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Kyrgyzstan: Where Every Joke is on the Capital’s Mayor · Global Voices
Saltanat Ibraeva

KVN – the Russian abbreviation for Club of the Funny and Inventive [Клуб весёлых и находчивых] – remains a national comedy institution in many states of the former Soviet Union. Kyrgyzstan, whose capital has recently hosted the Central Asian league of KVN, is no exception. But while most people in the country enjoy the humor, the Kyrgyz capital's mayor is looking on red-faced, emerging as the butt of every other joke.
Cody White on the Russia Beyond the Headlines blog explains what KVN means for post-Soviet countries:
KVN originated in Soviet Russia during the 1960s. Since then KVN has became one of [the former Soviet countries’] most popular competitions and longest running TV shows. There are many leagues, both on and off the air, with different teams competing in various parts of the world. From businesses to schools, from clubs to professional leagues: everyone in [former Soviet countries] seems to enjoy KVN! Although the game was banned for some years in the USSR for political reasons, its resurgence during Perestroika brought it to a level of popularity never experienced before. Currently, KVN has about five million spectators annually (an impressive feat, if you think about it!) and has become a cultural phenomenon that is present in almost every corner of [society in any post-Soviet country].
KVN is on the rise in Kyrgyzstan. Asia MIX, a team from Kyrgyzstan, recently reached the quarter-finals of the KVN Supreme League which is dominated by teams from Russia. Another Kyrgyz team, Tama-Show, has been doing well in a lower division. These successes led to the opening of the official Central Asian league of KVN, the Ala-Too League, in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital. The league is open to teams from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as local Kyrgyz teams.
Participants at the Ala-Too League KVN game in Bishkek. Image by Vecherniy Bishkek, used with permission.
KVN politics
But the game which is so popular with ordinary people is less popular with politicians, the favorite targets of jokes at KVN games. Isa Omurkulov, the mayor of Bishkek who is often criticized for the city's bad roads, was the central target of Kyrgyz teams during the latest game.
Triple, a team from the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University, laid into the mayor mercilessly:
Знаете, я если я был бы стоматологом, то я мэру города вместо пломбы брусчатку вставил!
You know, if I were the mayor's dentist, he would get a paving stone instead of a filling!
Another local team, Bishkek, lampooned in a good manner about the country's president, Bishkek mayor, and ex-prime minister:
В Кыргызстане стало так много разных фильмов, что политики решили сняться в них. Фильм с участием Исы Омуркулова и Алмазбека Атамбаева: “1+1. неприкасаемые”.
Во втором фильме снялся некий экс-премьер министр КР, котрого когда-то попросили освободить место. Афиша- “Бабанго Освобожденный”
There are so many new movies in Kyrgyzstan that our politicians have decided to play in some of them. The movie starring Isa Omurkulov [Bishkek mayor] and Almazbek Atambaev [president] is “1+1. The Untouchables”.
The former prime-minister of Kyrgyz Republic [Omurbek Babanov] is starring in another film, “Babango Unchained” [orig. Django Unchained].
“1+1. Untouchables”, starring Isa Omurkulov and Almazbek Atambev. Bishkek team. Image by Vecherniy Bishkek, used with permission.
A team from the Kyrgyz National University, Handsome from IIEP, enacted a flashback of March 24, 2005, when the-then President Askar Akaev was forced from power, to a loud ovation from the audience.
Team Triple recalled all the presidents Kyrgyzstan has had over the last 22 years: Askar Akaev (ousted in 2005), Kurmanbek Bakiyev (who practiced clan system with his relatives), Roza Otunbaeva (provisional president), and the current leader Almazbek Atambaev.
Кыргызстан – как девушка. Сначала встречалась с парнем, психанула, и он в Москву улетел. Потом познакомилась со вторым, мажором, но он оказался альфонсом: обокрал ее и убежал за границу. Она теперь даже родственников видеть не хочет. Потом подружку в поддержки нашла, и та ей говорит “Я временно”. И вот теперь: вроде нормальный парень, айла жок! Но мысли то о первом парне,  как же с ним было хорошо. Первая любовь, тут ничего не поделаешь.
Kyrgyzstan is like a girl. She began by dating a guy, but then she got hysterical, so he had to escape to Moscow. The second boyfriend was rich, but later he turned out to be a gigolo: he stole her money and escaped abroad. She hates him now, and does not even want to see his relatives. Then a female friend came to support her, saying though that she was only “interim”. And finally, there is a seemingly nice guy! But she keeps thinking about the first guys, and how happy she was with him. Her first love, you can't do anything about that.
‘Isa, Go Away’
While socio-political humor shakes Bishkek's comedy halls, the country's Twitter users have caught the bug. That is bad news for the city's mayor.
Omurkulov, who became mayor in 2010, has been accused of ignoring necessities such as kindergartens and roads in favor of expensive steel buckets filled with flowers. A Facebook page “Isa, Go Away” (Иса Кетсин), which has almost 1,000 followers, recently shared a photo, stating that if it gets 10,000 likes, the mayor will leave his post.
Photo shared by Facebook page “Isa, Go Away!” The text reads: “If this photo gets 1,000 likes, Isa Omurkulov will leave his post”.
A recently opened Twitter account @omurkulov_i, purportedly belonging to the Bishkek mayor, has come under siege from local tweeps. Bishkek resident Jenni Evans (@zari6ka) wrote [ru] on March 22:
@zari6ka: Уважаемый @omurkulov_i, если вы в ближайшее время не займетесь дорогами Бишкека,я начну давить ваши любимые петунии на своей тачке,как в ГТА!
@zari6ka: Dear @omurkulov_i, if you do not address the problem with Bishkek roads soon, I will start riding over your lovely petunias in my car, like it is [Grand Theft Auto game]!
The reply was [ru] less than fully mayoral:
@omurkulov_i: @zari6ka уважаемая синьёра, если с моих светочков упадет хоть лепесток, тебя ждет шебеночный ад.
@omurkulov_i: Dear madam, if a single leaf falls off my flowers, get ready for a crushed stone hell.
(N.B. Crushed stone is a material used to fill holes on the roads in Bishkek).
Akyl Osmonov (@osmonov_i) posted [ru] on April 8:
@osmonov_i: Судя по состоянию столицы, Омуркулов готовит город к прибытию антихриста.
@osmonov_i: Judging by the condition of the capital, Omurkulov gets the city ready for the appearance of Antichrist.
He added [ru] a bit later:
@osmonov_i: И вообще, конец света обойдет наш город, со словами: “здесь уже Омуркулов поработал”
@osmonov_i: The end of the world will not occur in our city [Bishkek] because “Omurkulov has already been here”.
When team Asia Mix reached quarter-finals of KVN Supreme League, Kyrgyz Twitter users used the occasion as another opportunity to joke about the mayor. Akylai Moldokmatova (@KG_CB) wrote [ru] on March 3:
@KG_CB: Тот, кто не смотрит КВН и не болеет за наших, тот Иса Омуркулов!
@KG_CB: If you are not watching KBN now, you are Isa Omurkulov!
However, the account attributed to the Mayor also joined in the fun [ru]:
@omurkulov_i: Поздравлю наших квнщиков несмотря на глупые шутки про меня. Молодцы.
@omurkulov_i: I would like to congratulate our KVN team, despite their stupid jokes about me. Good job.

author: Saltanat Ibraeva


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Peru: Smile for Your ID Picture · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

In Peru, Twitter users turned to the hashtag #DNIfeliz [happy ID card] to encourage citizens to smile for their ID document photo, commonly known as DNI. Traditionally, citizens have a serious or even stern expression on their ID picture.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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São Tomé and Príncipe: Petition Against Deforestation · Global Voices
Mário Lopes

Raul Jorge, a Santomean citizen, launched a petition [fr] against deforestation in São Tomé and Príncipe, addressed to the current Prime Minister Gabriel Costa. The petition has already gathered more than 700 signatures. In October 2012, Global Voices reported about the situation; in response netizens published videos and a Facebook page in protest.

author: Mário Lopes


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Can Cyprus Turn Back from the Abyss? Three Options to Escape the Financial Crisis · Global Voices
Laurent Delors

The small island of Cyprus continues its race against bankruptcy. Following the European decision to tax all depositors, [fr] the Mediterranean republic faces a critical situation. Three options are emerging for the island: to carry out an agreement with Europe, to turn to Russia, or to declare bankruptcy and leave the Eurozone.
Origins of the crisis
This crisis arose after a significant loss in assets of the Popular Bank of Cyprus and the Bank of Cyprus, due to the debt restructuring plan in Greece, in March 2012. The two Cypriot banks then found themselves obligated to seek recapitalization in the capital city, Nicosia [fr].
Private-sector solution?
For their part, Greek banks are also closely tied to Cyprus. The Bank for International Settlements, [fr] or BIS, estimates the Greek banks’ investments in Cyprus at 12.6 billion euros, an amount not less than 28% of all Cypriot banks’ investments. This therefore  rules out the possibility of a private-sector intervention plan on the island.
The offices of the Bank of Cyprus at Aglandjia, via Wikipedia CC-BY-2;0
So, if Cyprus could contribute from its banks the sum of 7 billion euros, refused to them by Europe, out of the 17 billion euros which it owes, Europe would be obligated to give aid to Greece again [fr], further weakening the recovering stability of the country. A renegotiation, particularly in the plan of the troika, would be risky. This is also partly why the Greek economy is affected by the tax on deposits.
Furthermore, organizing a private-sector intervention in Cyprus might be frowned upon by investors. It should not be forgotten that “the Greek case” is expected to remain unique. Otherwise, it would be tempting for other countries now experiencing a complex economic situation, such as Spain, Italy or Portugal, to seek private-sector assistance as well.
The consequences of this would be irrevocable. For the market to finance vulnerable states would become complex, even impossible, and restructuring of public debt for other countries, and of the European Central Bank, would loom dangerously on the horizon. In fact, regarding the deposits, this is another “unique case” which Europe hopes to create.
The Social Democratic Party of Germany [fr], or SDP, wants to make an example of Cyprus, in order to  stop the vote in favor of European aid in the Bundestag [fr], which is essential to Chancellor Angela Merkel. So, aid for Cyprus is not likely to occur without the support of the Bundestag. The SDP sees a reserve of money in Cyprus which is noted to be of Russian origin, and suspected to belong to the “mafia”. The private sector intervention did not really hit the wallet of Russia, so the European solution should focus on deposits. Since Cyprus refused to accept a drain of deposits more than 10%, so as not to ruin the reputation of its economic system, it was necessary to broaden its tax base, and to spread the impact across all depositors, including residents. But this could still be enough to push Cyprus into the abyss. This is why it rejected the European plan.
At this point, Cyprus finds itself faced with several possibilities. Given the intense reactions in Europe, and especially in Cyprus, during recent days, some of the European decision-makers seem to want to backtrack, regretting their original choices. We see attempts to reduce the participation of Cyprus in its own bailout. However, Europe may not accept an attempted renegotiation. The debate about the complete participation of the ESM (European Stability Mechanism) [fr], which oversees 5.8 billion euros in aid, still remains.
Alliance with Russia
The second solution would be for Cyprus to ally itself with Russia. Indeed, Putin wants to defend Russian assets on the island, asking, in exchange, for large concessions on gas and Russian military facilities, not to mention the recent discovery of an oil deposit off the island. Russia could repurchase Cypriot banks [fr], notably the Laïka Bank, the second-largest banking establishment on the island, in order to save 2.5 billion euros in recapitalization. Russian aid would probably be complementary to European aid, and undoubtedly there would not be any actual rupture between Cyprus and the Eurozone. For its part, Russia would gain significant influence in strategically important Cyprus. The island would safeguard the interests of Moscow in Europe, but would risk creating some problems in the future.
But Russia is apparently in no hurry to make a decision. Andrei Kostin, director of VTB Bank [formerly the Vneshtorgbank], announced on March 21 that his institution was  not at all interested [fr] in buying bank assets on the island:
Sur place, il y a deux banques dans une situation critique qui ont besoin d'être assainies. Il serait absurde de prétendre que nous aurions un intérêt là-dedans. Notre seul intérêt, c'est de retrouver au plus vite la faculté d'effectuer les paiements et de gérer les comptes de nos clients.
First, there are two banks in critical condition that would need to be cleaned up. It would be absurd to suggest that we would have an interest in those. Our only interest is to regain the ability to make payments as quickly as possible, and to manage the accounts of our clients.
And he added that his bank would need to:
arrêter son activité et quitter purement et simplement le marché chypriote” en cas de “décisions violant le droit, dictées par la politique.
“cease its activity entirely, and simply leave the Cypriot market” in the event of “decisions which violate the law, dictated by politics.”
Last resort – Bankruptcy
Finally, Cyprus can opt for the extreme but inevitable solution, if Russia and Europe deliver no proper support – bankruptcy. Then, recapitalization in Cyprus would be accomplished by banks issuing money.
That would mean leaving the Eurozone [fr], instituting strict controls over the flow of money, and blocking current accounts during the period of conversion to the new Cypriot currency. The island would be ruined, and its financial credit would be permanently damaged. This would be followed by a period of economic reconstruction under complex circumstances. And for the Eurozone, it would be a failure, and a disturbing precedent.
The final agreement reached in Brussels, with the intention to dismantle the largest bank of the country, and to tax bank deposits greater than 100,000 euros, is an ineffective hybrid solution, according to American economist Tyler Cowen:
What will the price of a Cypriot euro be, relative to a German euro?  50%?  I call this Cyprus leaving the euro, but keeping the word “euro”, to save face.

author: Laurent Delors


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Transparency NGOs Prepare for Sunday’s Election in Venezuela · Global Voices
Susannah Vila

In a few days, Venezuelan voters will head to the polls for the second time in six months. They’ll be choosing a successor to former president Hugo Chavez, who died in March. The country’s political climate is no less chaotic than it was during the election in October, however a group of NGOs have been able to come together to work towards transparency in the electoral process.
It is precisely the hyper polarized political environment in Venezuela that makes this collaboration worth noting. Elección Ciudadana – the name for the umbrella group – emerged in October through the efforts of Venezuela Inteligente [es], and has used the last five months to develop partnerships with a wider range of organizations. With these additional relationships, the organizations hope to be able to reach a wider audience of citizens. As a representative of one of coalition member, Transparencia Venezuela [es], said:
our goal is to place at the service of the population as many forms of contact as possible so they can make their complaints using the mechanism that suits them best, both during the campaign that begins tomorrow and the day of the elections.
Transparencia Venezuela (@NoMasGuiso) [es] also tweeted :
@NoMasGuiso: Tu denuncia con la de otros puede hacer la diferencia, no te quedes callado y denuncia los abusos que veas en estas elecciones #NoMasGuiso (no more corruption)
@NoMasGuiso: Your report with that of others can make the difference, don’t stay quiet – report the abuses that you see in these elections. #NoMasGuiso
Are the efforts to reach more Venezuelans with the simple message that they can both access and add to information about electoral malfeasance working? One coalition member, Usted Abusó, has received over 200 reports in 2013 which are largely about the political use of state resources.
Elección ciudadana map
Nearly 200 reports have been channeled thus far to Elección Ciudadana, which provides a map [es] that pulls in citizen reports that were originally sent to collaborating organizations. Its team expects to receive significantly more this weekend, when violence, detentions and failures in the election systems are all likely. Indeed, political violence has already begun – for instance there was politically motivated murder [es] and assault [es] this week.
On election day, Elección Ciudadana will be maintaining a volunteer center – organized largely by Venezuela Inteligente [es] – for individuals to intake, verify and post reports. Many others will be volunteering from home. Their hope is that the varied networks and experiences of each coalition member will make it easier to process, integrate and respond to reports on election day; they will be trying to elicit responses both from major media outlets and the official election authority [es].

author: Susannah Vila


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You’re Sponsoring Neonazis on Greek TV! · Global Voices
Asteris Masouras

@northaura: #xa_advertising is about a twitter movement protest by email in #Greece to push advertisers off ever again supporting pro-neonazi TV shows.
Blogger @ypopto_mousi started a campaign to inform the sponsors [el] of a highly controversial SKAI TV panel featuring four neonazi Golden Dawn MPs, that they are sponsoring hate speech. The blogger is urging netizens to email advertising companies, providing sample emails [el] and addresses of advertising companies, while blogging [el] and posting regular updates on Twitter on the campaign's results under the hashtag #xa_advertising.

author: Asteris Masouras


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Sri Lanka’s Buddhists Question Extremist Sinhala-Buddhists  · Global Voices
Rezwan

A number of Sinhala Buddhists are standing up against the recent violence against Muslim and hateful speech initiated by the Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force), an extremist Sinhala-Buddhist organisation based in Colombo.
A candle-light vigil against hatred and bigotry was met with protests from police and members of the Bodu Bala Sena before it could begin at Havelock Road Colombo on the evening of April 12, 2013.
A police battalion and riot squad arrived on the scene. Bodhu Bala Sena members started accusing the organisers of the vigil of distorting the national anthem and called for their arrest pointing at a chant sheet to be recited at the vigil. The police arrested five vigil participants and dispersed the crowd who later re-assembled near Gower Street. The arrested individuals were later released.
Legacy of Bodu Bala Sena (BBS)
The Bodu Bala Sena, created by hardline Monks Kirama Wimalajothi and Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, has generated a lot of controversy since its launch on 07 May 2012. Many of their actions were provocative to people of other religions.
In a meeting in Maharagama, Colombo on 17 February 2013 BBS general secretary Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara stated “This is a government created by Sinhala Buddhists and it must remain Sinhala Buddhist. This is a Sinhala country, Sinhala government. Democratic and pluralistic values are killing the Sinhala race”. He also told the crowd at the rally that they “must become an unofficial civilian police force against Muslim extremism. These so-called democrats are destroying the Sinhala race”.
In February 2013 BBS leader Kirama Wimalajothi called for banning burqas in the country. They held large rallies throughout February 2013 calling for the abolition of the Muslim halal system which forced Muslim clerics to drop the practice of labeling of Halal products (see Global Voices report).
Candlelight vigil
A Facebook group titled ‘Buddhists Questioning Bodu Bala Sena’ recently announced a candle-light vigil of all races and religious groups to peacefully remind the buddhist monks the words of the Buddha which preaches “non violence”.
The announcement read:
THE VIGIL TO SAFEGUARD THE DHAMMA: 7 pm, Friday the 12th of April. In front of the Sri Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi Mandiraya Thummulla Junction at No. 32, Havelock Road Colombo 05. Like if you will be there. Bring candles to share. We will be softly chanting about right speech.
Invitation to the candlelight vigil. Image courtesy Buddhists Questioning Bodu Bala Sena Facebook Page
Here is a FAQ on the purpose of the vigil published in the Facebook page.
Blogger Abdul Halik at Going Global writes about the participants:
The crowd was diverse; academics, theater and arts, media, civil society, corporate, intellectual and just young people concerned with the state of affairs.
The blogger asks:
How do you mobilize ‘the rest’ to participate? how do you turn this into a ‘people’s movement’?
Journalist and Blogger Meg questioned cops favoring BBS members in trying to disrupt the vigil. She explained:
The print-outs that the attendees had with them were not, in fact, a new National Anthem, but a Buddhist prayer that they had planned to chant at the vigil.
She posts some pictures of the event.
Journalist Malinda Seneviratne provides a critical first hand account of the vigil. However former ambassador Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka at Groundviews posts a rebuttal on Malinda's piece. Groundviews questions the role of the police and posts a number of audio interviews including this of Jake Orloff, who participated at the candle-light vigil:
Ramishka Dasanayaka (@ramishkad), a blogger from Kandy tweeted:
@ramishkad (Ramishka Dasanayaka): So Bodu Bala Sena disrupted an anti-hate protest. Now I'm beginning to wonder if there really is a difference between LTTE, Thalaiban and BBS
Veteran journalist D.B.S. Jeyaraj (@dbsjeyaraj) tweeted:
@dbsjeyaraj (D.B.S.JEYARAJ): An Eye-witness Account of How the Police Suppressed Peaceful candle light Vigil Opposite Bodu Bala Sena Headquarters http://t.co/0YexuQzmMG
Blogger Kath Noble has some hope:
The monks of the Bodu Bala Sena have inadvertently done Sri Lanka a favour. Their speeches are so crass and their actions so crude that they have provoked a backlash – the media is full of criticism of their anti-Muslim campaign, much of it coming from Sinhala Buddhists themselves.
Sri Lankan Muslims hold a placards during a protest after Friday prayers outside a mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Image by Colombo Wire. Copyright Demotix. Friday, March 22, 2013
Subha Wijesiriwardena, a dancer and blogger writes:
The Bodu Bala Sena and Sinhala Ravaya and other similar groups obviously have a clear agenda – we are done with the Tamils, so let’s make the Muslims our new enemy. This suits the agenda of our current regime, in fact they were just done with a civil war and wondering how to keep the masses further mesmerised, hypnotised – fear of a common enemy, naturally, is just the way they’d like to do it.
She asks:
The battle lines are being drawn. The fundamentalists are always quick to do so. Where do you stand?
Recently The Sunday Leader reported that the government is thinking about banning a number of extremist groups including Bodu Bala Sena.

author: Rezwan


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Earthquake Hits Awaji Island in Japan · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

Uploaded by Twitter User 島人JUN @baseball_re
A strong earthquake hit Awaji island  of Japan on Saturday morning April 13, 2013. Twitter user JUN took this photo [ja] of the devastation. Seven people were severely injured, according to a report [ja].

author: Keiko Tanaka


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South Korean Anti-Discrimination Law Faces Conservative Pushback · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

South Korean conservative groups are mounting a fierce resistance to a proposed anti-discrimination law in South Korea that would prohibit discrimination based on based on religion, political ideology, or sexual orientation.
The comprehensive bill, which was drafted after receiving recommendations from the United Nations Human Rights Council, was introduced to the country's legislature early February 2013 and it is now pending review from the Legislation and Judiciary Committee-just a few steps away from becoming effective.
The possible legal changes it could bring include banning all forms of corporal punishment, toughening measures on sexual violence against children, and stepping up the monitoring of discrimination against migrant workers. However, the law still excludes any changes to the the controversial, anti-communist National Security Law as well as the death sentence.
The country first attempted to pass anti-discrimination legislation in 2007 when the justice department suggested a similar law was needed. But the bill was thwarted [ko], with its clause prohibiting discrimination based on someone’s “education and medical record” being panned by corporations as “limiting corporate's free business activities” and Christian groups opposing the part protecting sexual minorities.
This latest incarnation of the law is attracting much of the same criticism. Christian groups threaten that the law can be used to support gay marriage.
Furthermore, right-wing groups interpret the part of the bill that defends freedom of political expression as “handing power over to dangerous pro-North commie groups [ko]” — a derogatory term the ruling conservative party falls back on when referring to liberal groups or South Koreans who are taking dovish stances on North Korea.
About 200 groups [ko] from political, educational, and civic sectors staged a protest in Seoul (a photo can be seen here) against the proposed law. The South Korean Presbyterian Coalition released a statement [ko] claiming the law could create unnecessary conflicts between religions and interfere with the content of their sermons.
Young net users, however, have strongly defended the law and hit back at the conservative criticism online.
Image by Ludovic Bertron from New York City (CC 2.0 BY SA)
Many South Koreans on Twitter wrote that they were appalled at how vocal the opposition is. Some pointed out that opponents were exaggerating to maximize fear:
@windburial: 실제보다 상황을 과장하여 공포를 조장하는 행위는 참 약빨 좋은 전략이다. 이를 테면 성소수자 차별 금지를 동성애 교육 강제로 읽는다든지, 타 종교에 대한 증오 조장 금지를 설교권 제한으로 본다든지. http://www.newsnjoy.or.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=193756 …
@windburial: I have to admit that creating fear by blowing things out of proportion is a very effective strategy. For instance, they interpret “forbidding of discrimination against sexual minorities” as “enforcing mandatory education on homosexuality”, and read “prohibition of incitement of hatred against other religions” as “restricting their editorial decision on sermons” (link to the related news article)
@whydenyyourself: 심지어 그 ‘동성애’ 부분을 좀더 자극적이게 ‘항문성교'라 표하더군요.
@whydenyyourself: Some even use very sensational terms in describing homosexuality — they replace it with “the anal sex”
Twitter was inundated with young, progressive South Koreans who voice their surprise at opponent's fierce stance against the law:
@dcdcssss: 차별금지(법)반대라는 이중부정이 거슬린다. 그럴싸해보여서. 그냥 차별찬성론자라고 부르는 것이 더 직관적이지 않나.
@dcdcssss: I find the use of double negative — the anti “anti-discrimination” — so disturbing. Sounds quite legit. It would be more intuitive to just call it “pro-discrimination”
@byguilty: 차별금지는 너무나 당연한 건데 저 말이 이해하기 어려운가. 입에 거품 물고 반대를 하게. 차별하고 싶어 환장했다는 표현을 그렇게 당당하게 할 수 있는 게 놀랍다.
@byguilty: The concept of “anti-discrimination” cannot be more obvious. How do they find this so hard to understand? They hate it until they foam at the mouth with rage. It is shocking to watch how they can be vocal about how eager they are to discriminate against minorities.
Some aimed their criticism at the politically powerful, scandal-ridden Korean Church:
@ze9_: 차별금지법은 불합리한 차별을 금지해서 조금이라도 합리적인 사회 구조를 만들자는 건데, 그걸 반대하는 건 불합리한 구조 ‘덕분에’ 명맥을 유지하고 있는게 기독교라고 외치는 꼴입니다. 부끄러운 줄 아세요.
@ze9_: The purpose of creating the anti-discrimination law is to build a more rational society by prohibiting irrational discrimination. If you (referring some Christian groups) are against it, then it is like confirming that you were able to sustain your position thanks to that irrational system. You should be ashamed of yourself.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Ukraine’s Language Issue: Voices From the Ground · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Ukraine's politicians rarely perform well outside the seemingly endless and rather populist pre-election stretches of the political racing circuit. Language politics is just one of the areas where their initiatives are often detached from reality and cause controversy, and where failures outnumber successes.
In 2007, shortly before the parliamentary election, the Party of Regions was pushing for a referendum on granting Russian the status of a national language, alongside Ukrainian. The referendum never took place, but five years later, in 2012, just in time for the next parliamentary vote, the Party of Regions’ MPs Vadym Kolesnichenko and Serhiy Kivalov authored the language law that would give Russian and other minority languages the status of regional languages in areas where 10 percent of the population or more spoke those languages.
A violent scuffle erupted in Ukraine's parliament over a bill that would allow the use of the Russian language in courts, hospitals and other institutions in the Russian-speaking regions of the country. Photo by Sergei Svetlitsky, copyright © Demotix (24/05/12).
The adoption of the law was preceded by a spectacular fight in the Parliament  in May 2012 – and was followed by street protests and hunger strikes in July. In early August, the language law entered into force, and very soon afterwards the Donetsk Regional Council declared Russian a regional language in the region, with a number of others doing the same later.
Ukrainian politicians’ views on the language issue are well-known. There is also some scholarly research and expert opinion available out there (e.g., Tadeusz Olszański's May 2012 research paper [.pdf], published by the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW); a 2010 comparison of the situation in Ukraine and Québec, Canada, by Dominique Arel, of the University of Ottawa's Chair of Ukrainian Studies; an article by David Marples, of the University of Alberta, shared by Current Politics in Ukraine blog, in which the author argued that, more than anything else, the language law was “a ploy to distract voters”).
But what do ordinary Ukrainian citizens think of the language situation in their country? And what is the impact of the language issue on the lives of those who reside in the predominantly Russian-speaking areas like Donetsk region – those who are the target audience of the politicians who, in 2012, voted in favor of the language law?
At the protest rally against the language law in Kyiv, one of the protesters held a banner that read: “I ♥ [Ukrainian] language. Don't break my ♥.” Photo by Tomasz Grzyb, copyright © Demotix (04/07/12).
On April 11, Pavel Kolesnik, a Donetsk-based blogger known as LJ user pauluskp, asked his readers [ru] whether the Ukrainian language was causing them any problems. He addressed this question primarily to Donbas region residents, on behalf of Piotr Pogorzelski, a Polish journalist who is writing a book about contemporary Ukraine. People from other Ukrainian regions have responded as well, and the discussion in the post's comments section has generated over 350 comments.
Below is a very small selection of these “voices from the ground.”
Zaporizhzhya-based LJ user raddan wrote [ru]:
[…] Once, a woman at the post office got angry at me for a form that I had filled in in Ukrainian, because she didn't understand it (even though the form itself was in Ukrainian), and since the [computer] program into which she had to enter the data from my form was in Russian, she had to translate everything. […]
An anonymous user from Donetsk region wrote [ru]:
[…] I have no problems with the Ukrainian language – I'd say it's my second mother tongue, because I learned it at school and read lots of works of fiction in Ukrainian. Moreover, my parents and close relatives, who had moved here from Russia and did not know Ukrainian at all, understand everything perfectly now thanks to television, even though they wouldn't speak the language – they feel self-conscious because of their funny pronunciation (similar to [PM Mykola Azarov's]). In general, I think this issue [is being exploited] by politicians. I think there has to be some basic mutual politeness between people – everyone should speak the language they are more comfortable speaking and should not act aggressively if their interlocutors speak the other language. And everyone understands both Ukrainian and Russian perfectly well. […] When at work we were ordered to do our paperwork in Ukrainian, someone brought a dictionary, and those who needed it, consulted it. […] If someone is having problems with Ukrainian, it means that they are just unwilling to make an effort and switch their brains on, although the elderly people shouldn't be blamed for that.
Kharkiv-based LJ user opium86, who grew up in the city of Severodonetsk in Luhansk region, wrote [ru]:
[…] From what I've observed (and I, of course, may be wrong), people aged 25 and less have no difficulties with Ukrainian. This is a problem of the older generation […] – but it all depends on whether [one is willing to learn or not]. […]
Moscow-based LJ user barber_34, who lived in Donetsk until 2001, wrote [ru]:
[…] My brother lives in Kharkiv – and ever since movie theaters stopped showing films in Russian, he stopped going there. And I know he's not the only one. […]
A Donetsk-based school teacher, LJ user bold_, wrote [ru]:
As I teacher born in the USSR, I do have problems [with Ukrainian] )))
The language itself cannot really cause problems. What does are the idiotic ways in which it is being imposed.
I've spent 14 years working at school. Six of them – at a [school with Ukrainian, not Russian, as the language of instruction]. When the school received its [Ukrainian-language] status, we were all ordered a) to teach lessons in Ukrainian, b) to do paperwork in Ukrainian. Imagine all those who studied Ukrainian at school and haven't used it in years, and how they suddenly start speaking and writing in it […]. Its similarity with Russian does not mean we can speak it better than [PM Mykola Azarov] […] So I teach lessons in Russian, in order not to traumatize children […]. […]
LJ user vvvik79 wrote [ru]:
I have problems with the Japanese language, while Ukrainian is the easiest of all the languages that I happened to study. […] Ukrainian language in Ukraine cannot cause problems, by definition )))
Kyiv-based LJ user dbmann wrote [ru]:
I have no problems with Ukrainian. Sometimes, on the internet, I have problems with those who have problems [with Ukrainian]. […]
Donetsk-based LJ user squirrel_sv wrote [ru]:
I have no problems with Ukrainian. When I watch movies dubbed in Ukrainian, I do not notice it at all – later, I cannot recall what language the movie was in.
[Slight panic] occurs when suddenly I have to fill in some forms or read something serious – because all that I learned at school has been forgotten, and there is no way to practice the language. And no matter how many movies you watch in Ukrainian, they don't add to your knowledge of terminology. This [slight panic] is unpleasant, but I think of it as a warmup for my brains, not as something horrible.
Kyiv-based LJ user i_am_crying wrote [ru]:
In everyday life I communicate exclusively in Ukrainian. My job is in Russian […]. On the web – it's Russian because I have many “friends” from the Russian Federation.
IMHO: I think that the language problem simply does not exist in Ukraine (in everyday life). There are people who speak Russian, and those who speak Ukrainian, but at the same time, 99 percent easily understand both languages, and no less than 70 percent can speak both languages fluently (this is not survey data but my own observations – I've traveled all around Ukraine). […]
Kyiv-based LJ user slotava wrote [ru]:
I have problems with Draconian laws and taxes, corrupt bureaucrats, broken roads, [corrupt] traffic cops, “expired” food at the stores, overpriced counterfeit medicinal drugs at the pharmacies… but the Ukrainian language doesn't cause me any problems. […]
Ivano-Frankivsk-based LJ user auregleen wrote [uk]:
[…] I've been to Kyiv, Donetsk, Mariupol, Crimea. […] I speak Ukrainian everywhere. People reply in Russian to me. We NEVER discussed which language each of us was talking in. We were just discussing our business, each in his/her own language. […] I have relatives in Russia. I speak Russian fluently with them. I don't have any problems with it.
[…]
[…] We should just ignore this issue, because it is being forcefully imposed on us – in order to brainwash us, and not because it is important. Eventually, when there is no reaction, the [language] issue will disappear by itself.
Because I, too, am more worried about [the absence of the asphalt on the roads], and not about the language of the bastard […] who stole the money meant for this asphalt. […]

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Christian Colony Attacked In Pakistan · Global Voices
Rezwan

Raza Habib Raja at Pak Tea House describes how another Christian colony had been attacked in Gujranwala, Punjab in Pakistan using the same rhetoric – revenge for alleged “Insult to Islam”.


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China’s Anti-Japanese TV War Dramas Knocked for Vulgarity · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The Chinese entertainment industry's incessant production of anti-Japanese TV dramas, under the scrutiny of netizens for a while now, has hit a nerve with China's state-controlled media after two photographs from a war drama showing a nude girl saluting a group of Chinese soldiers leaked online.
As the territorial dispute between China and Japan over islands in the East China sea has intensified over the last three years, so have the number of television dramas [zh] about the Frist and Second Sino-Japanese War, which led to the death of millions of Chinese. Authorities in the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television have been delighted to approve these patriotic story plots.
But the nudity depicted in the two photographs which leaked on popular Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo seemed too much for even state-controlled media outlets, including the China Central Television and the People Daily, which criticized [zh] the country's relentless anti-Japanese TV dramas for being too vulgar.
A Sina Weibo user leaked two photos taken from a Sino-Japanese War drama in which a nude girl is saluting to a group of Chinese soldiers.
The photos, which have circulated widely online, were picked up by provincial media outlets on April 9, 2011 [zh] and national news outlets [zh] about two days later.
Chinese airwaves have been inundated with anti-Japanese war dramas. According to a local news report, 70 of the 200 primetime dramas on major TV networks in 2012 were about the Sino-Japanese War. Sources from Hengdian Movie and Television City [a drama and film production compound] in Zhejiang province said [zh] that among its 300,000 contracted actors, 60 percent have performed the role of Japanese soldiers.
Annually, there are about 48 drama production crews working on anti-Japanese invasion dramas. An actor playing a Japanese soldier can die up to eight times a day. A drama takes an average of four months to complete, which means more than one billion Japanese soldiers have been ‘killed’ in Hengdian alone.
In response to the leaked photos, Sina Weibo's headline news microblog composed a collection [zh] of screen captures of other vulgar moments from war dramas. The set of images was republished more than 30,000 in less than 24 hours and attracted thousands of comments.
Below is the translated collection:
A group of armed Japanese soldiers running away from a woman with an arrow aimed at them.
All the weapons are too weak — let me tear the Japanese soldier apart. His Arms are so strong to tear the Japanese soldier into two pieces so easily.
Our soldiers have turned into armed secret agents with all-terrain vehicles. How can this be about Sino-Japanese war?
Look at this girl. Even though she is surrounded by Japanese soldiers, with her Tai Chi Chuan, touch of death and flying steps, she kills all the gun-armed Japanese soldiers with bare hands.
This drama has combined the anti-Japanese invasion theme with a love story, are you genuinely fighting against the Japanese?
This is the best one. An anti-Japanese “hero” throws a bomb to the sky and takes down a Japanese fighter plane!!! This is such a bluff!
Jump off the cliff to catch the Japanese soldiers who are driving around and kill them… You would be damn lucky if you did not die, can anyone still expect you to kill Japanese soldiers?
I have heard that this gun is called AK47…
Netizens on Weibo disparaged the films, accusing them of distorting the invasion's actual history. In reaction to the still of the nude girl, “City Grass 2013″ (＠城草 2013) wrote [zh]:
惊闻抗战片竟然有女战士全裸面对一排战友的镜头，为了收视率真的一点底线都没有吗！近年拍的好多抗日片也是以搞好为噱头，甚至连妓女都成了抗日英雄，女演员在战场上也是描眉抹唇，搔首弄姿，严重与历史失实。这怎么能让孩子们看。
So shocked to hear that there is a nude heroine saluting to a group of Chinese soldiers in the anti-Japanese invasion drama. In exchange for a lot of viewers, there is no baseline?! In recent years, the anti-Japanese invasion dramas have a lot of strange ideas, some even turn prostitutes into anti-Japanese heroines. When the actresses are in the battlefield, they wear make-up and try to be sexually attractive. It has twisted the history. How can we let our kids see this?
User “Forest big wood” (＠林林林林大木) found [zh] the adult-television style hilarious:
这抗日片也能拍出AV的风格来，实在是彰显了我党一种与时俱进的好风气啊。鼓掌一整天…
The fact that they can develop adult-TV style out of anti-Japanese invasion theme has demonstrated our party's progressive style, it progresses with our times. I clapped my hands all day…
Script writer Bei Cun (@北村) was angry about the plot line [zh]:
拍点正儿八百的抗日片有什么不好？抗战是严肃而又悲壮的，是中国人心中之痛，这么戏耍太过份了！我觉得污染荧屏是一回事，最让人伤心的是对不起英烈们。因为他们真实流过的血和泪都因此被遮蔽了。
Can't they produce something more serious? The Sino-Japanese War is a very solemn historic episode and it is a trauma for Chinese people. Such plots not only pollute the TV screen, but also disgrace our heroes by burying their blood and tears.
User “Observe the Red Cross – 365″ (@看听-红十-365) wondered [zh] who is responsible for the situation:
电视一开全是抗日片，严重扭曲历史真象以及拿假爱国作为娱乐文化并获取利益，我就觉得超级恶心～～～～～仔细想想这是谁的错～～～～
The TV is flooded with anti-Japanese invasion dramas that distort history. They sell fake patriotism as entertainment to make a profit. This is so disgusting…. but when you have a second thought, who did the wrong deed…
Most Chinese people understand that propaganda authorities have encouraged the production of anti-Japanese drama. That's why user “ThreeWatches” called criticism from state-owned CCTV and People's Daily hypocritical [zh]:
抗日片确实烂得没有底线，但“科幻、愚民”这些话从央视和人民日报嘴里说出来，就像强奸犯骂别人猥亵妇女一样怪怪的。
It is true that the anti-Japanese invasion dramas have lost their baseline but when CCTV and People's Daily criticized them as “nonsense and obscurant”, it sounds strange as if rapists are accusing others for harassing women.
“Water Rita” (@水水Rita-天然呆) made fun of the nationalistic conspiracy language and said [zh]:
我怀疑，这些所谓的导演就是境外敌对势力，故意把抗日片拍成这样惹人厌的
I suspect the directors are the overseas enemy forces and they intentionally produce such awful anti-Japanese invasion dramas.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Fancy Cars and Booze Fuel Russian Online Petitions · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

Last month RuNet Echo reported [GV] on a proposed Russian government online petition platform, similar to “We the People“, a White House-run project in the US, where after reaching a certain amount of signatures a petition would be addressed by the government. On April 2, 2013, the project, called Russian Public Initiative [ru], went live. Here, RuNet Echo takes a look at how it works in practice, and what manner of initiatives it has attracted 10 days on.
Russian Public Initiative front page. Screenshot, April 13, 2013
Russian Public Initiative explains exactly how it works in a handy “How this works” [ru] flow-chart. First, in order to launch a petition one needs to register at www.gosuslugi.ru [ru], the Russian e-government portal. Then, after picking the level of initiative (“federal”, “regional”, or “municipal”), the initiative goes to the “legal examination” stage, after which point it is either released for voting or binned. The geographic level matters in terms of signatures required for the initiative to be submitted to a legislative body. While all three types of initiatives get a year to collect signatures, a “federal” level initiative needs 100,000 signatures, in contrast to the “municipal” and “regional” kinds, which both need to collect the signatures of 5% of the relevant populations.
Map from roi.ru website, showing the geographical distribution of petition originators. Screenshot, April 13, 2013.
How are the initiatives doing so far? First, a quick numerical breakdown. There are currently 252 “initiatives”, or petitions, on the site. Of these, so far 126 have over 100 signatures, 18 have over 1,000 signatures, 5 have over 5,000, and only one has broken the 10,000 signature barrier. All petitions with over 1,000 signatures are at the “federal” level. Only 10 of the 252 are at the municipal level, and 25 are regional. Of the 25 “regional” petitions, 19 address issues in either Moscow or the Moscow Region, however, no municipal level petitions are from Moscow.
What are some of the popular initiatives? The clear leader [ru], with 16,978 signatures, is a petition to ban bureaucrats and employees of state-or-municipal-affiliated companies from purchasing cars worth over 1.5 million rubles (48,000 USD). This initiative, launched on April 5 by anti-corruption activist, blogger, and unofficial opposition leader Alexey Navalny, is very well put together — it describes the problem, gives examples of such purchases from zakupki.gov.ru, the Russian government tendering website, and even attaches a Microsoft Word document containing the text of the potential bill. Navalny also claims [ru] to be monitoring the voting process with a “script” in order to see if there are any suspicious “drops” in the numbers. With almost an entire year to go, and as the website receives more attention, this petition seems certain to make it past the 100,000 signature requirement.
Another popular initiative [ru] is the repeal of zero-tolerance laws aimed at drunk driving. (Currently Russian law prohibits driving with any amount of blood-alcohol content, i.e. there is no minimum legally “safe” level. Many argue that this opens up avenues for police corruption, making it possible to charge anyone with drunk driving, since even drinking yogurt would raise BAC over 0.0.) In contrast to the above initiative, this one, with 8,818 signatures, is rather short and low on details. This is its entire text:
Нужно вернуть допустимый промилле, потому что проблем от этого «сухого» закона больше, чем достоинств. Получается, скоро нельзя будет управлять автомобилем по состоянию здоровья, потому что организм вырабатывает чуть больше алкоголя, чем положено. Или вводить в ПДД ограничения на продукты, которые нельзя употреблять, если ты водитель.
We should return a minimum BAC level, because there are more problems than benefits from this “dry” law. Soon it'll turn out that you won't be able to drive a car because of health reasons, because your body produces a bit more alcohol than usual. Or the driving regulations should include restrictions on foods that you can't eat if you are a driver.
The most popular regional initiative, with 189 signatures, is simply to make the Moscow metro run 24 hours per day [ru]. The most popular municipal initiative [ru], with 119 supporters, gets into the fine-print of utility provision and metering in the regional city of Yekaterinburg.
Initiatives are further categorized according to the nature of the problem they are meant to address. Unfortunately a single petition can belong to multiple categories, which makes any sort of analysis questionable without access to raw data. Nevertheless, one can observe the categories that are most and least popular. The five most popular categories are “Transport and roads” with 67 initiatives, “Population and migration” with 37, “Security” with 36, “Bureaucracy” with 36, and “Urban Infrastructure” with 28. The five least popular are “Education and Science” with 13, “Housing and Utilities” with 12, “Criminal Code” with 10, “Government Support” with 6, and “Electoral Rights” with 3. It is of course impossible to judge what drives this popularity, the actual number of submissions or the pre-moderation “legal review” process.
Judging by some of the initiatives, however, the review process is not particularly strict. For example, there is the initiative to give every Russian citizen a “virtual” million rubles [ru]. Or to bring back [ru] the “Nationality” line to the Russian passport (a hated part of Soviet history). Some are concerned with the disappearance of dandelions [ru] in the Moscow Region and want to legislate their protection. Others want to ban bureaucrats from requiring photocopies [ru] of documents. And of course there are the requisite “Bury Lenin” [ru] and “Teach Children Atheism” [ru] proposals. Last but not least, there is this [ru] epitome of RuNet wisdom:
Нужно установить веб-камеры в кабинетах чиновников с выводом изображения в интернет.
We should put web-cams in the offices of bureaucrats with their picture displayed on the internet.
If this proposal ever makes it to the final stage (unlikely as it is) we shall know for sure the process is legitimate.

author: Andrey Tselikov


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India’s ‘Paradoxical’ Right To Property · Global Voices
Rezwan

In a podcast at mylaw.net legal practitioner Namita Wahi talked about the paradox of the fundamental right to property in the Indian Constitution and how to deal with it.


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Great Broadband Wagon Rolls Out in Australia · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

The Opposition’s national broadband policy, released on 9 April 2013, was always going to be highly contentious in Australia. It is not just for geeks but also looms as a major issue in the Federal election to be held on 14 September 2013.
The plan would cost less and be finished earlier. However, it would not connect premises directly to fibre optic cable (FTTP) but would use nodes. These are cabinets connecting fibre optic to the existing copper network (FTTN). As a result it would be considerably slower unless the user paid for a fibre connection to the node.
Academic blog The Conversation has details of the policy and how it would work.
Pro-government tweeter Kiera Gorden was only one of many who used humour against Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband Malcolm Turnbull:
@KieraGorden: “Can you hear me Malcolm, or is your tin dropping out?” #AusPol #Fraudband#NBN pic.twitter.com/0ygkastoKI
Twitter image – courtesy @kieragorden
Noely tweeted several times about the opposing broadband proposals:
@YaThinkN: Don't understand #NBN read this! RT: The Beach House: We are now connected to the NBN. Here's a run-down… http://alankerlin.blogspot.com/2013/04/we-are-now-connected-to-nbn-heres-run.html?spref=tw …
The link is to Alan Kerlin's blog Beach House:
Yes that's a big grin you can hear! Websites now snap onto the screen, scrolling through your Flickr photostream involves a couple of seconds per high resolution photo. Podcasts download in no time, even mobile devices using the wireless are responding snappily. No doubt we'll get a better idea over time, but so far, so wonderful!
I can only hope now that the NBN roll-out continues…
Progressive blog Australian For Honest Politics posted @NoFibs NBN policy articles curated by citizen journo @pascalg15 with a number of links to online supporters of the government program. [Please note that the author of this post, Kevin Rennie, has blogged recently at AFHP though not on this topic.] Their article included this graphic:
Courtesy @geeksrulz
It is a spoof on a graphic from Malcolm Turnbull's Facebook page.
Craig Thomler chose not to take sides in his post What Competing Australian Broadband Policies Really Say about How Australian Government is Changing. Instead he focused on what he sees as a win for the technology sector:
For a long time people working in and around the technology industry have deplored the low attention played to technology in politics and, besides a few leading lights, the lack of understanding of the potential ability for digital technology to drive Australia's economy and improve our governance.
I think this time is now coming to an end.
There has been hot competition to find the best metaphor for the contrasting approaches. CPR Communications & Public Relations, self-styled as ‘Australia’s premier issues management firm’, went for the auto cliché:
Turnbull, in effect, accuses the Government of paying for everyone to have Rolls Royce broadband when most people need only a Hyundai. Minister Stephen Conroy responds that the Government is actually providing the equivalent of a 4WD which will be needed to climb the looming data download mountain.
David Swan at ITWire, an IT and telecommunications news and information website, reported that key Internet industry bodies had welcomed the release of the policy, with some reservations. It was ‘value for money’ and ‘two years ahead of the current schedule’ but an industry spokesperson was quoted as ‘concerned that the proposed model compromises speed and potentially also the overall quality and longevity of the network’.
John Roskam, of the neo-liberal Institute of Public Affairs, had reservations of a different kind at the Catallaxy Files blog:
The Coalition policy is far from perfect – such a policy would not involve government – but it is at least tractable and deliverable.
A floppy disk joke by @Wolfie_Rankin and @kieragorden’s pic above were picked up by Murdoch’s news.com.au in Twitterati dismiss Opposition's NBN policy with witty memes. The images were properly credited, but rivals Fairfax did not extend this courtesy in their related story. The journalist apologised later on twitter. They did however, include AFHP regular @geeksrulz in another piece based on the twitterverse.
@Wolfie_Rankin‘s image was reproduced by Roskam:
Image – courtesy @Wolfie_Rankin
You can see Roskam's own white elephant at the blog link.
It seems the old media are well and truly embracing the new social media.
There are no prizes for guessing where the users of the #fraudband hashtag stand on the alternatives. It’s the place to find lots more metaphors.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Helping Laos Recover from Cluster Bombs · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Bryan Thao Worra, a Laotian American writer, reflects on his last trip in Laos where he witnessed the impact of cluster bombs in rural villages. Laos was one of the most heavily bombed countries during the Vietnam War and thousands of unexploded bombs continue to be a threat today.

author: Mong Palatino


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Russia’s #1 Netizen Heads to Trial · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Pussy Riot, eat your heart out. Later this week, on Wednesday, April 17, 2013, Russia’s most polarizing blogger, Alexey Navalny (often described as the opposition’s greatest hope for electoral breakthrough, should it ever happen), will stand trial for embezzling roughly half a million dollars from a state-owned timber company in the city of Kirov, home to about as many people as dollars Navalny allegedly stole. In a country constantly plagued by politicized legal proceedings, prosecuting the nation’s most prominent netizen promises fireworks.
Russia is a place that’s no stranger to courtroom outrage. Last August, Pussy Riot may have set a new standard for global scandal, but the trials against former oligarchs Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev in 2004 and 2010, as well as the “judicial murder” of investment banker William Browder’s colleague Sergei Magnitsky in 2009, have all blackened Russia’s image at home and abroad for nearly decade now. This is to say nothing of the looming trials against the more than two dozen “Bolotnoe Delo” suspects (supposedly involved in instigating acts of violence against riot police at a mass rally last year on May 6). More than half of these people have been rotting for months in pretrial detention. Others were spared incarceration, but they too await their day in court. The muscly Maxim Luzianin has already been sentenced [ru] to over four years in prison.
Alexey Navalny at a Moscow protest, 26 May 2012, photo by MItya Aleshkovskiy, CC 3.0.
Activists have created a website, 6may.org, to spread awareness about the still-ongoing investigation, regularly publishing sympathetic bulletins about individual suspects, and encouraging the public to donate money [ru] to their legal defense and publicity campaign. Navalny’s own “political prisoners” project, rosuznik.org, also collects crowdsourced funds for the Bolotnoe Delo accused, among others.
On what netizen support, other than his own RosPil offshoots, can Navalny rely, if he too finds himself behind bars, come the end of his trial in Kirov?
At the time that I write this, exactly five hundred Facebook users have pledged to attend a demonstration [ru] outside Novopushkinsky Square in Moscow, scheduled for the day that Navalny’s trial in Kirov begins. The rally—yet to be sanctioned by the city’s authorities—is being organized by “The Citizen Federation,” a movement tied [ru] to quasi-oppositionist oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov and human rights activists such as Lev Ponomarev.
The comments section on that Facebook event features your standard mix of earnest support and jaundiced Internet trolling. Sergei Valuev, for instance, writes:
Я не поддерживаю Навального, потому что ему не верю
I don’t support Navalny because I don’t believe him.
Ilya Barsukov declares:
Наваленный такой же вор как и правящая псевдо элита! Стране нужен настоящий лидер- оппозиционер, но я такого пока не вижу. И видимо не увижу, т. К. Путин в своем деле профессионал
Navalny is the same kind of thief as all the ruling pseudo elite! The country needs a real leader-oppositionist, but I don’t see anyone like that. And apparently I’m not going to see one, as it seems Putin is a professional [at keeping out competition].
The group’s creator Igor Bakirov, meanwhile, has tried to stay on message:
Друзья, реально нужно чтобы на митинг пришло много много людей, приглашайте своих друзей и друзей своих друзей
Friends, we really need for lots and lots of people to come to the rally. Invite your friends and your friends’ friends!
Elsewhere on Facebook, journalist Alexandra Astakhova has launched a group [ru] titled “The Case Against Navalny Is a Case Against Us All!” The group’s self-description begins with the following fighting words:
Эта группа объединяет тех, кто понимает: уголовные дела, сфабрикованные против Алексея Навального, направлены против всех нас. Шаг за шагом преступный режим, опьяненный безнаказанностью, делает жизнь в нашей стране невыносимой, шаг за шагом подбирается к нам, к нашим друзьям.
This group unites those who understand that the criminal cases fabricated against Alexey Navalny are directed at us all. Step by step, the criminal regime—intoxicated on impunity—makes life in our country more unbearable. Step by step, it closes in on us, on our friends.
Astakhova’s group (open to the public) now boasts over 1,660 members [ru], including many prominent members, both Russian and foreign, of the Moscow press corps (and more than a few activists), such as: The Guardian’s Miriam Elder, Ekho Moskvy’s Tikhon Dzyadko, activist Ilya Yashin, satirist Viktor Shenderovich, The New Times’ Ilya Barabanov, activist Olga Romanova, Slon.ru’s Tonia Samsonova, Berlingske’s Simon Kruse, The New Times’ Yevgenia Albats, EJ.ru’s Aleksandr Ryklin, and Ekho Moskvy’s Ksenia Larina—just to name a few.
Screen capture from Oleg Kalman's LiveJournal instructions for “becoming Navalny's secret agent,” 13 April 2013.
In a photo campaign that somewhat mirrors the anti-homophobia website loveislegal.ru (an association Navalny and company would probably wish to avoid), Navalny-supporters have begun publishing photographs [ru] of themselves holding up signs that read, “The case against Navalny is a case against me!” Oleg Kalman, Astakhova’s colleague at the newspaper Vedomosti, has similarly encouraged [ru] Russians to get involved by “becoming Navalny’s secret agents” and spray-painting Navalny’s surname onto the asphalt wherever possible. (Kalman insists this is legal, so long as people keep the paint on the ground, though he also advises readers to carry out the deed at night, when nobody is looking.) “It’s not vandalism, you’re not destroying someone else’s property, and the inscription will wear off after a couple of months,” he assures his audience.
Russia’s netizens—or at least Moscow’s most active denizens—seem to be ready for a fight. Will their protests pass with a whimper or unleash a new wave of social unrest? Are Russians ready to take up Navalny’s cause? Or does the nation suffer from a crippling “political prisoner” fatigue? The sanctity of Moscow’s pavement, along with the fates of several human beings, hangs in the balance.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Thailand: Victims of 2010 Protest Crackdown  · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Thai independent web portal Prachatai publishes the names of 21 civilians and five soldiers who died during a military crackdown of an anti-government protest three years ago. Officials of the previous administration continue to face trial for their role in the violent crackdown.


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Madagascar’s Presidential Candidates · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

The presidential elections are set for July 24, 2013 in Madagascar. According to Ben from mada-tribune.com, the first candidates to have submitted their dossiers [fr] to the special electoral court are:
Hajo Andrianainarivelo, Jean Lahiniriko et Roland Ratsiraka are the first to have filed their candidacies.
Dr. Jean-Louis Robinson, Pierrot Rajaonarivelo,  Edgard Razafindravahy, and Vahombey are also candidates for the presidency. Other political parties are expected to announce their selections shortly. Update: Lalao Ravalomanana, spouse of former president Ravalomanana was selected [fr] to represent his political party TIM.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Chinese Media Exposes Labor Camp Torture · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

@Lens Magazine wrote on its official Sina Weibo account that in Masanjia Women’s Reeducation Through Labor Camp in northeastern China’s Liaoning province, torturing methods, such as exploitation of camp labor, solitary confinement, electric shock, ‘big hang’, ‘tiger bench’ and ‘death bed’, are taking place almost every day.
Jing Gao from Ministry of Tofu highlighted and explained local media outlets’ investigative report on the torturing methods in some of the reeducation-through-labour camp.


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Violence Can Disrupt Pakistan Elections 2013  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Raza Rumi at jahane Rumi discusses about the strong possibility of violence during the impending Pakistan 2013 elections.


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Why is WeChat So Popular in China? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

WeChat is a mobile phone text and voice messaging communication service developed by Tencent in China. It has more than 300 millions registered users and is the most popular mobile apps. Tricia Wang from Bytes Of China explained its popularity by looking into her own user experience.


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Yemen: Anti Drone Protests in the US · Global Voices
Noon Arabia

The Answer Coalition organized a march and rally across the US to oppose predator drones and extrajudicial killings.
In solidarity they wrote:
Over 5,000 people have been murdered by U.S. drone strikes in the last few years, including a large number of children among the many civilians who have been slaughtered by these robotic killing machines…Join us at the White House for a march and rally on Saturday, April 13 to let the world know that the people of this country are demanding “Drones Out of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Everywhere!”
They tweeted:
@answercoalition:”Every time you go to kill someone with drones, you create hatred. Why do they hate us? Look at what you're doing!” #april13
@answercoalition: “We will not sit down as long as they kill in our name” #GeneralAtomics #Stopdrones #april13 #NoDrones pic.twitter.com/NekfiHbIm4
Yemeni activists, Summer Nasser, who travelled from New York, and Rooj Alwazir, who is in Washington DC, urged all Yemenis in the US to protest in front of the White House against US drones in Yemen. Rooj Alwazir uploaded a video of part of the speech by activist Bushra al-Maqtari, who also attended the march:
She also tweeted:
@Rooj129: When #Drones fly, people die! Calling it what it is, MURDER.
Other organizations such as CODEPINK also participated in the rallies.
In Washington:
Jenna Pole, an activist and photo-journalist tweeted: @BatmanWI: Protesting drones today outside of the White House. #nodrones http://twitpic.com/cj56hl
Crowds protesting drones outside the White House
Rooj Alwazir standing in front of the White House holding a CODEPINK banner
The march headed to the General Atomics Headquarters, who manufacture drones, as CODEPINK tweeted:
@codepink:Powerful picture taken in front of General Atomics headquarters in DC. #stopdrones @barackobama pic.twitter.com/TVP7MUFRMC
In Los Angeles:
TomG who was at the rally in L.A also tweeted a photo:
@IMTomG: at the #NoDrones rally in LA pic.twitter.com/PyBxaiqn82
In San Francisco:
David Colburn tweeted:
@davidcolburn: “Obama's Accomplishments” http://twitpic.com/cj4mfe  #NoDrones protest in #SanFrancisco. #Drones #OSF #OO
A protestor in the anti-drones protest in San Farancisco holding a sign opposing drones and extrajudicial killings
In San Diego:
No Drones sign in neon overlooking a highway in San Diego
Jenna Pope shared a set of photos on her Facebook page and blog.
More tweets and photos can be found in this Storify.
Many activists in Yemen and Pakistan have publicly opposed the use of drones in their countries. Many American journalists and Middle East experts have also condemned the use of drones. HRW recently published a joint letter with human rights and civil rights groups expressing concern regarding U.S. drone strikes and targeted killings. It meant a great deal for people in the Middle East to see and hear average American citizens also voice their rejection.

author: Noon Arabia


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A Message from an Achuar Indigenous Leader · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

“Every day, across the globe, society suffers the environmental and social impacts of extractive industries. The history of the extractive industries is filled with negative stories…”
Amazon Watch has uploaded a video with a message from Peruvian Achuar indigenous leader Peas Peas Auyi. In the message, Peas Peas Auyi thanks Canadian allies for their solidarity in the Achuar's struggle against mining in the Peruvian Amazon.
In an introductory article, Amazon Watch explains that the video is part of the campaign “Fighting for our future: People Power vs Corporate Control.” More information here.

author: Juan Arellano


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Air Show Ends in Tragedy in the Dominican Republic · Global Voices
Pamela Martínez Achecar

During the second and final day of the Caribbean Air Show, just a few minutes after it began, a T-35 Pillán aircraft, registration number FAD 1807, made in Chile and belonging to the Dominican Air Force (FAD), manned by First Lieutenant Pilot Rafael Eduardo Sánchez Astacio, and Second Lieutenant Pilot Carlos Manuel Guerrero Guerrero, experienced problems during an acrobatic stunt and fell to the sea.
The tragic accident took place on Sunday, April 7th, and was seen by thousands of Dominicans who had congregated on Santo Domingo's boardwalk to enjoy the pirouettes and feats of national and foreign pilots, drawing on the skies above the Dominican capital. Less than two hours after the incident, the two lifeless bodies were found and brought to the Dominican Naval Base in Sans Soucí and from there transferred by helicopter to the Doctor Ramón de Lara Military Hospital, FAD.
According to the organizers, the 2013 Caribbean Air Show met all the international standards for shows of this nature established by the International Council of Air Shows, which supported the show.
The President, Danilo Medina, promptly expressed his condolences:
@DaniloMedina: Lamentamos profundamente accidentes como este. Unámonos en oración al dolor de familiares y compañeros de Carlos y Rafael. Paz a sus almas.
@DaniloMedina: We deeply regret accidents like this. Let us join in prayer for the family and friends of Carlos and Rafael. Peace to their souls.
Nevertheless, it did not take long for sectors of civil society to show its discontent. Raúl Raful, son of the representative to PARLACEN (Parlamento Centroamericano-Central American Parliament) [es], Tony Raful, published on his Twitter account:
@RaulRaful: Ese equipo de rescate fue un desastre. ¿Dos buzos sin tanque iban a encontrar esos cuerpos junto con lanchitas de Boca Chica?#ShowAereo
@RaulRaful: That rescue team was a disaster. Two divers without a tank were going to find those bodies along with small boats from Boca Chica?#ShowAereo
With the same tone lawyer Bartolomé Pujals said:
@BartolomePujals: Este dramático suceso dejo claro varias cosas. 1) incompetencia de las autoridades de rescate; 2) la indolencia de los organizadores. #OJO
@BartolomePujals: This dramatic incident made a few things clear. 1) the incompetence of the rescue authorities; 2) the indolence of the organizers. #OJO
Some journalists and social network users affirmed that the plane was not suitable for doing aerial acrobatics, to which communicator and politician José Laluz responded:
@laluzjose: #ShowAereo La letra B en la matricula del Pillan significa 2da generación y la ficha técnica INDICA que son buenos para acrobacia.
@laluzjose: #ShowAereo The letter B on the registration of the Pillan means second generation and the technical data sheet INDICATES that they are good for stunts.
Now, according to declarations made to the Listín Diario [es], General Hugo González Borrel, who was the Commander-in-Chief of the Dominican Air Force when the Pillán planes were acquired by the Dominican Republic, said that it is possible that there was a human error in the aircraft's fall, in which both pilots lost their lives. Accordingly, the Dominican Air Force pointed out that they are carrying out on-site investigations in order to clarify what really happened.
Below are photos of the tragedy, taken with authorization from the news site Diario Libre [es].

author: Pamela Martínez Achecar


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Construction Project Fuels Sex and Violence in Brazilian Amazon · Global Voices
Pública - Agência de jornalismo investigativo

This story by Ana Aranha was originally titled Vidas em Trânsito (“Lives in Transit”) and is part of Brazilian investigative journalism agency Pública's special coverage #AmazôniaPública, which reports on the impact of mega-construction projects in the Amazon along the Madeira river in the state of Rondônia, Brazil. The story will be published in a series of five posts on Global Voices Online.
Next post: Residents Displaced by Brazilian Power Plant Struggle to Earn Living
Sex and violence are a part of life in the small Brazilian fishing town of Jaci Parana, where police struggle to keep up with crime as a nearby hydroelectric construction project in the state of Rondonia pumps money into the local economy.
Michele (not her real name) is 20 years old. Four months before this interview, she left her hometown in the state of Pará and landed in the fishing town of Jaci Paraná, on the outskirts of Rondônia's capital city, Porto Velho. She found work and shelter in a “brega”, the local name for a brothel, where she began helping out in the cleaning. Two weeks later, she was prostituting, just as “almost all the girls are”:
Quando cheguei aqui, achei triste, chorava toda noite. Essa poeira, as ruas sem asfalto. Eu trabalhava lavando louça, não lembro como fui pela primeira vez. Ele era estranho, levou pó pra cheirar no quarto, queria beijar na boca, transar de novo. Depois chorei. Se fosse na minha cidade, ia ter vergonha, nojo. Aqui é normal, quase todas as meninas fazem. Eu mudei, não sou a mesma mulher.
When I first came here, it was depressing, and I cried every night. The dust, the streets without pavement… I worked washing dishes; can't remember how well I did it the first time. He was weird, took powder with him to sniff in the bedroom, wanted to kiss me on the mouth and have sex again. I cried later. If it had been in my hometown, I would be ashamed, disgusted. Here it is normal, almost all the girls are doing it. I changed, I'm not the same woman anymore.
Prostitute in a beauty parlor in Jaci Paraná, the closest town to the Jirau hydroelectric plant. Photo by Marcelo Min.
It's impossible to wander the streets of Jaci and not stumble upon bregas. They are open pubs, sometimes featuring plastic tables on the sidewalk. At night, they play loud music. During the day, it's normal for women to walk around town in shorts with their bellies exposed.
They are in Jaci to offer a service to the thousands of men who come in and out of town in shifts, at 7 a.m. and at 5 p.m. These are the hours when workers begin and finish their shifts at the Jirau hydroelectric plant construction site, one of the largest projects of the Growth Acceleration Program (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento – PAC), currently being undertaken in Brazil. The plant is located on a dam in the Madeira river in the Amazon forest, and the town of Jaci 20 kilometers away is the nearest urban settlement.
At its peak, the construction boasted a workforce of 25,000 employees, more than double what the project expected. Some workers settled in town, while others just go there for their days off. The Public Ministry of Rondônia estimates the town's population has grown from 4,000 to 16,000 since 2009, when the Jirau hydroelectric construction began. Workers carry around their very own accent of Brazilian Portuguese, from the North, Northeast, South and Mid-West regions of Brazil. Some workers, such as Haitians and Bolivians, haven't mastered the Portuguese language yet.
The majority of workers travelled there alone. They remain away from their homes from three months to one year. “Some of them just want to party, others are sad. They say they cheat on their wives because they need to, but they don't like it”, Michele said:
É trabalho pesado. Quando acaba, eles querem se divertir, beber
It's heavy work. When it's over, they want to have fun, and drink
There are 68 houses of prostitution in Jaci. For Michele, the worst part about the work is when clients get aggressive after having too much alcohol or cocaine, which are supplied in excess at the bregas, or when they request to spend the night with her. “God forbid sleeping with them as if we were husband and wife”.
Women work as prostitutes in rooms located at the back of a brega, the local name for a brothel. Photo by Marcelo Min.
The fishing town became a place of transit. People are searching for money, not bonding. There is a constant tension in the air. Sexuality pulsates out from under the short clothes, which sometimes expose women's intimate parts. Stories of fights inside bregas are common – these occur between workers, or between prostitutes. There is a growing tension between Brazilian women and the Bolivian women who moved into town. Many fights end in stabbing, and some end in death.
Where the money goes, crime follows
When its pay day for Jirau plant workers, Jaci Paraná sizzles with their money.
First, at the brothels. Aside from local prostitutes, women from other Brazilian states travel to work only when the worders are paid. According to Michele, some of these women split their time between Jaci and Belo Monte, the hydroelectric plant under construction in the state of Pará. Their movements are guided by each plant's pay period.
During those days, the price of sexual services rises notoriously. The most experienced women negotiate up to 200 United States dollars for a half an hour with a high ranking-employee. As Michele has restrictions (she doesn't perform anal sex or group sex), the maximum she has made in a half an hour was 65 US dollars. During regular weeks, she charges 40 US dollars, of which ten belong to her procuress for using the room.
Shirley is one of several hairdressers who moved to Jaci to serve these women. She said:
Quem ganha mesmo são elas, as donas dos bregas, sempre prostitutas muito experientes,
They're the ones profiting, the brega owners. They're usually very experienced women prostitutes.
She doesn't want to make her name public. Shirley said procuresses earn money from room rental, plant workers’ drink consumption, and money loans to prostitutes.
As competition is rough, they offer help so their women may “invest in their beauty”. Michele was convinced by her procuress to abandon her curls for long and straight hair, so bought hair extensions for 575 US dollars. Now she is bound by debt to her procuress for buying the hair extensions and to their hairdresser for the labor. Since then, all of Michele's services go to her procuress, although her debt hasn't gone down at the pace it should:
É assim mesmo, elas mandam as meninas aqui e depois não passam o dinheiro do trabalho delas.
That's the way it is. They send girls here, and then they won't pass on the cash for their services.
Beside the bregas, beauty parlors are the second commercial activity to benefit from the flow of paychecks from the Jirau plant construction site. There's one beauty parlor on every corner of the town. Ever since she began doing hair extensions, Shirley has managed to earn more than her husband, who is in charge of building Jirau's hydroelectric turbines.
Jaci Paraná features 68 houses of prostitution and one beauty parlor on every corner. Photo by Marcelo Min.
It is dangerous, however, to accumulate goods in Jaci. Public security's fragile structure is powerless before the force of money circulating in town. Two weeks before this interview, Shirley's house was robbed, and her husband was held as hostage. The loss in money and electronic equipment exceeded 10,000 US dollars, but she won't complain to the police because everyone knows who the robbers are and what they do.
Police are powerless against local crime. Shopkeepers now pay a private company to drive around the town's three main streets with their well-identified cars and motorcycles. In September 2012, the military police chief of Jaci was murdered inside a police office. The same group responsible surrendered other police officers, who were forced to lie down on the street facing the pavement, while the robbers blew up the cash machines at the small Bradesco bank agency.


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Filipino Politicians Linked to Offshore Accounts · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) reported that 500 Philippine residents, including some prominent politicians, are among those who maintained offshore accounts after it participated in a global collaborative project that reviewed the leaked files of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts.
The initiative is led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists which mobilized 86 journalists from 46 countries. The team went over a cache of 2.5 million files whose size “is more than 160 times larger than the leak of U.S. State Department documents by Wikileaks in 2010.”
The investigative report exposed the “hidden dealings of politicians, con men and the mega-rich the world over.” And much more:
The leaked files provide facts and figures — cash transfers, incorporation dates, links between companies and individuals — that illustrate how offshore financial secrecy has spread aggressively around the globe, allowing the wealthy and the well-connected to dodge taxes and fueling corruption and economic woes in rich and poor nations alike.
Filipino politicians whose names were linked to offshore accounts in the British Virgin Islands include Ilocos governor Imee Marcos, Senator Manny Villar and Congressman JV Ejercito. Marcos and Ejercito are children of former presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada.
Governor Imee Marcos. Photo by Alaric Magno A. Yanos, taken from Wikipedia
JV Ejercito wrote in his Facebook account that the report is a ploy to derail his senate candidacy:
Demolition job has started. It started with highest ad spending, alleged snob of niece, now accounts and business interests. Same people, same style
The Senate and local midterm elections will take place next month. JV has a message to PCIJ reporters:
I hope that they are not falling prey to the manipulation of desperate people in dirty politics.
Cong B. Corrales summed up the reactions of politicians to the investigative report:
Marcos had ignored the PCIJ’s inquiries, while Villar had acknowledged the account, claiming it was only a shell account with $1 inside. For his part, Ejercito in turn was evasive, and implied that the PCIJ was being used to derail his senatorial bid.
Malou Mangahas compared the reactions of politicians to the response of former government ministers who were also named in the report:
While the three elective officials turned elusive or evasive when asked about their secret offshore accounts, two officials appointed to government corporations showed more upfront, even repentant, behavior during interviews with the PCIJ for this report.
Manila Standard Today wrote an editorial demanding more answers from public officials:
For all we know, many of those denouncing the lack of transparency may, themselves, be hiding their own secrets.  We must persevere in demanding answers, punish them for their duplicity and know better than give them mandate to lead us again.
The Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility praised the report as a valuable document that can guide voters:
Cheers to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism for its comprehensive and timely two-part exposé on the undeclared offshore accounts of several Filipino politicians and former government executives. Coming as it did during election season, the expose should help voters choose better leaders.
Political Jaywalker is looking for public outrage:
Where is the outrage? Is it because people are busy trying to make a living or scrambling for the crumbs thrown by the candidates in the patronage and personality popularity contest we mistook for electoral exercise?
I hate to think that we are just a big joke and truly a basket case in Asia, can we for once show our outrage and demand that those implicated be prosecuted without let-up until they pay for their crimes?
Sven Alexander has a proposal which he wrote on Facebook:
Make it a Felony for Politicians to have an offshore account!


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Guinea-Bissau President Caught up in ‘Arms for Drugs’ Conspiracy · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Guinea-Bissau's interim president is beating back allegations that he played a role in a doomed “arms for drugs” deal that involved smuggling weapons for supposed Colombian FARC rebels from Guinea-Bissau in exchange for cocaine.
U.S. indictments against seven men, including Guinea-Bissau's former navy chief, includes their testimony which mentions President Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo. The men were arrested off the coast of Cape Verde last week.
According to the documents, these men, now defendants, told U.S. undercover anti-narcotic agents (who were pretending to be FARC rebels) that they were in contact with the president over the cocaine and weapons smuggling deal. The evidence that mentions Nhamadjo is found on page 7 of the indictment [pdf]:
CC-1 (defendant) agreed to a proposal to ship FARC cocaine to Guinea-Bissau for later distribution in the United States and to procure weapons for FARC, including surface-to-air missiles. CC-1 also stated that he would discuss the plan with the President of Guinea-Bissau. CC-1 stated, “The day after tomorrow I'll talk to the President of the Republic.”
Page 10 of the same document, talks about the weapons order:
CS-1 (undercover agent) provided CC-5 (defendant) with a list of weapons that the FARC were requesting, which included  among other things, surface-to-air missiles, AK-47 assault rifles, and machine guns. Mane (defendant) said that he and CC-5 (defendant) would speak to the President and Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau about the weapons order for FARC.
The government allegedly expected a percentage of the 4,000 kg of cocaine as a fee:
During the meeting, CC-2 and CC-4 (defendants) agreed to facilitate the receipt of approximately 4,000 kg of cocaine from the FARC in Guinea Bissau, approximately 500 kg of which would be later sent to customers in the United States and Canada.
The president has lashed back at the allegations, calling them “criminal” [pt].
Political and military instability have been a constant feature of life in Guinea-Bissau, a country which has never seen an elected president reach the end of their mandate since its independence from colonial Portugal in 1974. The latest coup d'etat on April 12, 2012, a few days after the second round of presidential elections, saw Nhamadjo appointed transitional president as part of a deal made between military commanders and political, religious, and civic leaders.
US indictment.
Journalist Helena Ferro de Gouveia wrote [pt] on her blog about what it would mean for Guinea-Bissau if the allegations were true:
A confirmar-se o envolvimento do presidente de transição num esquema de tráfico de cocaína e armas, milímetros separam o país do abismo.
Even before the coup, connections between certain elites, military figures, and drug traffickers have long been an open secret in Guinea-Bissau. In the last decade, the country has become one of the main transit points for cocaine smuggling from South America into Europe.
Before the news of the president's alleged involvement in the drug and arms smuggling scheme, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of East Timor, José Ramos-Horta, who has led the United Nations Integrated Peace-Building Office in Guinea-Bissau since February 2013, said that “Guinea-Bissau faces an existential threat, as a State, as a nation” and hoped that the political and military elites “will conduct an introspection, a self-examination” on the anniversary of the coup.
At the end of March as the anniversary of the country's coup drew near, he described [pt] on his blog Guinea-Bissau's role in the world's drug trafficking:
A Guine-Bissau nao produz droga e o consumo e baixo. Ha sim grupos que funcionam como correio e pelo trabalho recebem umas migalhas e já ficam muito contentes. Individuos de outras nacionalidades – Colombianos, Bolivianos, Peruanos, Libaneses, Marroquinos e Nigerians – os profissionais do negocio. Face a eles, o Bissau-Guineense e um amador que se contenta com migalhas mas que fica com a fama!
Confirming Ramos-Horta's point is accused drug kingpin Real Admiral Bubo Na Tchuto's amusingly amateur blog-autobiography [pt]. Na Tchuto, former head of the navy, is now under arrest in New York. He had been released from prison on orders of Guinea-Bissau's army chief in June, 2012, after serving a few months due to accusations of leading the coup attempt of December 2011.
Earlier in March, Guilherme Dias from Lusomonitor blog summarized [pt] a Der Spiegel reporter's experience looking into the drug traffic in the Bijagós islands alongside an underfunded prosecutor:
As drogas chegam em carregamentos de 600 ou 1.200 quilos e são armazenadas em três depósitos, de onde são enviadas para a Europa. Dois países europeus têm satélites apontados à região e os investigadores internacionais sabem que um destes depósitos está numa zona militar. “Eu até sei que um voo vai aterrar esta semana no sul”, afirma Biague, sem dinheiro para qualquer operação de apreensão. Com um custo estimado de 115 euros, o repórter decidiu financiar. No final, foi um fracasso.
Drugs arrive in shipments of 600-1,200kg and are stored in three warehouses, from where they are sent to Europe. Two European countries have satellites pointed to the region and international investigators know that one of these warehouses is in a military area. “I even know that a flight is landing this week,” says Biague [Director of Police Investigation in Guinea-Bissau], without any money for a drug bust. With an estimated cost of €115, the reporter decided to finance the trip. In the end, it was a failure.
Satellite image of Guinea-Bissau in January 2003. The Islands are known as Bijagos Archipelago. Image in the public domain.
Meanwhile, another mainstream media article, this time by Portuguese daily Público [pt], revealed the heroic efforts of two women, Lucinda Barbosa Ahucarié and Carmelita Dias, to enforce the rule of law in Guinea-Bissau. Barbosa Ahucarié, the country's ex-director of police investigation, told Público that captured drug kingpin Bubo Na Tchuto threatened her, accusing her of feeding information to US investigators.
The article seems to have fallen between the cracks, generating very little comment in social media and in the blogosphere, even though it was republished in Brazil and beyond.

author: Sara Moreira


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Majority of Venezuelans in Panama Vote for Opposition Candidate Capriles · Global Voices
Ariel Moreno

Panama, with its large number of Venezuelans, closely followed the Venezuelan election which took place on Sunday, April 14, 2013. Social networks resounded with the reactions of Panama-based Venezuelans as well as Panamanians who wanted to follow what was happening in Venezuela, their near neighbour.
Panamanian daily Día a Día (@DiaaDiaPa) [es] tweeted that some 900 Venezuelans had turned up to vote:
@DiaaDiaPa: A esta hora se calcula que alrededor de 900 venezolanos han votado en la Embajada de Venezuela #panama
Many Panamanian users followed closely, waiting for results, and some even dared to remember the time Panama spent under dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega. In May 1989, after losing the election, Noriega gave orders to the electoral tribunal to declare the polls null and void. This triggered a series of abuses and arbitrary violence which led to the United States invading Panama. Twitter user Panamá Vieja Escuela (Old School Panama) (@PanamaHistoria) [es] said:
Venezuelans voting in Panama. Photo via @Yacare45 on Twitter.
@PanamaHistoria: Me preocupa que mucha gente habla de la situación de Venezuela como si #Panama fuera inmune. Que no se les olvide a Noriega y su pandilla.
When they learned the results of the polls, a group of supporters of the winner, Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’ vice president, launched fireworks from the Embassy of Venezuela in Panama. Venezuelan resident in Panama, Marian Queen (@inagc) [es] said on her Twitter account:
@inagc: Empleados de la Embajada de Venezuela en Panamá celebrando con fuegos artificiales. Mucho miedo a que los desenchufaran, no?
Supporters of Capriles reacted unpleasantly and tried to enter the Embassy of Venezuela in Panama, accusing the elections of being fraudulent. The police had to intervene to protect the Embassy according to reports from website La Verdad (The Truth) [es]:
La acción policial se produjo después de que simpatizantes del candidato presidencial Henrique Capriles intentaran ingresar la noche del domingo, por la fuerza y en medio de gritos de presunto “fraude”, a la sede diplomática localizada en el quinto piso de una torre en el área bancaria de la capital panameña.
In the end 1,036 Venezuelan citizens exercised their vote from Panama, where the majority voted for the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. Website El Venezolano [es] reported:
Finalmente, Miguel Martínez de la Riva, jefe Del Comando Simón Bolívar en Panamá, aseguró que mil 36 venezolanos votaron en Panamá, de los cuales 991 prefirieron la propuesta del candidato opositor, Henrique Capriles.
Finally, Miguel Martínez de la Riva, head of the Simon Bolivar command in Panama, said that 1,036 Venezuelans voted in Panama, of whom 991 preferred opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

author: Ariel Moreno


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Running 1,000 Miles for Europe’s Trafficked Children · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

This month, Rob Martineau, Tom Stancliffe, and Guy Hacking are running 1,000 miles from Odessa to Dubrovnik, via Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Croatia, as part of the Run For Love 1000 campaign, whose aim is to raise funds for Love146, a UK charity that “gives care and hope to trafficked children, and to raise awareness of the scale of human trafficking across Europe.” Follow their run on the RFL1000 website, on Facebook, and on Twitter; support the runners by donating here (215 donations have been made so far, with nearly £12,500 raised).