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On World Health Day, African Nations from East to West Struggle to Improve Basic Health Care · Global Voices
Faaris Adam

Internally displaced women at a distribution point at Salama IDP Camp in Galkayo, Somalia (drought-hit Mudug region). September 10, 2017. Photo by Faaris Adam and used with permission.
As the World Health Organization (WHO) marked its 70th year anniversary on Saturday, April 7, 2018 with World Health Day, African nations continue to struggle to improve basic health care, often facing serious health crises that hardly make the headlines.
Poor basic health conditions within nations like Somalia in East Africa and Nigeria in West Africa contradict WHO's core founding principles:
The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.
Due to the long term trauma of civil war in Somalia, mental health is a massive problem compounded by the lack of public health facilities to deal with psychiatric illness. Somalia holds one of the world’s highest rates for mental health issues, with approximately one in three Somalis suffering from some form of mental illness, according to a WHO report.
Those with mental illness face extreme social stigma such as intentional isolation, restraint, and imprisonment because society fears they may hurt people or themselves.
Says Warsame, a pastoralist who lives in the rural area of the Mudug Region:
[a] 42-year-old took his sister to the clinic to find a treatment after being ill for years, Safiya had been ill for two years, and I decided to take her to the patient care center in Galkayo.
There are very few facilities available to treat people with mental illness throughout the country and the condition of these centers is grossly inadequate, often being too small for patients to get enough medicine.
Ahmed Bali, a psychiatric nurse at Galkayo Mental Health Central, the only center in Galkayo to care for people with mental illness, explains:
This center is public and is built by the community, and patients are all women and not charged for the services that we provide including accommodation and foods but the patients’ medicines are purchased.
Bali adds that in Somali culture, people with mental illness are called “Ninka Waalan” (Mad Man in Somali) and children often throw stones and insults as well.
According to recent reports, Nigeria in West Africa currently faces two serious health challenges: the menace of drug abuse and the brain drain of health professionals to Western countries.
Nigerians have seen a significant rise in drug dependency, especially among youth. According to Nigerian scholar Umar Lawal Yusuf and his colleagues, drug abuse is:
a disorder that is characterized by a destructive pattern of using a substance that leads to significant problems or distress. Teens are increasingly engaging in prescription drug abuse, particularly narcotics (which are prescribed to relieve severe pain), and stimulant medications, which treat conditions like attention deficit disorder and narcolepsy. Drug abuse or drug dependence (as preferred by the world health organization), is defined as ‘a state of psychic or physical dependence, or both on a drug, following administration of the drug on a periodic or continuous basis.’
Research shows that the drug abuse varies but that the most common ones mentioned in Yusuf's study are: alcohol (illicit gin or beer), cocaine, nicotine, phencyclidine (commonly referred to as PCP), and sedatives or anxiety drugs.
In addition, some Nigerian youths have also taken to the abuse of prescription drugs:
Everyday, over a 500,000 bottles of codeine are consumed by young Nigerians across the country, same with the intake of tramadol, rohypnol, marijuana, and other opioids, an alarming trend that has subtly eaten deeply into the Nigerian fabric with children of all classes having a field day abusing these drugs. But parents, stakeholders and the society continue to live in self-denial as a time bomb waits to explode.
Recent reports reveal that “over three million bottles of codeine syrup were consumed daily in Kano and Jigawa states” in northern Nigeria.
This Facebook video released by Tony Rapu shows some Nigerian men injecting heroin into their bodies in Lagos, Nigeria [warning: graphic video]. Nigeria youth are even “mixing methylated spirit and [Coca-Cola] coke to get high”:
Mixing this spirit with coke might douse the bad taste but it doesn’t change the fact that in a bid to get high, young people are slowly doing irreparable damage to their own bodies. Drug abuse has now become a hydra-headed monster. As appealing as the idea of placing stringent rules on the sale of drugs may seem, it is too obvious that it does nothing to solve the problem.
God please what's happening to this generation? pic.twitter.com/rkrv6BeWN7
— Adekeye . E. Tosin (@cutekimani) February 2, 2018
But drug abuse alone isn't the problem — there are so few doctors to cure them. The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria is empowered to register doctors, but the exact number of doctors practicing in Nigeria remains a mystery.
Some reports claim “about 80,000 doctors and dentists in Nigeria including foreign trained personnel” registered in Nigeria.
However:
out of these 80,000, there are some people who are dead, some have left the country, some no longer working as doctors and some have stopped renewing their practicing licences. Some of the older doctors have been given a ‘life time practicing certificate.’
To make matters worse, many Nigerian doctors are heading to the United Kingdom or the United States for better work opportunities. As of 2015, Nigeria faces a major shortage of qualified doctors according to WHO's recommended doctor/patient ratio:
The World health Organisation (WHO) standard ratio is one doctor to a community of about 600 people while the nurses ratio stood at one nurse to four patients and one environmental officer to 8,000 people.
Folashade Ogunsola, a professor with the Association of Colleges of Medicine of Nigeria estimates:
We will need about 237,000 medical doctors and we have about 35,000 working in the country today.
A survey entitled Emigration of Nigerian Medical Doctors, conducted by NOIPolls and Nigeria Health Watch, questioned 705 doctors residing in the country and abroad as well as 26 medical doctors who participated in in-depth interviews.
Some key findings were alarming:
A large proportion (83 percent) of doctors who filled the survey and are based abroad are licensed in Nigeria, indicating that they had completed their medical education in Nigeria before departing beyond the shores of Nigeria.
All respondents (100 percent) to the survey know medical doctors who presently reside in Nigeria, who are currently seeking work opportunities abroad. Furthermore, about one in two (48 percent) have between five to 15 friends and colleagues working in the medical profession who moved out of the country within the last two years.
Almost nine in 10 respondents (88 percent) disclosed they are seeking work opportunities abroad. Most respondents cited high taxes and deductions from salary (98 percent), low work satisfaction (92 percent), and poor salaries and emoluments (91 percent) as challenges doctors face that make them consider moving abroad.
The United Kingdom and the United States are the top destinations where Nigerian medical doctors seek work opportunities.
Improved remuneration (18 percent), upgrade all hospital facilities and equipment (16 percent), increase healthcare funding (13 percent), and improve working conditions of health workers were the top suggestions respondents proffered in mitigating the challenges doctors are facing.
Akinola Olabisi, a doctor who recently emigrated to the United Kingdom, explains why he left Nigeria:
I considered the working conditions in Nigerian hospital where I initially worked as unsuitable. I had to cope with hectic working conditions made more difficult by the lack of basic hospital equipment, hostile working atmosphere, and measly salaries that were unpaid for several months. I was also not particularly motivated by the oppressive style of medical mentoring in many postgraduate training institutions. I do not intend to come back to settle in Nigeria.  Poor remuneration tops the list of my reasons for leaving. The vast majority of Nigerian doctors earn so little compared to their counterparts in other African countries. It is shameful to hear what some doctors are paid, especially in the private hospitals. Also, hospitals are unacceptably short-staffed and the available hands are severely overworked. This undoubtedly takes its toll on productivity and quality of health care.
Whether it's psychiatric illness and stigmatization in Somalia, the rising epidemic of drug abuse of Nigerian youth or the exodus of Nigerian doctors to the West, the state of health across the continent remains precarious.

author: Faaris Adam


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Russian Newspaper Closes After Years of Tense, Often Violent Confrontation with Security Services · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

Igor Rudnikov, editor of Novye Kolyosa, with a broken arm after a violent interrogation by Russia's security services // Igor Rudnikov's Facebook
Novye Kolyosa, an independently-run newspaper in the Western Russian city of Kaliningrad, will close after 23 years in circulation.
In an April 4 announcement on Facebook, its acting editor Yuri Grozmani wrote:
Независимый еженедельник “Новые колёса”, основанный журналистом и депутатом Игорем Рудниковым в мае 1995 года, прекращает своё существование… Газета, которая издавалась на протяжении 23 лет, и на идеалах которой выросло целое поколение, уходит из нашей жизни. А вместе с ней – и целая эпоха, заявившая о себе после распада СССР и провозглашения принципов свободного развития общества и независимых СМИ.
The independent weekly paper Novye Kolyosa, founded in May 1995 by Igor Rudnikov, a journalist and a regional Duma [parliament] representative, will cease to exist today… The newspaper, which through its 23-year history inspired a whole generation, is leaving our lives. Along with it a whole era is coming to an end, a vocal era of post-Soviet unfettered societal progress and free media.
The trajectory of Novye Kolyosa is emblematic of the many political and financial challenges — and creative solutions — that come with operating an independent media outlet in a post-communist country.
Launched in early-'90s, primarily as an advertiser for a booming local used car business, the paper was originally named Kolyosa, or “The Wheels.” Located on the Baltic coast, Kaliningrad oblast is Russia’s westernmost port and became a hub for imported cars, a sudden luxury after the fall of the Soviet Union.
A former first lieutenant in the Soviet navy, Rudnikov used his experience as a reporter for the navy newspaper Strazh Baltiki (The Baltic Sentinel) — and resources from the naval offices — to found Kolyosa in 1993.
Two years later, the (now Russian) navy, which still owned the editorial resources Rudnikov had used to start the newspaper, decided that it needed this fast-growing revenue stream to itself. Rudnikov resigned from both the navy and the original Kolyosa and founded Novye Kolyosa, or “The New Wheels”.
To beat the competition, Rudnikov took the ad sheet for the used car market and turned it into a general interest tabloid.
Novye Kolyosa’s reporting focused on organized crime, of which there was no shortage in port towns like Kaliningrad during the '90s. Their journalists, the paper’s offices and Rudnikov himself were physically assaulted on multiple occasions. Rudnikov himself survived a near-fatal stabbing incident in 2016. But he would never relent, publishing incisive investigations into local crime bosses’ dealings with corrupt police and security services officials.
At the same time, Rudnikov enjoyed a highly successful career in local politics. In 2016, he was the only independent candidate to beat a United Russia (Russia’s ruling party) contender at the polls.
But where the mafia failed to intimidate Igor Rudnikov and his loud, sensationalistic and almost suicidally brave tabloid, the Russian security services seem to have finally succeeded.
In November 2017, Novye Kolyosa’s offices were raided by FSB, Russia’s main domestic security service, and Rudnikov himself was brought in for questioning. After an interrogation — which left him unconscious and with a broken arm — Rudnikov was charged with extortion of a government official. He has been kept under arrest in a Moscow detention facility ever since.
Despite the arrest of its founding editor, Novye Kolyosa kept on kicking until the eve of its 592nd issue, which was to feature a story on a local police brutality case which made the national headlines.
The Arrest and Death of Alexander Zakamsky
In March 2018, a Kaliningrad FSB assault squad arrested Alexander Zakamsky, 25. The motives for his arrest are still unclear, but local media have speculated it might have had something to do with Zakamsky's involvement in amber hunting, a major cottage industry in the region.
His wife Elizaveta has publicly stated that the last time she saw him, Zakamsky was handcuffed and bloodied. According to his own statement, he was later taken to an unidentified location where he was beaten and tortured for several hours to extract confession of his alleged involvement in drug smuggling.
On March 8, his deceased body was found in his cell hanging on a strip of bedsheet. Elizaveta Zakamsky refuses to accept that her husband’s death was a suicide and accuses the FSB of torturing him to death.
On March 29, Novye Kolyosa’s latest edition was about to hit the local newsstands. On its cover page were photographs naming two specific FSB officers, along with evidence that they had taken part part in torturing Alexander Zakamsky. The cover story called them “sadists” and described in gruesome detail the treatment Zakamsky was subject to, including severe beating and electrocution.
But the paper never reached the newsstands. Novye Kolyosa relies on printing shops outside the country because local printers won’t touch them out of fear of retribution. But this final issue of the newspaper, while en route from a printer in Lithuania, was seized by the FSB and destroyed. A PDF version is still available.
Kaliningrad is located in a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea. Image via Google Maps.
In an op-ed announcing the newspaper’s closure on its website, the acting editor in chief Yuri Grozmani said he had little hope for domestic prosecution of FSB officers complicit in the act of censorship. Instead, he promised to campaign for external pressure on Russian law enforcement officers implicated in abuse of their authority:
Мы избрали другой путь – начали рассылку во все правозащитные организации, иностранные посольства и консульства, а также министерства иностранных дел Европейских государств требование о включении ДАННЫХ лиц в ЧЁРНЫЕ СПИСКИ. Аннулировать им Шенгенские визы, к чёртовой матери! Чтобы никто из них больше не смог выезжать за пределы Российской Федерации. Пусть свою Родину любят по месту прописки, а не с Лазурного побережья. И тратят деньги, заработанные в России, не в Европе, а в нашем родном Светлогорске.
We have chosen a different path: we are sending letters to all human rights organizations, foreign embassies and consulates, as well as foreign ministries of EU countries, asking them to BLACKLIST THESE PERSONS. Let their Schengen visas be cancelled, for god’s sake! So that none of them can ever leave the borders of the Russian Federation. Let them love their Motherland from their homes, not from the French Riviera. And let them spend money earned in Russia not in Europe, but in our own Svetlogorsk [Kaliningrad’s satellite town].
Igor Rudnikov has been in detention for five months now and was recently declared a prisoner of conscience by Russia’s Memorial human rights center. In a statement on their website, the organization pointed out a number of discrepancies in the prosecution’s case and called the case against Rudnikov politically motivated.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: RuNet Echo


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What Were Global Voices’ Readers up to Last Week? · Global Voices
L. Finch

Photo by Flickr user Eric Rice. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
At Global Voices, our community researches, writes, edits, and translates stories with a mission to support human rights and build bridges of understanding across countries, cultures, and languages.
We don't publish just to grab clicks or follow a news trend. We do, however, like to keep track of the ways in which our hard work has impact around the world.
To that end, one useful metric is how readers respond to our stories and translations. So let's take a look at who our readers were and what caught their attention during the week of April 2-8, 2018.
Last week, our stories and translations attracted readers from 209 countries! The top 20 countries represented across all of Global Voices’ sites were:
1. Japan
2. United States
3. Brazil
4. France
5. Peru
6. Mexico
7. Spain
8. Colombia
9. India
10. Argentina
11. Taiwan
12. United Kingdom
13. Bangladesh
14. Italy
15. Germany
16. Russia
17. Canada
18. Philippines
19. Indonesia
20. Chile
But that's only a small slice of the diversity of our readership. Let's use the True Random Number Generator from Random.org and take a look at a few other countries on the list:
128. Brunei
60. El Salvador
182. São Tomé & Príncipe
168. Mayotte
53. Thailand
The English-language site is where the majority of original content is first published at Global Voices. The top five most-read stories of last week were:
1. Look What Large-Scale Mining Did to These Four Beautiful Philippine Islands (originally published in 2015)
2. How English-Language Pronouns Are Taught Around the World
3. Bangladesh Is the World’s ‘Most Vegetarian Country’? Not Quite.
4. Marvia Malik, Pakistan’s First Transgender Newscaster, Wants to Change Societal Attitudes Toward Her Community
5. A Children’s Costume Contest in Macedonia Sparks Outrage With ‘Portable Adolf’ Hitler Entry
Lingua is a project that translates Global Voices stories into languages other than English. There are about 30 active Lingua sites. Below is last week's most-read story or translation on each active language site.

author: L. Finch


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Brazil’s Black Population Dominates Popular Politics, But Remains Left Out From Government · Global Voices
Isabela Carvalho

Flávia Rios: Seminar “50 years of feminism”, held at the University of São Paulo (USP) in 2016. Image: FFLCH / USP
By May 2018, it will be have been 130 years since Brazil formally abolished slavery; however, the legacy of three centuries of exploitation is still tangible to this day.
According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, 74% of the bottom 10% of Brazilians (in terms of wealth) are black. Black Brazilians are also 23.5% more likely to be victims of homicide than Brazilians of other races, controlling for age, education, gender, marital status and place of residence.
The month of March commemorated both International Women's Day and the lesser-known International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, both calling for a reflection on the advances and challenges for gender and racial equality.
In Brazil, it's undeniable that discussions around privilege and representation gained more traction and brought more voices to the table. An example of this is a policy that has rolled out over the past decade which saw public university admission quotas for black and indigenous students — a subject of heated debate in Brazilian society.
Simultaneously, the recent brutal murder of politician Marielle Franco laid bare the risks those who publicly challenge power structures are exposed to.
Global Voices spoke with Flávia Rios, vice-coordinator of the Social Sciences program at Fluminense Federal University in Rio de Janeiro. She spoke with us before Marielle's murder. Responses are slightly abbreviated.
Global Voices (GV): Brazil is among the 10 most unequal countries in the world. Women and black people are most affected by this. What recent advances can we really celebrate in the month of March?
Apesar dos retrocessos nos últimos anos, alguns avanços tivemos, como o parecer favorável do Supremo Tribunal Federal, que garante o direito o uso do nome social para pessoas trans, a aplicação da lei do feminicídio, a expansão das políticas de ações afirmativas no Ensino Superior, especialmente nos cursos de pós-graduação e nos concursos para cargos públicos federais.
Também é importante comemorar a redução do número de mulheres jovens e negras ocupando serviços domésticos, categoria profissional majoritariamente feminina e negra, mal remunerada, com forte presença de informalidade, assédios e abusos físicos e psicológicos – o que demonstra fortes laços estruturais com a herança escravocrata.
Em contraste, percebe-se maior participação de mulheres negras encerrando ciclos educacionais, como o Ensino Médio e o Ensino Superior, em comparação com as décadas anteriores, quando não havia políticas de ações afirmativas.
Políticas públicas e maior politização das relações raciais têm desafiado estereótipos fixos, arcaicos e empoeirados nas molduras talhadas pelas classes médias e elites conservadoras do país, através de meios de comunicação alternativa, difusão de pesquisas acadêmicas, engajamento de novas gerações de militantes, novas visualidades e formas de ser negro e ser mulher negra (difundidas pela apropriação das tecnologias audiovisuais).
Na política, temos um paradoxo: homens negros e mulheres negras atuam na política popular, nas ruas, nas associações de bairro e de favela, nas organizações da sociedade civil, contudo são fortemente subrepresentadas/os nas esferas executivas, legislativas e judiciárias. Mesmo com as cotas nos partidos políticos, mulheres brasileiras não superaram as rígidas desigualdades de acesso às cadeiras legislativas. As mulheres não-brancas (como negras, indígenas e asiáticas) nem conseguem ser representadas estatisticamente. há muito que se avançar nas lutas antirracistas e feministas no que se refere à distribuição do poder no Brasil. O poder continua sendo patriarcal, majoritariamente dominado pelos homens brancos.
Despite the setbacks in recent years, there have been advances, such a favorable resolution by the Supreme Court on transgender people's right to a social name, the creation of the feminicide crime, the expansion of affirmative action policies in higher education, especially in postgraduate programs, and in recruitment for civil service.
It is also important to celebrate the fact that there are less young black women doing domestic work, a professional category that is predominantly black and female, poorly paid, highly informal and with frequent presence of physical and psychological harassment and abuse — demonstrating strong structural ties with the slaveholding heritage.
In contrast, there are more black women completing educational cycles, such as middle and high school, compared to previous decades when there were no affirmative action policies.
Public policies and greater politicization of racial relations have challenged the fixed, archaic, and dusty stereotypes shaped by the conservative middle-class and elites of the country. This is happening through alternative means of communication, larger dissemination of academic research, engagement of new generations of activists, and new stories and images representing black men and women (diffused by the appropriation of audiovisual technologies).
In politics, we have a paradox: Black men and women dominate popular politics, on the streets, in neighborhoods and favela associations, and in civil society organizations, but they are severely underrepresented in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial powers. Even with affirmative action within political parties, Brazilian women have not managed to overcome the rigid inequalities in access to legislative seats. Non-white women (such as Black, Indigenous, and Asian women) aren't even represented stastistically. There is a lot to be done in the anti-racist and feminist struggles when it comes to distribution of power in Brazil. The power is still patriarchal and dominated by white men.
GV: Do you think Brazil still lives and reproduces the myth of racial democracy?
Recentemente, a filósofa e ativista Sueli Carneiro disse que as novas gerações já não estariam mais protegidas pela etiqueta das relações raciais, tal como se via quando a democracia racial era discurso hegemônico e pregava a inexistência de um conflito racial aberto no Brasil.
Acho que ela está correta. A sociedade brasileira mudou muito. Os discursos de ódio da extrema direita fabricaram um neoconservadorismo que é diferente do conservadorismo antigo, cujas práticas tornaram a nação conhecida pelo termo “racismo à brasileira”, usado para velar o grande abismo social e econômico entre brancos e negros no país.
No entanto, hoje, vemos segmentos que abertamente defendem o ódio racial, sobretudo em ambientes que antes eram exclusivamente da elite branca, como universidades públicas e privadas. Esse novo discurso foi agora amplificado pela crise política e pelas reações às ações afirmativas e políticas de igualdade racial.
Mas a verdade é que os negros e as mulheres já não estão mais nos lugares de invisibilidade antes imaginados pelas classes dirigentes e por aqueles que detinham o monopólio da representação de consumo de massa no Brasil.
Recently, philosopher and activist Sueli Carneiro said that the new generations are no longer protected by the old etiquette of racial relations when racial democracy was a hegemonic discourse, based on the premise that there was no open racial conflict in Brazil.
I think she's correct. Brazilian society has changed a lot. The extreme right's hate speech has produced a neoconservatism that is different from the old conservatism, whose practices made the nation known by the term “racism a la Brazil”, which used to hide the great social and economic gap between white and black people in the country.
Today, however, we see groups that openly advocate racial hatred, especially in environments that once belonged exclusively to the white elite such as public and private universities. This new discourse has been amplified by the political crisis, and by reactions to affirmative action and racial equality politics.
But, the truth is, black individuals and women are no longer in the places of invisibility once imagined by the ruling classes and by those who held the monopoly of mass consumption representation in Brazil.
GV: What about institutional racism, how is it reflected in Brazil today?
O racismo institucional opera, na maioria das vezes, de forma codificada, quando há comportamentos e práticas orientados por valores excludentes, mas que por vezes se apresentam de forma velada, com expressões do tipo “esse trabalho não é para você”, “precisamos de outro perfil”. São práticas discriminatórias que se confundem com o próprio sistema, presentes na cultura empresarial ou nas burocracias públicas, que impedem o acesso ou o progresso nas carreiras de homens e mulheres negras.
Também há racismo institucional quando o governo não prioriza saúde, lazer e educação em territórios com população majoritariamente negra ou indígena; ou quando uma política pública de segurança é claramente baseada em estereótipos raciais, como em abordagem policiais.
Institutional racism operates, in most cases, in a coded way, when there are behaviors and practices shaped by excluding values, but sometimes veiled, with expressions such as “this work is not for you” or “we're looking for someone with a different profile”. They are discriminatory practices that merge into and are part of the system itself, present in the corporate culture or public bureaucracies which prevent access or progress for black men and women's careers.
There is also institutional racism when the government does not prioritize health, leisure and education in territories with a predominantly black or indigenous population or when laws and security policies are clearly based on racial profiling, as in law enforcement.
Researcher Flávia Rios. Personal Archive.
GV: Is Brazilian society more aware of the privileges of certain groups?
A discussão sobre privilégio ganhou força especialmente no contexto de luta pelas cotas [raciais, nas universidades públicas]. Foi no acirrado debate pelas ações afirmativas que esse tema do privilégio emergiu publicamente, porque foi o conceito mais forte utilizado pelos ativistas pró-igualdade racial contra a retórica da meritocracia, que no Brasil tomou feição conservadora. Conservadora porque não propunha nenhuma alternativa eficiente para a superação das desigualdades raciais, mas se agarrava à ideia de que o mérito era medida universal para o acesso à universidade. Na verdade, tratava-se de um discurso retórico para proteger os filhos das classes médias e das elites nos espaços universitários públicos (de alta qualidade no Brasil), que se apropriaram e reproduziram esse mesmo discurso.
Os negros não eram e não são contra o mérito; eram e são contra o discurso meritocrático cego às vantagens estruturais dos brancos numa sociedade de formação colonial e escravista, cujo ponto de partida já gerava larga desvantagem para as pessoas não-brancas, especialmente as indígenas e as negras.
Discussions about privilege have gained traction, especially in the context of affirmative action in public universities. It was in that heated debate that the privilege issue emerged publicly, because it was the strongest demand of racial equality activists against the rhetoric of meritocracy, which in Brazil took a conservative tone. Conservative, because it offered no efficient alternative to overcoming racial inequalities. Instead, it clung to the idea that merit was a universal measure for university access. In fact, it was a rhetorical discourse to protect the children of the middle-class and the elite in public university spaces (known for higher quality of education in Brazil). These same classes appropriated and reproduced this same discourse.
Black people were not and are not against merit. They were and are against a meritocratic discourse that is blind to the structural advantages of white people in a society shaped by colonialism and slavery whose starting point leads to a great disadvantage for non-white people, especially indigenous and black people.
GV: In connecting racial movements and gender equality fights, the term “intersectionality” has been very much present. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
A interseccionalidade pode ser entendida por três registros: 1) como conceito das ciências sociais e jurídicas; 2) como ferramenta de intervenção política; e 3) como identidade coletiva.
Do ponto de vista teórico e conceitual, originalmente cunhado pela professora Kimberle Crenshaw, a abordagem interseccional nasce do feminismo negro norte-americano, que se recusa a analisar a desigualdade no singular. As múltiplas formas de opressão sociais e produção de desigualdade são levadas em conta numa abordagem multidimensional, como raça, gênero, classe, religião, sexualidade, nacionalidade, geração.
Antes que eu me esqueça, é preciso desfazer o engano de que a interseccionalidade dá conta do somatório das desvantagens sociais, culturais ou econômicas. Ou seja, não se trata de mensurar o sofrimento social, trata-se de analisar as causas múltiplas das desigualdades, seja qual for a sua natureza, sem pretender hierarquizá-las.
Já a interseccionalidade como ferramenta de intervenção política abarca as variáveis que, em conjunto, seriam capazes de revelar os pontos em que as desvantagens se tornam mais cruciais para um dado grupo social. A partir dessa identificação, são tomadas decisões relacionadas às concepções de políticas públicas, entendidas como instrumentos de intervenção social com vistas a promover a equidade.
No que se refere à construção da identidade coletiva, a interseccionalidade apresenta-se como uma rejeição ao feminismo do tipo branco e liberal, que ignora a situação da mulher negra, e também é uma forma de criticar a insuficiência do componente de gênero e da sexualidade no feminismo negro mais tradicional.
É obvio que no feminismo latino-americano e no feminismo negro das Américas há uma perspectiva interseccional na gênese de seu pensamento, mas é fato que nem sempre foi assim. A visibilidade e as urgências das pessoas LGBT (Lésbicas, Gays, Bissexuais e Trans) são temas e identidades que se impõem abertamente no feminismo interseccional.
Intersectionality can be understood in three ways: 1) as a concept of the social and legal sciences; 2) as a tool for political intervention; and 3) as a collective identity.
From a theoretical and conceptual point of view, originally coined by Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, the intersectional approach comes from North American black feminism which refuses to analyze inequality in a singular way. The multiple forms of social oppression and production of inequality are taken into account in a multidimensional approach, such as race, gender, class, religion, sexuality, nationality, generation.
Before I forget, we must undo the misconception that intersectionality refers to the sum of social, cultural, or economic disadvantages. That is, it is not a matter of measuring social suffering; it is a matter of analyzing the multiple causes of inequalities, whatever their nature, with no intention to rank them.
On the other hand, intersectionality as a tool for political intervention refers to the variables that, together, could reveal the situations in which disadvantages become urgent to a given social group. After identifying this, public policies are designed, understood as instrument of social intervention with the goal of promoting equity.
And with the construction of collective identity, intersectionality presents itself as a rejection of white, liberal feminism, which ignores the situation of black women and is also a way of criticizing the lack of acknolwedgement of gender and sexuality in the more traditional black feminism.
It is obvious that, when it comes Latin American feminism and the black feminism of the Americas, there is an intersectional perspective in the origins of its thinking. But it is a fact that this has not always been so. The visibility and urgency of LGBT people (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) are themes and identities that are openly acknowledged in intersectional feminism.
GV: You are a black, intellectual woman with robust research background on racial issues. How does academia understand its role in fighting racist practices?
Via de regra, a academia sempre foi privilégio dos brancos. Ao longo do século XX, tivemos pesquisadores e professores negros nas grandes universidades brasileiras somente em caráter excepcional! A regra dominante era o monopólio da branquitude e do pensamento eurocêntrico.
Em contraste, a grande maioria dos pesquisadores e intelectuais negros produziu conhecimento fora das instituições universitárias, seja porque foram desencorajados no ensino médio, ou porque ingressavam tardiamente nos cursos de graduação, ou porque não conseguiam persistir na carreira universitária por falta de recursos, de redes de apoio e de relacionamentos dentro e fora do mundo científico, ou porque seus temas e objetos de estudos eram considerados menores ou entendidos como escolhas militantes. A academia via os negros como objetos de investigação, nunca como investigadores e produtores de saber legítimo nessa esfera de produção de conhecimento.
Somente na virada do século XXI que passamos a ter uma maior presença de estudantes negros, na graduação, na pós-graduação e na carreira docente, graças à eficácia das ações afirmativas no ingresso e nos concursos públicos e à demanda discente por mais conteúdos e pesquisas que tratam da temática racial e de gênero. Essa mudança, embora ainda lenta, já se torna visível na produção científica e na redução das desigualdades.
As a rule, academia has always been the privilege of white individuals. During the 20th century, we have had black scholars in the great Brazilian universities only rarely! The dominant rule was the monopoly of whiteness and Eurocentric thought.
In contrast, the vast majority of black researchers and intellectuals produced knowledge outside university institutions, either because they were discouraged in high school; or because they were late in entering undergraduate courses; or because they could not persist in an academic career due to a lack of resources, network support and relationships in and outside the scientific world; or because their themes and objects of study were considered minor or understood as activist choices. Academia used to see black people as objects of study, never as researchers or producers of legitimate knowledge.
It was only at the turn of the 21st century that we began having a greater presence of black students, undergraduates, postgraduates and professors, thanks to the effectiveness of affirmative action as well as the students’ demands for more content and research related to racial and gender issues. This change, although still slow, is already visible in scientific production and in the reduction of inequalities.

author: Isabela Carvalho


text:
Confrontation and Disruption in a New Exhibition by Chinese-American Artist Xiaoze Xie · Global Voices
Omid Memarian

In his work, artist Xiaoze Xie deals with the vulnerability of historical memory and superficiality of perception in the media age. (PHOTO: Stanford University, used with permission).
In his latest exhibition, “Confrontation and Disruption,” Chinese American artist Xiaoze Xie invites his audience to explore a fresh reading of time and memory mixed with a powerful reflection on global concerns.
Xie tackles street confrontations with the police, refugees, violence and war, and issues of resistance and empathy. His fascination with books and newspapers, a dominant current in his work over more than two decades, is a commanding force in this latest exhibition, highlighting his creative process as an observer of the human condition. He has remained loyal to these themes in spite of their being a challenging sell in the global art market, where collectors and even galleries sometimes define or direct artists’ growth and success.
During a recent interview with me in Brooklyn, Xie told me that “to consistently explore a theme, you will be able to go deeper, and you will also be able to expand the scope of the theme.”
Xie’s focus on newspapers and books has nothing to do with the “decline of print media,” but he acknowledges that the “rise of digital media and the internet” has brought “a kind of urgency” and “a different kind of relevancy” to his work.
Regarding the large size and scale of his paintings, Xie explains that by painting books and newspapers much bigger than they actually are “they gain a kind of presence and unfamiliarity than when you are used to deal with books or newspapers, something very small in real life, you look at the monumental representation of those trivial daily objects.”
Born in China in 1966, Xie is the Paul L. and Phyllis Wattis Professor of Art at Stanford University. In the interview excerpted below, I asked him about his creative process, teaching art at Stanford, the subjects of his works, his technique, political art in China and his relationship with his audience.
It includes three groups of works. One group is paintings from a recent series of newspapers called “Both Sides Now.” Each painting is based on a section of a found sheet of newspaper, an existing issue. The painting looks like the texts and images on the backside of the newspapers have bled over to the front. If you turn over the pages of a newspaper against the light, sometimes you see the backside of it. Or, if you hold it against the window, you see the text and images of the backside of the paper overlap with the ones on the front. Creating a kind of overlapping, almost confusing effect. Or at least the images and texts from the backside disrupt the ones on the front.
From February 3, 2007, L.G.D.S. No. 1”(La Gazzetta dello Sport). 2007, oil on canvas, 60 x 50 inches, Artist Studio at Stanford. Here Xie presents the confrontation of soccer fans with riot police at night during a game in Italy in 2007. (Used with permission).
It creates a dense layer of information that sometimes relates to, sometimes contradicts with and sometimes interrupts each other. That’s where the title comes from.
I also present six large paintings from the series, including images of illegal immigrants from North Africa during rescue efforts, and also, images of confrontations with the police in two different newspapers. One of the images depicts the confrontation of soccer fans with riot police at night during a game in Italy in 2007. Soccer fans throw rocks at the riot police and their armed vehicles. The scene is somehow fleeting and ambiguous. You get this idea of confrontation and violence but you don’t really specifically know what was the cause. Was it political? For me, it’s more of a symbolic image of confronting the authority, the clash between the ordinary people and the police, not unlike the famous Time Magazine’s photo of a Chinese student in front of the tanks.
“August 26, 2013, I.H.T (International Herald Tribune)” 2014, oil and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 64 inches. (Talley Dunn Gallery, Dallas. Used with permission).
By using the word “confrontation,” I’m trying to indicate a general kind of attitude, non-acceptance, resistance and struggle. The other painting, “August 26, 2013, International Herald Tribune,” was based on a news photo of riot police confronted by demonstrators in Bangkok, Thailand, when the police confronted them. There is a close-up of the riot police with their shields and helmets, and it is a very impersonalized image that feels very cold and machine-like. On the shields, they are writings that demonstrators drew with markers on the transparent part of the shields. And they say, ‘Civil War is coming,’ ‘There was injustice,’ ‘parliament is not justice’—from this work you get a sense of what is going on. Even though each painting is based on specific events, my work as a whole deals with recurring themes and concerns and reflects an attitude.
Well, being an artist or not, I think one is an observer of social life either directly or indirectly. Nowadays, we perceive more what is going on around us from the media than as a witness. But we are witnesses in a sense anyway. From all kinds of content that we get from the media, I’m always more drawn to the ones that are more tragic and disturbing, not the regular daily life or entertainment or sports. I’m not interested in those. Subjects with conflicts, struggles, and some intensity always compel me to paint, because I think they are important.
When I’m doing the work, I’m not really thinking about the work being collected and lived with. I mostly think about the audience in a more general way. Before the work is collected, it’s usually exhibited in public and sometimes it gets into the media, so many more people than the collectors would see the work. To live with art is a different kind of story, and I must admit that these large paintings with intense content and political subjects are harder to live with and they are harder to sell. But that doesn’t stop me from making them. The appreciation for art should be broader; it can’t be just something that pleases your eyes and something that you get visual pleasure out of. Art should be thought-provoking at the same time. It makes you think; it allows you to look at things from a different angle. And at best, it could inspire action, I hope.
“November-December 2008, L.T. “(The London Times) 2010, oil on canvas, 52 x 75 inches. (Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco. Used with permission).
I’ve always been interested in time and memory and how memory and history or human thought are contained in material form. So books and newspapers are the material forms of things that are invisible and abstract. It came across very early, in the early 90s, when I first came to the United States. When I spent a lot of time in libraries, wandering between aisles and bookshelves, I would see these rows of books in front of me—you know, these silent and sleeping books. So what do they contain? From the spines, sometimes you don’t know, they are almost like tombstones. Then later I looked at stacks of newspapers. I’d look at the edges of these folded newspapers, and I’d see a dense pattern of symbols, dots, characters, and words. Eventually, I’d look even closer and zoom in on the side of the stack to reveal fragments of news photos, mixed with words and phrases. All these bits of information sometimes seem irrelevant, but they come together to create the juxtaposition of different events, a glimpse of what is going on in a certain period of time. If I am only interested in the formal aspect of a subject, like the abstract composition of vertical and horizontal lines, I could very well be painting other objects in life. But it is the meaning of the subject that fascinates me.
Yes, that has changed the interpretation of my work in the past years. But I must say it was not my initial intention. The decline of print media is something that happened later. I started this subject very early on before this was happening. As I continue to work on the subject, paper media is getting obsolete and constantly challenged by digital media and the Internet. Therefore, sometimes my work is interpreted as being a eulogy, being nostalgic for what is an age that is perhaps almost over. I think that the current situation with the rise of digital media and the internet gives a kind of urgency to my work; it brings a different kind of relevancy, I hope.
“January-February 2011, G. (The Guardian).” 2011, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 92 1/2 inches. (Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, Chicago. Used with permission).
If you randomly make a few works with a certain approach, that is something different. I think to consistently explore a theme, you will be able to go deeper, and you will also be able to expand the scope of the theme. For example, when I started painting books, I didn’t know that it would continue for so many years. I first started painting Western books, and then after I went back to China in 1994, I  started painting Chinese thread-bound books with different forms and atmosphere. Later, I expanded the subject further to include museum libraries, horizontal large folios sitting on metal shelves. The feel and the look were totally different. It was the same with newspapers.
In general, control over the media and ideology in recent years has been much tighter than in the past.
OM: Is it more difficult for artists in China to exhibit their work if it has a political theme?
: Works engaging social-political themes are always harder to exhibit or publish. Recently, I have been working on a project about banned books in China. I interviewed an editor who said that in the past, they could publish 15-20 books per year and now only a handful. Many more of their proposals are turned down compared to the past. You need to get permission in order to get published.
In official museums, they are going to be very careful about what they show. There are certain things that you don’t even think about it, you just know that they are not going to show them. Things are a bit easier in commercial galleries and small spaces—unless you come up with something that is overtly political, confrontational that touches on taboo subjects—otherwise it is usually ok. If it is ambiguous enough, you can get away with it. So I must say that there is a little bit more room in the field of visual arts than in mass media. For example, if you post something on the Internet that they consider as subversive, the post could disappear right away. But visual arts tend to be more ambiguous; they tend to be not so straightforward and it is harder to get a message, therefore, you have a little bit more room to play.
“September 9, 2013, S.Z. (Suddeutsche Zeitung)” 2014, oil and acrylic on canvas 64 x 95 inches.(Private collection, Dallas. Used with permission).
This is a question that has been asked about my work many times. Actually, I do both in my work, I’ve done paintings that are based on photography and I’ve done photography and videos. When I have direct contact with reality and photograph certain scenes in China, sometimes I feel like the photographs are strong enough as direct documentation of social life, the photographs are the final work.
It is a different case when I paint a stack of newspapers or a single sheet of newspaper, or books. I feel there is a need to translate this subject, these fleeting or transient images, into something more permanent-traditionally oil paintings. When you look at a painting in a museum, you get a sense that it is going to last longer. When you look at newspapers, you recycle them after flipping through the pages. So I feel an urge to capture something temporary and make it into something more permanent. as if to say: look at this, remember this, we cannot forget this.
“November-December 2008, L.T. “(The London Times) 2010, oil on canvas, 52 x 75 inches. (Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco. Used with permission).
In the “Weibo” series, I made paintings based on images downloaded from the popular social platform called “Weibo.” Many images that I downloaded were censored shortly after they were posted. They are no longer there. So particularly when they are more time sensitive, the urge for me to make it into art is stronger. I hope to give it presence in life, in time, and to let it last longer.
There is also the question of translation, for example, to simply enlarge a photograph of a stack of newspaper just doesn’t work for me. In the process of painting, there is fine-tuning and layering of colors, gesture and touch of hands, simplification, accentuation, etc. The image is transformed in that process.
I think the painting is much richer than the source photo that I work from, and the adjustments that I make in the painting process are important and enhance the image. Sometimes my feeling and understanding of the subject will unconsciously be present through the process of painting. Even though the paintings look more or less photographic from a glance, when you get up close and look at it, it is unmistakably a painting. It has something to do with the history of the painting. So this dialogue between the past and the long history is very important in my work.
When I was in China, art education was more focused on the technical and formal aspects. In the West, at least, in the contemporary art education in the U.S., the focus is placed on the conceptual basis of art-making. Why are you making this? What do you want to say? What message do you want to get across? How is the work related to a larger context? These are the more fundamental questions to ask. I’m lucky enough to combine these two trends of higher education and come up with my own approach. Of course, I cannot summarize what art education is like in China now since it has been so long ago when I was there. Right now it seems that it has been heavily influenced by art education in the West.
Well, actually, most people have some conceptions or misconceptions about the creative process and tend to view it as something mysterious. One moment the inspiration descends on you and gets you very excited and you use that to make the work. There are artists who are more intuitive and spontaneous, and there also artists that are very rational, very thoughtful, and they go through a lot of preparations and planning to carry out the idea and execute the work. I think I belong to the latter group, and yes, there are these moments that you get ideas and you are struck by something, you are motivated and compelled to do something.
But to go from there and to expand the idea, to realize it in the most powerful ways, you have to go through a process of preparation and planning. These are more strategic. The choice of medium is an important part of the process. I may choose to translate source images into paintings, or present photographs or videos or objects, or combine different forms into one installation. Everything follows the concept. With painting, which is my favorite medium, I have to go through the long process of labor; I have to spend all this time working in the studio and for me, it is very important to have direct physical contact with the work, even if it sounds old-fashioned. It is as if to insist that the viewer spend time looking at it or convincing someone to memorize it.
For me, labor is an important part of art. The nature of art is artifact. Artifact that embodies thoughts, feelings and labor.

author: Omid Memarian


text:
‘Great March’ for Palestinian Refugees’ Right of Return Endures Bloody Crackdown · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

Land Day 2018, March 30. Photo by Issam A. Adwan. Used with permission.
After months of preparing, tens of thousands of Palestinian protesters launched the “Great Return March” along Gaza's eastern borders with Israel on 30 March to commemorate Land Day.
The mobilization ended in death when the Israeli army opened fire on the estimated 30,000 people attending, killing at least 20 Palestinians and injuring over 1,600 others. While Israeli authorities maintained it was a “measured” response, witness testimonies and video footage painted a picture of disproportionate force. It has since been dubbed the “Land Day Massacre” or the “Passover Massacre“, the latter term especially used by Jewish activists opposing what happened.
More protesters were injured and killed by security forces in the days that followed, including Yaser Murtaja, a 30-year-old photojournalist who was shot by an Israeli sniper in the stomach and later died of his wounds.
The Palestinian journalist syndicate said that at least 7 Palestinian journalists, clearly wearing flak jackets that describe who they are, were shot at by Israeli forces on Friday's protests in Gaza.
The two others in the photo are Adham al-Hajjar and Khalil Abu Athira. pic.twitter.com/NtocpsAHIS
— لينة (@LinahAlsaafin) 7 de abril de 2018
The Great Return March is a six-week peaceful campaign demanding that refugees be allowed back to the homelands from which they were expelled decades ago.
Land Day poster from 1985. From Wikipedia, fair use.
The movement began on Land Day 2018, which marks the date in 1976 when the Israeli government announced its plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of Palestinian land for Israeli settlement purposes.
In response to that announcement more than 40 years ago, a strike and marches were organized in Palestinian towns within the state of Israel that ended in confrontations with Israeli security forces, during which six unarmed Palestinians were killed.
Land Day has since become a symbol of civil resistance to discriminatory policies against Palestinians, both from within Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The Great Return March protests will continue until 15 May to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the “Nakba”, which translates to “catastrophe” in English. It refers to the violent expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians from their lands by Zionist militias to make way for the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, which some activists and analysts describe as ethnic cleansing.
Gaza is a narrow 40-kilometer-long coastal territory with fences and concrete walls running along its borders with Israel and Egypt. Israel and Egypt have blockaded the strip for more than a decade. As a result, living conditions in Gaza are poor and Gazans’ freedom of movement is severely restricted, to such an extent that Gaza is often described as “the world's largest open-air prison”.
Today, the majority of Gaza's population consists of the Nakba's initial refugees and their descendants. Of the 1.9 million living in Gaza, 1.3 million are refugees. Often ignored in coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian refugees are actually a central component of it.
Jehad Abu Salim, a Palestinian researcher from Gaza, writing for 972mag in 2016, explained:
The Nakba is not history relegated to the past, but history lived in the present: in the narrow alleys of the crowded refugee camps, in the women who leave their humble houses in the camps every morning to receive their food packages, in the barefoot children who play soccer on Gaza’s beach, and in the lands of depopulated villages just beyond the fence still visible from the rooftops of Gaza’s refugee camps. The Nakba is still present in Gaza, not only by the continuation of the state of refuge, but also by the continuity of the rupture that it caused.
Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti recently made a similar point in a tweet, adding that the Israeli and Egyptian siege on Gaza, which was tightened in 2007 when the group Hamas came to power, is being actively challenged by Palestinians in Gaza:
Important to remember that most of Gaza's population are refugees working to return home. Not waiting, they are actively working. Almost eleven years of siege on #Gaza, and they are still protesting in the thousands the right to return, the right to live in dignity and freedom.
— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) April 4, 2018
Among the activities that have been occurring are the planting of olive trees and the establishment of tents erected 700 meters from the Israeli-installed fence to symbolise the right of return for Palestinian refugees:
In preparation for the Great Return March on 30/3, activists plant olive trees near #Gaza border. ✌#FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/ZtAFE8Fxup
— Days of Palestine (@DaysofPalestine) March 22, 2018

author: Elia J. Ayoub


text:
How RootIO Broadcasts Radio in Uganda Using a Bucket · Global Voices
Rising Voices

Picture supplied and used with permission.
The following article written by Tshepo Tshabalala of the Journalism and Media Lab (jamlab.africa), is a programme of Wits Journalism and the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in partnership with Journalists for Human Rights and Ryerson University. It is republished here with permission. The original article can be found here.
Radio is still and continues to be a powerful medium across most of the African continent. Not only is radio used to share community information but it is cheap and very accessible. In Uganda, a mixing of radio’s power with new mobile and internet technologies has created a cheap and powerful open-source toolkit that allows communities to create their own micro-radio stations. All one needs is an inexpensive smartphone and a transmitter and a community that will share, promote and collaborate on dynamic content.
RootIO is working to mobilise what they call ‘intercommunity communication’. Co-founder, Chris Csikszentmihalyi says the idea came after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 when FM radio stations transformed their programming from ordinary radio shows to programming on information on how people devastated by the earthquake find places where there was water or where they could find help. About a year and a half later, Csikszentmihalyi found himself in Uganda while working with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) through an educational programme. He was amazed at the manner in which Ugandans used phones — rarely for calls.
“In the rural areas, people would go for long without recharging their credit or they didn’t keep credit on their phone and at the same time, they listened to radio 24/7,” he says. In the villages where I was staying, people would walk about 7km to charge their phones, put credit on and then only make a call. It’s not like an always on thing. They used it when they needed to. I thought is there a way of joining these two things together in a way that no one had done before.”
RootIO radio buckets. Picture: SUPPLIED and used with permission.
While working at UNICEF, he met Jude Mukundane, who at the time was working for Uganda Telecom helping to develop Mobile phone based birth registration for the Ugandan Government in conjunction with UNICEF. Mukundane was doing some interesting stuff with telephones using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD). “I tried to hired him … then about a year later, he was he is ready to do something,” says Csikszentmihalyi.
“So together we said we should change radio and make radio work better with phones, make interaction with radio easier for people. And we came up with RootIO at that point,” Csikszentmihalyi says.
Mukundane became the chief technical officer, taking care of the technical side of things, while Csikszentmihalyi focused on the fundraising amongst other responsibilities.
“I make sure that the technology is at par with what we are promising communities,” he says.
A RootIO antenna in an agricultural village in Uganda. Picture: SUPPLIED and used with permission.
The technology he is referring to is what makes these radio stations unique. They have no studio and all the radio shows are done using the host’s smartphone.
How does this work? Users can purchase most of the materials at local markets. A small transmitter is built into a waterproof bucket with a fan, a charge-controller and a smartphone, which is connected to an antenna and a solar panel.
The radio stations are really small and can serve a village or a couple of villages reaching to 10,000 listeners. The content produced by the radio hosts lives in the cloud so stations are able to share content with other stations.
“Our computer calls the station and the show’s host…The station’s phone automatically answers when it is time for the programme. Listeners wanting to participate in the radio show’s discussions would call in, but their calls would be dropped, then the computer would call them back. So people are not charged,” says Csikszentmihaly.
No one in the community is getting charged when they are making phone calls. RootIO buys data at bulk corporates rates that are about 50 times cheaper than anyone in the community could get. RootIO’s costs are offset by selling advertising to NGO’s and businesses.
The team started with four stations two years ago and has now been commissioned to run another 12–15 stations in eastern Uganda by the Kenyan border, and five to seven radio stations commissioned Cape Verde as well.
RootIO tower in Uganda. Picture: SUPPLIED and used with permission.
Csikszentmihaly adds that they run RootIO at breakeven. Even the software that they use is free and is available as open source on GitHub and anyone can download and run the app on a phone.
Csikszentmihaly and Mukundane hope to build a whole lot more inexpensive low power FM radio stations to hand control of FM radio to the people who depend on radio the most.

author: Rising Voices


text:
New Sexual Harassment Accusations Against Professor Jorge I. Domínguez Spark Heated Online Debate · Global Voices
Sandra Abd'Allah-Alvarez Ramírez

Terry Karl (on the left) and Jorge Domínguez (on the right) in a snapshot from the video shared by News Dongo regarding the case of harassment claims against the Cuban-American academic.
A post by Roberto Veiga, director of the non-profit group Cuba Posible, has ignited debate on social networks about sexual harassment in Cuba.
In a post on the association's Facebook page, Veiga recounts accusations of sexual harassment against the well-known Cuban-American political scientist Jorge I. Domínguez. A professor of the Fundación México en Harvard-Antonio Madero (Mexico Foundation in Harvard-Antonio Madero) at Harvard University who was placed on academic leave by the institution because of his actions.
In February 2018, Domínguez was the subject of an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, a US-based trade publication, which alleged that he had systematically sexually harassed university colleagues and students since the late seventies. At the center of the claims is the case of female assistant professor Terry Karl, who has been denouncing Domínguez's lascivious behavior since 1983.
According to The Chronicle, after she had refused his physical advances on multiple occasions, Karl described walking with Domínguez through a wooded area of campus when he commented to her, “This would be a nice place for a rape.”
At that time, Domínguez was censured for his actions and placed on administrative leave for three years. Karl considered the measure to be a mere “slap on the wrist.” Fearing what Domínguez might do upon his return, she abandoned her position at Harvard.
Since then, and in the context of the #MeToo movement, 18 new accusations have emerged. For the moment, the university is investigating the accusations and The Chronicle of Higher Education is documenting them.
In his missive, Veiga expresses his appreciation for Dominguez and his work and questions the veracity of what has been published in the press:
¿Quién puede asegurar que eso ocurrió? ¿Quién conoce que, si esto ocurrió, fue exactamente como se dice? ¿Quién se pregunta por qué fue ahora, y de conjunto, que se hace público todo de una sola vez? ¿Quién ha reclamado que no se debe emitir criterio valorativo hasta conocer ciertamente lo ocurrido? ¿Quién, convencido de que todo ha sucedido según las acusaciones, atiende a la exigencia de la justicia de criticar la culpabilidad, pero sin pretender mancillar las virtudes del acusado, ni su dignidad humana?
Who can verify that this happened? If this did happen, who knows that it happened exactly as they said it did? Who wonders why everything is made public now and all at once? Who has claimed that one should not submit evaluative criteria to know exactly what happened? Who, convinced that everything has taken place according to the accusations, attends to the justice's demand to analyze his guilt without hoping to sully the virtues of the accused or his human dignity?
A subsequent editorial in the Harvard Crimson, a campus newspaper run by Harvard undergraduates, holds the University responsible for failing to protect a female professor from the power that Domínguez held.
Academics belonging to the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) — among whom the presidents of the Cuba Section can be found — signed a letter that circulated on social networks. The letter categorically rejects Domínguez's conduct:
Such behavior has no place in our organization. If harassment occurs within an organization, there must be a reliable and effective channel to make complaints and the authorities must apply public sanctions to the transgressors. […] we extend our solidarity to all who are survivors of Jorge Dominguez’s unacceptable conduct and its apparent long-term tolerance by Harvard University.
It is important to note that the LASA was presided over by Domínguez between 1982 and 1983.
It is striking that in the debate that ensued within the Cuban networks, particularly on Facebook, those who supported Veiga's position were chiefly men while those who criticized him were mostly women. The comments cited below were taken from responses to Veiga's post on Facebook and summarize the spirit of those who took a stance against it. Two of the participants in the discussion are also recognized academics and researchers.
At the time of the debate, the Cuban-American Professor Eliana Rivero noted:
Lo usual: esparcir dudas sobre el testimonio de las mujeres, porque “no se sabe”. En este triste caso, el respeto profesional hacia un hombre -según algunos otros hombres- lo exime parcialmente de sus pecados, ya reportados desde 1983. Y sí, el reconocimiento de belleza física o logros de una mujer pudiera constituir acoso si tal reconocimiento incluye el tocarla físicamente sin su consentimiento. A muchas, desafortunadamente, nos ha correspondido tal “suerte”; y parece mentira que, a estas alturas, se ponga nuestro testimonio en tela de juicio.
The usual thing: disperse doubts about women's testimony, because “one doesn't know.” In this sad case, the professional respect allowed a man – according to some other men – partially excuses him from his sins which have already been reported since 1983. And yes, the appreciation of a woman's physical beauty or achievements could be considered harassment if such appreciation includes physically touching her without her consent. To many, unfortunately, such “luck” corresponds to us, and it seems incredible that, at this point, our testimony is put into question.
For researcher Lisset Gutiérrez, the conversation around this is an example of how what happens to women continues being a secondary concern:
Cada vez que salen a la luz acusaciones hacia alguien que admiramos, respetamos y/o agradecemos por sus logros y aportes en otras esferas de la vida social, [es] a nosotras las mujeres es a las primeras que nos duele, nos decepciona y nos asombra. Porque nos damos cuenta que incluso para esos hombres, la dignidad de las mujeres es un tema menor, que ellos tienen que entender primero para respetarlo y defenderlo después. Y para entenderlo ponen todas las resistencias del mundo, aunque tengan los hechos y los argumentos delante.
Each time that accusations come to light against someone whom we admire, respect, and/or are grateful to because of their achievements and contributions in other spheres of social life, [it is] us women who are the first to be hurt, to be deceived, and to be overshadowed. Because we realize that even for these men, the dignity of women is a minor theme, that they have to understand first in order to respect it and to defend it later. And in order to understand it, they put all of the resistance in the world, even though they have the facts and the arguments in front of them.
Somewhat transcending Veiga's post, Claudia Barrientos refers to what many see as an intention to discredit the denunciation of the #MeToo movement which many have wanted to put aside due to its American origins:
Cuando quieren calificar esto del Me Too de americanismos, occidentalismos, etc, lo único que logran es recordarnos a todos que el machismo […] tiene tomados por asalto lugares de la izquierda [en] donde por definición [la idea] no debería ni caber. Para empezar, la presunción de que nos estamos dejando llevar, o que queremos imitar modelos […] se traduce en que somos […] descerebradas, incapaces de ver las raíces del capitalismo brutal operando tras bambalinas…
When they want to qualify the Me Too campaign as an americanisms, or an occidentalisms, etc., the only thing they achieve is reminding us all that machismo […] has hijacked places belonging to the left [where] by definition [the idea] should not even find a place. To begin with, the presumption that we are acting under their influence, or that we want to imitate models […] translates into an image of us as […] brainless [women], incapable of seeing the roots of brutal capitalism operating behind the scenes…

author: Sandra Abd'Allah-Alvarez Ramírez


text:
No Laughing Matter: China Shuts Down Popular Joke-Sharing App · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

NeihanShequ's application icon on Android phone.
Authorities in China have ordered a ban on NeihanShequ, a popular app for jokes and riddles, arguing that Neihan content has become too “vulgar” and “banal”.
On April 10, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of China (SAPPRFT) ordered Toutiao or Today’s Headline, China’s most popular information platform, to shut down its affiliated social media application, NeihanShequ (內涵段子). Neihan allowed users to submit jokes and riddles in multimedia format, for others to comment on and vote up or down.
SAPPRFT’s press release on April 10 stated:
國家廣播電視總局在督察《今日頭條》的整改工作中，發現該公司推送的「內涵段子」軟件和相關公眾號存在導向不正、格調低俗等突出問題，並引發網民強烈反感。廣電總局以「為維護網絡視聽節目傳播秩序，清朗互聯網空間視聽環境」等原因，責令《今日頭條》永久關停「內涵段子」的客戶端軟件及公眾號，並要求公司舉一反三，全面清理類似視聽節目產品。
During the supervision of Toutiao’s rectification, SAPPRFT discovered that the company’s affiliated content application and public account, NeihanShequ, is heading a wrong direction with its vulgar and banal content. Netizens have strong reaction against such content. To maintain the order of internet visual and audio content and provide a clean environment, SAPPRFT ordered NeihanShequ to shut down its application and public account permanently. The company [Toutaio] has to learn the lesson and clean up audio visual content products with similar nature.
Launched in 2012, NeihanShequ’s application has had more than 14 million downloads. The application is a rising star among a dozen more popular content applications affiliated with Toutiao, which had an estimated USD $22 billion market value in August 2017.
The company’s CEO Zhang Yiming issued a public apology in response to SAPPRFT’s order:
我真诚地向监管部门致歉，向用户及同事们道歉。产品走错了路，出现了与社会主义核心价值观不符的内容，没有贯彻好舆论导向，接受处罚，所有责任在我。
I sincerely apologize to the supervision authority, our users and colleagues. The product has taken a wrong direction against the socialist core value and has not fulfilled the responsibility of public opinion channeling. I accept the punishment and I should be the one taking all the responsibility.
Zhang also promised that Toutiao will strengthen self-censorship measures by increasing the pre-screen staff team from 6,000 to 10,000 people.
The public reaction to the ban has been strong — many have expressed their frustration through humor, in keeping with the spirit of Neihan.
Some Neihan community members have created flashmob videos mourning the shutdown of the site. Most of these videos also have been taken down from public domain, but some are still available. Here is one backup video on Facebook in which people collectively sing a mourning song.
A widely circulated remix image mourning the shutdown of NeihanShequ.
Although most of the multimedia content mourning the shutdown has been censored, text content is still searchable. A widely circulated mourning statement read:
繼微博被僵屍化微信被圈化後，久經考驗，無比忠誠的短視頻主義戰士，偉大的搞笑家、段子家人內涵同志，於2018年4月10日與世長辭，享年2314天。
草木含淚，道友同悲，網友震驚。內涵段子同志安詳的躺在蒼松翌柏間，覆蓋著一面鮮艷的蕢旗，象徵著他畢生的追求。
騰訊微搏因為封號無法出席追悼會，微信也因禁言失去聯係。QQ也因版本過低無法登陸。
Youtube、Twitter、Facebook等國際友人發來悼電，今日頭條、網易新聞贈送了花圈；快拍、火山、抖音等親朋鞠躬哀悼。
Weibo was turned into a zombie. WeChat was trapped in countless circles. And then, the loyal short video fighter, the great joker, family storyteller, our friend Neihan left the world on 10 April 2018. He lived for 2,314 days.
Trees and grass shed tears, fellows are in grief. Our friend Neihan lies in peace upon green pine leaves, covered with a colourful flag which symbolizes what he pursued throughout his life.
Tencent and Weibo could not attend the mourning because their accounts had been suspended. WeChat was incommunicado. QQ was undergoing system maintenance.
International friends including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook sent their condolences. Toutiao and Netease News sent flowers. Kuaipai, Houshan, Tik Tok attended the mourning in person and bowed to Neihan.
Other netizens have suggested that the ban was motivated mainly by the strength of the Neihan community, which could be seen as a threat to power, rather than by vulgarity or banality as stated by authorities.
低俗只是个借口 微博就没有低俗内容？ 只是段友现在已经发展的太庞大了
Vulgarity is just an excuse. Weibo also has vulgar content. The main reason is that the community of Neihan was getting too strong.
永久关停内涵段子，你是怕段友的组织能力超过你某党吗
Shutting down Neihan permanently. Are you afraid that the users’ organization power is stronger than a certain Party?
一个国家，一个政府，一个国家监管部门！连一个笑话软件都害怕，真是个笑话
A country, a government, a supervision department. They are all scared of a joke-sharing application, this is such a joke.
Others have reflected on the strength of Neihan as a community and described the values that brought users together:
内涵段子，不低俗，不色情。 段友四不笑、不笑贫穷、不笑疾病、不笑天灾、不笑人祸,段友三不黑，不黑育人之师，不黑护国之军，不黑救人之医。 如有违规者，不是不知情就是故意，违规的这些人根本算不上段友也不配。 虽然内涵不在，但段友永在 嘀～嘀嘀
Neihan’s posts are far from vulgar and obscene. The community has a set of common values. They would not laugh at poverty, sickness, disaster or accident. They would not mock teachers, soldiers, doctors. The community looks down on those who violate the shared code. Though there is no more Neihan, the community still exists. Di-didi [Neihan's secret code].
我希望我还来得及说出这句话。人生真的很短，内涵段子陪我走了两年，很多个夜晚都是它陪我度过，它真的让我在最孤独的日子里开心过，没心没肺的笑过。听说马上就要下架了，我真的希望是谣言，假如真的以后都没有这个软件了，我希望大家不要忘记这它，我希望若干年后我还在马路上听到滴 滴滴我相信你们
I hope I can still share my feelings. Life is short and Neihan has accompanied me for two years. When I was lonely, I spent the nights with the app and had a good laugh. Now that it has to be shut down, I hope this is a rumor. But if it turns out to be true, I hope people won’t forget about it and I can still hear di didi [a secret code shared by Neihan community] when I walk down the street many years later. I believe in you all.
Neihan is not the only target in this latest crackdown. Authorities seem to be focused on multimedia content platforms, as content-based censorship on these platforms can be difficult.
Two other multimedia content platforms affiliated with Toutiao are under pressure to clean up their content. Tik Tok, a music video social media application, activated an “anti-addiction” function on April 10. Houshan, a video selfie-sharing application, has been temporary taken down by SAPPRFT.
Kauishou, a popular image sharing app, was pressured to hire 3,000 new staff to pre-screen its content after SAPPRFT issued a temporary take-down notice early this month.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Trinidad & Tobago’s LGBT Community Speaks Out as Court Decision on ‘Buggery’ Law Approaches · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A t-shirt with a “Pride” graphic spotted at the gay rights march in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on April 9, 2018. Photo by Brendon O'Brien, used with permission.
In January 2018, a text message advising that Trinidad and Tobago's buggery law “may be repealed as soon as April 12th, putting Jamaica and other Caribbean islands under pressure to repeal their's [sic]” began circulating via WhatsApp.
The April 12 date is significant because this is the day that the High Court will rule in the case of Jason Jones vs. the Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago. Jones, a Trinidad-born, UK-based LGBT rights activist, has been making a well-publicised bid to remove the buggery clause from the country's Sexual Offences Act on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.
Like many Caribbean nations, Trinidad and Tobago's law still criminalises the act of anal sex — and those with a conservative religious agenda often conflate it with criminalising homosexuality, even though the law clearly states that “‘buggery’ means sexual intercourse per anum by a male person with a male person or by a male person with a female person.” Despite significant advances in gay rights in countries like Belize, this has been a fairly easy fait accompli in a region known for its homophobia.
But Jones’ private lawsuit has pushed the issue into public focus once again — and some people are pushing back. By March, those against the repeal of the law were handing out flyers at the country's parliament with the headline, “Take a Stand for the Family”. It further stated that “once homosexuality is legal, it will be taught as normal in all schools, at all levels, to our children” and lead to “gay rights being force [sic] upon us”. “Say no to the LGBTQI agenda”, it admonished, “Say no to indecency, say yes to the natural family”.
The flyer was also being shared on social media, to which Facebook user Rhoda Bharath retorted:
I'm not re posting their ignorant flyer….but any person who dares to tell me what I can and cannot do with my genitals as an adult needs to take several seats.
But they certainly weren't taking a seat. On April 6, 2018, members of various religious groups, under the umbrella of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) “T&T Cause”, marched through Trinidad's capital city, Port of Spain, as they called on the government to maintain the status quo.
Of the protest, Facebook user Marissa Sue commented:
Could Jesus plzzzzz COME BACK NOW??!! Could the rapture plzzzzz happen now so that we could finally be free of the holier-than-thous, before they think that they can impose their own rigid beliefs & sick bullshit on a multicultural society & system of varied beliefs & belief-syst….oh waittttt! Too late!
The satirical Late O'Clock News also poked fun:
Meme by The Late O'Clock News, which is captioned, “Pastor wishes eternal damnation on gays, but doesn't really hate them or anything.” Widely shared on social media.
Three days later, on April 9, members of the local LGBT community, along with citizens who support the repeal of the buggery clause, hosted their own protest in response. Social justice advocate Brendon J. O'Brien posted photos from the rally, explaining that he was “standing for a free and equal Trinbago.”
Speaking with Global Voices about the march, O'Brien added:
As someone involved in the church, it's terrifying to see how people are willing to weaponise faith to spew hate, or even ambivalence, towards people who love differently than them. Changing this law isn't even about faith, or what particular people believe. It's about maintaining the freedom, safety and dignity for every single Trinidadian, regardless of who they love or how they express that love.
Poet Andre Bagoo also spoke out:
The buggery law affects all of us […] Which right-thinking citizen cannot but be affronted by the law’s unjustifiable incursion into matters that should properly be left to the will of consenting adults behind closed doors?
Time and again we are told that gay citizens are equal and that none should be discriminated against. Yet to date our Parliamentarians […] have not amended the Equal Opportunity Act that allows a boss to fire a worker because they are gay. Nor have they repealed the Immigration Act that bans the entry of homosexuals. Nor the criminal statutes with their range of archaic, colonial-era provisions. The problem is not the law. The problem is our culture of hate condoned by those who rely on us for their authority. The problem is the willingness of the powerful to allow the dignity of the few to be trammeled upon under the dubious belief that might is right.
No more.
This “might is right” approach has been taking a beating on both social and mainstream media. In the public Facebook group NEWSHound, Leslie-Ann Boisselle shared an opinion piece by Ryan Hadeed which bashed past and current government administrations for “[paying] lip service” to the LGBT cause “but ended up lacking the political will to address it directly”.
Comparing the issue to the controversy surrounding the recently abolished law on child marriage, the article also lamented the “twisted logic” of religious fundamentalism:
Religion must not trump reason when it comes to basic human rights. […] Legislative fortitude is lacking when it comes to protecting the rights of gay citizens. And the issue is instead being left up to the courts to determine whether the before-mentioned law is unconstitutional. […] Even if the law has never been enforced, as long as it remains on the books it labels some of our citizens as criminals due to their sexual orientation. That notion cannot be allowed to continue.
Perhaps, though, poet Shivanee N. Ramlochan summed up the crux of the debate most eloquently:
Because many of my people put their bodies in public space today, holding signs, asking questions, daring, and showing up — because of that, I'd like to affirm that my politics is queer. […]
Queer like church on Sunday morning, when everyone calling the smooth-skinned soloist a bullerman behind his back is shedding tears from the majesty of the notes he ascends. Queer like nobody giving him a drop home to Talparo after, but praising his praisesong over their macaroni pie and callalloo, with fresh salad. […]
Queer like you wouldn't believe, but know you're actually too smart to disbelieve, and one day that same lack of belief will catch you around your own throat like a lasso, and maybe don't be surprised if you bleed a rainbow.
Queer like there was gayness here before Columbus was a thought in his father's genealogy. The kind of LGBTQ+ that doesn't get discovered. The kind that was always here, on these islands, never once thinking to ask permission. The kind that will still be here, with or without the kind civil condescension of law.
Queer like family. Queer like home. Queer like complication. Queer like desire. Queer like the privacy of your bedroom, and beyond it.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Ugandan Government Plans to Tax Social Media Users for Too Much Gossip · Global Voices
Prudence Nyamishana

As Ugandan president Museveni plans a social media tax to curb gossip, netizens are concerned over freedom of expression. Image by Pixabay via CC0 Creative Commons, used with permission.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni wants social media users to suffer the consequences of their gossip — and to bolster the national budget at the same time.
In early April 2018, Museveni directed the Ministry of Finance to introduce taxes on “over the top” communication platforms (OTTs) such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp.
In Museveni's view, social media users use these platforms for what he called ‘lugambo’ (meaning gossip in Lugwere). In a statement quoted by The Daily Monitor, Musveni explained his position:
I am not going to propose a tax on internet use for educational, research or reference purposes… these must remain free. However, lugambo on social media (opinions, prejudices, insults, friendly chats) and advertisements by Google and I do not know who else must pay tax because we need resources to cope with the consequences of their lugambo…
The president accused the Finance Ministry and Uganda Revenue Authority of not working hard enough to identify new sources of taxes, lamenting that the government currently lacks tax income.
The government's attention to “over-the-top” applications raises a long-standing issue that many governments have taken with IP-based (Internet Protocol) communication applications, such as WhatsApp, which are free of charge for any person with internet access. Government actors (in Uganda and many other countries) have long voiced concern about losses in revenue for national telecom operators that were once the primary providers (and cost beneficiaries) of these services.
Museveni assures citizens that this tax will not affect those who use the internet for educational purposes, arguing that it will only affect those who spend time online engaging in idle gossip.
In an opinion piece for The Daily Monitor, Daniel Bill Opio called the social media tax “regressive”:
Social media being a widely used platform for communication, and most importantly as means to access of information, imposing of taxes thereon will be an impediment to the enjoyment of various rights.
Indeed, officials have offered no information about how (or by whom) social media content will be judged for its quality. If gossip or rumors take a political tone, could this lead to taxation or even indirect censorship of political criticism?
Netizens have also expressed doubts about the economic rationale behind the proposal. Democratic Party President Norbert Mao wrote on his Facebook page:
At a time when other countries are cutting the costs of internet, President Museveni wants to increase its cost. We actually need to aspire to making internet free.
Some are questioning whether these taxes will truly benefit Ugandans or if they will be used for Museveni's personal gains, as has been alleged in the past:
Uganda wants to profit where it did not invest. Social media owners gave it out for free and you wanna tax it? Is it an opportunity to increase revenue, avoiding transparency or just GREED?!!
— Trish (@trish886) April 9, 2018
The fact that social media was blocked twice on election day in Uganda on February 18, 2016, and during the swearing in of the president in May 2016 discourages poet and human rights lawyer Kizza Ebron:
The proposal to tax social has a bothersome background.
Government of Uganda has blocked social media twice in the past.
— KIIZA ERON (@kiizaeron) April 8, 2018
Eron goes on to compare social media to a public highway:
Social media is a high way. The proposed tax on social media use is a military road block.
Don't remind us those days…
— KIIZA ERON (@kiizaeron) April 8, 2018
Kyambadde Ronald, a health and social justice advocate, tweets:
The government of Uganda should at some point understand that the citizens are not gold mines, which they'll exploit vehemently,  how on earth can you justify, the ongoing saga of new taxes- social media tax,  banking tax etc? We've had enough of your injustices#socialjustice
— Kyambadde Ronald (@KyambaddeRonal6) April 8, 2018
Internet World Stats reports that Uganda currently has about 19 million internet subscribers, with 43 percent of the population online. The move to tax social media users could increase the digital gap if cost barriers rise.
This is only one way in which spaces for civic engagement are shrinking in Uganda. A January 2018 report from Unwanted Witness, a Ugandan NGO, painted a dim picture for free expression online in Uganda:
2017 registered the highest number of Ugandans ever arrested for their online expression and these arrests are clearly targeted crackdown on free flow of information and speech on the Internet.
In March 2018, the Uganda Communications Commission put out a directive to all online content creators to register their websites, creating yet another barrier to free expression online. The directive read:
All online data communication service providers, including online publishers, online news platforms, online radio and television operators are therefore, advised to apply and obtain authorisation from the Commission with immediate effect.
As of now, it is still not clear how the “gossip tax” will be implemented or monitored, or when it will take effect.

author: Prudence Nyamishana


text:
Forced Onto Live TV With Her Employer, a Migrant Domestic Worker in Lebanon Recants Claims of Abuse · Global Voices
Hassan Chamoun

Lensa Lelisa appearing live on a Lebanese program while still in a hospital bed. Source: This is Lebanon Facebook page.
On 31 March, Global Voices published an account of the predicament of Lensa Lelisa, a 21-year-old Ethiopian migrant domestic worker who alleged that her Lebanese sponsors, the family she lives with and works for, had been abusing her. Desperate to escape, she said, she jumped from the balcony of the second floor, breaking her legs.
Her video testimony, in Amharic with English subtitles, was released on social media by the Facebook page “This is Lebanon“, which focuses on exposing abuses faced by migrant domestic workers in the country. It was filmed with the help of Lensa's aunt Ganesh, who visited her at the hospital.
It was then revealed that her employers run a haute couture fashion company called Eleanore Couture. Outraged, dozens of Lebanese and non-Lebanese protested in front of the company's offices in Jdeideh, north of Beirut, and many more took part in an online #IAmLensa campaign to raise awareness.
Read: “They Beat Me Everyday With An Electric Cable… They Smashed My Head Into The Walls.”
When Lensa was discharged, her employers took her back to their house, despite the allegations and the subsequent outcry by many Lebanese and non-Lebanese groups.
But the story took an even more troubling turn when on 2 April, the TV program “Al Nashra” on Lebanese channel Al Jadeed hosted one of Lensa’s employers (Crystel), her lawyer, and Lensa herself, “in an attempt to reveal the truth behind what happened to Lensa, within ten minutes”, to quote the video released by “This is Lebanon”.
The host spoke English with Lensa, and Arabic — a language that Lensa manifestly barely understands — with the other two women. With the help of volunteer translators, the 12-minute episode was released on “This is Lebanon” with English and Amharic subtitles.
During the appearance, Lensa recanted her story and said that she had accidentally fallen down. The host then asked her, “You fell? When you were doing what?” to which she replied, “Putting my clothes out on balcony.”
At that point, Crystel intervened and said, “I insisted that Lensa appear on TV today” to which the host replied, “I didn't expect her situation to be so bad,” referring to the fact that Lensa was still in a hospital bed as she could not walk.
Lensa then said she “lied” as a way to break her work contract:
Because I want to go back to my country. Because I see myself broke I don't want to work anymore here, and to go back to my country.
And even apologised for any pain she caused:
She's good for me. All good for me. Madame too. […] I like her. She like me […] This is my wrong. The video is my wrong. […] Now I am asking this family, Khalil family, I'm sorry about this video. This video, I didn't think this bring problem for them.
This version stands in stark contrast to what Lensa said in Amharic when her employers were not present.
The host then asked Crystel whether it was conceivable that Lensa is too afraid to speak the truth on live television given that she is forced to go back to their household afterwards. Crystel said no, claiming Lensa had had several opportunities to ask for help had she needed it. Crystel, it should be noted, was originally accused by Lensa of attacking her with scissors.
However, Human Rights Watch was told by two Ethiopian women who visited Lensa at the hospital that she did not tell investigators the truth for fear of retaliation.
In the original video, Lensa recorded herself saying:
[…] From the very beginning they were abusing me […] They tortured me and I couldn't do anything to save myself. They beat me everyday with an electric cable and wrapped my hair around their hands and dragged me around the room. They smashed my head into the walls. […] There were four of them abusing us. […] They took turns abusing us. […] He was pushing his fingers into my eyes. […] I said to myself, ‘How long can I carry on?’ […] There was another Ethiopian girl with me and the same things were happening to her.
“Al Jadeed” approached “This is Lebanon” and invited them on the show, but the group refused “to participante in this media circus”.
During the episode and in other media appearances before it, “This is Lebanon” and other migrant worker advocates actually became a target of ire.
In a different report on the Lebanese Broadcasting Channel, Crystel said that “in the Khalil household, there is no violence.” She alleged that “This is Lebanon” has “hidden agenda” and was using the name Eleanore Couture to get attention. She also threatened them with a lawsuit, accusing them of defamation and complaining that the situation has affected business.
On the “Al Jadeed” episode, the lawyer, who was there to represent the Khalil household rather than Lensa, claimed that there was a conspiracy:
The situation we're seeing today in Lebanon is that there are a large number of organisations funded from abroad whose apparent goal is to support migrant workers. The truth is that there is a competition between these organisations to see who can get the media scoop. Whether it's true or not doesn't matter.
“This is Lebanon” responded to the episode in a long post, in both English and Arabic, with a list of demands including:
1. Ensure Lensa’s safety by removing her from her employer’s house to a place where she is no longer in fear of retribution from her employer for speaking truthfully.
2. Ensure that Lensa is getting the medical care she needs for a speedy recovery.
3. Provide Lensa with the opportunity to talk with an Ethiopian social worker that will reassure her of her safety, provide her with her options, and to empower her to choose whatever she sees best fit.
4. Demand a proper investigation
Meanwhile, Lensa's aunt Ganesh said in another video released by “This is Lebanon” that when she went to visit Lensa at the household after her testimony had been posted online, she was initially not allowed to have a private conversation with her. This was confirmed by the Lebanese francophone daily L'Orient Le Jour which reported that she was allowed only after pressure on social media.
On April 6, Human Rights Watch published a report about the matter, in which they found:
The [Lebanese] Internal Security Forces told Human Rights Watch that they had completed an investigation after speaking with Lelisa, another migrant domestic worker in the house, the employers, two forensic doctors, and the Ethiopian Embassy, and sent their report to the prosecutor’s office. However, the Internal Security Forces said they had not provided Lelisa with any guarantee of safety or protection to ensure that she was able to speak freely. “It’s the job of the embassy to provide reassurances or guarantees,” an official said.
The Lebanese police and the Ethiopian embassy officially concluded that Lensa's allegations of abuse were untrue.
Migrant domestic workers in Lebanon have repeatedly demanded the end of the notorious Kafala system, which ties a worker's legal status to her employer, and the ratification of the International Labor Organization's convention 189, which ensures human rights be respected for all domestic workers.

author: Hassan Chamoun