text:
Trinidad & Tobago’s Media Association Pulls a 180 in Press Freedom Debacle · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago has retracted its original statement about political interference having a part to play in the alleged reassignment of key reporters in the Guardian's newsroom, leaving some bloggers wondering if the whole affair was a storm in a teacup or if the public is not being told the whole story.
The organisation's latest release, dated yesterday morning, said:
The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) seeks to correct previous erroneous information…the impasse between the publishers of the Trinidad and Sunday Guardian newspapers and senior journalists has been reportedly resolved following discussions between the two parties. Apart from the resignation of Public Affairs Editor Dr Sheila Rampersad, the newsroom is now functioning as before with Judy Raymond as Editor in Chief. Investigative reporters Anika Gumbs and Denyse Renne, who were initially reported as having resigned, are on the job. Managing Director Gabriel Faria and Sector Head David Inglefield have not resigned as previously reported.
President of the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) Suzanne Sheppard, who is the Business News Editor at the Trinidad Guardian, described the events of the last 24 hours which led to speculation of political pressure on journalists at the daily newspaper as case of a ‘massive miscommunication’ between the publishers and journalists.
Sheppard said she is convinced, following discussions with senior executives, that the events of the past few days when Judy Raymond was asked to go temporarily ‘off-line’ to review editorial standards in the newsroom had ‘nothing to do with political intervention’.
Sheppard said freedom of press issues were raised only due to an unfortunate combination of events that will be revealed in a press conference on Monday.
The post on MATT's Facebook page garnered only two “likes” but attracted some unfavourable commentary. One reader, Rhoda Bharath, who blogs at The Eternal Pantomime, said:
I think the public is owed an apology…and at least two resignations…because this body was used to promote the story. The public didn't dream this up…YOU, MATT, are GUILTY of irresponsible information dissemination. SHAME ON YOU!
On her own Facebook wall (the status updates are reproduced here with her permission), Bharath shared the link to the new MATT statement and quipped:
So apparently MATT…who happens to be headed by Suzanne Sheppard and Judy Raymond, got it wrong…About Face and Cover Up now in full effect…it means people who draw a salary for the purpose of responsibly and reliably informing the public, doing so under false pretences (sic). And we have to take it, I guess. No proper explanation. No apologies.
Another Facebook user, Valerie James, simply wrote:
COVER UP!!
The organisation attempted to respond to the criticism by replying:
Unfortunately two of our sources were wrong about the resignation. Part of responsible journalism is about issuing apologies when due. There will be a press conference on Monday which should answer questions. I hope all media workers come to the next Matt meeting.
Dex Perado immediately questioned MATT's “sources”:
You used sources for your posts? Who were the sources? Tntfinder? Because what I saw was MATT piggybacking on a story that tntfinder ran–a story that itself relied on hearsay.
A big part of crisis communications is waiting–waiting to ascertain the facts so as to devise a coordinated response. Did you do that? No, what you did was fire off a series of boilerplate bs ‘press releases’ that were largely emotional in tone.
As the MATT, you have a responsibility to defend and uphold the highest ideals of the profession. Those ideals are rooted in fact-based reporting. Did you have all the facts before you issued a response? No. You should be setting the standard. Instead, you are doing things that are detrimental to the profession you represent.
Ann Mc Carthy added:
Faria has been on CNC3 7pm news talking about the situation trying to say ‘everything is OK etc.’ but in my view somewhere over the chirpy everything is alright rainbow are some dark clouds that nobody wants to talk about because they are trying to do damage control. They can jump high and jump low, press has previously been a target under PPG [People's Partnership Government] and proof of it was on TV from different ministers plus preaction protocol letters to a journalist.
Wired 868's Lasana Liburd also had some stinging criticism for the media association:
Faced with a crisis of journalistic integrity and political pressure, the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) did what it does best: fired out an eloquent press release, curled into the foetal position, counted to a thousand and then went back to work.
To recap the Guardian drama-that-wasn’t but kind-of-was: On Wednesday afternoon, MATT president and Guardian editor Suzanne Shepherd posted on Facebook that ‘the most vile attack imaginable on freedom of the press (is) now in progress and I am in the midst of it.’
A few hours later, MATT reiterated that it is ‘monitoring with serious concern developments over the last 24 hours at the Trinidad Guardian newsroom that appears to be a major threat to press freedom.’ And MATT stood ‘in solidarity with MATT president Suzanne Sheppard and MATT vice president, Judy Raymond, both of whom are part of the Guardian’s key editorial team and are reported to be personally dealing with fallout from this political interference on the newsroom.’
While MATT was ‘monitoring’ and ‘viewing with alarm’, Guardian public affairs editor Dr Sheila Rampersad and investigative journalists Anika Gumbs-Sandiford and Denyse Renne sprung to action. They declared their positions untenable due to the level of political interference exerted on their boss and quit.
MATT made it clear that it stood ‘in solidarity with our colleagues in the media and the executives who have supported them.’ Only MATT was still standing in the Guardian newsroom while its ace reporters were on the streets feeling a tad confused by their silence.
Gabriel Faria, it turned out, had not quit at all. Guardian was in damage limitation mode and, as Raymond herself suggested, cautious optimism had replaced concerned monitoring.
The post continued:
Raymond never said what Guardian offered to her and Shepherd by way of compromise. They did not clear up the inconsistencies between their statements of political interference and the rebuttals from Faria and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
On Saturday, a MATT release admitted to publishing ‘erroneous information’ but said that was in reference to Faria’s resignation rather than the charge of editorial pressure from board level. The irony was especially juicy since Faria had accused Raymond’s staff of being lax in corroborating information before publishing.
Renne and Gumbs-Sandiford were said to be back on the job too and the whole was described as ‘a massive miscommunication between the publishers and journalists.’
So, the story had a happy ending after all.
Unless you happened to be Rampersad who has now discovered that MATT’s support is not worth the paper that its emailed releases are not printed on.
Critical blog posts just kept on coming. Plain Talk suggested that:
If the Media Association of T&T wants to have any real relevance post ‘Guardian-Drama’ they are going to have to ask that, at the very least, both the president and the vice president do the right thing and step down. While it may not undo the damage already done, it could facilitate beginning the process of frank and open discussions as to what exactly transpired.
What the Guardian does from here is Guardian business and they are welcome to it, but it is my belief that they are going to lose a lot of ground over the naked perversion and the still unanswered questions as to what exactly took place last Wednesday.
The Eternal Pantomime added:
Trinbagonians pretty pissed off with the Guardian newspaper…they feel they have been taken for a ride…and no amount of soft soaping from the Editor in Chief, or even from her Business News Editor, is going to make the reading public feel good anytime soon. No one is going to forget your behaviour this week, or what it means for our confidence in media and press freedom.
In a follow-up post uploaded yesterday, Bharath referred to “the MATT who cried wolf” and called the whole debacle “a hoax”:
We’re being told today…that ALLLLLL those press releases [MATT] sent out earlier in the week to keep us abreast of the situation in the Guardian newsroom…well they were mistaken.
So MATT, once again, is a tool, being absolutely abused by its executive. Nothing to see here folks…move along.
Blogger Attillah Springer, who is also a columnist at the Guardian, also posted her assessment of the situation yesterday:
I’ve been trying since Wednesday to find the words to say to make sense of this Guardian folly. I’ve never felt like the Guardian was the bastion of free press, I’ve read enough of its archive to know that…the Guardian guards not democracy but the status quo, the elite power structures that keep some of us as masters and the rest of us as slaves.
People like me find a space in newspapers like the Guardian, because it fits their profile to appear to fair and balanced. Yet I’ve had several occasions during my time as a columnist when I have had my right to fair comment compromised or threatened.
She proceeded to give examples of such occasions, and continued:
The media needs a lot of scrutiny. As much if not more than the government. A free press and a functional government go hand in hand and it is becoming more and more obvious that we have neither. And MATT is not the watchdog it should be. If it was, this country would have been shut down the moment Sheila Rampersad, Denyse Renne and Anika Sandiford-Gumbs decided to pick up their jahaaji bundle and ride out. Or when Fazeer Mohammed got removed from First Up. Or when Uncle Jack threatened Denyse Renne and Asha Javeed.
But I guess MATT and the media are made up of citizens like the rest of us. You know, who have a mortgage. And 2.5 children. And long hard days. And hours in traffic.
And if nobody else is willing to, why should journalists sacrifice themselves for the nation’s entertainment?
She then broke the whole controversy down to one key issue:
The question of who stays and who goes is not the question. The question is who is keeping all of us accountable to each other? And if one person falls on their sword who is going to put up money to make sure they can buy groceries at the end of the month?
The stress and confusion and the lack of the full story created in the last couple days has exactly the desired effect of distracting us what from is really happening and that is the looting not just of the Treasury but our bank of collective responsibility.
Once at the beginning of my time as a reporter an editor told me my only role was to fill space and meet deadlines. I couldn’t reconcile that with what I imagined a journalist to be. I’m reminded of that ridiculous speech when I hear Gabriel Faria, followed by the about turn by MATT three days after they claimed that freedom of the press was under siege.
A journalist is no use without an audience. A newspaper can’t sell without journalists. They need us as much as we need them but somehow the power relationship is skewed and the journalists end up feeling like media owners are doing them a favour.
I have a conscience and this is what it has been shouting at me since Wednesday: No compromise. They are threatening people’s livelihoods and that is not just madness it is criminal.
No compromise. This is war and if all citizens aren’t prepared to fight we might as well lie down and dead.
Yet, compromise seems to be what has happened. Georgia Popplewell, in a public Facebook status update, tried to consider the situation from another perspective:
I do understand why walking appears to many who have commented on the situation be the only honourable response, and I'm certainly not condemning those who have chosen to resign front he paper: under the circumstances I might well have done the same. I'm deeply concerned about corporate greed, censorship and government interference in the media and I'll be boycotting the Guardian and CNC3 like the rest of you.
Still, we rarely hear—or listen to—the story of those who DON'T walk. This is not a defence of Judy Raymond (who also happens to be a friend) but a—perhaps naive—wish for a dispassionate examination of the situation. I'd love to see some attention given to that other option: what it's like to remain in the belly of the beast and “give it one last try”, as Judy is quoted as saying in this morning's Express article (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/BETRAYAL-215173831.html), even in a place as allegedly odious as ANSA McAL. And not just by people who support or like Judy, but by people who support good journalism and rational discussion. If getting rid of troublemakers is what, we assume, ANSA McAL wants, might staying, even with a reduced portfolio, be a courageous position? Can we imagine what it could be like to fight from the inside? Are corporate behemoths unbeatable by definition?
As Singing Francine sang, ‘Chile does run away/Dog does run away/Cat does run away/When man treatin’ dem bad.’ But what about those who stay? Where's their calypso? Maybe we'll end up booing it off the stage, but I still want to hear it. #Trinidad

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Caribbean: We Are Trayvon Martin · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Not guilty”. With those two words, a firestorm of discussion broke out among Caribbean netizens over the acquittal of George Zimmerman in Trayvon Martin‘s death. Facebook, as usual, had some of the earliest reactions, with people changing their profile pictures to images of the late teenager, and sharing posts and news links about justice and race relations in the United States.
Code Red published a post that dealt with regional reactions to the verdict and wondered whether there was an inherent contradiction “between the ability of Caribbean people at home to stand in solidarity with those protesting the devaluing of black lives…and their unwillingness to lend their bodies, voices and time (hell, even facebook statuses) to causes in the very places they live?”:
Today a friend said to me, ‘you post about all kinds of injustice in the Caribbean and nobody responds and now today everybody’s facebook page is filled with outrage at the Zimmerman verdict.’
There is a connection between the fact that Caribbean people know more about and ‘care’ more about that happens in the US which is taken to be the whole world, the racism that provoked and excused Trayvon Martin’s murder and the fact that witness, Rachel Jeantel was vilified for being fat, black, workingclass, multilingual and from the Caribbean.
At the root is a globalised white supremacy and an understanding of black people as not human…This is not about denying that the Zimmerman verdict is an affront to our collective humanity wherever we are and no matter where we are from. Neither is it an attempt to police the politics of Caribbean people or to suggest that their expressions of rage and sadness are invalid.
The blogger simply wanted “Caribbean people’s outrage at this injustice to be less cable-TV induced”:
I want mainstream anger at the deaths of I’Akobi Maloney, Brenda Belle, Kay-Ann Lamont, the Linden martyrs, the 70+ Tivoli residents, the 7750+ Haiti cholera victims. And when I don’t get that I try to understand why we don’t even know some of these stories, why some of them don’t even make regional news. In seeking to untangle the Caribbean’s response to the murder, the trial and the verdict, the dominance of US media is a key part of the story. I wonder to what extent these public expressions of outrage are more about being part of an outernational media event, than anything else. I’m crossing my fingers that they also contain the possibility of resistance, of doing the everyday work of insisting on the inherent value of all lives.
Barbadian bloggers had a strong reaction to the news. Diaspora blogger J-did, a Barbadian living in Canada, said he could have predicted the trial's outcome:
Despite being a news junkie I just couldn't bring myself to follow most of the coverage for the Trayvon Martin trial.
Something deep inside me told me that George Zimmerman would be found not guilty. Didn't matter what the evidence said…something told me that he'd get off scotch free.
To think that a black kid innocently walking home, not rabble rousing, not looking for trouble, with a pack of skittles and a can of pop that he had just bought from the store can be shot down in the streets and no justice is done just doesn't sit well with me.
I'm numb. I don't advocate any violence against Mr Zimmerman as I've seen some people online doing, the law is the law. But I think of the ramifications of this verdict. For one I think folks can cease and desist with the post-racial mumbo jumbo that they developed to convince us that things had changed once Obama was elected and we no longer see race.
For two, is it now open season on black young men?Think about it, so many folk get sent to jail for years on more trivial charges but you kill an innocent black kid and you get to walk? Wow. Still trying to wrap my head around it.
Barbados Underground's “Requiem for Trayvon Martin” put it this way:
A black child walking to his father’s home in a gated community of Florida is gunned down with malice and forethought yet an all-white jury finds a murdering Hispanic-Jew not guilty by reason of self defense. This is not the America of the Jim Crow era. It is not the America of the slavery period. It is not the American of the Reconstruction epoch. It is Barack Obama’s America of 2013.
It took a public outcry to even get the racist government of the State of Florida to even charge the assailant in the first place, in what to most observers seemed a clear cut case for the arrest and charging of Zimmerman, police and District Attorney had to be brought under heavy public pressure for charges to be lodged in the first place.
To say that the Florida prosecutors were inept is an understatement. Racism could be another explanation for the prosecutors treating Martin as the aggressor and Zimmerman as the aggrieved party in their weak defense. Seems everybody wants to pretend that Martin was approach[ed] for reasons other than that he was Black. Few want to say that had roles be reversed those same prosecutors, judge and jury would have found ways to bring a guilty verdict.
Trini Like Salt, a Trinidadian living in Boston, wrote on his Tumblr:
You know who isn’t shocked or surprised – at all – about the Zimmerman verdict?
Black people.
Still don’t know what we did to make y’all hate us so much.
In a follow-up post, he quipped:
Don’t fret, America…
I know talking about white privilege and what it allows folks to do makes you all pouty, so tomorrow we’ll all go back to talking about the things that really matter to you. Sharknado, for instance.
After some consideration, he also posted an update that dealt with “why the outrage over the Zimmerman verdict will change exactly nothing”:
- the gun culture would have to change – and America loves its guns more than anything else – so THAT ain’t changing
- the legal system would have to change – but white folks control said system, and it disproportionately benefits them – so THAT ain’t changing
- America’s attitude towards black people – and especially black males – would have to change…and THAT ain’t changing anytime soon
- white folks – yes, even you – would have to acknowledge that they enjoy certain privileges that darker-skinned people – especially really darker-skinned people – don’t…and then actively give up those privileges. Ha.
In another update, he examined the issue of racism and white privilege:
I should state that in the 16 years I have lived in the US, I have not been the recipient of blatant racism that much. So it takes instances like the Zimmerman trial to remind me that racism is institutional – and therefore much more serious and insidious.
This is something that I honestly think most white people don’t think about, at all. Why should they? The institutions work in their favor. They built and maintain the institutions within which racism is alive and well. But black people think about this stuff, constantly. We have to.
We have to because we know we are hated and feared by the system – although for the life of me I have never been able to understand why. The historical precedent would indicate the converse – black people have actual reason to distrust and fear white people. But white folks distrust and fear us – so much so that they’ve built entire institutions designed to assuage their own fears.
He continued:
What is it about black men that drive men of lighter-skinned races to immediately assume that we are immediate threats, by virtue of the fact that we are dark-skinned, wearing a hoodie? What is it about us that makes such men think that following us, provoking us, and shooting us, is okay? What is it about us that makes half the country think it’s justified to think and act in this way?
I have never understood the underlying attitudes towards people who look like me, that let white people believe that it’s justified to write off people who look like me – to the extent that there are two separate systems of justice. One for you folks, where everyone gets a fair shake and eventual justice…and one for us, where none of that happens.
In his final post, he examined “the reasons black people are dying like this” by linking to two relevant articles:
These are the reasons that most of white America turn their back on – because we don’t want to acknowledge that we might each be racist. And so more of us will be prejudged, and incarcerated, and will die. That cannot continue.
You should read both [articles], if you are at all serious about wanting to change something. Because most of us are not Trayvon Martin. Most of us are George Zimmerman.
It is only from understanding the underlying cause of something can we really change it. Everything else – all the anger and outrage and wringing of hands – is just punchless indignation and window dressing.

source: news-globalvoices

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


text:
Punish the Unmarried in China? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Starting from July 1, 2013 China put into effect a new filial piety law, requiring grown children to visit their parents “frequently”. In reaction to the law, an elderly suggested to punish the unmarried one:
My kids shouldn't be treated as a violator of any law if they don’t visit me frequently. Instead, [if they are] 30 years old and still unmarried, now that should be treated as a violation of law. They should be sentenced.
Offbeat China has the story.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Citizen Journalism In Pakistan · Global Voices
Rezwan

Infographics on citizen media in Pakistan by Faisal Kapadia, which includes some statistics of Global Voices coverage on Pakistan. Used with permission. Click on the image for full view.

author: Rezwan


text:
Data Visualization: Electric Japan · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

Electrical Japan [ja], a website by researcher Asanobu Kitamoto [ja] lets you explore electric power plants and energy consumption in Japan through data-visualization.
Screenshot of power plant database compiled by researchers at Electrical Japan
The color of the dots represents the type of power plant, for example fossil-fuel plants are red and hydroelectric plants are blue. The size of the dot represents the amount of power generated. Users can also explore real-time energy consumption [ja] on a regional basis through this map.

author: Keiko Tanaka


text:
‘Gender-Based Violence’ Mapping in Cambodia · Global Voices
Sopheap Chak

The Open Institute NGO has launched a crowdsourced gender-based violence mapping tool in Cambodia to promote and protect women rights. Notably, gender-based violence has remained a significant issue in Cambodia. A UN report highlighted the problem of demostic violence and gender-based violence against sex workers, most-at-risk young people, and women living with HIV.
Manavy Chim, the Executive Director of the Open Institute who spent more than 20 years working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation before joining civil society, echoes the need for public awareness about the issue of violence against women and how new technologies and the Internet can be tapped to address the problem. Below is the author’s e-mail conversation with her:
What problem is your project aiming to overcome? Why this online mapping method?
The Open Institute believes that the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is an ideal way to bring awareness to this issue on a public level and the use of the Ushahidi mapping tool is a critical part of the process.  The Ushahidi mapping tool offers both government officials and key stakeholders the opportunity to track incidences of gender based violence online in a way that can be viewed by the public in order to increase awareness and work toward immediate intervention and prevention methods.
What are the biggest obstacles to your success?
The main obstacle to the success of the Gender Based Violence project was the limited amount of resources available within the Cambodian provinces.  The Commune/Sangak councilors are not well versed with technology and do not necessarily have access to computers or Internet services.  Not all of the members of rural communities are literate, either, so it will be important to incorporate forms of technology (television, radio, etc.) that do not require the ability to read in order to continue to spread the message.  This is particularly true for females in rural Cambodian communities, due in large part to the traditional role separation between men and women. In addition to the lack of resources, a cultural sensitivity to sharing information about gender based violence was an obstacle during this project.  Some of the respondents were not comfortable sharing information, so some of the data was incomplete.
Finally, the end of the project overlapped with the upcoming Cambodian elections, and many Commune/Sangkat councilors became difficult to reach because they were involved in other projects.  In order to be more effective, the project needed to be extended and the timing probably should have been adjusted to avoid the election cycle.
How does the information published on your website turn into offline change?
The information published on the Open Institute website, through the Women’s Web Portal and through the Ushahidi mapping tool is mean to increase awareness and promote action around issues related to gender based violence.  The more people know about gender based violence and the more aware they are of prevention and intervention methods, the better able they will be to help victims and ultimately put an end to this problem.
In addition, the Open Institute hopes that by publishing information on our website, the public will see it and promote the information through various sources of social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) The Open Institute knows that Cambodian youth hold the key to stopping gender based violence in the future, so increasing their awareness of the issue now will ultimately lead to action based results going forward.
The Open Institute also understands, though, that we cannot only post information via social media outlets because we need to reach a wider audience.  The information posted on our web site, therefore, is also published by various forms of print media. This creates the opportunity for people who are not able to use the Internet to also access the same information.
What are the incentives for the public to participate in your project?
The most significant incentive for public participation in the Gender Based Violence project is an increased level of awareness of and knowledge about issues related to violence against women within Cambodian society. Not only will this help government officials and individuals who work in organizations that help women, but it will also help friends and family members of victims to gain a better understanding of how they can help and what they can do to prevent this issue from continuing in the future.
In addition, another incentive for public participation in this project is the opportunity to network and discuss significant societal issues with other people from various organizations around the country.  Participation in national forums about gender based violence and the use of ICT to combat violence against women is an excellent way to become more educated about this current hot topic within Cambodian society.
What has been the most effective method of spreading awareness about your project?
The most effective method of spreading awareness about the Gender Based Violence project has been through the various forums held by the Open Institute and its partners throughout the past year.
The OI has received a significant amount of positive feedback from forum attendees, noting that after attending the forum, they felt better informed about issues related to gender based violence and better prepared to teach others within their local communities about the problems in order to work toward eliminating gender based violence going forward.
What is your message to the public?
The overall message to the public from the Open Institute’s Gender Based Violence project team is that violence against women is a significant problem in Cambodia, but it is a problem that can be solved.  The use of Information and Communication Technologies will be critical to putting an end to gender based violence in Cambodia, so we need to increase the level of public awareness about issues related to violence against women and we need to teach our fellow Cambodians, through open and transparent communication methods, about ways to combat this violence going forward.  Everyone is an agent to break silence to speak out about GBV and that GBV cannot be tolerated.

author: Sopheap Chak


text:
Will the New President’s Key Unlock Any of Iran’s Problems? · Global Voices
Farid

A key was the symbol for Rouhani's campaign. Photo via Mashreghnews
The campaign symbol of president-elect Hassan Rouhani was a key. Now, Iranian netizens are discussing whether Rouhani will actually be able to open any locks. Rouhani promised a government of “hope and prudence”, and thousands of Iranians celebrated his victory hoping for a better future.
In Omid Dana's blog we read:
Which lock will Rouhani's key open? Mostafa Tajzadeh [a jailed reformist] says releasing political prisoners is not in the hands of Rouhani. Doesn't Khatami say that we should lower our expectations? People often say, with good reason, that the key to nuclear negotiations, relations with the US, and the Syria crisis are in the hands of the Supreme Leader… With all this said, Rouhani's only keys are those to his house or his office.
Jaleboon writes:
Some, like Omid Dana, ask which locks Rouhani can open. The answer is that he already opened the lock of the election that had become illegitimate with the 2009 crisis.
Several netizens metion problems and locks that Rouhani's key might open.
Mahsa tweeted:
I don't want freedom to wear the veil or not, I want the day to come when inflation and unemployment rates are lowered and marginalized people do not need to sell drugs.
Negar Mortazavi tweeted:
“Sources close to #Rouhani say he is planning to send special envoys to some countries to repair broken ties & start a new chapter with Tehran.
In the meantime several campaigns also asked Rouhani to fix the Iranian internet and end filtering. A Facebook campaign asked Rouhani to end the filtering of Facebook, and a group of bloggers and cyber activists wrote a letter to the President-elect asking him to increase Internet speeds. They also complain about filtering and remind Rouhani that he himself used the Internet to promote his campaign.

author: Farid


text:
Mexico Becomes Destination for Migrants · Global Voices
NACLA

This post is part of our series on Latin America: Migrant Journeys in collaboration with The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA). Stay tuned for more articles and podcasts. This article is written by Levi Bridges.*
Most migrants at Tochan once dreamt of reaching the United States. But cartel violence running along the train tracks, as well as the increased security along the U.S. border, has made Mexico become a new destination country for migrants.
Rudi Solaris left his native country of Honduras because his coworkers tried to kill him. The 27-year-old former cop joined the police force in search of a steady income and better life for his family. Instead, his workplace became a decade-long nightmare that offered no escape.
The entrance of Tochan, a migrant shelter in a lower class Mexico City neighborhood, serves as a point of refuge for many Central Americans fleeing gang violence in their home countries. While most Central American migrants leave home with dreams of reaching the U.S., many are thwarted by the dangerous journey north and decide to start a new life in Mexico.
Solaris’s story begins in the small city of Choluteca, a short drive from the Pacific coast in southern Honduras, and ends in the industrial city of Monterrey, Mexico, over 1,500 miles to the north. The youngest of seven children, his mother died young, and at age 14, like many young Hondurans from the countryside, he left for the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa in search of work to send money home.
As a young teenager alone in Tegucigalpa, Solaris found work in construction sites. He joined the police force at age 17 and quickly discovered to what extent organized crime had infiltrated Honduran law enforcement.
“At least half of Tegucigalpa’s police work with gangs,” Solaris said.
Honduras currently has the highest murder rate in the world, a phenomenon created by drug violence and police corruption. The security situation began deteriorating in 2009, when the military ousted former president Manuel Zelaya from office. Mexican drug cartels took advantage of the region’s instability by working with Honduran gangs, like the Mara Salvatrucha, to ship drugs arriving on the country’s sparsely populated Caribbean coast north towards the United States.
During his 10 years in the Honduran police force, Solaris learned firsthand about this reality. At one point he was assigned to work as a prison guard, a post which he held for several years. One day, an official informed Solaris that he would be sent away for several days to guard a prisoner. Solaris says that Honduran prisoners with money to bribe officials can do anything, even leaving the prison for short periods.
When Solaris escorted the prisoner outside of the jail a car awaited him. Two men inside stripped him of his weapons. Solaris soon learned that the prisoner was part of a powerful gang, and his role was not that of a bodyguard, but a bargaining chip in a deal to release the prisoner on a brief visit home on the condition that both men would be returned to the prison promptly. The men drove Solaris into the mountains outside Tegucigalpa where he spent three days in a large house complete with armed guards.
“They told me that if I didn’t try to escape, everything would be okay,” Solaris said. “I spent three days there, and I was so afraid that I didn’t sleep the whole time.”
As the years passed, and Honduras continued to destabilize from 2009 onwards, Solaris’s job became more dangerous. On one occasion, many officers simply received notes saying they would be killed if they didn’t begin working for the gangs. One by one, Solaris watched other officers disappear. Eventually, he said that uncorrupt police banded together for protection and moved into a dormitory located within Tegucigalpa’s police headquarters.
“I only left the building to work,” Solaris explained. “It wasn’t safe outside without other officers. I
Rudi Solaris, a former police officer in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, writes a thank you letter to send to several Mexican social workers who helped him apply for Mexican residency. Just like in the U.S., Central Americans have difficulty finding work in Mexico without the proper documents.
couldn’t have a normal life,” he lamented. “I’ve never even had a girlfriend.”
Solaris lived in fear. One day during work, he witnessed an arms deal between several members of the police and a Mexican gang involved in the drug trade. The next day, he received a death threat because of what he saw. He locked himself in his room for two days with several automatic rifles waiting for assailants to begin shooting through the door. To save his life, Solaris fled from Tegucigalpa, hoping to reach the United States and apply for asylum.
At the Guatemalan border, Solaris boarded a bus to northern Mexico but was arrested at an immigration checkpoint and deported back to Honduras. Solaris turned around and headed north again. Many Central Americans journeying towards the United States utilize Mexican freight trains to avoid vigilant immigration officials. On his second attempt, Solaris decided to ride the trains.
Only a small percentage of migrants who brave the trains actually make it to the United States. Marauding gangs, and even corrupt cops, are known to extort, beat, rob, and rape migrants on board the trains. Others are kidnapped and held for ransom, or enlisted to work with the drug cartels.
“None of that worried me, though,” Solaris said. “Considering where I came from, the train seemed like paradise.”
Solaris made it to Tochan, a small migrant shelter in a working class Mexico City neighborhood whose name means “Our Home” in the Mexican indigenous language Nàhuatl. Today, Central American migrants fill Tochan. Most say they didn’t want to leave their countries, but after suffering from gang extortion and the death threats that came when they couldn’t make the payments, they had no choice.
Although many of the newcomers who arrive at Tochan’s doors were originally bound for the United States, they eventually apply for asylum in Mexico. The lucky ones succeed in getting temporary resident papers that allow them to work. However, even those with strong cases are usually denied and must eke out a living in the informal economy as undocumented workers in Mexico.
Solaris and another Honduran found work in a factory outside Mexico City that produces Chinese fortune cookies. Almost five months passed before Solaris received temporary residency. When he obtained his papers, Solaris took a bus to Monterrey in north Mexico. Finally, he could ride on a Mexican bus without fear of deportation.
Monterrey is a sprawl of factories producing goods for multi-national corporations that are exported to the United States. Four-lane highways and strip malls with Pollo Loco’s and other fast-food joints fan out from the city center. Located just over 100 miles south of Texas, here you can almost feel the U.S. influence dripping downwards from the nearby border.
The green hills which tower above the city of Monterrey, in northern Mexico, overlook a sprawl of factories owned by multinational corporations that use cheap labor to produce goods for export over the nearby U.S. border. Monterrey's factories attract a large Central American population, many of whom have failed crossing the U.S. border and have decided to instead seek work in Mexico.
Today, Solaris shares a shabby apartment in Monterrey with a Salvadoran migrant. Each morning, they awake at 4 a.m. and leave for work at a nearby factory sorting potatoes. Sometimes, their shift lasts 18 hours straight.
Solaris’s roommate, Douglas, left El Salvador for the United States five years ago. He crossed the border, but was arrested by immigration, held in a detention center for two months, and deported. Frustrated by the lack of economic opportunities in El Salvador, he headed north again.
“I was traveling towards Arizona on my second attempt,” Douglass said, “but I got on the wrong train and ended up in Monterrey. I found a job and have been here ever since. I can send a little money home to my wife and children. It’s not as good as I’d be making in the United States, but every bit helps.”
Current immigration reform proposals include vast provisions for sealing off the border with Mexico. But until the violence associated with the drug trade subsides, Central Americans will continue to flood north. If they don’t make it to the United States, they will stay in Mexico, creating a new generation of undocumented migrants.
In the current bill for comprehensive immigration reform that recently passed, the Senate allocates roughly $40 billion for an increase in border security that includes doubling the Border Patrol to 40,000, as well as adding 700 miles of fencing and aerial surveillance drones. The bill may make it more difficult for migrants to cross into the United States, but it won’t mitigate the violence in Honduras, which will continue to push migrants from one danger zone to another as they try to cross the violent Mexican border in a journey that has become more high-stakes.
Solaris has a cousin who spent three years working at the same potato factory in Monterrey. He saved money and invested it in a coyote, or, people smuggler, who brought him to New York City.
On a recent trip to Monterrey, I asked Solaris if he planned to do the same.
“Not anymore,” Solaris said. “All I want is a job. I just want to be safe. Here in Mexico I have that.”
* Levi Bridges is a writer and freelance journalist based in Latin America. He is currently spending the year in Mexico City on a Fulbright grant in creative writing to begin work on a book about the life experiences of Latin American migrant workers. He writes at bridgesandborders.com.

author: NACLA


text:
Multiple Resignations at the Media Association of Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Netizens who have been following developments in the Guardian newsroom controversy were looking forward to the new information that the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago had promised to reveal at a press conference today. Instead, the big story has been the resignation of several journalists (most notably the Guardian's Editor in Chief, Judy Raymond) from the media association.
In today's edition of the paper, she explained:
In 2005 I resigned as acting editor of the T&T Guardian on a matter of principle…and I was sure it was the right thing to do. During the course of the last week, I spent several days considering leaving the Guardian again. But at no point was I certain that leaving would be the right decision. Before returning to the Guardian last March, I had spent two years talking to the managing director, Gabriel Faria, and other executives, about the prospect of going back.
When I eventually decided to accept the paper’s offer to lead the editorial department, I felt comfortable that things were different. The company now recognised that change was needed and the quality of the paper had to be lifted in a number of ways. During the last 15 months I have been supported by our MD and the board in building a very good team that I feel has the potential to be the best in the business.
We have been responsible for major stories on topics that include Section 34, the $6.8 million firetruck, the revived Flying Squad, Dr Hafizool Mohammed and the botched Sea Lots probe. During this period, the board has expressed concerns about political bias and accuracy. Both have been the subjects of lengthy and sometimes heated discussions with management. Last week I was asked to expand and complete a document outlining editorial policy and guidelines. Not an unreasonable proposal—but in order to do so, I was mandated to ‘go offline'—a phrase open to alarming interpretations.
In any media house there is always tension between the newsroom and the boardroom. Journalists are focused on reporting the news in the interest of the public; directors are concerned with the interests of shareholders. In 2013 we are working in a country with a politically overheated climate. Conspiracy theories abound, and paranoia is widespread. Press freedom must be especially zealously guarded in such circumstances.
Raymond's article revisited the sequence of events, in the context of claims that the company may have been vulnerable to political interference:
On Wednesday, I met with a group of senior editors to decide on a joint course of action, but the situation was still unclear. We agreed to wait for 24 hours. Reporters Denyse Renne and Anika Gumbs and public affairs editor Dr Sheila Rampersad, however, chose to tender their resignations immediately.
In fairness to the Guardian, throughout the week the company was open to talks and we had several meetings, including one painfully frank but mutually enlightening discussion with senior management last Thursday. At that meeting I listed the conditions under which I would agree to stay, and the company agreed to meet them. An important statistic was cited in that meeting: that the ANSA McAL group derives only two per cent of its revenue from government contracts.
This puts a completely different complexion on the belief that the group is vulnerable to political pressure. It also became apparent during that meeting that there had been a number of appalling misunderstandings and hasty judgments on both sides, some fuelled by misinformation and active mischief fed into the newsroom from external sources.
At that point, given the widespread belief that what was going on was a battle for press freedom, it would still have been easier for me to claim what appeared to be the moral high ground and leave. In the knowledge of the real circumstances, however, although it would have saved me much embarrassment and criticism, I don’t believe it would have been the right thing to do.
Finally, she offered some insight into her decision to stay in her post:
Journalism is not just a job. It goes beyond the contract one has with one’s employer. It also entails a commitment and obligation to the ethics of the profession, and to the public. I also have obligations to the newsroom team that I have the privilege to lead. If I left, other members of that team would also leave, and the work that we have been doing over the past year would come to an abrupt and premature end. I don’t believe anyone’s interests—not the newsroom’s, not the Guardian’s, not the country’s—would be best served by that.
As a journalist and as an executive member of the Media Association—a post from which I have now resigned—I have worked to promote press freedom and I am not going to betray that principle now. If I believed for a moment that there had been or would be any infringement of that freedom at the Guardian, or that my role as EIC were being curtailed, I would not have chosen to stay.
Following Raymond's announcement of her resignation from the vice-presidential post at the media association, many other journalists followed suit. The organisation's Facebook page posted a statement at 9 o'clock this morning:
The remaining members of the interim executive of the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (Matt) have resigned with immediate effect.
As an interim executive, it was not possible to elect a new, fully functioning executive due to a very low turnout of media workers at out last general membership meeting. Our last act will be to convene another general membership meeting for the purpose of electing an executive.
The comments on the post were an interesting microcosm of the bigger issues playing out around the controversy. Blogger and social activist Phillip Edward Alexander noted that the first press release by MATT was signed by its executive; the retraction statement was not, but Alexander maintains that “the Executive stood behind this ‘telling’ of events”. He continued:
As of this morning…the entire MATT executive has resigned.
There does not appear to be an announced date for elections of a new executive.
No one knows who speaks for MATT now.
Neither MATT, nor the Trinidad Guardian nor Judy Raymond intend to host a press conference today or any other time soon on this matter.
So, the unanswered discrepancies between what took place Wednesday, what we were told took place from Wednesday to now and the situation at present want to be left in the dark.
The problem is though, this remains a freedom of the press issue as we are still no clearer despite the Guardian's Editor in Chief's well written commentary as to what really occurred and what really intervened to bring it to an end.
Mass resignations are not enough, someone has to be able to call an urgent MATT election or that organization will be the first casualty of a well crafted lie.
Secondly but more importantly, the Trinidad Guardian and all of the players in this fiasco need to make themselves available for a public press conference and answer these questions if the Guardian is to be trusted as a reliable source of information going forward.
Until this is done we will never really know if the biggest single attack against the freedom of the press in our history was allowed to go unreported.
Lasana Liburd called for accountability:
Who is the person that wrote the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago’s releases last week and suggested political interference at the Trinidad Guardian’s newsroom?
And who are the MATT officials who saw the releases and allowed/did not stop them from being published? How were those releases meant to be in defense of local journalists and the industry?
Don't slink away. Defend your positions and your work over the last week!
Columnist Ira Mathur reposted a status update from her personal Facebook page:
I'm sick of the pillorying of the MATT and journalists at the Guardian. Is this about resolution or about demonizing journalists and editors. Okay, everyone resigns at the Guardian, at MATT. Then what? Who is volunteering to run MATT? Is everyone okay with a bullet to democracy with a newspaper going under? I am not aware of political interference at the Guardian and I have written for the paper for years. Quite the opposite – especially since Judy Raymond's appointment it has grown into a fiercely independent paper, providing vital checks and balances in any democracy, playing its role as watch dog for the people brilliantly. The Guardian broke important stories, did great investigate work. I can't get over how much people want blood sport. Its not about building up but tearing down. My heart goes out to Judy Raymond and Suzanne C Sheppard, two of our countries finest editors and journalists. May they brave this storm. It takes much more courage to stay and work to take the pelting than to sink into silence.


text:
Puerto Rican Artist Shares Her Passion for Paper · Global Voices
Yarisa Colon

*All links lead to Spanish texts, unless otherwise noted.
During her workshops, Puerto Rican artist Aydasara Ortega, a current resident of New York, offers a “time out,” or “toque de queda” [en], during which participants learn to create their own beautiful handmade paper. Ortega invites students to “reclaim their physical and mental space,” and to put the mystery back into whatever they create with their hands, with their time…and this is no small feat.
To accomplish this, Aydasara uses social networks to spread the word about her artistic campaign and to exchange ideas about related topics. She also writes two different blogs, lomismoquefuesiempreobjeto and aydasara, in which she displays the various collages she has created with the utmost sensitivity and precision on her personally hand-crafted paper.
She also shares these fascinating works of art on several cybergalleries, and new pieces come to light each month in the magazine Cruce.  Even her Facebook wall has been transformed into an exhibit space, thanks to the touch of beauty which Aydasara creates and shares here.  It was through Facebook, in fact, that we had the conversation with her that we're sharing with you today.
We hope you enjoy it!
A work from her series titled “Desde Luego.”
Global Voices (GV): How long have you been working on your blogs?
Aydasara Ortega (AO): Hago dos blogs: lomismoquefuesiempreobjeto y aydasara. Empecé con el segundo en el 2008. Como regalo de cumpleaños, alguien me dijo “Mira, Aydasara, es como un diario y puedes crearlo a tu manera muy libremente.” Imaginate, qué invitación. Comencé entonces a describir e ilustrar mi proceso creativo.  Luego, en el 2009 quise hacer uno enfocado en los talleres que estaba dando: jabones y velas artesanales así como papel hecho a mano.
I write two blogs: lomismoquefuesiempreobjeto and aydasara. I started the second one in 2008. As a sort of birthday present, someone said to me, “Look, Aydasara, it's just like writing a journal, and you can create it in your own way, as free-form as you want.”  Imagine turning down an invitation like that! So I started to describe and illustrate my own creative process. After that, in 2009, I wanted to focus one of the blogs on the workshops I was teaching: artistic soaps and candles as well as handmade paper.
“Anyone who gazes into the sea has already set sail.” A piece by Aydasara appearing on the home page of Café de la Pensée
GV: How do you organize your content?
AO: El blog aydasara es más personal pues resultó como un diario, donde documentaba acontecimientos en los que encuentro algo muy significativo, digno de recordar y compartir. lomismoquefuesiempreobjeto está más enfocado al arte de hacer papel, arte al que le doy completa dedicación desde el 2008.
AO: The blog aydasara is more personal, since it has turned out more like a journal where I documented events that held significance for me, things worth noting and sharing. lomismoquefuesiempreobjeto centers more on the art of making paper, which I've been completely dedicated to since 2008.
GV: In both blogs, you display your work along with a word or phrase  from a text. Tell us a bit about the process of relating these excerpts to your art.
AO: ¿
Cuál viene primero a mi mente, el texto o la imagen? Es una pregunta que siempre me resulta curiosa, pero ya no me desafía. Quiero decir que están ahí y toman forma simultáneamente.
Los textos y los pedazos que dan forma a cada imagen los encuentro en libros también encontrados, aunque siempre he sospechado son ellos los que me encuentran a mí. En los blogs, casi siempre incluyo una o unas de las letras del texto (y a veces en la imagen), letras que sombreo de un color distinto.  Estas letras sombreadas te llevan al enlace donde puedes encontrar el texto completo.
AO: Which comes to my mind first, the text or the image? This has always been a curious question for me, but it's not as much of a challenge now. I mean that both are there and they take shape simultaneously.
The texts and the pieces that give form to each image, well, I get them from “found” books, although I've always suspected that they are finding me. In the blogs, I almost always include one or more of the letters from the text (and sometimes from the image), letters that I shade in a distinct color. These shaded letters lead to an Internet link where you can find the complete text.
A work by Puerto Rican artist Rubén Rivera on paper created by Aydasara.
GV: Why do you make paper by hand?
AO: Porque su devenir me resulta fascinante. La palabra devenir y su significado: “La realidad entendida como proceso o cambio, que a veces se opone a ser” (regalo de mi amigo Rubén Rivera) describe bien el arte de hacer papel a mano y lo que podría significar para el hacedor.
Hacerlo intriga, atiene, detiene, atrapa y, a la vez, da rienda suelta.
Ahora, ¿por qué a las personas les invita y se dedican a hacer papel a mano?
En general, las personas le dan atención al papel como le dan, digamos, al aire.  Así como una brisa despierta los sentidos, una hoja de papel hecha a mano hace lo mismo.  Es decir, hay algo especial acerca de un objeto hecho a mano.  Nos da la sensación de la persona detrás del producto en lugar de la máquina, y valoramos ese sentido cada vez más con cada avance tecnológico.  El papel es muy común, por lo que una hoja hecha a mano, inusual y diferente, es mucho más que excepcional, es única y lleva en sí un mensaje.
AO: Because the evolution, the process, is so fascinating for me. The word “evolution” and its meaning, “reality understood as process or change, which sometimes refuses to be” (courtesy of my friend Rubén Rivero), is a good description of the art of making paper by hand and what it means for the maker.
Making paper intrigues, delays, traps, and, once in a while, allows free rein.
So then, what inspires people to make paper by hand and dedicate themselves to it?
In general, people notice paper in the same way they notice, let's say, air. Just as a breeze can awaken the senses, a simple sheet of paper made by hand can do the same. In other words, there's something special about a hand-made object. It gives us the sense of the person behind the product rather than the machine, and we value that sense even more with every new technological advance. Paper is very common, so a sheet made by hand, unusual and distinct, is far more than exceptional, it is unique, and carries a message inside it.
GV: Tell us about the experience of sharing your work in places like California, Detroit, New York, and Puerto Rico.
Photo published on Facebook by Aydasara Ortega
AO: He tenido la maravillosa oportunidad de exhibir mi trabajo y dar talleres de papel hecho a mano, a los que llamo Toque de Queda a través de organizaciones, y en todos estos lugares el papel se ha quedado con el canto.  Es decir que el hacer un hermosa hoja de papel con nuestras propias manos, y hacer de ésta lo que la imaginación invite ha sido siempre una experiencia deslumbrante para aquellos con los que he tenido el honor de compartirlo.
AO: I've had the marvelous opportunity to exhibit my work and present paper-making workshops [en], which I call Toque de Queda, for different organizations, and in all these places, papermaking has been a hit. That is, making a beautiful sheet of paper with our own hands, and then making that into whatever our imagination dictates, has always been an enlightening experience for those I've had the honor to share it with.
GV:  What are your next steps?
AO: Estaré ofreciendo talleres gratuitos el 27 y 28 de julio como parte del tercer New York City Poetry Festival.  También daré un curso intensivo de fabricación de papel, junto a Ruben Rivera, del 5 al 9 de agosto en la Liga de Estudiantes de Arte de Nueva York.
Y seguiré compartiendo mis creaciones y enviando mi propuesta para un Toque de Queda a toda persona y lugar posible.  Uno nunca sabe quien se motive a maniobrar.
AO: I'll be offering free workshops on the 27th and 28th of July as part of the third New York City Poetry Festival [en]. I'll also be teaching an intensive course on paper-making, along with Rubén Rivera, from August 5th-9th at the Art Students League of New York [en].
I'll continue to share my creations and send my Toque de Queda proposal to as many individuals and organizations as possible. You never know who might be inspired to get involved.

author: Yarisa Colon


text:
Riau, Indonesia: ‘Ground Zero’ of Southeast Asia Haze · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The deadly haze which swept Singapore and some parts of Malaysia this year was caused by the forest fires in Riau, located west of Indonesia. Naturally, it attracted significant mainstream media attention but there was scant reporting on the situation of Riau citizens who have tremendously suffered and are still suffering from the impact of both the haze and forest fires.
Zul Othman of The New Paper praised Riau firefighters for their heroic efforts to stop the spread of the forest fire:
Politicians can talk and pontificate all they want but, on ground zero in Indonesia’s Riau province, it is the brave and hardy souls who are bearing the brunt of fires that never seem to die.
They are on the front line of the hot spots. And it is a painful, impossible task. Not least of their problems: How to fight fires with no water? How to go on fighting when your lungs are on fire?
The flames were doused, but never completely tamed. Huge patches of scorched peatland were still smouldering, emitting heat and lots of smoke.
Life Story of a Driller visited the site of the ‘smog attack’:
Last night, I stood on the one of grass fire frontier in Bengkalis, Riau (20/06/2013). People called this Smog Attack. Smog means “Smoke+Fog”. In Singapore, it’s just called haze, because it’s not thick enough.
The Center for International Rorestry Research explains why the haze has stayed for so long in the region:
The haze lingers because the fires do too. Fires are in peat around 3–4 m underground. Firefighters have to stick a hose into the peat to douse the fire
Map of Indonesia forest fires from The Center for International Rorestry Research
An interactive map was also developed to accurately monitor the spread of haze and forest fires in the country. David Gaveau and Mohammad Agus Salim studied the causes of the haze:
Many of the June 2013 fires are part of the processes of plantation establishment and management. The very short period over which fire incidents peaked, the high proportion of fires occurring on peatlands, typical patterns of plantation management in fire areas….support this hypothesis.
Weather conditions (including wind patterns) exacerbated the haze problem in June 2013 compared with previous fire incidents.
Fidelis E. Satriastanti called the haze affecting Indonesia’s neighbors as ‘transferred pollution’:
…measures such as logging moratorium in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions have been taken by Indonesia to fight forest fires. But it appears as if these measures have been insufficient and have achieved limited success.
The writer also observed that authorities have been arresting small farmers and not plantation owners:
…they were only arresting small crooks but left out bigger companies who were resorting to the cheapest way of clearing land for palm oil plantations: burning down forests.
I find it quite hard to believe that the farmers could have caused this much damage. First, they rarely own the lands. Second, even if they do own lands, it’s mostly limited to two hectares.
If the president can deliver an apology to the neighboring countries, then he can certainly apologize to his own people for failing to protect this country’s future generations.
Unspun is quite disappointed with the slow action of Indonesian authorities to decisively address the problem:
A burning forest in Riau, Indonesia. Photo by Virna Puspa Setyorini, Copyright @Demotix (6/20/2013)
In this age of satellite imagery what further investigation is needed to zoom in on the plantations with forest fires and punish them? What fumes is the Forestry Ministry and other Indonesian officials inhaling?
@iamdreamcatcher posted a picture of a burning forest in Riau and blamed irresponsible companies:
some of companies also have concession lands in the two islands; Sumatra and Kalimantan. it happens years ago, so I guess not just Singapore or Malaysia who's tired with the situation, we also have the same feeling for these irresponsible people …

author: Mong Palatino


text:
Snowden Airport Saga Polarizes Russian Human Rights Community · Global Voices
Daniel Alan Kennedy

See our special coverage Snowden: The US is Watching You
After spending almost a month unseen in the international transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden met with representatives of Russian human rights organizations and Russian MP Vyacheslav Nikonov. During the Friday June 12, 2013 public appearance, Snowden made a brief statement, and took questions from the assembled journalists (full audio available here [en and ru]) at what was termed a “G9 meeting.” Snowden criticised his government's secret courts, overarching system of surveillance, and the diplomatic campaign aimed at preventing him from finding political asylum. He also announced his intention to take asylum at any country that could ensure his security, and thanked those countries that have offered him assistance:
Even in the face of this historically disproportionate aggression, countries around the world have offered support and asylum. These nations, including Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador have my gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless. By refusing to compromise their principles in the face of intimidation, they have earned the respect of the world.
A mob of journalists descended on Sheremetyevo airport Friday for the Snowden press conference. YouTube screenshot. July 15, 2013
While the Russian government has come out in tacit support of Snowden's asylum rights, Russians themselves are divided [GV] on whether he is a genuine whistle-blower or a hypocritical traitor. Snowden's press conference (video clip below) has re-ignited the debate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RsZJSuhIts
In a blog post [ru] for the independent Ekho Moskvy radio-station, journalist and human rights activist Natalia Gulevskaya directed her ire at the Russian human rights activists that had met with Snowden, claiming they were state-sponsored and self-centered hypocrites:
Из собравшегося правозащитного бомонда штатных и внештатных агентов Кремля в транзитной зоне аэропорта Шереметьево никого особо не интересуют граждане России, которые погружаются в репрессии, судебные, административные и физические расправы.
None of the human-rights-defending crème de la crème of official and non-official Kremlin agents, who have gathered in the transit zone, hold any interest for the citizens of Russia, who are drowning in repression, in legal, administrative and physical violence.
Political commentator and human rights activist, Marina Litvinovich was even more scathing, writing on her blog [ru] that Snowden's meeting was nothing more than a “typical secret service operation” that “decent people and decent human rights organizations refused to take part in.”
Pavel Chikov, head of the the legal defense NGO “Agora” [ru] and member of the Presidential Council on Human Rights, was also suspicious of Sheremetyevo airport's new found enthusiasm for helping human rights activists, tweeting [ru]:
Помнится, в декабре 2011 года аэропорт Шереметьево задерживал и незаконно (суд потом признал) изымал ноутбук у директора Ассоциации ГОЛОС
I remember, in December of 2011 [after the Duma elections] Sheremetyevo Airport arrested and illegally (as determined by a court) seized a laptop from the director of [election monitoring group] GOLOS [ru]
The idea that Snowden's stay in Russia is closely monitored and controlled by the Russian secret services has permeated the discourse to such a degree, that when Nikita Batalov, a radio journalist, found [ru] a suspicious door in one of the Sheremetyevo terminals, he automatically assumed that this is where Snowden was being held:
И теперь главное! На одной из маленьких дверей в терминале Е бумажка со скотчем с надписью “СПЕЦОБЪЕКТ ФСБ РОССИИ, ВХОД ЗАПРЕЩЕН”
And now for the main bit! One of the small doors in terminal E [where Snowden held his press-conference] is labeled with a scotch-taped piece of paper “RUSSIAN FSB SENSITIVE SITE, NO ENTRY”
Pro-Kremlin activist and blogger Kristina Potupchik thought that the real hypocrisy lay with the human rights groups that had refused to speak up for Snowden. In a blog post entitled “Edward Snowden, Why is the Opposition Keeping Quiet” [ru] Potupchick mockingly wrote.
Почему молчим? Почему не требуем от кровавого режима в срочном порядке без каких-либо условий предоставить убежище герою, рассказавшему миру правду о нарушении прав человека и подвергающемуся за это преследованиям на родине??? Это же ваша тема! А может быть, они молчат потому, что это СОЕДИНЕННЫЕ ШТАТЫ АМЕРИКИ? Или кто назовет иные причины?
Why are [you] keeping quiet? Why aren't [you] demanding the bloody regime to immediately and unconditionally grant asylum to this hero, who has told the whole world about human rights violations and who is being persecuted for this by his homeland??? This is the kind of thing you do! Or maybe, they are quiet because it's the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA [that is doing the persecuting]? Or can anyone offer another reason?
Some bloggers who are usually critical of the Russian government, also side with Snowden in this instance. For example, the mockingly fake Twitter account of Russia's former grey cardinal Vladislav Surkov criticized [ru] perceived attempts at intimidation by the Americans:
Интересно, как США отреагируют на потенциальное выдвижение Сноудена в кандидаты на Нобелевскую Премию Мира?… Разбомбят Швецию?
I wonder how the USA will react to the potential nomination of Snowden as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize?… Bomb Sweden?
The writer and blogger Boris Akunin also thought [ru] that if what Snowden uncovered is true, he deserves the support of the Russian opposition, regardless of all the “fuss that our officialdom has started around him.”
We are often accustomed to thinking that civil society is, while not apolitical, primarily above the dirty business of party politics. Some of those present at Snowden's press conference can be linked to the Russian government, but others, like Tatiana Lokshina of the Human Right's Watch, who wrote an account [en] of the meeting, have consistently criticized the Russian government in the past. A broad refusal of Russian human rights defenders to speak out favor of Snowden, can leave them open to charges of hypocrisy, even though they may find it distasteful to help someone who categorizes Russia as “the first to stand against human rights violations.” With the ever-tightening regulation [GV] of Russia's NGO sector, its human rights defenders may have to decide which is more important: being consistent on a range of issues, or trying to prevent the Kremlin's from scoring a few PR points.

author: Daniel Alan Kennedy


text:
Puerto Rico a Hub for Spying on Latin America · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The Center of Investigative Journalism of Puerto Rico reported that in a series of classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden, it appears that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were using a naval base on the island as the center of operations to spy on several Latin American countries, including Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. This information had already been published in the newspapers O Globo (Brazil), El País (Spain), and The Guardian (UK).

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


text:
Snowden, the NSA, and Latin America: Beyond the Headlines · Global Voices
Anita Chan

This is part of our special coverage Snowden: The US is Watching You
If you were to read only the headlines of US news covering the controversy surrounding Edward Snowden and the NSA’s surveillance in Latin America over the last two weeks, it would be easy to think that Latin America was a single bloc of nations that almost always acted in unity against the United States.
Debates in social media, however, have pushed beyond the familiar headlines in English language news.
Headlines like “Latin American leaders, on first-name basis, unite against critics”, “Rerouted Morales plane has South American leaders irate” and “Evo Morales’ Plane Grounding Causes Uproar Throughout Latin America” published in the days following the grounded plane of Bolivian president Evo Morales, pushed forth the image of a united bloc of nations that in reality maintain very distinct relations with the US, Europe, and other nations in the region.
UNASUR meeting after Evo Morales’ plane was rerouted in Europe. Photo shared by Presidencia de la República de Ecuador on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Media commentators have warned too of an “axis of Evo” or “circus of Evo” [es] that could control regional bodies like the UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations). This, even while UNASUR’s inability to unite all 12 of its signatory nations in the emergency summit held in Cochabamba, Bolivia (immediately after Morales’ plane detention in Europe) and MERCOSUR’s continuing debate on the return of Paraguay to its bloc – demonstrate notable regional divisions.
This is something well recognized by the US government, which in a 2011 report for the US Congress, underscored the strong relations of exchange maintained with Colombia, Chile and Peru — for whom the US exists as the primary partner for imports and exports, and with whom the new free trade agreements with the US have been implemented. The same report specifies that there exists considerably “less dependency” on the US in countries like Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia.
But one week after the controversy surrounding Morales’ plane detention in Europe, a broad diversity of national debates that have been sparked by the same incident offer an opportunity to see the diversity of foreign relations sustained in the region — which collectively demonstrate the unlikelihood that any single nation could “control” the regional debate.
The conversation on Twitter
Twitter streams reflect the strong activity of regional activists who have worked to ensure that debates don’t only focus on the roles and attention-grabbing public personas of Evo Morales or Edward Snowden.
In Brazil, the tweets of Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald (@GlennGreenwald), the first newspaper reporter to uncover the quantity of emails and phone calls that the NSA had collected from Latin America, globally recirculated the revelations published in O Globo — about which Greenwald first tweeted on July 6:
@ggreenwald: NEW: The US is spying on millions of calls & emails of Brazilians: my article in the Sunday edition of @JornalOGlobo http://oglobo.globo.com
Greenwald’s multiple articles helped pushed Brazil’s government to launch an investigation into the collaboration of Brazilian businesses with US surveillance. His articles also helped prompt international coverage that quickly emerged around the issue in sources from the New York Times, to The Guardian, and the Associated Press.
In Ecuador, digital rights activists like Rafael Bonifaz (@RBonifaz) [es] use Twitter and blogs [es] to distribute key information around the massive NSA spy program collecting emails and phone calls, not only in Brazil, but across Latin America more generally. Underscoring the gravity of the latest news on the extensive regional spy campaign, Bonifaz tweeted on July 10th:
@rbonifaz: América Latina indignada por espionaje. Ahora sí de verdad http://www.elcomercio.com/mundo/Americalatina-EEUU-Snowden-espionaje-Ecuador-asilo_0_953304835.html … Lo que escribí hace unas semanas http://rafael.bonifaz.ec/blog/2013/06/indignacion-en-america-latina/ …”
@rbonifaz: Latin America is outraged about the spying. Now it's serious. http://www.elcomercio.com/mundo/Americalatina-EEUU-Snowden-espionaje-Ecuador-asilo_0_953304835.html … What I wrote a few weeks ago: http://rafael.bonifaz.ec/blog/2013/06/indignacion-en-america-latina/ …”
In Bolivia, bloggers like filmmaker Violeta Ayala have questioned how the US can provide refuge to sought criminals in Bolivia (including former ex-president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and 2 of his ministers, who are accused of killing dozens of citizens), while at the same time, it continues to pressure other governments to extradite Snowden.
Meanwhile, open technology activists like Mario Duran (@mrduranch) [es], have organized online events to educate local publics about the PRISM electronic surveillence program. Around the latest event, to be held online tonight (July 15th) starting at 9:30P (GMT-4), Durán tweeted on July 11:
@mrduranch: Software Libre, Criptografía y Privacidad para gobiernos e individuos, enterate + https://www.facebook.com/events/342717335858232/ … lunes 15 julio 2130 (GMT-4) #fb
@mrduranch: Open Software, Cryptography and Privacy for governments and individuals, find out more https://www.facebook.com/events/342717335858232/ … Monday, July 15 21:30 (GMT-4) #fb
And in Colombia, typically considered one of the US’s strongest regional allies, pointed reactions quickly surfaced after revelations that it was among the top three nations spied on by the NSA in Latin America.
Journalist Carolina Botero Cabrera, whose weekly column in El Espectador focuses on digital rights, wrote that the case of PRISM should push citizens to question more than their habits on information sharing online, and and should push them to ask too what price in human and civil rights they’re willing to pay to continue to “fight against terrorism and maintain security” [es]?
As the PanAmerican Post (@PanAmericanPost) tweeted on July 10:
@PanAmericanPost: When even #Colombia formally asks for clarification on NSA surveillance activities, it's a sure sign that the US has really ticked off LatAm.
The shared regional concerns surrounding the NSA, notwithstanding, there’s a long and substantial historical record that demonstrate that the headlines simplifying regional politics into a single bloc simply don't suffice to represent the region. This, surely will be something interesting to observe as analysis on the latest Mercosur Summit [es] that began July 13 begins to surface.

author: Anita Chan


text:
Web Popularity of Japan’s Candidates Ranked · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

In the midst of Japan's first election campaign where politicians are officially allowed to use social media, freelance engineer Masahide Mori [ja] has compiled a ranking [ja] based on the number of likes and the number of subscribers on the Facebook pages of candidates. Users can view increase and decrease of Facebook Like of politicians. Users can also chose political parties and compare who is gaining more likes.


text:
A Public Feud Between Nigeria’s First Lady and a Nobel Laureate · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Nigeria's first lady and a lauded Nigerian writer are trading barbs over the role of the president's wife in a local political crisis.
The public spat between Nigeria’s First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan and Nobel Laureate in Literature Professor Wole Soyinka has its origin in a political crisis in Rivers State, Nigeria. The crisis had been simmering for some time, but it deepened with Dame Jonathan's visit to Rivers State late last month.
The crisis had been simmering for some time, stemming from that state's governor running for reelection as chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum and winning against his party's wishes. The crisis only deepened with Dame Jonathan's visit to Rivers State late last month.
According to this reports on AllAfrica:
The alleged move by the Presidency to remove the Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi took a dramatic turn yesterday as the first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has decided to take the bull by the horn in the matter. LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that the first lady's visit to Port Harcourt was a move to ensure that the State House of Assembly members are mobilised to ensure Governor Amaechi's impeachment from office.
The first lady moved into a newly-built mansion in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. She is expected to spend 11 days in Port Harcourt. But our sources said that the first lady has vowed not to leave the Garden City until the governor is finally removed from office.
The first lady however refuted this allegation:
We have observed reports in some of today’s (Sunday’s) national dailies which are an obvious attempt by certain interests to link the current visit of the First Lady, Dame Patience  Jonathan, to Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, with a desire to unseat the governor of the state. For the purpose of protecting the innocent public from misinformation by these interests, it becomes important for us to state the facts of the First Lady’s presence in Port Harcourt as follows:
Her Excellence was the Special Guest of Honour at the official commissioning of the Yitzhak Rabin International School, Port Harcourt on Friday,  June 15, during which she also received an award from the Yitzhak Rabin Centre for African Development for her successful advocacy for women empowerment and the achievement of enduring peace in Nigeria and around the continent.
She also featured eminently as Mother of the Day at the wedding of her brother and member of the Rivers State Legislature, Evans Bipi, on Saturday. The First Lady will finally receive well wishers at the burial of her grandfather on Sunday, the 23rd.
It is difficult to see how any of the activities above is associated with the political circumstances of anyone. Perhaps we need to remind those who are crying wolf and are being harassed by their own ghost, that Rivers is the home state of the First Lady, which makes her a principal stakeholder with all the rights and privileges to visit the state as she considers needful.
Soyinka, had in a press conference, asserted that the first lady’s meddlesome actions had ignited the flame that has now engulfed the governance in Rivers State.
According to Soyinka [transcribed from the video]:
This is getting to a state where an unelected person, a mere domestic appendage, can seize control of a place for 11 days and as a result of her presence, the governor of that state was told by policemen that you cannot pass here because the queen was there. What sort of jungle are we living in?… A person with no constitutional position is able to enjoy the full security apparatus of the state which is being denied a governor…
The venerable Nigerian writer, poet, playwright and the 1986 Nobel Laureate in Literature had some advice for the first lady:
My worry for her is that she should be a lady first before being a first lady. You cannot be a first lady without first being a lady. That is the only advice I have for her.
Nigerian Nobel Laureate in Literature Wole Soyinka. Photo released by Flickr user Chidi Anthony Opara under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).
As would be expected, first lady Jonathan, replied. A statement signed by Ayo Osinlu, media assistant to the president’s wife, reads thus:
Unfortunately, Soyinka betrayed moral duty in his recent diatribe against Mrs. Patience Jonathan… The good, old Prof. reminds one of the truth that indeed, most of the giants on the street are men of like passions like everyone else. Worse still, most of them are actually standing on clay feet and would fail the test of a gentle push.
The president’s wife also had some advice for Soyinka:
It’s an embarrassment to his throng of admirers and followers, that a sage of Prof. Soyinka’s status,who used to be a gauge of public morality in this nation, would lend himself to a propaganda of high drive, to save a governor who elected to launch into a river without applicable survival skills.
Nigerian netizens have reacted to the public exchange of words between the two. The reactions are pitched thus: those in support of Professor Soyinka and those in support Mrs Jonathan, respectively.
Reactions from Soyinka's supporters are as follows:
Chain Blinger, a commenter on Nairaland forum, wrote:
I pity her more! Imagine this stupid lady taking a swipe at the prof instead of her to hide her fat-face in shame she's even have the courage talk. Naija has gone to the dog’s family!
Mrakin, another commenter in Nairaland, criticized the first lady:
I am not happy with some of the comments here. Anyway, those are opinions. In the first place, nobody voted for the first lady. She therefore has no right to disturb the peace of ordinary citizens for ten days. There are ways she can conduct state visits without heavy fun-fair of security and road closure/barricade. UK's PM often walks from home to office without disturbing the public. All those talking back at prof are not sincerely speaking the truth about how things should be done. They should look for respectable elders in their families who will not compromise the truth.
Takedat wrote on the same forum:
Thanks for admitting that you are behind Amaechi's predicament. This is what happens when people exercise power without any sense of responsibility. Dame now believes she is larger than life.
Social commentator Henry Okelue (@4eyedmonk) made the following successive tweets in favour of Soyinka:
@4eyedmonk: Wole Soyinka hits the nail on d head, instead of us latching on to d issues he raised, spin doctors are instead changing the discussion
@4eyedmonk: Did Wole Soyinka raise valid points in his outburst? Are we supposed to allow the narrative move from the survival of our nation to isms?
@4eyedmonk: We are here arguing about isms, our constitution is getting raped with reckless abandon. Nobody said fight, just hail the guy who spoke up
@4eyedmonk: Professor Soyinka, u have spoken well. If d Wife is d President, then d husband should remain d domestic appendage that he is, and vice
@4eyedmonk: in the United States, Michelle Obama, the wife of Barrack Obama, has never, ever, been known to go to a State and insult its elected Governor
Nigeria's First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan. Photo released by Flickr user MDGovpics under Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0).
Netizens in support of Jonathan had this to say:
On Nairaland forum, commenter Maxymilliano asserts:
But truth be told, WS shouldn't have deployed some of the adjectives used in qualifying the person of PEJ [Patience Jonathan] in his earlier statement. Going ahead to condemn PEJ [Patience Jonathan] in strong words for a fracas that the remote cause is yet to be established by the authority concerned betray the position of WS as an ‘unbiased commentator’
User BekeeBuAgbara wrote:
If not hearsay what other evidence does Prof. Soyinka have to criticize Patience Jonathan over River state conflict, you don't unnecessarily castigate others publicly and expect them to respect you and keep quiet because you are a noble prize winner. If he was not bias, he could have cautioned Amaechi for storming into the assembly's complex with his thugs. The Prof. should be held responsible for the consequences of his unwarranted provocation.
Writer and teacher Abigail Anaba (@Anabagil) tweeted in defence of the first lady:
@Anabagil: A statesman at this point shd seek to address the issue not try to further stoke it with inflammatory comments.
@Anabagil: Let's assume, that Dame is responsible for Rivers problems, does the Professors statement solve the problem?
@Anabagil: What practical steps has the professor taken to resolve the problem in Rivers? Did he tell us that in his statement?
@Anabagil: I know complex sentences are difficult to understand, so I really don't blame “Nigerian journalists and Bloggers”. But you too on Twitter?
@Anabagil: You the ones who see all the wrong things and try to correct them? Do you suddenly lose your analytical skills because it is Dame?
On Facebook, Kola Tubosun wrote that Soyinka's comments were sexist:
Prof Soyinka didn't say “the office of the first lady, a mere appendage of the presidency”. He said of the First Lady “a mere appendage of power”. I can't think of anything ruder or more sexist. It would be sexist if the roles were reversed and a woman commentator were to say the same thing, say in Britain, to the consort. No, the husband of the queen isn't “a mere appendage of power”. He wasn't awarded to the Queen on her ascension. Mrs. Jonathan isn't a perk of the office. Calling her “a mere appendage of power” means that she – as a person – is relevant only to the extent of her husband's position. This isn't true. She is a citizen of Nigeria with full rights and privileges as any other woman in the country. By herself, she is a relevant entity, married or not, and to the president or not. She is not an appendage of anything. The “mere” just makes it worse. I understand the frustration with some of her antics, and they deserved to be ridiculed. But NOT in this way. Not by our learned professor. And not in this century.
Blogger Ena Ofugara thought that Soyinka's comments reveal an “antediluvian mindset”:
Who refers to the First Lady as a “mere domestic appendage of power” in any country of this world? Do not they know the wife plays a key role in getting votes for the husband? Is Michelle Obama not revered globally? Has the Queen of England ever hugged any human being aside Michelle? Is her qualification for that embrace not because of Obama being president? IS SHE A DOMESTIC APPENDAGE OF POWER????? Who in this century still considers women DOMESTIC??? Is the Prof not aware that women now earn even more than men in Nigeria as the beautiful brilliant ones are snapped up quickly by employers? Are our most powerful ministers these past years not been women viz Dora Akunyili and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala? What men tower above these women? So why call her DOMESTIC. Is this not an antediluvian mindset?
And Kukogho Iruesiri Samson, a Nigerian poet, blogger and multimedia journalist, asserted:
I'm not a supporter of Jonathan
Nor appreciate his Patient Dame
But I cooked Soyinka's words in pan…
And the outcome muddied his great name

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


text:
Bassem Yousif vs Sandmonkey on Egypt · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

On Twitter, satirist Bassem Youssef and activist and blogger Mahmood Salem (Sandmonkey) had a discussion on the Egyptian political scene today.
Noon Arabia collects their exchange in this post [ar] on Storify.

author: Amira Al Hussaini