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Ecuador Elections: Another Term for President Rafael Correa  · Global Voices
Gina Yauri

On Sunday February 17, 2013, 11.6 milions of Ecuadorian citizens went to the ballot boxes, and exercised their right to vote. According to the latest exit polls, President Rafael Correa has been re-elected.
The country's vicepresident, as well as 137 representives to the National Assembly and five representives to the Andean Parliament, were also elected. The smooth election journey started at 07:00 and ended at 17:00.
Image by Flickr user Presidencia de la República del Ecuador (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
Newspaper El Comercio [es], however, reported that Domingo Paredes, the chairman of the Electoral Board, said there was an attempt to breach the system, that will be used to compile voter information at a national level.
On Twitter the hashtag #EleccionesEC [elections Ecuador], was used to circulate the unofficial results:
For instance, FRANCO FERNANDEZ S. (@francofer1), briefly announced:
@francofer1: Según exit poll de medios privados Correa 58.8% Lasso 20.0% Lucio 5.7 Noboa 3.3 #EleccionesEC”
@francofer1 [es]: According to private media exit polls, Correa 58.8% Lasso 20.0% Lucio 5.7 Noboa 3.3 #EleccionesEC”
Tuesman Castillo (@tuesman), electronic and telecomunication engineer from Loja, reported about ballot counting at station 16 in Loja:
@tuesman: 108 para #Correa contra 78 para #Lasso en #mesa16 #loja #parroquiasucre
@tuesman [es]: 108 for #Correa facing 78 for #Lasso at #mesa16 [station 16] #loja #parroquiasucre [Sucre parish].
And from abroad, Patricia Villarruel (@PattyVillarruel) stated:
@PattyVillarruel: 8 de cada 10 votantes se habrían inclinado por la candidatura de @MashiRafael en Madrid. Son datos provisionales de escrutinio #EleccionesEC
@PattyVillarruel: 8 out of 10 voters for @MashiRafael [Rafael Correa Twitter's name] in Madrid. This is provisional recount data. #EleccionesEC
Meanwhile, Jacques J. Lara MD (@JacquesJLR), wondered:
@JacquesJLR: Señores revolucionarios, para cuando la consulta popular, para que después de los 4 años, el Mashi siga en el poder? #EleccionesEC #RC [Rafael Correa]
@JacquesJLR [es]: Dear revolutionary gentlemen, when will you be holding the popular consultation, so after 4 years, Mashi will still be in power? #EleccionesEC #RC
According to these unofficial results, the population voted democratically for the re-election of President Rafael Correa, and he will be in office four more years.
Nonetheless, there are is some discontent among the population. As with Ally Narvaez (@AllyNarvaez), who stated ironically:
@AllyNarvaez: Fracaso Ecuador fracaso..!! aguantar 4 años mas de imponencia…!! “Bravo..!” #EleccionesEC
@AllyNarvaez: Failure Ecuador, failure…!! To put up with four more years of imposition…!! “Bravo..!” #EleccionesEC

author: Gina Yauri


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Egyptians Elected Morsi Because …  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

On Twitter, Egyptians who voted for Mohamed Morsi in the Egyptian presidential elections in June 24 are remorseful – and their regret is evident in a new hashtag which reads: I elected Morsi because ..
The hashtag [ar] #انا_انتخبت_مرسي_عشان generated tongue-in-cheek and sarcasm. Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, won the presidential runoff elections against Ahmed Shafik, the last prime minister of Hosni Mubarak, who resigned after 32 years following 18 days of country-wide protests against his rule.
Just a few months into his rule, and Egyptians are back on the streets demanding his departure. And just like under Mubarak's rule, protests are crushed and turn violent as protesters and police clash.
Sara Hassan says [ar]:
#انا_انتخبت_مرسي_عشان أموت شهيد
@saram7assan2010: I elected Morsi because I can die a martyr
Ahmed Arafi notes:
#انا_انتخبت_مرسي_عشان انتخبوك يا #مرسي علشان يضربوا نفسهم بـ أجدع جزمة
@AhmedArafi: They elected you Morsi so that they can hit themselves with their shoe
Mohamed Salah adds:
#انا_انتخبت_مرسي_عشان انا راجل ابن كلب
@7agog: I elected Morsi because I am a man who is a son of a dog
And Mohamed Youssef jokes:
#انا_انتخبت_مرسي_عشان لأنه روش وستايل وبيتكلم انجليش لانجويتش كويس أوي ده غير انه الانسان الوحيد اللي شاف طائر النهضه المبارك !
@yousufian:  I elected Morsi because he has style and speaks English very well and is the only person to see the blessed renaissance bird
Alyaa Gad remarks:
#انا_انتخبت_مرسي_عشان يحل لنا مشكلة الانفجار السكاني عن طريق خطة خمسية لمضاعفة حوادث القطارات والطرق وانهيار العمارات وقطع خلف الجميع.
@AlyaaGad: I elected Morsi because he will solve Egypt's population explosion problem as part of a five-year plan to increase train and road crashes and the collapse of buildings. He will also make Egyptians impotent.
Meanwhile, @SaLaMonty_ abolishes his responsibility in Morsi's election saying:
#انا_انتخبت_مرسي_عشان والمصحف ما عملتها .. دانا ايدى تنقطع ولا يغطسوها فى بلاعة ولا انى انتخب البغل ده .. الحمد لله كنت #مبطلون
@SaLaMonty_: I swear to God I didn't elect Morsi. I would cut off my hands and not elect that jackass. I thank God I was  Mubtilun (people who cast void ballots)

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Global Voices Launches Partnership with Brazil’s Pública  · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Global Voices and the Brazilian investigative journalism agency Pública launched a new partnership today that will see a wealth of reports with a strong angle on citizen voices and initiatives added to our coverage.
Founded in March 2011, Pública is an independent agency that aims to strengthen access to information, bolster democratic debate, and promote human rights. Pública in Portuguese means everything that belongs to the public.
Every month, Global Voices will select stories originally published in Pública, with the goal of deepening understanding of current issues through the lens of citizens who are directly affected by them. The articles will be reproduced by Global Voices in Portuguese and translated to Spanish, reinforcing the relevance of Pública's reports for Latin America as a broader region.
Subscribe Pública's RSS content at Global Voices, and follow their updates on Twitter (@agenciapublica) and Facebook.
Natália Viana, co-founder and director of Pública, said in an interview for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas blog at the time of the agency's launch, said Pública's goal is to do journalism for the people:
in Brazil, as in Latin America, there is a serious problem with the politicization of media outlets. Coverage is already closely tied to various interests, both in the traditional media and the alternative press. What Pública intends to do is stimulate journalism that is purely in the public interest, no matter whose toes it steps on.
Pública's commitment to the public interest has inspired Global Voices in the past. In 2012, an interview [pt] by Pública of Nilcilene Miguel de Lima, a small rural producer and local leader from the Amazon region who has received repeated death threats from land-grabbers and illegal loggers, motivated Global Voices author Thiana Biondo to write the article Can the Agrarian Economy Develop Without Rural Bloodshed? for our special Forest Focus: Amazon coverage.
To kick off the partnership, we will publish a series of selected articles this week from Pública's #CopaPública‘s [pt] coverage, a citizen journalism initiative that reports how the Brazilian population is being affected by – and mobilizing against – preparations for the 2014 World Cup.
The first post, Carnival's Samba Takes Aim at World Cup [pt], is already available in Portuguese and Spanish.

author: Sara Moreira


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High Energy Bills Keep Bulgarians Protesting · Global Voices
Ruslan Trad

On Sunday, February 17, tens of thousands of people in Bulgaria's capital Sofia and other cities continued to protest against high electricity and heating bills, and against the monopoly of energy distribution companies – ChCEZ, EVN, and Energo-Pro. The protesters are demanding the nationalization of Bulgaria's three power utilities – CEZ, EVN, and Energo-Pro, with the National Electric Company NEK.
More than 20,000 people showed up for the protest in Varna, 10,000 in Plovdiv, 6,000 in Sofia, 5,000 in Blagoevgrad. Four people were detained as protesters in downtown Sofia clashed with police who tried to cut the rally heading for the headquarters of power utility company CEZ.
The protesters want their demands met next week – and, if this does not happen, they are demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister and the President. Although nationalist parties tried to gain political advantage, protesters stood up against such manipulation, shouting “No parties!”
YouTube user iasssen posted this video of the Sofia protest (shot by SkyMedia-bg.com from the air using a quadcopter, sound recorded separately down on the ground). Another HD video from the Sofia protest was posted by user MickeyMouseFrance:
Bulgarian blogger Kostadin Kostadinov posted an entry titled “Where to after the revolt?”[bg]:
Around 100,000 people protested today across the country. The protests, which began as a reaction against the pompous arrogant and brusque bills, become more social and political. People chanted “Boyko [Boyko Borisov, Bulgarian PM] out” and “Down with [GERB, the ruling party],” and then wondered who would follow them. […] What those 100,000, many of them young people, would do in the elections this summer is extremely important. Obviously, they have the potential to awake the sleeping Bulgaria and to make Bulgarians believe in themselves and change their country. On the other hand, they do not trust anyone, and they have a good reason.
Bulgarian blogger Sabina Panayotova expressed her pessimism about the Feb. 17 protests [bg]:
These people are not those people.
– People in [the summer 2012 protests of Eagle Bridge] are not those of today. The people today were sad, desperate and gray.
– Protests today were like [the anti-communist protests of 1989], except that afterwards they will likely bring communists back to power.
– Whatever happens after these protests will not be good. In the best case, it will remain as it is.
Taralezh (“Hedgehog”) blog commented on the missing responses from the ruling party and ministries:
The first men of the country ran away from the protests and the people's “love.” While hundreds of thousands chanted in the streets of 35 cities in the country, none of the leaders thought of returning to Sofia to stand in front of the citizens as [real] men.
D-r Beloliki blog posted a collection of photos of the Feb. 17 protests across Bulgaria. Dimi Lazhov posted photos from the northwestern city of Vratza where people protesting against the monopoly and the new “rain tax.” Facebook page Saprotiva (“Resistance”) has photos from the nationwide demonstrations as well, and there is also a Storify collection with reactions, here.
Bulgarian journalist Adelina Martini tweeted:
Thousands protest in various cities in #Bulgaria against high electricity prices, shouting “mafia” and “resignation”, local media report
Another Bulgarian journalist, Mariya Petkova, who is based in Cairo, tweeted about the protests, too:
Hundreds of thousands are out in the streets across #Bulgaria protesting private monopolies of utilities and economic hardship!!!

author: Ruslan Trad


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Indonesia’s Bill on Mass Organizations · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

This legal dragon in the making will seriously restrict fundamental liberties of freedom of association & assembly and freedom of thought & expression in Indonesia. For instance it potentially will effectively prevent civil organizations from revealing, denouncing, let alone charging, criminal practices, including human trafficking or corruption.
Colson reviews the proposed Bill on Mass Organizations in Indonesia.

author: Mong Palatino


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Japan’s Porn Law is Strangling Artists  · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

Fashion photographer Leslie Kee, who has worked with pop stars Beyonce and Lady Gaga, was arrested for selling obscene images at his latest exhibition in Roppongi, Tokyo on February 4, 2013. Under Japanese law, all images of genitalia must be blurred, so Kee's work which featured nudity was effectively breaking the law.
Michelangelo's David photo modified by Keiko from wikimedia commons uploaded by user Silmaril, (CC BY SA 3.0)
On February 7, the case was dropped, but his arrest has stirred a debate about artistic expression and Japan's broad porn law. Officially known as Article 175 of Japan’s Penal Code, the law prohibits the distribution, sale, or public display of all obscene materials.
Tokyo-based Kee is also known for his homoerotic work. Writer and journalist @quitamarco writes on Twitter [ja]:
【拡散希望】レスリー・キー逮捕に抗議します。彼の表現行為がもたらしたLGBTの解放を、ポルノだとか猥褻だとかの尾籠な劣情を持ち込んで卑小化するのは、まったくの本末転倒の倒錯であると考えます。
<please amplify this> I protest the arrest of Leslie Kee. His artistic expression brought liberation of LGBT. Degrading his work by calling it “porn” or “obscene” with indelicate lust is illogical and fails to properly value his work.
Another user @WildcatBooko pointed out [ja] that by arresting Leslie the police intervened in personal expression:
@quitamarco 　横レス失礼。今回のレスリーの写真集はあくまで私費出版として出されてるわけで、マスメディアの場で「猥褻な」写真を公表したわけではないはずです。今回の措置は、いわば私的な領域における表現の規制なわけで、そこに何とも言えないおぞましいものを感じます。
@quitamarco If I may add my comment, I would say this case is serious because Leslie did not sell the “obscene” photo in public. He published the photo book at his own expense privately. This is a horrifying case to me for it can be considered regulation of expression in the personal domain.
Besides Lee's work, an exhibition by leading Japanese contemporary artist Makoto Aida in Tokyo has been met with protest. His work is known for being erotic and controversial.
On January 25, 2013, the People Against Pornography and Sexual Violence (PAPS) [ja] published a letter of protest [en] against the Mori Art Museum where the exhibition is taking place:
These works are child pornography. They are equivalent to child sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation. […]
the ‘Dog’ series treats women and girls as less than human, as sexual playthings and sexual animals.[…] The exhibition is an example of discrimination and contempt for amputees and other people with disabilities.[…]
In its position as a respected public institution, the Mori Art Museum sends a strong message through hosting the current exhibition. […] The Museum’s hosting of the exhibition actively makes discrimination and violence normal, and actively promotes the sexual exploitation of girls, violence against women, and discrimination and contempt for people with a disabilities.
A voluntary organization called the Institute of Contents Culture [ja] which studies freedom of expression in Japan made an official statement [ja] about the Makoto Aida exhibition controversy:
芸術作品に限らず、多くの表現や意見を楽しむことができるのは、表現の自由を保証する健全な社会があるからです。芸術家・会田誠氏の作品に対する批判がなされること、議論が巻き起こることは、私たちの社会が表現の自由が機能する健全なものである証左であり、そのことは歓迎すべきです。
しかし、今回の作品撤去要請は、他者が会田誠氏の作品を見て、考える機会、それ自体を奪おうとするものであり、議論を形成する機会をも奪おうとするものです。
表現の自由は、特定人の具体的な権利、人権を侵害しない限りは、最大限に保障されるべきであり、表現を見て、各人が自由に考え、批判を含め議論、討議する権利は守られなければなりません。
私たちは市民として、クリエイターとして「森美術館からの会田誠氏の作品撤去要請」に反対します。
We live in a healthy society that guarantees freedom of expression and that is exactly why we can enjoy not only art work but also diverse opinions and expressions.The fact that there's criticism against the works of artist Makoto Aida is the very proof that our society is the one where  freedom of expression exists and it should be welcomed.
However, the request to remove his work, takes away all opportunities to discuss and to think by seeing his work.
Freedom of expression must be guaranteed fully unless it violates particular rights of particular people, and by seeing the expression, the rights to discuss and criticize with each person thinking freely must be guaranteed.
As a creator and as a citizen, we object to the request to remove Makoto Aida's art at Mori Art Museum.
Some feel this is not just about freedom of expression. Referring to the cancellation of Ahn Se-Hong‘s photo exhibit about comfort women in May 2012 Korean descendant @rinda0818 commented [ja] :
会田誠展とニコンの安世鴻展、表現の自由とかで同じように語られてるけど本当にそうなのかな。人権がちゃんと守られてないこの国で、表現の自由は時々暴力になるんだけど。前者は作品、後者は抗議に対してそう思う。で、何となく違和感。
The narratives of controversies over exhibition of Aida Makoto and that of Ahn Se-Hong both fall into a category of freedom of expression, but is it really the case? In a country where [basic] human rights is not protected, freedom of expression can sometimes turn violent.  For the former, art works are violence and for the latter, protest against exhibition is violence. I feel something is wrong.
Porn magazines with blurred images at a convenient store in Japan, by Flickr user eliazar. (CC BY 2.0)
Another tweet by user @tatangarani [ja] referred to both cases of Makoto and Leslie and said that Japan's regulations are taking the wrong direction:
会田誠もレスリーも。クローズドな場所で売ってる芸術作品やアートをグロだ、エロだと取り締まるなら、子供の手が届く範囲でオープンに売られてるコンビニに山とあふれるヘアヌード掲載週刊誌はアリなの？パレンタルロックの存在も仕様も知らない親が、子どもに与えるPCはアリなの？根本間違ってる。
If Makoto Aida and Leslie's art, which were sold at closed venues are being regulated for being offensive and nasty, why are piles of weekly magazines with naked photographs available at convenient stores. Why is it okay for parents to give computers to children when the parents do not even know what a parental lock is? These are fundamental mistakes!

author: Keiko Tanaka


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RuNet Skeptical About Chelyabinsk Meteorite · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

The tendency of the RuNet to amplify conspiracy theory explanations of any given event cannot be overestimated. And yet, the degree to which such explanations often become part of the mainstream discourse never fails to surprise.
Case in point — the meteorite [GV] that put the gloomy city of Chelyabinsk on the map last Friday. The first conspiracy theory came hot on the heels of the meteorite's sonic boom, with Echo Moskvy's Yulia Latynina insinuating at Novaya Gazeta that the explosion was some sort of weapon that exploded while flying from one local military range to another, and the space rock was just a cover-story. (Sean's Russia Blog has translated Latynina's “questions” here.)
Sad Keanu and Belochka the Hell Squirrel join Putin atop meteorite contrail. Anonymous image widely disseminated online
The article, which began with “Now, I'm not a rocket scientist,” was quickly removed [ru] from the Novaya Gazeta website, but not before screenshots [ru] and copies [ru] were spread throughout the RuNet. Latynina later apologized [ru] for being “paranoid” on her Echo Moskvy radio program, admitting that the meteorite was after all a meteorite. Her apology, however, rings somewhat hollow:
[…] как только стало ясно, что там речь идет о килотоннах взрыва, то понятно, что это никакая не ракета, и понятно, что это, действительно, метеорит. […] Действительно, совпадение. Метеорит летел на Чебаркульский полигон. Ну что? Бывает. […] Когда у человека возникает паранойя, у него начинаются сразу всякие логические подтверждения этой паранойи.
[…] as soon as it became clear that the story is kilotons of explosive [energy], well, then its obvious, that it's not a rocket, and obvious that it's actually a meteorite. […] Really, a coincidence. A meteorite was flying to the Chebarkulsky military range. So what? It happens. […] When a person gets paranoid, they immediately start making up logical confirmations of this paranoia.
Remarkably, Latynina seems to be saying that her original idea (a rocket detonation was covered up with meteorite story) was “logical”, and furthermore, that if the amount of energy released by the meteorite was smaller, she would still be inclined to believe her first theory.
While Latynina is notorious for kooky theories and poor grasp of technical details, that's usually not the case for Andrei Makarevich, front-man of cult rock group Mashina Vremeni, who blogged [ru] on Snob.ru, calling the meteorite a “convenient” talking point to distract the people from political scandals. He also wondered how expensive it would be to “launch” a meteorite.
Another person to tentatively accept the meteorite's existence was Alfred Koch, the economist in charge of Russian privatization in the 90s and briefly the director of Gazprom Media. First, Koch wrote a Facebook post (liked by over 9000 people) asking [ru] why Russian anti air defense forces did not track and destroy the meteorite:
Почему он не был даже засечен? На фига нам такая ПВО? Может и нет никакой ПВО?
Why wasn't it even detected? Why the hell do we need an anti-air defense like that? Maybe there is no anti-air defense at all?
Perhaps Koch was expecting an effort more akin to the one portrayed in the (fictional) Bruce Willis vehicle Armageddon. Later he wrote another post [ru]:
Над нашей страной произошел взрыв неизвестного объекта. Высота на которой произошел взрыв – 20 км. Мощность – примерно 20 – 30 Хиросим. Теперь самое интересное: не прошло и суток, как это случилось, а поиски остатков объекта – прекращены… Не знаю как вы, а мне кажется, что меня держат за идиота.
An unknown object exploded above our country. The height of the explosion – 20 km. Force – about 20-30 Hiroshimas. Now for the interesting part: it hasn't even been 24 hours since it happened, but the search for the remnants of the object is over … Don't know about you, but it seems to be that someone is taking me for a fool.
Incredibly, opposition leader and Coordinating Council of the Opposition member Boris Nemtsov was on the same page with Koch as far as “unknown objects”, writing [ru] yesterday:
Альфред Кох удивляется, почему прекращены поиски челябинского неопознанного летающего объекта (НЛО) […] И почему версия Латыниной, что это был не метеорит, а наша ракета нечаянно кем-то запущенная, была забанена даже независимыми СМИ. Мне представляется, что дискуссия вокруг НЛО крайне опасна и невыгодна властям.
Alfred Koch is wondering why the search is over for the Chelyabinsk unidentified flying object (UFO) […] And why Latynina's theory that it wasn't a meteorite, but our own rocket launched by mistake, was banned even by independent mass media. I think that a discussion about the UFO is highly dangerous and disadvantageous for the government.
Several commenters responded with links to a YouTube video [ru] entitled “Were we saved?”, one of them saying [ru]:
Вообще-то там заметили сигарообразный объект который сбил и уменьшил тем самым метеорит и затем полетел дальше.
Actually, they've noticed a cigar-like object that knocked down and reduced the size of the meteorite and then kept on flying.
A diagram showing meteorite trajectory, labeled from left to right: Putin's Dacha, Very powerful KGB fan, and Chelyabinsk. An anonymous image widely distributed online.
Why are some people so loath to take simple explanations of, granted, rare events at face value? Blogger Vladimir Golishev took a step back [ru], attributing the desire to complicate to a fear of randomness:
что хуже: метеорит или ракета?
по-моему, ракета как-то превычней, понятней, тривиальней
подумаешь, с курса сбилась – врезала по людЯм!
первый раз что ли?!
вполне штатная ситуация для неуклонно поднимающейся с колен расеи
а вот ежели вправду метеорит – тогда, действительно, страшно
what's worse: a meteorite or a rocket?
to me, a rocket is somehow more habitual, understandable, trivial
who cares, went off course – hit some folk!
as if it's the first time?!
pretty boring situation for russia steadily rising to her news
but if it's actually a meteorite – well, that's scary, for sure

author: Andrey Tselikov


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Saudi Arabia: Hospital Gives HIV, Minister Gives iPad · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Reham al-Hakami is a 13-year-old girl who got infected with HIV after being given a blood transfusion in a hospital in Jizan, in southern Saudi Arabia.
On Riyadh Bureau, blogger Ahmed Al Omran explains:
The case sparked wide outrage on social media sites, where many users demanded that the Minister of Health Abdullah al-Rabeeah resign from his position. Al-Sharq newspaper reported that the minister has visited Reham at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center on Saturday and gave her an iPad as a gift, a gesture that was mocked by many on Twitter.
The storm of reactions, under the hashtag [ar] #الربيعة_يهدي_رهام_ايباد which translates to “al-Rabeeah presents Reham with an iPad,” is led by this tweet by Summer, which has been retweeted 1,715 times and counting:
@Sughmmer: #الربيعة_يهدي_رهام_ايباد hey sorry about what happened so take this ipad and download some apps while you're waiting to die
Haifa Alrasheed asks [ar]:
#الربيعة_يهدي_رهام_ايباد لو ماتت وش بيصير؟ بيعطي اهلها اي ماك مثلا؟!
@Haifa_: And what happened if she dies? Will he give her family an iMac?
Olfat Gushgari echoes a similar idea:
@olfatg: what's next ? A MacBook for a paralysis caused by a surgical errors #unbelievable
And @7iat_20 wonders why the girl was not flown for treatment abroad yet:
#الربيعة_يهدي_رهام_ايباد ميزآنيہ وزآرة آلصحہ 86 مليآر وتعطيهآ آآيبآد ‘بدآآل مآترسِسلهآ تتعآلج بِمستشفيآت متخصصہ بهآلحآآلآت !!
@7iat_20: The Health Ministry's budget is 86 billion (Saudi Riyals) and you just give her an iPad instead of sending her to a specialised hospital for treatment?
Bassam Altamimi notes:
#الربيعة_يهدي_رهام_ايباد خطة وزارة الصحة ف المستقبل صرف جهاز آيبادلكل من يقع عليه خطأ طبي إذا كان ع قيد الحياة وإذا توفي يعطى الأيباد للاهل
@BASSOOME: The Health Ministry's plan in the future is to give an iPad to all those who are victims of medical malpractice if they are alive and to their relatives if they are dead
While Suleiman Alosaimi projects new profits for Apple, the company which produces the iPad, saying:
#الربيعة_يهدي_رهام_ايباد عاجل الاسواق الامريكيه تتوقع ارتفاع ضخم في مبيعات شركة ابل وتتوقع ارباح خياليه بسبب الاخطاء الطبيه في السعوديه
@bofares_55: The American markets predict a huge increase in profits from the sales of Apple products because of medical malpractice in Saudi Arabia
And Khaled Aldhaheri adds:
أتمنى أن تكون شرارة توقظ الشعب من السبات #الربيعة_يهدي_رهام_ايباد
@5aled_DH: I hope this is the spark that wakes up the nation from its slumber


text:
#Shahbag Protesters Bid Farewell to Brutally Murdered Blogger · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

The #Shahbag crowd prays at blogger Rajib's janaza (funeral). Image by Mohammad Asad. Copyright Demotix (16/2/2013)
As protesters continued their chants at Shahbag calling for Bangladesh's war criminals and affiliates of the Islamist party to be beheaded, one of their own Ahmed Rajib Haider, was brutally killed outside his home in capital city Dhaka on February 15, 2013.
The following day, thousands gathered around his body at the site of the protests, Shahbag square, to pay their last respects.
Haider blogged under the pseudonym Thaba Baba (Captain Claw) and was on the forefront of the blogger and online activist-led Shahbag protests. For years, he had been writing about war criminals and Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh.
His writings and activism had even irked the Islamist party's student wing Jamaat-Shibir. Their blog Sonar Bangladesh (now blocked in Bangladesh for inciting hatred) published a series of hate-filled posts about #Shahbag's main organizers. The first feature [pdf] was on Rajib Haider.
Since February 5, 2013 hundreds of thousands of people have joined the Shahbag movement to demand harsher punishment for Bangladesh's 1971 war criminals.
An estimated 200,000 to 3 million people were killed by the Pakistani army and approximately 250,000 women were raped, during the 1971 liberation war. Local political and religious militia groups such as Razakar, Al Badr, and Al-Shams aided Pakistani soldiers in the killing, particularly targeting Hindus. Their members, some of whom are affiliated with the Islamist party, were living with impunity in Bangladesh for decades. Now that they are finally facing trial, Shahbag's protesters are demanding capital punishment for their crimes.
Blogger Rajib Haider. Image courtesy his Facebook Page
As the news of Haider's brutal death broke, social media erupted with shock and outrage. Blogger Ranadipam Basu
wrote [bn]:
রাজীব হায়দার, ভাই আমার, তোমার স্মৃতির ভার বইতে পারছি না আমি…!
Rajib Haider, my brother, I cannot take the burden of knowing you anymore.
On the following day an activist from the Shahbag movement Russel John tweeted:
@EkusheyIt's a new day, everyone is here, except for Thaba Baba whom I used to call Kola Baba. You'll be missed dearly. #Shahbag
Mrittumoy Ishot commented in a post on Sachalayatan:
নিজের গায়ে আগুন লাগায় দিতে ইচ্ছে করছে আমার। কোন প্রগতিশীল ব্লগারকে খুন হতে দেখতে পারি না। কিছুতেই না।
I feel like burning myself. I cannot stand for the killing of a progressive blogger. Never.
On his personal blog Hasib writes:
খুন করার জন্য থাবাবাবাকে বেছে নেবার কারণ পরিষ্কার। থাবাবাবা ধর্মবিশ্বাসের নাস্তিক ছিলেন এবং সেটা তিনি উচ্চস্বরে জানানও দিতেন। জামাতের উদ্দেশ্য এখানে এই ধর্মবিশ্বাসকে আশ্রয় করে একটা বিভক্তি টানা। তারা এই বিভক্তি তৈরী করতে সফল।
It is clear why Thaba Baba was picked up and  killed. He was an open atheist. The main target of the Jamaat (Islamist party) is to create division among bloggers using religion. They were successful.
Fingers are being pointed at the Islamist political party Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and their student wing Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir for the killing of Rajib. Sushanta writes in Amar Blog:
তবে এ পর্যন্ত যতটুকু তথ্য পেয়েছি এবং জামাত শিবিরের ব্লগ সোনার বাংলায় প্রদত্ত হিট লিস্ট এবং জামায়াত-শিবিরের অতীতের কর্মকান্ড এবং শাহবাগ-ঘটিত তাদের বিভিন্ন বক্তব্যের আলোকে ব্যক্তিগতভাবে আমার মনে কোনো সন্দেহ নেই যে এই হত্যাকান্ডের সম্ভাব্য অপরাধী জামায়াত-শিবির চক্র।
So far the information I obtained from the previous actions and rhetoric of Jamaat-Shibir and the hitlist posted on the Jamaat-Shibir blog Sonar Bangladesh, I have no doubt that they are they main culprit behind this.
Thousands of people paying their last respect to blogger Ahmed Rajib Haidar at Shahbagh intersection in Dhaka. Image by Firoz Ahmed. Copyright Demotix (16/2/2013)
After Rajib died, many shared a link on Facebook which they thought was Rajib's blog. It contained blasphemous and hate-mongering posts. Abdullah Al Kafi analyses Rajib Haider alias Thaba Baba's alleged blog on Quantcast and says:
quantcast এ গিয়ে দেখা যায় সাইটটি ফেব্রুয়ারীর ১৫ তারিখ থেকেই দেখা যাচ্ছে এর তা হোল রাজিব হত্যার দিন, অথচ সাইটটির পোস্টগুলো এক বছর আগের, নূরানি চাপা সাইটটার অস্তিত্ব ফেব্রুয়ারীর ১৫ তারিখ এর আগে ছিলই না। রাজিব হত্যার পরপরি সাইটটি রাজিব এর নামে বিকৃত কিছু পোস্ট দিয়ে অনলাইন এ ছড়িয়ে দেয়া হোল, যাতে সাধারণ মানুষ রাজিব এর লিখা পড়তে গেলে এই পোস্ট গুলো পায়।
If you analyse the site in Quantcast then you will see that the blog only exists from February 15, 2013, the day Rajib died. The posts on the site was dated one year before, however the site didn't exist before February 15. Some fabricated posts were published on the date of his death and shared widely apparently to make people believe that he wrote them.
Kafi Khan writes on the Shahbag Cyber War page:
নুরানি চাপা সাইটটা থাবা বাবা-এর খোলা না। আপনারা নিচের লিঙ্কটাতে গেলেই সব ডাটা পাবেন। এই সাইটটা গতকালও মডিফাই করা হইছে। তাইলে মরার পর কে মডিফাই করল?? আমি একটা ছবিও দিয়া দিছি!! আজব!!! এইভাবে মানুষকে দোষী বানানো কোন ঈমান এর ভিতর পড়ে??
Nurani Chapa site was not published by Thaba Baba. If you go to the following link you will find that this site was even modified yesterday, one day after his death. Then who changed it? I have taken a screenshot. Strange. Why are they trying to frame him?
Kafi Khan'snalysis – the blog was modified after his death. image courtesy Shahbag Cyber War Page
In Bangladesh  89% of the population is Muslim. So there is a visible trend to divert the #Shahbag protests in social media by highlighting Rajib's atheism. Shuvo Roy Chowdhury writes in the Amar Blog:
রাজীব ভাইকে নাস্তিক বলে অনেকেই আন্দেলনকে ভিন্ন খাতে প্রবাহিত করতে চায়। তাদের উদ্দেশ্যে বলতে চাই, আপনারা যারা প্রথম থেকে আন্দোলনের সাথে কোন না কোনভাবে সম্পৃক্ত, তারা হয়তো জানবেন এই আন্দোলন কোন ধর্মযুদ্ধ নয়। এটি দেশের কলঙ্ক মোচন করার লড়াই।
They want to divert the movement by saying that Rajib is an atheist. I want to say to them, those who are involved in this movement should know this is not a religious war. This is the fight to save the country from injustice.
Generation Square- Shahbag writes on Facebook:
আবারো হাতিয়ার হিসেবে ব্যবহার হচ্ছে ধর্ম, পুঁজি করা হয়েছে ধর্মকে। প্রজন্ম চত্বরে বাঙালি এক হয়েছে রাজাকারের ফাঁসির দাবি নিয়ে, কোন ধর্মীয় ইস্যু নিয়ে নয়। প্লিজ ধর্ম এবং ফাঁসির দাবি এই দুইটা ফ্যাক্ট গুলিয়ে এক করে ফেলবেন না।
Again religion is being used as a tool for politics. People have united at generation square for the maximum punishment of war criminals. Please do not mix the demand for death penalty of the war criminals with religion.
Rajib was not killed for his atheism but for his activism in the Shahbag movement, opines Shahbagh Movement:
ব্লগার রাজীব হায়দারকে কিন্তু তার ধর্মে বিশ্বাস অথবা অবিশ্বাসের জন্য খুন করা হয়নি। সেরকম হলে তাকে আরো আগেই হত্যার চেষ্টা করা হত! রাজীব হায়দার ছাড়াও আরো অনেকে রয়েছেন যারা ধর্মে বিশ্বাস রাখেন না। তাদেরকেও কিন্তু আক্রমণ করা হয়নি। রাজীব হায়দারকে খুন করা হয়েছে যখন তিনি জামায়ত শিবির যুদ্ধাপরাধীদের বিরুদ্ধে আন্দোলনে নেমেছেন, তখন!
Blogger Rajib was not killed for his atheism or religion. If that's true they could have done it long ago. There are others also who do not believe in religion. But they were not attacked. When Rajib was very active in the movement against the war criminals, then he was killed.
So far, the police has arrested five people in connection with Haider's murder. Thirteen days into the movement, Shahbag is occupied by more than 100,000 protesters demanding death penalty for war criminals. Now many of them are also demanding a quick trial for their fellow protester Rajib.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


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South Korean Man Allegedly Kills Noisy Neighbors  · Global Voices
Jae Yeon Kim

A 45-year-old South Korean man allegedly killed his two upstairs neighbors during the hectic Lunar New Year holiday weekend in Seoul, South Korea because he complained that the pair were too noisy.
According to published reports [ko], the man, whose last name is Kim, had regularly made complaints about the noise coming from upstairs. On February 9, 2013, his anger exploded, and he allegedly attacked the two victims, who were trying to calm him down.
Noise complaints from residents of apartment complexes have skyrocketed, with 7,021 cases in 2012, nearly 20 times more than the previous year, according to the South Korean Ministry of Environment. More than half of the Korean population live in apartments, according to 2010 Korea Statistics, and in five new bedroom communities outside Seoul, where real estate prices have surged, the number of residents living in apartments reaches more than 80 percent.
The alleged murder in Seoul caused South Koreans to take a closer look at the failings of the South Korean real estate industry as well as the reason why some are so quick to turn to violence over trivial matters.
South Korean apartment building. Photo by Flickr user NEIC. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Twitter user @managak [ko] lamented the inability of some South Koreans to deal with disputes over noise with civility, pointing to an overwhelmingly stressful society as the cause:
@managak: 층간소음때문에 살인이 났단다. 예전에 공중전화를 오래쓴다고 살인이 벌어진 적도 있었다. 사건을 단순하게 보고 농담거리로 희화하는 것은 아닐까? 지속적인 스트레스로 불안한 정신상태에, 서로 갈등하고 억눌려있던 감정이 사소한 계기에 폭발했다고 봐야지.
@managak: A man killed his neighbors because of the apartment noise nuisance. Some time ago, another murder was committed because the victim had occupied a public phone booth for too long. Have we over-simplified these crimes and made them into laughing stocks? It should be understood as an explosion of suppressed emotions triggered by one tiny thing and an event caused by unstable minds suffering from incessant stress.
Another Twitter user @actwalk [ko] wrote that the real estate industry's culture of bribery helped to make the noise problem in apartment buildings unbearable:
@actwalk: 시스템 부실이 개인 책임으로 환원되는 대표적 사례가 층간소음인 듯 싶다. 건설사와 시행사들이 먹는 돈 좀만 줄이면 층간소음 문제는 상당부분 해결됐을텐데…
@actwalk: As a matter of fact, the real murderer is the shaky social system. If we could cut down on the bribe money construction companies get, then the apartment noise nuisance problem would have been alleviated to a substantial extent.
A user on South Korean Internet portal Daum Agora, under the name The Horizon of Events, criticized [ko] Korean construction companies’ proclivity for bribes. His post entitled “Everything About the Apartment Noise Nuisance” has been read more than 56,508 times:
사실 층간소음 문제는 과거에도 계속 제기되어왔던 문제이고, 이미 10여년전에 우리나라 아파트의 낮은 방음성능이 문제가 되어 관련 규제안이 추진되었으나 건설사들의 이익을 대변하는 국토해양부의 미온적인 태도로 실효성 없는 규제안만 마련되었습니다. […] 10여년전에 환경부와 시민단체에서는 중량 충격음 45데시벨 수준의 강력한 규제를 원했으나 국토해양부(그 당시는 건교부)에서는 반대하였고, 결국 50데시벨로 올라가게 되었으며 표준바닥구조라는 희한한 규제안을 만들어 건설사들에게 면죄부를 주었습니다.
In fact, the apartment noise nuisance problem was raised about a decade ago. Back then, a bill regulating the use of low-quality soundproof materials was proposed. However, that bill was downgraded to nominal regulations due to lukewarm reactions of the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs who choose to stand for the construction companies’ benefit.[…] The Environment Ministry and civic groups originally proposed the noise cap of 45 decibel level, which is a strong measure, but the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (at that time, the Ministry of Construction and Transport) rose this bar to 50 decibel. Furthermore, they came up with this weird regulation called ‘Standard Floor Structure regulation’ to give excuses to the companies (to continue their sloppy soundproofing construction work).
Furthermore, the author pointed out that the obsession that South Koreans have with real estate investment has contributed to the problem:
어느 나라나 투기꾼은 존재하지만, 한국은 전국민이 투기꾼입니다.이러니, 집이 생활의 도구가 아닌 투기꾼에 의한, 투기꾼을 위한 것이 되고 말지요. 건설사, 정부에게도 책임이 있지만 투기에 환장한 국민들에게도 책임이 있다는 것이지요. 수십만원 밖에 안 하는 핸드폰, TV에 조금의 문제라도 생기면 환불 요구하고 난리를 치면서 수억원을 호가하는 아파트 자체의 품질에는 무관심한 소비자들이 많습니다. 핸드폰 살 때, CPU의 속도는 어느 정도인지, LCD 해상도는 몇 인지 스펙을 꼼꼼히 따져보는 사람은 많아도, 아파트 구입시에는 방음 성능이 어떻게 되는지 꼼꼼히 따져보는 사람은 거의 없습니다 […] 대충 마구잡이로 지어도 비싸게 잘 팔리는데, 건설사들이 미쳤다고 품질에 신경쓰면서 시공합니까? 게다가, 아파트에 심각한 하자가 발생해도, 집 값 떨어진다고 그 것을 공론화하지 않고 쉬쉬하는 입주자들이 수두룩합니다.
There are speculators everywhere worldwide. However, I would say every South Korean is speculator. House is no longer a necessity for living, but an object of speculation, for speculators. Undoubtably, construction companies and the government are to blame, but citizens are also responsible for this mess. When people buy a new cellphone and TV, they usually check every detail from the CPU to LCD resolution. However, when they buy an apartment, they don't care whether it was built with sufficient sound-proofing materials […] Since the poorly built apartments are sold so successfully, the construction companies don't need to care about the quality. Plus, there are so many residents who even after detecting serious construction flaws in their building, never make them public and keep silent on the matter because it could drive their housing prices down.

author: Jae Yeon Kim


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Spanish Parliamentarians Tweet Secret Mario Draghi meeting · Global Voices
Elena Arrontes

On Tuesday, Spain's Parliament began its formal discussion about the economic and political crises that are ravaging the country. The three most subsequently important debates were regarding the future Transparency Law, the proposal of the Popular Legislative Initiative as a means to affront the number of mortgage-based evictions, and the intervention of European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi in the discourse on the ECB's role in the Euro zone crisis [es] and in particular its role in Spain. Draghi accept Spain's request for a meeting but requested a closed session with Congress, without stenographers or recordings.
The sector of Spanish society that remains fully abreast with the political and social happenings within the country have been quick to respond to the unjust and misrepresentative decisions that have been made in recent days. Tuesday's private session intensified these citizens’ efforts as they turned in droves to social media to make their voices heard. But this time, they had extra leverage to bolster their cause: the actions of two members of Izquierda Unida [United Left] who disobeyed Draghi's conditions for a closed session (it was prohibited for representatives to send informative updates beyond the room). They disagreed, believing the president of the ECB should be held accountable to the public given the scope of authority of the position.
As such, Joan Coscubiela and Alberto Garzón, the two representatives in question, defied orders and live Tweeted Draghi's address under the hashtag #OpenDraghi. They also recorded the parliamentary session (five videos in total) and posted them to YouTube. The videos, which weren't posted in real-time, now have more than 155,000 views.
Joan Coscubiela and Álberto Garzón, the two parliament representatives behind the #OpenDraghi initiative.
The violation of the closed session order could result in sanctions [es] against the two member of Parliament. Garzón and Coscubiela's party set up a website so users could easily track the parliamentary developments. The site's motto is, “They closed the Congress. We will open it!” Congressional President Jesús Posada called Representative Garzón to order when he addressed Draghi on his management of the European financial crisis. Garzón called the ECB an anti-democratic organization, accusing it of “extorting money from various countries” and of “taking no actions as the crisis has developed,” claiming the situation should now “go before the courts.” He went one step further by saying Draghi was to blame for the cuts to social services and was to be held responsible the recovery of the financial system, demanding explanations for the actions Draghi has taken on both.
The Spanish blogging community has also weighed in heavily in publicizing Draghi's address. ProfesorGeoHistoria wrote the following in his blog:
Comparecencia de Draghi (BCE) en el Congreso gracias a la grabación de los diputados de izquierda (ICV).  Poner inhibidores en el Congreso es reconocer que allí pasan cosas que es mejor que el ciudadano no conozca. Es una vergüenza”.
“Draghi's address to Congress thanks to left-wing representatives. To have a closed session is to admit that things are transpiring that it would be better the general public didn't know. It's shameful.”
The United Left's web page, the party who posted the session on YouTube, indicates they are unable to continue streaming.
Here is a sample of tweets that circulated under the hashtag #OpenDraghi, which became one of the day's trending topics.
@AmandaMeyerh: Hoy será recordado como el día en que un banquero tumbo a la soberanía popular #OpenDraghi, ánimo a diputad@s q resisten!!!@iunida
@AmandaMeyerh: Today will be remembered as the day the head of the banks got owned by the public #OpenDraghi, way to go you two!
@hugomabarca: Gracias a @jcoscu y @agarzon por contar la comparecencia de Draghi que el democratiquísimo Congreso pretende mantener secreta #OpenDraghi.
@hugomabarca: Thanks to @jcoscu and @agarzon for covering the Draghi meeting our “democratic” Congress wanted to keep secret #OpenDraghi.
@JuanMJG: ¿Hacemos un #Crowfounding para pagar posible multa a @agarzony al crack de @Jcoscu ? #OpenDraghi #NoTodxsSonIguales
@JuanMJG:Are we pulling together for a #crowfounding [crowdfunding] to cover the possible fines our true representatives @agarzon and @Jcoscu are facing?
@agarzon: Invitamos a todo el mundo a usar #OpenDraghi como denuncia de la opacidad del Congreso y la troika. Un insulto a ciudadanos y periodistas.
@agarzon:We invite everyone to use #OpenDraghi to reject Congressional secrecy and Perestroika-like “reforms” which are a slap in the face to citizens and journalists.

author: Elena Arrontes


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Tax Holiday for Albanian Youth? · Global Voices
Veroniki Bacharidi-Krikoni

THREE YEAR TAX LIFT FOR EMPLOYED YOUTH
In a significant boost to youth employment, the government will decide during the coming weeks about the lifting of taxes (social security, health and personal income tax) and expenses of new trainings of those employed in the private sector. We keep our promises!
The Albanian PM Sali Berisha made this statement [sq] on his public Facebook page on February 10, 2013 [sq].
Three-thousand young people from Durrës, Albania, joined the Democratic Party (DP) and it's Youth Forum. PM Sali Berisha attended the festive occasion [sq, en] and symbolically gave cards to three of the attendees. In a speech, he promised that “the government is set to pay social insurance, social contributions and other costs for the youth over the first three years of their work”.

author: Veroniki Bacharidi-Krikoni


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Japan-China War’s Possible Economic Fallout · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

One Minute MBA uploaded a video explaining the global economic impact of Sino-Japanese war over the Diaoyu Islands (or Senkaku Islands) if it really happened.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Videos from “One Billion Rising” Global Protests for Women’s Rights · Global Voices
Claudia Blaser

Photo of the flashmob on Waisenhausplatz in Bern, Switzerland
Every third woman falls victim to violence in her lifetime. On February 14, 2013 thousands of people all over the world protested against these daily acts of violence with dance though flashmobs and other artistic events. Under the motto “One Billion Rising” they protested on behalf of the one billion women in the world, who are beaten or raped during their lifetime, according to the United Nations.
Also in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh women took to the streets.
Photo of a flashmob on the Polyterrasse at the ETH in Zürich, Switzerland
More than 13,000 organisations in 200 countries took part in this global protest. Below, we present some videos from February 14.
Flashmob in Bern, Switzerland:
The organisation “United Societies of Balkans” recorded a video of men and women from around the world, telling “One Billion Rising” why they were on the street on February 14:
NDTV reported from Mumbai, India:
The following dance was rehearsed and performed by girls of “New Light”, an NGO operating in the red light district of Calcutta, India:
Video from Khartoum, Sudan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXeIskGwLy4
Stop-Motion-Film from São Paulo, Brazil:
Flashmob in Bali, Indonesia:

author: Claudia Blaser


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Pope’s Resignation Echoes in Africa · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

The announcement by Pope Benedict XVI of his intention to resign with effect from February 28, 2013 provoked many reactions in Francophone Africa, both in traditional media and on social networks. The predominant feeling was that of admiration for the Pope combined with the wish that certain African leaders would follow his example.
The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. Photo Catholic Church (England and Wales) on Flickr, licence CC by-nc-sa/2.0
Varied opinions, with underlying admiration
In a well-reported article from Togocouleurs blog entitled ‘Must the Pope Die Pope?’, Charles Lebon wrote that [fr]:
La nouvelle est tombée ce 11 février comme un coup de tonnerre dans un ciel serein. Ce coup aurait été moins violent si c’était le décès du pape, qui, dans ce cas et trop souvent prévisible, obligeait les journalistes à attendre sous les fenêtres du saint homme en agonie avec micro, camera et bougie. Mais ce n’était pas le cas. Il s’agit de la démission du souverain pontife au sens de : « renoncer à sa charge ».
Diery Diallo’s blog quoted Father Jacques Seck of Dakar [fr] :
Je dis que je suis heureux que le Saint-Père (Pape Benoît XVI) ait pris cette idée personnellement. Les hommes de Dieu que nous sommes (…) ne sont pas des fonctionnaires qui travaillent. Je suis heureux que le Saint-Père à la tête de l’Eglise nous donne l’exemple. Les évêques, Cardinaux, Pape, ne sont pas des fonctionnaires, quand ils ne peuvent plus ils cèdent la place aux autres », a réagi Abbé Jacques Seck sur les ondes de la Rfm. Rappelons que le Pape Benoit XVI a annoncé sa démission de ses fonctions de Pape pour le 28 février 2013. Il a donné comme raison, son âge avancé qui ne lui permet plus d’exercer le ministère Pétrinien.
On the facebook page of Radio France International, a widely-listened to station in Francophone Africa, many reactions were posted [fr] during a programme dedicated to this event:
Many Africans seem to wish their leaders would be inspired by the courageous act of Pope Benedict XVI. Source photo:
commons.wikimedia.org
From Conakry in Guinea Hilal Sylla [fr] wrote that:
Pour peu que cela ait du sens, cette démission de Benoit XVI me renvoie au Film culte sur l'église et les illuminatis. Une façon de dire que l'église n'a plus de force dans un monde dominé par tant de perversion. Une question : la fin du monde n'est-elle pas proche?
For Samuel Azabho [fr] from Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo:
Cette démission est normale par le fait de l'age. son pontificat est positif dans la mesure où il est le précurseur de la lutte contre la pédophilie. je pense qu'il était un homme de décision. Et celui qui doit venir après lui doit relever le défis de l'avenir de l'église catholique et de toute l'humanité peu importe sa race et ses origines.
From Yaoundé, Ben Mbele remarked that [fr]:
nous pouvons cependant dire ke le pontificat de benoit xv1 n'a pa été un fleuve trankil, de son discours sur l'islam et la violence en passant par le scandal des prêtres pédophiles et enfin du débat sur le mariage gay,au demeurant notons ke la décision salutaire de benoit xv1 fera un précédent car il lancera le débat sur la modification du droit canon en matière du mandat du pape, personnellement il ne faut pa trop attendre du nouveau pape en matière d’émancipation sur certains sujets car la plus part des cardinaux actuels ont été nommé par benoit xv1 et jean paul 2 eux très conservateurs.
Alpha Ulrick Marcellus from Brazzville, in Congo thought that [fr]:
La décision du Pape est courageuse. Il ne démissionne pas mais il renonce, il renonce au ministère pétrinien. Une décision qui n'est pas facile à prendre. Son pontificat a été à mon avis celui des grandes épreuves, des discours aux vérités sans détours et choquant. Benoit XVI à donné le meilleur de lui-même, dans la direction d'une Église en conflit avec un monde de plus en plus excentrique. Pour le futur Pape plaise à Dieu de choisir celui qui est apte, valide à prendre des décisions courageuses contre les déviations que le monde légalise pour préserver l'intégrité de la foi et de l'Église.
The BBC also broadcast special programmes about Francophone Africa, which were played by local radio stations. The BBC’s facebook page about Africa has more than 17,000 fans [fr]. During the programme about this resignation, Africa Live on February 16, many Africans gave their points of view. Michel Djadji Anigbe from Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, wrote that [fr]:
Relativement à la décision de démission du Pape, son motif me laisse perplexe et pantois. Comment un grand intellectuel tel que lui a pu accepter ce pontificat avec tous les sacrifices que cela demande. Surtout avec ce que son prédécesseur, le vénérable Pape Jean Paul II , a fait du sien. De plus, son argument est trop facile avec le scandale qui nous a été servi par l'affaire de son majordome. Et quand on sait aussi que le Vatican n'est pas ignorant et étranger à tous ce qui passe actuellement dans le monde.
Didier Didou Mady posed an interesting question [fr]:
Le rejet de la démission du Pape est-il envisageable au regard du droit canon? Quoi de plus normal que les touristes au Vatican visite à la fois le pape et l'ex-pape. Difficile d'avoir un pape infatigable!
Africa has many badly run countries. Is this linked to the fact that on this continent we also find heads of State who have been in power the longest?:
Many Africans have commented on the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI by relating it what has happened on their own continent. Josiane Kouaghe from Cameroon wrote [fr] on his blog:
Passés ces moments de disputes, les vraies questions s’imposent. Et les comparaisons ne tardent pas à suivre. «Ah…Il me rappelle Nelson Mandela. Tu te rappelles, en 1999, quand il a démissionné après seulement cinq ans? », demande Éric Ntomb, 64 ans, à son ami. «Tu parles Éric. C’est la même chose avec le pape. Il n’est là que depuis 2005. Si seulement nos dirigeants africains pouvaient faire comme lui», répond l’ami en poussant un long soupir. L’ami dit haut ce que des millions de personnes pensent bas. Et je vous arrête. Ne dites pas que le pape a démissionné parce qu’il est un homme de Dieu. Non!  Il dirigeait le plus petit et puissant État du monde.
Josiane Kouagheu then reviewed the list of African presidents who resigned their duties voluntarily:
However, by far the most famous of all African leaders to leave power voluntarily was unquestionably Nelson Mandela, in 1999, a fact which has invited these comparisons between Mandela and Pope Benedict XVI.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Are Korean Drivers The Worst?  · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Asians have often been pegged as bad drivers. ROK Drop blog debunked this ‘Bad Asian Drivers’ stereotype with statistics.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Brazil: Condos Upstage Protected Dunes · Global Voices
João Miguel Lima

Protest in defence of Cocó dunes, 16/02/2013, Fortaleza. Photo: Dunas do Cocó on Facebook.
The approval of the construction of 14 residential blocks in the dunes of the Coco River provoked outrage in Fortaleza, Brazil. A petition [pt] has reached 5,000 signatures and two acts were organized via Facebook. In 2009, an Area of Relevant Ecological Interest was created at the Dunes of Coco to protect the site after denouncements of a real estate project by the movement Save the Coco Dunes.

author: João Miguel Lima


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Citizens Document Extreme Water Pollution in China · Global Voices
Owen Guo

As the effects of China’s toxic smog problem in mid-January continue to reverberate throughout the country, severe water pollution has recently been brought to light by online campaigns calling for a reality check on the state of rivers across the nation.
Leading the campaign is Deng Fei (@邓飞), a former investigative journalist and now a prominent social activist, who invited people [zh] to snap photos of rivers and post them on the microblogging service Weibo.
#你家河流还好吗?#过年在家，请拍下你家乡的那条河流，然后上传微博，让我们看见。
#How is the river in your hometown?# While celebrating Chinese New Year at home, please take a photo of the river and upload it to Weibo for us to see.
His call touched a nerve and many went online to voice their anger over polluted rivers. Photos posted by netizens show waste and litter scattered along river banks.
A collection of microbloggers’ photos of river pollution near their hometowns by Snapshot of Pollution (＠家乡污染全民拍).
According to the Chinese Ministry of Supervision, over 1,700 water pollution incidents are estimated to occur every year. The World Bank, in a 2007 report titled The Cost of Pollution in China, labeled water pollution a “significant problem” in China’s rural areas, putting the number of premature deaths caused by water and air pollution at 750,000 per year.
Describing the pollution, @xiaotaiyang1988 (@土豆_连种带挖) said:
#回家看河#家里这条护城河已经由臭变成非常臭由脏变成非常脏了。县西引进了二化工程，连我上初中的弟弟都说，那是在市里赶来赶去没办法开在我们县了，因为好不容易招商引资来个项目，浓烟直冒。河两边的住户生活废水全都直接入河，前几年还听说在治理，现在破罐子破摔了。@邓飞
#Coming home to check the river# The city moat in my hometown has turned from smelly and dirty to very smelly and very dirty. A chemical factory has been introduced in the west of the county, and even my little brother in middle school said the project was introduced in our county because it couldn’t open in the city and because this project is hard to come by given the difficulty of attracting investment. Dense smoke is being emitted (from the factory). Wastewater from residents on the river bank now directly enters the river, and while people had the willingness to address it a few years back, we have now just abandoned the effort altogether. @DengFei
@FlyOnTheSea (@海阔依飞) wrote sarcastically:
#你家河流还好吗# 那是个不能靠近的禁区………
#How is the river in your hometown# That [the river] is a restricted zone you can’t get close to……
Some Chinese media have also joined the crusade against water pollution. The Beijing News (@新京报), a paper known for its hard-hitting journalism, presented [zh] a horrific picture on its official Weibo account:
中国地质调查局专家称，全国90%的地下水遭受了不同程度的污染，其中60%污染严重。据新华网报道，有关部门对118个城市连续监测数据显示，约有64%的城市地下水遭受严重污染，33%的地下水受到轻度污染，基本清洁的城市地下水只有3%。
According to experts at China Geological Survey, 90% of the underground water has suffered different degrees of contamination, with 60% suffering severe contamination. According to Xinhua News Online, data taken from relevant monitoring departments in 118 cities has shown that about 64% of the underground water in the cities has been severely contaminated, 33% of the underground water has been lightly contaminated, and only 3% of the underground water in the cities is considered moderately clean.
Even the People’s Daily (@人民日报), the official mouthpiece newspaper of the government, has weighed in [zh] and issued a grave warning on its Weibo account:
【微评论：向地下水污染“宣战”】节日的喜庆气氛中，一些地方地下水污染的现实让人揪心。污水注入地下，势必污染水源，残害当代、祸延后世。企业不能为利 润而荼毒苍生，政府部门也不能为政绩而放任纵容。我们不要断子绝孙的GDP，从政府到公众，都应吹响治理水污染的集结号，为美丽中国蓄积纯净水源。
【Micro-comment: “Declare War” on underground water pollution】Amid the holiday atmosphere, the reality of underground water pollution has made people anxious. Disposing of wastewater underground will inevitably contaminate water resources, harm our generation, and pass along the damage to the next. Enterprises shouldn’t poison the public to chase higher profits, government agencies shouldn’t loosen their regulations for the sake of their work performance. We want a GDP that won't kill the next generation, and from the government to the public, we should all trumpet the cause of water pollution control and preserve clean water sources for a beautiful China.
As the chatter in the cyberspace heats up and draws more media attention, there are indications that efforts to expose the extent of water pollution have taken a turn. Laywer Gang Yuanchun (@甘元春律师 ) posted a message on his Weibo account:
：【地下水污染曝光与封杀今夜决战，记者被困，求声援】据@邓飞 和@冯永锋消息：山东淮坊一方面派员进京，试图疏通某部门下发封口令，阻止媒体曝光该地区水污染问题，央视已经做好的片子已被潍坊成功封杀了。另一方面：记者仍旧在潍坊被40多人软禁中。
【 Exposure of underground water pollution and block of tonight’s battle, journalists being held, support needed】According to @DengFei and @FengYongFeng: When the city of Weifang in Shandong province sent people to Beijing to talk to a “certain department” to exercise censorship to prevent media’s exposure of the region’s water pollution problem, CCTV’s finished news was successfully blocked by Weifang. Meanwhile, journalists in Weifang remain under house arrest, detained by some 40 people.
The message was later deleted, pointing to the sensitivity of the issue.
Environmental degradation remains as much a grave public concern as a challenge for China's ruling party. China’s obsession with fast economic growth over the past decade has taken a heavy toll on its environment, enraging a public that is not content with only materialistic benefits.
On July 28, 2012, thousands of people took to the street and stormed a local government office in Qidong, a city in China’s coastal Jiangsu province, over worries of water contamination by a nearby paper factory. And in January of this year, Global Voices reported on residents in the city of Handan who drank and bathed in toxic water when left uninformed by the government about water contamination.
The balancing act between boosting a slowing economy through industrial output and possible social unrests triggered by public health crisis presents a daunting political calculus for China's authorities.

author: Owen Guo


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VIDEO: Harlem Shakes Ukraine · Global Voices
Tetyana Bohdanova

Popular Internet video meme Harlem Shake [en] has reached Ukraine. On February 16, 2013, YouTube user Vladislav Stankevich [ru, en] shared a video of several costumed people dancing to the “Harlem Shake” [en] song on what appears to be Kyiv subway.
Passengers dancing to Harlem Shake song on Kyiv subway.

author: Tetyana Bohdanova


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Mexico: Urgent Need for Digital Security Skills · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

A survey completed by 102 journalists and bloggers in 20 Mexican states found that vulnerable reporters and bloggers lack digital and mobile security skills. Jessica Weiss reports for the IJNET blog:
The report, “Digital and Mobile Security for Mexican Journalists and Bloggers,” shows that nearly 70 percent have been threatened or have suffered attacks because of their work. In addition, 96 percent say they know of colleagues who have been attacked. […] The report recommends urgent training to increase digital and mobile security.

author: Silvia Viñas


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New UN Envoy Blogs from Guinea-Bissau · Global Voices
Janet Gunter

Ex-President of East Timor, UN representative and Nobel Peace Prize winner José Ramos-Horta is blogging from Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau. He writes of his warm reception by people at a marketplace. He republishes his posts on his Facebook page where they are widely commented on.

author: Janet Gunter


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Russian Opposition, What Are You Doing? Stahp. · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

One of the more popular recent Internet memes has been the “stahp” comic series, which RuNet users have adapted into the “prekrati” (stop!) meme. For a basic rundown of the structure and origins of the meme, consult Know Your Meme. For our purposes, the English and Russian versions differ in two significant ways: (1) the former typically features the same image in a four-panel comic, with a gradual zoom-effect to emphasize “a disturbed-looking subject,” whereas the Russian version usually features four different pictures that show some kind of unpleasant escalation, and (2) the Russian version adds onomatopoeic laughter (“ahahaha”) to the third panel and abandons the intentional misspelling of the word “stop” (“prekrati,” in Russian).
While noting these distinctions might seem like pointless semantics, the result is that the Russian version of the meme is better equipped to criticize—implying not just a steady awkwardness, but an absurdity spiraling out of control. Consider a few examples from around the RuNet. Pictured below are mockeries of Gérard Depardieu, (scientific) atheism, and mathematics.
Gérard Depardieu's Russian transformation. (An anonymous image widely circulated online.)
(Scientific) atheism, what are you doing? ahahaha. Stop. (Panel 2 is the Sputnik satellite, Panel 3 is the first Kosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, and Panel 4 is the exterior of a nuclear power plant. An anonymous image widely circulated online.)
The meme, applied to mathematics. (An anonymous image widely circulated online.)
Now consider the case of the Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition (or KSO, for short), which we at RuNet Echo have covered many times before. On February 17, publicist Stanislav Yakovlev posted [ru] to Facebook a news article [ru] about the KSO, writing, “Ahahaha, ‘Coordinating Council,’ what are you doing, stop.” The story to which he linked was the announcement that the KSO will not be nominating candidates for upcoming elections at any level of government, despite its ongoing pledge to promote participation in elections at all levels of government. This obvious contradiction between goals and policy is a revealing piece of the KSO's new Mission Statement [ru], approved just last weekend, on February 16.
But is this one failing enough to justify attacking the KSO with the “stahp” meme? Was Yakovlev being too harsh?
Ex-partners Ksenia Sobchak and Ilya Yashin, sharing an awkward moment. 16 February 2013, screenshot from YouTube.
In the aftermath of that last Council meeting, the notoriously anti-opposition e-zine PolitOnline published [ru] a whole collection of self-deprecating tweets from “KSO apologists,” ranging from jokes about “awkwardness” between ex-lovers Ilya Yashin and Ksenia Sobchak to accusations of national betrayal, regarding an appeal to Western foreign powers to add new names to the Magnitsky List (which bans certain Russian officials from owning property in or entering the United States).
Some general facts about the KSO will better allow us to judge just how absurd its existence has been. To simplify, I've quantified some basic information about the attendance and voting activity of all 43 members. (A note: the Council started out at 45, but Oleg Shein [ru] and Ekaterina Aitova [ru] later dropped out.) I also wanted to measure the degree to which individual members are committed to the Council's presence in social media. To calculate this, I visited every Twitter, Facebook, Vkontakte, and LiveJournal account belonging a KSO member, and logged whether or not they published any material—however trivial—regarding the most recent Council session, on February 16. With those figures recorded, I divided the results into the ideological camps separated on the October 2012 ballot, when the KSO held online elections [ru], in order to distinguish the behavior of the four voting categories: general civil (the largest), and the leftist, nationalist, and liberal blocs.
The final tally shows that members from the general civil group both attend and vote under KSO averages. Their engagement with social media, at least as far as the last Council session is concerned, is also below the KSO average. This is due largely to the fact that several of the most prominent people elected as general civil representatives rarely attend and/or rarely vote. Dmitri Bykov [ru], who received almost as many votes as first-place-winner Alexey Navalny, has yet to cast a vote. The same goes for Ksenia Sobchak [ru] and Rustem Adagamov [ru]. Oleg Kashin, one of the opposition's most celebrated journalists, has only attended one of five [ru] Council sessions and voted in just two of ten [ru] opportunities.
In terms of attendance and voting participation, the small liberal and nationalist camps have demonstrated far greater commitment, scoring well above KSO averages in both measures. These groups have also made a more serious effort to address KSO matters in their social media outreach. Whereas Oleg Kashin tweeted [ru] a few ironic remarks about whether or not the Council is cool, and Ksenia Sobchak posted photographs [ru] of her seat at the last meeting, nationalists Vladimir Tor [ru] and Konstantin Krylov [ru] penned full-length reaction pieces in the classic LiveJournal format. (Tatiana Lazareva, a general civil representative, did write a traditional blog post [ru] in her LiveJournal, too, but in it she confessed to “not having the brain” necessary for understanding migration policy and the Magnitsky List.)
Does this engagement gap have any consequences? While it's difficult to know [ru], perhaps it helped narrowly pass the February 11 resolution [ru] “On the need to cancel the visa-free [travel] regime with the nations of Central Asia,” which complains that “the insular communities of migrants do not integrate into Russian society,” producing an “economic, cultural, language, and religious barrier.” (That vote attracted a whopping 70% participation from KSO members, 23% of whom abstained.)
The KSO voting mechanism is also something that needs to be explained. I've pulled my data from the voting records listed on the KSO's official website, which reports a total of ten votes to date. This figure, however, refers not to the body of resolutions passed at KSO sessions, but the number of online votes that have passed the 50% threshold on Leonid Volkov's democratia2.ru, where KSO members [ru] are free to initiate votes on various questions and resolutions. When the Council was first established, all 45 members were assigned democratia2.ru accounts, and left to live out the dream of eDemocracy. At the moment, only 38 KSO members [ru] have accounts. Oleg Shein and Ekaterina Aitova naturally lost theirs, after leaving the KSO, but another five (quite prominent) members have apparently abandoned the digital democracy experiment: Vladimir Mirzoev, Olga Romanova, Rustem Adagamov, Dmitri Bykov, and Leonid Razvozzhaev. Confusion on this score isn't limited to pencil-necked analysts: look at the voting record [ru] for the visa regime declaration, and you'll find a series of questions from KSO members about why various names are missing from democratia2.ru's voter list.
So what are we seeing here? Has the Russian Opposition's Coordinating Council run off its tracks and earned itself a bullseye amidst the crossfire of RuNet memes? Is it time Russian Internet users asked the KSO to “stahp”? Have a look at the numbers and decide for yourself.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Videos from #Shahbag, Bangladesh’s Generation Square · Global Voices
আলীম

The movement for justice against Bangladesh's war criminals at Shahbag or “Generation Square”, as it is now being called, has entered its fourteenth day.
Under the International Crimes Tribunal, political leaders from the Islamist party Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) are being indicted for genocide, rape, arson, looting and other crimes against humanity committed during Bangladesh's Liberation War of 1971. The tribunal has already delivered guilty verdicts to two war criminals.
On 5 February 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced the General Secretary of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party, Abdul Quader Mullah, to life in prison for killing 344 people, rape, and other war crimes. The public rejected this verdict and gathered at Shahbag in a protest called by the Bloggers and Online Activists’ Network (BOAN), demanding that Mullah be given the death sentence.
Demonstrations continue at Shahbagh. Photo by Zahidul Salim. Copyright Demotix (18/2/2013)
Dipu, director of Yellow Rose Cine, shared this video on the Shahbag Movement on Facebook:
http://vimeo.com/59197524
A student at the Ahsanullah Institute of Science and Technology, Kazi Shudipto, uploaded this video on YouTube:
Tasmia Tahsin also shared this video on YouTube:
The Shahbag movement is constantly giving rise to new songs, poems, cartoons and plays. All songs, videos and documentaries can be found on Shahbag Movement.
Protesters say they will continue demonstrating until all their demands are met.

author: আলীম


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“Ask Angy” Humanizes the Experience of Undocumented Immigrants  · Global Voices
Yarisa Colon

“Isn't it kind of ironic that we're undocumented, but you have to prove that you're undocumented with all these documents?,” Angy Rivera concludes in one of her videos. Angy is a college student born in Colombia and raised in New York City who shares her story of immigration with the world in hopes of humanizing this complex discussion.
Angy, photo taken from her Facebook account, used with permission.
A few years ago, Angy publicly announced that “she was not afraid to be undocumented,” and since then she has been writing a column in English called Ask Angy in which she responds to endless questions, doubts and comments that she receives on a regular basis.
Angy explained to Global Voices in an interview via email that while she participated in a training session at the New York State Youth Leadership Council, she was asked what she wanted to incorporate into the work plan, and she suggested: “an advice column.” That was how the first column dedicated to guiding undocumented youth arose at a national level and is published on the organization's website.
This column has already been featured on numerous mainstream media sources (BBC News, NBC Latino, New York Magazine) as well as many online forums organized by activists. The column discusses topics that deal with personal relationships, human rights, education and work. Although recently certain legal processes, particularly the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, are the most widely discussed issues.
Her videos on YouTube are also very popular and complement the information provided in her written work. Angy also shares her visual creativity, poetry and of course her sharp sense of humor. In the following video, for example, she talks about her hopes now that President Obama has been reelected and has just proposed “comprehensive immigration reform.”
In general, her audience's comments have been quite positive. Many have shared their stories with her, others constantly thank her for being an inspiration. Nonetheless, there have been hurtful and even threatening comments as well. “I have been told that life would be better if I didn't exist, that I should kill myself, that I'm a cockroach, that I'm just taking up the country's space and resources. People have wished that not only I, but that my family, would be deported,” Angy explains in our email conversation.
Below is another ingenious video entitled “More than 9 Digits,” which somehow undermined the reactionary tendencies present in some of the comments published online:
The activist recognizes that her story (much like that of many “dreamers“) motivates others to join the movement in favor of immigrants and if they do not join, may they “do the best in their lives because they become aware of the privileges they have.”
If tomorrow Angy were no longer classified as undocumented, her demands would continue to be important, particularly when speaking about deportation, second class citizens, and the country's transformation. If in the future she is granted “American citizenship” it will not be difficult to imagine her initiating debates on the unconditional respect for human rights, independent of one's migration status.

author: Yarisa Colon


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Barbados: Elections Tomorrow · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As Barbados gets ready for its national elections tomorrow, two blogs share their perspectives, here and here.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Bolivia: Indigenous Communities Battle for Territory · Global Voices
Pablo Andrés Rivero

All links lead to Spanish-language pages unless otherwise stated.
Plans for a road linking the Cochabamba and Beni regions of Bolivia continues to provoke debate and cause conflict in the country.
Although most agree on the need to link the two regions in to the centre and northeast of the country, the fact that plans state the road would cut through the heart of the Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory [Parque Nacional y Territorio Indígena Isiboro-Secure or Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Secure, TIPNIS] has been the cause of much conflict. The project, moreover, has been devised and is being pushed by Evo Morales’ government.
In 2011 and 2012, several indigenous organisations openly opposed the idea that the road project should cross through the TIPNIS. The eighth and ninth Indigenous Marches for Dignity and Territory were the most visible demonstrations of indigenous protest against the road, which would put one of the Amazon's most biodiverse and highly protected areas at risk.
Tensions worsened when on 25th September 2011 police used violence to intervene with the eighth Indigenous March [en].
For their part, organisations connected both to the government and to the rural parts of Chapare in Cochabamba, an alternative coca production zone, marched in favour of the road and a “prior consultation” with the communities which inhabit the TIPNIS.
The consultation carried out by the government, which ended in October 2012, focused on the “intangibility” of the National Park. According to the final report, more than 80% of the TIPNIS communities do not agree that the park is “intangible”, which the government has interpreted as authorisation to build the road through the park. Meanwhile, the Confederation of Indigenous Communities of Eastern Bolivia [Confederación de Pueblos Indígenas del Oriente de Bolivia, CIDOB] asserts that 30 of the 36 TIPNIS communities are opposed to plans for the road to pass through their territory.
The conflict continues in two respects. On the one hand, the violent action taken by the police in the indigenous march has yet to be elucidated. President Morales and his then collaborative directors have refuted claims of their involvement in the police's actions, whilst the inquiry has still yielded no results regarding the matter.
On the other hand, the indigenous organisations opposed to the road passing through the park have gathered in the interior of the TIPNIS and raised a permanent blockade to any attempt to open the way through the wood. Their position has been reenforced politically by the recent election of a candidate opposed to the party in power, Movement for Socialism [en] [Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS], in the municipal government of Beni, one of the regions directly involved in the road project.
It is obvious that opinion is divided on the matter, and both parties continue to fight their corner with much aplomb. It is hard to deny, however, that the voices of the opposition seem to be louder, as demonstrated on Defendamos el TIPNIS [Let's defend the TIPNIS], a blog which cites the findings of a study related to the TIPNIS, and warns of the environmental impact the road would have:
“Concluimos que la carretera que pasa por el centro del TIPNIS NO ES ECOLÓGICA NI MEDIO AMBIENTALMENTE VIABLE, presentándose efectos de la carretera con potencialidad para alterar el clima y la provisión de agua de al menos dos departamentos de Bolivia y de los bosques de tierras bajas. Creemos en la interconexión del país y por tanto estamos de acuerdo con desarrollar vías camineras que unifique Oeste-Este del país, pero NO por el centro del TIPNIS”.
“We conclude that the road passing through the centre of the TIPNIS IS NEITHER ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY NOR -VIABLE; the road itself could alter the climate and water provisions to at least two Bolivian regions and to the forests in the lowlands. We believe that our country should be linked, and therefore agree with the development of roads that would connect the West and the East, but NOT through the centre of the TIPNIS”.
Similarly, Tipnis en resistencia [TIPNIS in resistance] published a plethora of demands and petitions made to President Evo Morales. It would seem difficult to come to any sort of agreement given that on the one hand the government has announced that the communities have already accepted the road's construction and on the other activists have proposed public action to prevent it. In this panorama rife with conflict there are those who have heralded a third battle for the TIPNIS on the horizon.
The video which accompanies this article was directed by Víctor Rivera as part of VideoActivo, the video project of Global Voices in Spanish.

author: Pablo Andrés Rivero


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Brazil: Turtles Take Over Public Transport  · Global Voices
Pedro Henrique Tavares

While the citizens of Porto Alegre protest against the increase in bus fares [pt], bus companies demonstrate against the adjustment of wages. On February 19, a “turtle operation” took place, in which vehicles ran at speeds below 30 km per hour. The website PortoAlegre.cc shared a number of suggestions from citizens to improve public transport in the city.

author: Pedro Henrique Tavares


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Brazilian Artists Idealize their Mona Lisa · Global Voices
Inês Pontes

Digital arts gallery Urban Arts and It’s Noon launched an online challenge that has attracted artists from all over Brazil: If you were Leonardo da Vinci, what would your Mona Lisa look like?
Shared by Chico Rei on his blog
Art works of 30 artists have been selected out of 240 registered participants to take part in “an exhibition that features inspirations ranging from rock to Northeastern roots, going through conceptual, cubic or comic-morbid themes”, explains Chico Rei [pt] on his blog.

author: Inês Pontes


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Brazilians Push Back Against Porto Alegre Bus Fare Increase · Global Voices
Pedro Henrique Tavares

[All links lead to pages in Portuguese.]
A fight is brewing in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre over an increase in bus fares.
The municipal arm that oversees the city's public transportation announced on February 15, 2013 that they would raise ticket prices from 2.85 Brazilian reais (1.43 United States dollars) to 3.30 reais (1.65 US dollars), an increase of 14.82 percent.
Residents immediately mobilized against the decision, deeming the spike unfair. Some called for renewed bidding on the city's transportation contract, pointing out that Porto Alegre has not opened up bidding since 1989.
The movement “Bloco de Luta” campaigns through Twitter.
Public opinion of the Public Company for Transportation and Circulation, as the agency is called, was already low before it announced the controversial fare increase. The regional public prosecutor's office led a special investigation in 2011 into the agency's accounts, finding that its criteria for fare adjustment included the total number of vehicles in its fleet.
In an opinion [pdf] dated January 25, 2013 and authored by Gerard Da Camino, the attorney general for the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the office stated that fare calculation should only take into consideration working vehicles, not all vehicles.
The agency filed an appeal with the public prosecutor's office in response. Its aim is to show what the actual size of the fleet is.
Civil society has spoken against the measure. Even before the agency announced the increase, residents held a rally on January 21, 2013, in the city center against the possibility, reported by Sul 21:
Durante todo o ato, que se encerrou em uma concentração em frente à prefeitura, os manifestantes entoaram diversos gritos de protesto, como “Mãos ao alto! Esse aumento é um assalto!” e “Pra trabalhar! Pra estudar! Mais um aumento eu não vou pagar”. Algumas frases atacavam diretamente o prefeito José Fortunati (PDT), como “Estudo! Trabalho! Dou duro o dia inteiro! Fortunati anda de carro e ainda rouba o meu dinheiro!”
Bus in Porto Alegre. Photo by mardruck on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The group Bloco de Luta pelo Transporte Público (Block to Fight for Public Transportation), “composed of various organizations united in the struggle against the increase of ticket fares and for the quality of a popular, collective public transportation” in the city, gathers information about protests against the fare increase on social networks. The group organized a protest via Facebook for February 18.
The profile Bloco de Luta POA (@blocodeluta) spread this image on Twitter on January 22, “Because we fight! I don't pay, I wouldn't pay, transportation is not a commodity!” http://twitpic.com/bxfb05“
On the event page, a user named Guilherme Lauterbach commented:
O Tribunal de Contas do Estado diz que a passagem em Porto Alegre deveria baixar de R$2,85 para R$2,60 e que “as empresas estão operando com uma lucratividade em sua grande maioria superior ao previsto pela planilha tarifária”. Acaba de ser pedido um aumento para 3,30. Não podemos aceitar. Queremos a redução e não o aumento da passagem. Fortunati, vai atender os interesses dos empresários?


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Bulgarian Police Attack Anti-Government Protesters · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

GV Author Ruslan Trad has posted a video from the Feb. 19 anti-government protest in Sofia, Bulgaria:
There were provocations and police violence. Police beating everyone. They did not want to arrest provocateurs, and people shouting, “These are provocateurs,” but police beat anyone on the street. Attack of the police was surprising – my phone fell to the ground – after 1:59 recording is black because the camera is watching the asphalt. Many people were on the ground – even women.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Global Voices Seeks Part-Time Developer  · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Global Voices seeks a part-time web designer and developer to help maintain and redesign our many WordPress and other LAMP-based sites, working closely with our primary developer.
Ideal candidates should have experience with configuring and coding for WordPress, including the theme and plugin APIs.
There is no geographic requirement associated with this position. Global Voices is a virtual organization with no offices. Candidates should be self-driven and able to complete tasks with minimal guidance, as well as able to collaborate remotely with the Global Voices team.
MANDATORY SKILLS
IMPORTANT SKILLS
We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Western Europe, and encourage people currently working on the Global Voices project to apply.
If you're interested, please send a CV and letter of interest explaining why you'd be a good candidate for the job to: adminjob AT globalvoicesonline DOT org by no later than March 4, 2013.

author: Solana Larsen


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Brunei’s ‘Nature Avengers’ Think Big  · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Green Brunei is a non-profit group that “promotes environmental education and creates awareness on environmental conservation and clean technology through media, activities and projects.” It aims to be the biggest green community in Brunei. Its recent project was Nature's Avengers, which involved students and young volunteers.

author: Mong Palatino


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India at the Forefront of One Billion Rising · Global Voices
Inji Pennu

The United Nations defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
One in three women will experience violence in her lifetime, which means one billion women alive at this moment will be facing some form of violence which is a more prevalent problem than any other disease, according to U.N statistics. ‘One Billion Rising’ was an event conceived by Eve Ensler, who is famous for her play ‘The Vagina Monologues’ 15 years ago.
Women take part in the One Billion Rising Campaign at Guwahati Assam, India. Image by Reporter#21795 Copyright Demotix (14/2/2013)
India is one among the worst in G20 countries for many forms of violence against women including child marriages, female feticides, honor killings, war, domestic violence and suicides. In some cases, their deaths are not even counted for. P.Sainath writes:
One group that is not counted is women farmers who do the bulk of the work in the fields, and are driven to suicide by poverty and loans they could never repay. They are not considered farmers because the land is not in their name, and in most States they do not have land rights.
Reports from the online and mainstream media show Indians participating in huge numbers across the country and India trending at the forefront of the global campaign.
The One Billion Rising event encouraged women to gather at some place to strike, dance, and rise against violence. There were many videos circulating online encouraging women to participate . Singer Anoushka Shankar’s video on why she was rising on Feb 14th went viral on social media sites.
Video Volunteers posted a story of a 19 year old for the rising.
One Billion Rising: Rise to support Chanchal:
On 21/10/2012, four men threw acid on Chanchal, 19 and her sister,15 while they were asleep. This was a direct result of Chanchal’s bold move to oppose continuous sexual harassment by these men. In the above video, Chanchal’s family has given a public statement seeking justice from Chief Minister Mr. Nitish Kumar and DIG Weaker Sections, Arvind Pandey.
Indianhomemaker had pages of pictures on Guragon rising.
On the same day in Kerala a woman was harassed by eve teasers and she took it upon herself to thrash the eve teasers. Amrita, the brave girl tells the media that she would have felt worthless if she didn’t react when everybody else was silent, especially after participating in the one billion rising event.
Every now and then, the rally would pause and the women and men would laugh raucously for a minute or so. It's all about freedom of expression and reclaiming public space, said an organiser.. Image by Lois Kapila. (14/2/2013)
Piyasree Dasguptaa on First Post comments that the campaign could turn into a fancy carnival:
For example, the NCRB report points out that city or town where the number of crimes went up the most in 2011, almost by 87 percent, is Asansol – an industrial town in Bengal, far away from Kolkata where the One Billion Rising campaign was unfurling in full force.
So what’s the answer? Should we stop protest – of the elaborate kind that uses the most popular aspects of our culture? No. But we also have to find a way to make it not look like a carnival that not everyone has a taste for.
Kamayani writes on her blog why the event in Mumbai is unique:
In Mumbai what it is unique about this is event is being ‘ most diverse and inclusive”, we have women representing variosy marginalized sections of our society- the disabled, dalit, sexual minorities, muslims ,participating to say no to violence, and to also give a message that women with different needs have different rights
Subhajit das writes about why he thinks such gender exclusive movements might not find the desired results especially in Kolkata:
Gender exclusive movements, are in essence, problematic, because a) they fail to recognize that a particular social problem is limited to (a “definitive” interpretation of) one gender. In this case, the organizers seem to be in denial of the fact that sexual violence in Calcutta is not limited only to women, or rather, the concept of women that has been biologically “pigeonholed”, thus categorized as the female sex, or those identifying as women; judging from personal experiences, “males” of varying gender expressions get sexually harassed, too.
A picture with a different perspective to the rising was circulating on Facebook with the tag line:
Because “sex workers also have rights, just like you and I”
Balu Menon writes on Facebook:
I also agree..Women's awakening is the only way to have better MEN!
Jo Stroebel shared a picture of women drumming for the one billion rising event in Kochi:
Students of Kamla Nehru College in an enthralling choreographed performance in the OBR event at Parliament Street, New Delhi. Rajeev R Singh. Copyright Demotix
Below are some interesting tweets about the One billion Rising campaign across the country:
@EsteKelvaredhel (Likla): Mumbai rose in a way @eveensler would have been proud!
@The_AK_84: (Ashutosh Kumar @The_AK_84) OneBillionRising looks like a success only on twitter and virtual world. Not more then 1000 ppl at spot in Delhi including media, organisers
@RuchiraSingh (Ruchira Singh): Women of age groups and from all walks of life are walking in. Some greeting each other ‘Happy OBR’, delhi is celebrating #onebillionrising!
@tetisheri (Lily ) Headed to parliament street. Blank noise doing a clothes installation to say “I never ask for it”. #onebillionrising #delhi
shahid @shahidnissar(shahid @shahidnissar) @sardesairajdeep sir its day 6 of curfew sponsored by state, kashmir cannot be a part of #onebillionrising @BDUTT
@davidpakh (David Pakhuongte) One billion rising : kashmir to kanyakumari, kutch to kolkata. Where is the North East on your map? #onebillionrising #ndtv
@caslet (Cassandra Wright):
Was just at the #onebillionrising rally in Chennai, India. Great to feel the solidarity across the globe. It's horrible what women here face
@parveendusanj (Parveen Dusanj) #OneBillionRising in India we have women that inflict violence (physical & mental) on other women. That's the worst kind. Must STOP
Zena's message on twitter sums up the rising:
@zenacostawrites (Zena Costa) #OneBillionRising Let's create a society where women are not killed for honor, but honored for life ! #JusticeForWomen #India #VDAY #VAW

author: Inji Pennu


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Jamaica: Reggae, Bleaching and Black History · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

It's Reggae Month and Black History Month…Jamaica Woman Tongue looks at the bleaching phenomenon against that backdrop.


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Journalist’s Stabbing a ‘Warning’ for Tajik Opposition · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

A Tajik journalist and critic of the regime is in hospital after being stabbed in Moscow by an identified person late in the night on February 19. Bakhtiyor Sattori, who worked at the Tajik embassy in Moscow and then as the representative of the Tajik Migration Service in Russia, emerged as an outspoken critic of the authorities in his home country after being dismissed in 2012. Over the past months, Sattori has lived in Moscow, working as a journalist and cooperating with Tajik opposition activists in exile, notably with Umarali Quvvatov, leader of the opposition movement Group 24. Quvvatov was arrested in Dubai in December 2012 at the request of the Tajik authorities and may soon be extradited to Tajikistan.
A Russian human rights activist who has worked closely with Sattori suggests [ru] that the assault on Sattori was a “political order,” and that the journalist was punished for his ties with Quvvatov and his recent attempts to mobilize international pressure in order to prevent the politician's extradition to Tajikistan. It is unclear what the journalist himself makes of the attack. In his interview with Radio Ozodi, Sattori said [ru] he did not know whom to blame for an apparent attempt on his life. A bit later, however, he told [ru] BBC he knew who was behind the attack, suggesting also that this was a powerful person within the Tajik government.
A taste of things to come?
Bakhtiyor Sattori's public profile photo on Facebook.
The netizens in Tajikistan have little doubt that the attack against Sattori was politically motivated and that it was a taste of things to come in the months leading to presidential elections in the country due in November.
Under the report about Sattori's stabbing on news website TopTJ.com, Ravshan_1980 commented [ru]:
Все понятно: выборы впереди, правительство начало готовить очередную безоговорочную победу [действующего президента Эмомали Рахмона]. Всех недовольных и критикующих власти заранее убирают. Так было перед каждыми выборами в нашей стране.
Everything is clear: we have the elections ahead, and the government has begun preparing the ground for another landslide victory for [the incumbent president Emomali Rahmon]. All those who are unhappy or critical [of the regime] are removed in advance. Same happened before all past elections in our country.
Sattori is not the only Tajik journalist and critic of the government who has recently been brutally attacked in Russia. In January 2012, Dodojon Atovulloev, a Tajik dissident journalist and outspoken critic of the regime, was also stabbed by unidentified individuals in Moscow.
Shaparaki Ovora posted [ru] on Twitter:
@du15yak30 Еще одного таджикского оппозиционера в Москве убить пытались. Это уже избирательная кампания началась?
@du15yak30 There was an attempt on the life of another Tajik opposition activist in Moscow. Is it part of an election campaign that has already begun?
Tomiris responded [ru]:
@tomiristj Нет, это еще не кампания – это зачистка перед кампанией. На самих выборах все будет чисто и красиво. Грязную работу сделают до [выборов].
@tomiristj No, it is not the campaign yet – it is a clean-up before the campaign. The election itself will be clean and beautiful. The dirty work will be done before the election.
Jasur Ashurov weighs in [ru]:
@jashurov А может никакой связи с выборами нет – просто убирают и запугивают тех, кто слишком смело лает на власть из-за бугра.
@jashurov Maybe the event is not related to elections, and the authorities simply remove and intimidate those who dare to bark at them from abroad.
But Tajik Land insists [ru] the attack against Sattori is about elections:
@tajikland Думаю это перед выборами предупреждают оппозицию чтобы не пытались раскачивать лодку и бунтовать.
@tajikland I think it is a warning for opposition not to sway the boat or rebel before the elections.

author: Alexander Sodiqov


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Targeted by Kuwaiti Police, Stateless Video Blogger Calls it Quits  · Global Voices
Mona Kareem

A video blogger known for documenting violence against stateless protesters in Kuwait has quit, writing on Twitter that authorities beat and coerced him to do so.
Under the nickname “حمقان البدون” meaning the “Angry Bedoon“, (Arabic for stateless), the blogger made a name for himself in his community for using footage of violence by riot police against stateless protesters to make videos on YouTube  subtitled in English. Many of his videos were used by TV channels, being the only footage available documenting violence against stateless protesters.
His story was first reported by Alaan online newspaper with the title “The Bedoon's Minister of Information Resigns.” The move comes nearly three months after the arrest of activist Abdulhakim al-Fadhli, who is currently on hunger strike.  Al-Fadli has been sentenced to two years in jail for using Twitter to organize and mobilize protests.
7mgan wrote the following tweets on February 11, 2013, biding farewell to cyber-activism:
لا أود الإسهاب بذكر ما حدث وحصل لي من قمع وضرب بسبب إحدى الجهات الحُكومية وتوقيعي على تعهدات وتبصيمي بعدم تصميم أي فيديو
@7MGAN: I do not want to elaborate in narrating what happened to me because of of repression and beating by one of the government bodies. They made me sign pledges to not make any more videos.
ويعلم الله بأني غيرت الأرقام السرية لقناة اليوتيوب منذ أسابيع وأنا مُغمض العينين لتبقى شاهدةٌ على ما حل بنا من ظُلم وقمع
@7MGAN: God is my witness to this: I changed the passwords to my YouTube channel with blind eyes weeks ago so it would stay an evidence to the injustice and oppression against us.
سامحوني يا بدون الكويت ! ويعلم الله أن الضغط فوق طاقتي فلقد وُضعت بزاوية ضيقة جداً وحمقان عاشق المظلومين لن ينساكم أبداً
@7MGAN: I hope the stateless of Kuwait would forgive me. This is out of my hand. I was put in a sensitive position but “the angry Bedoon, lover of the oppressed” will never forget you.

author: Mona Kareem