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Trump Supporters Have Made This Russian Propaganda Chief the Happiest Person on Twitter · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Photo: Gage Skidmore / CC 2.0
As the world reels today from Donald Trump’s stunning upset in the U.S. presidential race, Russians are looking to America with newfound confidence that years of battling the Western liberal media’s dominance over global information streams have finally paid off.
On this score, there's perhaps no one happier than Margarita Simonyan, the chief editor of RT (formerly “Russia Today”), the Kremlin’s largest propaganda outlet, which exists to project Moscow’s view of the world to audiences abroad.
On Twitter, Simonyan started out the election like most people relying on pollsters’ forecasts, expecting a victory by Hillary Clinton. One of Simonyan’s earliest election-day tweets simply declared that democracy had died.
Democracy. R.I.P.
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) November 8, 2016
As it became clear that Trump would actually win the race, Simonyan’s tone on Twitter changed from one of devastation to delight. She even started hunting down an American flag, promising to attach it to her car, so eager was she to honor an election she’d hours earlier described as the harbinger of democracy’s demise.
Хочу сегодня проехаться по Москве с американским флагом в окне машины. Если найду флаг. Присоединяйтесь😀 Они сегодня заслужили.
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) November 9, 2016
Today I want to drive around Moscow with an American flag in the window of my car. If I can find a flag. Join me! :-) They [the Americans] have earned it.
В общем, я сегодня езжу так: в одном окошке наш флаг, в другом американский. Символизирую мир-дружбу-жвачку. Авансом.
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) November 9, 2016
Okay, so today I’m going to drive around like this: in one window I’ll have our flag, and in the other I’ll have an American flag. I’m symbolizing love, peace, and harmony. As an advance.
Even the debt of two cases of beer—apparently the price of a lost wager, in which Simonyan bet on Clinton—was not enough to dampen the chief editor’s spirits.
Только что осознала, что проиграла два ящика пива!
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) November 9, 2016
I just realized that I’ve lost two cases of beer!
Like many observers in the United States and around the world, Simonyan has interpreted Trump’s victory as a powerful rebuke of the American status quo and decades of the so-called Washington Consensus, when it comes to U.S. foreign policy.
For Simonyan, this is proof that a majority of American voters are sick and tired of the mainstream media, multiculturalism, free trade, and interventionism abroad.
Корбин. Брекзит. Трамп. Еще есть вопросы? Мир тошнит от истеблишмента, от его вранья, от его врущих высокомерных СМИ.
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) November 9, 2016
Corbyn. Brexit. Trump. Any questions? The world is sick of the establishment, of its lies, and its lying, arrogant media.
Когда СМИ и власть годами насаждают ценности, к которым общество не готово, объясняя обществу, что оно слишком косное, побеждает Трамп.
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) November 9, 2016
When the media and the authorities spend years sowing values that society isn't ready to accept, explaining to society that it's too backward, Trump wins.
Людей достала война. Людей достали СМИ. Людей достал агрессивный либерализм. Людей достали иммигранты. Хорошо или плохо, но это факт.
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) November 9, 2016
People are tired of war. People are tired of the media. People are tired of aggressive liberalism. People are tired of immigrants. Good or bad, these are the facts.
Implicit in Simonyan’s Twitter celebrations is the idea that RT, her media outlet, is also a winner, because it offers the anti-establishment perspective that has apparently prevailed in this U.S. election.
Prominent supporters of Hillary Clinton have also embraced the idea that Russian agents like Simonyan are responsible for Trump’s electoral win.
For example, Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and a vocal supporter of the Clinton campaign, credited Moscow with manipulating Americans into voting for Trump. On Twitter, McFaul facetiously congratulated various Kremlin-connected individuals, including Simonyan, who promptly retweeted the message on her own account.
Congrats @PutinRF @M_Simonyan @SputnikInt @Zhirinovskiy @KatasonovaMaria . Победа!
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) November 9, 2016
Looking ahead, Simonyan clearly has very high hopes for what President Trump can do to improve U.S.-Russian relations, including several geopolitical concessions to Moscow that would likely be unthinkable had Hillary Clinton won on Tuesday.
Если Трамп признает наш Крым, отменит санкции, договорится с нами по Сирии и освободит Ассанжа, я ухожу на пенсию. Ибо мир будет прекрасен.
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) November 9, 2016
If Trump recognizes our Crimea, cancels the [economic] sanctions, comes to an agreement with us on Syria, and frees Assange, then I'm retiring. Because it will be a beautiful world.
And what about “Democracy, RIP”? Simonyan says there's good news on that front:
@maxseddon она воскресла!)
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) November 9, 2016
Max Seddon: Well, and just yesterday you said “Democracy, RIP.” Has it come back to life?
Margarita Simonyan: It’s been resurrected! :-)

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Who Is Duterte? Into the Deep Podcast · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

He’s called the Pope a son of a whore. He’s called US President Obama a son of a whore. He's been compared to Trump. He’s cracked jokes about rape and is open about being a womanizer. His war on drugs has killed thousands of alleged drug dealers and addicts in four months.
But that’s only half of the story when it comes to the President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte.
In this week's episode of Into the Deep, a new Global Voices podcast that digs deep into one issue that isn’t getting the media coverage it deserves, Global Voices contributors Mong Palatino and Karlo Mongaya help us unravel the other side of Duterte.
In this episode, we featured Creative Commons-licensed music from the Free Music Archive, including songs by Blue Dot Sessions called Ray Gun – FasterFasterBrighter (CC BY-NC 4.0) and Under Suspicion by Lee Rosevere (CC BY 4.0).
The feature photo in this story is a screenshot from the popular mobile game Fighting Crime.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


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Africans See Humour and Hypocrisy in Donald Trump’s Presidential Win · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

America's 45th president Donald Trump. Cropped version of original photo by Michael Vadon. CC BY-SA 2.0
The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States on November 8, beating his rival Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party. His victory, which has been described as the biggest upset in America's history, has shocked many people around the world, including Africans.
On Twitter, people from African countries have reacted with shock and humour.
Bwesigye, a Ugandan African Leadership Centre Fellow based in South Africa, asked:
If the US were an African country, how would White Experts and intellectuals describe what is happening now? Let us use those adjectives.
— Bwesigye (@bwesigye) November 9, 2016
Dikeledi Mokoena replied:
@LindaStruthers3 @bwesigye he would be called an incompetent corrupt divisionist dictator
— Dikeledi Mokoena (@TheRealDikeledi) November 9, 2016
Reacting to Bwesigye's tweets, Ugandan digital strategist Rosebell Kagumire wrote:
@bwesigye we ask all these young Americans to stop voluntouring Africa, clearly America needs you more!
— Rosebell Kagumire (@RosebellK) November 9, 2016
Gidimeister noted how historic his victory was:
Trump just beat two political dynasties in the Clintons and Bushes. That is impressive, whatever you think about the man.
— Gidimeister (@Gidimeister) November 9, 2016
Nwachukwu Egbunike, a Global Voices author from Nigeria, criticized media coverage of the campaign:
Next time, report news. Sadly the mainstream media went amok during the #USelections – they made news!
— Nwachukwu Egbunike (@feathersproject) November 9, 2016
Can we all agree that the US of mainstream media is certainly at odds with reality? #USElection2016
— Nwachukwu Egbunike (@feathersproject) November 9, 2016
Another user wrote:
The real terror many black people in America must be feeling right now is not a joke to me. I was black n terrified in America for a year…
— King Godiva (@amgodiva) November 9, 2016
Trump made several racist comments during his election campaign.
Eyo, however, thought Trump's victory and the UK's Brexit vote to leave the European Union present an opportunity for his country:
Trump is not the tragedy for Nigeria. The real tragedy is that USA and GB have this year 2016 given us Opportunity…and Nigeria is asleep.
— Eyo (@eyooekpo) November 9, 2016
Nigeria talk show host and TV producer Mo Abudu asked Africans to take Trump's victory as a reason to clean up their own countries:
Lets wake up and fix our country and our continent. There is nowhere to run to anymore! lets read the writing on the wall!
— Mo Abudu (@MoAbudu) November 9, 2016
Trump has promised to deport all illegal immigrants and employ “extreme vetting” of immigrants coming to the US. Twitter users in Africa used that stance as a basis of many jokes.
Charles shared a photo of a cluster of planes taking off and quipped:
#NowThatTrumpIsPresident
Flight to Africa begins pic.twitter.com/PJ9SzG0WjA
— Charles (@Charoyung) November 9, 2016
While Stefan said:
#NowThatTrumpIsPresident Let me enjoy popcorns because my ex is about to be deported to come back to the village she belongs.
😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/9D4C6HAwID
— STEFAN MUTINDA (@Lovekidd_) November 9, 2016
Kulayo joked:
#NowThatTrumpIsPresident my uncle is at the Airport on his way to Africa pic.twitter.com/oIXpUiO1N9
— kulayo happi kulayo (@Happy_kulayo) November 9, 2016
Ruth Tsonnie said:
#NowThatTrumpIsPresident I will live and die in Africa 😂😂
— Ruth Tsonnie (@ruthmuthoni08) November 9, 2016
And Hassan Ha-g saw Trump's victory as proof that anything is possible, even if you lack experience:
#NowThatTrumpIsPresident I have learnt a lesson, experience does not guarantee a job. Go apply for that job that requires 10yrs experience
— Hassan Ha-g (@ChrissBrownFan) November 9, 2016
For many Africa-based observers, the election of Trump highlighted the hypocrisy of the US weighing in on African politics.
Alexander Waweru in Nairobi observed:
#NowThatTrumpIsPresident Americans should not advise us who to elect 2017
— Alexander waweru (@alex_waweru) November 9, 2016
Kenyans are going to the polls in 2017.
Nigerian author Ifeatu Nnaobi made the following observation:
Donald Trump is the 45th President of the USA and the story of America as a shining beacon of justice is a lie. If it weren’t a lie then he wouldn’t be president. If it weren’t a lie then Clinton should have won by a landslide but well over 58 million Americans elected this excuse of a man as President. Like many liberal non-Americans around the world, I never thought this day would come. But after Brexit, and now this, there’s the sinking realisation that the world is a shittier place that we thought. What we missed, I believe is the fact that the America we know from leftist television, press and perhaps short visits is vastly different from the America that voted in Donald Trump. The real America.
He pointed out that:
The bottom-line is that if America was really as progressive as we thought, Trump never should have gotten close. The fact that he ran for the elections after allegations of sexual assault and after running a campaign fuelled by lies shows that Americans are not as progressive as they’ve led the world to believe.
He however acknowledged that not all was lost:
While this seems very grim, we must acknowledge a few strides that were made. California Attorney General Kamala Harris made history on Tuesday night when she won the Senate race and became the second Black woman to be elected to the US Senate. Former refugee Ilhan Omar has been named the first Somali-American legislator for the United States. Finally, for the first time, an openly LGBT governor Kate Brown, was elected in Oregon. These women winning seats is tremendous progress but against the hate brought to light by the Trump campaign, they look like a few rays of light penetrating a very dusty window.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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After Three Years, Thousands of Haiyan Survivors in the Philippines Are Still Homeless · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Housing projects have yet to be completed in many towns three years after the devastation caused by typhoon Haiyan. Photo from the Citizens’ Disaster Response Center Foundation
Three years ago, typhoon Haiyan (known in the Philippines as Yolanda) battered the central part of the Philippines, killing more than 6,000 people. Haiyan also caused a tsunami-like surge which left thousands homeless in the islands of Leyte and Samar.
After three years, Haiyan survivors continue to seek relief and justice. They say assistance has been slow to arrive, the rehabilitation efforts of the government have been inefficient, and some of the goods distributed in evacuation centers were spoiled.
A recent probe conducted by a government agency confirmed many of the complaints mentioned by the survivors.
The probe also revealed that the state has failed to deliver on its commitment of rebuilding the houses in the Haiyan-affected communities. According to government data, almost 2,000 houses have yet to be constructed despite the allocation of funds for the project.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development also admitted that 200,000 survivors failed to receive emergency assistance in the past three years.
Some groups have alleged that corruption and partisan politics are largely to blame for the government’s inadequate recovery efforts. In response, authorities vow to investigate the anomalies.
People Surge, an alliance of Haiyan survivors, summed up the harrowing experience of many people in the region:
Emergency was given a new meaning. Instead of lightning fast assistance to the survivors, they were made to wait, even to beg for their survival. Some were outright stricken off as beneficiaries of the cash assistance, as business interests were prioritized instead of lives in government declared “no dwelling zones”. Three years and still the emergency assistance promised to them might as well been buried in one of the mass graves.
An example of how red tape in the bureaucracy can slow down the rehabilitation process is the continued failure of the Customs Department to release the wood donated by other countries intended for Haiyan survivors.
This was exposed by the Citizens’ Disaster Response Center Foundation, which has been appealing for the release of the wood donated by a German group in order to complete its housing community project in the town of Jaro in Leyte province.
The non-issuance of tax/duties exemption and waiver of storage fees has delayed the project for six months already. Thankfully, the Office of the President has recently authorized the release of the first shipment of the donated wood.
Meanwhile, residents of Jaro continue to campaign for the release of the rest of the donated wood in order to rebuild their homes. This is the message of young people from Jaro:
Our homes in Jaro are skeletal structures. We are afraid that they will never be finished. So now we have gathered to ask for help, as one voice. Help us get our new homes and hopes for a better life!
Residents are appealing for the support of the public to pressure authorities to allow the shipment of the rest of the wood into their community.
Resident of Jaro ask the government to grant the release of the donated wood that will be used to rebuild their homes. Photo from the Citizens’ Disaster Response Center Foundation
A resident of Jaro appeals for the release of the wood that will be used to rebuild their homes. Photo from the Citizens’ Disaster Response Center Foundation
Photo from the Citizens’ Disaster Response Center Foundation
Photo of a child's artwork and appeal from the Facebook page of Mendy Mariano Malig.

author: Mong Palatino


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How Japan Is Reacting to Donald Trump’s Presidential Victory · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Trump's remarks made it on Nippon News Network (NNN) from August 27, 2015: “We're going to have a great relationship with Japan. I love Japan.” Screencap from video uploaded to YouTube.
During the 2016 US presidential election campaign, Japan was one of the many countries singled out by Donald Trump for special attention, complaining about the Asian country's supposedly unfair trade practices. According to the New York Times, Trump's “complaints are reminiscent of another era, when Japan’s economy was booming and its companies were buying trophy American assets like movie studios and Rockefeller Center.” A Japan Times opinion piece from August 2016 characterized Trump as being “stuck in a 1980s time warp.”
Based on reality or not, Trump's provocative comments have struck a nerve in Japan. While Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is expected to meet Donald Trump in New York on November 17, no one in Japan knows what the future may hold now that Trump has been elected president.
Here are a few of the biggest concerns in Japan with a Trump presidency, based on what was trending on Japanese Twitter immediately after the election results were announced on November 9.
When it became apparent Trump would claim the presidency late in the evening in the United States and at the start of the trading day on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the Nikkei stock exchange plunged while the yen surged.
世界の市場大揺れ、トランプ氏勝利の大番狂わせ－円と金買われる https://t.co/QUAE7rGudH
— ブルームバーグニュース日本語版 (@BloombergJapan) November 9, 2016
Bloomberg News Japan: Turbulence in world markets as Trump wins stunning upset — yen, gold surge.
World markets experienced turbulence on November 9 as Republican Donald Trump defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
President-elect Donald Trump has also promised to block or repeal the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Signing the TPP has been a key policy objective of Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. Now the fate of the TPP is unclear.
【TPP トランプ氏勝利で困難に】米大統領選でトランプ氏が勝利したことで、TPP発効は困難な情勢に。米国主導の貿易自由化は大きな転換点を迎える。 https://t.co/FCVB8A3KbT
TPP threatened by Trump win: Now that Donald Trump has won the American election, the passage of the TPP agreement looks to become challenging. Trade liberalization spearheaded by the United States is headed for a major pivot.
Many fear that Trump's stated opposition to the TPP will have severe consequences for “Abenomics” — an ongoing series of policy initiatives championed by the Abe government to reignite growth in Japan — and the Japanese economy. The immediate consequence of Trump's election was endaka (円高), or a surge in the Japanese yen that cripples Japan's export-focused economy.
ＴＰＰ発効困難に　トランプ氏勝利、アベノミクスに痛手：朝日新聞デジタル https://t.co/JmF8p4y5pO
— 朝日新聞官邸クラブ (@asahi_kantei) November 9, 2016
With a Trump victory and difficulties ratifying the TPP, Abenomics has been dealt a mortal blow.
Now that Donald Trump has been elected president of the United States, it will be extremely difficult to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The yen has surged on world financial markets.
Japan has had strong formal mutual defense ties with the United States since 1960. Japan pays for and hosts the American military in the western Pacific, but Trump has said Japan must pay more.
Questioned by Japanese reporters in August 2015, Trump stated, “We're going to have a great relationship with Japan. I love Japan.” Trump then told Japanese reporters he had no intention of altering the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States of America and Japan, known as the Anpo (安保) in Japan.
Following news of Trump's win, Japan's defense minister promised to work with the new president. One Twitter user interpreted the defense minister's remarks to mean that the Japanese military will expand.
稲田さんのこの笑顔、好き
自衛隊増強に向けて頑張ろう！
トランプ氏勝利宣言、稲田防衛相「日米同盟強化を」 #excitenews https://t.co/Ai0EHyA3Ol
— Kathleen Morikawa (@Mochi_GirI) November 9, 2016
I love the smile on [Japanese Defense Minister] Inada's face. It's time to grow the Japanese Self-Defense Forces!
“As Trump is declared President, Japanese Defense MInister promises to strengthen the alliance.”
About 20 percent of Okinawa is devoted to military installations, and there are more than 100,000 Americans present in Okinawa, whose population is 1.4 million; they mostly are either military personnel and their dependents or Department of Defense civilian employees.
There has long been opposition to American bases in Okinawa, and Trump has said he wants to pull American forces out of Japan.
＜米大統領選・トランプ氏勝利＞沖縄の基地、対日政策…どうなる？　識者2人の見方 https://t.co/Zvx9ke8l9A #okinawa　#沖縄
— 沖縄タイムス (@theokinawatimes) November 9, 2016
Trump elected US president: What happens to bases in Okinawa and US policy towards Japan? Two reporters weigh in.
Now that Trump has been elected President, the outlook for Japan has become extremely challenging.
Now that a Trump has been elected, Japanese people, typically removed from the day-to-day happenings of American politics, are starting to acquaint themselves with the American president-elect.
To do its part, NHK, the national public broadcaster, prepared a mini-site devoted to Trump's election, with documentary video.
【アメリカ大統領選　トランプ氏勝利】
地元メディアが「驚くべき番狂わせ」と伝えたトランプ氏の勝利。当日のドキュメントを動画で掲載しました。https://t.co/I7EIpZfEVy #nhk_news
— NHKニュース (@nhk_news) November 9, 2016
Donald Trump elected as US president:
US media called Trump's victory an “upset win.” This documentary website explains how it happened.
One Japanese Twitter user discovered an AFP story from China that suggests a Trump win over Hillary Clinton was a foregone conclusion:
【世】 サルの予言はトランプ氏勝利、米大統領選で占い 中国: 【11月4日… https://t.co/5UXN6vuxFr pic.twitter.com/joAsoLojiS
— 海外ニュース (@twinews3) November 4, 2016
November 4th: A monkey in China predicts a Trump win.
— Overseas News (@twinews3)

author: Nevin Thompson


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Nationalists and Populists in Serbia and Macedonia Celebrate Trump’s Victory · Global Voices
Marko Angelov

Widely shared photo montage by unknown author presenting Donald Trump as a God-sent crusader carrying the old Macedonian flag.
Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential elections caused ecstatic reactions among right-wing politicians and their adherents in several Balkan countries.
There are various reasons for such reactions, from a general loathing of the Clintons, to a sense of solidarity with American right-wingers, to a perception of a shared anti-Islam stance with Trump. In addition, the public opinion in these countries is increasingly under the influence of Russian propaganda, which had favored his victory.
In Serbia, widespread perception of Trump is based on the notion that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ Being an opponent to the Clintons, who are blamed for the bombings during the 1998-99 Kosovo War, as well as the other NATO interventions during the Yugoslav Wars, made Trump the favorite among right-wing nationalist politicians like Vojislav Šešelj of the far-right Serbian Radical Party.
The morning after the US elections, the editor of Informer, a pro-government tabloid in Serbia, announced they'd put up a billboard congratulating Trump in Belgrade reading, “We congratulate! Trump, you the Serb!”.
Ево нас на улицама :))) pic.twitter.com/f3oaCj0GwL
— Драган Ј. Вучићевић (@djvucicevic) November 9, 2016
Here we are, in the streets :)))
Informer is considered very close to the government of Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, and had been involved in ‘media lynchings’ — smear campaigns and issuing threats against investigative journalists who had revealed cases of high-level corruption.
The news site Balkan Insight reported that on the other side of Serbia's borders, in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, “many Albanians and Bosniaks are lamenting the defeat of Hillary Clinton.”
Like elsewhere in the world, Macedonian social networks were also full of comments about the results of the US elections. Twitter user Srbak commented on the cognitive dissonance of blaming the Clintons while disregarding the consequences of the actions of the late authoritarian leader Slobodan Milošević.
-Глуп
-Поглуп
-Хилари е крива што со србија владееше чудовиште виновно за геноцид и нарушување на сите човекови права
— Ранко (@Srbak) November 9, 2016
- Dumb
– Dumber
– Hillary is to blame because Serbia was ruled by a monster guilty of genocide and violation of all human rights.
Macedonian politicians generally provided restrained official statements about all candidates. However, many members of the ruling party, the right-wing VMRO-DPMNE, showed joy about the victory of the Republicans in the US, whom they consider allies and supporters. Many relayed a screenshot from a Facebook post by party official Antonijo Milošoski, a member of parliament and former minister of foreign affairs. In it, he changed the acronym VMRO, meaning Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, by replacing the word “Revolutionary” with “Republican.”
Во чест на победата на Трамп, Милошоски ја „преименува“ ВМРО-ДПМНЕ! https://t.co/jUHhvOtNAx pic.twitter.com/dHTMzgBRnW
— META.mk (@meta_agency) November 9, 2016
In honor of Trump's victory, Milošoski “renamed” the VMRO-DPMNE!
There were many other Photoshop works. One of the more extreme examples (see the image at the top of the post) presented Trump as a crusading Knight Templar (fighting Muslims) sent by God (representing traditional family values) waving the 1992-95 Macedonian flag with the Vergina Sun (representing continuity of the Macedonian nation from the time of Alexander the Great).
Many discussions talked of the right-wing victory in the US in relation to Macedonia's upcoming elections in December, in a tone similar to the gloating about the Brexit. On the other hand, some also noted that the American people voted against the status quo, which translated into the Macedonian context would mean a defeat of the right-wingers.
Alternative news portal Okno.mk relayed an observation by influential social media user Slobodan Jakjoski:
Би рекол дека тие што не ја разбираат победата на Трамп и импликациите врз светот, Балканот и нас не го сфаќаат духот на времето.
Сржта на проблемот е што либералната демократија од финансиски неолиберален тип не функционира. На глобално ниво. Не функционира, затоа што и тој економски раст што го испорачува се редистрибуира крајно нееднакво. Незадоволниците од овој систем со право бараат суштински промени.
Тие промени, секако, им ги нудат десничарски демагози и популисти во вид на едноставни решенија („ќе изградам ѕид, ќе забранам влез на муслимани, ќе излеземе од ЕУ“).
Нашиот случај е различен бидејќи тој систем кај нас ВЕЌЕ е крахиран, веќе краткото искуство со либералната демократија е доживеано како целосен неуспех и веќе 10 години владеат десничарски популисти кои на огромен дел од населението му испорачуваат едноставни решенија за егзистенцијалните проблеми.
Да, зборувам за клиентелистичкиот систем на ВМРО. Ако мислите дека вработениот во администрација после години невработеност НЕ ЗНАЕ за фактот дека некого утепала полиција и се обидела да скрие, дека државата безочно се краде, дека УБК прислушкува и снима сè живо и диво, тогаш се лажете.
Многу добро знаат. Но, кога егзистенцијата ти е доведена во прашање, ќе замижеш пред секакви неправди и ќе си рационализираш дека оние што се осмелуваат да ти го нарушаат ресурсниот раат се предавници, комуњари, исти… или на крајот на краиштата, не се замараш со политика.
I would say that those who do not understand Trump's victory and its implications for the world, the Balkans and us [Macedonia] fail to grasp the spirit of the times.
The essence of the problem is that liberal democracy of the financially neo-liberal type does not function. At a global level. It doesn't function because the economic growth it produces is distributed unequally. Those dissatisfied with this system have the right to demand essential changes.
Such changes are offered to them by the right-wing demagogues in the form of simple solutions (“I'll build a wall; I'll forbid Muslims’ entry; we'll exit the European Union”).
The Macedonian case is different because that system had already crashed here. The short experience with liberal democracy is perceived as total failure, leading to 10-year rule of right-wing populists who provide simple solutions for the existential problems of a large part of the population.
Yes, I refer to the VMRO's system of clientelism. If you think that a person employed within the bloated state administration after years of unemployment doesn't know about the fact that the police killed someone and attempted a cover-up, that there's uninhibited robbery of state resources, that the secret police conducts omnipresent illegal surveillance, you deceive yourself.
They all know, full well. But when your livelihood is in question, then you shut your eyes to all kinds of injustice and rationalize that those who dare to challenge this spoils system are traitors, Commies, etc… And as a last resort, they declare that ‘they are not interested in politics.’
Meanwhile, in Slovenia, some of the former compatriots of Trump's spouse Melania organized a celebration in a pub in her hometown of Sevnica. This celebration did not seem to have an ideological background, except for local patriotism.

author: Marko Angelov


text:
The Caribbean Considers a World Where Donald Trump Is President · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Donald Trump, speaking at the First In Nation Republican Leadership Summit in Nashua, New Hampshire. Photo by Michael Vadon, CC BY-SA 2.0.
It's official: Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States. South of the border, where there is a saying that if America sneezes, the region catches a cold, Caribbean netizens have been posting their reactions to the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election.
Given the now president elect's rhetoric on the campaign trail — from his description of Mexicans to his attitude towards Muslims — it is fair to say that the majority of Caribbean netizens perceived Trump to be prejudiced, xenophobic, misogynistic and divisive. Overwhelmingly, this election campaign appeared, at least to the people of the region, to be primarily about race (though there were some arguments that it was more about class). Trump's victory was therefore a confusing and disturbing one for many Caribbean-based social media users, who could not quite grasp how America could have voted for someone who so openly peddled such intolerance.
Trinidadian Facebook user Brigette Joseph wondered if she was dreaming, saying, “What riles me up the most of all, is that Trump has validated all the feelings and opinions of misogynists, racists, xenophobes and bullies everywhere.”
For Karen Martinez, a member of the Caribbean diaspora who lives in London, the Trump victory was too much of an isolationist statement for her to stomach, especially coming fresh on the heels of the United Kingdom's Brexit vote to leave the European Union:
Sad sad sad and ANGRY! As someone else mentioned, when Trump said he wants to make America great again he really meant he wants to make America WHITE again! So very scary. He and his supporters forget (or don't give a shit) that the original people were Native Americans. Whites are the immigrants. This place doesn't ‘belong’ to anyone we are all here to look after this planet and our fellow human beings. This result threatens our humanity. That is all.
Indeed, one Trinidad-based activist, Rubadiri Victor, referred to the outcome as “Brexit squared” and had no trouble calling Trump's election a nod to white supremacy. He also predicted that a Trump presidency would be marked by “deportations, immigration rigging, incarcerations, and voter suppression […] systemic overturning of civil victories and a tearing down of all types of gains”, and chastised the Democrats for choosing Hillary Clinton as their candidate over Bernie Sanders, who he believed stood more of a chance of beating Trump.
Many other social media users shared this view. Victor suggested that the Caribbean response should be to “create self-sustaining yet inter-dependent Maroon Republics where we see about our core institutions like Education, Culture, Memory, Healing, Agriculture, Housing, Science and Tech, etc… It is going to get DARK. Time to get busy with the LIGHT!”
Victor was not alone in seeing the storm clouds gathering. Actor Michael Cherrie posted an excerpt from a verse by Guyanese poet Martin Carter:
This is the dark time, my love,
It is the season of oppression, dark metal, and tears.
It is the festival of guns, the carnival of misery
Everywhere the faces of men are strained and anxious […]
Facebook user Dion Boucaud said:
I'm finding it difficult to string coherent sentences together. I am in deep fear. I lived through the uncertainty of the Cold War where as a student you felt ‘what's the point’ as it was believed the world was heading to war. Apart from that is his antagonistic stance on NAFTA and Climate Change. I fear there is another financial tsunami coming. I fear …
Lesley-Ann Noel, a University of the West Indies lecturer and Fulbright scholar who is studying in the US state of North Carolina, couldn't fathom “how we are supposed to just carry on as normal”. She is part of an online group of liberal mothers who are now concerned about explaining this new reality to their children, as well as how to navigate, as people of colour, Trump's brand of America. Noel added that some of her black friends chose not to go to school the day after the election — they just didn't feel up to it.
Keith Francis, meanwhile, admitted that he was more concerned about Trump's running mate than he was about Trump himself and wondered what effect — if any — his victory would have on “the criminal and civil prosecutions that Trump is supposed to be facing”.
But other Caribbean people were just as concerned with the controversies surrounding Hillary Clinton. Haitian-American Pascal Robert explained:
Clintonian ‘Third Way’ Politics and triangulation started with Bill Clinton in 92 and continued with Obama through both his terms was completely rejected by the American people last night. The most horrid and damaging political world view this country had ever seen, which YES did more damage to this nation than Ronald Reagan, was killed last night, and for that reason alone I am content.
Nothing Donald Trump has said was worse than the nations Hillary Clinton actually destroyed. Trump was a mis-handler of words, Hillary was a mis-handler of national power. If you thought Trump was more dangerous than Hillary you know little to nothing about world events and politics and shouldn't even be talking. Hillary Clinton caused the greatest refugee crisis in modern history because of her and Obama's policies in Libya and Syria.
Clinton and her husband ran a criminal slush fund called the Clinton Global Initiative that peddled influence for money and used their influence to rob countries like Haiti while Hillary also supported a coup in Honduras. The e-mail scandal alone should have put Hillary Clinton in prison. Bottom line. Hillary lost because she is a wretched corrupt politician who was running in a year where people were tired of the status quo after eight years of the Bank protecting con game called the Obama presidency. For that reason I am content.
Robert's compatriot Alice Backer, the founder and former manager of GV Lingua who now works as a lawyer in New York, agreed. While Backer was a Jill Stein (Green Party nominee)  supporter, she told Global Voices:
Right now people are in a panic and that's understandable. Remember, however, that the Wikileaks themselves revealed that Hillary's campaign preferred to run against Trump as they thought he was the great foil to their ‘lesser evilism’ strategy. And yes, Trump is the embodiment and mascot of the disgruntled, rust belt, de-industrialized male. But what Trump did right, it must be said, is that he actually reached out to the Haitian community in Florida where 300 votes or less separated Bush and Gore in 2000. He visited Little Haiti and echoed the Haitians’ rightful anger at the Clintons. In Little Haiti, he said: ‘I will be your voice.’ He then followed up with a mention of the Clinton Foundation's misdeeds in Haiti at the last presidential debate — something even Bernie Sanders never did. And the alt right and libertarian media went along with him and echoed the Haiti story in a way the liberal mainstream media — which leaked emails show was in the tank for Hillary — would not. So he not only tapped into the anger of the white disgruntled male, but also into that of other victims of Clintonian neoliberalism and vulturism, Haitians included.
Haitians had every reason to be untrusting of Hillary Clinton: her husband has admitted to destroying Haitian rice farming, thanks his neoliberal trade policies of Arkansas rice dumping in the 1990s. This was a huge blow to Haitian agriculture, which has never quite recovered. Even after the former President Clinton's apology, the practice has not only continued, but expanded into peanut dumping. Just as disturbingly, Ricardo Seitenfus of the Organisation of American States (OAS), who was dismissed from his position after exposing the truth about NGO aid, as well as the source of the cholera outbreak in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, said that Hillary Clinton's state department rigged the 2010 Haitian presidential election for Michel Martelly. Her state department intervened once more with Haitian politicians, convincing them to drop a plan to increase the Haitian minimum wage to 62 cents an hour.
As for those who may feel that Trump's racist rhetoric should have been enough to keep him out of the White House, Backer argued:
Neither president was going to solve issues of white supremacy for black people. Only we can do that through our advocacy and movements. Black people — not a US president — brought us the civil rights movement.
Both Clintons championed the 1994 Crime Bill which catapulted the incarceration of blacks in US into the stratosphere. We now have a larger prison population than China, predominantly black and Latino. The Clintons also gutted the safety net of poor black families during that same period. Imagine the dislocation these policies wrought into black families. It's simply delusion to think that Clinton cared for black lives as much as she cared for black votes.
To many, though, Clinton appeared to be the saner choice. Trinidad-based website Wired868, which offers clever, cutting satirical commentary on politics and sport, tried to dissect Trump's triumph:
Pointing the finger of blame at the judgment of millions of Americans—or questioning the racial tolerance of more than half of the country—might also be short-sighted. This is, after all, a country that recently voted for Barack Obama. Twice! […]
Obama, as he stumped for Hillary, insisted that his Democratic successor was the most qualified candidate ever for the job of US president. Clearly, that was a double-edged sword. At a time when distrust of politicians is at an all-time low, promoting her credentials as the ‘supreme politician’ might have been an own goal.
The public would rather trust a buffoon than a politician at the moment. And they proved it.
For other social media users, humour was the only way of dealing with the election result. Some posted memes, like this one of a despairing Statue of Liberty:
Meme of Lady Liberty's reaction to the outcome of the US presidential election; widely shared on Facebook.
Trinidadian artist Darren Trinity Cheewah created and shared this image, in which Obama gives the finger to the president-elect:
Illustration by Darren Trinity Cheewah, shared on Facebook.
He also doodled another image in which he poked fun at Trump's insistence that he was not a mouthpiece for Russian president Vladimir Putin:
Illustration by Darren Trinity Cheewah, used with permission.
On Facebook, fashion designer Robert Young simply quipped, referring to leaked audio in which Trump says, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything”:
Look out for your pussy!
But Jamaica-based blogger Annie Paul was not at all surprised, reminding her followers:
I’ve said from the get go, from long before he won the Republican nomination, that this man would be President #Trump
Finally, journalist Franka Philip, who viewed Trump's upset as a sign that the mainstream media — and pollsters — were out of touch with the citizenry's level of dissatisfaction, had a healthy sense of detachment:
I'm not getting my pressure up over a Trump win. I live in Trinidad and Tobago and there is enough here for me to worry about. Let us do our thing for sweet T&T.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
The World Attempts to Make Sense of ‘Trumpocalypse’ · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

Black Lives Matter Protest. Public Domain picture form Pixabay.
A surprising win for many, expected for others, and a total shock for more than a few. Controversial far-right candidate Donald Trump won the elections for president of the United States of America held on November 8, 2016. Trump was popular among his supporters mostly because, to their eyes, he is anything but the political establishment in which they have absolutely no faith.
Many pundits (and a whole lot of journalists) failed to realize this. Outside the country, the world is pondering how this happened.
This. Is. Not. Only. Poor. Whites. Voting. For. Trump. This is the America we have always lived with, just now undressing.
— Francisco-Luis White (@FranciscoLWhite) November 9, 2016
Another country didn't elect Trump. This one did. Your neighbors and relatives and co-workers and friends did.
— 5'7 Black Male (@absurdistwords) November 9, 2016
Latoya Peterson, a race and culture critic who co-authors the blog Racialicious, tweeted:
I will not fear [election results.] Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear.
— Latoya Peterson (@LatoyaPeterson) November 9, 2016
Palestinian-American Sara Yasin illustrated the fear the Muslim community in the US is experiencing:
A young Muslim woman in North Carolina reacts to #ElectionNight results so far https://t.co/WhbQc6G4dnpic.twitter.com/xBUAr1R5ir
— Sara Yasin (@missyasin) November 9, 2016
From Iowa, Pan-Africanist writer Siyanda Mohutsiwa reflected:
When we talk about online radicalization we always talk about Muslims. But the radicalization of white men online is at astronomical levels
— Siyanda Mohutsiwa (@SiyandaWrites) November 9, 2016
Online privacy advocate and founder of Freedom of the Press Foundation Trevor Timm tweeted:
So glad Democrats institutionalized a vast and unaccountable national security apparatus that will soon be controlled by a madman.
— Trevor Timm (@trevortimm) November 9, 2016
Writer and photographer Stacey Gonzalez, who is based in Canada, summed up how she saw the election using the #Trumpocalypse hashtag:
Well ?? you voted against women's rights, against the environment, against minorities and for racism. You voted in the #Trumpocalypse way2go
— Stacey Gonzalez (@Gonzothefacey) 9 de noviembre de 2016
Armenian journalist Liana Aghajanian stated:
This is America, raw and real. Feels like we pretended this whole time that we knew America, but we couldn't have been more wrong.
— Liana Aghajanian (@LianaAgh) November 9, 2016
Marko of Macedonia tried to explain why the polls were so wrong:
Да ги разбиеме стереотипите! Анкетите у САД се покажаа неточни пошто голем број на луѓе им било срам јавно да кажат дека ќе гласаат за Трамп https://t.co/yIaZKhmxAq
— Marko (@MrNoooo) November 9, 2016
Let's break the stereotypes! Polls in the USA were incorrect because a lot of people were ashamed to publicly admit that they'd vote for Trump.
Based in the UK, Dr Siobhan O'Dwyer shared this thought by anthropologist Sarah Kendzior:
“Think Brexit, but with a shitload more guns” – @sarahkendzior has nailed it.
— Dr Siobhan O'Dwyer (@Siobhan_ODwyer) November 9, 2016
Palestinian human rights worker Mohammed Suliman sentenced:
Britain then America. The west can no longer claim to be morally superior. It cannot hide its face behind the mask of liberal universality.
— Mohammed Suliman (@JabaliyaRefugee) November 9, 2016
What fascinates me is that most people in the Western hemisphere still seem to think this US election is an isolated incident. Just as they thought Brexit was isolated and a surprise. Or Orban being re-elected in Hungary. Or Duterte's expletive-filled rise in the Philippines. Or Vucic and his nationalist, right-wing progressives in Serbia.
These are not flukes, my friends. This is a clear pattern. I tweeted the other day that “Right-wing ideologies grow and spread when economic & social change are necessary, but liberals & centrists are slow in offering solutions.” I didn't come up with that one all on my own. This has all happened before. It began in 1912 with the Balkan wars and ended with the rise of Hitler and World War 2. And if you don't get it, then you are among the very privileged and out of touch with the average human and with the rest of the world.
I read this Michael Moore piece a while back. And I never much liked the guy (okay, I think he's a whining douche), but I can't help but agree with him when he's right. And he's right.
From Green Bay to Pittsburgh, this, my friends, is the middle of England – broken, depressed, struggling, the smokestacks strewn across the countryside with the carcass of what we use to call the Middle Class. Angry, embittered working (and nonworking) people who were lied to by the trickle-down of Reagan and abandoned by Democrats who still try to talk a good line but are really just looking forward to rub one out with a lobbyist from Goldman Sachs who’ll write them nice big check before leaving the room. What happened in the UK with Brexit is going to happen here.”
And it will keep happening. As long as the failing upper classes are so out of touch with the growing working (or unemployed) classes, things are bound to get worse. One way or another, we will all go through this cleansing process. The more we ignore it, the uglier it will get.
That being said… boy, the next decade is going to be fun to watch! Well, for some of us. As long as you're not too attached to living and working in certain parts of the world.
Referring to the recent rise of the far-right across the world, Mexican journalist and director of online news site Animal Político Daniel Moreno wondered:
Putin en Rusia
Trump en EU
Rajoy en España
Toca Le Pen en Francia y Farage en Reino Unido
Espero quepan 7,500 mill de personas en Canadá
— Daniel Moreno (@dmorenochavez) November 9, 2016
Putin in Russia
Trump in the US
Rajoy in Spain
It's time for Le Pen in France and Farage in the United Kingdom
I hope Canada can handle 7,500 million people
Speaking of pollsters’ failure to predict the outcome of the elections, human rights activist from Mozambique, Zenaida Machado said:
Someone will have to reinvent Data, Probability & Statistics, after the upset caused by Brexit and the #USElection2016. Numbers were wrong.
— Zenaida Machado (@zenaidamz) November 9, 2016
As for US media role in the elections, Nwachukwu Egbunike, Global Voices contributor from Nigeria, had something to say:
Next time, report news. Sadly the mainstream media went amok during the #USelections – they made news!
— Nwachukwu Egbunike (@feathersproject) November 9, 2016
While independent journalist covering Central and Eastern Europe Amy Mackinnon shared this picture from Russia:
The image of the day. Someone has left flowers outside the US Consular Office in Moscow with a placard, ‘Je Suis USA’ https://t.co/d9YG5O8DNt
— Amy Mackinnon (@ak_mack) November 9, 2016
On a contrasting note, Chilean writer and journalist Pedro Cayuqueo concluded on his column “Trump, ¿Apocalipsis ahora?” (Trump, Now the Apocalypse?):
Si decimos creer en la democracia, poco y nada que lamentar. Felicitaciones al vencedor y que sea, en la medida de lo posible, un no tan mal gobierno. Mientras tanto la vida sigue.
If we decide to believe in democracy, there's little if anything to be sad about. Congratulations to the winner, and may it be – as much as it can be – a not so bad government. Meanwhile, life goes on.
Author and filmmaker Mark Frost tweeted:
Tonight is a tragedy. Get some sleep. Tomorrow is the first day of the resistance.
— Mark Frost (@mfrost11) November 9, 2016
American Civil Liberties Union former deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer urged Americans to stay put:
Stop saying you're going to move to Canada. What you've got here is worth defending.
— Jameel Jaffer (@JameelJaffer) November 9, 2016
Open technology and gender equity activist Willow Brugh tweeted:
People protest, are just and kind in myriad tiny ways every day. Do the same now. Stand up for others. Love those you disagree with. ?
— wil (@willowbl00) November 9, 2016
US-based Syrian blogger Anas Qtiesh, also a Global Voices contributor, offered some canine comfort for those who still have a sense of humor:
I think y'all need some pugs right now pic.twitter.com/nkcEkqMjdG
— Anas Qtiesh (@anas) November 9, 2016
From Danny O'Brien, international director at Electronic Frontier Foundation, called for solidarity in a Facebook post:
Shout out to all my friends and all my heroes across the world: in Thailand, in Pakistan, in Hong Kong and the mainland, in Russia, Venezuela and Cuba, all across the MENA from Morocco to Bahrain. Chiranuch Premchaiporn and Nighat Dad and Esra'a Al Shafei and Rami Nakhla and Alaa and Oiwan Lam and Nassir and shit I'm so bad at listing everyone. Also shoutout to my Brexit buddies, Tom Steinberg et al.
I'm sitting in the Electronic Frontier Foundation offices in San Francisco running through the disaster scenarios with all of us at 10PM, and trying to channel all the things I've seen you do and act and say in far worse situations.
We're going to have lots of time tomorrow to work out the details, but here's what I'm going to argue for, if it goes the way I think: that our day job here is, to defend /everybody/ from what could happen here, anybody and everybody around the whole world.
We'll need help, and y'all are so good at solidarity and experience and just making me laugh and keep positive and keep going even in the worst of situations. Not everyone here has quite grokked what's going on, but when they do, I'm going to BORE YOU SO MUCH with my questions and begging for advice.
Solidarity, everyone. We're going to build a home for freedom, we're going to create such awesome tools, we're going to win everyone over and then WE'RE GOING TO MARS.

author: Elizabeth Rivera


text:
Possible Trump Cabinet Members’ Links to the MEK Cult Could Spell Trouble for Iran · Global Voices
Arash Azizi

MEK leader Maryam Rajavi, pictured here at a rally in Paris, is a close ally of several rumored members of Donald Trump's cabinet. PHOTO: Public Domain
Among the foreign policy think tanks and pundits of New York and DC, few supported Trump or even countenanced the possibility of his election. Now that the dust has settled and the populist tycoon is soon to move into the White House, speculations abound as to what his foreign policy will be like.
What makes Trump hard to predict is that the 70-year-old billionaire has a history of zigzagging. He doesn’t seem to be a genuine ideological right-winger, but rather an opportunist who marketed a series of what could only loosely be described as “policies” because he knew they’d play well with his right-wing base. Prior to 1987, he was a registered Democrat, before flipping to the Republican party, then to Ross Perot’s right-wing Reform Party, then back to the Democrats, then—after Obama’s victory—back to Republicans once more.
During the campaign, too, he took vague and contradictory positions and flip-flopped on major issues. Banking on Hillary Clinton’s reputation as a hawk and the US population’s resentment at their country’s many foreign military adventures, Trump often appeared to take an isolationist stance, which sadly fooled even some left-wingers who claimed he was “less of a threat” to the world than his competitor. But on major issues, he often wanted more not less military intervention.
Trump advocated a higher military budget and an escalation of the fight against ISIS. While initially demanding 20 to 30,000 US boots on the ground, he later retracted this position and said Saudi Arabia should supply these forces. At times he said the UN-backed war in Afghanistan was a mistake and at other times he supported it. At the time of the UN-backed intervention in Libya, he supported bringing down of the country’s ruler, Moammer Gaddafi, but has since changed his position more than once.
It is safe to say that we can’t pretend to know the direction of Trump’s foreign policy. This seems to be evolving as the President-elect starts having to deal with a prospect of actually sitting behind the most powerful desk in the world.
What predictions can we then make regarding the possible Iran policies of the Trump administration?
Even though he promised to tear up the Iran Deal during the all three presidential debates, analysts have pointed out that he “probably” won’t do that, especially as the deal has the support of other world powers such as EU and Russia, whose Tehran-allied president Putin Trump has wooed for a while. On the other hand, the Israeli commentator Zvi Bar’el has pointed out that if Trump actually moves on to “fiddle with the nuclear deal,” this would favor Iran, as it could portray the US as a violating party and enlist the help of others. What remains unsaid is that any such belligerence on Trump's part would also bolster the anti-reform and anti-deal hardliners in the Iranian establishment, some of whom have spoken favorably of Trump. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei came close to endorsing the business mogul when he said that “they call him a populist because he speaks the truth”.
What might make the Trump policy clearer is the make-up of his cabinet, in particular his national security team. This is where advocates of peace and democracy in Iran and the Middle East should find cause for worry.
Two of the main contenders for the position of Secretary of State are the former House speaker Newt Gingrich and the former UN ambassador John Bolton. Not only have both of these men supported a military attack on Iran and “regime change” there, they are some of the closest American “friends” of a notorious Iranian political-militant organization known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) which is almost universally hated inside Iran after having collaborated with Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War.
MEK was designated a terrorist organization by the US until it was de-listed in 2012. After the overthrow of its patron, Saddam Hussein, in 2003, the group became mostly irrelevant and no figure of repute in Iranian politics would go anywhere near it after the evidence of the major abuses it perpetrated was laid bare over the last few years.
John Bolton also has a long history of support for MEK and is a frequent guest at its rallies. In March 2015, as the talks surrounding the Iran Nuclear Deal were reaching a sensitive stage, he called for a military attack on Iran and “vigorous American support” for MEK “aimed at regime change in Tehran”. Last summer, Gingrich spoke at MEK’s rally in Paris alongside Turki bin Faisal, the former head of Saudi intelligence. Gingrich went as far as to solemnly bow down to MEK’s leader, Maryam Rajavi, calling her by her favored title, “President-elect”. When running for the Republican party presidential nomination in 2012, Gingrich openly called for “replacing the leadership of Iran”, saying that this could be accomplished within a year.
With Gingrich and Bolton likely to be appointed to two of the highest national security positions in the Trump administration, will Rajavi’s totalitarian cult gain influence?
Other possible members of a Trump administration are also leading anti-Iran hawks. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, tipped for the position of attorney general, has been paid handsome sums to appear at MEK rallies. New Jersey governor Chris Christie, head of the Trump transition team, has called Iran a “greater threat than ISIS”. Mike Flynn, possibly the next secretary of defense, is on the record as saying, “I’ve been at war with Islam, or a component of Islam, for the last decade” and complaining about Iran’s “lies, their flat out lies, and then their spewing of constant hatred, no matter whenever they talk”.
Last but not least, one of the primary funders of Trump’s campaign is casino-owner Sheldon G. Adelson, who endorsed him in May and gave $25 million to an anti-Clinton Super PAC last week. Adelson is known for having advocated a nuclear strike on Iran. This 25th richest man in the world is also a close ally of Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a close associate of Gingrich, whose 2012 campaign he supported. Adelson is so close to Netanyahu that he pumps 50 million dollars a year into a free news daily, Israel Hayom, that attacks Netanyahu’s domestic enemies on both the left and the right. The two are so close that when there a bill that would have hurt Israel Hayom was tabled in the Knesset, Israel's national legislature, Netanyahu opposed it at the cost of the collapse of his own coalition government. The next coalition government was formed only when his partners promised not to bring media-related bills that could hurt Adelson.
Trump’s Iran policy would depend on many factors, including his relationships with Moscow, Riyadh and Tel Aviv, his position on US military involvement in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, and the demands of the Republican-led Congress, the majority of which opposed the Iran Deal. But the links with MEK are a serious cause for worry, and the reason Iranians should be vigilant and make it clear that this cult doesn't speak for the people of Iran, nor they are genuine advocates of democracy in the country.

author: Arash Azizi


text:
Turkey Continues to Arrest Kurdish Politicians, Restrict Internet Use · Global Voices
Mel Plant

Selahattin Dermitas shown on a poster at a pro-HDP gathering in Germany. The text of the poster reads, ‘he doesn't play anything except for the baglama!’ Dermitas has asked his lawyer to bring the Turkish stringed instrument for him to compose songs in solitary confinement. Creative commons.
Turkey's post-coup crackdown continues to make international headlines in its fourth month, with November bringing an attack on independent media outlets and the arrests of multiple politicians from the pro-Kurdish opposition People's Democatic Party (HDP), including the party's co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.
The party, which also advocates for women's and LGBTQ+ rights alongside those of other minority groups as well as the Kurds, first entered parliament last year. There are a total of 59 HDP parliamentarians.
On November 4, Demirtas and Yuksekdag were arrested alongside eight other HDP parliamentarians in connection with an anti-terror investigation. Reports initially claimed arrest warrants had been issued for all 59 HDP MPs, though this has since been proven false. A total of 14 arrests warrants have been issued.
bu gece 5.148.085 kişinin iradesi gözaltına alındı
— Melda Onur (@meladaonur) November 3, 2016
Tonight 5,148,085 people's votes have been placed under arrest
The HDP members were arrested for refusing to answer prosecutors’ questions in a counter-terrorism probe targeting the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Members of HDP also stand accused of supporting and even acting as a political proxy for the PKK, with whom the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in Ankara recommenced hostilities last year after a devastating bombing in the eastern city of Suruc.
The HDP co-Mayors of Diyarbakir, a major Kurdish majority city in the country's south-east, were also detained on October 25 under the anti-terrorism investigation.
The measures leave many citizens disenfranchised. Notably, all three MPs belonging to Diyarbakir's Hakkari district, which voted 83.7% for the HDP, have been detained.
On November 6, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim accused the HDP of money laundering:
For years they transferred the money we sent for the municipalities to terror. Whoever harms this nation will pay for it, there is no other way. Not only those bombing and burning, but also those supporting terror.
AKP Istanbul MP Burhan Kuzu tweeted:
İnsanın aklına gelmiyorda değil;siyaseten halkın tamamen desteğini kaybeden HDP bir çıkış yolu olur mu diye kendilerini içeri attırmasınlar?
— Burhan Kuzu (@BurhanKuzu) November 7, 2016
It's not that it doesn't come to mind; having completely lost public political support, in looking for a way out, the HDP could get themselves thrown inside [prison]?
While HDP has strong support among some Turks on the left of the political spectrum, others tend to agree with the government view that HDP is supportive of terrorism.
Akp-Feto-Hdp-Pkk Her kötülükte sizin parmağınız var Sizler olmasaydınız Türkiye cennet olurdu #HdpkkFetoİngilizPiyonudur
— Burak (@Mathematicis) November 7, 2016
AKP – FETO [Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation] – HDP – PKK You have your fingers in every evil. If it weren't for you, Turkey would be heaven. #HDPandPKKarePawnsoftheEnglish
Almost immediately after the arrests, Diyarbakir was the site of a bomb attack which killed 11 and injured over 100 people. Turkish government officials and media assigned blame to the PKK. The Diyarbakir head of the DBP (Democratic Regions Party), a Kurdish party affiliated with the HDP, Cungus Recai Altay, lost his life in the attack.
After a few hours, responsibility for the blast was claimed by the Islamic State. This is a first for the group, which has never before claimed responsibility for any of its attacks on Turkish soil (including the 10 October 2015 Ankara attack, the deadliest in Turkey's history, which killed 103).
On November 6, however, the Kurdish splinter group TAK (Kurdistan Freedom Falcons) also claimed responsibility for the attack.
A coalition of the ruling AKP and other opposition parties CHP and MHP voted in May to strip 138 MPs facing criminal investigations of their immunity including 50 from HDP. The arrests are also partially validated by Turkey's current state of emergency law. HDP has announced a parliamentary boycott in protest of the arrests.
Protests against the arrests have occurred not only throughout Turkey but also in major European cities. Some 3,000 are estimated to have protested in the London district of Haringey and demonstrations spread as far afield as Tokyo. The son of an HDP MP was beaten heavily by police and hospitalised during a protest in Istanbul. Below is footage from a pro-HDP rally in Kurdish-populated Amude, Syria.
Kurds in Amude, Rojava rallied in support of HDP today @hawarnews pic.twitter.com/vgpL6kAIgQ
— Mutlu Civiroglu (@mutludc) November 8, 2016
In the aftermath of the arrests, the Turkish government enacted perhaps its most far-reaching ever restrictions on internet use.
While slowing of the internet and restriction of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are common after terrorist attacks and anti-opposition attacks, internet users in Turkey reported that Whatsapp and Instagram had also been restricted.
While use of social media is not always expressly banned, Turkish authorities utilise throttling to slow social media traffic to almost zero, preventing access.
Turkish internet users are by now well adapted to the use of VPN and proxy services to bypass bans. TunnelBear offered on November 4 free and unlimited VPN access to users in Turkey. However, the government responded by banning the VPN provider and several others. TorProject turned to Twitter on the same day to offer help bypassing Tor bans in Turkey.
Prime Minister Yildirim stated that the restrictions were a “security measure”.
Leader of the opposition CHP (Republican People's Party) Kemal Kilicdaroglu spoke out against the arrests, as did other members of the CHP:
Bu gece yapılan sadece darbe değil aynı zamanda ülkeyi bölme harekatıdır! TBMM bir kez daha bombalanmıştır!
— Sezgin Tanrikulu (@MSTanrikulu) November 4, 2016
What was done tonight is not only a coup but also an operation to separate the country! TBMM [Grand National Assembly of Turkey] is now bombed once more!
MHP (Nationalist People's Party) leader Devlet Bahceli criticised the CHP, saying their support of HDP parliamentarians was tantamount to support of terrorism.
Others also criticised the CHP's show of solidarity:
#AtatürkünPartisiCHP Buna inanan var mı? CHP Terör örgütlerinin Avukatı,HDP'nin arka bahçesi oldu. Atatürk yaşasaydı ilk CHP'yi kapatırdı.
— Ruya (@ruyaselcuk) November 8, 2016
#CHPIsAtaturksParty Is there anyone who believes this? CHP is a terrorist organisation's lawyer, it became the backyard of the HDP. If Ataturk [founder of Turkey and the CHP] was alive, he would be the first to close the CHP.
HDP's co-leaders Demirtas and Yuksekdag are being kept in F-Type high security prisons in Edirne and Kocaeli respectively. F-Type prisons are designed for members of armed organisations, those convicted of organised crime and prisoners serving aggravated life sentences. The facilities have been strongly criticised by Human Rights Watch.
Demirtas’ lawyer stated that his books and clothes were seized upon arrival at the prison and that he is being kept in an isolated cell. The politician requested that his lawyer bring him a baglama, a Turkish string instrument, so that he can write and sing songs while in prison.
The stripping away of independent media and the cranking up of state propaganda over the last two years or so is beginning to bear fruit for the ruling party.
The latest A&G poll estimates that if a general election were to happen in Turkey now, the AKP would gain the super majority and the HDP would fail to pass the country's 10% electoral threshold.

author: Mel Plant


text:
Withdrawal of Large Currency Bank Notes Creates Panic in India · Global Voices
Rezwan

500 Indian Rupees note with the image of Mahatma Gandhi. Photo from Flickr by Marissa Garza. CC BY-NC 2.0
In the evening of November 8, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise announcement in a televised speech that 500 (US $7.50) and 1,000 (US $15.00) Indian rupee banknotes would be withdrawn from circulation at midnight. He said that this measure was taken to stop the circulation of black money and to wipe out counterfeit currency from the system.
Wow that's the mother of all headlines, RS 500/1000 notes out of circulation from now on. Anyone with black money is badly busted.
— Rahul Kanwal (@rahulkanwal) November 8, 2016
Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes cease to be legal tender. #IndiaFightsCorruption pic.twitter.com/mk5HV0N0Ro
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) November 8, 2016
That means the withdrawn high denomination notes cannot be used for transacting any business or stored for later use, but can be deposited into personal accounts or exchanged for value (up to 4,000 rupees) at any of bank branches or at any post office until December 30, 2016. Emergency services like hospitals and transport operators will continue to accept old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes for payment for 72 hours following the announcement.
No need to panic. Just deposit your Rs 500/1000 notes in your bank account. Problem is only for those with unaccounted cash and #BlackMoney.
— Amish Tripathi (@authoramish) November 8, 2016
People queued at ATMs during the night to withdraw bills in small currency notes to meet their day-to-day spending. The bad news is that many ATMs have been limited to 2,000 rupees a day for the next few days.
Queues at atms in #mumbai after the Indian government announces Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes would no longer be valid from midnight pic.twitter.com/lTSuuSrHdi
— Suranjana Tewari (@suranjanasays) November 9, 2016
No petrol pump accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes in Delhi and Noida @dpradhanbjp https://t.co/D6SmGMBPwb
— Sanjay Bragta (@SanjayBragta) November 8, 2016
People can still use balances in their bank accounts to pay for their expenses by cheque or through methods such as Internet banking, mobile wallets and credit or debit cards. However, those who do not have any bank account will face tremendous problems.
Spare a thought for all the maids, drivers, too. They also get paid their salary in Rs500 notes. Hope the Govt has massive outreach program.
— Anupam Gupta (@b50) November 8, 2016
Two new 500 and 2,000-rupee denomination notes with higher security features will be issued in a few days time by the country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
According to a study conducted by the Indian Statistical Institute, an average of 250 notes out of every 1 million notes in circulation in India are fake. The latest fake notes with the picture of Mahatma Gandhi are so perfect that it is hard to identify them from the real notes.
The same study revealed that fake currency notes with a face value of 700 million rupees are infused into the system every year and that law enforcement agencies can intercept only a third of them. There are also claims that militants operating against India are funded by fake versions of the 500 rupee note.
Why Modi’s move to ban Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes is such a big deal, explained in one chart https://t.co/5CZv68Hgda pic.twitter.com/zVzIN7w0Bs
— Quartz India (@qzindia) November 8, 2016
The monetary value of 500 and 1,000 notes in circulation are way higher than any other denominations, more than 80% of the circulation. With these notes out of circulation overnight, the Modi government has created an opportunity to clean up the monetary system as the old fake currencies will be useless after that.
In the Indian context, black money means undeclared incomes or assets earned through legal or illegal means, for which income and other taxes have not been paid. Many businessmen under-invoice their exports and over-invoice their imports from tax haven countries to avoid tax. The bribe money taken by politicians, political parties and corrupt higher officials of government are invisible in the Indian monetary system. These people resort to large cash transactions in real estate or jewelry to use that undeclared money or siphon it abroad into tax havens through illegal channels.
The Indian government recently announced a four-month amnesty ending October 31 to tax evaders, which ended in almost US $10 billion in undeclared income and assets being regularised with a fine.
The withdrawal of the high denomination notes is very bad for cash-driven industries like luxury, jewelry and real estate, and it remains to be seen what the impact on the economy will be. However, some people lauded this move:
Really great move this to ban Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes post midnight.
The timing and the secrecy, worth lauding.#NoToCorruption
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) November 8, 2016
Great move to counter #BlackMoney and choke #TerrorFinance : ban Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes. We have been asking for this for 3 years now.
— shamika ravi (@ShamikaRavi) November 8, 2016
While some did not agree:
I don't pay my domestic help in Rs. 100 notes. It's always Rs. 500 or 1000. So this “poor people don't have those notes” fallacy won't fly.
— Madhu Menon (@madmanweb) November 8, 2016
And some also made light of the move:
Narendra Modi Allowed Rs 500 and Rs 1000 Notes In Hospitals Because He Knew Many People Will Have Heart Attack After The News ;) #BlackMoney
— Sir Ravindra Jadeja (@SirJadeja) November 8, 2016
Such a bad year for ‘notes’. First, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 disaster, now Rs 500 and 1000 notes are banned! #Blackmoney
— Varsha Singh (@varshasinghmcx) November 8, 2016
Blogger and writer Amit Verma commented:
A significant chunk of India's economy is a cash economy. This move will hurt the poor the most. Already heard one businessman I know complain about how he'll pay his employees tomorrow. It's the people at the bottom of the ladder who will be affected by this the most in the short term.

author: Rezwan


text:
A French Videographer is Detained, Highlighting France’s Odd Use of ‘State of Emergency’ · Global Voices
Marie Bohner

Calais Jungle, January 17, 2016. Photo from Flickr user malachybrowne. Licence CC BY 2.0
French freelance videographer Gaspard Glanz was taken into custody on October 26 as he was filming a video of the dismantling of the Calais “jungle”, a massive refugee camp near Port of Calais, which was evacuated by French authorities on October 24, 2016.
Thirty-three hours after his arrest, Glanz was released with a restraining order barring him from all “locations where turmoil is predictable” and the district of Calais, France in particular “until the end of the state of emergency.” Glanz was also required to report every Saturday to the police office of Strasbourg which is his city of residence, 600 kilometers from Calais, thus complicating the pursuit of his work in Calais going forward.
The ordinance from the prefecture (administration in charge of delivering licenses) that details these measures and their area of implementation is based upon the state of emergency bill introduced in France after the November 2015 attacks. This bill is still in effect today. In this context, the head of the prefecture, as local representatives of the State's power, may establish Security Zones. The Calais region was designated as a security zone on October 23, 2016.
The Facts
Glanz recalled the story of his arrest on his website, Taranis News. Describing the events leading to his arrest, followed by his long detention, he claimed that the arrest came “from the highest level of national authority”.
Initially, he was accused of entering the premise of the camp without press accreditation – Glanz requested press accreditation but did not obtain it – in “a territory protected by the state of emergency”.
Shortly after, he was also accused of stealing a walkie-talkie from the security forces in Calais. He proceeds to recklessly post a picture of the walkie talkie he took on Twitter.
He was also charged with public libel of twelve police officers from Rennes. Glanz posted on Facebook a group photo showing them in the street with the following caption: “Ein Reich, ein Volk, ein Führer” ( One Empire, One People, One Leader), reproducing (in German) the Nazi party's slogan in the 1930s. The word “nazi” is not explicit but the allusion is clear.
The Article 433-5 of the French penal code punishes outrage to public authority with 6 months of imprisonment and a fine of 7500 €. These last two charges earned him two upcoming trials in January and March 2017.
The one-person project that is Taranis News has a unique place in the French media landscape. It focuses on reporting on all social and protester movements in France – which have been numerous in the country in the last few days: from the protest against the Notre-Dame des Landes airport project to Calais operations, through the Nuit Debout [nightly sit-ins] demonstrations and the rallies against the labour law.
The kind of journalism practiced by Taranis News, of immersion among protesters, comprises a risk that is both physical – leaving reporters vulnerable to clashes between security forces and protesters – and judicial. And it is exacerbated by a taste for provocation, expressed in Gaspard Glanz's motto on his Twitter profile: “I love the smell of tear gas in the morning” – and as shown by his present woes.
Taranis News is indeed present everywhere where demonstrations occur in France, no matter what side the protesters are on, with or without repression. The reporter has even covered the current demonstrations by police officers striving for more resources. His trade requires the freedom to travel constantly in the field.
Thus, the restraining order that requires him to show up to the police station in his town weekly has become a major hindrance to his work:
M’obliger à pointer tous les samedi au commissariat de Strasbourg, ça va détruire mon activité professionnelle. Il faut comprendre que je me déplace en permanence, que j’ai fais des dizaines de milliers de kilomètres depuis le début de l’année en faisant des aller/retours entre Rennes, Nantes, Paris, Lille, Calais et je ne suis resté à Strasbourg que moins d’un mois en cumulé sur toute l’année. M’obliger à faire 1600km à 1800km aller/retour (si je suis à Rennes ou à Nantes par exemple) chaque semaine et juste pour pointer au commissariat de Strasbourg, économiquement cela va me laminer.
Requiring me to clock in every Saturday at the police office of Strasbourg will ruin my professional activity. Please understand that I travel constantly, that I have covered tens of thousands of kilometers since the beginning of the year, traveling both ways between Rennes, Nantes, Paris, Lille, Calais, and I stayed in Strasbourg just only less than a month in all in the whole year. Forcing me to travel 1600 to 1800 km back and forth (if I were in Rennes or Nantes for example) every week just to clock in at the police office of Strasbourg, it's going to squeeze me economically.
In a tweet from his personal account, the journalist Michel Mompontet pointed out to the existence of some lack of solidarity in the media world:
C'est bizarre ces journalistes installé(e)s qui t'expliquent avec assurance que @GaspardGlanz n'est pas journaliste puisqu'il est militant.
— Michel Mompontet (@mompontet) 29 octobre 2016
It is strange to hear all those well-established journalists explain that @GaspardGlanz isn't a journalist since he's an activist.
Because he embodies a journalism that is on the edge between information and action, Gaspard Glanz has made some enemies, not only with the security forces side but also in the media circles. Yet his video reports, almost always without any editorial comments but shown from the point of view of protesters, are always eagerly sought out by news agencies such as AFP and BBC.
Is he an activist? Absolutely, Glanz is quite close to the No borders association, the self-managed movement for the abolition of borders, and from the left of the French left ideology. Indeed, Regards.fr, a left-leaning media outlet was among the first to provide him support. Only a few other left-leaning media have shown support so far such as Mediapart. Mediapart's journalists wrote the following:
La multiplication des poursuites pour des motifs contestables au regard de la liberté d’expression donne le sentiment d’un harcèlement à l’égard de Gaspard Glanz. La rédaction de Mediapart suivra avec attention le déroulé de ses procès à venir car ils ne concernent pas seulement le sort d’un journaliste professionnel même s’il ne possède pas de carte de presse, mais bien le respect des droits et de l’indépendance de toute une profession.
The repetitive occurrence of legal prosecutions towards Glanz for questionable reasons with respect to free speech suggests harassment towards the journalist. The editorial board of Mediapart will scrutinize the course of his upcoming trials because this is of concern not only to the fate of this professional journalist (even if he does not hold a press card), but also of concern to the rights and independence of an entire profession.
Does his activism mean that he is behaving unethically? Or that he is not a “real” journalist? Glanz has been attacked in article comments and on social networks, with people often emphasizing the fact that he does not have a press card and embraces his status as an activist, something that many see as being at odds with journalistic ethics. To obtain a press card, one of the criteria in France is that one must be employed by a media outlet. That is not the case for many freelance journalists and it is not necessarily a guarantee of independence and press freedom.
The state of emergency, introduced in France following the November 2015 attacks, was extended for the fourth time last July, until the end of January 2017, in the aftermath of the Nice attack. This is important for Glanz, as his restraining order will theoretically end when the state of emergency ends. But this could be bound for an unlimited extension as the result of the ever-presence of terrorist threats.
The State of Emergency Bill was a common alibi that the government used recently to suppress protests. It was used for the first time during the COP 21 in Paris in November 2015. In a recent book collecting confidences made by François Hollande [current French President] and published (without his accord) “Un président ne devrait pas dire ça” [A president shouldn't say that] , we can read :
Le Président affirme dans le livre « C’est vrai, l’état d’urgence a servi à sécuriser la COP 21, ce qu’on n’aurait pas pu faire autrement », avoue sans fard Hollande. [Et il poursuit : «Imaginons qu’il n’y ait pas eu les attentats, on n’aurait pas pu interpeller les zadistes pour les empêcher de venir manifester. Cela a été une facilité apportée par l’état d’urgence, pour d’autres raisons que la lutte contre le terrorisme, pour éviter qu’il y ait des échauffourées] .
The president stated the following: “The truth is, the state of emergency has been used to secure the COP 21, something we couldn't have done otherwise… Let's imagine for a moment that the attacks hadn't occurred. We wouldn't have been able to arrest the Zadists (environmental activists) in order to prevent them from demonstrating. This was made easy by the state of emergency, it was used for other reasons than the anti-terror fight, in order to avoid clashes”.
In the current French political context, the president is extremely unpopular at the approach of the presidential campaign in 2017 with an approval rating around 13%.  Any live video recording of the dismantling of the Calais Jungle could be detrimental to the narrative of humanitarian treatment of refugees presented by the government. As the newspaper Le Monde put it:
La « com’» était presque parfaite… Dès la préparation du démantèlement de la « jungle » de Calais, la Place Beauvau [le Ministère de l'Intérieur] et la préfète du Pas-de-Calais, Fabienne Buccio, ont travaillé le dispositif d’évacuation du bidonville pour qu’il raconte la belle histoire d’une France terre des droits de l’homme et de l’asile. Tout a été pensé pour convaincre le public qu’il s’agissait d’une opération humanitaire.
The narrative was almost too good to be true… From the very preparation of the Calais “jungle” dismantling, the Place Beauveau [interior ministry] and the head of the prefecture of Pas-de-Calais Region, Fabienne Buccio, worked on the eviction process of the camp so that it follows the convenient story of a France that is a land of human rights and asylum. Everything has been conceived to persuade the public that it was a humanitarian operation.
While the reasons of the journalist's arrest remain open to controversy, it still sheds light on real concerns about how the state of emergency is – and probably will continue to be – used with complacency in France to muzzle a certain number of protests.
The prestigious French media follow the present situation of their colleagues in Turkeye and Hungary and they are very concerned. Unfortunately, they seem less inclined to question themselves towards « the procedural challenges » aimed at Gaspard Glanz under the cover of the State of Emergency.

author: Marie Bohner


text:
America, I Used to Love You · Global Voices
Omar Mohammed

“Millions around the world treasure the American ideal   that whatever your creed or background, America will welcome you.” Multi-ethnic, multicultural Mulberry Street, New York City, circa.1900. PHOTO: Public Domain by the Library of Congress (via Wikimedia Commons)
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — Two years ago, I flew from the coast of East Africa and landed in Phoenix, Arizona, to take up a journalism fellowship at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. While I had been visiting the US at least once a year since 2012, this was going to be the first time that I would live there. And it was an exciting moment for me.
My affection for America runs deep. Like many of my generation, I grew up watching American movies, dancing to her music, reading her writers and playing her sports. In fact, the country has had such a profound impact on me that I became a journalist in large part because of an American film. As a 14-year-old, I saw the great Denzel Washington play Gray Grantham in “The Pelican Brief“, a fearless reporter, who, with the help of Julia Roberts’ law student, exposes a murderous conspiracy by an oil magnate to stack the US Supreme Court with justices friendly to his interests. I was hooked. To paraphrase Method Man, “I was, like, this is the truth, forget everything else, this is what I’d like to do with my life.”
And the year I lived in Arizona only served to confirm my admiration for the US. I would say to people, “America is the only country I have ever lived in whose diversity was so welcoming that you can be exactly who you are and easily find acceptance in a community of like-minded people.” I even penned a love letter, waxing lyrical about her greatness.
Then Donald Trump happened.
Much has been written about the man’s xenophobia and racism. To me, the most extraordinary aspect of his rise is how easily he wears his bigotry. He doesn’t dog-whistle, to borrow a turn of phrase. He straight-up uses a regular human whistle, as a former colleague put it, and openly declares his disdain for Muslims, Latinos, African-Americans and women.
Yet people have responded to his message, voting for him in droves. The 13 million votes he secured to win the Republican primary was the highest number garnered by a party nominee in history.
I was dumbfounded. Who are these Americans supporting this bigot, I asked myself?
I couldn’t square Trump and his voters with the folks I got to know during my time in Phoenix. Like my professor, Dr. Bill Silcock, director of a journalism program that hosts people from all over the world, and a deeply spiritual man, with whom I would talk about Islam and its history.
Nor did Trump’s worldview match with Peter Bhatia, now the editor at the Cincinnati Inquirer. Bhatia and I bonded over our shared love of hoops and spent countless hours watching the Phoenix Suns play.
Trump’s intolerance is also at odds with the generosity I experienced spending time with Sandy Bahr — a life-time advocate for the environment — and her husband Dave, my host family, who treated me like a son. Nor did it match with the dedication of Kristi Kappes, who patiently, and always with grace, helped me and my colleagues better adjust to the complexity of life in America. Then there's Andrew Leckey, Kathryn McManus and Retha Hill, my mentors, whose wise counsel helped my career advance.
These people and the values they embody deepened my love for America.
So even as Trump was barreling his way to the Republican nomination, they provided me with a counterpoint to his narrow vision of America.
It turns out they were the exception rather than the rule.
On November 8th 2016, over 50 million Americans, mostly white, handed the presidency to a man, despite—or maybe because of—his contempt for non-white people.
Coming to terms with the idea that people voted for Trump either because they shared in his racism and bigotry, or that they were willing to overlook those things, is soul-crushing.
Perhaps it is unfair to call Trump voters racists. A friend of mine says labelling people like this is what has led to this moment. It is flippant and dismissive, and suggests an inability to understand those who think and act in ways different from us. It says to folks that their concerns and fears about the frenetic changes happening in their communities are not valid. Could it be that these voters, most of whom are white, chose Trump as a way to re-assert control over a country they may believe is leaving them behind? In other words, was it their way of saying, we still matter in this new America?
Perhaps. Yet, one cannot escape, in David Remnick's words, the cruelty of the decision to elevate a man who drips with disdain for those who don't look like him.
This “whitelash”, as the great Van Jones put it, has killed the very thing that makes America great.
Millions around the world treasure the American ideal — whether myth or reality, it is a powerful idea nonetheless — that whatever your creed or background America will welcome you. After all this is a country that chose as its president, twice, the son of a Kenyan, whose story, as he tells it, is possible nowhere else in the world. By electing Donald Trump, however, a huge chunk of white America is abandoning that promise and telling the world: fuck diversity, religious freedoms and the whole notion of pluralism. In post-11/9 America, the white man is back in charge, they said.
In all this, I have been thinking about Khizr Khan, the father of a soldier who died in Iraq, and what he said on the eve of the election. At a rally for Hillary Clinton, Mr. Khan engaged in a call-and response with the crowd.
“Donald Trump, would my son Captain Humayun Khan have a place in your America?” Mr. Khan asked.
The audience responded with a resounding, “No!”
“Would Muslims have a place in your America?”
“No!” the crowd bellowed.
“Would Latinos have a place in your America?”
“No!” they replied.
“Would African-Americans have a place in your America?”
“No!” they said, their voices growing louder.
“Would anyone who is not like you have a place in your America?”
He got a unanimous and vociferous, “No!”
Mr. Khan concluded by saying, “Thankfully, Mr. Trump, this isn’t your America.” 36 hours later, Mr. Khan has been rebuked. The country for which his son gave his life had sent him a message. This is now Trump’s country, the message said. And people who look like Mr. Khan may not have a place in this new America anymore.
And that breaks my heart.
Omar Mohammed is the current ICFJ's Knight International Journalism Fellow and a Code for Africa Lead in Tanzania, a continent-wide civic tech and data-journalism initiative. He is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial capital. Follow him on Twitter @shurufu.

author: Omar Mohammed


text:
Let’s Take Back Twitter, Please · Global Voices
Bernardo Parrella

Screengrab from the We Are Twitter campaign video
For many of us Twitter is the fastest, easiest way to find out and share what’s going on around us. It connects local communities and sparks urgent conversations, spreads vital information and energizes movements worldwide.
However Twitter Inc. is under serious threat of being sold and selling out its users. Wall Street thinks the company is a failure because it’s not raking in enough profit for shareholders. Wealthy corporations whom you think might have considered buying it—Google, Salesforce, Disney, Microsoft—have shown no interest.
This sad perspective is the reason a growing global movement is urging Twitter Inc. to work with its users to help them (us) find a way to buy the company and to turn it into a cooperatively-owned platform. Instead of selling out to the highest bidder, this movement wants the company to share its future with those whose participation make it so valuable: its users.
Sparked by a September Guardian article by Nathan Schneider, a journalist and scholar-in-residence at University of Colorado, Boulder, a campaign to make this happen is currently underway. It’s based on a multi-language petition which, at the time of writing, has just over 2,900 signatures, along with the hashtags #WeAreTwitter and #BuyTwitter. There is also a Loomio open group where decisions are being made about next steps, and a Slack channel for more in-depth discussions and the coordination of ad hoc projects.
Crucial tool for world current events
Twitter is like a Swiss army knife for digital activism and global conversation. For independent media it’s been an especially important source of information, and it has contributed to drastic changes in the way breaking news is reported around the world — and who controls the news.
Global Voices was a pioneer in the use of Twitter for information-gathering, using in to track and cover events and incidents first mentioned by local activists during, for example, 2011’s Arab uprising. This gave rise to an intricate web of relationship and connections between users tweeting and retweeting content, and the platform itself became an effective community-building tool.
In the same vein, Andy Carvin—then NPR’s social media strategist—started using Twitter creatively not just for news gathering/sharing and fact-checking in real time, but also to unearth the intimate stories of people were fighting for freedom on the streets and across the internet.
In both cases, Twitter provided a new and innovative way to provide news updates directly from the ground despite a lack of local correspondents or facing government censorship, a narrative that was eventually made much—in some cases too much—of by attention of Western mainstream media.
A people’s news network?
Another event that was defined by Twitter in more than one way is the recently concluded US presidential elections. Since last August, users have produced over one billion tweets, with both candidates’ accounts generating a steady stream of updates, for good or for bad, often countered with live fact-checking and meme-making events.
This diverse landscape gives substance to a recent statement by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who called the platform “the people’s news network”, and the campaign in favour of cooperative ownership of Twitter seeks to build on this. The campaign’s introductory letter addresses Twitter as a person, asking:
“What if you really were the people’s? Why don’t we figure out a way for us to buy you instead?
We want a say in the systems that shape our lives and communities. We want to find a way to create value together, and we want that value to reinforce the commons we’re creating, rather than being auctioned off to Wall Street.
We’d like to make a deal to ensure that you can keep being great, and that the greatness we achieve together might be your overriding purpose, rather than just feeding some investor’s portfolio. We think that, together, we can make a business that works, thrives, and innovates in wonderful ways.”
At this point, the campaign’s basic goal is to reach a fair deal—one that rewards and includes the people who helped create the Twitter we love (even if with flaws to be fixed, from hate speech to bots to excessive noise).
It’s a long shot, but…
Is this a totally crazy idea? Maybe. Not least because turning Twitter into a user-owned co-operative would require buy-in from its board and shareholders. That means hard decisions and lots of money. For now, the discussion is about the technicalities of such a deal. Most importantly, this “crazy idea” is igniting a new debate about alternative ownership models for social media and online ventures.
There is a growing trend toward building a more participatory and cooperative internet, as part of a larger platform cooperativism movement that is attracting individuals, businesses, and cities all over the world. Not everything on the web has to work like Google or Facebook. Decentralization and user involvement would be key features of a future internet – an internet of the people, by the people, for the people.

author: Bernardo Parrella