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How Much Time Is Left for Africa’s ‘Presidents for Life’? · Global Voices
Prudence Nyamishana

Burundian president Pierre Nkuruzinza. Photo released under Creative Commons by the World Economic Forum.
New research by Afrobarometer, a project that measures public attitudes in Sub Saharan Africa, suggests that most Africans support two-term presidential term limits for their presidents.
The report, based on surveys in 34 African countries, says:
This is true even in those countries that have never had term limits and those that have removed them in the past 15 years. Continuing efforts to dispense with term limits thus reveal a major disconnect between African leaders and African citizens on this issue, underlining the lingering legacy of big-man rule on the continent and highlighting the fragility of African democracies.
The report discusses the term limit extension phenomenon in African politics:
At the end of the 20th century, many African countries adopted presidential term limits aspart (sic) of a broader set of constitutional rules that accompanied the transition from personal and authoritarian rule to pluralistic modes of governance. While term limits were widely embraced by the larger African public, these rules have in recent years come under increasing attack from incumbent presidents seeking to extend their tenures. In the first six months of 2015 alone, the presidents of Burundi, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda have either personally or through their supporters expressed the intention to dispense with or circumvent term limits in order to seek additional terms of office.
These quests are often couched in language that portrays a leader’s desire for more time in office as a response to popular demands. A striking example was Blaise Compaoré’s 2014 attempt to seek a third term in Burkina Faso, which was stopped by popular protests that forced the president not just to back off, but to leave the country. But other leaders have been more successful in their efforts to avoid relinquishing power.
David Shinn, the former US ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ethiopia, says the track record on term limits in African politics is “mixed”:
Early in 2008, thirty-three of sub-Saharan Africa’s forty-eight countries had constitutions that contained term limit provisions. Some African leaders have willingly turned over power in compliance with these constitutional requirements. They include recent, former leaders of Botswana, Benin, Cape Verde, Mali, Mozambique, Säo Tomé e Principe and Tanzania. Nelson Mandela in South Africa stepped down after one term. Jerry Rawlings of Ghana and Daniel arap Moi of Kenya complied with constitutional term limits under duress.
Several African leaders tried but failed to change the term limit provision of their constitution so that they could run again. Zambia’s Frederick Chiluba, Malawi’s Bakili Muluzi and Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo ultimately bowed to the will of the political system and accepted term limits.
Other African incumbents managed to change the constitution so that they could have at least one additional term. Current or recent leaders in Burkina Faso, Chad, Gabon, Guinea, Namibia, Togo, Uganda and Algeria are among those who successfully changed term limit requirements in order to prolong their time in office. In 2008, Cameroon’s parliament eliminated the two-term (seven years per term) limit for Paul Biya. I served at the U.S. embassy in Yaounde when Biya first became president in 1982. He will be able to run again in 2011 after twenty-eight years as president. The president of Niger is currently trying to change the constitution so that he can run for a third term.
In total, 18 African countries do not have presidential term limits. Sudan presents a unique case; although President Bashir has been in power since 1989, his reelection earlier this year—when he carried 94 percent of the vote—is technically only his second term in office, following the secession of South Sudan in 2011 after a national referendum.
During the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting last month in Accra, Ghana, West African leaders dropped the idea of instituting a two-term limit on the presidency across the region, after The Gambia and Togo, the only member states without term limits, opposed the move. Internet users in West Africa were widely critical of the decision.
A conflict in Burundi continues today, sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza‘s bid for a third term. Riots have spread throughout the country in protest. The UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon has even called on Ugandan President Museveni to intervene. At an impromptu East African Community (EAC) meeting, former army general Godefroid Niyombare (who'd been suspended just a few months earlier) staged a coup in an attempt to oust Nkurunziza.
The events in Burundi and in other countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, and Rwanda have sustained a growing debate among Africans about term limits.
For example, in Uganda where voters face the same predicament of a president that is seeking a fifth term, netizens celebrated the coup in Burundi:
Ugandans are celebrating the coup in tiny Burundi yet @KagutaMuseveni is about to go for 7th term @samirasawlani @RobertAlai @WanjikuRevolt
— Kenny Kipkirui (@kenkorir) May 13, 2015
#BurundiCrisis Now I understand what Burundians meant when they told #Nkurunziza to go to Uganda if he wanted life presidency
— Gangist J D Ziras (@JZiras) May 13, 2015
Many jokes were even made about the coup in Burundi. Allan Senyonga, a Ugandan journalist working in Rwanda, said:
Former leader of #Burundi: Pierre N-coup-runziza. (The second P is silent) pic.twitter.com/W1xC3SFLMT
— Allan Ssenyonga (@ssojo81) May 13, 2015
Nkurunziza: God told me to stand for a ‘2nd term’ God: Don't use my name in vain if you can't even count properly. pic.twitter.com/A5RjbadFrc
— Allan Ssenyonga (@ssojo81) May 13, 2015
Simon Kaheru surveyed readers about the best hashtags available to mock Nkurunziza:
Heartless as we may be, I've got to ask: what hashtag are people using to make fun of #Nkurunziza?
— Simon Kaheru (@skaheru) May 13, 2015
As the cartoonist at the Daily Monitor created this:
#Burundi As the world is waiting to hear from Nkurunziza, catchup with our weekly cartoon http://t.co/XrB7yapQXY pic.twitter.com/VzxLDsRe7m
— Daily Monitor (@DailyMonitor) May 13, 2015
The first President of Uganda, Dr. Milton Obote, was ousted in a manner similar to Niyombare's attempt, while delivering a speech at a Commonwealth meeting in Singapore in 1971.
Milton Obote must be in his grave laughing at Nkurunziza for never bothering to read about EAC history.
— Allan Ssenyonga (@ssojo81) May 13, 2015
Benjamin Rukwenge expressed his mistrust of the East African presidents:
If reports from #Burundi are true, I hope these guys didn't blindside #Nkurunziza and take him to Dar, knowing he'd be ousted.
— Benjamin Rukwengye (@BibiRukwengye) May 13, 2015
Denis Juuko condemned those who were celebrating the coup:
If you are celebrating the #BurundiCoup you are an enemy of democracy
— Denis Jjuuko (@Denis_Jjuuko) May 13, 2015
In Zimbabwe, where president Robert Mugabe has been in power since 1980, someone named Hungwe commented on a story in the New Zimbabwe, joking:
Minimum of 4 terms of course! One term to fill up personal pockets. Another term for the family. Another one for relatives and friends, and probably another one to look at national issues and avenues to stay in power.
Another Zimbabwean, “William Doctor,” asked:
Then why has the 2-term limit been so successful in the United States? And why is Africa such a dismal failure?
“Political Analyser,” apparently based in Zambia, simply advised:
Never accept that dictator to come for a third term
“Bants-a-nius Dante” warned:
These are bad times for Mugabe,Hayatou [Issa Hayatou is the president of the Confederation of African Football since 1988],Nkuruzinza and other sit tight leaders all over the world…
— Bants-a-nius Dante™ (@ThaSoulReaver_) June 2, 2015
Another netizen argued that the problem is not only with African presidents but also with “serial” opposition presidential candidates, like the ones in Zambia:
What else do you expect from HH [Haikainde Hichilema] 6 elections, Nawakwi 6, Nevers Mumba 2, please leave space for others you have suffered electoral nightmare and its enough.
However, commenting on a story about Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who said that he is open to leaving power, Abullah Omar wrote:
I do not understand this fixation of a term limit for an elected office.if the people opt for continuity why deny them their choice.
Professor Nshuti Manasseh expressed similar views:
But Rwandese want him to stay on to ensure stability and development of a very fragile country Rwanda is 21 years after genocide. So if Rwandese requests him to lead them for more than two term limits, isn't that democracy?
“Eng.Murenzi Daniel” thought Rwanda and Burundi presented very different third-term political scenarios:
“Leader”&”Dictator” Kagame FORCED by the people for a 3rd term (Leader) Nkuruzinza FORCING himself on the people for a 3rd term. (Dictator)
— Eng.Murenzi Daniel (@murenzidaniel) June 2, 2015
Raymond Maro, based in Tanzania, was more optimistic:
Tanzania was the first country in sub Saharan Africa to put Presidential term limit. By 2017 all African states should adopt this #DGTrends
— Raymond C Maro (@RaymondCMaro) September 16, 2014
Kenyan blogger Ken Opalo noted that the record suggests presidents trying to extend their limits are more likely to succeed:
So what we see in the existing data is that conditional on *overtly* trying to scrap term limits African Heads of State are more likely to succeed than not (9 successes, 6 failures). However, this observation doesn’t tell us anything about the presidents who did not formally consider term limit extensions. For instance, in Kenya (Moi) and Ghana (Rawlings), presidents did not initiate formal debate on the subject but were widely rumored to have tried to do so. So it’s probably the case that presidents who are more likely to succeed self-select into formally initiating public debate on the subject of term limit extension, thereby tilting the balance. And if you factor in the countries that have had more than one episode of term-limited presidents stepping down, suddenly the odds look pretty good for the consolidation of the norm of term limits in Sub Saharan Africa.
He concluded on an optimistic note:
I wouldn’t rule out, in the next decade or so, the adoption of an African Union resolution (akin to the one against coups) that sanctions Heads of State who violate constitutional term limits.

author: Prudence Nyamishana


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Water Is Life for Ecuador’s Sarayaku People · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

An invitation to a forum for the premiere of the Sarayaku videos.
The Kichwa people of Sarayaku have had a long and well-documented struggle against oil, gas, and mineral extraction on their territory, located in the southern-central part of the Ecuadorian Amazon. In defense of the lands, the Sarayaku community has taken advantage of digital media's reach to tell their story of opposition to drilling there. Co-produced with the community, the award-winning documentary “Children of the Jaguar” offers a glimpse of this resistance.
The success of the documentary inspired a new generation of indigenous filmmakers to produce their own films. Filmmaker Eriberto Gualinga is one of the leaders in this area, and has uploaded a number of short videos to his YouTube channel. In addition to video, the community has set up a website and is very active on social media channels such as Twitter (@Sarayaku_Libre) and Facebook, which allows them to keep in touch with their supporters and report directly on any new developments.
While the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ruled in 2012 in favor of the Sarayaku community, stating that the Ecuadorian government must consult with affected communities before signing exploration or drilling contracts, the people of Sarayaku still face ongoing pressures.
As a way to continue to explore the various uses of participatory video tools, the Sarayaku community partnered with El Churo Collective to train young people from the community as well as other surrounding indigenous communities to learn how to create digital videos that capture their realities and to reaffirm their commitment to preserving their natural surroundings. The project was a Rising Voices grantee in 2014 as part of the Rising Voices Amazonia initiative.
In this first video from this project, the narrator speaks in the Kichwa language stating the importance of water for the Sarayaku people. Through the use of the Amara subtitling platform, the video is now available with English subtitles and open for others to add subtitles in other languages.
These videos premiered at various events in Quito and Sarayaku, followed by discussions and debates regarding the topics raised in them. We'll be featuring more of the videos from the project over the next few weeks.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Eduardo Avila


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What Drives a Single Mother in China to Starve Her Daughter to Death? · Global Voices
Jack Hu

Xiang Heping, the single mother who starved her daughter to death last year. Screen capture from CCTV circulated on Weibo.
A single mother in China who starved her young daughter to death as punishment for doing poorly in school last year recently spoke about her cruel act on TV. In the May 24 interview, she tearfully said that she had just wanted her daughter to perform well at school and get to university.
As the story spread across Chinese social media platforms, many denounced the mother as a cold-blooded murderer, while some tried to address the root cause of the social problem.
Xiang Heping, 52, was sentenced to 10 years in prison this year. She had tied up her 9-year-old daughter Zhang Qiongdan (Dandan) and deprived her of food and water for six days in China's southwest Guizhou province.
Xiang wept and explained in the interview that she loved her daughter so much that she absolutely did not want to kill her. She blamed the tragedy on her high hopes for daughter to go to college, a dream she herself hadn’t realized and so had pushed her daughter to achieve it to shed adversity.
Xiang said she had suffered two miserable marriages. Her second husband left home when Dandan was just over a month old. She was forced to return to her parents home in a shantytown and lived with her daughter in a store room. She earned her living as a cleaner in a department store. She also collected waste from the street and sold it to make ends meet.
The tension between the mother and the daughter had escalated when the girl began to play truant in third grade. Her teacher said the girl began to hate doing homework and her classmates said the girl always kept to herself after class.
At first, the mother confined her daughter to her room, but she escaped through the window and wandered into the street. Xiang then decided to bind her daughter to the bed post on April 4, 2014 and deprived her of food and water as a penalty for her poor performance at school. Her daughter remained stubborn and did not beg for forgiveness nor ask for food. Enraged by her daughter's silent treatment, Xiang did not stop the punishment. After five nights, she found her daughter in a coma and called the police.
About 3.5 million couples filed for divorce in 2013 in China and the trend continues to increase at an alarming rate. More and more single mothers have to bear the responsibility of raising children themselves, all the while facing discrimination and pressure for having broken societal norms, which say that women should remain in a marriage, even if they are subject to abuse from their husband.
On the other hand, the Chinese education system has long just focused on children’s study performances, neglecting their mental health as they grow up.
Many people furiously denounced Xiang on Twitter-like Weibo and Toutiao, a news headline aggregating platform:
心灵之缘1314: 解释就是为自己脱罪，六天那么长的时间不吃不喝，大人都难于忍受饥饿，何况是个小孩子，这跟本就是存心要把孩子活活饿死，绝不能轻判。
“Karma of the soul”: She tried to explain away her crime. Adults can’t survive hunger and thirst for six days, not to mention a kid. She intentionally wanted to starve the kid to death. She should be harshly sentenced.
花海四海: 还好意思上诉 根本没有悔改的意思 一般人不会上诉 早就在悔恨内疚 她这个贱货还上诉 说什么不是 故意杀人 你的行为不是故意杀人是什么 向和平 你去死吧 反正我不原谅你 可怜你
“Flower seas”: How could she have the nerve to appeal? There is no sign of repenting. Other people would feel regretful and would not file for appeal. Wasn’t your behavior intentional homicide? Go to hell, I won't forgive you nor have pity on you.
假如没有晴天: 这个母亲肯定心里有问题。同样作为妈妈，我们都是有种恨铁不成钢的心理，但是我无法理解:眼看孩子一天.两天……没有吃东西，没有喝一滴水，甚至饿到皮包骨，身为妈妈她怎么能不心疼？无动于衷呢？不给孩子喂点水和食物呢？有什么比孩子的健康更重要呢？别说作为一个妈妈，我看她连最基本的人性都没有
“If there weren't sunshine anymore”: The mother surely has psychological problems. Being a mother, we wanted our children to be successful. But I can’t understand how she had remained indifferent to her kid’s hunger and thirst for so many days… No food and no water. How could a mother bear to see such skinny body? How could she not give her some food and water? What’s more important than kid’s health? She has lost basic humanity.
Some tried to examine the root causes of the tragedy, such as ignorance and pressure faced by single mothers at the bottom of Chinese society:
是开森呢还是开森呢: 向和平把自己的亲生女儿竟然活活饿死了，每个父母都是爱自己孩子的，可是因为无知，却把他们害了，甚至可以害死，可悲！可叹！
“To be happy or not?”: Xiang starved her daughter to death. Every parent loves their children. But some could injure or even kill their children due to ignorance. How sad!
唱歌唱大哥: 爱没有错，只是过了火，孩子更没错，也很无辜。畸形的家庭，畸形的爱，畸形的性格，畸形的人生而造就畸形的命运！悲剧的出现从来不是不是单方面原因完成的！可怜，可悲，可叹一个花季少女！
“Singing brother”: There is no right and wrong in love. But it is wrong when overdone. The kid had done nothing wrong and was innocent. Abnormal family, abnormal love, abnormal character and abnormal life lead to abnormal fate. There is no single cause for a tragedy like this. The saddest consequence is that we lost the blossoming life of this girl.
嘟嘟4844820
大家都在批判母亲，但有没有试想一下，从女儿一个多月起就独自一人抚养她，又要挣钱又要照顾孩子，这样的艰辛不是一般人可以承受的，她望女成凤的愿望自然会比一般家庭强烈，做事也会更加激进！再说说女儿，自卑、内向也非常的倔强，有时候正是因为孩子的过于倔强会让父母更加的生气甚至狂躁！[…]
Everyone is attacking the mother. Just imagine, since her kid was one month old, she had to raise her all by herself. Taking care of the kid and earning a living at the same time. Such a life can be unbearable for ordinary people. The harshness makes her more ambitious for the daughter’s study than others and more extreme in behavior. The daughter, who had a lack of self-esteem, was an introvert and stubborn. These kinds of character traits could make parents enraged and crazy. […]
梦琳36979210: 一个没钱的单亲妈妈独自抚养孩子的艰辛是常人无法想象的，孩子的叛逆，经济的拮据，社会的冷漠是导致她走到今天这个结局的真正原因
It’s unimaginable for a poor single mother to raise a child. The child’s rebellion, poverty and social indifference are the real reasons for today's consequence.

author: Jack Hu


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If I Were FIFA President… · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

After the recently reelected FIFA president, the Swiss Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, surprisingly resigned on June 3 amidst a corruption scandal that hit the supreme football organization, Twitter users started to speculate not about who might become the next leader, but what would happen if they were.
The result was the satiric hashtag #SiYoFueraPresidenteDeLaFIFA (If I were FIFA president)
Some proposed “improvements” to the game and championships:
#SiYoFueraPresidenteDeLaFIFA Días de Champions serían días de descanso a nivel mundial.
— Carlos Hazael (@zempoA7X) June 2, 2015
If I were FIFA president, the Champions (UEFA) days would be worldwide holidays.
#SiYoFueraPresidenteDeLaFIFA tendríamos un Mundial cada 2 años o habría un Mundial de Clubes con 36 equipos.
— Mario Riveretti. (@RiverettiSports) June 2, 2015
If I were FIFA president we would have a World Cup every 2 years of there would be a Clubs World Cup with 36 teams.
#SiYoFueraPresidenteDeLaFIFA ¡MÁS APOYO A SELECCIONES MENORES!
— Alan Ortiz (@AlanLooz) June 2, 2015
If I were FIFA president, MORE SUPPORT TO THE MINOR NATIONAL TEAMS!
Others spoke about broadcast rights:
#SiYoFueraPresidenteDeLaFIFA prohibiría de por vida que televisa transmitiera un evento de futbol — Carlo5 Ro∂ríguez (@CarIosRdz) June 2, 2015
If I were FIFA president I would forever forbid Televisa to broadcast any football event
And some others preferred to think how they would change the past:
#SiYoFueraPresidenteDeLaFIFA Seria Gol de Yepes♥
— S O N R I E :’) (@SonSiempre) June 3, 2015
If I were FIFA president It would have been goal by Yepes
#SiYoFueraPresidenteDeLaFIFA repetiría el mundial de Brasil con saque de meta de México en el min 90 y amarilla para roben @el_viejopaulino
— Mexdez Maho Ricardo (@ricardomaho) June 2, 2015
If I were FIFA president I would repeat Brazil's World Cup with a goal kick by Mexico on the 90 minute and a yellow card for Robben
Meanwhile, more than one proposed to award players with potential:
#SiYoFueraPresidenteDeLaFIFA le daría un balón de oro a éste jugadorazo… https://t.co/myPNdvoBBJ
— ☪ (@iNomofobico) June 2, 2015
If I were FIFA president I would give a Golden Ball to this awesome player…

author: Elizabeth Rivera


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‘In This Class, I Learn to Appreciate People Again’: A School’s Innovative Approach to Improving the Learning Experience · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

St Nazaire High School  via Vincent Tim CC-BY-20
No mandatory courses, no grades and the students are empowered to help manage and police the school.
You would be forgiven for assuming that this is the plot line for the Hollywood comedy Accepted. Yet, this is reality for the students of Saint-Nazaire High School, in western France.
For 30 years, the innovative Saint-Nazaire High School has proposed unusual solutions to counter the surge of violence and drop-outs in French high schools. Over the past three decades, many ideas have been proposed but Saint Nazaire's approach has been radically different. The school has 19 members of the teaching staff and about 180 students. The organizational structure is non-hierarchical: there is no principal, no director, no secretary and no janitors. Students and teachers self-organize to manage everything.
Most of the 180 students come from impoverished backgrounds. Yet the school has been relatively successful in getting students to buy in to the curriculum and follow through until the end of their academic careers. Eleven of the 12 candidates for the baccalauréat (French high school diploma) passed their year-end exams in 2008. In the following video, students explain how the school works and why this self-empowering approach appeals to them:
Nolwenn Weiler a writer for  Bastamag, an independent online french news site that focuses on social and environmental issues, unpacked the decision-making process in interviews with sources at the school. One of the interviewees, Lucie, a student, highlighted the management of the school cafeteria:
« Tous les matins, on fait une cagnotte, explique Lucie, élève en 1ère. Chacun donne ce qu’il veut, ou peut. On fait les courses et le menu en fonction de la somme récoltée. » Mise en place sur la proposition d’un élève, la cuisine du lycée fait maintenant partie des incontournables. C’est même un gros poste pour l’équipe en charge de la gestion. « On gère le lycée par quinzaine, précise Lucie. Chaque équipe de gestion compte une vingtaine d’élèves et trois “mee” (pour “membre de l’équipe éducative”).
Lucie, a 11th grade student explains: “Every morning, we collect lunch money from students. Each student gives what he/she wants. Then we do grocery for the menu depending on the amount we raised.” This process was implemented based on the proposal of a student. The school cafeteria is now among the best-run activities at the school. It is one of the main projects for the team in charge of management for the time being. Lucie says that “The team management rotates every two weeks to run the school. Each management team has twenty students and three members of the teaching staff.”
students and teachers together via les échos de la presqu'ile -CC-BY-20
The course selection for the upcoming curriculum and the school budget are also decided jointly by the students and the teachers. This is a deliberate choice for the school. As one of the teachers commented: “You don't learn how to ride a bike with a text book.”
More importantly, the school provides a second chance to students who struggled in the standard school environment.
One of the students, Aymeric, testifies:
J'étais turbulent et impertinent. Ici, j’ai ré-appris à apprécier les gens, tous les gens. J’ai découvert qu’il y a du bon en chacun.
I was troubled and cynical (as a kid). Here I have re-learned to appreciate people, all people. I discovered that there is good in everyone.
Erwan adds:
Dans les autres établissements, les relations entre élèves sont dures. Ici, c’est facile de créer des liens. Il n’y a pas d’effets de meute, avec un élève qui s’en prend plein la gueule. On peut vivre sa vie sans que personne ne nous embête.
In other schools, the relationship between students can be tough. Here it is easier to bond. There is no pack mentality or bullying. One can live his life without someone interfering, looking to pick a fight.
Christophe Juin, one of the teachers at the school, says that the structure of the classroom facilitates the exchange of ideas, while sometimes the school invites outside experts to enrich learning:
Lors de nos travaux de groupes, membres de l’équipe éducative et élèves ont réalisé, ensemble et comme des pairs, la lecture et les échanges qui s’en suivent. Au cours du projet sciences, une collaboration s’est installée avec Isabelle Drouet, enseignante chercheuse en philosophie des sciences et en logique. Le groupe s’est à plusieurs reprises penché sur des articles publiés par notre intervenante.
During our group work, members of the teaching staff and students read and analyzed papers together as peers. In one science project, a collaboration was established with Isabelle Drouet, a researcher in science philosophy and logic. The group analyzed her articles in depth.
However, one must be mindful of hailing the approach as a universal model capable of curing all the ills in the French education system, as Pierre, another teacher, reminds:
Je ne pense pas que ce soit la panacée, ici. Mais sur l’absence de violences, sur l’enseignement sans notes, sur l’interdisciplinarité, sur la démocratie, on expérimente. Ce sont des sujets sur lesquels on a quelques petites choses à dire.
I do not think this approach is the be-all  and end-all solution. But on the subject of violence, of teaching without notes, of interdisciplinarity, on democracy, we have done some research and experiments. These are topics on which we have a few insights to contribute.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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‘Looking for Their Death’: Tragedy Highlights Informal Mining Conundrum in Colombia · Global Voices
NACLA

Saul Hernandez – a miner from the Don Leo mine, Colombia. (Adriana Cardona-Maguigad)
This post by Kari Lydersen and Adriana Cardona-Maguiga was originally published by our partner NACLA.
El Playon (Riosucio), Caldas, Colombia– Normally Saul Alban Hernandez Moreno would descend into the mine known as “Don Leo” on the bank of the muddy Cauca River to place wooden supports as his fellow miners extracted earth laced with gold.
But over the past two weeks, he and other local miners have had a much grimmer mission: extracting the bodies of 15 miners who were trapped and killed when the mine flooded on May 13.
Located in Colombia’s coffee-growing region in the state of Caldas, Don Leo is one of thousands of small informal mines that make up the great majority of the country’s gold mining industry. The Cauca River valley and surrounding mountains are laced with ad hoc mines built without technical expertise or planning. The government considers many of these mines illegal.
After the flood an official with the public-private electricity agency said that the Don Leo mine illicitly tapped electricity from power lines, and officials and miners initially blamed the disaster on a power outage that stopped pumps that remove water. Officials later said a loss of power was not the reason that river water quickly filled the mine’s three vertical tunnels between 14 and 28 meters deep on the morning of May 13. Officials are still investigating the causes.
A rescue operation was launched involving hundreds of staff and volunteers from the National Agency of Mines, national police, Red Cross, and the Civil Defense organization. The rescuers included miners like Saul Hernandez from the Don Leo mine and from surrounding villages. On May 18, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos visited the site.
By May 15, five bodies were removed and sent to the city of Pereira for identification. Then the rescue effort dragged on around the clock as more than 20 pumps worked to drain the mine. It was extremely difficult to remove bodies that were waterlogged and decomposing, and the contaminated water and gases posed a serious risk to anyone trying to enter the tunnels.
After more than a week, on May 25, the last of the bodies were finally recovered.
Throughout the ordeal family members and friends of the miners – who ranged in age from 19 to 49 –gathered in tents under the blazing sun or around a cooking fire at night, anxiously and tearfully awaiting news. Some lost several members of their families. Hernandez’s sister’s husband is among the miners who perished. And she is pregnant.
“The truth is that you feel your heart going cold,” said Hernandez.
Miners in the small, informal mines that proliferate — from Colombia’s Pacific lowlands to the central coffee-growing regions like Caldas to the Amazon — know the risks they face, from toxic gases, flooding, collapses, improvised explosives and other dangers. But they continue mining for lack of other economic options.
“If I work mining, I eat. If I don’t work, I don’t eat,” said Leonardo Mejia, the owner of the Don Leo mine, on May 20 between meetings with government officials and the miners at the site.
Hernandez, who has survived being trapped underground himself, said miners at Don Leo earn about four times as much as they could in a factory. But the pay is highly volatile, depending on how much they extract and the price of gold.
“There is a lot of difference between going to a job where you are going to get paid a salary,” he said.  “[In mining] you don’t know how much you are going to make, but when you get paid you get paid triple…Because we are talking about gold.”
After this disaster, Hernandez thinks he will continue mining elsewhere, possibly just outside Buenaventura, a lawless port city dubbed “the capitol of horror” because of rampant violence including “chop houses” where people are reportedly dismembered by armed criminal gangs.
Sitting on a rock at the edge of the Cauca River just downstream from the recovery operation, 19-year-old miner Jorge Velasco saw a similarly bleak future. He described a sense of terrifying vertigo as the Don Leo mine flooded and he struggled to get out, his boots growing heavy with water. His father was a miner, and he doesn’t see any other way to make a living.
“You can’t find work in the countryside, on the [surrounding coffee] farms,” he said. “I don’t like mining, but it’s life.”
In recent years the Colombian government has made illegal mining a criminal offense, and made numerous arrests.
The government has also launched a “formalization” program to legalize and regulate the small mines through a process that involves inspections, technical assistance, and awarding official titles for the mines. The program is meant to standardize the industry and improve safety, reduce environmental contamination, and ensure miners receive benefits.
However, according to miners and experts, the mine formalization process has been plagued with backlogs and problems. Only a fraction of the miners who have applied to legalize their operations have received titles, and many more miners don’t have the resources to carry out the application process.
Oswaldo Ordoñez, a geology professor at the National University of Colombia in Medellin who is involved with the formalization process, said the informal miners lack technical expertise and work with unsafe and environmentally unsound practices. The government needs to do much more, he said, to help them continue mining with better techniques.
One of the problems, he said, is that government mining officials are “lawyers and economists who don’t understand mining…they don’t know what a kilowatt of energy is, they don’t know what an ounce of gold is, they don’t know what mining is.”
Ordoñez and other experts said small miners need more support from the government including hands-on training and access to better equipment.
The Don Leo mine was actually in the process of formalization when the disaster occurred. But experts say it is not safe to be mining so close to a river, below the river level.
Carlos Iván Márquez, director of the national risk management agency, visited the site of the disaster on May 16. He said he did not know whether the mine had previously been inspected. He said the government is doing an inventory of illegal mines and will discuss them at an upcoming round table in Caldas.
Since the miners who were killed did not have benefits or insurance, their families face an uncertain economic future, as do the other approximately 50 miners who were working at Don Leo. Márquez said that for two months the families will get food and legal help identifying and claiming the bodies.
After Márquez spoke and the crowd of reporters had left the site, Jesus Aricapa slumped in a plastic chair in the shade of the press tent. He lost two cousins and a nephew in the mine, at the time two of the bodies were still trapped.
Aricapa said he would always tell them, “Please take care of yourself, you know that there is only one life. Tomorrow doesn’t exist for anyone.”
He fought back tears as he described his family’s losses. Members of his family had previously worked in a mine called Miraflores in a different area, before being displaced a decade ago by threats from armed groups.
As the peace talks dominate the headlines, Aricapa and other miners said the more pressing issue for them is the grinding poverty and lack of safer ways to make a living.
“The government says they are bringing peace, but what kind of peace? Peace with hunger,” Aricapa said. “If you look for a job nowadays, how old are you? Forty, you are no longer useful. Then tell me, what can these poor people do? Come here looking for death, just like my family did.”
In the mines, he repeated, “They come looking for their death.”
Adriana Cardona-Maguigad and Kari Lydersen are reporting on gold mining in Colombia with support from the Samuel Chavkin Investigative Journalism Fund from the North American Congress on Latin America.

author: NACLA


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Russian Activist Dons Stilettos and Dog Collar to Protest ‘Sadists’ Law’ · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Russian lawmakers are currently considering legislation that would broaden the actions prison guards are permitted to take when subduing uncooperative inmates. Submitted to the Duma in late May, the “Sadists’ Law,” as critics call it, would expand the circumstances under which guards can use force—including deadly measures—when confronting anything from a prison break to a disobedient prisoner. Whereas existing law requires guards to minimize the risk to inmates’ safety, the new law would only specify where a guard should not strike prisoners (in the head or the throat, for example), when responding with physical force.
Polina Nemirovsky (left) and Olga Borisova (right), June 2, 2015. St. Petersburg, Russia. Photo: Facebook. Caption reads, “The Federal Penitentiary Service—it’s gonna hurt.”
Russian opposition activists are livid about the bill, staging a series of small demonstrations to try to raise awareness, though the public’s attention lately has been better fixed on the government’s efforts to legislate out of existence “undesirable organizations” and “foreign agents.”
On May 29, two days after the bill was introduced to the Duma, a handful of Russia’s oldest human-rights activists staged parallel single-person pickets outside the parliament. Even 87-year-old Lyudmila Alexeyeva was on hand to hold up a sign that read, “I am against the ‘Sadists’ Law.”
The next week, on June 3, Alexeyeva appeared on the Russian independent television station TV Rain, where she vowed to use her newly resumed seat in a presidential advisory group to appeal to Putin and demand that he not sign the bill, should it reach his desk.
“I’m sure the law won’t be adopted,” Alexeyeva said, and then added with hesitation, “because, I don’t know, I will protest against it in all ways possible and impossible. I’ll start a hunger strike, for example.”
A day prior to Alexeyeva’s threat of a hunger strike, a member of the opposition political party RPR-PARNAS and a human-rights activist staged an unusual demonstration against the “Sadists’ Law” in St. Petersburg. Olga Borisova, a former junior sergeant in the city police, and Polina Nemirovsky, an activist with the prisoner-rights group Zona Prava (founded by members of Pussy Riot), dressed up as a slave and a prison guard in a sexualized satirical advertisement for the Duma’s controversial legislation. The women later posted photographs from the spectacle with the slogan, “The Federal Penitentiary Service—it’s gonna hurt.”
Polina Nemirovsky (left) and Olga Borisova (right), June 2, 2015. St. Petersburg, Russia. Photo: Facebook. Caption reads, “The Federal Penitentiary Service—it’s gonna hurt.”
The two women marched through St. Petersburg, stopping at a new photo exhibit sponsored by the city and dedicated to Russia’s success in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The exhibit includes portraits of Russia’s Olympic champions, as well as an enormous picture of Vladimir Putin, including him among the country’s “Olympic heroes.” Borisova and Nemirovsky made sure to pose for a photograph in front of the President’s picture.
Borisova says she got the idea recently and contacted Andrei Pivovarov, the PRP-PARNAS co-chairman in St. Petersburg, who endorsed the concept. Next, Borisova enlisted her friend, Nemirovsky, who wrote the “it’s-gonna-hurt” slogan. The women say they were aware that not everyone would appreciate their sexualized treatment of the issue, but they say the only thing that matters is drawing more attention to the legislation. “Politics is rather boring for the average person, and we’re getting their attention with this photoshoot. As a result, people will take an interest in what this was all about,” Borisova told RuNet Echo.
Nemirovsky was similarly unapologetic, saying she doesn’t care how people attract attention to the “Sadists’ Law,” just so long as more people learn about it. “You can stand on the picket line, you can sign a petition, or you can do something like we did. These are all different and necessary sides of the same coin,” she wrote on Facebook.
The legislation in question, Bill Number 802242-6, authorizes prison guards to use 13 different violent responses to inmates who threaten them or disobey prison rules: special clubs, special gases, handcuffs and other restraints, electroshock devices, photoshock devices, guard dogs, special devices that emit light and sound, restraints for transportation, immobilizing devices, water cannons, armored vehicles, blocking traffic, and tools for breaking through barriers.
Certain restrictions do apply, such as the necessity of the prison director’s permission before using water canons and armored vehicles, but using most of the other physical means is left to the discretion of the guards themselves. In the event that a prisoner is killed while being subjected to one of these restraints, the new legislation would grant prison authorities a full 24 hours before they were obligated to contact the police.
On June 5, the head of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service stated that the law is “nothing revolutionary,” saying it merely “clarifies the moments when a guard has the right to use physical force.”
According to Oksana Trufanova, a human-rights observer in Chelyabinsk, Russian prison authorities are backing the legislation financially, pushing it through the parliament in order to pass it and make it easier to earn money by torturing prisoners. “Torture is just a business. Give up your money, if you don’t want to be beaten up, if you want to be treated like a human being; give up you money, if you want to eat decent food. There is a huge corrupt component of the prison system,” Trufanova said recently. She also speculates that prison officials might be intentionally subjecting inmates to unbearable conditions, in order to provoke riots that would in turn seem to justify legislation like the “Sadists’ Law.”

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Ugandans Find Humor in Burundi’s All-Too-Familiar Third Term Crisis · Global Voices
Prudence Nyamishana

Burundian president Pierre Nkuruzinza. Photo released under Creative Commons by the World Economic Forum.
Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza‘s attempt to extend his two-term limit led to mass protests and later an unsuccessful military coup on May 13, 2015 while he was on a regional meeting in Tanzania. The coup delayed his return to Burundi.
A total of 18 African countries do not have presidential term limits, although new research suggests that most Africans support two-term presidential term limit. Politicians clinging to power despite the will of the people is no laughing matter, but a little laughter is sometimes just what the doctor ordered.
The failed coup in Burundi led to a slew of humorous tweets, especially from Ugandans whose own president is seeking a fifth term.
Kemigisa Jacky, a Ugandan journalism student, making reference to Nkurunziza's supposed claim that God has approved his bid for a third term, wrote:
But I am curious to know what God is now telling Nkurunziza! Considering it was God who okayed 3rd term run. #AskNkurunziza
— kemigisa jacky (@JackyKemigisa) May 13, 2015
Ugandan Twitter user MartinAhabwe asked Nkurunziza:
Any improvement on your Maths chief,which term is it now,1st,2nd or Zero? #AskNkurunziza
— MartinAhabwe (@AhabweMartin) May 13, 2015
Some created the #NkurunzizaPlaylist hashtag, where they share titles of songs for Nkurunziza.
The YouTube video below was shared on Twitter under #NkurunzizaPlaylist by Mkandamizaji. This was before Nkurunziza returned to Burundi from Tanzania following the coup. The song is “I Am Coming Home” by Morgan Heritage:
Allan Ssenyonga, a Ugandan teacher and writer, chose a song by the late American rapper Tupac Shakur:
It's me against the world – 2Pac (Nkurunziza is on the extreme right) #NkurunzizaPlaylist pic.twitter.com/QK4eKkwkYy
— Allan Ssenyonga (@ssojo81) May 13, 2015
Uganda Twitter user Ellis Ralph went for American musician Tyrese:
How You Gonna Act Like That – Tyrese #NkurunzizaPlaylist
— Ellis Ralph (@akorabirungi) May 13, 2015
While Odokonyero, a pharmacy student, opted for singer R.Kelly:
#BurundiCoup #NkurunzizaPlaylist If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time | R.Kelly.
— Odokonyero (@OdoKent) May 13, 2015
Elizabeth Paulat, a freelance journalist based in Kampala, Uganda, chose British singer-songwriter Imogen Heap:
HA! Amazing #NkurunzizaPlaylist I'll add “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap https://t.co/74fnVHxcPd
— Lizabeth Paulat (@LizabethPaulat) May 13, 2015
@mmnjug selected British R&B singer Mark Morrisson:
#NkurunzizaPlaylist – Return of the Mack!
— mmnjug™ (@mmnjug) May 15, 2015
The Royco Guy imagined Nkurunziza stranded in Tanzania with a single suit:
When yo stranded in Tanzania and you only got 1 suit pic.twitter.com/8kwaSSYfqX
— The Royco Guy (@Currie_Powder) May 13, 2015
He also imagined how the hotel would treat him as an ‘ex-president':
When the hotel manager in Dar Es Salaam asks you to get out of the VIP room coz it's only reserved for presidents…. pic.twitter.com/D5QKNhZ2NW
— The Royco Guy (@Currie_Powder) May 13, 2015
Despite the crisis engulfing Burundi, laughter is still the best medicine.


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Want to Change the Future of Climate Change? Pay Attention to the Past · Global Voices
Ensia

People's Climate March 2014 NYC. Photo by South Bend Voice on Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0
This post by Peter Dykstra was originally published on May 6, 2015, on Ensia.com, a magazine that highlights international environmental solutions in action, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
We all know the plotline: Single-minded, passionate activists attempt to take on immense money and power, hidebound ideology and bureaucratic paralysis to turn the tide on the most important issue ever.
We could be talking about climate change. But we could also be talking about the abolition of slavery, marriage equality or countless other political struggles from US history. Each of those other movements holds a bonanza of lessons for climate activists on how sweeping change succeeds or fails.
No movement was ever more entitled to the moral high ground than abolitionism. What can climate activists learn from the anti-slavery movement?
First, being on the side of the angels may not matter. Abolitionists’ morality and common sense ran headlong into arguments of economic necessity and states’ rights in defense of slavery in the United States. Similarly, states’ rights and economic need are rhetorical refuges in climate debates today. So don’t wait for common sense to prevail. Abolitionists waited for decades, and it still took a catastrophic war to resolve things.
Second, smug aloofness doesn’t help. Abolitionists were viewed as effete and elite, eggheads and dilettantes. So much so that they even repelled one of their own. In his 1841 essay Self-Reliance, the existentialist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson called out abolitionist leaders for what he saw as their “incredible tenderness for black folk a thousand miles off” while ignoring social ills in their own northern backyards.
If enviros made the rebirth of coal towns via renewable energy a priority, Appalachia’s coming Reconstruction Era could replace perpetual bitterness with prosperity.
Today’s environmentalists are similarly perceived as being detached from the grim realities of coalfield towns, and that has opened up opportunities to blame green groups and regulators for the decades-long and inevitable market collapse of King Coal. When a way of life died in the US South 150 years ago, decades of violence and corruption followed. If enviros made the rebirth of coal towns via renewable energy a priority, Appalachia’s coming Reconstruction Era could replace perpetual bitterness with prosperity.
One more suggestion: Environmentalism has its own off-putting conspicuous consumption, and it chases people away from values and issues they might otherwise embrace. A Toyota Prius shouldn’t be the tree-huggers’ equivalent of an American flag lapel pin. Last year’s briefly viral “Rolling Coal” craze — tricking out a pickup truck to belch as much black smoke as possible — should be a lesson in how best intentions, smugly expressed, can drive some Americans to an opposite and extreme reaction.
The passage of marriage equality from a divisive issue to a fait accompli has been breathtakingly quick. How did it happen?
Some conservatives were swayed or silenced because the issue hit their immediate family. For climate, if it’s not family, what about home? Connecting to the reality of sea level rise may be just what residents of southern Florida need to become advocates of climate action.
Marriage equality also resonates with those who identify themselves as political libertarians. What if climate activists couched arguments in libertarian terms — a call to support the Pacific islands, Alaskan coastal villages and Louisiana bayou communities whose property rights are being literally wiped out by fossil fuels and their climate impacts?
In a relatively short period during the 1970s and ’80s, we discovered the depletion of the world’s stratospheric ozone layer, then fixed it. The Montreal Protocol, which outlawed chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone killing chemicals, was agreed to in 1987. Ozone depletion slowed, and scientists now project that the ozone “holes” over the North and South poles will heal themselves over the next few decades.
This all happened without the impetus of a wide political movement. But it happened with the active involvement of a broad ideological spectrum of world leaders. Two of the most significant were iconic conservatives whose track records on science and environment were otherwise widely criticized — US President Ronald Reagan and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Moral of the story: Political progress on climate won’t happen without breaking the current ideological stalemate. Here are a couple of examples that might push us all closer to that goal: First, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, George Shultz, recently suggested it would be smart to take a risk-conservative approach to climate change similar to that his former boss took with ozone. Conversely, the last two US Republican presidential nominees, John McCain and Mitt Romney, both backed down from high-profile support for climate action when they ran for office — and lost. The strategic flip-flop may help a bit during primary and fundraising season, but it’s never unlocked the White House gate.
The anger many Americans felt toward Vietnam War protesters hasn’t entirely ceased, but today, very few would argue that American pursuit of that war was either wise or honest.
The defiance and mass protests of the Vietnam era had a strong element of self-interest. Hundreds of thousands of young American men sharpened their moral objections to the war knowing that they were subject to being drafted.
There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with motivated self-interest. In fact, climate activists ought to seek it out. The parallel of young draft-age American men in the 1960s today may be the farmers, ranchers, fishers and coastal real estate owners whose livelihoods are in the crosshairs from rising temperatures, erratic and extreme weather, and rising, increasingly stormy seas. The kinds of people small-town America can relate to can do wonders to warm up others to your mission or message.
The anti-Vietnam War movement also got a tremendous boost from the mainstream media. Correspondents from major newspapers, wire services and the three TV networks filed stories that often called US policy into question. It might take a lot to swing the news media – particularly on TV – away from its plunge into spineless showbiz and into a renewed sense of civic duty. But two hopeful signs can be found in The Washington Post, whose reborn climate and environment coverage could be a game-changer, and The Guardian, whose relentless focus on climate change includes coverage of US climate politics that puts most homegrown US media to shame.
TV news also played a huge role in turning the tide for the US civil rights movement. The televised brutality in Birmingham and Selma showed America the face of segregation and its reliance on blind hatred. It moved a reluctant president to push through the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. A half-century later, the water cannons, police dogs, tear gas and nightsticks are still potent symbols.
Weather disasters that are likely linked to rising greenhouse gases are powerful tools for creating such visual impact. And while the movement doesn’t necessarily have to draw from scripture as Martin Luther King, Jr. so regularly did, would it kill climate activists to know how to respond when the Bible is used to defend climate inaction? Here’s a start from Leviticus: “Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.”
American environmentalist Bill McKibben says his fossil fuel divestment movement is inspired by the success of the 1980s anti-apartheid campaign to encourage institutions, corporations and investors to bail on South Africa. Back then, the divestment movement started with small protests, then larger ones. Eventually, a blend of genuine conscience and marketing worries pushed companies like Coca-Cola over the top to lean on South Africa’s apartheid system.
Perhaps the most encouraging sign for the climate divestment effort is that its targets are taking note.
McKibben has replicated the early phases of the South African divestment movement, with smaller protests and events growing larger. At first a few boutique and utterly predictable institutions bailed out of their fossil fuel investments. Today the movement seems to be taking hold, with a Norwegian pension fund worth more than three-quarters of a trillion US dollars recently climbing aboard as the biggest divestment trophy to date.
But perhaps the most encouraging sign for the climate divestment effort is that its targets are taking note. In its February 2015 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, coal giant Peabody Energy observed: “Concerns about the environmental impacts of coal combustion, including … divestment efforts … could significantly affect demand for our products or our securities.”
These historical movements leave lessons to emulate or avoid. The environmental movement can also learn from itself. Environmental advocates don’t have an immaculate track record, but they have a strong one. A legacy of being right on DDT, clean air and water, species and habitat loss, ozone protection, and toxic waste disposal has earned some bragging rights. Enviros have battled indifference, inertia and financial self-interest to expose the threats from clear-cut logging, poaching, rapacious mining methods, overfishing and dozens more issues in a way that adds up to a powerful claim to both credibility and moral authority.
So go ahead and brag. History shows us that when governments listen to environmental advocates, the economy doesn’t collapse, our way of life isn’t ruined, and the terrorists don’t win. History shows that what does happen is that we grow healthier, safer and stronger. As we advocate for climate action, let’s not be shy about sharing that important point.  Code Embed v2.1   End of Code Embed code
Peter Dykstra is based in Conyers, Ga., and has been a contributor to Public Radio International’s Living On Earth, publisher of Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate (2011–2014), a deputy director at the Pew Charitable Trusts (2009-2011) and an executive producer at CNN (1991–2008). He tweets from @pdykstra.
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author: Ensia


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Why the US Indictments Against FIFA Must Be About Corruption · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

2014 FIFA World Cup in Brasil; photo by alobos Life, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Okay, so…wait. When the US Feds, in conjunction with Swiss authorities, raided a hotel in Zurich towards the end of May and arrested several FIFA officials, Jack Warner, the former FIFA vice-president who, curiously, has not ventured off Trinidad and Tobago soil for years and who was named in the indictments, vehemently denied that he had ever accepted a bribe, even going so far as to cite a satirical article from The Onion in his shabby self-defence [scroll to 5:01 on the video timeline below]:
So forgive me if I'm a little confused when, a week later, the very same Jack Warner takes to the airwaves and tries to implicate a sitting prime minister by inferring that he will release documents detailing his “knowledge and involvement in” FIFA's “funding”, how that “funding” was linked to the political party that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar heads, and how that money essentially made possible the 2010 election campaign which brought her to office. Warner was sending a clear message to Trinidad and Tobago's political elite that if he is extradited, he'll take them down with him; civil society is now calling for a police probe into whether or not the government broke anti-money laundering laws:
You just can't make this stuff up. But hang on—it gets better. This is, after all, Trinidad and Tobago, land of the “smart man”. They don't call us “Trickidadians” for nothing. Warner kept insisting that the indictment against him was a witch hunt against developing nations, comparing himself to the likes of two of the most globally revered icons of nonviolent resistance: “Nelson Mandela made jail. Gandhi made jail. […] So who's Jack Warner?”
Who is Jack Warner? I guess it depends on which pill you swallow. There has been a lot of talk online about the motivation behind the FIFA arrests. One popular conspiracy theory revolves around geopolitical power. Also in the mix is race. I am not so naive as to think that politics and power don't seep into everything they touch, like effluent from a septic tank. I acknowledge developing nations’ desire to buck Uncle Sam, and that the United States, like other countries, has often brought politics into sport. But to suggest that the US has done this so that the “West” can regain control of the beautiful game and its even more attractive profits? To say that their Department of Justice, which just happens to be headed by a black woman, is out to get Jack Warner because he's a black man? (Most of the FIFA executives arrested in Zurich were white). I really do have to wonder whether all logic has left the building. Besides, if anyone appears to hold developing nations in disdain, it is Jack Warner, who was accused by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) of siphoning money away from Haitian earthquake relief efforts in 2010.
If you want to believe that the clampdown on FIFA was not, at heart, about corruption, fine. There are enough counts of racketeering, money laundering, fraud and bribery to make politicians’ heads spin, but let's suspend our disbelief for just a minute and pretend that the US government would be so inept as to carry out such high profile arrests without sufficient evidence to convict. If anything, the whole sordid affair has been about economics, with FIFA executives controlling the purse strings and the Global South singing for its supper.
Contrary to the way the world football governing body wants to portray itself—as either a veritable Robin Hood, taking from the rich to give to the poor or a fairy Godfather helping to make the football dreams of thousands of poor little brown boys come true—it has conveniently glossed over the degree of alleged profiteering that is taking place in between. Let's keep our eyes on the ball. Whatever other push factors may or may not have prompted the indictments, the core issue must still be corruption. Overlooking this for whatever reason—because your team got to go to the World Cup or because your country got infrastructure or increased tourist traffic—is a FIFA tactic, no different from World Cup players diving melodramatically on the pitch and trying to make the referee call a foul where there isn't one.
It must still be corruption because it is high time we connected the dots. Trinidad and Tobago's escalating crime rate, political ills, failing social services, and the economic chasm between the haves and the have-nots, can all be traced back to the beguiling smile of the “smart man”. The sudden possibility that white collar criminals could actually be made to pay for their transgressions, even at the hand of the United States, has made Trinbagonians positively dizzy precisely because such an eventuality is unprecedented.
But I'm still not sure whether the vertigo is caused by simple bafflement or intoxication over the realisation of our own power, if only we can properly harness it.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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After Citizen Uprising in Burkina Faso and Burundi, Are Niger and Togo Next? · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Protests in Niamey, Niger via Abdoulaye Hamidou on twitter (with his permission)
20,000 Nigeriens took to the streets in Niamey, Niger on June, 6. There are multiple causes for the protests: endemic poverty, mediocre governance and restricted free speech are among the main grievances from Nigerien civil society.   These protests come on the hill of similar uprisings in Burkina Faso, Burundi and Togo. The government resigned in Burkina Faso while elections are postponed in Burundi. In May, citizens in Lome protested presidential election results  that saw Togolese president Faure Gnassingbe won a third term.


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Ahead of Mexico’s Vote, a Young Indigenous Woman Asks for an End to Silence Over Deaths and Disappearances · Global Voices
Giovanna Salazar

“From October 26, 2012 to May 30, 2015, I can count 50 young people that are missing.” A student from Guerrero state in Mexico responds to Rigoberta Menchú's and the Mexican political parties’ call to vote. Screenshot taken from the video shared on social networks.
Following the tragic disappearance of 43 students last year, demonstrators in the state of Guerrero have advocated suspending an election planned for June 7, saying citizens could be voting on politicians tied to the illegal drug trade. Not everyone is on board with this initiative, however, leading to a scandal last month, wherein two officials defied calls to postpone voting and urged citizens to head to the polls.
On May 29, during a conference in Acapulco, Guerrero Governor Rogelio Ortega and Rigoberta Menchú, the recently appointed “election observer” by the National Electoral Institute (INE) encouraged people to participate in voting later this month. Responding to a question from the audience, Menchú (a human rights activist and an indigenous leader from Guatemala who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992) called on Mexicans to vote, igniting passions online and making her the target of a firestorm of criticism.
The call to vote promoted by the INE went out amid massive social discontent over the upcoming local and federal elections on June 7. Guerrero state in particular saw demonstrations to ask citizens not to go to voting booths due to violence and insecurity. These demonstrations have been led mainly by the parents of the 43 missing students of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Normal Rural School in Ayotzinapa.
Online networks took a special interest in the words of a young woman at the conference, who responded to this call by saying:
No sé cómo nos pueden pedir que hagamos un voto […] Tengo 27 años […] y desde el 26 de octubre de 2012 hasta el 30 de mayo de 2015 puedo contar 50 desaparecidos jóvenes […] ¿Cómo señor Gobernador me puede llamar a votar? ¿Cómo partidos políticos de Guerrero nos pueden pedir a los jóvenes que somos el más numeroso índice de población en México? ¿Cómo nos pueden llamar al voto?
I don't know how you can ask us to vote […] I'm 27 years old […] and since October 26, 2012 to May 30, 2015, I can count 50 young people that are missing […] How, Mr. Governor, can you ask me to vote? How can Guerrero's political parties ask us young people — seeing as how we're Mexico's largest portion of the population — to vote?
And then, speaking directly to the Nobel Prize winner, she added:
La indignación y la rabia no se puede acabar y sé que usted lo entiende. No podemos seguir pidiendo un minuto de silencio por los desaparecidos porque pedir un minuto de silencio por cada desaparecido y por cada asesinado en nuestro país, en nuestro estado, es quedarnos callados eternamente.
The fury and outrage cannot be extinguished and I know you understand that. We cannot keep asking for a minute of silence for the missing because asking for a minute of silence for each missing person and murder victim in our country, in our state, would mean that we remain forever silent.
Below is the complete video of the speech in Spanish:
Another controversial point derived from statements made by Menchú in regards to the Ayotzinapa case, which caused outrage amongst many.
The Desinformémonos organization quoted a representative of the parents of the missing on its Facebook page:
“Rigoberta Menchú está fuera de contexto, porque no conoce la realidad de nuestro estado ni lo que ocurrió en la normal de Ayotzinapa. Si quiere saber la verdad, que pregunte […quién] le está pagando por hacer esos comentarios”, manifestó Felipe de la Cruz, vocero de los padres de los normalistas de Ayotzinapa desaparecidos … [Menchú] está al servicio de quien le pagó”
Rigoberta Menchú is out of context because she is unfamiliar with the reality of our state and with what happened at the school in Ayotzinapa. If you want to know the truth, ask [who] is paying her to make those comments,” stated Felipe de la Cruz, spokesman for the parents of the missing Ayotzinapa student teachers…[Menchú] is working for those who paid her.”
Her nomination has also been highly questioned on social networks. For example, on Twitter, Aldabi refers to Menchú's position in the face of Guatemala's political crisis.
Rigoberta Menchú pide renuncia del presidente de Guatemala allá.Pero viene a legitimar el régimen aquí pidiendo que haya elecciones.
— Aldabi (@Aldabi) May 26, 2015
Rigoberta Menchú asks for Guatemala's president to step down; but comes here to give legitimacy to the regime by asking for elections.
Al parecer Rigoberta Menchú no tuvo inconveniente en aceptar dinero de quien discriminó  comunidades indígenas… pic.twitter.com/r9rlCGXTww
— Cabez'epollo (@Cabeza_depollo) May 30, 2015
It seems as though Rigoberta Menchú had no problem accepting money from someone that discriminated against indigenous communities…
The website Pueblos en Camino (Villages en Route) also criticized Menchú's participation in the Mexican elections:
Rigoberta Menchú, indígena Guatemalteca, Premio Nobel de la Paz 1992, da declaraciones y responde preguntas en una rueda de prensa rodeada de funcionarios del Instituto Nacional Electoral de México. La escena parece más la presentación de una estrella del fútbol adquirida por un equipo europeo por una suma millonaria, que el anuncio de la participación directa de esta personalidad en apoyo al proceso electoral del próximo 7 de junio en México. El parecido no es coincidencia, en primer lugar, porque la intención es precisamente esa: mostrar que han comprado una estrella…
Rigoberta Menchú, an indigenous woman from Guatemala and 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner, provides statements and answers questions at a press conference surrounded by INE officials. The scenario looks more like the presentation of a soccer star having just been acquired by a European team for a million-dollar sum […] This is no coincidence, the intention is precisely that: to show people they have purchased a star…
The discussion over Menchú is just one of many debates at play. Support for a general annulment of the vote continues to spread, as citizens question the meaning of their participation in the process.
Researcher Raúl Trejo Delarbre reflects on what is hidden behind this form of protest on his blog, Sociedad y Poder (Society and Power):
Anular el voto es una decisión dolorosa. Nadie invalida la boleta con alegría. Se trata de una acción que es resultado de la contrariedad y el desaliento. Pero quizá podría contribuir a enfatizar la necesidad de una política diferente.
Mi voto no está secuestrado. Mi albedrío ciudadano me permite otorgar o regatear el sufragio. Anular es una decisión anticlimática y pesimista, pero sincera y libre.
El mal menor no es elegir al partido que nos disguste menos, sino la decisión de no favorecer con nuestro sufragio a ninguno de ellos. El voto es mío, no de los partidos. No de esos partidos […]
Annulling one's vote is a painful decision. Nobody is happy to annul his or her vote. This comes about as a result of contrariness and despondency. But perhaps it could contribute towards emphasizing the need for a different political line.
My vote is not highjacked. As a citizen, my free will allows me to either award or avoid suffrage. To annul one's vote is an anticlimactic and pessimistic decision; but honest and free from political influences.
The lesser of the evils is not to choose a political party that we least dislike, but rather, with our suffrage, decide to favor neither. My vote belongs to me, not to the political parties. Not to those parties […]

author: Giovanna Salazar


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India’s Heat Wave Is Now the 5th Deadliest in the World · Global Voices
Lakshmi Sarah

Indian people walk at holy sangam during a duststorm in a hot day in Allahabad. Image by Ritesh Shukla. Copyright Demotix (28/5/2015)
Heat is a constant phenomenon across much of India during summertime, but the country’s most recent heat wave has killed over 2,300 people and placed among the top five deadliest in the world.
Impacting much of the eastern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the heat wave forced many people indoors. Those without a place to escape the soaring temperatures suffered most. Authorities said most of the victims who perished from heat were construction workers, the elderly or homeless who suffered from sunstroke or dehydration.
Temperatures in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana peaked at 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47 degrees Celsius). In response to the heat wave, the Andhra Pradesh state government launched a campaign encouraging residents to stay indoors, drink lots of water, use an umbrella and keep their heads and bodies covered to avoid sunstroke.
According to the Indian government’s National Disaster Management Authority website, the country is experiencing more intense heat waves more frequently due to global climate change.
On Twitter and much of the news media, reactions pointed out the death toll, yet did not highlight the fact that many who died did not have the means to escape the heat.
While this picture posted by Hindustan Times received many retweets and coverage around the globe, Global Voices could not verify its authenticity.
Watch: This road in Delhi melted due to scorching heat http://t.co/loRaAPTxTF pic.twitter.com/9oaJ3lCUQ3
— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) May 27, 2015
Some highlighted the positive side of how people were assisting others, even animals:
"@PandeyJaideep: When the whole country is facing extensive #HeatWave, here comes a lovely pic.. pic.twitter.com/rg7i6erO28"
— Mumbai Matters News (@mumbaimatters) May 28, 2015
Others wonder if this is a peak into the future:
Global warming or overpopulated# The heat and the death toll r rising in India. Is this a glimpse of Earth’s future? http://t.co/WtJh7TZwPX
— Dr Dhananjay Singh (@dsing_dr) June 1, 2015
While some blamed the government,
My article for @YouthKiAwaaz on the heat wave. http://t.co/Hm4VKj6g0D #HeatWave #HeatWaveIndia
— Karthik Shankar (@kookykarthik) May 28, 2015
others blamed the media for not highlighting the issue enough:
If heat wave in Andhra Pradesh were a flood or earthquake, it would be trending. People would go. “OMG 2000 dead, hang in there. Praying…”
— Wildcard Vidyut (@Vidyut) May 31, 2015
Most of the people killed in Andhra Pradesh and Telengana states were labourers at construction sites who continued with their work even when the temperatures were at the peak. Richard Mahapatra suggested in youth news and commentary website Youth Ki Awaaz how Telangana and Andhra Pradesh could take their cue from the Odisha state government on reducing number of heat stroke deaths:
After the heavy casualties in 1998, the Odisha government treats it as a disaster on the scale of cyclone or flood.
By February-end, the government starts the preparation for fighting heat wave with a single objective in mind: no human casualty. Schools and colleges shift to early morning sessions. They open at 6.30am and end by 12 noon.
Government offices also follow the same timings. Examinations are held by March. Public transport does not operate between 12 noon and 3.30pm. Public wage programmes like, MGNREGA is halted from 11.30am to 3.30pm.
A Naga youth jumps into the water to cool off beside a small stream on a hot summer day in the outskirt of Dimapur, Nagaland, India. Image by Caisii Mao. Copyright Demotix (23/5/2015)
A study in Nature Climate Change revealed that increasing the weather is already limiting India’s labor capacity. Another study shows that heat stress “will be increasingly deadly” in the future, with over 250 million farmers expected to suffer.
Energy and access to air conditioning has become an increasingly important issue. In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made universal electricity access by 2019 part of his election platform. The rising middle class and changing climate has increased the demand for air conditioning 20 percent this year.
How the global community can prevent and prepare for natural disasters remains to be seen. Luckily, the monsoon has begun in Kerala and will soon move travel across the country.
When the #Monsoon wind turns, if you stand on the southernmost tip of #Kerala’s coast, you’d see something like this pic.twitter.com/F9bUhdUvVL
— Arati Kumar-Rao (@AratiKumarRao) June 5, 2015

author: Lakshmi Sarah


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LGBT Pride Parade in Dalmatia Smaller but Without Incidents · Global Voices
Vuk Visnjic

The fifth Split Pride parade was held on June 6, 2015, with around 200 members of the LGBT community walking through Split, Croatia. No incidents or violence happened during the manifestation. The Split Pride parade has been held since 2010 and in previous years saw more than 500 participants joined in the Split Pride marches, but in 2011 an anti-gay mob attacked the participants, leaving some participants injured.
Since the introduction of Life Partnership Act in 2014 in Croatia, same-sex couples have had equal rights in almost everything but marriage and adoption, quite a significant progress for the conservative mostly Catholic country.
The fact that the number of participants was lower then last year may seem negative to some, but organizers claim it is a good sign. Many foreigners, including the Ambassador of Sweden to Croatia, Lars Schmidt, and the deputy of the ambassador of England, Nicole Davison came to support the parade, saying that it is their responsibility to support those who love each other.
Citing Split Pride Parade's motto. “Come out in a safe Split”, Marko Mlinar from the LGBT rights NGO Respect stated:
Ne želimo nasilje ni na ulicama ni na stadionima. Imamo česte pritužbe pripadnika LGBT zajednice na napade koje oni međutim ne prijavljuju zbog straha od vlastite obitelji i bliže okoline.
We don't want violence in the streets or the stadiums. We get frequent complaints from members of the LGBT community of attacks that they however don't report due to fear from their own families and closer communities.
Croatian LGBT website CroL tweeted:
Jurica Pavičić o Split Prideu: ‘Ovo je dosadno, ali to je dobro’ http://t.co/ZZ0hapnwwa #splitpride pic.twitter.com/FPPoUiF1VT
— CroL (@CroL_Hr) June 6, 2015
Jurica Pavičić on Split Pride: ‘This is boring, but that's a good thing’ http://t.co/ZZ0hapnwwa #splitpride pic.twitter.com/FPPoUiF1VT
— CroL (@CroL_Hr) June 6, 2015
The organizers were satisfied with this year's parade, even though they expected more people to join the procession, and said they were expecting many more participants at the after party that began at 8:30 p.m. that same evening.

author: Vuk Visnjic


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Mexican Indigenous Community Accuses Famous Designer of Plagiarism · Global Voices
Global Voices Latin America

French designer Isabel Marant has made a name for herself in the world of fashion, owing to her eclectic style, which blends materials and ethnic influences together in her designs. These creations carry a price tag starting in the hundreds of dollars.
However, for the authorities and citizens of Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, a Mixe community in Mexico, they were more than just a source of inspiration. They accuse Marant of selling her creations as if they were her own take on the traditional dress of the territory.
“Tlahuitoltepec defiende su bordado; acusa de plagio a la francesa Isabel Marant”. #Oaxaca http://t.co/YU8QquhtVZ pic.twitter.com/sqGgFFZZTd
— Letra.Digital (@LetraDigitalMx) June 5, 2015
“Tlahuitoltepec defends its embroidery; accuses Frenchwoman Isabel Marant of plagiarism”.
The famous dressmaker sells this piece for $290, close to 4,500 Mexican pesos, while the price of the garment in the indigenous community is around 600 pesos ($40).
Marant is “hijacking a cultural heritage for commercial benefit, which puts indigenous communities at risk, as well as the originality of the fashion industry”, maintained the mayor, Erasmo Hernández González, who stated that they will be taking legal action.

author: Global Voices Latin America


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Mexico Votes Against a Background of Disenchantment and Violence · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Election in Mexico, 2006. Photo from Flickr by user Cesar Bojorquez under Creative Commons license.
Candidates gunned down in an environment of growing political violence, institutional scandals and alienated voters: on June 7, 2015, Mexico will host local and federal elections, but citizens are approaching the occasion apprehensively.
Sunday's elections will see Mexicans elect members of the federal legislative branch, as well as governors and mayors of a number of constituencies and townships. Some local legislative organs will also have their mandate refreshed.
Nonetheless, the biggest challenge on election day will be how to avoid the disproportionate violence that affects some regions of the country like Guerrero (on the West coast), where 30 people recently disappeared during an operation carried out by an armed group, or Oaxaca (in the country's Southwest) where a radical group of dissenting teachers calling themselves the National Coordinator of Educational Workers set INE offices on fire and destroyed election materials in the constituency.
The violence has also taken some candidates out of the equation before the vote begins, with a PRD candidate for the federal legislature, Miguel Ángel Luna, shot dead close to his campaign office on June 2.
Luna was the second candidate killed during the campaign. On May 22 national media outlet Prensa Libre reported:
#MÉXICO | En #Tanhuato, #Michoacán, fue asesinado esta semana un candidato de izquierda. F: Quadratin M pic.twitter.com/VtuLCMk6J4
— Prensa Libre (@prensa_libre) May 22, 2015
MEXICO. En Tanhuato, Michoacán, this week leftist candidate F: Quadratin M was killed.
The scandal-ridden National Electoral Institute (INE) is the independent state body in charge of organizing the vote, with the task of setting up the voting booths and taking care of counting the votes falling on ordinary citizens.
The election will be a crucial milestone on the way to a presidential vote in 2018 that will determine a successor to incumbent Enrique Peña of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which returned to power in 2012 after 12 years and two administrations of the conservative National Action Party (PAN).
In Mexico's multi-party system some parties have federal presence while smaller ones compete at the local level. Historically the parties that have dominated the legislature and other powerful areas of the government have been PRI, PAN and the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (known as PRD). For over 15 years, PRD has controlled the Executive and Legislative branches of Mexico's capital Mexico City.
The PRI has 33% of the vote according to polling, and has allies — the Green Party — that would help it form a majority in the legislature.
Low trust in the candidates and the INE
Corruption has proven a key theme in campaign battles between the parties. Lawyer Miguel Carbonell wrote on his personal blog:
Hemos atestiguado revelaciones sobre el uso irregular de aviones de los candidatos a la gubernatura de Sonora, sobre los contratos arreglados en la delegación Benito Juárez en el DF, sobre el departamento violatorio de la ley en el que vive un candidato a delegado en la Miguel Hidalgo, sobre el extraño incremento de la riqueza inmobiliaria de la familia del gobernador de Nuevo León, sobre el activismo partidista del padre del gobernador de Jalisco (pese a que es funcionario judicial), etcétera.
We have witnessed revelations about the irregular use of airplanes by candidates to the governorship of Sonora, about rigged contracts in the Federal District for the Benito Juárez delegation, about the unlawful apartment where a candidate for delegate at Miguel Hidalgo delegation lives, about the strange expansion of the estate of the family of the governor of Nuevo León.
Carbonell also points out:
La sensación que queda es de profunda decepción. No solamente por ver la mediocridad y la rapacería de nuestra clase política, habitada por personas que claramente están por debajo de lo que podríamos llamar un nivel mediocre, sino también porque no parece haber ningún resorte institucional al que apelar para salir del enorme marasmo en el que vive el país.
Además, si bien es cierto que los problemas parecen crecer día tras día, las campañas no han servido para entrarle en serio a analizar sus posibles soluciones. No sabemos qué piensan hacer nuestros candidatos en los temas que más nos preocupan: la inseguridad pública, el desempleo, los bajos salarios, la deficiente calidad educativa, la falta de oportunidad de los jóvenes, las violaciones de derechos humanos de migrantes, mujeres, personas con discapacidad y demás grupos vulnerables.
The underlying feeling is one of profound deception. Not only due to the mediocrity and pilferage of our political leadership, populated by individuals that are clearly below par, but also because apparently there is not any institutional means to which we can turn to in order to release ourselves from the huge stagnation the country is undergoing.
Besides that, although problems seem to grow day by day, the campaigns have not been useful in seriously analyzing possible solutions. We don't know what are our candidates’ plans about the issues that concern us the most: public insecurity, unemployment, low salaries, poor education, lack of opportunity for young people, violations committed against migrants, women, the human rights of handicapped and other vulnerable groups.
The hopeless political landscape has prompted some opinion leaders to persuade citizens to cast an invalid ballot or to abstain from voting generally.
But academic John Ackerman struck out against that suggestion:
El derecho al voto libre y secreto es un derecho conquistado a lo largo de siglos de luchas populares en contra del poder despótico en todo el mundo. No ejercer este derecho fundamental equivale literalmente a regalar las instituciones del Estado mexicano, nuestras instituciones públicas, a los peores intereses corruptos y apátridas.
Quizás tendría sentido dejarse vencer por la tristeza y la desesperación si realmente no hubiera opción alguna en la boleta electoral, si en verdad todos los partidos fueran “la misma basura”. Pero resulta que en México se encuentra en proceso de construcción una nueva alternativa política que podría ser mucho más poderosa y efectiva que las que hoy existen en Grecia con Syriza o en España con Podemos.
The right to a free and secret vote was earned after centuries of popular struggles against despotic power all over the world. Not exercising this fundamental right equates to literally giving away Mexican state institutions — our public institutions — to the most corrupt and stateless interests.
It might make sense to allow ourselves to be beaten by sadness and despair if there were really no options on the voting ballot, if all the parties were really just the “same rubbish.” But it turns out that Mexico is experiencing the process of building a new political alternative that might be more powerful and effective than the one that exists right now in Greece with Syriza or in Spain with Podemos.
Writing in a similar vein, journalist Leon Krauze shared this reflection:
Prefiero, en cambio, atenerme a la esencia misma de la democracia y recurrir al voto de castigo. En el fondo, la democracia es simple: la ciudadanía recompensa a quien hace bien las cosas y reprueba a quien las hace mal; quien las hace bien tiene futuro como servidor público, y viceversa. Ese es el poder básico, ―y quizá único― del sufragio: el engranaje mismo de la rendición de cuentas. Entiendo que en  México también se ha puesto de moda decir que votar no tiene caso porque “todos son iguales”. El argumento es falso y denota pereza. Pero incluso las diferencias de proyecto de quien contiende de verdad fueran mínimas, el voto seguiría importando. Después de todo, la democracia es un ejercicio de apuesta prospectiva pero también de evaluación retrospectiva. Es importante votar por quien nos entusiasma, pero también en contra de quien nos ha fallado.
On the other hand, I'd rather abide by the essence of democracy and turn to the punishment vote. Basically, democracy is simple: the people reward those who do things right and condemn those who do things wrong; someone who does things right has a future as a public official, and vice versa. That is the basic power — and probably the only power — of voting: the mechanism of accountability itself. I understand in Mexico it has become popular to say that voting is pointless because “they are all the same.” This point is false and denotes laziness. But even if the differences in the platforms of those competing were minimal the vote would still be important. After all, democracy is an exercise in prospective betting, but it is also a retrospective evaluation. It is important to vote for those that enthuse us, but also against those that have disappointed us.
Along with general apathy towards the politicians running, the National Electoral Institute overseeing the vote was severely discredited by the leak of an illegally recorded private conversation where the INE's president, Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, appeared to disparage indigenous leaders. Despite public outrage, the National Council against Discrimination (Conapred) said it couldn't open an investigation because the conversation was illegally obtained and Córdova “offered an apology”.
But notwithstanding the understandably dark mood of voters, soccer fans may have something to cheer once the counting has finished. Along with the seasoned politicians competing for the vote, one-time Mexican football idol Cuauhtémoc Blanco — famous the world over for his inimitable kangaroo hop trick — is running as a candidate to the city hall of Cuernavaca with the Social Democratic Party:
Con Miguel Ángel Muñoz líder de la colonia Benito Juárez me despido y me voy para la Adolfo López Mateos. pic.twitter.com/jY0uK2Word
— Cuauhtémoc Blanco (@CuauhtemocBPSD) May 19, 2015
With Miguel Ángel Muñoz, leader of Benito Juárez district, I sign off and head for Adolfo López Mateos district.

author: J. Tadeo


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Parents Experience Nostalgia as Nintendo Console Enters Textbooks · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Nintendo Family Computer System (Famicom). Image from Wikipedia.
News that the original Famicom Nintendo game console, first released in 1983, is now being taught in Japanese social studies class has sent shockwaves throughout Japanese social media.
A post by Twitter user @moriteppei announcing the news received a stunning 32,000 re-Tweets:
六年生の子が「あ、ファミコンだ！」と言うので「その年で知らんだろ」と言ったら「知ってるよ！社会で習った」と言われる。 ＿人人人人人人人人人人人人＿ ＞　社会で習った！　 ＜ ￣Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y￣ pic.twitter.com/RuTXMWW1q8
— 森哲平 (@moriteppei) May 6, 2015
My daughter is in the sixth grade. When she came across my old console she said “That's a Famicom!” I said, “You're way too young to have ever heard of a Famicom.” And she said, “Of course I know what that is. We learned about it in social studies class!”
WHAT? They're learning about Famicon in SOCIAL STUDIES CLASS???
The original Nintendo game console occupies a special place in Japanese pop culture.
Nearly 62 million of the pioneering electronic gaming consoles, called Famicom in Japanese and marketed as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in English-speaking countries, were sold around the world until production ceased in 1993.
Super Mario Bros. first debuted in Japan on Nintendo's Family Computer System, marketed as NES outside of Japan. Screencap from YouTube user Pikachu upload.
For many Japanese adults in their forties who now have children of their own, the Famicom is a nostalgic reminder of childhood during the optimistic, booming “bubble” years of the affluent 1980s.
Even before @moriteppei's popular Tweet last month, other Twitter users were noticing Famicom's addition to elementary school textbooks in April, at the start of the school year in Japan.
昨日新しくもらってきてた小3の子どもの社会の教科書みてたら。昔のくらしのページにファミコンで遊ぶ子どもの写真のってた…。今の子にとったらファミコンが昔の暮らしなんやね。懐かしいけど遊んだけど。
— ゆり (@swingingYrtm) April 9, 2015
Yesterday my daughter brought home her new social studies textbook. In the section discussing how people lived life in the past there was a photo of kids playing a Famicom game. For kids these days, the Famicom is just part of how people lived once upon a time. It sure is nostalgic…
While parents were nostalgic, they also had to confront the fact that their own childhood in 1980s Japan now looks, from the perspective a child in 2015, “like an ancient relic”:
いや～まじで３年生の社会科の教科書に「ファミコン」が「お父さんお母さんの時代の～」て書かれてて、うんわ～～～～まじか～～～～確かに古いけどまるで遺物写真のように感じてしまってもう昭和ってそうなんか～～～～～
— かじか (@kajikatohituji) May 6, 2015
Wow, Famicom really is described in the Grade 3 textbook as “something from your mother and father's childhood.” I can't believe it. I suppose it was long ago, but the photo [in the textbook] makes the Famicom look like an ancient relic. I guess that's the 1980's looks like to us now.
社会で…習った…？！授業で…？もしかしてベーゴマとかメンコみたいにファミコンも「昔の遊び」扱いされてるの？！
— kga152 (@kga152) May 6, 2015
They're learning about Famicom in… social studies class? Famicom must be being taught as “one of those games kids used to play in the olden days” like playing tops (beigoma) or playing cards (menko).
Kyoto-based Nintendo itself got its start in 1889 making playing cards for children.
Menko playing cards for children, likely from 1920's or 1930's Japan. Image from Wikipedia.
Twitter user @azemin sums up the moment:
ファミコンが社会の教科書に出ているとは。歴史上の出来事になっているとは。当時遊んでいた人々も大袈裟だが、歴史上の人物と同等の扱いになってしまうのか。小学生にとってはファミコンは遊ぶものでは無くて、学校で勉強するもの。すごい時代になったと痛感する。
— azemin (@azemin) May 6, 2015
Famicom has entered the textbooks as a part of our history. I wonder if the people who grew up playing Nintendo may think it's all a little grandiose to treat Famicom with the same status as an historical figure. For elementary school kids, Famicom is not a toy, but something they have to study in school. What amazing times we live in.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Photoblog Documents Eviction of Migrants’ Makeshift Camp in Paris · Global Voices
Suzanne Lehn

“Humanely…”  That is the sarcastic headline of a photoblog that narrates how the French police dismantled and evicted a large makeshift camp of migrants in Paris starting June 2. The camp occupied an open space underneath a railway viaduct near the Porte de la Chapelle in the northern part of the city. By June 6, several dozens of migrants still lacked accommodation.

author: Suzanne Lehn


text:
Protecting South Africa’s President With a Chicken Run, Swimming Pool, Amphitheatre and Sacred Cattle Kraal · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Zuma's compound. Photo by John A Forbes. Released under Creative Commons.
Last year, a report by South Africa's Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that President Jacob Zuma unduly benefited from security upgrades to his Nkandla homestead, which cost tax payers about 250 million rands, or US $25 million. The public protector subsequently asked Zuma to repay part of the money back to the state. She instructed the president and the treasury to work together to arrive at a figure.
However, on May 28 Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko, a Zuma appointee, released his report on Nkandla which found that the firepool/swimming pool, cattle kraal, chicken run, visitor's centre and amphitheatre were valid security features and that he was therefore not liable to pay back any of the money.
The report revealed that the cattle kraal, besides being sacred in Zuma's culture, will prevent animals from triggering motion detectors and causing panic, while the amphitheatre has an important security purpose by serving as an emergency assembly point for Zuma's family. The visitors’ centre in turn provides privacy functions and the firepool/swimming pool is a strategic asset in firefighting.
South Africans expressed shock and anger when they first learned about the upgrades back in 2013.
After the news broke, the government said anyone who published images or footage of the estate would face arrest because they would be breaching the National Key Points Act.
However, South Africa's media defied the ban, with the Times newspaper publishing the photos under the headline “So, Arrest Us.” Many Facebook users used the photos as a cover photo.
It is therefore unsurprising that South Africans consider the police minister's findings far fetched, illogical and even comical.
South African journalist Phillip de Wet noted that during the press briefing, the minister sweated buckets, wiping his face 31 times:
Sometimes it was just his brow, sometimes small wipes to the right of his neck, or to his left cheek. Occasionally he would go for heroic mops of his entire face, pausing ever so slightly in his delivery. It was complemented by the tiny sips of water familiar to anyone who has ever been struck by the peculiar dry mouth syndrome produced by anxiety. Nhleko was not having a good time. Perhaps he was struck by prescience, aware that his Report by the Minister of Police to Parliament on Security Upgrades at the Nkandla Private Residence of the President would make him a laughing stock before that Thursday in late May 2015 was out.
The YouTube video below was played during Nhleko's press briefing:
Technology writer Arthur Goldstuck mocked the quality of the video footage:
When Colin Powell had to lie about #WMD he used animated graphics. For #Nkandla, Nathi Nhleko used home video. Budget cuts are bad for bull.
— Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) June 1, 2015
HEADROOM noted jokingly:
Nothing protects a president like “cattle and goat kraal, chicken coop, cattle culvert, amphitheatre and visitors’ centre” #Zuma 👎🏿
— HEADROOM (@Headroomusic) May 28, 2015
Making reference to allegations of of bribes paid by South Africa to FIFA officials in order to win the right to host the 2010 World Cup, Ryk van Niekerk, the editor of Moneyweb, said:
@ferialhaffajee R120 million got us a World Cup. R250 million got us a fire pool, chicken coop and kraal.
— Ryk van Niekerk (@Ryk_van_Niekerk) June 4, 2015
While another user joked that the alleged FIFA bribes looked justifiable compared to Zuma's security updgrade expenditures:
Mbeki bribed #FIFA with $10 mil and we got 2 see the world's greatest footballers. Zuma spends twice that and he hosts a cattle run #Nkandla
— RedDog (@RedDogRSA) June 7, 2015
Justin Mokgatlhane posed a question to President Zuma:
All I'm hearing from #Zuma is>My house,My pool,My Kraal,My Security. Me..Me..Me..Well Mr Pres, what about us? People u Represent @etvSunrise
— Justin Mokgatlhane (@nothatjustin) May 29, 2015
Are President Zuma's cattle a special breed?:
@ZamaDube.Zuma cows are cheese girls/boys, 1 million kraal?? I am sure they dnt eat grass.Am sure they are communicated to in Isizulu…
— Thato DjATM Rachoene (@SaRaesibe) June 5, 2015
(IsiZulu is Zuma's native language).
Let his cows vote for him, declared Hopper Ponza:
“Zuma , before I vote for my party, let me address you. You must tell your cows for which you built a R1millon kraal to vote for you”.kwaaa
— Hopper Ponza (@ponza_hopper) June 4, 2015
Image of infographic from Eyewitness News showing the differences between the Nkandla reports released by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko.
Jay Naidoo, the chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition and a former Minister in President Nelson Mandela's cabinet, posted an image that sums up the public reaction to the report:
This sums up the public reaction to our #Nkandla debacle. And it's a demand I fully support. pic.twitter.com/j0SxTsaMFZ
— Jay Naidoo (@Jay_Naidoo) May 31, 2015
The YouTube video below demonstrates why a swimming pool is a security feature:
The opposition Economic Freedom Fighter posted:
Shivambu: We pay for everything that Zuma does. WE feed, we dress him, we pay his legal fees. We even pay for his cattle kraal.
— EFF Official Account (@EconFreedomZA) June 4, 2015
While Vusi Khoza showed how ridiculous the expenditure for a cattle kraal is in the context of poverty in South Africa:
CIC: Zuma's cows sleep in a R1 mil kraal whilst our people live in shacks with open toilets.
— Vusi Khoza (@vusumuzikhoza) March 21, 2015
After learning that Zuma's salary was increased recently, Hlaudi Motsoeneng said:
Why should we not pay Honorable Zuma more? After all we already feed him, dress him & have built him a nice house with kraal & chicken run.
— Hlaudi Motsoeneng (@SABC_COO) June 5, 2015
Blogging on the police minister's report, Kamana Balskisson drew a parallel between Nkandla and veganism:
Veganism and Nkandla are proof of society’s faltering non-objective stance in determining right from wrong. Zuma made a ‘personal choice’ to exploit taxpayers and build his lavish home, just like non-vegans make a personal choice to exploit innocent animals. Individual justification is the strongest form of societal rebellion. Attacking Jacob Zuma, and his counterparts, for engaging in greedy behaviour, which we are all accustomed too, is not really solving the underlying issue. Similar to society re-evaluating the extent of animal murder in our modern civilisation, to what extent is luxury consumerism frowned upon in South Africa? Is it ok for us to buy that luxury sports car, shoes, holiday home in spite of the origins of our wealth whilst, millions of others attempt to compete unfairly. Or is it just Nkandla that bothers us? How passionately are we willing to fight against corruption and poverty without acknowledging our own individual lack of action?
Nkandlagate is certainly not over. It is expected that the battle will now move to the courtroom.

author: Ndesanjo Macha