @tv6tnt #S6TT pic.twitter.com/tuHkTt9XZC
— Achsah Gulston (@AGulstonTV6) September 7, 2015
Priority Bus Route is open to the public until midnight – @mowigovtt #S6TT
— CCN TV6 (@tv6tnt) September 7, 2015
While some found themselves stranded because of the floods, others were adamant that a little rain was not going to stop them from exercising their franchise:
Fire officers helping people stranded because of the rain/flood. Corner South Quay & Charlotte St. @tv6tnt #s6tt pic.twitter.com/6XgCGrkuvn
— Kejan Haynes (@KejanHaynes) September 7, 2015
Rain or Sunshine my vote will count #elections2015 @tv6tnt pic.twitter.com/EY8YMA4S4k
— Hannah Bee (@MzzzzBee) September 7, 2015
@tv6tnt Voted on a rainy day at polling booth #129. pic.twitter.com/58coptqI3i
— Darren (@Darren_017) September 7, 2015
@tv6tnt so happy I voted today no rain would stop me. pic.twitter.com/zOTlAr13xK
— Lariel-God's lioness (@laurella_s) September 7, 2015
One Twitter user put it all in perspective for anyone who might have been considering staying home because of the weather:
#PushForPower @tv6tnt Protect your franchise. Rain doh keep us from feteing it cah keep us from voting. pic.twitter.com/pxBWdwNJPr
— Marissa Davis (@triniMRD) September 7, 2015
Facebook user Rhoda Bharath put it more plainly:
90 minutes until the polls close.
Do not let the rain win this election.
Get out and vote!
#BeatOut2015
On Facebook, journalist Vernon O'Reilly Ramesar couldn't resist taking a jab at the media's coverage of the situation by posting a photograph of stormy skies with the caption:
And across the nation, reporters smiled at their originality as they scribbled…’ not even heavy rain could dampen the enthusiasm of eager voters.’
Clichéd as it may be, it seemed that the voter turnout was indeed high, bad weather or not:
People reaaaaal voting boy – WHEEEEEEE FOOT pic.twitter.com/l1XoHV9F5Z
— Leslie Ann Boisselle (@trinilab) September 7, 2015
My Instagram feed is filled with ink-stained finger-selfies, meaning it's Election Day in T&T! Here's the low-down: http://t.co/NZPAhBEwG9
— Martine Powers (@martinepowers) September 7, 2015
It has been confirmed that the polls will remain open for an extra hour—until 7 p.m. Trinidad and Tobago time—because of the inconvenience and delays caused by the flooding and traffic.
Due to weather conditions, EBC extends voting to 7 pm in Trinidad only pic.twitter.com/an7TCGRCRj
— CCN TV6 (@tv6tnt) September 7, 2015


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Will Singapore Vote for Continuity or Change? · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Opposition candidates from the Workers’ Party hold an election rally. Photo from the Facebook page of Workers’ Party
After the festive celebration of the country’s 50th founding anniversary last month, Singapore is now preparing for the general election on September 11. For the first time in Singapore history, all 89 seats are being contested, which means the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) has to work harder to maintain its dominance in the polls. PAP has been in power in the past 50 years and has never lost an election, although it got fewer votes in the 2011 elections.
The prime minister’s slogan, “With you, for you, for Singapore”, reminds voters of the country’s achievements under the leadership of PAP. Meanwhile, opposition parties are highlighting the need for change and the importance of checks and balance in the government. The main theme of the opposition Workers’ Party is “Empower your future”, while the battle cry of Singaporeans First Party, another opposition group, is “Restore our nation”.
Indeed, PAP is right to argue that Singapore prospered under its leadership. But a growing number of people is complaining about PAP’s inability to address income inequality, rising cost of living, and the influx of foreign workers. The last point has bitterly divided the country since some Singaporeans are blaming the rise of foreign workers for the deteriorating quality of living in the city state.
Ten parties are participating in the general election 2015.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong meets with constituents. Photo from the Facebook page of People's Action Party
As election campaigning becomes more intense this week, many Singaporeans are expressing their views about the campaign tactics and platforms of candidates and political parties.
Anil Balchandani, writing for the alternative news website The Online Citizen, questions the decision of the government to shorten the period of campaigning:
If the Prime Minister thinks this is a watershed election, then it puzzles me that the electorate is only given eight days to decide on this. How is it that the Prime Minister expects the electorate to comprehend all the issues canvassed by his party and the opposition for years to come in eight days?
Blogger Belinda Yek wrote that the country's next set of leaders should be selected based on their election promises and not simply on their party affiliation:
I wouldn't want to have a situation where time and resources are wasted and unsatisfactory compromises made just because of the increased opposition seats and their veto power in parliament. Instead, when voting for the opposition, vote based on the election promises and programs they will implement, and judge them with the same fervour that we judge the incumbent as they have had 4 years since GE2011 to deliver on their promises and programs.
Young writer Cassandra Chia attended an election rally and wrote her observations:
I sat down on the grass patch with the rest of the crowds. What I initially expected was a rock concert style environment with many die-hard roaring fans, just that the singers singing were now replaced with candidates speaking for their political party. However, the atmosphere was not as “electrifying” as I imagined.
Si Ying, another young writer, interviewed some senior voters who said they will vote for “stability”:
“Stability” and “assurance” are common factors to account for why most of the elderly citizens would rather stick with the familiar than to risk change.
But there’s also a clamor for change among young people who feel discontented with the country’s present situation:
…we’re also seeing a significant slice of the younger generation who feel that change is necessary, alternative/new voices are needed, being-satisfied wouldn’t suffice and that Singapore has far greater potential to improve and succeed.
The fate of PAP and opposition parties will be known on September 11. In the meantime, the Twitter hashtag #GE2015 is used to monitor the last stretch of the election campaign.

author: Mong Palatino


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A Poster Show That Links Havana, Tehran and Seattle · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

A triple of posters from left to right: “Take Heed, Hold Fast the Rope of Mother Wit” by Shahrzad Changalvaee (Tehran); “La Casa de Bernarda Alba” by Darwin Fornés (Havana); “A Family X-Mas” by David Gallo (Seattle). Credit: SHT Show
This article and radio report by Nina Porzucki for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on September 2, 2015, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
What do you get when you combine poster designers from Seattle, Havana and Tehran?
A SHT Show of course.
Seattle-based curator and designer Daniel Smith first came up with the idea for a Seattle–Havana–Tehran Poster Design Show 10 years ago when he visited Cuba on a cultural exchange.
“In that visit I saw how amazing the work was and saw that what was happening was very similar to what was happening in Seattle, in terms of silkscreen posters and incredible poster content. I thought we really have to get together and exhibit as one,” says Smith.
“Ellie Goulding” by Jon Smith in Seattle (pink stripes); “Hippies” by Fabian Muñoz in Havana (roller-skates); “The Individual Is Always the Exception (In Memoriam of Morteza Momayez) by Homa Delvaray in Tehran (unicorn).
On that first trip to Havana, Smith met Cuban designer Pepe Menéndez
“I had no information about what was happening in Seattle at that time,” says Menéndez, “Dan told me about this music scene poster production and I was really surprised and excited to be part of [the show] from the beginning.”
They both ended up curating a Havana–Seattle show together in 2008, which was a huge hit in both countries.
Smith then started collaborating with Iranian designer Iman Raad to curate a show of American and Iranian poster designers. Then Smith thought why not curate a show with designers from all three countries.
“In Havana and Tehran the design community is pretty small. In Seattle there’s a pretty tight poster-making community around music, so it’s very possible for us to look at what’s happening in our cities and to grab posters and images and start playing,” says Smith.
“Blondie at Marymoor” by Ames Bros in Seattle; “Metalros” by Raúl Gonzálex in Havana; “Jewelry as Sculpture 2” by Mehdi Fatehi in Tehran.
Smith, Menéndez, and Raad started sending posters to each other via email. They went through hundreds upon hundreds of designs until they found the posters included in the show.
When you see the posters from each country next to one another what’s surprising is not how different each design appears, but all of the similarities between the posters.
“It doesn’t surprise me any more that there are so many commonalities. When I went to Tehran, when I went to Cuba ,there are so many things that link us together that we’re not aware of — possibly because we never see these things in the media. At least in America we never see Tehran. I couldn’t imagine the city and the people. And the people are incredible and they want the same thing we want, better communications, better relations,” Smith says.
Speaking of better communications, the real work of curation began when Smith had to collect the physical posters. You can’t send mail between Havana and Tehran and the US so each poster had to be hand delivered.
“There’s nothing standing in the way of us working together. Working with the communists down in Cuba or working with the Iranians, there are no barriers to doing this except in trying to get posters to each other. But the beauty of a poster show is we can wrap it up in a tube and hand deliver it to each other,” says Smith.
“Nude” by Chad Lundberg in Seattle; “En el Cuerpo Equivocada” by Edel Rodríguez (Mola) in Havana; “TrunKated, 2nd Episode, Solo Show” by Bita Fayyzai in Tehran.
The Seattle, Havana, Tehran Poster Design Show, or SHT Poster Show, opens this weekend as part of the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle.
The SHT Show will travel to Cuba and Iran in the coming year.


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Calls for Vigilance and Participation as Trinidad & Tobago Gets A New Government · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

An illustration of Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister-Elect, Dr. Keith Rowley, by Darren Trinity Cheewah, used with permission.
The beleaguered Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration has come to the end of its tenure in Trinidad and Tobago. By a slim margin—23 seats to 18—the opposition People's National Movement, under the leadership of Dr. Keith Rowley, emerged victorious in yesterday's general election. (See the full list of constituency winners here.)
The PNM's margin of victory is 23-18. Once reported to the President, he will call on Dr Keith Rowley to form a Cabinet to govern T&T.
— CNC3TV (@CNC3TV) September 8, 2015
The Prime Minister-Elect said he was “humbled” by the win and in his first speech after declaring victory, stated that the new administration would be looking at an overhaul of the national education curriculum and the implementation of austerity measures.
Rowley: There are difficult times ahead; there are rapids ahead, but if we navigate them successful, there are calm waters ahead.
— CNC3TV (@CNC3TV) September 8, 2015
In a curious twist, disgraced former FIFA vice president Jack Warner's Independent Liberal Party failed to win a single seat, though that did not deter Warner from taking credit for “ousting Kamla”.
Some were displeased with the ungracious tone of the outgoing prime minister's concession speech. Facebook user Rose-Marie Ingrid Lemessy-Forde quipped:
Outgoing PM speech was like Angostura bitters. She could have at least congratulated Dr. Rowley. Never mind…bye bye Kamla.
Some were also disappointed in Mrs. Persad-Bissessar choice not to go to her party's headquarters to address the crowd:
outgoing prime minister skips party headquarters stopover after conceding defeat #trinidad #elections
— Wesley Gibbings (@wgibbings) September 8, 2015
PM confirms she will not be going to Rienzi Complex saying it's too late to go there now.
— CNC3TV (@CNC3TV) September 8, 2015
Her decision may have been a wise one, however, given the poor turnout. One What'sApp user, Robin Foster, chuckled at a reporter's comment that “there were more red chairs than yellow jerseys at Rienzi Complex”. Red and yellow are the respective colours of Rowley's and Persad-Bissessar's parties.
Almost empty pic.twitter.com/wTDHcwXhhH
— Ria Rambally (@Ree_la_la) September 8, 2015
While Persad-Bissessar talked about respecting the democratic process and urged her supporters to accept the wishes of the people, Dr. Rowley was praised for the inclusiveness and nationalism inherent in his first official address:
AOI commends Rowley for “the nationalistic tone of his acceptance speech” after his PNM won the general election. #S6TT
— CCN TV6 (@tv6tnt) September 8, 2015
Rowley: I will not be the PM of the PNM. I will be the PM of Trinidad and Tobago.
— CNC3TV (@CNC3TV) September 8, 2015
Rowley: You will see us taking responsibility. You will see us believing in our national anthem.
— CNC3TV (@CNC3TV) September 8, 2015
Rowley also called on the citizenry to play an active role in the governance of the country, echoing the sentiments of many who are dissatisfied with the power to change the direction of the country being vested only in voting every five years:
Rowley: We all expect you to act as a part of the Govt because your responsibility is awesome.
— CNC3TV (@CNC3TV) September 8, 2015
And in apparent response to citizens’ concerns about swapping one corruption-accused administration for another, Rowley said:
Rowley: We will behave in a manner worthy of the people of T&T.
— CNC3TV (@CNC3TV) September 8, 2015
On Facebook, Derek Daniel said:
Ok folks party done. I hope that the new Government is ready for the major challenge ahead, which is to safely guide our country through the impending economic crisis that is looming. Oil and natural gas prices are not going up anytime soon so good governance and strong leadership is needed. I hope that the ills of the past are not repeated. It's time to work together.
Facebook user Dion Boucaud shared similar sentiments:
I congratulate Dr. Keith Rowley and the PNM for a hard won victory. We the people now repose our faith in you to steer us wisely over the next five years. I hold out my hand to my fellow Trinis to put aside our election differences and now begin the hard work of staving off a looming recession and to start placing our country first. To the PNM, we watch carefully your every step and hope you never loose [sic] sight of the people who have stained their fingers for you.
One eligible voter who chose not to go to the polls yesterday, wondered if the new government would learn from the lessons of the past:
The PNM was voted out in 1986 because they practically bankrupted the country. After the 1995 general election, the coalition UNC administration was also voted out because of massive corruption surrounding the Piarco airport project. The PNM was voted back in and then out again in 2010 because of similar issues of corruption in the Manning administration, primarily with regard to Calder Hart and UDECOTT. Now the Kamla-Persad Bissessar administration, which promised change in 2010, has been voted out amidst massive corruption allegations and the PNM, which also has a history of engaging in corrupt practices, has been re-elected. Dr. Rowley has an opportunity here, but he must reign in his ministers and keep them on a tight leash if they want to get re-elected in another five years.
Other netizens were concerned about the role that race still plays in the country's politics. Facebook user Rhoda Bharath, referring to the fact that two solid PNM candidates failed to win their seats, asked:
I need to get this off my chest…how can race still be so important?
How does someone decide to reject a candidate like Clarence or Neil [Two Indian PNM candidates]?
I don't get it.
Dion Boucaud added:
I am astounded by some of the most venomous and hateful comments being posted on FB by some of my fellow Trinis. How in 2015 can you refer to someone as ‘a monkey’ and not think it's racist? How can you be so spiteful of someone who has not yet even been sworn in? How is it that the people who voted for change in 2015 are somehow less educated than those who voted for change in 2010? Do you not realize that you're not making any sense? Do you not realize that you're the ones coming across as uneducated and spiteful? Do you not realize that we all live here together? Or is it that what's good for the goose is only for the goose? Smh
Regionally, netizens wondered if the changing of the guard was going to be a trend throughout the Caribbean:
#Jamaica next? @floydgreen RT @MarlonAHill: #Trinidad #Guyana see change in leadership in same year in closely contested #elections
— IG: ohgarth (@ohGarth) September 8, 2015
While some netizens were disappointed by the election results, others were overjoyed. Facebook user Hermese Duncan-Alexander couldn't resist taking a ‘selfie’ with her new prime minister:
The overriding lesson throughout the whole election experience however, seems to be that citizens are beginning to acknowledge their role in the process. In the words of Facebook user Rhoda Bharath:
#BeatOut2015 is over. Get yourselves ready for #ProjectVigilance.
Five years of consciously participating in our democracy. It didnt end last night…it's only just begun.


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Deadly Violence and Intrigue: What Is Happening in Tajikistan? · Global Voices
Censored Voice

BelAZ dump trucks burned during the Civil War in Tajikistan. Wikipedia image.
In ex-Soviet Tajikistan conspiracies are not an occasional habit of government, they are its lifeblood.
Around 18 years ago, the Tajik government and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) signed a UN-and-Russia-brokered peace agreement that put an end to a bloody five-year civil war that cost over 100,000 lives.
The deal promised the UTO a share of power in exchange for them laying down their weapons and acknowledging President Emomali Rakhmon's government as legitimate. But Rakhmon, 62, a former collective farm manager, was never fond of the idea of sharing power with his enemies. They, in turn, found him a difficult boss to love.
On the morning of September 4, the Asia Plus news agency reported that a police checkpoint in Dushanbe and police station in Vakhdat — a provincial town 10 kilometres east of the capital — had been attacked by militants.
The numbers of militants and police that died during the attack changed throughout the day. The interior ministry eventually settled on 13 militants and 9 police. An ongoing military operation has claimed a further four militant lives, the ministry says.
In a fog of confusion and with no police statement many Tajiks initially linked the attacks to the alleged murder of a 23-year-old student, whose family claimed he was beaten to death by police for wearing a beard.
Context: “Anti-Muslim” police in Tajikistan beat this student for having a beard. He died last night. pic.twitter.com/vb3YcFovqH
— Christian Bleuer (@ChristianBleuer) September 4, 2015
The Tajik Interior Ministry later denied that the dead man's family had initiated the attacks.
Instead, it said the attacks were planned and “personally led” by Deputy Defence Minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda, a former UTO commander integrated into the government in 1999. He was relieved of his duties later the same day.
After allegedly carrying out the attacks Nazarzoda fled to a remote and mountainous region northeast of the capital with an unknown number of armed supporters.
Hailing the deaths of a further four militants in the operation there, the ministry announced on September 6 there were only seven or eight left to catch.
Officially Gen. Hoji Halim “left only 7-8 supporters” and like in Indian movies these 7-8 never ends :)
— AbuSha (@AbdulfattohSH) September 7, 2015
That turned out to be false when on the evening of September 7 the ministry announced a further 20 had been detained as the operation continued.
Two (or more) sides to a story
On social media, users still struggling to comprehend why a top-ranking police colonel abandoned his post to join the radical ISIS in the Middle East in May, were at a similar loss to explain the motives behind General Nazarzoda's rebellion.
Was he, as President Rakhmon said during a visit to Vakhdat on Sunday, just a criminal out to destabilise the country?
Poster of president on spanking new road in Vakhdat: “President is the guarantor of peace and stability” #Tajikistan pic.twitter.com/8yKW7VGNVh
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) September 5, 2015
A Tajik Facebook user claiming to represent the former minister published a post September 6 in which he cited General Nazarzoda as saying he had fled the capital without launching attacks on police having received a note from a well-placed source inside the government.
The source had supposedly informed him that all former UTO commanders would be arrested following a false flag operation whereby the government would frame the former opposition it made peace with in 1997 for the murder of several police officers.
The message cannot be verified as General Nazarzoda's but as Edward Lemon pointed out he would not be the first general to be rooted out following the appearance of an apparent plot to destabilise the government:
Yakub Salimov (jailed in 2005), Mahmadruzi Iskandarov (jailed in 2005), Ghaffur Mirzoyev (jailed in 2004) amd Mirzo Ziyoyev (killed in 2009)
— Edward Lemon (@EdwardLemon3) September 7, 2015
On Fergana.ru, Tajik political scientists debated the events of the past days, with Parviz Mullojonov noting Nazarzoda “was a loyal military official, without much influence or special connections…not the kind of figure to organise a state coup.”
Mullojonov also said the attacks marked the end of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), a party consisting partly of former UTO members that rose from the ashes of the civil war to become a legitimate and moderate opposition force in the republic.
In recent weeks the government has sealed off the party's headquarters, accused it of ties to ISIS and declared its activities illegal. On September 4 following the violence, it said Nazarzoda was a secret member of the party, an allegation the party denies.
Blocks on YouTube, Facebook and the Russian social network Odnoklassniki as well as a number of articles on news websites have compounded the poverty of information coming out of the republic and muffled Tajik voices in the debate over what is happening in their country.
Vakhdat police station. Does it look like there was a big battle here? #Tajikistan pic.twitter.com/D1HhVwX0Ec
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) September 5, 2015
But as the overall picture of the September 4 attacks grows ever murkier, a better understanding of Tajikistan — a country still coming to terms with the legacy of its awful civil war — emerges:
John Heathershaw, a British academic, who has spent much of his career studying the country writes:
Our ongoing research on Tajikistan suggests that what is true in this particular case is also found in general. Rather than facing rebels whose motives lay outside of their control, the post-conflict state actually generates incentives to rebel. Therefore, the state actually produces the conflicts to which it claims to be arbiter.

author: Censored Voice


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Digital Campaigning on Election Day Irritates Trinidad & Tobago Voters · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Photo by Inter-American Commission of Women, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
In Trinidad and Tobago, it is against the law to solicit votes on the day of a general election. Yet, it appears that online canvassing was taking place today, allegedly on behalf of the governing party.
The Facebook page Triniscene.com posted an image of a text message allegedly sent by a candidate for the ruling party that was being widely shared, along with the caption.
Concerned about the image's authenticity, Triniscene explained:
The message showed up by name directly, and not from an unsaved or unknown number. The screenshot appears to show ‘Bhoe Tewarie’ as the sender. When asked by Triniscene.com whether or not the recipient had Dr Tewarie's mobile number saved to their phone (which would in turn allow the name to show up as the sender) the recipient responded ‘Yes, I have his number saved.’
According to Triniscene:
The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) has confirmed it has received reports from members of the public that they have been receiving text messages that appear to be campaign messages urging them to vote for the People's Partnership candidate for the respective constituency.
Speaking with Triniscene.com via telephone, an officer at the EBC who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed that the commission has received the reports and they are advising members of the public to report it to the police since the commission does not have investigative powers.
Screenshots of the same message were submitted to Triniscene all showing the receipt as around 6 a.m.
A representative at blink/bmobile, the service allegedly used to send the message, said the company would look into the matter and issue a response, explaining that a 5 digit code attached to the message would allow them to identify the sender.
Calls to the phone number of the candidate, Dr Bhoe Tewarie, went immediately to voicemail, and were not returned up to the time of this post.
Facebook user Rhoda Bharath was disgusted by the tactics:
Kamla not serious about facking life…midday today you still canvassing votes?
Another Facebook user, Tabatha Domonique Auguste posted photos of an email she received today from the ruling party:
Auguste commented:
So why? But this not legal tho. Desperate much? No Aunty Kams I haven't voted yet but I'm red and ready. Let's do this.
In a Facebook status update posted shortly before the polls closed at 7 p.m., Auguste uploaded another photo of an email message she received from “Team Kamla”:
This time, Auguste commented:
Dear Aunty Kams please stop harassing me with this illegal correspondence. It does not reflect your integrity or your honor nor your respect for my civil rights.
Facebook user Caroline Taylor was also deeply offended by the online canvassing, until a loophole was brought to her attention:
What are the consequences for breaking the international CAN-SPAM Act, and worse, the law prohibiting campaigning on Election Day? None? Emails and texts going out, and there are no consequences?! [UPDATE: the law apparently has not been revised to extend to social and other digital media…! *smh*]
And a tweet by one of the country's media houses confirmed that while the online action may not be technically unlawful, it opposes the spirit of the law:
EBC says digital campaigning not outlawed by Representation of the People Act, but its urging people to desist from electioneering #S6TT
— CCN TV6 (@tv6tnt) September 7, 2015
The polls have now closed in Trinidad and Tobago. As the results begin to be tallied, it remains to be seen whether this last-ditch online effort, allegedly undertaken by the governing party, will make any difference to whether or not the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration will return to office.


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Dust Storm Envelops Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The Gaza marina enveloped in dust this afternoon. Photograph shared by  @shawajason on Twitter
A huge dust storm is passing through the Western part of the Middle East today and tomorrow, reducing visibility in some countries and sending people to hospital for treatment from respiratory diseases in others. The dust frenzy covers Lebanon, where at least five people were killed and 750 treated in hospital for asphyxiation, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey and Cyprus. The storm, photographs of which are being shared far and wide on social media is rare in this part of the Middle East, which doesn't usually get this phenomenon, more common in Saudi Arabia.
Here is a snap shot of some of the photographs shared of the dust storm.
Jordan:
In Jordan, the United Nations Refugees Agency (UNHCR) shares this photograph from the Zaatari Refugee Camp, home to some 80,000 Syrian refugees escaping the war in their country:
Terrible weather in #Zaatari today. Nine main clinics+hospital are providing nebuliser treatment & masks to refugees pic.twitter.com/DEaYYoCjvQ
— Za'atari Camp (@ZaatariCamp) September 8, 2015
Lebanon:
Syrian refugees in Lebanon are not faring any better. Khaled Kabbara, UNHCR external relations associate, shares those photographs showing their dismal conditions:
Massive sandstorm hits North #Lebanon, affecting refugees already living in challenging conditions. pic.twitter.com/l0nLCO2SFT
— Khaled Kabbara (@khaled_kabbara) September 8, 2015
60 yrs. old Khodr covering his face from dust, he is one of many Syrian refugees affected by the sandstorm #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/HzlC7U81bO
— Khaled Kabbara (@khaled_kabbara) September 8, 2015
Alex Thomson shares this video on Twitter of the storm engulfing Beirut, saying that “the people of Beirut say they can't remember seeing anything like it before in living memory”:
Look what blew in from Syria pic.twitter.com/g0aSyXDTPC
— alex thomson (@alextomo) September 8, 2015
Syria
BBC reporter Jeremy Bowen, who is currently reporting from Syria, has been posting weather updates on his Twitter account since the start of the storm yesterday.
Big sandstorm across #Syria pic.twitter.com/hJGt1LMf2J
— Jeremy Bowen (@BowenBBC) September 7, 2015
This morning, he asks:
Where's #Damascus gone? The huge Middle East dust storm continues. #Syria pic.twitter.com/tBBHWfJlWX
— Jeremy Bowen (@BowenBBC) September 8, 2015
Egypt:
Samer Al-Atrush shares this photograph from Cairo:
Central Cairo blanketed by dust pic.twitter.com/ntIK4huQgK
— Samer Al-Atrush  (@SameralAtrush) September 8, 2015
Israel:
And this photograph is shared by @ygurvitz of Tel Aviv at midday today:
ללא פילטר. pic.twitter.com/JBMYA6YbbM
— ygurvitz (@ygurvitz) September 8, 2015
NASA Photographs:
Geomorphologist Rob Bryant, from Sheffield, UK, shares those NASA photographs on Twitter:
Last few days have been seriously dusty in #syria #jordan and #Israel #modis Aqua data from 7 and 8 September #dust pic.twitter.com/7pA38QMvIU
— Rob Bryant (@sheffield_dust) September 8, 2015
The storm is expected to continue tomorrow (Wednesday, September 9).


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Facebook Activist Details How She Received a Seven-Year Prison Sentence in Iran · Global Voices
Center for Human Rights in Iran

Cartoon by Tooka Neyastani shows imprisoned women's rights activist Bahareh Hedayat behind bars. Image from International Campaign for Human Rights.
This post originally appeared on iranhumanrights.org and is published here in collaboration with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
One of the eight Facebook activists issued to a multi-year prison sentence in 2013 for social and political commentary posted on her Facebook page has asserted that she was denied access to a lawyer during her detention, interrogated about private matters, and charged with crimes she never committed.
Naghmeh Shahsavandi Shirazi told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran:
They did not allow me to have a lawyer until my case went to the appeals court, and even then I did not attend the trial. Our case was being presided [over] by Judge Moghisseh who has no knowledge of computers and the Internet because if he did he would never have considered cartoons of [Member of the Council of Guardians] Ali Jannati and [Supreme Leader] Ali Khamenei as pornographic…We did not have one pornographic image on our Facebook pages.
Shirazi and her co-defendants managed eight popular pages on Facebook and shared content from social media sites. On April 14, 2014, she was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of insulting the Supreme Leader Khamenei and founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Khomeini, conspiring against the state, and publishing pornographic images.
“Many of our [Facebook] pages were non-political,” Shirazi said, adding, “We have two pages which were [akin to] citizen journalism. We collected information from inside prisons and published them there. These page had about four million Likes and because of that, they accused us of undermining national security.”
She continued:
We re-posted cartoons that already existed online. We did not produce anything ourselves. We sometimes put pictures of the country’s leaders next to each other along with a caption for various occasions, such as when someone was executed. The bottom line is that we were a bunch of ‘admins’ who reported current events on our pages like citizen journalists.
She added she was incredulous at the charge of “conspiring against the state” because the type of content they posted was ubiquitous on social media networks, and the specific content they posted on Facebook had already been previously posted on social media sites in Iran.
Naghmeh Shahsavandi Shirazi. Image from ICHRI.
According to Shirazi, she, along with the seven other Facebook activists, were identified by security agents, including one of the plaintiffs who was a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ cyber army in Shiraz. On the day of their trial, a group of Revolutionary Guardsmen were present in court as plaintiffs. “Our appeals court Judge Pourarab tried to help us but they did not allow him,” she said.
Shirazi said her interrogations consisted largely of “personal” questions about private aspects of her life, as well as those of her relatives and friends.
“The interrogator himself told me that male [suspects] were beaten [during interrogation]. Physically I was treated much better than others but the psychological pressure was a lot worse. I am a mother with two children and because of that, every day they told me things that disturbed me. They told me a lot of filthy things,” Shirazi added.
Shirazi told the Campaign that the Facebook admin accounts were created under anonymous names, but were subsequently uncovered because one of the Facebook activists responded to comments posted on their pages using separate accounts that were under their legal names. The authorities hacked into that account and then gained access to the other accounts.
“In fact, the plaintiffs had complained about the comments. One of our friends was arrested because of a comment and during the investigations they hacked into his account and realized that he’s one of the page admins,” Shirazi said.
She added that she was not aware of a variety of security precautions that could have helped her remain anonymous in her online activities. In order to bypass state-filtered websites, Shirazi purchased a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a tool that allows a user to bypass Internet filtering, on the black market in Iran. The security of such tools, particularly when purchased domestically, can never be guaranteed. Internet security experts note that in societies such as Iran, where people are prosecuted for Internet content and activities, international Internet circumvention tools (such as Tor,  or Psiphon), or private VPNs that are purchased outside the country from trusted sources, are typically safe from tracking by state security agencies.

author: Center for Human Rights in Iran


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A Year Away From Syria · Global Voices
مرسيل شحوارو

Screenshot from video on the “Art of Syrian Children on Nat Mall” gofundme page.
This post is part of a special series of articles by blogger and activist Marcell Shehwaro, describing the realities of life in Syria during the ongoing armed conflict between forces loyal to the current regime, and those seeking to oust it.
“I should have cried.” This is the only thing that goes through my head over and over again when I remember the little girl that was torn into pieces.
I don't know anything about her, and from her remains I couldn’t guess her age, but I do remember how I stood there, distraught. I didn't wail as they were gathering the pieces of her. I didn't try to help, I didn’t do anything, not a thing. My “stupid” body was insisting on holding things together, on acting “rationally”. Who among us can define what “rational” means, standing before a dead girl's body? And I held it together. I didn't offer any dramatic reaction, of the kind I was famous for among my friends. In fact, someone crying in the background really annoyed me. Who dares to be sad in such a situation, I told myself? The only destiny of those who remain there is resilience.
I should have cried then, but maybe today I am more resilient. This is what I repeat to myself whenever the girl haunts me in my dreams, in my moments of joy, in my arguments about the future with the one I love. The future? What happened to her future?
It has been a year since I left Syria, maybe for good. A year of denial, guilt, grief and surrender. Nothing of the hero is left in me. Every part of me that my body was trying to retain in order to make it through the war and under the barrel bombs I left there, for those who might need it, and I totally crashed beneath what science would call “shock”.
I don't know how sick of me it is to say this, but I was genuinely better off there, closer to death. Joy was an act of heroism, a blunt challenge in the face of death, while here joy turns into loads of guilt and the unreal rumination of stories that used to matter with the same friends with whom we shared life on the edge of death.
Today we moved into living denial on the edge of our homeland, the denial that we are actually out. Moving on was the only life there on the “inside”. Our presence there was heroic, inspiring, important, and we each thought that the fate of the entire country depended on us. We departed and left our country with no support. Outside we acted as heroes, but this role was no longer suitable for us after we'd uprooted ourselves from there, from occupied Aleppo and the various houses. But we insisted we still looked like heroes. We were afraid of telling those who died that today, we are merely victims.
I didn't write anything of significance for an entire year. I watched tonnes of meaningless television—I binge-watched all the seasons of Glee. That was the beginning that didn't have the usual ending. The shadow of death accompanied me for too long.
I imagine my loved one dying in all the possible violent ways. I caress what is left of his body after being hit by a shell on New Year's eve, and I imagine if I had really lost him then. His presence right next to me is not enough to ease my deep sense of loss. It was enough for him simply to go to another place for me to imagine the worst and start obsessing. If I didn't hear him breathe while asleep I'd remember all those corpses that forgot how to breathe.
The shadow of death accompanied me, as well as obsessions with suicide and the desire to follow those friends who had left us. I look around me and I see so many heroes in my life slowly turning into ghosts burdened with worry. We have coexisted with all sorts of destructive behaviors, from workaholism to alcoholism and other addictions. As for me, I became addicted to the painful sense of guilt which frequently translated into wounds on my own hands, of which the scars are still visible on my left wrist. When asked about the scars, I lie. I lie because I don't admit that the hero is gone, maybe never to return, and was replaced by this new victim.
Imagine not believing in anything anymore. Not the good or the bad of the human being, not the universe or its justice. Freedom is a right that you wonder everyday if it was really worth all this blood. Did the world become civil? Can we really drive change? Is the democracy that we dream of less important than we initially thought?
Is it true that people really cannot make change if the dollar doesn’t want it to happen? None of the things you used to believe in are close to you; none of the people who used to know who you really are near you any more. Your family is gone and everything around you is strange and new and you have to adapt to it, even to your new self.
And my friend at Global Voices sends me messages asking: Why aren't you writing? And I'm ashamed to tell her that I quit writing. I left it there with everything else.
However, and since I decided to seek help, I confess today—and for the first time publicly—that I regularly take antidepressants these days. I chase away all thoughts of death, to the extent that a Syrian possibly can. I'm reconnecting with friends and I'm embracing the victim that is me. I pity her, love her, pray for her to gain strength and patience, and most importantly to gain forgiveness.
I try to sort the pieces of me back into place, hoping that in doing so I'll remember where my fingers were, so I can write again.

author: مرسيل شحوارو


text:
Minority Women Communicators Conference Looks To ‘Occupy the Media and Internet’ in Mexico · Global Voices
Global Voices Latin America

The official announcement has been made for the Second Conference of Women Communicators of Indigenous and African Descent. The conference, whose slogan is “We occupy the media, we occupy the internet”, will take place October 6-10, 2015, at the Centro de las Artes CASA (CASA Arts Center) in San Agustín Elta, Oaxaca, Mexico.
According to the announcement, the conference “looks to foster an exchange of experiences in order to reflect on the challenges and difficulties of the work of women communicators, to delve into topics such as gender and inter-culturalism in the media; community media and legislation; political participation and the empowerment of women, and the use of TIC (Information and Communication Technologies) for communication strategies”:
Women who participate in communication projects, are of African descent or come from indigenous communities in Mexico and Central America, will gather to improve on the use of digital tools and to put the information into action by generating communication strategies to use in their projects…
• Commit to participating during the five days of the conference.
• Currently and continuously work or collaborate on communication projects (radio, photography, documentary video, etc.).
• Must be of African descent or come from an indigenous community in Mexico or Central America.

author: Global Voices Latin America