text:
Peruvian Singer Criticizes ‘Free Riders’ and Gets Dose of His Own Medicine · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Screenshot from video clip of song “Se la llevan fácil” posted on YouTube by user Julio Andrade.
In the last few days, Peruvian singer and songwriter Julio Andrade [es] has been in the spotlight among Peruvian netizens due to his most recent song “Se la llevan fácil” (roughly translated as “They earn it easily”), where he directly criticizes people who acquire fame and sometimes even fortune with little effort and less talent. “Se la llevan fácil” is an expression that means “they easily earn money, fame or recognition”.
Andrade [es] had several songs that became popular hits in the 90s. He is currently a second vicepresident of the Peruvian Association of Authors and Songwriters, known as APDAYC [es] for its name in Spanish, the entity in charge of protecting the assets of Peruvian authors and songwriters.
The website Comunidaria [es] shares the story of the origin of the song, on a post by Cholodecono [es]:
El cantante nacional Julio Andrade afirmó que no se esperaba la reacción del público en las redes sociales por el lanzamiento de su nueva canción: “Se la llevan fácil”. El tema, que critica a los artistas que apelan al facilismo para ganar fama, fue calificado por el músico como una simple “ocurrencia”.
[…]
“Estaba tomando unos tragos con un amigo, agarré la guitarra y me puse a cantar”, comentó Andrade a la web de Diario16.
Local singer Julio Andrade claimed he wasn't expecting that reaction from the public on social networks on the release of his new song: “Se la llevan fácil”. The song, which criticizes artists who appeal to the easiest way of doing something to gain fame, was described by the musician as a simple “witticism”.
[…]
“I was having some drinks with a friend, I took the guitar and started”, commented Andrade to Diario16 website.
Meanwhile, the blog El lado B de Manzarock [es] wonders “Who will take Julio Andrade away?” [es]:
Rajando de las “letras vacías y coreografías como el Baile del Caballo“, nuestro Julio Andrade, no contento ni satisfecho con ser partícipe de inenarrables composiciones que dudosamente puedo calificar de canciones, ahora reniega de aquellos que se la llevan fácil en el ancho y ajeno mundo de la música popular.
Talking bad about “shallow lyrics and choreographies such as Gagnam Style“, our own Julio Andrade, not happy nor satisfied with being part of indescribable compositions that can hardly be qualified as songs, is now ranting about those who earn it easily in the broad and alien world of pop music.
On Twitter, users have also been expressing themselves with the hashtag #YSeLaLlevanFacil, making fun of the song and referring to some current national events, like the omnipresent football matches:
Si gana [la selección nacional de fútbol de] Perú pondrán “We are the champions” pero si pierden pondrán #SeLaLlevanFácil porque las desgracias no vienen solas.
— A. Sotomayor (@Depecheboy101) September 6, 2013
If Peru [national football team] wins “We are the champions” will be played, but if they lose the music will be #SeLaLlevanFácil because misery loves company.
Con Todo Respeto shares the real purpose of the song:
Acaban de descubrir un nuevo método de tortura. Activistas protestan porque es demasiado cruel. #selallevanfacil pic.twitter.com/rdr5J8Zhk4
— Con Todo Respeto (@CarlosGGarcia_) September 3, 2013
A new torture method has just been discovered. Activists are protesting because it's too cruel. #selallevanfacil pic.twitter.com/rdr5J8Zhk4
Pedro Canelo mentions a movie released in the early 90s:
Thelma y Louise también escucharon a Julio Andrade #JulioAndrade #Selallevanfácil pic.twitter.com/HevXJEHJBD
— Pedro Canelo (@jovennostalgico) September 3, 2013
Thelma y Louise also heard Julio Andrade #JulioAndrade #Selallevanfácil pic.twitter.com/HevXJEHJBD
— Pedro Canelo (@jovennostalgico) September 3, 2013
User Giovanni Arce B. remembered part of Andrade's history:
Julio Andrade ya no se acuerda de “Mira la morena, qué cosa más buena cómo mueve su cucú [trasero]” toda una revolución intelectual #selallevanfacil
— Giovanni Arce B. (@GiovanniArce) September 3, 2013
Julio Andrade doesn't remember “Look at the brunette, such good thing, how she moves her backside”, what an intellectual revolution #selallevanfacil
Meanwhile, El Cuy del Perú posts an image from the video, a friar jumping from some point of the Green Shore, as the Limean shoreline is called, a well known tourist attraction:
El Fraile decidió #SUICIDARSE antes que oir #SeLaLlevanFacil de Julio Andrade, prefirio ser triturado por las rocas pic.twitter.com/7wUHCdSNUI
— El Cuy del Peru (@KuiCobaln) September 3, 2013
The friar decided to commit suicide before listening to Julio Andrade's #SeLaLlevanFacil, he preferred to be crushed by the rocks
Finally, a local newspaper quotes Andrade himself saying:
Julio Andrade: “‘#Selallevanfácil‘ fue creado para ser un viral publicitario” http://t.co/qv6ylkduzG
— El Comercio (@elcomercio) September 3, 2013
Julio Andrade: “‘#Selallevanfácil‘ was created to be an advertising viral” http://t.co/qv6ylkduzG

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


text:
Thai Airways Blacks Out Logo After Runway Accident · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A Thai Airways plane skidded off the runway at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok last Sunday after it suffered a landing-gear failure. The plane which departed from Guangzhou, China carried 288 passengers and 14 cabin crew. According to the airline, 14 passengers received minor injuries.
An Airbus Thai Airways plane. Image from Flickr user Aero Icarus, (CC BY-SA 2.0)
TG679 Guangzhou-Bangkok experienced incident while landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport.14 passengers were slightly injured and sent to hospital.
— Thai Airways (@ThaiAirways) September 8, 2013
But it was the airline decision to cover the plane logo with a black paint in an apparent bid to protect its image which made the global headlines. The airline claimed that it was standard “crisis communication rule”. However, the global airline network Star Alliance denied that it has a policy of covering up plane logos during accidents:
Regarding the painting over of logos on the aircraft of @ThaiAirways flight 679. This is not in line with @staralliance crisis (1/2)
— Star Alliance (@staralliance) September 9, 2013
guidelines. It would appear that the official quoted was misinformed. (2/2)
— Star Alliance (@staralliance) September 9, 2013
This was subsequently confirmed by Thai Airways
2. Thai Air statement contd: “…the Company also clarifies that it is NOT a Star Alliance policy or procedure to de-identify aircraft.”
— Newley Purnell (@newley) September 9, 2013
Covering the Thai Airways logo with a black paint. Image from @RichardBarrow
This video was taken after the landing accident:
Below are some reactions on Twitter
I bet @ThaiAirways is now regretting painting over their logo. These days with social media, airlines cannot get away with that anymore.
— Richard Barrow (@RichardBarrow) September 10, 2013
@RichardBarrow @ThaiAirways best approach, has always worked for me, don’t crash your planes. That way you save on black paint.
— Stuart McDonald (@travelfish) September 10, 2013
Blocking out the airline logo little help to travellers who now face delays at airport until Wednesday. http://t.co/Wa8tKsw35t
— Justin Barnett (@beemababy) September 10, 2013
@staralliance How could they be misinformed? Maybe pre-alliance crisis guidelines? I'm not saying what they did was wrong, just strange
— Agust Beaumont (@Saragermen) September 9, 2013
Some passengers have complained that they received little assistance from airline personnel after the accident. But airline officials have denied this accusation.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Mong Palatino


text:
UNESCO Patron of First SEE Science Promotion Conference in Serbia · Global Voices
Danica Radovanovic

The Center for the Promotion of Science (CPN), under UNESCO patronage, is hosting the First Regional Science Promotion Conference with the aim of gathering science promotion professionals, practitioners and enthusiasts from Southeast Europe. The conference program will discuss science from a scientific, but also from an educational and economic point of view.
The joint Conference Conclusions and Action Plan, as the result of the First Regional Conference, should help bring science promotion higher on the agenda in each of the participating countries and secure the sustainability of wider engagement of science in society.

author: Danica Radovanovic


text:
VIDEO: Exploring the Galapagos Islands with Google Maps · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Google Maps has released a video on their trip “to collect 360-degree Street View imagery” of the Galapagos Islands.
The blog Lat Long explains:
The extensive Street View imagery of the Galapagos Islands will not only allow armchair travellers to experiences the islands from their desktop computer, but it will also play an instrumental role in the ongoing research of the environment, conservation, animal migration patterns, and the impact of tourism on the islands.
The project is part of a partnership with the Galapagos National Park, The Charles Darwin Foundation and Catlin Seaview Survey.

author: Silvia Viñas


text:
France Sees Great Potential in the Chinese Tourism Industry · Global Voices
Laurent Delors

The statistics this year for French tourism are a bit fuzzy. Minister of Tourism Sylvia Pinel remains cautious with the numbers while the results from Protourisme, the reference point for tourism studies, look gloomy [fr].
But in China, predictions for the tourism industry are crystal clear: the market is promising. Therefore, tour operators, especially French ones, have decided to advance development in this area, beginning with vacation resorts group Club Med.
China is a highly sought-after market for tourism, and for good reason. Tourism is a relatively new concept in the country [fr]. It began in the late 1990s, when Chinese employees were given two days of rest per week, and then nine holidays a year. As a result, tourism shot up dramatically. Now, Chinese spending abroad has grown 40 percent from 2011 to 2012 [fr].
We tend to think immediately of Chinese tourism abroad. The figures are in fact significant. According to the Business Insider, the number of overseas trips went from 10 million in 2000 to 83 million in 2012. But before setting off for foreign lands, the Chinese are interested in their own country first. Chinese domestic tourism far exceeds the international sort. A study shows [fr] that a total of 300 million Chinese tourists have travelled within China, compared to 15 million international tourists, generating 110 billion US dollars, against 30 billion US dollars for domestic tourism.
Chinese tourists (Marc Ben Fatma, license CC-BY-NC-2.0)
The trend represents a huge expansion opportunity for tour operators, many of whom have set up shop on the Chinese market. Havas Voyages Vacances, Mandarin Voyages, and Nouvelles Frontières are among the hundred or so agencies that have come to offer tours [fr] in mainland China.
Club Med drew attention recently when it announced its ambitious plans for China [fr].  The company intends to gain market share in the country, particularly since the European market, and more specifically the French market, is in a steep downswing. Its goal is to win over some 200,000 customers by the end of 2015, with five villages and resorts opening in 2013. China will then become Club Med’s second-biggest market [fr]:
Les Chinois sont aujourd'hui 80.000 à prendre le chemin des villages. Et en 2015, avec 200.000 GM (gentils membres), cinq villages locaux et des hôtels-resorts “By Club Med” créés pour l'occasion, la Chine deviendra le 2 marché du Club. Plus globalement, c'est en Asie que le Club pourra le mieux poursuivre sa stratégie de montée en gamme, grâce à l'enrichissement des classes moyennes.
There are 80,000 Chinese tourists who will go to Club Med resorts this year. In 2015, with 200,000 members, five local villages and resorts built for the occasion, China will become the second-largest market for the company. In fact, from a global perspective, it's in Asia that Club Med will be able to pursue its high-end marketing strategies thanks to the growing wealth of the Asian middle class.
The investment required to build these deluxe villages, especially the one planned for the tropical islands of Hainan province in southern China [fr], where the wealthiest Chinese investors can be found, promises to be colossal. The two main shareholders, AXA PE and Fosun, launched a friendly takeover bid for the Club to obtain 50.1 percent of the capital and voting rights. The move would lift short-term shareholder constraints, immediately free up some liquid assets, and allow them to accelerate their international strategy at will.
In an interview with Le Figaro, Fosun chairman Guo Guangchang made no secret of the takeover bid’s purpose at this turning point in Club Med’s development:
Cela fait trois ans que Fosun est actionnaire du Club Med. L’offre, que nous présentons avec Axa PE et le management, a deux objectifs. Le premier est de donner au Club un actionnariat stable pendant une période minimum de cinq ans. Le second est de l’accompagner dans son développement sur le marché asiatique, et tout particulièrement en Chine.
Fosun has been a shareholder in Club Med for three years. The bid we’re presenting with Axa PE and management has two aims. The first is to give the Club a stable shareholder base for a minimum period of five years. The second is to support its development in the Asian market, particularly in China.
For now, the Court of Appeals is holding up the bid until it rules on appeals filed by minority shareholders. The ruling should come by the end of September. These minority appeals dispute the validation of the takeover bid by the Financial Market Authority (French initials, AMF). So far, the grounds of the dispute remain unclear.

author: Laurent Delors


text:
GV Face: Understanding #RussiaVotes 2013 with Kevin Rothrock and Andrey Tselikov · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

On September 8, 2013 millions of Russians lined up to vote in local and regional elections throughout the country. Dozens of executive and legislative positions were up for grabs, including mayor’s seats in Moscow and Yekaterinburg, where prominent opposition bloggers Alexey Navalny and Evgeny Roizman challenged the status quo in uniquely contested races.
Our RuNet Echo editors Kevin Rothrock and Andrey Tselikov got together on Google Hangout on Air on September 13, 2013 to discuss the aftermath of #RussiaVotes and also gave their insight into Russia's provocative and often humorous citizen media scene.
These are the questions they addressed:
Tweet @globalvoices with #RussiaVotes or leave a comment below to give us your thoughts on these topics. Read more on our special coverage page Russia Votes.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


text:
Labour Code Promotes Debate on Sexuality and Racism in Cuba · Global Voices
Sandra Abd'Allah-Alvarez Ramírez

[All links lead to Spanish language websites.]
The draft of the Cuban Labour Code is being discussed as much in workplaces as in digital spaces based on the island. The law proposal, approved by the National Assembly of People's Power on December 2012, was launched on 10th July, creating debate in every workplace in the country.
Since the publication of the regulations in Cuban official media, the document has also drawn the attention of various bloggers residing on the island. Journalist Francisco Rodríguez produced two responses to the aforementioned draft in his blog PaquitoeldeCuba.
In the first of them, Rodríguez, besides making specific proposals about amendments to the wording of the law, also encourages the sex diverse community to participate in the debate:
El reconocimiento del derecho al trabajo con independencia de la orientación sexual o la identidad de género de las personas podría incluirse en una nueva ley, si todos los trabajadores y las trabajadoras que somos homosexuales, bisexuales o trans proponemos en nuestras secciones sindicales una adición al anteproyecto de Código de Trabajo que actualmente se discute en Cuba mediante consulta popular.
The recognition of the right to employment regardless of the person's sexual orientation or gender identity could be included in a new law, if all us workers who are homosexual, bisexual or transsexual propose an addition to the Labour Code draft in our union sections, which is currently being discussed by way of referendum.
Cruz's main preoccupation, exposed in his second post, is the need for political will in the voices of the decision-makers of the country, so that those and other suggestions on the inclusion of homosexuals, the transgendered, etc. are taken into account in the mentioned law.
Los expertos que redactaron la propuesta de ley no solo obviaron cualquier mención explícita a la discriminación por orientación sexual e identidad de género en el entorno laboral, sino que tampoco pusieron en blanco y negro el derecho al trabajo para las personas discapacitadas y seropositivas, aunque en este último caso sí se mantiene una protección salarial cuando asistan a las consultas médicas programadas.
Not only did the experts who wrote the law proposal avoid any explicit mention of discrimination due to sexual orientation and gender in the working environment, but they also did not establish explicitly the right to employmentfor those disabled and HIV-positive, although in the latter's case, there is indeed a wage protection for when they attend scheduled medical consultations.
Meanwhile, on 10th August the doctor Alberto Roque published an open letter to the president of the National Assembly, Esteban Lazo, in his blog, in which he leaves “evidence of the discriminatory acts that persist in our country's work environment.”
Furthermore, in the missive, Roque reveals that discriminatory concepts are used in the text, some of them surmounted in the social sciences, such as that of race, while demanding the inclusion of workplace harassment within the mentioned law to be assessed:
Considero necesario incluir en el Anteproyecto un artículo específico que defina el acoso moral en el trabajo, su identificación, así como hacer mención a las obligaciones de la administración y del Sindicato de crear espacios y ambientes seguros para los trabajadores víctimas de mobbing.
I consider it necessary to include a specific article in the draft that defines psychological harassment at work, its identification, and mention the obligations of the administration and of the union to create safe spaces and atmospheres for workers who become victims of mobbing.
The new Labour Code has also provoked analysis on how it contradicts other already-existing laws in the country, in particular the Constitution of the Republic. In the post Solavaya con este código, Rogelio Manuel Díaz Moreno, member of the Observatorio Crítico [Critical Observatory], admits that “the draft violates the secular state and discriminates among religions, given that one enjoys two days of holiday and the rest, not one.”
More recently, the lawyer Deyni Abreu, founder of the project Alianza Unidad Racial [Racial Unity Alliance], has been circulating her notes about the Labour Code through the web, some of which are more general while others are specifically related to racism and discrimination in Cuba. With respect to the latter, she thinks:
Un inconveniente puntual en los centros de trabajo se observa en la inexistencia de herramientas legales que protejan al trabajador, si el empleador lo humilla o comete maltrato, irrespeto, desde su jerarquía, proveyéndose de acepciones racistas o si otro trabajador origina un conflicto desde el imperativo del color de piel.
A punctual disadvantage in workplaces is observed in the lack of legal tools that protect the worker if the employer humiliates, mistreats or disrespects him, from their hierarchical position, using racist terms, or if another worker causes a conflict stemming from the skin colour.
Abreu considers the Cuban Criminal Code's plans with regard to racial discrimination to be insufficient, and recognises the need for the present law project to strongly include this matter. Likewise, she believes that all possible discrimination of an explicit nature needs to be named.
On 15th October, the discussion period for the Labour Code Draft in Cuba closes, a debate that has been organised jointly by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and the Cuban Workers’ Union, the only organisation of its type in the country.

author: Sandra Abd'Allah-Alvarez Ramírez


text:
Tanzania’s Parliament Turns Into a Boxing Ring · Global Voices
Omar Mohammed

Honorable Joseph (Sugu) Mbilinyi resisting attempts by security officers to remove him from Parliament last week. Photo Courtesy of Jamii Forums.
Over the last few years, Tanzania's parliament has become fodder for fantastic theatrics. Random eruptions of arguments followed by mass walkouts, usually by the opposition, has turned parliamentary sessions into must-watch television.
In April 2011, for example, Ezekiel Wenje, a member of parliament (MP) from the leading opposition party Chadema, drew the ire of the Speaker Anna Makinda with his comment that certain government positions are selected via the ‘dark market’. Ruling party MPs from Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) protested and demanded that Wenje retract his statement. He refused, upon which a shouting match broke out.
As Tanzanian blogger Subi wrote at the time, heard within this exchange was the phrase, “tufunge mlango tupigane” (“let's close the doors and fight”).
In the end it never came to that, as Wenje took back his statement, and things proceeded with relative calm. But there were a few other close calls. In February 2013, live coverage of a session had to be suspended because things became too heated. And then there was the incident five months ago, when a Chadema MP was thrown out of the chamber for interrupting a colleague of his from CCM, during a debate on the budget.
That same week, Bunge, as Tanzania's parliament is colloquially known, witnessed something that will forever live in infamy. Honorable Peter Serukamba, a CCM MP, cursed out his colleagues after they booed him as he stood up to speak. Via Bongo5.com,
Serukamba's ‘f**k you’ moment prompted one commenter, a voter from his constituency, identifying himself as Dr Mvano Khalidi, to apologize on Facebook for his MP's conduct:
Poleni sana waheshimiwa wabunge kwa kutukanwa ila tunaomba rathi kwa niaba ya wana kigoma wote kwa kosa alilolifanya mbunge wetu kutoka kigoma ulimi ulitereza jumani hayakuwa makusudio yake kusema vile mimi kuma mzalendo wa mkoa wangu.
My apologies honorable members of parliament for the insult thrown at you, we ask your forgiveness on behalf of everyone from Kigoma, for the error committed by our MP from Kigoma his tongue slipped and he did not intended to say what he said, I am a patriot for my region.
On Thursday, 5 September, 2013, matters got even farther out of hand. An opposition MP Joseph Mbilinyi of Chadema found himself embroiled in a physical altercation with parliamentary security officers that surprised and shocked in equal measure.
The whole thing began after Mbilinyi, a pioneer hip hop artist turned politician, and his colleagues from his party refused to abide by an order to leave the House issued by Deputy Speaker Job Ndugai.
Things came to a head after Freeman Mbowe, the leader of the opposition in parliament, refused to sit down after being asked to do so by Ndugai. From newspaper The Citizen:
Mr Ndugai ordered that the Chadema supremo be kicked out for disregarding his orders to sit down. Mr Mbowe was protesting the move by the Deputy Speaker to bar him from moving a motion to block continuation of the debate on the Bill for Amendment of the Constitutional Review Act 2013.
Chaos soon ensued on the floor as other opposition MPs rushed to form a human shield around Mr Mbowe to prevent the security men from throwing him out.
On the popular platform Jamii Forums, photos showing Mbilinyi resisting attempts by officers to remove him from the House floor generated considerable debate about the nature of politics in Tanzania. One commenter by the name of “Stoudemire” posed this question:
Namna hii kweli tuwape vijana nchi kweli? Waacheni wazee wasinzie bungeni tu inatosha!
With this attitude, should we give the country to young people? [Mbilinyi is one of the youngest MP] Our elders are good enough even if they doze off in Parliament!
Another contributor by the name of Tata suggested that the whole incident pointed to the inability by Deputy Speaker Ndugai to control the session. Tata also implied that the behaviour by MP Mbilinyi may have been because he was under the influence:
Amenifurahisha huyu Naibu Spika kwa kudai ni aibu ya kiongozi wa upinzani kuongoza wapinzani kutoka nje wakati kimsingi hii ni aibu yake kwa kushindwa ku-manage kikao…la hii move ya mwisho ya huyu mheshimiwa Sugu imeniacha hoi kwa kicheko. Inaonekana jamaa ama alikuwa amepata “chang'aa” au alikuwa amevuta haya masigara yanayopendwa na vijana.
The Deputy Speaker makes me laugh when he suggests that it is shameful for the leader of the opposition to instruct other opposition members to leave the chamber, when in fact it is a shame for him to be unable to control the session. But this move by Honorable Sugu [Mbilinyi] has left me dead with laughter. It seems like he was drunk on something or may have smoked these cigarettes preferred by the youth.
On Twitter, Sajjad Fazel (@SajjadF) argued that the incident may have undermined Chadema's credibility:
@jjmnyika Sasa alichofanya Mh. Joseph Mbilinyi, Inaonyesha picha mbaya saana kwa CHADEMA na kwa wa Tanzania wote.
— Sajjad Fazel (@SajjadF) September 5, 2013
What Hon. Joseph Mbilinyi has done gives a really negative image of Chadema and Tanzanians as a whole.
Over on the blogosphere, a video clip from the television channel ITV made the rounds, immortalizing the incident for eternity. Via GongaMx:
In her 2011 post, Subi had warned:
Huenda…Bunge la Tanzania lingeingia kwenye orodha ya viroja vya Wabunge wa Mabunge (kama haya, bofya hapa utizame vidoe Youtube) ya nchi mbalimbali Duniani  kupandwa jazba kiasi cha kujikuta (pasina kufahamu) wanageuza kumbi za Bunge kuwa viwanja vya ‘ndondi’
If it continues, Tanzania's parliament will reach a stage where it will make it into a list of those parliaments (like these ones in this link on YouTube) in some parts of the world where passions rise so high as to turn Parliament into a boxing ring.
With this latest incident, Subi has proven to be an accurate oracle.
UPDATE: In this story of the goings on in Tanzania's parliament, an incident that took place in 2008 is worth including. Here is the Mikocheni Report blogger Elsie Eyakuze's recounting of it:
The former Attorney General, former Minister of Infrastructure, currently beleaguered owner of a few billion ‘vijisenti’ [little cents]. Mr. Andrew Chenge was caught on CCTV a few nights ago doing something very fishy inside Parliament. Mheshimiwa [the right honorable] was filmed entering the building after hours in the company of a Parliament staff member, and sprinkling an unknown substance on every all the MPs’ seats. He spent an especially long time hovering around the Speaker's chair. I am guessing it was not linen freshening spray.
At the time, Chenge was under investigation by the British government's Serious Fraud Office for corruption involving the British arms manufacturer BAE.
Four years later, after Tanzania's Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau ‘failed’ to discover evidence of wrongdoing, the Director of Public Prosecution dropped the charges.
That day in parliament, however, it was unclear what, exactly, Chenge was doing. But for Ms. Eyakuze it seemed that the former Attorney General had resorted to the dark arts to get himself out of trouble:
Your goat, Mr. Chenge, is roasted. Your chickens have come home and they are roosting. You are reaping what you sowed, et cetera. What you have left in the public eye at this point is a tiny little modicum of dignity, that stuff that we so willingly accord to old men with money and pot-bellies. I suggest you hold on to it with both hands. Sneaking around ju-juing your fellow MPs isn't the way to do it.
Chenge is still in parliament and currently serves as the Chairman of the powerful Parliamentary Budget Committee.

author: Omar Mohammed


text:
Thailand’s Ex-Prime Minister Criticized for ‘Stupid Bitch’ Remark · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Former Thailand Prime Minister and opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva was criticized for delivering a speech that allegedly insulted women and his rival Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Speaking in an event organized by the Democrat Party, Abhisit questioned Yingluck’s support for a new reality TV show “Smart Lady Thailand”:
Thailand's Former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Image from Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
But I ask why do they do this project, why do they have to find a smart lady, why do they make a competition out of this? Because if they are looking for a stupid bitch, there would be no competition!
The project is under the government's Thai Women Empowerment Fund. The show features 12 contestants who have to show leadership skills.
Saksith Saiyasombut analyzed the transcript of the speech and concluded that Abhisit was also referring to Yingluck when he uttered the ‘stupid bitch’ remark:
Since Abhisit was talking about the female prime minister, it is safe to assume that not only he made a derogatory remark about her intelligence, but also specifically about her gender.
…while it is one thing to appear folksy and aggressive, it is an entirely another unacceptable thing to resort a misogynistic remark. There’s no doubt that Abhisit Vejjajiva is no more Mr. Nice Guy.
Major newspapers translated Abihisit’s controversial speech as ‘stupid woman’ and ‘stupid lady’. But Khaosod Online insisted that ‘stupid bitch’ is a more accurate translation:
To convey the shocking aspect of Mr. Abhisit′s remark, we had to resort to an English word so rude that public figures in the West would not consider uttering it to the large crowd of people, let alone in presence of the watching media, which also has a feminine quality. Hence, the word “bitch”.
Although we generally adhere to a universally practised principle of not printing vulgar words, we feel that softening Mr. Abhisit′s remark, like other media agencies have done, would amount to distortion of his words.
A group of women protesters wanted Abhisit to apologize for insulting women. But Abhisit has refused to apologize for his behavior and claimed that he did not insult anyone. He also cited Google which showed images of Yingluck if one searches for ‘stupid bitch’ on the web. But Bangkok Pundit believes this was an indirect admission that Abihist was referring to Yingluck in his speech:
…by Abhisit stating he is only saying/repeating what he saw on google, isn’t he directly linking what he said in the speech with Yingluck? He is making an inside joke when speaking to the Democrat faithful.  It would be an amazing coincidence (and poor choice of words which he has left uncorrected if it was an innocent mistake) if he was not referring to Yingluck….
Areva is disappointed with Abhisit:
Despite being educated in United Kingdom all his childhood life, Abhisit failed in separating politics from his deep-rooted resentment for Yingluck.
Women, regardless of nationality, are entitled to live in dignity. I do not think Abhisit will ever call his mother, wife, daughter and sisters “bitch” so why brand her that?
Veera Prateepchaikul reminded public leaders to be more careful in choosing the words they use in delivering speeches:
Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva shot himself in the foot when he uttered an ill-considered remark a man of his stature is not supposed to make in public.
Well, this sideshow  should at least serve as a good lesson for Mr Abhisit and other public figures — they should be careful when speaking in public, as their very own words could bounce back to bite them.
The original aim of Abhisit was to accuse Yingluck of being negligent of her duties since she is always on foreign trips. It seems a valid point since Yingluck was in Europe when Abhisit delivered the controversial speech. But the ’stupid bitch’ or ‘stupid woman’ remark distorted Abhisit’s legitimate intentions.


text:
Chinese Reactions to Tokyo Olympics 2020 · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Offbeat China blogs about mainland Chinese netizens initial reactions to the success of Tokyo in winning the 2020 Olympics.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Coercive Population Control in Three Villages in Northern Sri Lanka · Global Voices
Rezwan

Groundviews reports that women of three villages in Kilinochchi with a child under the age of five were summoned to Veravil divisional hospital to weigh their children and to receive a vaccination. According to the report the doctors and nurses used coercive language and manipulated medical information to convince those women to take Progestogen-only subdermal implants (POSDIs), a long-term hormonal birth control.

author: Rezwan


text:
Where Parody Ends and Politics Begin: Comedians Running for Office  · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Homens da Luta at Optimus Alive music festival, 2011. Photo by José Goulão on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The well-known musical parody group Homens da Luta (Men of Struggle) from Portugal have turned their Facebook page, with more than half a million followers, into the online front of an electoral campaign for this year's municipal elections.
The group has become notably famous for its improvisational comedy and musical street performances in the anti-austerity protests that have taken place in the country since early 2011, and later received a boost from an appearance in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011. In their performances, they parody revolutionary tunes while satirizing historical characters and invoking the term “struggle” as much as they can.
Now, one of the two brothers who lead the band, Nuno Duarte “Jel”, the nickname can be read as “hair gel”, is running for mayor of Cascais, one of the richest municipalities in Portugal, a coastal city just 30 kilometers west of the capital of Lisbon.
While the band mobilized and entertained masses in Portugal, for some critics, like João Silva Jordão, the “false resistance” of Homens da Luta [pt] has been a symbol of “the decay of the political class” and one of the factors that has helped “the Portuguese people to remain in a dizzying state of apathy”:
Um desses factores é precisamente a tendência para ridicularizar todos os que tentam ativamente questionar o sistema, e sobretudo, os que mostram raiva e verdadeira indignação contra um sistema político, financeiro e económico que é estruturalmente desenhado para manter a população subjugada e confusa. E o exponente maior desta tendência são, em Portugal, os ‘Homens da Luta’.
Democracy, parodied
In the Mexican city of Xalapa, a cat candidate, El Candigato Morris, didn't make it to the mayor's seat last June, but he gathered more than 160,000 likes on his Facebook page.
The trend of eccentric personas running for election is not new, but their success might be speeding up with social media.
For example, take Italian comedian Beppe Grillo and the political party he founded in 2009, the Five Star Movement, that won 25.55 percent of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies in the 2013 general election. Or Jón Gnarr, a popular comedic actor from Iceland with more than 72,000 followers on Facebook, who was elected mayor of the capital city Reykjavík in 2010. The humorous video of the campaign of the party he founded, The Best Party, went viral on YouTube.
In Brazil, more than 50 clowns ran as candidates in the 2012 municipal elections. The phenomenon followed the election of the popular clown-musician Tirica for a seat in Congress “with more votes than any other candidate in the [2010] elections,” the BBC reported. His name became a worldwide trending topic [pt] on Twitter, and the video of his campaign on YouTube has been watched more than 6.8 million times. He used Twitter (@tiririca2222, with 209,414 followers today) and Facebook (about 61,000 today), to disseminate his political slogans, such as:
O que é que faz um Deputado Federal? Na realidade eu não sei. Mas vote em mim que eu te conto. Vote no Tiririca, pior do que tá não fica.
One common ingredient among these particularly comic candidates is huge success on social media – even prior to becoming conventional political actors. In fact, their online popularity is often seen as appealing by political parties, who in turn invite them to run for elections together, as was the case of Homens da Luta and the invitation from the Portuguese Labour Party (PTP, in Portuguese).
A post on the website Plox speaks about that phenomenon [pt] in Brazil, pointing out Tiririca's affiliation with the Party of the Republic:
pois um bom candidato é um “puxador” que além de se eleger poderá render mais cadeiras legislativas para a legenda e, assim, ajudar a eleger colegas do partido. O Partido Republicano (PR), de Tiririca, é uma das siglas mais incentivadoras do humor na política.
Society of Spectacle 2.0
According to analysts on Brazil quoted by the BBC, the rise of popularity of this type of electoral celebrities may reflect disillusion with mainstream politicians. The fact is that contemporary political processes are now being fueled by heated campaigns taking place in the new agoras of today's hyper connected world: social media.
The subject has been addressed in a seminar organized by the Cásper Líbero Faculty in São Paulo on “communication and politics in the society of spectacle” (a reference to Guy Debord's The Society of Spectacle (1967), a critique of citizens as mere passive spectators “who have been drugged by spectacular images”).
At the seminar of 2012, Electoral Campaigns and Political Process in the Society of Spectacle [pt], researcher Synésio Cônsolo Filho, argued [pt] that:
nas redes sociais virtuais a comunicação assume um caráter imagético, marcado pelo entretenimento e dispersão de ideias
Blogger Marcelo Ariel from Santos in the state of São Paulo also made a link between the spectacularization of the electoral process and the elections result in his region:
Nenhum dos candidatos discutiu a fundo o ‘mito da governabilidade’, modos de neutralizar o tráfico de influência e o clientelismo, de superar a ‘política de eventos’ e o pior, cada um dos candidatos se apresentou como um evento em si mesmo.
None of the candidates has discussed in depth the ‘myth of governability’, ways of neutralizing the influence peddling, patronage, ways to overcome the ‘politics of events’ and – even worse – each candidate presented himself as an event in him/herself.
Still, in Portugal Homens da Luta, or Cascais na Linha (Cascais in the line, or in order, a play with words) as their Facebook page has been renamed to follow the motto of the independent candidacy, have turned a bit more sober and are doing what they can to convince voters without forgetting the cheer. Posts on their Facebook wall often attract hundreds of reactions. They create short videos presenting their ideas for the city, mixing humour with some concrete proposals that they promise to realize if elected.
The vote will take place on September 29, 2013 in Portugal. About 1,500 candidates are running for 308 municipalities.

author: Sara Moreira


text:
Kissing on Egyptian Streets · Global Voices
Ahmed Awadalla

A photograph circulating on Facebook of two young Egyptians kissing in the street stirred both outrage and admiration. Shared by Ahmed ElGohary, a commentator objected to ‘the lack of manhood’ entailed by sharing such photo. Others praised the beauty of it and its revolutionary sense.
Two young lovers kiss on the street in Egypt, shared by Ahmed ElGohary http://tinyurl.com/l3rozz9
Public display of affection is widely frowned upon in Egypt, as laws of public indecency could be used to prosecute those who publicly show affection or drink alcohol on the streets.
Alongside the photo, ElGohary shared lyrics of Youssra El Hawary's song On The Street. El Hawary an upcoming independent singer and her songs proved a youtube success. On The Street's lyrics read:
Some people curse each other, kill each other on the street,
Some people sleep on the floor on the street,
Some people sell their honor on the street,
But it would truly be a scandal if one day we forgot and kissed each other on the street!

author: Ahmed Awadalla


text:
Petition Call to Ban Ivory Trade in Hong Kong  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Two girls, Lucy Lan Skrine, aged 11, and Christina Seigrist, aged 8, who both live and go to school in Hong Kong, launched a petition at AVAAZ,org demanding the Hong Kong Government to destroy its entire stockpile of confiscated ivory, as a symbolic gesture to highlight the plight of tens of thousands of elephants that are being killed to supply the ivory trade.
Tom Grundy has more background about the local Hong Kong law on illegal ivory trade.


text:
Man Killed as Saudi Arabia Continues Hunt for 23 “Wanted” Persons in Awwamiya · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

On September 5, Saudi security forces raided Awwamiya, in the Eastern province, with armored tanks seeking to arrest activists from the 23 “wanted” list of 23 people. The houses of Fadhel Al-Safwani, Muntadhir Al-Subaiti and Mohammed Al-Labbad were stormed by forces under heavy gunfire. None of the three – out of the eight remaining “wanted” activists- were found. But due to the random fire, a number of people were injured and Ahmad Ali Al-Mislab, a 19 year old, was martyred. Twitter users from Awwamiya have reported that Ahmad ran to a neighbor's house after he heard a cry for help. He met with soldiers and tried to run away, but he was shot in the foot and back. Two youth took him back to his house, where he died in his father's arms. The spokesman for the Eastern Province Police Department told Reuters that Al-Mislab's father blamed random bikers who brought him home dead – a story the father denies. The father has published a written statement and a video holding the security forces and the Eastern Province Police Department responsible for the murder of his son and asking for justice and the trial of those involved.
Ahmed Mshikhs also wondered [ar]:
كانت #العوامية محاصرة بالمدرعات فكيف تجرأ ملثمان على دراجة نارية التجول اصلاً ونحن نعرف بأن ضوء اخضر لاستهداف كل الدراجات #الشهيد_أحمد_مصلاب
— ahmed Mshikhs (@mshikhs) September 5, 2013
Awwamiya was surrounded with tanks. How did two masked men on a bike dare to move when we all know [forces] have a green light to shoot at all bikes?
Some activists,  like Mohammed Al-Nimer, saw this raid as a means to terrorize people so they would not participate in the protest in support for the 23 “wanted” persons, planned for the next day, September 6. The protest still took place and photographs of the “wanted” activists as well as of the martyrs were held. Slogans such as “I'm the next martyr, I care not about repression,” were chanted. Among the chants were:
The situation does not need a security solution; it needs a political one.
Activist Waleed Sulais comments:
لغة الدم لا تبني الأوطان ولا تخلق الاستقرار.المخرج الامني حلوله ان نجحت مؤقتة وينفجر المجتمع مجددا. الحل سياسي سياسي #الشهيد_أحمد_مصلاب
— وليد سليس (@WaleedSulais) September 5, 2013
The language of blood does not build nations and does not achieve stability. A security solution, even if it succeeds, is temporary and the society will explode again. The solution should be political.
From Bahrain, Nader Abdulemam comments:
#الشهيد_أحمد_مصلاب ليس أول شهيد يسقط في #العوامية بالسعودية ولن يكون الأخير مادام الصمت الدولي يرى في النفظ وصفقات السلاح أهم من الدم
— نادر عبدالامام (@NaderAbdulEmam) September 5, 2013
The martyr Ahmad Al-Mislab is not the first martyr to fall in Saudi Arabia and will not be the last as long as there is international silence in exchange for oil and arms deals, which are more important than blood
The 23 wanted persons are accused of causing disorder and riots, among other charges and were called to hand themselves over to authorities. A number of them denied all charges and said their only crime was demanding their rights. Two of the 23 -Khaled Al-Labbad and Morsi Al-Rebh- were killed, seven were arrested in previous raids (last of them is Abbas Al-Mazraa and six of his brothers who happen to be Al-Mislab's cousins) and six have surrendered themselves while eight remain “wanted”.
Ahmad Al-Mislab's body was released to his family on September 9 and his funeral turned into a huge demonstration with people demanding vengeance for the martyrs.
Since March 2011, when protests swept Qatif with the beginning of the so-called Arab Spring, over 20 people have been killed in the Eastern Province by security forces and 850 people were arrested. Around 190 are still in jail.

author: Guest Contributor


text:
To Some Opposition Bloggers Alexey Navalny is “Führer” · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

Alexey Navalny speaking to a crowd of supporters on September 9, 2013. YouTube screenshot.
The day after opposition leader Alexey Navalny lost the Moscow mayoral race, he stood on a square in the center of Moscow and addressed a crowd of thousands of supporters (over 50,000 according to some of the higher estimates [ru]). He promised to contest the election in court, played up the successes of his campaign, cautioned his followers from any rash actions, and told them that he “loved” them.
The speech [ru] was, by all accounts, charismatic. And yet, even those particularly impressed by Navalny's oratorical skills (practiced at dozens of meetings with local constituents over the past months), could not help but make odd observations. For example, Alexey Roschin, a political consultant who went to the rally, wrote [ru]:
[Навальный] держался абсолютно уверенно и спокойно, полный контакт с аудиторией. Грамотная речь. Спокойное заявление о своем лидерстве, «верьте мне, я знаю, что делаю и что надо делать. Вы мне верите? – ДААА-ААА!!!» Классика. […] Со сцены выступали не просто люди – это были СОЛДАТЫ. И офицеры. А в конце речь держал командующий. […] Я был не в толпе – я был посреди строя. В АРМИИ.
[Navalny] was assured and calm, in full contact with his audience. Well spoken. Calm assertion of leadership “trust me, I know what I'm doing and what needs to be done. Do you trust me? – YEEEES!!!” Classic. […] The people addressing us from the podium weren't just people – they were SOLDIERS. And officers. And in the end spoke the commander. […] I wasn't in a crowd – I was in a military formation. IN AN ARMY.
Other members of the opposition also caught on to Navalny's new undisputed role as “commander” — but did not like what they saw. “This was a personal rally for Navalny, not the opposition,” wrote [ru] Dmitry Ermoltsev on Facebook, lamenting Navalny's self-comparison to a rock star and his taking credit for the entire protest movement. For noted philologist Gassan Guseinov [ru], this rock-star quality makes Navalny similar to another Russian leader:
Много общего с послепутчевым Ельциным […] как и Ельцин, оказавшись в Кремле, Н[авальный] первым делом оседлает чекистско-полицейский аппарат, заточенный под хозяина, вождя, генсека, отца родного, который всех их “любит”.
There is a lot in common with a post [1993] putsch [Boris] Yeltsin […] like Yeltsin, if he ends up in the Kremlin, Navalny will firstly capture the police apparatus, which is built for a master, a leader, a General Secretary, a father who “loves” everyone.
Later he wrote [ru]:
Чувство массового единения вокруг персон – отвратительно. Митинг, устроенный под одним словом – именем – Навальный, которое висело над трибуной […] это политически ничтожное убожество […]
The feeling of mass unity around a single person is deplorable. A rally created around one name — Navalny — which was hanging over the podium […] is politically irrelevant squalor […]
Navalny's September 9 rally stage with his name spelled out in huge letters has attracted criticism. YouTube screenshot.
Some bloggers didn't beat around the bush in finding historical comparisons. After all, why settle for Yeltsin when there is Godwin's Law to exploit? Journalist Arkady Babchenko, who is as anti-Putin as it gets, wrote [ru]:
[…] поздравляю вас с рождением нового фюрера. […] По своему содержанию, форме, интонациям и накалу, это была конечно же, абсолютно вождистская речь. Верите ли вы мне? Даааааа!!!!! Нда… Замусолинило человека знатно.
[…] congratulations on the birth of a new Führer. […] In its content, form, intonation and emotion it was of course an absolute “cult of personality” speech. Do you trust me? Yeeees!!!! Yep… He's gotten quite “mussolinized.”
DemVybor's Stanislav Yakovlev agreed [ru] with the choice of totalitarian leader comparison:
[…] прогрессивная общественность принципиально жмурит прозрачные очи, как бы не замечая, что речь Навального построена по совершенно классическим принципам Der Führer Spricht […] а вовсе не какого-то ссаного “карнеги”, друг друга вы вольны сколько угодно умасливать ласковой брехней, но нас-то зачем, мы все-таки время от времени какие-то книжки читаем […]
[…] the progressive public is shutting its eyes on principle, and pretending not to notice that Navalny's speech was built around classical principles of Der Führer Spricht […] and not some kind of pissant “carnegie,” you can convince each other with your charming lies all you want, but leave us out of it, we read books from time to time […]
Such comparisons would seem silly, if it wasn't for another editorial on the speech — this one from nationalist internet publication Sputnik&Pogrom's Egor Prosvirnin. In an exalted piece [ru], stylized to sound like Soviet-era (or perhaps Weimar Germany) newspapers, Prosvirnin welcomed Navalny's turn to the “dark side” and embrace of populism:
НИКАКИХ разговоров про общегражданское движение и прочую демократию.
Одно слово.
Одно имя.
НАВАЛЬНЫЙ! — ревет толпа.
НАВАЛЬНЫЙ! — взметаются вверх тысячи табличек с его именем.
НАВАЛЬНЫЙ! — реет над толпой огромное полотнище и толпа счастлива стоять под ним.
[…] Он выходит на сцену перед ликующей толпой, сдирая с себя остатки скорлупы, и за его спиной клубится хищная русская тьма.
[…] впервые за десятилетие появился политический лидер, который говорил с толпой, как заботливый отец с неразумными детьми, такого себе даже Путин не позволял. И они его слушали, и они плакали, потому что они его ждали.
[…]
НАВАЛЬНЫЙ! — время платить по счетам почти пришло.
NO talk of civil movements and other democracy.
One word.
One name.
NAVALNY! – roars the crowd.
NAVALNY! – thousands of posters with his name leap up.
NAVALNY! – a grand banner soars above the crowd and the crowd is happy to stand beneath it.
[…] He takes the stage before the jubilant crowd […] and behind him there are clouds of predatory Russian darkness.
[…] for the first time in a decade there is a political leader that speaks to the crowd like a caring father to foolish children, even Putin didn't permit himself such liberty. And they listened to him, and they cried, because they were waiting for him.
[…]
NAVALNY! – the time to pay all bills has almost come.
While Prosvirnin's excitement may be a bit tongue-in-cheek, Navalny's populism, and especially his methods, have scared the perennial anti-Kremlin political guru Stanislav Belkovsky (in the past Belkovsky has been widely rumored to be tied to Navalny). When Belkovsky looks at the exulted masses at Navalny's rallies, he thinks [ru] “cult”:
Насколько можно судить по всем первичным и вторичным признакам, лидер взял четкий курс на создание тоталитарной секты имени себя. Для которой он не просто политик […] Он — мессия, который всемогущ, всеблаг и непогрешим. Его программа — чудесное спасение России в целом и каждого адепта индивидуально, которое произойдет с приходом Навального к власти.
As far as one can tell from primary and secondary features, the leader has taken a clear course for creating of a totalitarian sect of his own name. For which he's not only a politician […] He is a messiah, all powerful, all good, and free from sin. His political program — the miraculous saving of Russia as a whole, and every adept individually, which will happen when Navalny comes to power.
Are worries (and hopes) that Navalny is quickly turning into some kind of Russian nationalist “Dear Leader” founded? Or are members of the Russian opposition simply deathly allergic to any kind of popular success for their compatriots? After all, although Navalny lost the election, he did garner the support of over half a million Moscow voters, which overnight propelled him to the status of “politician” rather than “activist blogger.” Whatever the case, we may never find out — Navalny's criminal case is due for review shortly, and if the higher court upholds his conviction for embezzlement, he won't be eligible to run for office in the future.

author: Andrey Tselikov


text:
Croats in Vukovar Protest Use of Serbian Cyrillic on Government Buildings · Global Voices
Tamara Gocmanac

In Vukovar, Croatia, Serbs comprise about 35 percent of the city's population, and have thus been granted the right for official use of their native Cyrillic script according to Croatia's constitution. A part of the ethnically Croat population of Vukovar has objected, however, staging protests this week and destroying bilingual signs that had been freshly placed on state buildings. The protests against Cyrillic script in Vukovar started on Monday 9 September 2013 after the placing of name plates in both Latin and Cyrillic scripts on public buildings. A peaceful protest was also held in Zagreb that day.
The Cyrillic script, also known as Azbuka, is an alphabetic writing system  based on Early Cyrillic, which was developed during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School. Cyrillic is one of the most used writing systems in the world.
The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet is an adaptation of the original Cyrillic script for the Serbian language, developed in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two standard modern alphabets used to write the Serbian and Bosnian languages, the other being Serbian Latin script. Although Latin script is in use as well, Cyrillic is the traditional and official script in Serbia.
Peaceful protest against introduction of bilingualism in Vukovar held in Zagreb; photo courtesy of Demotix, used with permission
Vukovar, a city of about 26,000 in eastern Croatia, remains a symbol of the Croatian-Serbian conflicts of the 1990s. For some Croatian citizens, Cyrillic remains a painful reminder of these conflicts. During Friday's protest walk, the disgruntled citizens underscored that they do no want Cyrillic script in their city, “not now, not ever, as that is not just any script, but the script under which crimes were committed against Croats and other non-Serbs during the Croatian War of Independence.”
Meanwhile, netizens on social networks were mostly angry about the fact that some were focusing on the past, which many now consider to be irrelevant matters in times of new economic and social crisis. Bosnian football player and journalist, Goran Arbutina tweeted:
Hrvati divljaju zbog cirilice a evo kako mi u #Banjaluka… Moja ulica. #cirilica #latinica #sarajevo #vukovar pic.twitter.com/aiRJDWYdRY
— Goran Arbutina (@Goc1jedini) September 6, 2013
Croats are going wild over Cyrillic while this is how we are doing in #Banjaluka… My street. #cirilica #latinica #sarajevo #vukovar pic.twitter.com/aiRJDWYdRY
— Goran Arbutina (@Goc1jedini) September 6, 2013
Bojan Glavašević, Deputy Minister at Ministry of Defenders [Ministry of Veterans] stated:
Neizmjerno sam tuzan zbog onoga sto se danas dogodilo u #Vukovar . Nasilje nije nacin na koji se rjesavaju problemi u demokraciji. #cirilica
— Bojan Glavasevic (@bglavasevic) September 2, 2013
I am endlessly saddened by what happened today in #Vukovar. Violence is not a way to solve problems in a democracy. #cirilica
— Bojan Glavasevic (@bglavasevic) September 2, 2013
Croatian politician and member of the European Parliament Ruža Tomašić has a different opinion:
Izjava za hr. medije u Bruxellesu: "Ćirilica da, ali ne u Vukovaru" http://t.co/5qnZfumtrh via @tportal #Vukovar #cirilica
— Ruža Tomašić (@RuzaTomasic) September 5, 2013
Statement for Cro. [Croatian] media in Brussels: "Crillic yes, but not in Vukovaru" http://t.co/5qnZfumtrh via @tportal #Vukovar #cirilica
— Ruža Tomašić (@RuzaTomasic) September 5, 2013
Vukovar: breaking bilingual board in protest PHOTO: “Kurir” daily
Serbian student and musician Stefan Josimov had a question for the EU regarding this matter:
Da li je moguće da #EU još uvek ne reaguje povodom lomljena tabli u #Vukovar u? #Srbija #Hrvatska #cirilica
— Stefan Josimov (@sjosimov) September 4, 2013
Is it possible that the #EU still hasn't reacted regarding the breaking of signs in #Vukovar? #Srbija #Hrvatska #cirilica
— Stefan Josimov (@sjosimov) September 4, 2013
But a Twitter user from Bosnia, nicknamed Agent Tajne Sile, might have an answer to the situation, albeit sarcastic:
Sva sreća, pa sa brojevima niko nema problema. Naročito ako su na bankovnom računu. #cirilica #vukovar #lakunoc
— Agent tajne sile (@AgentTajneSile) September 3, 2013
Luckilly, no one has an issue with numbers. Especially if they are on bank accounts. #cirilica #vukovar #lakunoc
— Agent tajne sile (@AgentTajneSile) September 3, 2013
Croatian President Ivo Josipovic announced that preparations are underway for a possible agreement on the initiative of bilingual inscriptions in Vukovar, as reported by Croatian news agency Hina. Bad news for Zagreb officials it seems – according to statistics, Croatia is fourth in terms of violation of human rights of the 47 countries that are under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, former Croatian Minister of Justice, told SETimes.
I believe that bilingualism introduction will contribute to normalising relations between Croatia and Serbia and progress, but also will be a positive example in the EU.
Skare-Ozbolt announced that about 20 municipalities in Croatia have accomplished formal prerequisites for official use of Cyrillic and it should begin in the near future. She added that Croatia and other EU countries have been installing bilingualism in areas where national minorities make up at least one third of the population. She also stated that the roles of local authorities and the state are crucial in the successful implementation of this process:
Croatia, as a new EU member, keeps this standard, although war consequences are still big, which can be seen in Vukovar, where some resistance still exists.

author: Tamara Gocmanac


text:
Its Getting Hot In Sri Lanka · Global Voices
Rezwan

Blogger sEnEl informs that during recent months Sri Lankans experienced some of the hottest days in their lifetimes. The blogger attributes the reason for the erratic weather to the global climate change.


text:
Thai Rubber Farmers Continue Protest Despite Government Subsidy Plan · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

More than 10,000 rubber farmers in southern Thailand have launched a series of protests since August demanding government assistance in the wake of falling rubber prices in the global market. The farmer protesters even put up road and railway blockades early this month which affected tourism and traffic in several southern provinces of the country.
Rubber plantation in Thailand. Image from Flickr user Hanumann (CC BY 2.0)
Thailand is the world’s largest producer and exporter of natural rubber.
Rubber farmers wanted the government to give them the same support that it is providing to rice farmers. Specifically, they wanted the government to offer price subsidies.
This AFP video shows the road blockade protest set up by rubber farmers:
Bangkok Pundit analyzed the rice and rubber prices as well as the incomes of farmers in Thailand. He pointed out that rubber farmers earned more than rice farmers:
…from an overall review of the literature it is quite clear that rice farmers have been earning less than rubber farmers for a while. With the low prices rubber farmers are facing some difficulties, but historically they have done quite well.
He also explained that natural rubber prices are affected by the rise of synthetic rubber:
…synthetic rubber is not a perfect substitute for natural rubber in all circumstances and natural rubber is not going away anytime soon, but because synthetic rubber can act as a substitute and that price of rubber is mainly dictated by the price oil, it is not so easy to influence the rubber market
There are speculations that the bold protest actions of rubber farmers were influenced by Opposition forces whose bailiwicks are located in the rubber producing provinces in southern Thailand. Political Prisoners in Thailand wrote that:
…the South is the stronghold of the Democrat Party, Suthep Thaugsuban is a renowned and cashed-up political organizer in the South, and that having a mass protest populated by young toughs seems like a logical political tactic if trying to destabilize and blindside the elected government.
Whether instigated by the Opposition or not, the protests have grown into a formidable movement. thaiintelligentnews observed that:
…most neutral observer now says Yingluck has a full blown political movement, the rubber farmers protest, on her hands.
Yingluck refers to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The protests clearly succeeded in getting the attention of the government which announced a subsidy plan a few days ago. The Cabinet has recently approved a fund of 21.2 billion baht to increase the subsidy for rubber farmers from September 2013 to March 2014. Earlier, the government urged rubber farmer groups to form their own cooperatives; and it vowed to extend loans to rubber-based industries to increase their production levels. Meanwhile, health authorities proposed the production of Thailand-made condoms to maximize excess rubber supply in the country.
The subsidy plan announced by the government has divided farmer groups. There were groups which welcomed the support package but others have rejected it. Protest actions were conducted this weekend and some farmers have threatened to launch more rallies.


text:
A Positive Example of Community Farming in Mozambique · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

A positive example of a farming, savings and literacy community project in Mozambique was highlighted in the blog of the NGO Justiça Ambiental (Environmental Justice) following their visit to the community of Nacoma, about 83 km from the northern city of Nampula last July.
Justiça Ambiental learned about the association's good practices “for a more efficient agriculture on poor soils” and crop improvements, and also about how the group, mostly composed by women, “increased their income allowing it to improve their lives and their families”:
We were impressed by the organization, methodology and capacity of a group so small yet so effective in managing their own interests. A good example of community empowerment, with which all present were astonished. However, for us it was more than that. It was once again a confirmation of the power of the people of Mozambique and Mozambican women in particular, their ability, courage and perseverance in trying to resolve their difficulties and strive for a better future. For us it was a true life lesson!
Concerns about the future of good examples such as this one were raised by the NGO in the end of the blog post, referring to the controversial economic development plan ProSavana (reported by Global Voices) and the ‘land grabbing’ plans of the governments of Japan, Brazil and Mozambique.


text:
Ancient Pyramid Destroyed in Peru as Developers Eye Land · Global Voices
Pública - Agência de jornalismo investigativo

This post, written by Jessica Mota, was originally published [pt] on 21 August 2013 by Brazilian investigative news organization Agência Pública as part of the series on #PatrimônioAmeaçado (Threatened Heritage, in Portuguese).
It was four o'clock in the afternoon of a Saturday, 29 June when Estequilla Rosales, a 51-year-old Peruvian, heard a noise coming from the other side of the archaeological site she knew very well. As vice president of the association Kapaq Sumaq Ayllu [sp], for 14 years she has been responsible for helping to protect a national cultural heritage in Peru, the 45-hectare Archaeological Complex of El Paraíso, one of the largest and oldest in Peru. It is in that spot that she spends her days. And it was nearby, on the Santa Josefina hill, that she built her house.
The noise was coming from something that Estequilla could never expect, not even in her nightmares. A group of men were making use of heavy machinery to destroy one of the eleven archaeological mounds registered on the site. Underneath this small mound, a pre-Inca pyramid, four to six meters tall and 2.5 square kilometers, which dates from ancient times.
The place where one of the pyramids of El Paraiso was knocked down, as seen in the sand. Photo: Jessica Mota / Agência Pública
“I was desperate, didn't know what to do, because there is no telephone signal here. What I did was I climbed up the hill and told the watchman to call the police”, remembers Estequilla:
Agora estou mais calma. Mas quando aconteceu realmente senti uma dor imensa, como se fosse uma pessoa, um ser muito querido para mim. Porque é parte de meu país, estavam assassinando minha identidade, minha cultura. E isso é, como se pode dizer, uma traição à pátria. Eu sinto que um peruano seja tão ignorante para destruir assim.
Now I feel calmer. But when it happened, I really felt a deep pain, as though it had been a person, someone I had been very fond of. Because it is part of my country, they had been murdering my identity, my culture. And this is, as one might say, a treason to the nation. I am deeply sorry that a Peruvian might be so ignorant as to be able to destroy like that.
Location of the Archeological Complex of El Paraíso in the region of the state of Lima, Peru. Design: Bruno Fonseca for Agência Pública
The Archaeological Complex of El Paraiso, one hour away from Lima in the county of San Martin de Porres, is located in an area where there is growing real estate speculation. Discovered in the 1950s, the site remained idle until December 2012, when the Ministry of Culture began to implement the project. As the years went by, the area surrounding the site was gradually taken up as private property. Today, the borderline of the archaeological site is right where the private plots and crops begin.
There used to be 12 registered pyramids on the site. The main one had been almost completely restored by Swiss archaeologist Fredéric Engel between 1965 and 1966. In January 2013, the sector responsible for excavations in the Peruvian Ministry of Culture discovered evidence to suggest that El Paraiso is as ancient as the Egyptian pyramids or Mesopotamian civilization. Between 4,500 to 4,800 years old, that would be one of the cradles of our Latin American continent. It is proof that long before the Spaniards, the Church and even Christ, Lima had already become a major capital city.
Marco Guillén, the chief archaeologist for the project developed by the  Ministry of Culture in El Paraíso, explains:
É uma das poucas cidades no mundo que tem uma continuidade cultural ao longo do tempo. E isso é uma grande vantagem. (…) Lima, a capital, tem a waka [sic] (monumento antigo e sagrado) mais antiga do Peru. É como a civilização surge aqui. A destruição da pirâmide significa arrancar a folha de um livro da história do Peru. Não se pode saber o que aconteceu.
It is one of the few cities worldwide which presents a cultural continuity over time. And this is a great advantage. (…) Lima, the capital city, has the oldest waka [sic] (ancient and sacred monument) in Peru. It is how civilization appeared here. The destruction of the pyramid amounts to tearing off the page of a book of the history of Peru. There is no way of finding out what happened.
In the middle of the road, there was a pyramid
As you leaves Lima, in order to get to El Paraíso, you must take a microbus – a kind of van which outnumbers other means of public transport in Lima – up to the neighboring town of Pro. It is a 40-minute journey through the hectic traffic of the Peruvian capital. From there, two more microbuses which will take you to the car, near the station, driven by one of the members of Association Kapaq Sumaq Ayllu. The landscape is bare, dotted with humble houses. As you arrive at the narrow lane that leads to the complex, you see open air garbage, vultures and children who seek toys amidst the dirt.
“When we arrived, there were billboards placed in every hill. They think that this area belongs to them”, says one of the project archaeologists. The sign reads “private property recognized on August 8, 1984″, followed by the description of the area and its registration number. Photo: Jessica Mota / Agência Pública
I observe a wall which hugs the side of the road the entire way. “It's a wall”, explains Miguel Castillo, field head of the project of El Paraíso, who sits in the rear of the car. Later I would find out that the wall is 30 kilometers long and surrounds the hills in the region. As time went by, it was snatched up along the way by the private buildings and plots.
Castillo ponders:
O Estado é ineficiente. Tem recursos para delimitar e proteger as wakas [sic], mas não o fazem. É igual no Brasil, na Argentina… O que se tem é a iniciativa pessoal de algumas pessoas, de arqueólogos. Mas não é suficiente.
The Government is inefficient. It has the means to set out and to protect the wakas [sic], but it does not do anything. It is the same in Brazil, in Argentina… What we have is the personal initiative from a few people, from archaeologists. But this is not enough.
Members from the Kapag Association, together with their security people, had been victims of an attack a week before. For safety reasons, a watchman accompanied our group – with the entire team of archaeologists – while walking to the area where the pyramid had been destroyed.
The native workers who previously used to be engaged in the excavation, now sit on the top of the hills, watching over. After the pyramid was knocked down, security has been doubled. There are now four policemen who protect the place day and night, as well as two watchmen from a private firm who have been hired by the Ministry of Culture, and they all make a big effort to oversee the whole 45 hectares of land.


text:
Chile Coup Recounted Through Interactive Storytelling · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

The online version of Chilean newspaper La Tercera released an interactive, multimedia special [es, en] on the 40th anniversary of the coup against Salvador Allende.
Mariana Santos worked with the team behind this project as an ICFJ Knight International Journalism Fellow. Mariana says that “the goal was to tell this amazing story that completes 40 years in a way that would use all the talents in their team.”
She explains that this was an exercise to experiment different forms of storytelling “using all different kinds of media we had available: video, audio, text, pictures, illustrations, documents etc.”
Mariana adds that she wanted to train La Tercera journalists to work as a team, take advantage of their skills and “challenge the forms of narrative when online gives you so much opportunities to amaze your crowd.”
The result is an interactive storytelling experience available in Spanish and in English, and under a Creative Commons license [es].


text:
China Detains Activist Billionaire Wang Gongquan Amid Crackdown on Dissent  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Beijing police arrested and detained billionaire venture capitalist Wang Gongquan on September 13, 2013 on suspicion of “gathering crowds to disturb social order”, another disturbing move in the latest crackdown that targets opinion leaders, intellectuals and activists online and offline.
Wang Gongquan [zh] was once a Chinese Communist Party propaganda official in Jilin province. He left the office and decided to go south to Hainan province for trade in 1988. Arrested and detained for one year after the June 4 Tiananmen crackdown, he returned to the business sector and become the vice chairperson of Vantone corporation, a property development corporation, in 1993. He entered the venture business field in 2005 and become a billionaire because of a number of successful investments in early 2000.
Wang Gongquan is a legendary figure in China because of his wealth and choice. He was made a cover story of Nanfang People magazine in 2011.
Different from other business people, Wang has been an active member of civil society. In 2005 he joined Xu Zhiyong's Open Constitution Initiative, known as Gongmeng, and started advocating for citizens’ rights and promoting the development of mainland Chinese civil society through online signature campaigns and publications. In 2010, Wang Gongquan, together with a number of citizens’ rights activists issued a joint statement called “citizen engagement”, which sets the principles and parameters for citizen's social and political engagement as protected by their constitutional right. The action is consider a public launch of the New Citizens’ Movement.
In July 2013, Xu Zhiyong was arrested and detained on suspicion of “gathering crowds to disturb social order” because of the new movement. Wang was among a number of activists to plead for the release of Xu through a petition that gathered a few thousand signatures.
Now Wang himself was arrested, and a signature campaign has been launched by his friends urging for his release. The joint letter has been signed by more than 200 intellectuals as of September 14, 2013:
王功权先生是新公民运动的坚定支持者，但他支持新公民运动的全部初衷，无非是通过和平、合法之途，来争取宪法规定的公民权利，通过争取公民权利的进程带动公民社会的成长，最终推动中国的和平转型，让我们的社会更多人性，更多自由与公义，更多爱与温暖。
这是王功权先生的价值观所注定的。他是一个真诚的佛教徒，一个彻底的人道主义者与和平主义者。柔软，善良，悲悯与责任，是他与生俱来的气质。他对这个世界、对所有人充满了善意。
Wang Gongquan is a supporter of the new citizen movement. His mere intention is to advocate in a peaceful and lawful manner for citizens’ rights as written in the Constitution . By defending citizens’ rights, civil society will develop and eventually help China's peaceful transformation. The objective is to build a humane society with freedom and justice, love and grace.
His actions are based on his beliefs. He is a Buddhist, a humanist and pacifist. He is gentle, kind, compassionate and responsible. He is friendly to this world and everyone in it.
放了王功权，给善一条出路，给自由与公义一条出路，给和平转型一条出路。同胞们，覆巢之下无完卵，不要听任我们国家在与现代文明背道而驰的野蛮深渊中无限沉沦。用实际行动保卫公民社会，那其实是保卫我们每个人自己。
Let Wang Gongquan go, let compassion, freedom, justice and peaceful transformation go. Dear fellows, when the nest is upside-down, all the eggs will be broken. Don't let our country go against modern civilization and fall into the abyss of barbarianism. We have to defend civil society with action so as to protect everybody, including ourselves.
Many microbloggers spoke out in support of Wang. Even though popular microblogging site Sina Weibo turned his name into “sensitive” term for censorship on September 15, 2013, many supportive messages can still be found. “Southern weekend's investigative report” (@南周深度) praised Wang for the choice he made:
一个放弃几十亿资产的人，为弱者发声。宁愿当一个堂堂正正的普通公民，而不愿意当一个拥有百亿资产的奴才，带着微笑走进监狱。。这是他自己的选择，自由的选择。。虽然身体在监狱里，但心是自由的。。。。当更多的人选择做公民的时候，当更多的人选择坐牢也不当奴才的时候，，，中国改变了。。。祝福。
A person who gave up his billionaire business empire to speak for the minorities. He chose to be an ordinary but upright citizen rather than a servant with billionaire property. He walked to the prison with simile in his face. This is his choice, a choice of freedom. Although his body is in prison, his heart is free… When more and more people choose to become citizens, more and more people choose to go to prison rather than be a servant. China will then change. Bless you.
“Poet knife brother” reposted Wang's profile on his microblog:
诗人王功权，公民企业家。投资培育了360、汉庭、民生银行、俏江南等企业。可安享无尽荣华富贵，午饭却只是一个卤肉套餐。他站在弱者一边，他为弱者流泪，他为弱者呐喊，他为弱者奔走，他戴着风雪帽，和访民一起敲打“黑监狱”的大铁门，高喊着“开门放人”。他做了这么多，请我们做一点点，为他呐喊。
Wang Gongguan is a poet, citizen and entrepreneur. He has nurtured 360 [an IT software company], Hanting [a hotel business], Minsheng Bank, SouthBeauty [a restaurant business]. He could have enjoyed a luxurious life. But he ate minced pork rice for lunch. He stands by the side of the weak, sheds tears with them, speaks up for them and serves them. Once in a cold winter night, he went to a black jail [illegal jail for detaining petitioners without trial], hit the iron gate with other petitioners, called the guard to release the illegally detained people. He has done so much, please just do something to speak up for him.
Human right lawyer Tengbiao spoke out for Wang on Twitter:
中国的亿万富豪里面，敢说“我没有同流合污过”的，恐怕不到一掌之数。我和王功权先生相识共事多年，我相信他。他不但没有同流合污过，而且积极参与公民活动，推动教育平权，关注冤案，推动法治，这是极富勇气的选择。
— 滕彪 (@tengbiao) September 13, 2013
Among the Chinese billionaires, less than a handful are not corrupt. I have known and worked with Wang for many years. I believe in him. Not only is he clean, he is very active in citizens’ rights activities. He advocates for equal education rights between rural and urban students, he is concerned about unjust legal cases, he promotes the rule of law. These are courageous choices.


text:
Chinese Micro-bloggers Want to Un-verify User Account · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

As Big Vs, verified celebrities in Chinese micr-blog, have become crackdown targets. Some verified users are asking Sina Weibo to Un-verify their account. More from Offbeat China.


text:
Dissecting Myanmar’s Internet Connection Woes · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Jefry Tupas analyzed some of the issues that affect Myanmar's Internet sector. He cited the high costs of acquiring telephone handsets, SIM cards, and Internet connection in the country. He also wrote about the social and economic impact of the slow Internet speed which is believed to be controlled by the government. There is an easing of media regulation but the lingering effect of censorship is still felt and indirectly enforced.


text:
EU Prepared to Impose Sanctions on New Member State Croatia · Global Voices
Tamara Gocmanac

According to numerous Croatian and international news outlets, as well as the conversations brewing on social media sites, the European Commission is likely to punish Croatia in an ongoing row over extradition rules that has left a stain on the former Yugoslav state's first months as a member of the European Union and may endanger EU aid for border control improvements. Sanctions would threaten the EU's aid program for Croatia, notably for border control improvements vital to the country's bid to join the bloc's passport-free Schengen zone.
As Global Voices reported, a few days before Croatia joined the EU on 1 July 2013, it changed the law to effectively ensured that veterans of Croatia's independence war, that are wanted in in other for possible war crimes, could not face prosecution elsewhere in the EU.
The European Commission, which acts as the bloc's executive, is expected to invoke an article in Croatia's accession treaty that allows it to impose punitive measures if standard EU regulations are broken. The so-called safeguard clause, Article 39 of the Croatian accession treaty, will be triggered, which provides for the introduction of punitive measures or termination of membership for Croatia during a period of three years after the country's accession to the union.
“Patience has run out. We will likely move to trigger the safeguard clause,” one senior Commission official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said this would likely happen at the regular meeting of EU commissioners this week.
Commissioners of the EU Commission have supported the proposition of the Commission’s Vice President Viviane Reding to impose sanctions on Croatia, as confirmed by her spokeswoman Mina Andreeva and as reported [hr] Croatian portal index.hr.
The Croatian and EU flags on a Croatian government building; photo by Bogdan Giusca, used under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
Croatian TV Nova's correspondent from Split, Mario Jurič, tweeted:
Commissioners of the #EU Commission supported the prop. of Commission’s VP Viviane Reding to impose sanctions to #Croatia @VivianeRedingEU
— Mario Jurič (@JuricNovaTV) September 16, 2013
Reporters Without Borders correspondent for Croatia Zeljko Peratovic, mocking the Croatian President Ivo Josipovic, said:
Josipovic: There'll be no sanctions – Wrong! #Perkovic #CroatiaEU http://t.co/nDRCXR5zVr
— Zeljko Peratovic (@45lines) September 16, 2013
Community manager for @vecernji_list Anton Smolčić was sarcastic:
Mislim da smo upravo oborili rekord u brzini dobivanja sankcija #win #eu #croatia
— Anton Smolčić (@vooneni) September 16, 2013
I think we just broke the speed record in having sanctions introduced. #win #eu #croatia
Reding, together with the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and Commissioner Stefan Füle notified the panel that Croatia violates provisions of the European arrest warrant. She, as reported, suggested that the European Commission impose sanctions on Croatia, which European Commissioners accepted.
Zagreb daily Jutarnji List published yesterday a statement by an unnamed high representative [hr] of the Croatian government who said that Croatia will persist in the position of a principled state and will not accept warrants by “arrogant” European politicians.
Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said earlier that a proposition for amendment of the controversial law will be delivered to the Parliament in the first autumn session, but that it will be applied from mid-July next year. Milanovic considers that certain criminals should be judged by Croatian courts, not courts of other countries.
Reding personally and via her associates repeatedly warned Croatia that it will be reprimanded for failure to comply with the Accession Treaty.
While Croatian President Ivo Josipovic, as well as Milanovic, believes that it will not come to sanctions [hr], because Europe and Croatia have more important things to do now, the leader of the most influential opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union, Tomislav Karamarko, believes [hr] that everything about the Croatian arrest law, colloquially called Lex Perkovic, is scandalous.


text:
Gender Inequality in Laos and Cambodia Schools · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Laurence Bradford studied some statistics about female education in Southeast Asia. She highlighted the problems and discrimination faced by young girls in Cambodia and Laos. For example in Cambodia, 50 percent of young girls are laborers instead of students. In Laos, male literacy rates are 20 percent higher than those for women.


text:
Hail storm Turned Islamabad White · Global Voices
Rezwan

Blue Area, Islamabad right now…  #Islamabad pic.twitter.com/RKpesYfA6h
— محمد فرحان حامد (@FarhanHamid36) September 15, 2013
On Sunday (15th of September, 2013) morning Islamabad went pitch dark as a hail storm and heavy rain hit the Pakistan capital. Chowrangi team compiles twitter reactions.


text:
Hong Kong: Indonesian Maids Rally Against Abuse · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Around 350 Indonesian maids rallied in Hong Kong on Sunday in support of a fellow domestic helper,  Kartika Puspitasari, who was allegedly beaten with a chain and a shoe, scalded with a hot iron, tied to a chair, had her hair chopped off and was forced to wear a diaper and children’s clothes by her employers between 2010-2012. More from Hong Wrong.com.


text:
How Malian Citizens Help Monitor the 2013 Presidential Elections  · Global Voices
Boukary Konaté

On March 22nd 2012, a military coup led by the recently promoted Army General, Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, took place against the democratically-elected General Amadou Toumani Touré… plunging Mali into a deep socio-political and military crisis.
During the coup, large towns in northern Mali were occupied by jihadis, and a rebel group – the Mouvement National de Libération de l’Azawad (MNLA) – fighting for the independence of the region. The rebels were quickly joined by additional fundamentalist groups. This pushed several thousand inhabitants to seek refuge in Mali's southern towns still untouched by the coup, and in neighboring countries (Burkina-Faso, Mauritania, Senegal and Niger).
After the coup, a provisional government led by Dioncounda Traoré was put into place. In spite of the challenge of getting refugees and displaced Malians to the polls, elections were organised.
The first and second electoral rounds took place on the 28th of July and the 11th of August, 2013, and were considered to be legitimate and peaceful. Former Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Kéita was elected with 77.61% of the vote; his main competitor in the 2nd round, Mr. Soumalia Cissé, conceded defeat before the official results were even announced.
A man votes during the second round of the Malian Presidential elections at Timbuktu. Image used with permission from UNHCR
Several factors helped to level the playing field during the elections. The jihadi threats, the scattered population, and the difficulties of transportation decreased the chances that the elections would be vulnerable to any predetermined outcome. There was also a military occupation in the town of Kidal by the MNLA, which refused to recognize the authority of the Mali central government. In addition, important political, diplomatic and military efforts were made by the provisional government, civil society organizations and the international community. These factors allowed major obstacles to be overcome, paving the way for the elections.
Supported by a French-speaking Global Voices team, an online network to follow the elections was put into place. The project endeavored to establish volunteer media spokespeople and internet users from Bamako and other regions of Mali. These volunteers leveraged social media to share information throughout the electoral process from their home locations. Using smartphones, they updated the Facebook page [fr] “Info Elections 2013 au Mali” and twitter account @malivote, both created especially for the event two weeks prior to the elections. This allowed for people to easily follow the elections online.
The project also organised a demonstration of the role and potential benefits of the Internet in the electoral process. This was presented to the heads of certain sectors of public and private infrastructure, such as those ministries in charge of organizing the elections, including: the CENI (the Malian independent electoral commission), the Ministry of Information and New Technologies and Communication, and the Ministry of Communication. It was also shared with mobile phone businesses such as Orange Mali and Malitel, as well as the heads of MINUZMA (United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali). The project additionally presented demonstrations of Afripedia, a tool that allows searches on wikipdeia without the need for an internet connection.
Boukary Konate in the technology room in the polling station viewing room. Via Facebook.
Information was centralized on the special Facebook page [fr], which amassed over 1,100 fans in just a few days before the elections.
Participating in information sessions: “Media and the elections in Mali”
A few weeks before the launch of the project, the organisers participated in two information sessions on media and elections in Mali, the first of which was organised by organized by the International Foundation for Electronic Systems (IFES) and its partners (16th of July 2013). Additional sessions were organized by the Ministry of Territorial Administration and the Ministry of Decentralization and Territorial Planning, in collaboration with the Malian Press and Advertising Agency (AMAP) (July 14th to 19th, 2013).
The goal of these training sessions was to give increased information on the electoral process to the media, so that they could better inform the public about the structure of the Malian electoral system. Subjects addressed included: Malian electoral law, Malian political parties, types of journalistic coverage (reports, descriptions, interviews…), journalistic code of ethics, limitations and constraints that journalists face. In addition, principles that govern the journalistic profession were discussed, such as respect for private life and humility, among others.
Over the course of these information sessions, many participants asked questions about the nature of social networks, blogs and bloggers. It became evident that Mali must continue to meet the challenge of educating people about the new virtual world, since many Malians are still unfamiliar with these technologies, despite the fact that most of the country's candidates do have Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Citizen's Electoral Observation Deck : Monitoring social networks
The NGO network “Appui au Processus Electoral au Mali/Réseau APEM” (Support to Mali's Electoral Process), in collaboration with the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) and the National Council of Civil Society (Conseil National de la Société Civile) put together a program entitled “Pole d’Observation Citoyenne Electorale” (POCEs), or Citizen's Electoral Observation Deck (CEOD). This exists under it's program “Appui au processus Démocratique par l’observation citoyenne de la pré-électorale et des élections Présidentielles et législatives de  2013 (1er et 2ème Tours) au Mali” (Citizens support the democratic process by monitoring the Malian electoral race, and both rounds of the 2013 legislative and presidential elections).
During the first and second rounds of the elections, the CEODs noted a tremendous amount of public scrutiny across many systems. The APEM Network deployed 2,100 national observers across the nation (some of whom were assigned to fixed locations and others who were mobile). Additionally, there were 78 supervisors charged with the task of demonstrating the platform Malivote during its launch on July 28th 2013 in 1,583 polling stations. One of the areas that the project was responsible for was the monitoring of social networks, producing daily reports during the course of the two rounds of elections.
Address from President-elect Ibrahim Boubacar KEITA (also known as IBK)
The inauguration of the new President of Mali Mr. Ibrahim Boubacar KEITA (IBK) is set for the 4th of September 2013. As a follow-up to the Facebook group effort, a livetweet of this event is being organized, so that it may be observed from a distance.

author: Boukary Konaté


text:
Hungary’s Justice System Slow in Fighting Racial Crime · Global Voices
Tamara Gocmanac

It took the Hungarian judiciary five years to convict the perpetrators of the cold-blooded murders of several Roma in Hungary.  Four Hungarian men went on a rampage at the time, killing six Roma between March 2008 and August 2009. On August 6th, a Budapest court sentenced Zsolt Peto and brothers Arpad and Istvan Kiss to life in prison for the murderous spree, while their driver Istvan Csontos received 13 years as an accomplice.
The four killers, who hatched their plans in a pub in Debrecen in northeast Hungary, are hard core football fans with links to neo Nazi organizations. They showed no emotion as the verdicts were handed down.
Pressure put on Hungary's government by human rights activists and lawyers apparently brought results. Hungary's National Bureau of Investigation (NNI), the country's central police investigation office primarily dealing with terrorism and other national security threats, has now reopened the investigations into a series of murders of members of Hungary's Roma community in 2008 and 2009, to look for investigators’ failures and potential wrongdoing in the case, which caused the delay in finding and convicting the perpetrators. They suspect that one or more conspirators in these crimes remain free.
Hungarian public prosecutors have demanded an investigations of the military forces invloved as well, due to suspicions that Hungary's military intelligence service helped facilitate some of the murders. Hungarian Roma activist Aladar Horvath and others say these announcements represent “late, but welcome gestures” from the government to the victims.
Reactions of netizens have not abated since the verdict was announced. Helene Bienvenu, a freelance photojournalist from Detroit now living in Budapest, commented on Twitter:
50 years ago #MLK was marching on #Washington. Roma in #Hungary have a lot to go still @connellyandrew http://t.co/k4P4yh0GKN
— Helene Bienvenu (@bienvenuLN) August 28, 2013
John Clarke, an activist in this field from Toronto, blames these events on political attitudes and mainstream society:
http://t.co/6zO8HSeQHw'Extremist' violence against #Roma in #Hungary grows out of mainstream racist political attitudes and conduct.
— John Clarke (@JohnOCAP) August 25, 2013
In a recent article on this matter, The Economist has called the Roma population “Europe's biggest social problem”. A writer from Cambridge, Kari Sperring, asks for more information as many on social media are questioning Hungary's democratic status due to the government's handling of this case of serial murders involving a minority group:
Hungary is no longer a democracy http://t.co/5nNNYOtWCb Anyone have any more detail on this, please? #antisemitism #Roma
— Kari Sperring (@KariSperring) August 22, 2013
In the meantime, Hungarian Deputy State Secretary for Global Affairs, Péter Wintermantel, gave a speech at the Fourth Conference of the Hungarian-Israeli Friendship Association, which was held in Zalaegerszeg on 24-26 August. In his speech, Wintermantel stressed that the Hungarian Government remained committed to fighting all forms of racism and anti-semitism, and would take all necessary action to prevent them.
However, research by Amnesty International suggests that hate crimes against Roma remain a serious concern in Hungary, while police lack the guidelines to thoroughly and effectively investigate them. In a new report titled “Violent attacks against Roma in Hungary”, data collected by Amnesty International shows how racially motivated crimes impact individual victims, communities and society as a whole. It also shows how shortcomings in the Hungarian justice system hinder the prevention of and response to such attacks:
Jezerca Tigani, Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia Programme for Amnesty International said:
Five years after these cold-blooded killings, Roma in Hungary still do not receive adequate protection from hate crimes. […]
This horrific case should have been a wake-up call about the continuous, often violent discrimination faced by the Roma community, but the perpetrators of such acts are still not being brought to justice.