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Is there more to the Caribbean’s single-use plastics ban than meets the eye? · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A compilation image showing the polluted north coast of Curaçao juxtaposed with the ocean. Photo by Bastian on flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
The Caribbean has spoken out against single-use plastics and its inevitable environmental pollution for a long time.
In 2006, for instance, one Barbados-based blog advocated for the mandated use of biodegradable plastics; three years later, it suggested restrictions on the sale of plastic water bottles. In 2011, the Rotary Club of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands approached grocery-store owners about replacing plastic shopping bags with a more eco-friendly alternative, and in 2012, Haiti imposed a plastics ban that met with some resistance.
As the climate crisis worsens, however, both regional and international social entrepreneurs are emerging with recycling ideas and other possible solutions — like solar energy — to help offset the devastating effects of the crisis to which island nations are most susceptible.
Past measures notwithstanding, it is hoped that 2020 will be a year for clear vision when it comes to the scourge of plastic pollution in the region, with no less than seven Caribbean territories — the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago — supposedly banning single-use plastics and Styrofoam from January 1.
But the reality appears to be very different — at least in Trinidad and Tobago.
According to one industry stakeholder who spoke to Global Voices on the condition of anonymity, representatives from the Ministry of Planning met with manufacturers in December 2017, out of which a report was compiled examining the socio-economic implications of introducing a ban. The report included employment figures from the local plastic and styrofoam manufacturing sector.
By July 2018, stakeholders received letters announcing that the ban would affect the importation of styrofoam. This was confirmed by Minister of Finance Colm Imbert in his October 2019 presentation of the National Budget. The industry stakeholder explained, “It was never a ban on the material completely — and 60 percent of the styrofoam consumed in Trinidad and Tobago is made here, which means that only 40 percent has been banned. This gave local manufacturers a two-year timeline to prepare for the change and many of them expanded their production capacity, so the irony is we now potentially have more styrofoam in the market than before the ban.”
These types of plastics, which include everything from bags and food packaging to water bottles and eating utensils, typically take hundreds of years to break down. In the case of Trinidad and Tobago, adding insult to injury was the fact that plastic and styrofoam producers were instructed to conduct trials, reportedly beginning in the final quarter of 2019, to determine the effects of using a chemical additive to their products to make the plastic biodegradable.
The industry stakeholder said that manufacturers circumvented these trials and went to full production with the use of the additive, producing a range of plastic products being advertised as “biodegradable” that are already on the market.
However, this is a false claim: it is scientifically impossible for a chemical additive to make a plastic product biodegradable. Kelvin Okamoto, an expert from the global standards body ASTM International, confirmed this in an awareness session on the standards for biodegradable and compostable materials, which was hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards on December 12, 2019.
That manufacturers are being allowed to fool consumers in this way infuriates environmentalists, one of whom spoke with Global Voices, also under the condition of anonymity. He said such tactics are outlawed in the European Union, and in the United States, a company got banned for using the additive and stating their products were biodegradable.
Okamoto confirmed that such product misrepresentation is illegal in the United States. Offending companies that do not meet the required standards pay fines and are prohibited from continuing false advertising.
According to Forbes, of the world’s 30 largest per capita polluters of single-use plastics, 10 are from the Caribbean — Trinidad & Tobago, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Kitts & Nevis, Guyana, Barbados, St. Lucia, Bahamas, Grenada, Anguilla and Aruba —  and “generate more plastic debris than the weight of 20,000 space shuttles:”
The biggest culprit is Trinidad & Tobago, which produces a whopping 1.5 kilograms of waste per capita per day — the largest in the world. At least 0.19 kilograms per person per day of Trinidad & Tobago's plastic debris is almost guaranteed to end up in the ocean due to improper disposal, amounting to more marine plastic originating in Trinidad & Tobago [per capita] than 98 percent of the countries in the world.
The move to go plastic-free is therefore quite timely, especially in light of the fact that United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres noted, in June 2019, “If present trends continue, by 2050, our oceans will have more plastic than fish. The message is simple: reject single-use plastic. Refuse what you can't reuse. Together, we can chart a path to a cleaner, greener world.”
According to the UN Environment Programme, as much as 70 to 85 percent of marine litter in the Caribbean originates from land, and the lion's share of it is plastics. Together with agrochemical run-off and domestic wastewater, it is one of the region's top three environmental pollutants.
Antigua and Barbuda pioneered the regional move away from plastics in 2016 with a multi-pronged approach to ending its plastic dependency: The government integrated the ban into the country's existing Litter Control and Prevention Act, launched an awareness campaign, and made approved plastic alternatives available to the public. Bagasse, for instance, the fibrous, post-sugarcane harvesting residue, can be used in the manufacture of containers, as well a biofuel for energy production.
With public education ongoing, the country did see tangible results: The proportion of plastic at landfills declined from 19.5 percent in 2006 to 4.4 percent in 2017. Statistics like these should be encouraging to other regional territories, the economies of which depend primarily on tourism.
In Jamaica, the government has been pushing an anti-plastic initiative on social media:
Let’s make the environment healthy by supporting the ban on expanded polystyrene foam. Our Future depends on it. #SupportTheBan #PlasticFreeJa #FoamFreeJa ♻ pic.twitter.com/7bg8fFqeFN
— MEGJC (@megjcjm) January 6, 2020
Netizens have been quite responsive:
We love styrofoam free Jamaica >>> pic.twitter.com/xDSL0ZNutZ
— Addy (@AdamGriffith_) January 5, 2020
The Jamaican government has given citizens a grace period because the shift away from single-use plastics is more complicated than the plastic bag/straw ban adopted in 2019. However, all required legislation was passed in Jamaica's parliament and the ban will be enforced.
Actions like these are backed up by initiatives to which many Caribbean nations are signatories, including Clean Seas, and the legally binding Cartagena Convention, through which policies like the Land-Based Sources of Marine Pollution Protocol and the Caribbean Regional Action Plan for Marine Litter (RAPMaLI) are implemented.
In Trinidad and Tobago, though, environmentalists are frustrated over the fact that the government does not seem to understand how reducing plastic waste can help improve the country's environmental and economic outlook. Less plastic pollution can help reduce flooding from clogged waterways, lower the risk of mosquito-borne diseases and food chain contamination. Unsightly litter, which creates a sense of despair for citizens and a bad first impression for visitors, would also lessen.
“Trinidad and Tobago has a waste management problem,” says our stakeholder source, “which has only got worse since China stopped accepting the world's plastic. “We need reform, but the policies are making it more difficult.”
The Ministry of Planning has another meeting carded for January 22, 2019. Legislation to address single-use plastics and styrofoam resides with the Ministry of Legal Affairs, according to various stakeholders who spoke with Global Voices.


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Residents flee as Philippines’ smallest active volcano emits smoke and ash · Global Voices
Manila Today

Photo by Ciriaco Santiago III / Manila Today
This is a translated article by Ciriaco Santiago III originally published in Filipino by Manila Today, an alternative news website based in the Philippines. Republished with permission. Translation by Karlo Mongaya.
Taal Volcano’s phreatic eruption (emission of smoke because of heated water from the mouth of the volcano) in the Philippines happened on January 12, 2020. Taal, located south of the capital Manila, is one of the world's smallest active volcanoes.
This caused ashfall in neighbouring towns and even various parts of the Southern Tagalog (south of capital Manila), Metro Manila, and Central Luzon (north of capital Manila) regions. All flights coming in and out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport were cancelled.
Classes at all levels and work in government, except for ‘frontline services’ (hospitals, emergency response, etc.) were also cancelled on January 13 and 14 in Southern Tagalog, Metro Manila, and some parts of Central Luzon. Classes remain cancelled in Batangas, Cavite, and Laguna on the fourth day of the volcanic eruption.
On January 13, the day following the eruption, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) released an alert on the magmatic eruption (release of magma in the mouth) of Taal Volcano.
Over 30,000 are estimated to be affected and displaced from Batangas and Cavite because of the volcanic eruption, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. According to the Batangas Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, over 33,000 have already been recorded as evacuees in evacuation centers. It is possible that people who evacuated to temporary accommodations of their own choosing are not included in this number.
Residents condemned the lack of warning and readiness amidst the calamity, and many evacuated through their own efforts after the tremors and emission of smoke from the volcano exposed them to looming danger. They were unable to immediately retrieve animals left on the volcano island, including hundreds of horses used to transport tourists to the mouth of the volcano, and other animals presumed to have died because of the extreme ashfall.
Photo by Ciriaco Santiago III / Manila Today
Barangay San Nicolas residents began evacuation after Taal Volcano started emitting smoke around 3 in the afternoon, January 12.
Photo by Ciriaco Santiago III / Manila Today
Smoke emitted by Taal Volcano thickened last Sunday, January 12.
Photo by Ciriaco Santiago III / Manila Today. The thick smoke that Taal Volcano started emitting can be seen from the back of the statue of the Christ the Redeemer in the Marian Orchard in Balete, Batangas.
Fishing is the primary source of livelihood among the residents of the communities surrounding Taal volcano. An estimated 15,033 tons of tawilis, an endangered species of fish found in Taal Lake, are being affected by the volcanic eruption.
Photo by Ciriaco Santiago III / Manila Today
On the second day of the eruption, only the footprints of animals can be found in a barangay in Agoncillo, Batangas after people evacuated the night before.
Photo by Ciriaco Santiago III / Manila Today
Some residents returned to find and retrieve the animals and means of livelihood left behind.
Photo by Ciriaco Santiago III / Manila Today
Melvin Ocampo bathes the horse Princess Love Bunga to remove dirt from the night-long emission of ash from Taal Volcano’s explosion.
Photo by Ciriaco Santiago III / Manila Today
Life and work continue for a resident of Brgy. (village) Kinalaglagan, Mataas na Kahoy despite the second day of Taal Volcano’s continuing eruption.
Photo by Ciriaco Santiago III / Manila Today
Smoke from Taal Volcano is still thick on its second day of the eruption.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Manila Today


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Zanzibar says goodbye to legendary ‘king of kidumbak,’ musician Makame Faki · Global Voices
Amanda Lichtenstein

Makame Faki smiles for the camera in Stone Town, Zanzibar. Photo courtesy of AshGallery.
Zanzibar music lovers everywhere are mourning the loss of legendary musician Makame Faki Makame, who died on January 18, 2020, at the age of 77, at Global hospital in Stone Town, Zanzibar, following a brief illness.
Taarab musician Rajab Suleiman with Kithara band was one of the first to announce Makame Faki's passing on Facebook:
It is with sadness that we report the death of our singer Mzee [Elder] Makame Faki. Makame died in Zanzibar this morning after a short illness. Rest in peace, Mzee Makame.
Makame Faki was widely known in East Africa and around the world as the father or king of kidumbak, traditional drumming unique to the islands of Zanzibar. Faki was also a master of taarab, Zanzibar's “national sound,” — a fusion of Arab and African rhythms symbolic of centuries of trade and exchange along the Swahili coast.
Kidumbak style is like “a stripped-down version of orchestral taarab, featuring vocals, violin, sanduku (tea-chest bass), small clay drums (ki-dumbak) and other percussion instruments, such as cherewa, a kind of maracas made from coconut shells filled with seeds, or mkwasa; short wooden sticks, played like claves,” according to Busara Promotions, a music nonprofit in Stone Town, Zanzibar.
Born in Zanzibar in 1943, Makame Faki became one of Zanzibar's most revered and celebrated musicians who toured the world with Culture Music Club, founded in 1958 as one of Zanzibar's oldest and most prolific taarab music orchestras, as well as Sinachuki Kidumbak, a popular kidumbak group.
A musical aficionado, Makame started out playing drums and singing taarab as a young man. He went on to master the violin, oud, flute, maracas and the accordion, playing each with great joy and generosity. Famous from coast to coast for his hoarse, baritone voice, he earned the nickname, “Sauti ya Zege,” or “Gravelly Voice.”
Perhaps no other song exemplifies the swoon and tenderness of taarab poetry than this taarab classic, “Mazowea Yana Tabu,” or “Old Habits Can be a Burden,” performed by Makame Faki:
Like many taarab laments, this song speaks to the pain and heartbreak of love:
Old habits can be a burden / When we have become so alike.
It is our habits and our likeness / That tears us apart.
Can you not see the reason why / We are so dishonest with each other?
I lie awake all night / As you haunt me.
I have lost my mind calling out your name.
Fans, friends and family flooded social media as soon as the news broke to mourn the loss of Zanzibar's musical giant with an enormous heart and epic smile.
Zanzibari journalist Ally Saleh honored Makame Faki on Twitter:
Makame Faki ametangulia.
Kwa muda mrefu alikuwa ni nyota wa mtindo wa taarab wa “kidumbak” ambapo mtindo huo huruhusu washabiki kucheza na nyimbo zake huwa za mipasho. Amekuwa kikundi cha Culture Musical kwa miaka kadhaa huku baadae kuunda kikundi cha kutumbuiza kwa kukodiwa pic.twitter.com/4z7QTuZ3YJ
— NIMEPOTELEWA NA PAKA WANGU JAMANI (@allysalehznz) January 18, 2020
Makame Faki has gone on ahead of us.
For a long time, he was the star of the “kidumbak” taarab style that allowed fans to dance and his songs were usually mipasho [captivating, direct]. He had been a member of Culture Musical group for several years and later formed a recording studio.
Yusuf Mahmoud, the chief executive officer of Busara Promotions and founder of Sauti za Busara (Voices of Wisdom), Zanzibar's largest music festival, worked closely with Makame Faki over the years. Mahmoud told Global Voices that “it will be a long struggle for us all to come to terms with this epic loss:”
I was with friends at breakfast when I heard Makame had passed. I was speechless; unusually completely lost for words.
In 2013, the Swahili Coast lost Bi. Kidude [Fatuma binti Baraka]. This morning, we lost another legend.
Makame Faki was a legend. He was a rock and foundation for Zanzibar music. One of taarab music's leading singer-songwriters and musicians, aka Sauti ya Zege, he was a truly unique and brilliant entertainer. … He featured many times on stage at Sauti za Busara and had been scheduled to perform at next month's 17 edition.
I had the pleasure to accompany him on tours to Lamu, Kenya, Europe, and the Caribbean, where his personality, warmth and charisma touched everyone. Between regular international tours, he would often be seen performing at local weddings, or visiting Zanzibar's Dhow Countries Music Academy (DCMA), to share advice and encouragement with students, always stressing the importance and value of our unique music and cultural traditions.
Makame Faki had the widest and most heart-warming smile on the island; he brought joy in bucketfuls to the people around him. When Makame spoke, time stopped. We listened, we learned — perhaps more so as his stories always came with riotous laughter.
With thanks to the Almighty, Makame Faki's spirit lives on, and so does his music.
Emerson Foundation of Zanzibar chairperson Said el-Gheithy praised Makame Faki on Facebook:
His unique voice, grand performance and his great contribution to the musical tradition of Zanzibar will continue to be an inspiration.
Mainland Tanzanian musician Maembe Vitali updated his profile picture with Makame Faki's photo and posted this message:
Mzee Makame Faki! Rest in peace. As a musician, your presence here on earth has not passed in vain, we have heard you, we have seen you, we have been refreshed and we have learned! Rest in peace!
Netizens worldwide remembered the towering musical legend:
Another fine musician returned to the ancestors. Mzee Makame Faki, violinist and vocalist of Zanzibari ensemble Culture Musical Club died yesterday. In this clip he's the more wrinkled-looking fiddle player next to the oud https://t.co/lHzJP8iI4y
— Christopher Graham (@grumpychris2) January 18, 2020
In 2002, near the age of 60, Makame Faki became a fixture at the DCMA, Zanzibar's one and only music academy, whose mission is to preserve, promote and protect Swahili cultural heritage through traditional music in Zanzibar.
On the day of his passing, DCMA managing director Alessia Lombardo wrote on Facebook:
Mzee Makame Faki: I wish to wake up and realise that this is only a dream — a bad dream. … Thank you for giving us the strength to continue and not give up. Thank you for your words! ‘My dear, you are doing very big work, the world still needs DCMA.’
As a teacher and artistic adviser, Makame Faki championed traditional genres unique to Zanzibar, such as kidumbak and taarab, and often warned that if young people abandon these forms, the arts will cease to exist.
In the 2018 documentary “Audiovisual Ethnography: Music and Heritage in Zanzibar,” produced by students and professors with New York University's Abu Dhabi Arts Center, Makame Faki talked about the importance of preserving Swahili cultural heritage through music and his reasons for working so closely with the DCMA:
Makame Faki Makame: Father of #Kidumbak — by @NYUADArtsCenter Asante sana, We will always remember our teacher, father, friend to all in #Zanzibar. https://t.co/yEUMsizgIa
— Dhow Countries Music Academy — Zanzibar (@dcmazanzibar) January 18, 2020
In the documentary, Makame Faki had a message specifically for next-generation musicians: “For those who study music, if they are not careful, the art will get lost. … Because you are the mirrors and you are the pillars. But if you engage in other things, then the art will not exist,” he said.
He continued:
In the whole of Africa, there is no other country that plays taarab and kidumbak like we do. … Taarab only remains in Zanzibar. We must preserve it and ensure its continuity.
Makame Faki Makame will be buried on Sunday, January 19, 2020, in the village of Gamba, at 10 a.m. (East African Time) with a procession leaving from the Culture Music Club in the Vuga neighborhood, in the early morning.

author: Amanda Lichtenstein


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Baul singer Shariat Sarkar arrested in Bangladesh for ‘insulting’ Islam · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

Artists from cultural organisation Udichi protested the arrest of Baul artist Shariat Sarkar and demanded his release. Image from Udichi's Facebook page. Used with permission.
Bangladeshi police arrested Shariat Sarkar (40), a famous Baul (Sufi folk) artist, for allegedly making comments that hurt the “religious sentiment” of Muslims. He was charged with violating Section 28 of the draconian Digital Security Act.
During a concert in late December 2019, he allegedly criticized religious Muslim clerics who oppose singing and had offered a 5 million taka (58,800 USD) challenge to anyone who can prove that music is forbidden under Islamic scripture.
Baul Shariat Sarkar arrested under digital security act-454009 https://t.co/mD0uZQHdj6
— Daily-Sun (@dailysunbd) January 13, 2020
A video of his performance was posted on YouTube (which was later removed) and went viral on social media. Others, however, continued to upload the video.
Some conservatives led by Muslim clerics took to the streets in different places protesting against his alleged derogatory comments about Islam, the Quran and the Muslim clerics. An individual from his locality in Tangail district (100km from capital Dhaka) sued him on January 9 for allegedly hurting religious sentiments which led to his arrest.
The court has sent him to judicial custody on completion of his three-day interrogation in police custody. As of this writing, his bail has not been set.
The question of whether music is allowed in Islam is historically disputed and the practice varies in regions. Famous Muslim scholar Imam al-Ghazzali, commented centuries ago citing scriptures that music is permitted. However, some Salafists and Wahhabi groups of Muslims interpret some verses in the Quran as evidence that music is haram (forbidden).
Bauls are a group of mystic minstrels from Bangladesh who have a strong musical tradition. They are a very heterogeneous group, with many sects. However, most of them belong to the Vaishnava Hindu and Sufi Muslim religions. Baul music is a particular type of folk song, which can be philosophic and devotional and often celebrate divine love.
The songs that the Baul Shariat Sarker sings are embedded in the Sufi genre. The history of Sufism in Bangladesh is ancient. Islam spread in Bangladesh mainly through the work of Sufis.
Progressives and cultural activists in the country have reacted angrily to the arrest of the Baul artist under the Digital Security Act. Human chains and protest rallies were organized by various artist organizations demanding his release.
Writer Swakrito Noman highlighted the spirituality of Islam and mentioned that the arrest of Shariat Sarkar was wrong:
শরিয়ত বয়াতির পুরো ভিডিও ক্লিপটি শুনেছি। তিনি কোথাও ধর্মের বিরুদ্ধে কিছু বলেননি। তিনি কোথাও আপত্তিকর কিছু বলেননি। তিনি ধর্মের নামে ভণ্ডামির বিরুদ্ধে বলেছেন, ধর্মব্যবসার বিরুদ্ধে বলেছেন। তার কথা বুঝতে হলে আগে বুঝতে হবে ইসলামের অধ্যাত্মিক দিকটিকে। শাস্ত্রের পাশাপাশি ইসলামে অধ্যাত্মও স্বীকৃত। বুঝতে হবে বহুধা বিভক্ত ইসলামকে। শরিয়ত বয়াতিরা ইসলামের অধ্যাত্ম ধারার অনুসারী। তাকে শাস্ত্র দিয়ে বিচার করাটা মূর্খতা। রক্ষণশীল মোল্লা-মৌলবিদের কথায় তাকে গ্রেপ্তার করাটা অন্যায়।
I have listened to the entire video clip of Shariat Bayati (singer). He did not say anything derogatory or anything offensive against religion. He talked about hypocrisy in the name of religion, against fraudulent religious practices. To understand his words, one must first understand the spiritual side of Islam and the many divided sects of Islam. Bauls like Shariat follow the spiritual interpretation of Islam (Sufism). It is foolish to judge him by the words of Scriptures. It is unfair to arrest him listening to the allegations of the conservative Muslim clerics.
Journalist Kabir Ahmed thinks that his arrest was not appropriate even if music is forbidden in Islam since Bangladesh is supposedly a democracy:
‘কেতাবে’ যদি গান-বাজনা ‘হারাম’ লেখা থাকে তবে কি শরিয়ত সরকার বাউলের গ্রেপ্তার জায়েজ হয়ে যাবে? আমার উত্তর- ‘না’!
আপনি যে কেতাবকে উদ্দিষ্ট ভাবছেন সেটা আপনার-আমার ব্যক্তিগত বিশ্বাসের, স্রেফ ব্যক্তিগত; রাষ্ট্রীয় নয়।… https://t.co/8gBHJO20iF
— কবির য়াহমদ (@kabiraahmed) January 13, 2020
Can the arrest of Baul Shariat Sarker be justified if it was specified in the Quran as ‘haram’ (forbidden)? My answer is – no! How you are perceiving the holy book is your personal belief, just personal; it's not a nationwide issue.
Journalist and author Raju Alauddin wants to know on which basis or criteria the conservatives deemed that his statement is offensive:
শরিয়ত বয়াতির কথাটা কী কারণে আপত্তিকর, সেটা কোন মানদণ্ডের ভিত্তিতে আপত্তিকর বা কুরুচিপূর্ণ তার কোনোই ব্যাখ্যা নেই। কিন্তু তাকে রিমান্ডে নেয়া হয়েছে, এখন হাজতে তিনি। হায়, অন্ধকারে নিমজ্জিত আমার স্বদেশ!
I saw no clear explanation of why Shariat Bayati's words were deemed offensive; malicious on which standards? Nevertheless, he was arrested and he landed in jail. Alas, my country is immersed in darkness!
Journalist and development activist Shariful Hassan urged the country's scholars to take on Shariat Sarker's challenge instead of suing or harming him:
বয়াতি শরিয়ত সরকার উন্মুক্ত চ্যালেঞ্জ জানিয়েছিলেন–কেউ যদি কোরআনের রেফারেন্স দিয়ে প্রমান করতে পারে, গান-বাজনা হারাম; তিনি তাকে ৫০ লক্ষ টাকা দেবেন। মামলা বা গ্রেপ্তার না করে চ্যালেঞ্জটা নেন কোন আলেম ভাই। https://t.co/V9xbNLcEt3
— Shariful Hasan (@hasan06du) January 12, 2020
Shariat Sarker openly challenged – if anyone can provide a reference in the Qur'an, that music is forbidden; he will pay that person 5 million BDT (USD 58,800). Without suing him or asking for his detention, any Islamic scholar could take the challenge and earn that money (if he is wrong).
Opinions are divided on social media. Some netizens have continued to mention verses from the Quran and hadiths as a reference that music is forbidden in Islam.
The liberal policies of Sufism have a significant impact on the people of Bangladesh who learned to mix culture with religion. However, in recent decades, a hostile environment against the Sufis emerged due to threats from conservatives who think Sufis are “deviants from mainstream Islam”. Simon Zakaria, a folk music researcher at the Bangla Academy, told BBC Bangla:
বাংলাদেশ স্বাধীন হবার পরে একটি ধর্মীয় গোষ্ঠী ব্যাপক ভাবে পৃষ্ঠপোষকতা পেয়েছে, আমাদের সাংস্কৃতিক মনস্তত্ব পরিবর্তিত হয়ে গেছে, আমাদের শিক্ষায় ও প্রশাসনে এসব বিষয় প্রাধান্য পাচ্ছে।
After the liberation of Bangladesh, a specific religious group (conservatives) has been widely patronized and our cultural mindset has changed gradually. These influences are gaining prominence in our education and administration.
The Digital Security Act 2018 criminalizes various types of online speech, ranging from defamatory messages to statements that “injures religious values or sentiments.” Section 28 of the act says:
“If any person or group intentionally or knowingly with the aim of hurting religious sentiments or values or with the intention to provoke publish or broadcast anything by means of any website or any electronic format which hurts religious sentiment or values, then such activity of that person will be considered an offence.”
Journalists and rights activists expressed concerns about the act from the beginning, and many lawsuits were lodged against writers, poets and activists using this act. In addition to condemning the detention of Shariat Sarker, many have demanded the repeal of the controversial law.
Human Rights Forum Bangladesh, a newly formed group for activists, expressed grave concern on the arrest of Shariat Sarker and demanded his immediate release.
If convicted, Sarker can be imprisoned from 3 to 7 years according to the Digital Security act.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


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Facebook apologizes for translating Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s name as ‘Mr. Shithole’ · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (right). Photo from Facebook page of Myanmar State Counsellor Office
Facebook issued an apology after a technical error translated Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s name as ‘Mr. Shithole’.
The error was noticed when the official Facebook page of Myanmar’s state counsellor posted updates regarding the official visit of Xi in Myanmar on 17-18 January 2020. The post, which was written in Burmese, cited several important trade and other bilateral agreements signed by Xi and the Myanmar government.
Xi’s visit highlighted China’s increasing economic and political influence in Myanmar. Its investments are both welcomed and criticized because of their social impact.
Journalists were the first to highlight the wrong translation of Xi’s name. They also noted that this was only on Facebook because Google Translate yielded a correct translation.
It took more than 24 hours before the error was corrected. Facebook also offered its apology:
We have fixed an issue regarding Burmese (Myanmar) to English translations on Facebook and are working to identify the cause to ensure that it doesn’t happen again…This issue is not a reflection of the way our products should work and we sincerely apologise for the offence this has caused.
Poppy McPherson, the Myanmar bureau chief of Reuters, posted screenshots of the translation errors
Umm. Facebook seems to be translating “Xi Jinping” written in Burmese as “Mr Shithole”.
This is a post on Aung San Suu Kyi’s official page, recounting her meeting with him yesterday… h/t @felizysolo
”kingdom of Mr Shithole” pic.twitter.com/B4V2cYjPJw
— Poppy McPherson (@poppymcp) January 18, 2020
From @IrrawaddyNews… pic.twitter.com/DlqZmDwx83
— Poppy McPherson (@poppymcp) January 18, 2020
Facebook has temporarily disabled the translation of Burmese to English posts. As of this writing, the translation option has not been restored.
Aside from the error in translating Xi’s name, a Facebook bug also prevented Kachin users from posting updates in their native language. There was initial speculation that this was related to Xi’s visit in Myanmar but it was reported as a purely technical problem. Many Kachin residents are opposing a China-funded dam project in their region.
Facebook has been previously criticized for its slow response in addressing the spread of hate speech targeting ethnic minorities in Myanmar. It has since then adopted measures aimed at combating disinformation perpetrated by state-backed accounts.

author: Mong Palatino


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Restoration of Trinidad and Tobago’s heritage buildings stirs debate · Global Voices
Jada Steuart

Newly refurbished President's House, Port of Spain, Trinidad. Photo by Jada Steuart, used with permission.
Several of Trinidad and Tobago's heritage sites have, in recent years, been in dire need of restoration, but the recent revival of these national buildings has been met with both praise and criticism.
The rehabilitation of the Red House (the traditional seat of the country's parliament), for example, and Mille Fleurs (one in the row of Magnificent Seven buildings bordering Port of Spain's Queen's Park Savannah), have taken years to complete, with works to the Red House having the longest time frame — 20 years in the making.
The extended time frame is due, in part, to the massive scope of the projects, and the fact that some sites — Mille Fleurs is a good example — have been neglected to the brink of demolition. The Red House was reportedly in such a poor state that restoration was the only alternative.
Many of the projects remained in the planning stages under various political administrations. It is only within the last four to five years that the necessary funding was committed and work was able to begin.
Some of the sites that have benefitted from this restoration thrust include Killarney (also known as Stollmeyer’s Castle), Whitehall (also called Rosenweg) and the President's House.
Killarney (also known as Stollmeyer's Castle), one of the Magnificent Seven buildings that border the capital city's main green space. Photo by Jada Steuart, used with permission.
Prior to their restoration, there was a huge push, most notably by The National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago, to get them up to scratch, lobbying both the public and private sector to invest in the stewardship of the country's 43 registered heritage sites.
At a Ministry of Finance function in October 2019, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley told the audience that not only did the buildings need to be saved because of their relevance to the country's history, but that the construction work that was being carried out created employment as well:
If we could not do that [restore the buildings] […] we are not worthy of our independence [from Great Britain].
Facebook user Aneka Nicole put it this way:
Trinis:
Travel to DC, go to 1600 Pennsylania Avenue, pose and take pics to post on social media.
Trinis:
Travel to the UK, go to Buckingham Palace, pose and take pics to post on social media.
Also Trinis:
Cuss about the cost of restoring historic buildings in Trinidad and Tobago, saying they are a waste of time and money.
I wonder if they know the annual cost of maintaining the two foreign examples I used?[…] the same examples they're happy to pose in front of and profile.
Not everyone agrees with prioritising heritage site restoration, however — especially given the amount of money that has been put out. The refurbishment of Whitehall, for instance, cost a total of $32 million Trinidad and Tobago dollars (about $4,736,000 United States dollars). The tab for President's House came in at $89 million TT (approximately $13,172,000 USD), and the Red House was massively more expensive, coming up to an estimated total of  $441 million TT (about $16,872,000 USD).
The Red House was traditionally the seat of the country's parliament; parliamentary sessions have had to be relocated for the past few years because of the restoration work. Photo by Jada Steuart, used with permission.
In a letter to the editor of the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, Gregory Wight suggested that though the buildings are beautiful, perhaps that money could have been put to better use:
I read a quotation recently on third world development which says, ‘All too often development in the Third World means the over-development of objects and the underdevelopment of people.’ Now, that gave me real pause, because what is the value of gleamingly restored historical buildings when many of our young citizens feel so left behind that they would rather burn these buildings down than treasure them?
Some netizens share his view that the money might have been better spent in hospitals, schools and much-needed social programmes. The government maintains, however, that the restoration of these buildings is of both cultural and economic importance.
A Newsday editorial agreed:
Money spent on these projects could have probably been pumped into healthcare, education, and infrastructure. The difference is, however, that taking care of our heritage sites is not just expenditure. It’s actually an investment in our future.
It also argued that heritage buildings have social value:
Aside from the economic argument, it is also true that these buildings are of intense social importance, and that means they should not be lost. To preserve our history is not to suggest a wish to return to the old days of inequity and oppression. It is, rather, to remind us constantly of where we have come from as well as our own capacity to evolve.
Most of the buildings date back to pre-Independence (Trinidad and Tobago became independent in 1962), and many view them as a reminder of the country's colonization by Great Britain. However, colonial-era architecture is not the only thing that is being restored; other refurbishment projects include the Brian Lara Stadium and two local hospitals.
The Whitehall is the official office of the country's Prime Minister. Photo by Jada Steuart, used with permission
Global Voices could not confirm access to tours of completed buildings by the time of publication. Whitehall, for instance, has traditionally been used as the Office of the Prime Minister, so there are security restrictions. While Killarney has hosted several exhibits that have been open to the public, interior work is ongoing at the Red House and Mille Fleurs, so no official statements have yet been made about if and when they will be open to the public.

author: Jada Steuart


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What is the future of Moldova’s ‘law against propaganda’? · Global Voices
Vasile Gancev

A man in Gagauzia, an autonomous region of Moldova, watches Vladimir Putin's address to Russia's Federal Assembly, 15 January 2020. Photo (c): Olga Chayuk. Used with permission.
This article is made possible through a partnership with Transitions, a Prague-based publishing and media training organisation
Just over two years ago, on 12 January 2018, Moldova's “law against propaganda” came into force. The law, which restricts the broadcasting of Russian news channels in the country, was the initiative of the Democratic Party of Moldova (DPM), the former ruling party which presented itself as Moldova's leading pro-European political force. The law was controversial from day one; although it had been passed by parliament in 2017, President Igor Dodon twice refused to sign it. For this Dodon was temporarily suspended from his duties by the Constitutional Court, allowing then-Speaker of Parliament Adrian Candu to sign the law.
But then 2019 came along. In June, the DPM was ousted by an unlikely coalition comprising the Party of Socialists (PSRM), and ACUM, an alliance of pro-European reformist parties. That coalition fell in November, leaving the pro-Russian PSRM with the upper hand.
The PSRM and Dodon, the party's informal leader, have redoubled their calls to revoke the law, which the party describes as “discriminatory to Moldovan citizens” in its list of priorities for 2020. Their beliefs are not shared by the opposition; the PDM, with whom the PSRM was believed to share influence despite their opposing geopolitical leanings, also are not enthusiastic about repealing the law. But even with its renewed influence, experts believe that Moldova's socialists will still not succeed in annulling the “law against propaganda.”
Importantly, the text of the law does not actually mention Russia at all. Instead, it states that in order to protect the audio-visual sphere and ensure information security, the only factual, analytical, military, or political-themed television programmes which may be broadcast in Moldova are those produced in the European Union, Canada, the USA, and all other states which have ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television. It is widely known that Russia has not yet ratified this convention.
After the law came into force, the only cable guys who refused to obey the new rules were those in Gagauzia (an autonomous region in southern Moldova which is widely seen as pro-Russian – ed.) They argued that they only operated under licences issued in Comrat, the region's capital.
Socialist lawmakers often cite examples such as these as proof that the law is ineffective. Adrian Lebedinschi, chairman of a parliamentary commission responsible for media, told Publika TV (owned by the former PDM chairman and media mogul Vlad Plahotniuc) that the PSRM is poised to repeal the “anti-propaganda law.” “Let people think for themselves. They're smart enough to understand what information is objective and what isn't,” said Lebedinschi on December 5. During a meeting of the commission on December 18, Lebedinschi stated that a small share of the Moldovan population is still able to receive foreign television over satellite without any restrictions, often by using pirated decoders. Indeed, it is quite easy to find advertisements online offering to install satellite dishes providing Moldovans access to popular Russian television channels.
Moldova's Prime Minister Ion Chicu, who was elected last November by both PSRM and DPM parliamentarians, has raised similar concerns. “I believe that the press should be free, and that consumers should have access to all information apart from that which distorts the truth, spreads extremism, or calls for hatred. Any media which comply with the Code of Ethics has the right to access Moldova's media market,” said Chicu at a press conference on December 9. Furthermore, during a November 27 interview for NTV Moldova, speaker of the parliament and leader of the PSRM Zinaida Greceanîi stated that the decision to restore broadcasting rights for Russian television channels had to be taken by a parliamentary majority. “Nobody should dictate which programmes people should watch. But unfortunately, the previous government held the TV remote in one hand,” remarked Greceanîi.
However, it is far from clear that the PSRM would be able to find parliamentary consensus to annul the bill. The PSRM has 36 deputies in Moldova's 101-member parliament; the PDM have 29. The ACUM-DA bloc has 25 deputies. Following the collapse of their coalition with the latter last year, support for the PSRM's move could only plausibly come from the PDM. But the PDM's leaders are not in favour. “[The law against propaganda] was an initiative of the Democratic Party and I see no reason why we should change our approach to the issue from what it used to be,”  party chairman Pavel Filip told PublikaTV on December 6.
Former PDM member of parliament Corneliu Mihalache, who is currently a member of the State Broadcasting Council, also remarked during a discussion on PublikaTV that the chances of the law being revoked are minimal, as doing so depends on the Democratic Party, which introduced it in the first place. Mihalache himself voted for the law, and believes that it must be kept because Russian propaganda is “too aggressive” and that although it is directed at a domestic audience, “stirs up our society, too.” Andrey Andrievsky, Chișinău-based journalist and editor in chief of Ava.md, countered that the PDM had become much less transparent in recent months, meaning that it was hard to predict how they might approach the issue. He believes there to be a 50/50 chance of the law's revocation, given that some deputies from the PDM and the seven representing the Șor party might vote in favour.
“In the current political context, I doubt that the socialists will be able to change the law,” Petru Macovei, executive director of the Association of Independent Press (API), told Global Voices. “To an extent, it's a matter of pride for the PDM, who made a lot of noise about the introduction of the law. For the PDM, any vote to repeal the law would demonstrate their political incompetence,” said Macovei.
Observers have also argued at length about the supposed inefficiency of the law. Macovei believes that the law's supposed failure was not due to its inherent inefficiency, but because it has not been consistently applied throughout the country and because pro-Russian television channels have learned to circumvent the restrictions. “They just embed Russian propaganda news in their own, Moldovan, press releases under the heading ‘foreign news,'” explained Macovei. The API's director also stressed that popular films and entertainment programmes play a role in spreading propaganda. “In this case, the state didn't go the whole way. Russian propaganda uses a huge amount of resources to expand its influence in our country. [The online news network and radio station] Sputnik Moldova is a prime example of this,” said Macovei.
Chairman of the State Television and Radio Council Dragoș Vicol told GlobalVoices that the law against propaganda must be kept in force. “If the provisions of the law change, then of course we will comply with them. But my opinion is essentially that the law must be preserved, on the grounds that we do not welcome external propaganda, particularly broadcasts of a military or political nature. I believe that this law has proved its effectiveness and should be maintained,” stressed Vicol. Valery Demidetsky, the representative of Russian state-owned news network TASS in Moldova, supports the annulment of the law against propaganda. In December, he told Moldovan news portal eNews that the law was wholly ineffective, given that “in the era of the internet, passing such laws is useless.”
Regardless of the restrictions, Russian news broadcasts still appear to be very popular in Moldova.
According to a survey carried out by TV MR MLD, AGB Nielsen's representative in Moldova, the most highly rated channel in the country between December 16 and December 22 was RTR Moldova, which rebroadcasts content from the Russian RTR channel. The public television channel Moldova 1 comes second place, followed by PRIME TV, a channel until recently owned by the PDM's chairman and media mogul Vlad Plahotniuc, which previously rebroadcast content from Channel One in Moscow (after the PDM passed the law against propaganda, Russia's State Duma called on Channel One to tear up its contract with PRIME.) In fourth place comes NTV Moldova belonging to the PSRM politician Corneliu Furculiță, who also owns the television channel Exclusive TV and is known to be close to president Dodon. NTV Moldova also rebroadcasts content from the Russian channel of the same name. The fifth channel is the recently founded Primul în Moldova (First in Moldova), which rebroadcasts programmes from Russia's Channel One.
There is also evidence that the influence of large Russian media holdings is growing in Moldova. Although President Dodon does not officially own any television channels, there are signs that the PSRM's influence in the media landscape is on the rise. In December Chicu's government recently appointed Stanislav Vîjga, director of Accent TV, as the country's representative to the Mir Broadcasting Organisation, a network operating in several post-Soviet states.
That same month, the website openmedia.io published an article indicating that Igor Chaika, the son of Russia's Prosecutor General, recently acquired a 51% share in the company Media Invest Service. This company owns Primul în Moldova and Accent TV; the latter shows a strong record of pro-PSRM pre-electoral coverage. The remaining 49% share belongs to Vadim Ciubara, a Moldovan businessman who has been described by the investigative website RISE Moldova as a “shadow adviser” to President Dodon.
These moves matter. According to the Moldovan Barometer of Public Opinion for December 2019, 49.3% of Moldovans cite television as their most important source of information, and 33.8% named the internet as such.
But what exactly attracts Moldovan viewers to Russian television channels?
Global Voices spoke to several residents of the capital Chișinău to find out why. The 73-year old writer Anatol Labunschi says that he watches Russian-language channels simply because he speaks the language. “The internet has a translation function, which allows me to understand articles in foreign languages. But I can't do that with television and radio. However, I don't only watch Russian-language channels from Moscow; these days Ukraine is hardly in favour of the Kremlin, but still has many Russian-language programmes… I can compare opinions and draw my own conclusions, not simply believe those which are given to me from a talking head on television,” explained Labunschi.
Ruslan, a 44-year old scholar of religion who refused to provide his surname, says that he watches Russian television channels on a daily basis. “There's just more accessible. There are more TV channels which provide information in real time. I watch channels which are available to us in Chișinău, but it's quite difficult here. They're under pressure,” he remarked. Antonina, a farmer visiting the Moldovan capital, believes that citizens should have as much free access to information as they can. “A person should be able to choose for themselves. But unfortunately our politicians think only about their own interests and bind us to them. These aren't politicians, they're dictators. They don't let society develop freely. That's why they ban things. But people still watch [these channels],” admitted Antonina.
It may be difficult to ever know whether the ban has made Russian media more attractive as the “forbidden fruit,” but in a country with low trust towards its rulers, bans by those rulers could spectacularly backfire. Importantly, surveys show a high correlation between trust in Igor Dodon and support for the PSRM, and respondents’ willingness to watch television channels from Russia.
Petru Macovei believes that the media in Moldova has not faced such a tough situation for 30 years, and complains that the authorities have done nothing to support the economic development of media. The biggest problem, he stresses, is the determination of various party leaders to subjugate influential media resources to advance their own political goals. It seems unlikely, he concludes, that the calls to retain or remove Moldova's “law against propaganda” are much different.
Moldova’s political turmoil

author: Vasile Gancev


text:
Can El Salvador’s hosting of a surfing Olympic qualifier alter the country’s violent image? · Global Voices
Melissa Vida

Surfer Wave by Pxhere.com. Creative Commons CC0.
El Salvador beat Costa Rica, Spain, New Zealand, and Japan to host the 2020 International Surfing Association (ISA) World Surfing Games, an Olympic-qualifier surfing competition. From May 9 to 17, 2020, surfers from all over the world will compete on El Salvador’s beaches to win the right to compete at the sport's Olympic debut in Tokyo, Japan, this summer.
On top of putting El Salvador on the map for surfers worldwide, the news comes at a time when President Nayib Bukele‘s government is attempting to improve the country's image abroad. International news coverage of El Salvador often focuses on gang violence and forced migration; it was also once called “a shithole” by U.S. President Donald Trump. For several years El Salvador has had one of the highest murder rates in the world without being a country openly at war.
Making El Salvador's high waves world-famous was a major campaign promise by Bukele, who welcomed ISA's choice and shared it widely on Twitter, his favorite communication tool. His government's flagship program “Surf City” hopes to attract tourism and investment to the country's coasts.
El Salvador ha sido seleccionado como sede del Mundial de Surf.
Competimos contra Japón, Australia, Costa Rica y España.
Un Mundial histórico que servirá de clasificación a las primeras Olimpíadas donde participará el surf.
Será un honor ser los anfitriones de este evento. https://t.co/KsxNEwqI7k
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) January 13, 2020
Bukele, who took office in June 2019, is seen as a young, digitally savvy and entrepreneurial president who has pledged to fight corruption and crime. According to the latest opinion polls, he retains a 91-percent approval rating, which makes him the most popular president in Latin America.
His popularity may, on some level, be linked to his proclivity to target unconventional pathways for promotion. In July 2019, for example, Bukele publicly spurred his government to buy a MacBook Pro for the Nomadic Movement travel vloggers, who had been stolen during their trip to El Salvador.
So far, the government's efforts seem to be working. Last year, foreign tourists spent 15 percent more in the country than in the previous year.
But this relentless push for tourism dollars worries some families, who fear displacement by businesses. Booking a beach hotel for one night, for example, can cost more than half of El Salvador's minimum wage, which is now between 113 and 242 US dollars per month, depending on the sector. A few beach hotels in El Salvador also own private beaches, making it harder for the local population to enjoy them.
Recently, Tourism Minister Morena Valdez recently told the German news site, Deutsche Welle, that the Salvadoran government is planning an “orderly gentrification” by building government-funded houses for families. But local communities see it as plain displacement.
In October 2019, more than 300 riot police officers and soldiers tried to drive out at least 20 families from the Island Tasajera under a court order. A businessman has plans to build a hotel in the land that is, reportedly, the property of the Salvadoran state. The community, who claims to have lived in the area for over 30 years, has managed to challenge the order and the process is now frozen. What shocked the islanders was the “excessive use of police force,” according to local media La Prensa Gráfica.
Twitter user Carlos Ramos, who shared DW's investigation, mocked Bukele's supporters by a tongue-in-cheek imitation of what is usually perceived to be their common characteristics: unwavering loyalty, lack of trust in the media, and poor spelling:
Eztoz panfletos lla no hayan ke desir porke les encachimba  ke el numero de muertoz baja por que la gente está feliz con el Surf City
Pagen impueztos y degen de molestar a mi Prezi https://t.co/XbDkA8crM4
— Carlos Ramos Hinds (@lapsurgeon10) January 16, 2020
Theze pamphlets don't kno wat to say becauze they're angri that the number of deathz is lowering n dat people are happy with Surf City
Pay your taxes n stop bothering my Prezident.
Beach El Sunzal, El Salvador, which will host the surf competition in May 2020. Photo credit: Melissa Vida, used with permission.
Some Salvadorans reacted negatively to the news that El Salvador will be hosting the World Surfing Games. For them, the government's focus on the event masks the country's daily struggles with inequality and violence.
The founder of the NGO for youth Líderes Solidarios, Moisés Rivera imitated those who reacted cheerfully to the news, comparing it to other seemingly trivial coverage of El Salvador. The memes he shared are often used by Salvadorans who are doubtful of the authenticity of the country's progress:
Es la primera felicidad en la historia que El Salvador tiene por ser sede de un mundial de surf; esa felicidad sólo se compara cuando Andy regreso del desfile de las rosas ?
Otro momento como este será irrepetible ? pic.twitter.com/qscN4VheqT
— Moisés A. Rivera (@_MoisesRivera_) January 14, 2020
It brings so much happiness that El Salvador will host a surf championship; this happiness can only be compared when Andy came back from the Rose Parade ?
Another moment like this will never repeat itself ?
On January 1, 2020, Nayib Bukele publicly decided to stop funding the musical band “El Salvador, grande como su gente,” after the news of a young musician, Andy Lovos, was excluded from the band right before the L.A. Rose Parade.
Others juxtaposed the news with more somber reports of murders in the country. While El Salvador's overall homicide rate declined by roughly 40 percent in 2019, murder rates spiked in the same week that the surfing competition was announced. The local press attributed the increase in violence to the activities of gang members. Extortion is also on the rise in El Salvador.
As an example, Twitter user El Diablillo shared news about a young man who was found dead after he'd gone missing:
?
Mientras el gobierno celebra el mundial de surf en #ElSalvador #SurfCity.
Los salvadoreños lloramos la muerte de nuestros hermanos por causa de la violencia. https://t.co/2woj3vYIrY
— El diablillo (@ElDiablillosv) January 13, 2020
While the government celebrates the surf championship in #ElSalvador #SurfCity
We Salvadorans mourn the violent death of our brothers.
Meanwhile, other social media users reacted positively to the news, with some tweets expressing excitement over the opportunity to redefine the face of the country, or conveying a sense of pride for being Salvadoran:
Esta si es una buena noticia! (ganarle a ?? ?? ?? y ?? la sede no estaba tan fácil!)
Una oportunidad para que nuestro país esté en boca de muchos por algo positivo.
Nos toca a todos ser excelentes anfitriones!
Bien hecho @MorenaValdezSV y @nayibbukele https://t.co/26fV0G6nwV
— AlfredoAtanacioCader (@aatanacio) January 13, 2020
This is really good news (winning over ??, ?? ?? and ?? to become the headquarters wasn't easy!)
This is an opportunity for our country to be known by many for something positive.
It's up to us to be excellent hosts!
Well done @MorenaValdezSV and @nayibbukele
In responding to Surf City's promotional video, another Twitter user thanked, gushed:
Excelente cada día nuestro pais está creciendo mundialmente y seremos reconocidos como emprendedores dedicados a nuestros trabajos y sobretodo q es un país donde pueden venir a vacacionar gracias tio Presidente @nayibbukele por hacer un país mejor
— chaparrita (@chaparr77385360) January 14, 2020
Excellent [news], every day our country is growing worldwide and we will be recognized as entrepreneurs dedicated to our work and above all, that [we are] a country where people can come visit. Thank you uncle President @nayibbukele for making [El Salvador] a better country.
As El Salvador's hosting of the upcoming surfing competitions will draw the world's attention to its beaches and waves, it remains to be seen whether it will obscure or put a spotlight on the country's struggles with peace and development.

author: Melissa Vida


text:
How ‘fake news’ and disinformation were spread in the run-up to Taiwan’s presidential elections · Global Voices
New Bloom

Puma Shen. Screen capture from Taiwan citizen media outlet, Watchout's Youtube video.
This post first appeared in the online magazine New Bloom on January 6, 2020, before the presidential election took place in Taiwan. This edited version is being republished on Global Voices under a content partnership agreement.
Puma Shen (沈伯洋), assistant professor at the National Taipei University’s Graduate School of Criminology and director of the Taiwan-based NGO DoubleThink Labs, which conducts research on disinformation, speaks with Brian Hioe, who writes for the online publication New Bloom, about the dissemination of ‘fake news’ just before Taiwan’s presidential elections on January 11, 2020.
In recent years, China has spread disinformation as a means to influence Taiwan elections and Swedish democracy watchdog V-Dem’s 2019 global report describes Taiwan as the world’s most targeted place for disinformation tactics. On December 31, 2019, about 10 days before the elections, the country passed the Anti-infiltration law as a means to crackdown on the spread of election disinformation.
Brian Hioe (BH): What do you think are the key means by which disinformation disseminates in Taiwan, and what is different about the way it spreads through these platforms?
Puma Shen (PS): In general, we can divide the dissemination channels into two categories. One is ‘online’. The other is ‘offline’. Online, it’s through Facebook, or through ‘content farms’ which are often based in Malaysia, with some in Taiwan. Many content farms also have fan pages on Facebook to spread the news.
This is how they were doing it last year, anyway. This year is different. Many fan pages were deleted this year, so now they first create content farm articles and then recruit individual netizens to earn an income by helping them to spread their contents. These freelancers are often Malaysian, overseas Chinese or Taiwanese people.
There are also some pro-China political parties which operate their own content farms in Taiwan. They quite often have connections with Chinese authorities.
Regarding the offline element of fake news, this is more difficult to tackle. First, there are ‘rumors’. These rumors often come from village borough chiefs or heads of temples. While holding events, they’ll make use of the occasions to spread rumors.
These word-of-mouth rumors usually circulate widely in grassroots communities, either to generate fear or to spread a positive image of China.
Nowadays, the dissemination of this kind of rumors has become more advanced. The rumor mongers put texts online or use LINE's chat groups to disseminate. In the last few months, we can see about half of the fake news in Line groups originates from China according to our research finding. The content of these rumors do not always [take the form of] text; about half are YouTube videos.
BH: Who is behind these content farms?
PS: Sometimes you’ll be able to track down companies that are from China, but sometimes they’re just overseas Han Chinese. They started these content farms to make money off Chinese authorities like the United Front Work Department, as the Department has huge amount of budget to sponsor pro-China politicians’ election campaigns
The social media based news outlets which have direct affiliations with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are mostly based in China, with a few in Hong Kong. As far as commercial content farms go, many are based in Malaysia.
BH: I remember there were attempts by Chinese people to buy Taiwanese Facebook pages last year.
PS: Yes. I think that’s less effective now. They wanted to use the pages to post content farm articles, but that's not an effective strategy since they would be sanctioned for circulating contents that violate community rules — so the taking over of pages on Facebook only lasted for about a month.
BH: What’s different about the ‘fake news’ strategies adopted for this election, as compared to the past?
PS: Due to the changes in Facebook’s policy, it’s now more difficult to run content farms, so I believe that they have adjusted their strategies.
First is LINE. Disinformation continues to spread on LINE and much of it is produced by ‘little pinks’ or online patriots on Weibo or WeChat, China's most popular social media platforms.
Compared with LINE, disinformation spread on YouTube has become a more severe problem. Since October [2019], a large number of videos emerged on YouTube spreading disinformation. Since video production involves script writing, video editing, background music [and] adding subtitles, it requires coordinated teamwork and resources. Some of these channels can upload several videos in one day.
Last year, a survey showed that YouTube is a key source of information for the supporters of KMT's [the Kuomintang of China] presidential candidate, Han Kuo-yu. Information operations on YouTube have a strategic value.
We believe they [Youtube channels] are either operated by subcontractors of political propaganda backed by Beijing, or they are directly operated by the Chinese authorities. We observed that some of these channels use simplified Chinese in their subtitles and captions. Some YouTubers use idiomatic phrases from China when they talk; sometimes, their subtitles are mixed with simplified Chinese. Recently, there have been more Taiwanese YouTubers joining the disinformation industry.
BH: So would you say that the operators of disinformation have switched to hiring more Taiwanese agents?
PS: Yes, because it’s too easy to tell if the Chinese themselves are doing it. Getting Taiwanese to do it is more effective — but the people that take up this kind of job are primarily interested in it for the money. Usually, they just perform according to the script given to them — so if you analyze the script, you can identity where it comes from, as expressions in Taiwan and China are very different.
A photo attached to a piece of disinformation on social media platforms accusing DPP of manipulating election result. Via Taiwan Factcheck center.
BH: How do you propose to combat ‘fake news’?
PS: Tracking down the sources of fake news is important. If the information is ‘made in China’, people will be more cautious of its intention and question whether it aims at influencing the election.
Clarification is very important. But the majority of these types of information operations are not fake news; they aim at creating narratives, or stories, to create bias in people's minds.
For example, if you keep receiving information telling you that the American economy is bad while China's is big and powerful, the message would be imprinted in your head. You might then wonder if Taiwan should distance itself from the United States and develop closer economic relations with China.
Reports about China being big and powerful aren’t fake news, as there are definitely some positive aspects to its economy, so this kind of information bias is difficult to counteract.
BH: How do NGOs and government authorities address the problem?
PS: Taiwan has many NGOs fighting against disinformation. They keep track of content farms, analyze disinformation and promote media literacy.
The government also responds to fake news very quickly. Organizations such as Taiwan FactCheck Center and Co-Facts are doing fact checking on a daily basis, but we have no response system on political narratives yet. Thus far, we can only rely on disclosing the source of the narratives. This is what our organization is working on now.
BH: Is Taiwan's experience with disinformation a useful reference for other regions in the world?
PS: I think so — like the example of Russia [which] has engaged in disinformation operations against a number of countries, such as the Czech Republic. As a result, the Czech Republic can share the experience of dealing with Russian disinformation efforts with other countries. Similarly, Taiwan can share its experience with other countries confronting China.
Taiwan is a very good testing ground for analyzing China's disinformation operations; through our researches, we have developed a sensitivity on some of distinctive features of the disinformation operators, such as their orchestration network and linguistic characters.
Another example is an online campaign that took place on Instagram and Facebook one month ahead of [Taiwan's] presidential elections. Quite a number of individuals were uploading photos and videos of themselves putting their hand on their chest, and talking about how they were going to vote. The majority of them were criticizing the slow-growing economy. The campaign looked like a spontaneous act, but Taiwanese would find it very awkward because of the linguistic expression, such as the use of the hashtag ‘Declaring my voting intention’ (#宣告我的投票意志) — this is just not the way that Taiwanese talk and write.
Through our research, we have developed tools to analyze the ‘made in China’ information, and would very much like to share [our findings] with other countries and help them to resist disinformation operations from China.

author: New Bloom


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Is Russia getting its model for digital authoritarianism from China? · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Gateway to a Confucian temple in Beijing, for centuries the historical centre of traditional Chinese philosophy. Photo (c): Filip Noubel, used with permission.
Digital authoritarianism is the talk of the coming decade. From surveillance technology, to artificial intelligence for automatic censorship on social media and armies of bots, many rulers now have increasingly sophisticated technological resources at their fingertips. They can limit access to flows of information, strongly influencing public opinion both domestically and internationally to serve the interests of the state.
China, it is generally acknowledged, has developed the most advanced form of digital authoritarianism so far. This is thanks to the country's technological advancements, world power ambitions, massive population, and not least an ideological underpinning which justifies extensive surveillance and state control of cyberspace. In 2019, Russia, too, made a bid to bring its section of the internet under closer control by the authorities by implementing a “sovereign internet” law. International commentators now regularly point out perceived parallels between the two approaches. But how accurate are they?
As Beijing exports its model to neighboring countries, I asked Maria Repnikova, an expert on political communication in China and Chinese-Russian comparative media politics, to what extent Moscow is inspired by and learning from Beijing's recipe for controlling cyberspace.
Repnikova is Assistant Professor of Global Communication at Georgia State University. She is also the author of Media Politics in China: Improvising Power Under Authoritarianism, published in 2017 at Cambridge University Press. Her interview with Global Voices has been edited for brevity.
Filip Noubel: Pro-government voices in Russia often point to the example of China to justify the need for a “sovereign internet” in Russia. What are the commonalities and differences in how Russian and Chinese official discourse legitimises digital authoritarianism?
Assistant Professor Maria Repnikova, photo used with permission
Maria Repnikova: One of the key commonalities in China and Russia's justification of cyber sovereignty is the emphasis on cyber security or protection of national borders against external cyber attacks, as well as domestic extremist threats. In many ways, this narrative wasn't so much borrowed by Russia from China, but gradually evolved internally. In the mid-to-late 2000s, anti-extremism legislation was used to keep traditional media in check when it came to publishing sensitive stories, and was later adopted for the digital domain. More recently, with growing tensions with the West, protection from external powers has become a more powerful narrative to legitimise internet sovereignty.
In China, similarly, sovereignty is about non-interference from external powers, especially the West, and about China's maintenance of social stability internally and its fight against domestic extremist elements, whether they are minority groups, dissidents, or anybody who spreads rumours. One additional narrative in China that I found less prominent in Russia is that of promoting national tech development, and as such protecting national tech giants, by limiting access to western cyber companies.
This idea of technological self-sufficiency has become an inspiration in the developing world.
FN: Do you see more similarities or more differences in Beijing and Moscow's management of pro-government troll armies, control of domestic social media platforms and internet companies?
MR: In terms of management strategies, I see more differences. First, the Chinese state has a much larger human capacity when it comes to digital propaganda. Thus the operation also has far more of a domestic than an international focus. In the case of Russia, those trolling operations that have caught global attention were aimed towards international disinformation campaigns; they focus predominantly on destroying western legitimacy and any cohesion within the liberal democratic system. In the realm of social media control, China has both a larger human capital and is more technologically advanced. A “Great Firewall” of the type widely used in China and was perfected by Beijing does not yet exist in Russia. Although Russia's sovereign internet bill presents the possibility of isolating Russia's internet from the global web, it is not yet clear how that will play out in practice. It would still rely on cruder instruments than the constant monitoring and filtering practiced in China.
FN: Chinese independent media has virtually disappeared since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. In Russia, independent media outlets still exist but are under constant attack by the Kremlin. Do you think that Russia will eventually resemble China in its crackdown of any form of dissent, or are the differences and historical contexts simply too strong?
MR: I think that independent media still enjoys more space in Russia than in China. In part, this is because these outlets have relatively narrow audiences in comparison to China, so the regime is less concerned about their critical articles and has settled for more of an “ignore, isolate, and occasionally punish” approach. Another difference is their approach to media management styles. In China, the regime settles for multi-dimensional control: both pre-emptive and post-facto. In Russia, the history of repression in the past few decades has demonstrated more of an occasional but uncompromising reaction, either in the form of shutdowns or physical violence against journalists. This approach is more effective for the Russian state given its more limited media management resources, such as manpower and technology. The Chinese regime has both these in ample supply.
Finally, the history of journalistic critique is different. In China it has primarily been aimed at a within-the-system approach, targeting local officials or matters that can be relatively easily resolved by the government. In Russia, there is more of a tradition of western-style watchdog journalism that aims at exposing the highest corruption, and is less interested in serving as an “adviser” to the state. I think this difference is linked with the experience of glasnost in the Soviet Union and the turbulent 1990s when media had much influence. That's very different from the Chinese radical approach to change in 1989, which in turn transformed into a more compromised approach at shaping governance through criticism. However, it is difficult to predict the fate of Russia's independent media over time. Much would depend on Vladimir Putin's sense of security and popularity, as well as the nature of societal movements that could be seen as interlinked with or somehow fuelled by critical media.
FN: Can we speak of a China-Russia rapprochement aimed at countering western influence? If so, in which areas of digital governance are Beijing and Moscow most likely to collaborate or share a similar position?
MR: I think that the shared agenda of “cyber sovereignty” and the promotion of this agenda within international organisations is at the heart of today's current Sino-Russian collaboration against the West.
While their tools of managing the internet are still different, both the governments in Beijing and Moscow do strongly share the idea that internet governance should be left in the hands of states, countering the internet freedom agenda promoted by the United States.

author: Filip Noubel


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Nigeria: A failed state — reality or perception? · Global Voices
Eta Uso

Nigerian refugees in Gagamari camp, Diffa region, Niger. They crossed the border to flee Boko Haram insurgents who attacked their town, Damassak, on November 24, 2014. Photo from Flickr user European Commission DG ECHO. CC BY-ND 2.0
The 2019 Fragile States Index ranked Nigeria as the 14th most fragile state in the world and the ninth in Africa.
According to the Index, Yemen is the “most failed” state, followed closely by Somalia, while Finland emerged the most sustainable state on Earth.
The Fragile States Index, a yearly report by Washington, DC-based think tank Fund for Peace, ranks 178 countries “across 12 indicators of the risks and vulnerabilities faced by individual nations.”
Out of the 15 most failed nations, 10 are African countries. These include Somalia (second), South Sudan (third), Democratic Republic of Congo (fifth), Central Africa Republic (sixth), Chad (seventh), Sudan (eighth), Zimbabwe (10th), Guinea (11th), Nigeria (14th), and Burundi (15th).
Some of the risk indicators include security, group grievances, economic decline and brain drain, state legitimacy/human rights and rule of law, demographic pressures, and internally displaced persons or refugees. These indicators assessed: “the vulnerability of states to collapse” by measuring “vulnerability in pre-conflict, active conflict and post-conflict situations.”
In angst, Nigerians have taken to Twitter to air their views on the failing status of the nation:
Nigeria is a failed state wallahi with a bunch of heartlesss people as leaders
— Sirius Black (@Mb_ussy) January 19, 2020
Nigeria is a failed state!
Failed is even an understatement
— J O E L ?? (@JoelCAnih) January 17, 2020
#Nigerians, you hate to see this, but you need to watch this! pic.twitter.com/Nmzma57qlS
— Royalty (@royaltyuso) January 19, 2020
The 1999 Nigerian constitution states that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” However, the loss of life and livelihood continues to afflict Nigeria with a state of insecurity.
Since 2011, attacks by Boko Haram, the Islamist jihadist militancy in northeast Nigeria, has led to about 37,500 deaths, 2.5 million displaced people and nearly 244,000 Nigerian refuges, according to the Council of Foreign Relations’ 2020 Global Conflict Tracker.
Nigerian scholars Edidiong Oko, Henry Ufomba, and Washington Benjamin, from the University of Benue, northcentral Nigeria, analysed the Boko Haram violence in northern Nigeria from an “analytical lens of state failure.” The academics stated that the operational success of Boko Haram rests squarely on the “continuing inability of the Nigerian state” to provide adequate security that ensures “national prosperity.”
Total deaths in incidents involving Boko Haram. [Screen shot from the Council of Foreign Affairs, August 20, 2018].
In December 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari said that Nigeria has “technically won the war” against Boko Haram militants, according to the BBC. But on January 20, Nigerian soldiers were killed by the Boko Haram militants in Monguno, Borno state, northeast Nigeria.
In addition to threats directly from Boko Haram, abductions and kidnapping in Nigeria have also become the norm.
Kidnapping in Nigeria since 2015 (Screenshot from the BBC)
Chief Jide Awe, a politician in an interview published in the Vanguard newspaper on January 18, 2020, throws a scathing light on Nigeria's designation as a failed state. Awe echoed the frustrations of residents of southwestern Nigeria over the failing security infrastructure:
I had been a victim of kidnapping because my brother was abducted by strange people here in Ekiti. We had to look for the money we didn’t have to pay ransom before he was released. Should we fold our arms and allow this to continue? They want to be kidnapping us so that we can be paying ransom to them, this will not happen.
In 2019, the failure of the Nigerian government to provide adequate employment and security for citizens unleashed condemnation by Nigerians online.
If that was not enough, the government initiated a social media bill in the National Assembly:
The proposed legislation — officially named the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill 2019 — would allow Nigeria's government to cut off internet access or block specific social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter at its own discretion.
The bill is aimed at gagging freedom of speech online.
As expected, Nigerians came out en masse to resist it:
“I will not support the suppression of the most potent tool for citizen engagement in the 21st century through a misguided Social Media Bill.” https://t.co/58KNWgGiw9 #SayNoToSocialMediaBill #SocialMediaBill #TundeBakare #Nigeria
— The Guardian Nigeria (@GuardianNigeria) January 6, 2020
If the Social Media Bill is passed into law, it will not just affect journalists. The tech community will suffer. This specific provision ? means young entrepreneurs who register or host websites for news platforms are at great risk. #SayNoToSocialMediaBill pic.twitter.com/AKjj31SKks
— Ohimai Godwin Amaize (@MrFixNigeria) November 22, 2019
Nigeria, with an estimated population of 200 million and a gross domestic product of $376.284 billion United States dollars, is the largest economy in Africa. This means that this West African country cannot afford to succumb to insecurity because it will reverberate across the continent.

author: Eta Uso


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Redemption Song: My journey to marijuana activism · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Ganja, by Carlos Gracia on flickr, CC BY 2.0.
By Nazma Muller
I can’t pinpoint exactly when this journey began for me. You could say it began when Columbus rocked up in Moruga, on Trindad's south coast, and turned paradise into a plantation. His arrival brought my African, Indian and Chinese ancestors here and disrupted my indigenous people’s entire universe. For the last 500 years this journey to redemption has been in the making: from the conquest of Iere [Trinidad's original indigenous name] by the Spanish Crown with the approval of the Catholic Church, through wave after wave of migrants, to this crossroads in history where we are all clinging precariously to our perch in this most perfect modern-day incarnation of Babylon.
All of us immigrants stuck here on the ever-chaotic plantation, trying to “get through” while hoping “the criminals” don’t get us. But, as Tosh would sing plaintively on the radio in the soundtrack to my creole childhood in Trinidad's East-West corridor: “Everyone is crying out for peace/None is crying out for justice… Tell me, who are the criminals?”
You better believe the personal is political. But not in the thieving, bold-face, cunning way that the PNM [People's National Movement, Trinidad and Tobago's current ruling party] and UNC [United National Congress, currently in opposition] puppets have been eating a food. On this tiny island, if your family doesn’t have money, your options in life are limited. Given my origins I probably would have been knocked up by third form in junior secondary school if my mother hadn’t banned her belly to send me to Holy Name Prep School. That is how I beat the Common Entrance scam. And ended up in Holy Name Convent sitting next to the 1 percent.
As one of the 99 percent, I was fortunate to be given access to a very fine academic education. I was able to get into The University of the West Indies to study sociology. There I met a tutor by the name of Daurius Figueira, a radical thinker whose obsession was the drug trade. At the time he seemed way out in left field, going on and on about cocaine, ganja and gang killings. This was before Dole Chadee and his gang were hanged. At the time I could not grasp how quickly and irrevocably the drug trade and another oil boom would change Trinidad, if not Tobago.
Then I went to Jamaica to work as a journalist, and well, the rest is history. I suppose it was the Jamaica Observer sending me to Ocho Rios to cover Reggae Sunsplash that did it. Since that first night under the stars when I listened to ska and rocksteady hits for hours, and the full extent of these people’s musical repertoire and genius unfolded before me, my life has never been the same.
The impact of Jamaicans on the world cannot be overestimated. Over the last 25 years I have been inspired and enlightened by these revolutionary people, from intellectual giants such as Louise Bennett, Rex Nettleford and Barry Chevannes, to musicians like Buju, Beenie and Chronixx.
As a reporter I saw the ghettos, the boardrooms, the concerts, the mansions, the north coast, the fabulous hotels, and the streets. I even got threatened by a don and dodged a bullet during elections. I also had a chance to study Rastafari livity. As a contributor to Caribbean Beat magazine I interviewed Ziggy, Stephen and Skip Marley; and as an activist I was on a Ryerson University panel with Bob Marley’s granddaughter, Donisha Prendergast, whose own work as a filmmaker includes the film Rasta: A Soul’s Journey.
Ganja has been a source of inspiration, meditation and medication on my journey as a mixed-race, working-class Caribbean woman trying to make a way in this capitalist world. As a writer, it has helped me to create and explore the frontiers and borders of my own mind. As a preventative medicine, it has ensured that I do not get sick or have any of the usual non-communicable lifestyle diseases. And as a student of Castro, it has given me the courage to criticise the status quo. And this is why the Establishment doesn’t want the masses using ganja. We start getting uppity and believing that we are equal to them. Next thing you know, we talking about rights and wanting “change”.
For me, the fight to legalise ganja is one way to repay the debt owed to my African ancestors for their years of unpaid labour. It is yet to be repaid by the British, and may never be, although the Caricom Reparations Committee continues to beat that dead horse. I want reparations from my own government first!
In The Colour of Darkness, a film about his work, Jamaica’s foremost researcher on Rastafari, the late Barry Chevannes, looks at how men like Marcus Garvey sought to uplift himself and his people, through self-reliance and entrepreneurship. The Rastafari have used ganja as their sacrament and as a means of survival, and for that they paid dearly. As did many “baldhead” brothers who sought refuge and comfort in the herb’s therapeutic and calming effects.
The laws of natural justice demand that the wrongs done to our people because of their colour and race be righted. The vast majority of persons arrested and convicted of ganja possession, cultivation and trafficking over the last 50 years have been African or Dougla. As the mother of a son, I feel compelled to act before he is old enough to become another statistic.
Nazma Muller is a Trinidad-born Rastafarian, a writer and a cannabis advocate.

author: Guest Contributor


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The meaning of Tsai Ing-wen’s 8.17 million votes in the Taiwan presidential elections · Global Voices
Guest contributor

Tsai Ing-wen. Photo taken from Stand News.
By Chang Tieh-chi
Many political analysts have expressed the opinion that the landslide victory of Tsai Ing-wen in the recent presidential election in Taiwan is related to the prolonged protests in Hong Kong against political encroachment by Beijing.
Representatives of Tsai's party, the pro-Taiwan independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), part of Taiwan's Pan-Green Coalition, have said that this explanation could highlight the fact that Taiwanese citizens do not accept One Country, Two Systems, the political framework imposed by Beijing to promote “unification” with Taiwan. The Pan-Blue Coalition led by the pro-Beijing Kuomintang (KMT), however, said that the explanation could give the impression that Tsai did not have any domestic policies worth mentioning. My own view is that the explanation gives inadequate weight to the 8.17 million votes Taiwanese citizens gave to Tsai.
The Hong Kong protests and Taiwanese sovereignty had huge impact on the election result, of course. Young people in Taiwan have witnessed the painful and courageous struggle of their counterparts in Hong Kong, and they, too, want to stand up and protect their own way of life.
While the DPP’s campaign strategy did indeed take advantage of the collective sentiment of the “Taiwanese sovereignty endgame” (亡國感), the producers of such sentiment are in fact Chinese President Xi Jinping and Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who have failed to respect of Hong Kong autonomous status.
The sentiment of the Hong Kong protests has spread to Taiwan, and it is overwhelming. The KMT’s presidential candidate, Han Guo-yu, has continually accused Tsai of being unwilling to identify with the Republic of China (ROC), but Taiwanese people now realise that the KMT's pro-China strategy is a real threat to the existence of ROC, because Beijing recognizes only one China—the People Republic of China (PRC), which is constituted under a One-party state system under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CCP).
The KMT fled from China to Taiwan after they were defeated by the CCP during the civil war in 1949. As the ruling party of the ROC, they vowed that they would eventually recapture mainland China from the CCP. But the KMT's dream is not shared by the majority of Taiwanese, who would prefer to retain the status quo as a de-facto independent nation.
The personalities of the two candidates had a significant impact on the election result too. Tsai may have her flaws, but Han’s shifting political positions and hateful and offensive speech against women, foreign workers and other groups, embarrassed even elites from the Pan-Blue camp.
During the presidential campaign, Han commented that “men’s fulfillment comes in the second half of their lives while women’s comes in the upper part of their bodies/lives”. This assertion not only limits the role of women to the domestic sphere, but also carries sexual implications, as the Chinese words for “body” and “life” sound almost the same. Earlier, when commenting on Taiwan’s labour market, Han used the metaphor of “the phoenix having gone and the chicken moving in” to describe the problem of brain drain and the influx of foreigners into the domestic market. The Chinese word “chicken” has quite negative connotations when used to describe people.
Educated Taiwanese, young people, in particular, would naturally have chosen Tsai Ing-wen.
If one compares the lists of candidates put forward by both KMT and DPP to fill the proportional representation seats allocated to parties in Taiwan's national legislative elections, one can discern the political considerations behind the two parties’ choices. The DPP’s candidates are mostly former members of the Legislative Yuan (Taiwan's parliament), leaders of professional groups, environment groups, women's organizations and trade unions. (It is a pity that Omi Wilang, leader of Taiwan aboriginal community, was not included in the DDP’s list.) As for the KMT, even Simon Chang, the former KMT Premier during Ma Ying-jeou’s presidency, could not help from slamming the party’s choice of candidates.
As a political news columnist, I seldom label public figures CCP representatives. But the KMT's candidate list does give the impression that it was made under Beijing’s influence. Candidates such as Sandy Yeh, a retired professor from Central Police University, Wu Sz-huai, a retired lieutenant general of the ROC army) and Chiu Yi (a former KMT legislator) are all notorious for their pro-Beijing and pro-reunification political stances.
The elections of the Legislative Yuan was held on the same day on—January 11, 2020 —as the presidential elections. The Legislative Yuan has three constituencies: 73 seats are filled through regional direct elections, 6 seats from nationwide elections of aborigines, and 34 seats are reserved for party-list proportional representation candidates.
Some have claimed that the DPP relied on the sovereignty issue to bolster its platform, and made zero contribution on domestic policy. Such commentary underestimates the intelligence of the electorate. In the past few years, Tsai has made some right moves regarding social policy, including pension reform, increasing the minimum wage, diversification of energy sources, promotion of international cultural exchanges, addressing issues related to transitional justice, and investment in social innovation.
Last but not least is the DPP's support for the legalization of same-sex marriage. After their poor showing in the 2018 local elections, many critics spoke out against the DPP’s lack of determination in pushing through the legalization of LGBT marriage. But the same-sex marriage bill finally took effect on 24 of May thanks to the courageous support of President Tsai Ing-wen and Premiere Su Tseng-chang. Young Taiwanese were touched by that action.
During the presidential election, the KMT was spreading the idea that same-sex marriage would cut off the blood flow, so to speak, of Taiwanese families. As such rhetoric appeals to traditional Chinese values, it was anticipated that the DPP would lose some legislators’ seats. As the results came in on election night, a number of my LGBT friends exclaimed on their Facebook that the results indicated to the whole world that LGBT rights was no longer an issue that turned off Taiwanese voters. A very touching moment.
As the DPP was willing to take political risks and support these important values, young Taiwanese rewarded them with votes.
I am not saying the DPP’s performance has been perfect. Han got 5 million votes and the number of votes the DPP and KMT obtained through proportional representation in the national legislative elections was about the same—both parties won 13 seats. This is an indication that the ruling party’s performance has yet to meet the approval of many Taiwanese.
In a nutshell, the 8.17 million votes that Tsai received are for the development of a more just and progressive society that would enable Taiwan to stand up with dignity. The votes are also an expression of our solidarity with Hong Kong's protesters. We will use the same set of values to monitor and critique the government, as well as advocate for change.
The whole world witnessed Taiwan's choice regarding our stand on cross-strait relations with China. Within Taiwan, we are entering a new political era which belongs to all Taiwanese.
Chang Tieh-chi is a Taiwanese cultural and political news columnist.

author: Guest contributor


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Yorùbá loanwords: How languages evolve · Global Voices
Aremu Adeola, Jr.

Àkàrà or Nigerian bean cake is a staple breakfast in Nigeria, July 11, 2013. Photo by Atimukoh via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
Relationships between languages have existed for hundreds of years. Think of the word “restaurant,” borrowed from the French language into English. Today, this loanword — a word adopted from one language into another without translation — circulates in English as if it was never borrowed.
These linguistic borrowings can be attributed to immigration, commerce, and trade as people were exposed to a wide range of ethnolinguistic environments. Through these interactions, people were exposed to various linguistic contexts, and words and phrases were borrowed to accommodate these encounters.
The Yorùbá case is no exception. Spoken widely by about 40 million speakers in Nigeria, Yorùbá language has been influenced by the English language spoken by the British, who held colonial power in Nigeria from 1914 to 1960.
More than half of the vocabulary words used in Yorùbá are borrowed from English. Think of the word “cup.” It was domesticated as kó̩ò̩pù. The word “phone” is fóònù, “ball” is bó̩ò̩lù, and “television” is te̩lifís̩ó̩ò̩nù, among others.
These English words that were “loaned” to Yorùbá expanded its vocabulary over time. There are also instances of the Yorùbá language borrowing words from the Hausa language, spoken by 44 million people in the northern part of Nigeria. This language borrows heavily from Arabic, as well, with words like àlùbáríkà (“blessing”), àlùbó̩sà (“onion”) and wàhálà (“trouble”).
The beauty of Yorùbá loanwords is that speakers now use them in their day-to-day conversations as they get absorbed into the language.  It is not uncommon to hear people say, Bá o̩mo̩ ye̩n mú bó̩ò̩lu è̩  or “Help the child take the ball” in English.  Although the underlined word bó̩ò̩lu is not native to the Yorùbá language, speakers manage to make it fit.
One of the challenges with the Yorùbá language with regard to loanwords is that native speakers themselves love translating Yorùbá words into English and using them in sentences instead of the original Yorùbá word. An example is the word àkàrà  — most Yorùbá speakers translate it to bean cake in daily interactions —, especially with foreigners.
Using words in their original forms helps ensure that culture — kept alive through language — continues to thrive. For instance, no one calls Japan’s sushi by any other name — sushi is sushi.
If this was the case for many Yorùbá words, too, its language and culture could flourish beyond Nigeria and the Yorùbá-speaking world. For example, àmàlà is a famous Yorùbá food, even in the diaspora. This word could easily find its way into the lexicon of other languages if Yorùbá speakers insisted on it. Translating it to “yam flour” lessens its status and linguistic root — its “Yorubaness.”
Think of the anglicized Yorùbá word “fanimorious,” which is becoming more popular and appears in the Urban Dictionary. It means “appealing,” or “beautiful,” and comes from the word fanimó̩ra in Yorùbá.
This could be phono-morphological: Yorùbá language does not allow final word consonants and consonant clusters. As a result, the English suffix -ious was added to the Yorùbá root word. However, the fact remains that the word stems from the Yorùbá language. This is a win for the Yorùbá.
Recently, several other Nigerian English words were added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Yorùbá will make giant strides only if its speakers contribute to its growth; Its usage in the media is also important as the world becomes increasingly more digitized. Consequently, this will spur further research on the Niger-Congo language.

author: Aremu Adeola, Jr.