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Global Voices Series Dispatches From Syria Wins Online Journalism Award · Global Voices
Global Voices

We are thrilled to announce that the Global Voices series Dispatches From Syria: Marcell Shehwaro on Life in Aleppo has won a 2015 Online Journalism Award (OJA) in the category of Online Commentary. The win was announced on September 26 at the OJA awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
The series’ writer, Syrian activist Marcell Shehwaro, received strong support from the Global Voices community while crafting the 12-part series, which was started in 2014 and published on our then newly launched section, The Bridge, which features original writing from the unique perspective of our community members around the world.
Marcell's essays were translated from the original Arabic into English by Amira Al Hussaini and Lara Al Malakeh, and edited by Georgia Popplewell. Many members of our Lingua community helped in the subsequent translations into Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, French, Chinese, Korean, and German.
During the award announcement, the judges were quoted as saying that “the writer's intensely personal writing found the gray areas in a war usually told from polar extremes.”
The OJA awards have been honoring excellence in digital journalism around the world since 2000, and are administered by the Online News Association (ONA). Our managing editor Sahar Habib Ghazi accepted the award at the ONA 2015 banquet in Los Angeles.
@SaharHGhazi @Marcellita @JustAmira @georgiap @globalvoices @LaraDaba congrats to these amazing women! so proud of you ❤
— Fernanda Canofre (@fercanofre) September 27, 2015
This #ona15 award winner from @globalvoices exemplifies all the reasons I got into online journalism. http://t.co/5jvgEcB4gF
— Ryan Thornburg (@rtburg) September 27, 2015
Pretty great to see @globalvoices author win #OJA15 #ona15 award
— Tom Glaisyer (@tglaisyer) September 27, 2015
@SaharHGhazi: Driving back to SF with @globalvoices‘ +1 from #ONA15 #OJA15 @Marcellita @JustAmira @georgiap @LaraDaba pic.twitter.com/80cZA8lHrT
— Sahar Habib Ghazi (@SaharHGhazi) September 27, 2015
After learning that the checkpoint where her mother was murdered by Syrian regime soldiers has been obliterated by a bomb, Marcell writes in her nominated piece, “my ability to survive depends upon the death of others…and this is how the murderous regime will ultimately win, regardless of what political change awaits Syria.”
Global Voices’ executive director Ivan Sigal explained the importance and relevance of Marcell's series in the nomination essay that accompanied the ONA submission. Here's an excerpt:
Marcell is part of a community of writers and digital activists who participated in the original nonviolent reform movement in Syria. They are digitally networked journalists and activists closely tied to reform movements in other parts of the Middle East, and their habits of communication and communities are based in the culture of the Internet. As such, Marcell’s work is emblematic of the idea of online journalism – allowing us to hear voices and stories of people who had previously been subjects in the stories of outsiders. Marcell's voice is that of an insider reflecting her experience of the war in Aleppo for a global audience. Against the odds she and her peers continue to insist on the need for human dignity, and on the power of stories about individual lives in the face of extreme violence and geopolitical manipulation.
The framing of Marcell's essays runs counter to a presentation of the Syrian war in which stories about extremism and polarization are emphasized. We rarely hear about the nuances and complexities of the lives of individual Syrians. In her writing, Marcell's voice turns and winds through her days as she struggles to survive and make sense of the collapse of her world, the murder of her mother at a government checkpoint, the dilemmas of her friends and their families, and dreams of a forgone past. She brings us the complexity of Syrian society, showing us the fractures, alliances and impossible choices made by individuals living through war. Her stories again and again shatter the reality of those choices, the knowledge that making them requires people who in normal times might be fair, compassionate and caring to choose violence as a means of security.

author: Global Voices


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Greece’s Latest Transport Deputy Minister Was Too Racist, Homophobic, and Anti-Semitic to Keep His Job · Global Voices
Elaine Rigas

Cabinet members are sworn in for the third cabinet of Alexis Tsipras and the first after his re-election. At the Presidential Mansion in Athens, Greece on September 23, 2015. Minister of Defence Panos Kammenos and State Secretary of Infrastructure Dimitris Kammenos. Photo by Wassilis Aswestopoulos. Demotix (c).
In less than 12 hours after being appointed as deputy minister of Infrastructure and Transport in the newly formed Greek government, Dimitris Kammenos was forced to resign. His term in office is the shortest ministerial tenure in recent Greek history. His resignation was announced on Twitter, following the demands of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who at the time was in Brussels for a summit of European Union leaders about the Syrian refugee crisis.
Μέχρι την απόδειξη της αλήθειας για την υπόθεση των αντισημιτικών ρατσιστικών αναρτήσεων ο υφυπουργός θα διευκολύνει με την παραίτηση του
— Panos Kammenos (@PanosKammenos) septiembre 23, 2015
Until the truth about the case of the anti-Semitic and racist posts is spoken, the deputy [minister] will facilitate the government's work with his resignation.
The reason for the sudden ouster were revelations that, over the past two years, Kammenos published on a now-deactivated Twitter account, @portaporta (“door-to-door”), several racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic remarks.
More than 20,000 tweets in 24 hours sent ex-minister Dimitris #Kammenos home says @protothema (in GR) #PortaPorta https://t.co/yVQrPRpaMJ
— Daphne Papadopoulou (@daphnenews) septiembre 24, 2015
Dimitris Kammenos is a member of the right-wing Independent Greeks party, which is the junior coalition partner to Alexis Tsipras’ leftist Syriza party—a controversial alliance that is gradually becoming a liability for Tsipras, who is now being criticized for failing to vet his ministerial appointments properly.
Everyone knew about Dimitris Kammenos's (aka #portaporta) antisemitic & homophobic slurs – everyone, apart from the PM who appointed him.
— The Greek Analyst (@GreekAnalyst) septiembre 23, 2015
I think @atsipras just won entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the most cynical politician ever. #PortaPorta
— Theodora Oikonomides (@IrateGreek) septiembre 23, 2015
κάποιος να ενημερώνει τον πρωθυπουργό για τουίτς υποψηφίων του νέου κυβερνητικού σχήματος πριν τους υπουργοποιήσει διότι καταφανής ξεφτίλα
— fEmma_fatale (@fEmma_fatale) septiembre 22, 2015
Somebody should inform the Prime Minister about future candidates’ tweets before they're given ministerial duties. This is a phenomenal ridicule.
Among Kammenos’ notorious tweets were insults directed at Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whom he called a criminal. Kammenos cast aspersions on Tsipras’ leftist ideology, as well.
Γιατι ο #portaporta αφου αποκαλεί τον @tsipra εγκληματία κ βρίζει την αριστερά δέχτηκε το υπουργειο; #newgovGR pic.twitter.com/nWXNSAfUDi
— stella_tom (@stellatomm) septiembre 23, 2015
He calls Tsipras a criminal and he insults the leftist ideology. Then why did he accept the ministry?
In another tweet, Kammenos damned to hell any Greek citizens participating in gay pride marches.
Η πετυχεσά στην επιλογή ατόμων ΣΥΝΕΧΙΖΕΤΑΙ! #PortaPorta pic.twitter.com/rg2NbSXubt
— ΚΟΠΡΙΤΗΣ (@KOPRITHS) septiembre 23, 2015
The success in choosing ministers CONTINUES!
Venturing into the land of conspiracy theories, Kammenos also expressed his firm belief that the events of September 11, 2001, were a Jewish plot.
The tweet reads in Greek: “And let's not forget. 2.500 Jews were working at the WTC and on that day not even one came into the office.”
Perhaps the most problematic of all Kammenos’ tweets was a photoshopped image of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, where the German slogan “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work will set you free”) is replaced by the Greek phrase “”Μένουμε Ευρώπη” (“We’re staying in Europe”), which was popularized during Greece's recent referendum period, when some wished to compare the Greek economic crisis to the Holocaust.
Photo caption reads in Greek: “We're staying in Europe they say, at any cost they say, bring us to sign anything they say. I say yes, but they should pay the price first.”
The reaction of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, published on June 24, 2015, was fierce:
The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece expresses the outrage and the repudiation of the Greek Jewry at the shameful photo posted on Facebook by MP Dimitris Kammenos (of the Independent Greeks – ANELL party). The post trivializes in the most hideous way the sign over the gate of Auschwitz. In the photo posted the “We stay in Europe” moto has replaced the world known sign which “welcomed” 1.500.000 Jews who were tortured and exterminated by the Nazis in the gas chambers. We call upon the President of the Greek Parliament and the representatives of all democratic parties to condemn the malevolent trivialization of the Holocaust of the 6 million Jews and all the victims of this barbarity, a trivialization that at the same time downplays the importance of the struggle against Fascism and Nazism in our country. We must not stay indifferent to such phenomena because if our society allows the distortion of the historical truth and memory of the Holocaust, it would have been as if we reopened the gate of Auschwitz to new crimes against humanity.
In an attempt to defend himself, Dimitris Kammenos claimed that not only his Twitter account, but all his social media profiles are handled by a team of 15 people, which has led to numerous hackings and “distortions of the truth.” So far, the public has showed little interest or trust in Kammenos’ explanations and excuses.
Εγώ τον καταλαβαίνω πάντως τον #PortaPorta. Έκανα χθες like σε ένα γκομενάκι,το είδε η γυναίκα μου και της είπα ότι μου χάκαραν το facebook.
— Παρτάλι (@Partalia) septiembre 24, 2015
I must say I fell for him. Yesterday I liked a chick's pic and told my wife they hacked my facebook.
Αλήθεια, αυτός ο Δημήτρης Καμμενος την σκέφτηκε πολύ την δικαιολογία του “με χακαρανε;” πανιβλακας #PortaPorta
— Spiros Fotis Jr.® (@SpirosFotisJr) septiembre 23, 2015
Seriously now, how long did it take him to come up with the “hacking” excuse? Dork.
αρνείται όλα τα ρατσιστικά tweets ο #PortaPorta ,αποδίδοντας τα σε χάκερ.Eπεισε έτσι κάθε δύσπιστο μιας κ οι φασίστες είναι γνωστές κότες.
— Πατήρ Κακόψυχους (@DEADWING1982) septiembre 23, 2015
He denies all racist tweets, claiming he was hacked, convincing every last one in doubt, since fascists are known cowards.
Ιn the era of social media, in which citizens now can raise their voice loudly and visibly against anything unjust and unethical, politicians are no longer the omnipotent and “untouchable” figures they once were after their election.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Elaine Rigas


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Latin American Authors ‘Help’ to Rescue Andean Indigenous Languages · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Titles by Mario Vargas Llosa. Image by Laura on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
An initiative of the Cusco Decentralized Directorate of Culture (DDCC), a part of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, is helping translate the works of several Latin American writers into Quechua, one of the Andean indigenous languages.
Now, Quechua-speaking readers will be able to enjoy books by Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, Colombian Gabriel García Márquez, Uruguayan Juan Carlos Onetti, Argentinian Adolfo Bioy Casares, and Brazilian Clarice Lispector, all available in their native language.
Luis Nieto Degregori, Director of DDCC and a writer from Cusco, said:
Con estas publicaciones en lenguas originarias se da mayor reconocimiento a Cusco y los hablantes, definitivamente estas traducciones otorgan un valor simbólico al quechua y los hablantes deben de dejar de tener vergüenza de expresarse en este idioma.
With these editions in indigenous languages, more acknowledgement is granted to Cusco and its speakers, as these translations definitely give Quechua a symbolic value, and its speakers should no longer be ashamed of expressing themselves in that language.
The titles are expected to be published by mid-November 2015.
According to current estimates, there are about eight to ten milion Quechua language speakers living in South America.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Reflections on the One-Year Anniversary of the Disappearance of Students in Ayotzinapa · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

March against the detention and disappearance of 43 school teachers in Ayotzinapa, in Montevideo, Uruguay, November 17, 2014. Image from Sofia on Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Omar Garcia, also known as “the 44th” for having survived the tragic night of September 26, 2014, when students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College in Ayotzinapa disappeared (and were reportedly killed), posted a message on YouTube just few days before the one-year anniversary of the disappearance.
In his video, he referenced the recent publication authored by the Interdisciplinary Group of Experts that refuted the Mexican government's official version of the night's events, and sought public support so that thousands of others who have disappeared would not be forgotten.
Ya no son dichos, ahora lo están diciendo expertos, lo están diciendo los organizmos internacionales que pudieron revisar el expediente de la PGR y que descubrieron todas las irregularidades (…) Hoy por hoy podemos demostrar que aquí en México gobierna un narco estado.
México no vive, México está muriendo. ¿Cómo vamos a hacer un grito este 15 de septiembre diciendo que tenemos independencia? ¿Independencia de qué? (…)
Ojalá ustedes puedan replicar las acciones globales del 26 de septiembre (…) Ahora el movimiento tiene legitimidad nuevamente. Pensaban que con el tiempo nos iban a derrotar. Pensaban que conforme fueran pasando los meses los padres de familia se iban a quedar callados, se iban a ir para sus casas, pues no.  (…)
Para nosotros la noche del 26 de septiembre no ha terminado.
They're no longer just words, now the experts are saying it, international organizations have been able to review the Attorney General's report and discovered all of the irregularities (…) Today we can show that Mexico is governed by a narco-state.
Mexico doesn't live, Mexico is dying. How can we celebrate our independence this September 15? Independence from what? (…)
I hope you can repeat the global action of September 26 (…) The movement has again proven to be legitimate. They thought they would defeat us over time. They thought that as the months went by, their parents would stay quiet, that they would just go home, but that's not the case. (…)
For us, the night of September 26 hasn't ended.
As Omar mentioned, activists are organizing a global action event, similar to that of November 15, 2014, where thousands came together for what “could be the biggest political action in the history of Mexico.” Among other activities, a national march is being organized for September 26, with plans to march from Los Pinos (the President's official residence) to the Zocalo (the main square) in the capital. Masses of citizens are mobilizing to participate in the events across the country.
Picture of the demonstration, by Valentino Bellini: “365 for the 43. Until the walls know.”
The remembrance events also include cultural activities, such as a photography display telling the story of the missing teachers, titled “365 por los 43. Hasta las paredes saben” (“365 for the 43. Until the walls know”), running from September 19 through October 17 in the Casa del Hijo del Ahuizote, in the country's capital. The photographers want to permit public use of the images so that they are distributed in the streets and posted on walls as a form of public expression. A cart is also set up to distribute the photographs during the September 26 march in Mexico City.
A reflection on the significance of Ayotzinapa, written by journalist and author Federico Mastrogiovanni, accompanies the photographic display. Here are some excerpts from the text:
Trescientos sesenta y cinco días separan a los cuarenta y tres normalistas de Ayotzinapa de nosotros.
A partir del 26 de septiembre de 2014 Ayotzinapa dejó de ser un lugar, para convertirse más bien en una idea, un símbolo. (…)
Desde hace trescientos sesenta y cinco días 26 de septiembre quiere decir desaparición forzada. (…)
Los fotógrafos Valentino Bellini, Brett Gundlock, Giulia Iacolutti, Mauricio Palos y Heriberto Paredes, han documentado con sus imágenes la búsqueda y el dolor, las marchas, la esperanza y la indignación a lo largo de un año.
Pero su trabajo se queda incompleto si las imágenes no generan conciencia, si no invaden los espacios públicos, si no se hacen alimento para la mente. (…)
Para que no siga imperando el olvido y la impunidad.
Three hundred seventy-five days separate us from the 43 school teachers in Ayotzinapa.
On September 26, 2014, Ayotzinapa stopped being a place, and became an idea, a symbol. (…)
For 375 days, September 26 has been equated with forced disappearance. (…)
Photographers Valentino Bellini, Brett Gundlock, Giulia Iacolutti, Mauricio Palos, and Heriberto Paredes have, for the better part of a year, documented the search for truth and the pain, the marches, the hope, and the outrage.
But their work is not complete if the images don't generate a consciousness, if it doesn't invade the public places, if it doesn't feed the mind. (…)
So that forgetfulness and impunity no longer dominate.

author: Elizabeth Rivera


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By Land or By Sea? Refugees Trying to Leave Turkey Face Tough Decisions · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

This is the view from Amer's tent. He is camping outside Istanbul's main bus station with other refugees. They are asking for a safe route to travel to Europe. Credit: Amer Mohammad. Used with PRI's permission
This article and radio report by Angilee Shah for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on September 18, 2015, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Amer Mohammad has a decision to make.
While refugees are camped out, protesting and demanding safe passage from Turkey to Europe, Amer must decide if he will wait and how long he will wait for an answer about his future. The United Nations and the German embassy, he says, have said it could take years for him to get paperwork to move, and there's no guarantee he will actually be allowed to go anywhere — let alone where he wants. In the meantime, he is not allowed to legally work in Turkey.
So he's joined a camp of refugees outside Istanbul's main bus terminal. They have been staging a sit-in for four days and pitched tents in the small green areas around the station. Amer estimates there were about 1,000 people in the camp on the first day; some Turkish media reports say there are now as many as 3,000 people. The refugees, mostly from Syria but also from Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, are looking for a land route to Europe.
Many of them had been traveling by bus to Edirne, on the Greek border. But buses and taxis are refusing to take anyone to the border, and the refugees are effectively trapped. The only other way out is via sea, on a boat from İzmir.
Amer knows that 22 people drowned in the Aegean Sea on Tuesday. He might take the sea route to Europe as well. He feels desperate. Like other refugees, he cannot legally work in Turkey. His fiancée lives in Germany, he says, and he wants to join her there. The camp, he says, is controlled by security and gates. Anyone who leaves is not allowed back in.
“I told my brother, if they don't let us go, we will go to the sea,” Amer says. His brother, who is also staying near the bus station, said it's not worth the risk. “I told him that I will do that for my fiancée. If he wants to stay, he can stay.”
Amer fled Iraq in July 2014, not long after ISIS took control of the city of Ramadi. He was having tea in a garden with his family when the bombings began, destroying the apartment building in front of the house. “I have a piece of the bomb in my leg,” he says.
Like many of the refugees in Turkey, Amer gets a lot of his information on his smartphone, from news articles and discussion groups, where he also shares what he is seeing. We connected with him by phone, Facebook and the Internet chat app, Viber. He asked that we not use his surname to keep his family in Iraq safe and to be sure he does not jeopardize his chances of receiving a visa.
Amer connected with us using his smartphone, but he spends many hours keeping it charged. There is just one charging station for the people who are camping outside Istanbul's main bus station, and Amer says it takes an hour to charge his phone halfway. Credit: Amer Mohammad. Used with PRI's permission
After arriving in Ankara, Amer registered with the UN as a refugee. He says they told him it would take until 2020 for his family to get an appointment to even be considered to be able to leave Turkey. He traveled first with his parents and two of his brothers. Two of his sisters and their families joined later. They were placed in Samsun, over 400 miles from Istanbul on the northern coast. But Amer wanted to get to Germany, so he and his brother struck out for Europe.
Another sister remains in Iraq with elderly relatives in Haditha, which has been an ISIS battleground since July.
The UN Refugee Agency says there are almost 2 million refugees from Syria in Turkey, almost half of the total number of refugees they are tracking in the region. Tens of thousands more are, like Amer, from other countries such as Iraq, Iran or Pakistan.
Another option for Amer is to wait for his appointment next April to apply for a German visa. He will need a long paper trail to show his relationship with his fiancée and his personal history, but getting the correct documents is very difficult when the offices in the city where he lived in Iraq are no longer functional. He doesn't think he can wait for an uncertain outcome. He is 25 and wants to have a life. In Iraq, before ISIS took control in the west, he got a college degree in chemistry and he and his family had good jobs.
“Because of this war, we don't have jobs. We don't have resources, you know,” he says. In Turkey, he's tried to take grueling construction jobs to make money under the table, but the conditions are poor and, without permission to work, refugees are often shortchanged by employers. He hesitates to talk about his future.
“Really, I don't know what to do. I like computers very much. I like chemistry and medicine,” Amer says.
But to start, he just wants to be with his fiancée. They met while in school in Iraq in 2010, then she went to Germany to study. She still has one year of her education to go. She and Amer have been trying to be together for a long time, he says.
They've talked about going elsewhere, but Amer says that when he sees the comments on news stories online, he thinks that Arabs are not welcome in many countries. “Ninety percent of the comments — they hate us. They think we are terrorists. Or we are coming to steal jobs from them,” he says.
Near the bus station, refugees rely on a mosque to charge their cell phones and have meals when they can. But there isn't enough food and water for everyone, Amer says. Authorities, he says, will not allow any deliveries into the camp, but many refugees do not want to disperse until they have a way to get to Greece. The Turkish Red Crescent said by email that it has distributed 3,000 units of water, 700 blankets as well as food to a camp that has sprung up in Edirne.
The governor of Edirne province said on Thursday that if the refugees there do not disperse within three days, they would like to send them to their home countries or to refugee camps in Turkey. For Amer this is not an option. Refugee camps, he says, are terrible places. Especially for families.
“We will not be in a camp. We can't be in a camp. We will not let them,” he says. Amer says someone approached him about swimming to a Greek island; he thought about it and researched, but decided it would be too risky. But he still thinks that he might board a boat, and leave his family in Turkey. If he can find someone trustworthy to help him go.
“I know it's dangerous. I don't have many things to lose. Maybe my family will lose me. I know that maybe I will not arrive. I will not make it.”
Amer keeps a flash drive in his pocket. He likes computers and graphic design. But this particular hardware has a much more macabre purpose: It holds all of his identifying information and letters to his family and friends in case his journey kills him.
“It's a message to the person who found my body. I don't know, I'm crazy.”
Winter is coming, which will make sea travel impossible soon. For the forseeable future, he says he will stay with the other refugees in Istanbul, “whatever the end, good or bad.”
“I don't know what to do. Really. Even my enemy, I don't hope for him to be in my position.”

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
Miles to Go Before They Rest: Voices from the Croatia-Serbia Border Crossing · Global Voices
Caoimhe Butterly

PHOTO: Marcelo Baglia. Used with permission.
A few kilometres from the small Serbian border town of Sid, a dirt track through corn and turnip fields serves as a passage for tens of thousands of women, men and children seeking refuge and lives of greater possibility. The unofficial border crossing between Serbia and Croatia is surrounded by verdant, sun-lit fields, with apple orchards in the distance and a calm that brings temporary respite to those who have been on the road for weeks, or months. For a moment, the travelers manage to put aside the threat of militarised borders and the recent memory of dehumanising conditions along the way as they stop to drink freshly pressed apple cider handed out by a local farmer, chat, and rest before they continue on.
Parents carry small children in their arms, toddlers on hips, and on their backs rucksacks containing possessions salvaged from lives interrupted. Narin, a teacher from Mosul, hesitates as she and her group of survivors, Iraqi Yazidis and Kurds, approach the lone border police car stationed at the point where a corn field in Serbia becomes, a few metres onwards, a corn field in Croatia. “Every step away from Iraq, from the massacres of our people and those we left behind, has been so difficult,” she says. “This seems too easy—we’ve forgotten what it is like to feel safe.”
Fatima, pregnant with her third child, arrives exhausted, but despite the heat, dust and distance reminisces about family excursions to her parents’ village in Syria. Mohammed Ali, her three-year-old son, runs ahead. He’s wearing flip-flops, shorts and an over-sized vest, dragging behind him an over-stuffed blue unicorn given to him by volunteers at another border crossing. “He never lets go of that unicorn,” Fatima says. “He feeds it and sleeps next to it and tells it stories about our journey”.
Mahmoud, a Palestinian student from Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, holding the hand of his young nephew, says: “This is our fate. We are experiencing what our grandparents and parents experienced. But with each generation, each exile, we are being scattered further away from home”.
Later, during the seven hours spent waiting in the heat for their names to be registered by comparatively sympathetic Croatian border police, Mahmoud sings songs of loss, struggle and love to those sitting around him.
Starting at sunrise, the buses arrive, bringing a continuous flow of those seeking refuge from a multitude of situations involving war and conflict, persecution and general precariousness. A constant amongst them all, however, is the sense of dislocation and often vulnerability, expressed in words and questions and requests for reassurances, in the tensing of shoulders and tight inhalations of breath as painful memories from the past—both distant and recent—are recalled.
Kamaal and Sabiha, a middle-aged Kurdish couple from Mosul are accompanied by their cousin, the dignified Jamaal, who struggles down the dirt road on crutches. Kamaal had been in hospital recovering from a heart attack when Mosul was taken over by ISIS over a year ago. He, Sabiha and their eldest son rushed home to find their home ransacked and their four teenage children gone, including their thirteen-year-old daughter. They stayed on in Iraq searching for them for almost a year before leaving, in the hopes that perhaps their search will be more effective from the outside. As we walk Sabiha begins to cry. Her husband puts his arms around her, his own shoulders heaving. Later they cross the border arm in arm, Jamaal limping beside them.
The young, the elderly, those in wheelchairs carried by friends and family, the wounded, families, solo travelers, young couples holding hands disembark from buses in one quiet border town in Serbia and travel the next few kilometres on foot into another quiet border town in Croatia. From there, in the degrading, exhausting chaos of the weather-exposed Tovarnik train station, the better organised and welcoming volunteer-run rest-camp next to it, or in a recently established government-run processing camp, they will wait long days for transport that will hopefully take them a step closer to their final destinations—and to the extended family, friends or support networks that await some of them there.
Later, as night begins to fall, those arriving voice apprehension and doubt. The path is unmarked except for the presence of a handful of volunteers, and those walking now seek reassurance that the path and its surroundings really have been cleared of land mines, that they will not be detained, that they will not encounter police brutality, accounts of which have filtered back from those who were stranded in Horgos and Roszke at the Hungarian border.
Beneath a striking, star-filled night sky, Khalid, a 77-year old Circassian great-grandfather from Quneitra accompanied by his extended family, walks with a walking stick and politely refuses our offers of help with the large bag he carries on his back. “Continue to trust yourselves and each other,” he advises fellow travellers. “We are strong and will face whatever difficulties lie ahead of us as we have faced everything else on this journey.”
A group of Eritrean women and a lone traveler from Congo share a bag of oranges among themselves. “We have travelled from further away and are more used to the hardships of travelling and to walking long distances,” says Mariam, a 22-year old nursing student. “We are young and strong but it is so difficult to see how all these children suffer.”
A young Iraqi boy pleads with his father, who is already carrying his younger brother and their luggage, to carry him. His feet, like those of many others, are blistered and raw, every step painful. He sobs and begs and then cries silently as his father apologetically pulls him onwards, worried that the border might close, leaving them stranded. We take the boy to the medical tent and hurriedly dress and bandage his feet. Then they continue on into the night.
Zaynab and Mustafa, two children in wheelchairs, are ferried through the fields with their families in a volunteer’s van. Mustafa’s mother speaks of the difficulties they’ve faced over the past weeks. The overloaded rubber dinghy in which they crossed the Aegean Sea to Lesvos had begun to sink, and in order to keep it afloat for the final few hundreds of metres to shore they were forced to get rid of any excess weight they could by throwing their possessions overboard. She had to convince their fellow passengers to make an exception for Mustafa’s heavy wheelchair. Sleeping on the streets and in temporary camps makes keeping him clean impossible. “I feel like I am failing him,” she says. “I cannot change or bathe him regularly, and he feels very embarrassed when I have to do so without privacy.”
Rima, a young law student from Aleppo, Syrian, and a mother herself, accompanies 8-year old Hiba, recently orphaned. Hiba’s remaining family live in Sweden and are awaiting her. She looks around, wide-eyed, at the hundreds of people walking with them through the fields. The stars above and thin crescent moon are insufficient to light up the path, and the walkers rely on the lights of mobile phones to help them stay together as certain family members slow down, exhausted from their travels and the hundreds of kilometres many of them have already covered on foot.
For many of those making the crossing, the journey is far from over, and they are acutely aware of the heavily securitised borders to be crossed, the humiliating conditions they’ll still have to endure. But the resilience, courage and strength of those seeking refuge is immeasurable, as they walk through these fields, down the roads and through the borders that will take them towards hoped-for possibilities that allow them to rebuild lives of dignity.
Caoimhe Butterly is an Irish organiser, migrant justice activist and post-graduate student. She has spent fourteen years working with social movements and community development projects in Latin America, the Arab world and elsewhere.

author: Caoimhe Butterly


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Pussy Riot Performance in Banksy’s Dismaland Highlights Plight of Refugees · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Punk group Pussy Riot perform in a cage on stage at Dismaland. Photo by Vianney Le Caer for Pussy Riot.
Pussy Riot, the Russian punk collective whose members have spent time in prison for singing a song critical of President Vladimir Putin in an Orthodox cathedral, staged a poignant performance piece for the closing day of Dismaland, a UK-based temporary dystopian “bemusement park” created by graffiti artist Banksy in the seaside town of Weston-Super-Mare.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, two of Pussy Riot's frontwomen, are now better known as political activists advocating for the rights of prisoners in Russia, having founded the MediaZona project monitoring human rights abuses in Russia's penal system. Their September 26 performance at Dismaland was also human rights-flavored—but this time, they called attention to the plight of the many refugees from countries like Syria, currently seeking a safe haven in Europe.
Hey yo! In a couple hours we will be with a very, very violent set and a special message at #Banksy‘s #Dismaland pic.twitter.com/r4pgrfxl8E
— Pussy Riot (@pussyrrriot) September 25, 2015
The performance, staged by Pussy Riot in collaboration with British art collective The Connor Brothers, featured a song called “Refugees In,” meant to show solidarity with those seeking shelter in times of crisis. The music was the soundtrack to a truly epic theatrical production featuring actors dressed as protesters and police engaged in a struggle, and the Pussy Riot performers in cages, sporting their trademark colorful balaclavas.
Pussy Riot rehearsal. London, UK | September 24, 2015 #pussyriot #nadyatolokno #banksy #dismaland #riotpolice #streetart #performance #activism #concert #punkrock #streetphotography #dissidence #lensculture #fotomobile #huffpostgram #reportagespotlight #instapassport #photooftheday #whprhythm #travelgram #igtravel #photojournalism #reportage #documentary  #London  #instalondon #Londoners #thisislondon #londonlife  #anotherdayattheoffice
A photo posted by Vianney Le Caer (@vlecaer) on
Выступление Pussy Riot в парке Бэнкси выглядит примерно вот так pic.twitter.com/cXWaN8PTqe
— группа война (@gruppa_voina) September 25, 2015
Pussy Riot's performance in Banksy's park looks something like this.
У нас тут так… pic.twitter.com/mLwlOPBky4
— Ilya Varlamov (@varlamov) September 25, 2015
This is what it's like here…
Members of Pussy Riot said they intend to continue showing their support for refugees from countries with repressive political regimes. “Regardless of one's political views, we have a moral duty to offer refuge to people fleeing war and persecution,” Pussy Riot said in a statement to the press. “We recognize the challenge faced by Europe in accepting hundreds of thousands of displaced people, but this is more than a political challenge—it is a humanitarian crisis and as such, we must act together and rise to the challenge.”
Video of the performance, captured by Russian journalist Ilya Varlamov, gives a taste of the spectacle.
Pussy Riot told reporters that the Dismaland show was only the beginning of their refugee activism. In October, together with their collaborators The Connor Brothers, the collective intends to visit the “jungle” refugee camp in Calais, France (the timber and fixtures from the Dismaland park are also headed to Calais to help build shelters for refugees).
Having experienced persecution during the 2 years we spent in a Russian prison and after repeated attacks by Russian authorities, we feel solidarity with those who suffer under oppressive regimes, and believe we have a moral duty to pressure governments into developing a united and comprehensive plan that puts humanity before politics.
The punk troupe also performed three other songs and dedicated their Dismaland performance to the memory of late Lyonya Ye****ty (F*cked Up Lyonya), the member of a fellow Russian art group “Voyna” (War), who died in an accident earlier in September.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Serbian Journalists Harassed by Police While Reporting on Controversial Belgrade Construction Site · Global Voices
Danica Radisic

Istinomer journalists being confronted by municipal police officers. Screenshot of Istinomer video.
A group of journalists were stopped and harassed by police in Serbia on Friday, September 25 while they attempted to film a report on a controversial waterfront construction project that will house multiple luxury hotels and condominiums along Belgrade's Sava River.
A videographer in the group discreetly captured on film the tense moment when Belgrade municipal police ordered them to leave the site. The journalists, who work for Serbian political analysis and news site Istinomer (“Truth-meter”), later received citations for “interfering with duties of [police] officials by entering the construction site.”
The video shows two police officers approaching the journalists. One of the journalists shows their press identification, along with their personal identification, explaining that they are preparing to film an interview on the site. The officers tell them that they are on a private construction site and must leave. The journalists point out that there are no signs indicating private property or a construction site. The officers agree that they cannot see one either. Minutes later, they are joined by three more municipal officers, who again ask the journalists to leave. One of the journalists says they are willing to leave if they are given a reason to leave the site.
One of the officers then asks the cameraman filming to put away his gear, saying that the “site is unstable” and he has a “feeling the gear will be damaged.” When the cameraman says that the gear is fine where it is, the police officer repeats, “I have a feeling something is going to happen to it. Trust me.” Upon hearing this, journalist Vesna Radojević tells the officer to “leave our gear alone” and says she will call the regular state police. The municipal police officers then ask for everyone's identification and begin writing citations.
At one point, the photographer in the group takes out his camera, puts a lens on it, and is then dragged away by police after refusing to put the camera away.
Istinomer posted an uncut version of the video to YouTube and Facebook.
This is not the first time independent journalists have run into trouble reporting on the Belgrade Waterfront project since it was first announced in 2014.
The project, a joint undertaking worth 3.5 billion Euros between the Serbian government and Emirati investors, is a luxury construction project that aims to improve Belgrade's cityscape and economy by revitalizing a run-down stretch of land on the right bank of the Sava river. It includes high-end business and retail space, luxury apartments, eight hotels, a shopping mall and a 220-meter monumental tower.
In a country with an average net salary of less than 500 dollars per month and in a city that is by no means among the most popular for luxury travelers or expats, many have wondered who will be purchasing the high-end real estate when it goes on sale in October 2015.
Various local and international architects have drawn attention to the dangers and “impossible conditions” of building such a large-scale project on the riverbank. In March 2015, the Academy of Architecture of Serbia called for putting an “urgent stop” to the Belgrade Waterfront project, indicating several points where the project could present both structural and logistical dangers to the city, the river, and those residing in the buildings.
Aside from the controversy around structure and safety, several independent journalists, experts, and organizations have been bothered by the lack of fiscal transparency related to the massive government-operated construction project. Transparentnost Srbija, the official Serbian branch of Transparency International, wrote a document listing “Concerns and questions regarding Belgrade Waterfront” in March 2015:
Since analysis of profitability of this business model weren't made, nor were they subjected to verification of the Commission for Public Private Partnership, it is important to inform the public when the contract will be signed, whether there are controversial questions in negotiations and what are the risks and expenses that state will take over in this case.
These questions regarding details of the tax-funded investment and the bidding procedures remain unanswered, and the state contract with the foreign investors has not been made public.
As the delayed construction was finally set to begin in late September, journalists took a renewed interest in the project. This latest confrontation between Istinomer's journalists and municipal police will most likely only intensify journalists’ scrutiny of the project.

author: Danica Radisic


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Spartathlon, Where the Noble Spirit of Athleticism Humbly Prevails · Global Voices
Elaine Rigas

A sign near the Spartathlon venue. Photo by Sarah Murray on Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Οn 25th and 26th of September the small town of Sparta in Greece held its 33rd annual Spartathlon race, an ultramarathon where runners depart from the Acropolis hill in Athens and, taking a route that passes through Corinth, Nemea, Lyrkia, Mount Parthenio, Nestani and Tegea, eventually arrive in front of the statue of Leonidas in Sparta. Although this ultramarathon is less known than the Marathon Race, every year hundreds of athletes gather from every part of the world in order to participate and compete. This year, of the total of 387 runners who participated, 174 athletes managed to reach the finishing line.
The history that inspired the race
In 490 BC during the Battle of Marathon, an Athenian messenger named Pheidippides was sent to Sparta in order to seek help in a struggle against the Persians.
While still in the city, the generals first sent to Sparta the herald Pheidippides, an Athenian and a long-distance runner who made that his calling. […] This Pheidippides was in Sparta on the day after leaving the city of Athens, that time when he was sent by the generals…
Herodotus. Histories. Translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920
Monument in Sparta with names of Spartathlon winners. Image taken from Wikipedia.
The above passage in Herodotus‘ Histories made British Royal Air Force Wing Commander John Foden—a philhellene, a student of ancient Greek history, and a long-distance runner—wonder in surprise if in modern days a human could actually succeed in departing from Athens and reaching Sparta by running a distance of 246 kilometers in just two days.
In 1982, Foden arrived in Athens along with a team of four other RAF colleagues in order to officially recreate and run Pheidippides’ route as closely as possible to Herodotus’ historical description. On the 9th of October, 1982, after having run for 36 hours, John Foden and two of his colleagues reached the finishing point, the statue of Leonidas in Sparta, proving that a human could indeed cover such a distance in the allotted time period.
Foden's success led to the establishing of “The Spartathlon”, which has been described as the world's “most grueling race,” as the official site of the marathon explains:
[It] runs over rough tracks and muddy paths (often it rains during the race), crosses vineyards and olive groves, climbs steep hillsides and, most challenging of all, takes the runners on the 1,200 meter ascent and descent of Mount Parthenio in the dead of night. This is the mountain, covered with rocks and bushes, on which it is said Pheidippides met the god Pan. In 2,500 years man has had no impact at all. There is still no pathway over the mountain that is swept by strong winds with temperatures as low as 4°C.
#Greece – Statue of Pheidippides (Philippides) – Inspiration behind the 26-mile #Marathon and 153-mile #Spartathlon pic.twitter.com/G4UpBfLeTe
— John Trikeriotis (@spartanwarriors) May 27, 2015
The ideal of participation
The race is held on the last Friday of September at 7:00 am, since Herodotus in his narration places the event near that time of the year. The aim is to cover the course within the 36-hour limit, passing through 75 cut-off time checkpoints in total. Ultrarunners from Europe, America, Canada, Japan and Australia train for years to get fit enough to participate, but the marathon tests even the finest athletes’ limits.
Near the final stages, when extreme fatigue gets the best of them, the runners are often known to hallucinate and lose all sense of time and reality. Many describe it as “running on auto-pilot,” not having total control of their body. Only 1/3 of the participants on average actually finish the race. The video documentary below shows the exhaustion and commitment of the athletes running the Spartathlon:
But despite all the difficulties, long-distance runners from all over the world dream of participating in the marathon and train hard to meet the race's demands.
Questo è un mio SOGNO! Ma non so se mai riuscirò a tentare la sfida. ATENE – SPARTA: 246 km #running #SPARTATHLON pic.twitter.com/d99EE1abjS — Triatleta per Caso (@federicoloche) May 19, 2015
This is my dream! But I do not know if I will ever face the challenge. Athens—Sparta: 246 km
Dream place at #spartathlon secured. Still on cloud 9 :-) Total focus, total commitment – can't wait!
— Ian Thomas (@UltraIan) March 15, 2015
One day..Soon, inshallah #Spartathlon #246km pic.twitter.com/1aYSJNpgY4
— D (@dalsdas) June 19, 2015
Check! Finished my last hot yoga practice before #Spartathlon today. Training for heat and humidity in Iceland is challenging! — Stephen P. Bustos (@SPB007) September 18, 2015
Sunset in Athens. One more sleep! #spartathlon pic.twitter.com/RPmZnUWW2v — Thomas Bubendorfer (@tfbubendorfer) September 24, 2015
Becoming legends
Yannis Kouros, the winner of the first Spartathlon in 1983, who participated four times in total and won first place every time, holds the marathon's time record till this day (20:25:00, 20 hours and 25 minutes) and is featured in the short film “Forever Running.”
When asked how he achieved the impossible, Kouros answered:
When other people get tired, they stop. I DON'T. I take over my body with my mind. I tell it that it's not tired and it listens.
The Spartathlon winner for 2015 was Florian Reus from Germany, last year's and 2013's runner-up.
Leader of the Race Florian Reus – Germany #Spartathlon pic.twitter.com/tEcMbI7M40
— Radsport (@radsportnews) September 25, 2015
Finishing in fourth place, Katalin Nagy from the United Kingdom set a new women's record.
What a performance! Katalyn Nagy sets a new women record in 25.07.13 4th overall ! #spartathlon pic.twitter.com/LnemVXzaDi
— Advendure (@Advendure_Net) September 26, 2015
Thirty Greek athletes reached the finishing point of the 2015 Spartathlon, with Nikolaos Petropoulos being the first to touch the statue of Leonidas.
2 times winner in our race Nikos Petropoilos just finished the #spartathlon as 1rst Greek athlete #12 overall pic.twitter.com/hUcWPMluW0
— Rout 100 Miles (@Rout100miles) September 26, 2015
Dimitris Koutios shows us his human side as he finishes at 34:30. He is now a Spartathlete! #spartathlon pic.twitter.com/dsVMk71wND
— Advendure (@Advendure_Net) September 26, 2015
Among the finishers were the two Spartan participants, Giannis Dimopoulos and Christos Masouras, making their hometown particularly proud of their achievement.
Giannis Dimopoulos on the road to his personal victory. Image from his Facebook page.
Masouras the Spartan and Spiros Pappas together in 35.10 #spartathlon pic.twitter.com/K47shEyLCs
— Advendure (@Advendure_Net) September 26, 2015
Ultrarunners, their relatives, and friends shared their joy and experience on Twitter, sending the profound message that this race is about friendship and peace as well, where religious, racial or any other type of discrimination has no place:
5.10am and we start the return to Athens pic.twitter.com/vjxEP83jjT
— Mimi (@Marvellousmimi) September 27, 2015
A running superstar! @UltraRunDMC finishing @SPARTATHLO #spartathlon pic.twitter.com/3ACYpbtzoV
— Antonia Johnson (@PetiteFeetRun) September 26, 2015
The British squad ready for #spartathlon @SpartathletesUK pic.twitter.com/w7fmDAsQ5M — Debbie MartinConsani (@UltraRunDMC) September 24, 2015
Janne Klasila 8th pos in #spartathlon sets a new Finnish record in 26.23 pic.twitter.com/Z4V1i355Gm — Advendure (@Advendure_Net) September 26, 2015
Huge congratulations to Dan and the Lawson family for their race and perseverance. True Spartathletes #spartathlon pic.twitter.com/KVjzCzsL0c
— Advendure (@Advendure_Net) September 26, 2015
Awesome run by Henrik Westerlin at #Spartathlon in Greece – 6th with 26:19 for 153 miles. That's race is tough as hell. #SharmanUltra
— Ian Sharman (@sharmanian) September 27, 2015
Kept the best one for the end, one of the most beautiful and romantic moments:
A first for the books!!!! He proposed after finishing the #spartathlon This wedding will last forever! pic.twitter.com/9pVwu3pbyA
— Advendure (@Advendure_Net) September 26, 2015
During Spartathlon, each athlete confronts his own strength and limits, a personal experience in which, even upon fulfillment, words fail to describe the grandeur of all the emotions. There is no cash prize in the race. All runners are aware of this, and yet run for the ultimate prize of glory and the satisfaction of making it till the end. They win a humble olive crown, as well as applause of appreciation and respect from the Spartans as they become Pheidippides’ successors. Spartathlon is a supreme physical and spiritual struggle, a struggle of pure values, as imposed and inspired by the ancient spirit of noble competition and respect towards the goal and one's fellow athletes.


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Text-to-Speech Software Teaches How to Pronounce Words in Quechua on Social Media · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

The logo for Hinantin, a project developing software that fosters the use of Quechua, an indigenous language used increasingly less. Used with permission.
A Peruvian research group has developed a text-to-voice software application that is able to transform Quechua phrases into speech, which they then broadcast through social networks such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
Cusco-based Hinantin, in Peru, specializes in research and software development in computing linguistics, and has been working to promote the usage of Peruvian indigenous languages, as the number of people actively speaking them is decreasing.
Global Voices spoke with Richard Castro, one of Hinantin's founding members, who explained that this is the first of several software projects related to the Quechua language, such as the Cusco Quechua text-to-voice converter that can automatically transform text into speech, the online spelling checker, and a plug-in for the LibreOffice text editing suite.
The text-to-speech converter project in particular takes a Quechua phrase or word of the day and, using an audio player, transforms text into sound and broadcasts the audio through social networks. The project's Instagram account also posts images with the word of the day and its meaning in different languages. The audio clips are also archived on SoundCloud, as seen here with the voice version of the word wayra, the Quechua for “wind”:
In this video on YouTube, Hinantin teaches its viewers how to pronounce the word maywa, the Quechua for “purple”:
The software was developed based on a corpus (a collection) of text and audio samples for Quechua. The project is focused on Cusco, Puno, and Lima Quechua, as the translators in charge of this stage of the process hail from those regions. People who lend their voices for the audios each use their own ways of speaking, although the writing system used to present the audio for videos and podcasts is that of Southern Quechua.
Each translator is able to use a writing system of their choice, as the texts introduced to the system are automatically adapted to Southern Quechua. Members of the project compare the translations with available automatic translators for Quechua to check for flaws and advantages.
One of the purposes of the corpus of text and audio samples is to use it in teaching the Quechua language through an electronic platform called RunaSimi. For this purpose, project contributors have created a special subgroup of the text and audio corpus.
The group behind Hinantin also contributes to the development of other indigenous language support programs related to Quechua, Asháninka, and Aymara languages.
Since indigenous languages are part of Peruvian cultural heritage, their assessment and use are inherent in the policies promoting diversity and intercultural exchange. According to current estimates, the country has over 50 living native languages, as well as many others that are already considered extinct. The Peruvian Ministry of Culture has compiled the Indigenous Languages National Document, with official figures about each language and its speakers. The document also contains information on where to learn these indigenous languages and a statistical map featuring audio of indigenous or native tongues.


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Kazakhstani Textbooks Send Local Patriots and Ukraine into a Tantrum (Clue: It’s About Crimea) · Global Voices
Ayim Abdyrasulova

Whose bit of land is this anyway? Map of Crimea. Wikipedia image.
Kazakhstan is in a spot of hot water over its approval of geography textbooks slated for secondary schools in the Central Asian country that show Crimea as part of Russia rather than Ukraine.
Not surprisingly, the textbooks, which were printed by the local publishing house Mektep, quickly caught the attention of both the Kazakh public and Ukraine, neither of whom were impressed.
While the Ukrainian embassy in Kazakhstan duly bashed out a note of protest on September 25, patriotic Kazakhs have pointed out the parallels between Crimea — populated mostly by ethnic Russians — and northern Kazakhstan, where much of the vast, steppe-dominated country's own Russian population lives.
On top of effectively acknowledging Russia's annexation of the peninsula in 2014, the textbook series provides a controversial explanation regarding Crimea's accession to Russia, which does not mention the fact that most countries in the world — including Kazakhstan — have not formally recognized the move.
In its defense of the series, Mektep say that people should learn to accept the new geopolitical reality. Kazakhstan has said the textbooks will undergo “expertise”, but has given no indication it will recall or alter them.
While Kazakhstan has officially recognized the territorial integrity of Ukraine from the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, it has also tried to avoid direct criticism of Russia, an important neighbour and ally.
And if diplomacy is one difficult line to tread for Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his subordinates, another is the juxtaposition of potential separatist sentiment among the Russians living in the country's north, and anti-Moscow sentiment among Kazakh nationalists.
One commenter on the Kazakh service of RFE/RL, Azzatyq, asked whether the creators of the geography textbooks would take the same pragmatic stance towards international law in the event of the annexation of northern Kazakhstan:
Как бы расценили, интересно, господа горе-историки вопрос о присоединениии Северных областей РК к РФ. Естественно, референдум поддержал бы на 80% присоединение. А ГосДума ратифицировала. Сказали ли бы эти историки нейтрально: “По решению референдума Н месяца Н года часть территорий Сев. Казахстана присоединилась к РФ. Никакой политики. Референдум был? Был. Парламент ратифицировал? Да.”
У нас исторической науки нет, одна политика. Разогнать бы этих “историков”-марионеток!
Interesting – how would those goofy academics consider the issue of the annexation of the northern provinces of Kazakhstan by Russia? Of course a referendum for such an accession would be supported by 80% of population. And the Russian State Duma would then ratify it. Would those academics then say: according to the results of referendum N of month N in year N, several parts of northern Kazakhstan joined Russia. Was there a referendum? Yes. Did the parliament ratify it? Yes, it did.
Politics swallows everything in this country, even history. Let us rid ourselves of these puppet-historians!
The discussion continued on Facebook, where Ulan Dzhumaliev asked:
Кто признал Крым субъектом России? Если Назар приказал это признать, то это его проблемы. Вокруг то никто не признал. Завтра север Казахстана начнет возникать о вхождении в России и что тогда?
Who has recognized Crimea as a subject of Russia? If Nazarbayev ordered recognition, then this is his problem. No one else around has recognized [Crimea as part of Russia]. If tomorrow the north of Kazakhstan will rise up and join Russia, what then?
Alexey Koshtura tried to defend Russian policy and condemn people who call the annexation of Crimea an occupation:
с каких пор она окупирована россией?вы были там что бы говорить такое.поезжайте отдохните пообщайтесь с местным населением.она провели референдум.народ проголосовал за присоединение к россии.какая нахрен окупация?
Why do you say [Crimea] was occupied by Russia? Have you been there to say it? Go for a holiday there and talk to local people there. They had a referendum. People voted for re-unification with Russia. What occupation are you talking about?
A famous Kazakh nationalist Facebook page Qazaq Horde reacted to the scandal the day it broke on September 23:
Shame to the publishing house Mektep! Do not teach our children to approve a crime condemned by all of the civillized world!
The publishing house Mektep which produces textbooks for secondary schools in Kazakhstan, marked Crimea as a part of Russia in three of its textbooks for Kazakh schools.
The occupation and annexation of Crimea does not conform to international legal norms, and has not received support from either Ukraine or much of the world. We demand to remove textbooks that justify the crime from schools! No to the support of separatism!
Then, in a more virulently anti-Russian post, Qazaq Horde publishes a video that shows Nazarbayev with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko talking about the 1996 Budapest Memorandum, an agreement between Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and the permanent members of the UN Security Council to respect mutual territorial sovereignty.
“Vatnik” [derogatory term for pro-Kremlin enthusiasts] textbooks for schoolchildren are already being published in Kazakhstan, in which Crimea, occupied by “Putler” [derogatory term likening Russian President Vladimir Putin to Hitler] and his followers, is recognised as “a subject of Russia”. Don't our stupid authors understand Kazakhstan and Ukraine are in the same boat? Territorial integrity was guaranteed to both us and the Ukrainians in exchange for our nuclear weapons. And last year Putler, the sneaky pilferer and instigator, cynically violated this mutual treaty.
What is death to Ukrainians will be death to us too.
This is why we are for Ukraine.
Watch and share this video.
Famous Kazakhstani journalist Sergei Duvanov, known for a series of muckraking articles about President Nazarbayev and other high-level officials from Kazakhstan known as Kazakhgate, supported Ukraine's response to the textbooks’ appearance and doubted the loyalty of their authors to the state of Kazakhstan.
The note [of Ukrainian government] is justified. If Astana [Kazakhstan] claims it supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine, than why the rush to create such textbooks where Crimea is marked as a subject of the [Russian Federation]?
Taking into account the niceties of the situation it would be enough to mention [in the textbooks] that such a decision was made by Russia unilaterally and has not been recognized by the international community. There would be no scandal then.
However, the textbook was written by our ideological Vatniki, who did not even think about that. For these authors the idea “Crimea is ours” is like the Lord's prayer — it has reached some sort of sacredness. It was knocked into them by Russian propaganda and consolidated by the loyalty of Akorda [the Office of the Kazakh President] to Russia.
There are specific people who promote the propaganda and imperial policy of Moscow openly. People who are working for the promotion of Putin's “Russian World” into the minds of Kazakh children. In my opinion, this is ideological sabotage.
It will be interesting to see if Kazakhstan officially changes its position on Crimea in the future. Kazakhstan and the other states of ex-Soviet Central Asia shocked Moscow by failing to recognise the independence of statelets of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (officially part of Georgia) in 2008, in what the International Crisis Group called “a quiet revolt by Moscow’s most docile allies, abetted by China.”
But Russian pressure on its allies regarding Ukraine has been growing. Moscow has strongly encouraged members of its Eurasian Economic Union trade association (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) not to attempt to import or re-export products from Ukraine and the West. Meanwhile, a Dutch lecturer at the Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan's capital Astana, an institution that prides itself on its academic independence, claims he was effectively sacked for trying to host a talk on Ukraine.

author: Ayim Abdyrasulova


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When Online Kremlin Propaganda Leaves the Web, It Looks Like This · Global Voices
Lawrence Alexander

The Material Evidence exhibition website was just one of dozens in the pro-Kremlin network discovered by Alexander.
In previous investigative pieces for RuNet Echo, Lawrence Alexander has exposed a large network of pro-Kremlin websites, and (together with Aric Toler) provided an in-depth look at some of these resources. In this installment of his network saga, Alexander follows an offline lead from the tangled online web of sites rooting for the Kremlin agenda.
“Material Evidence” is one of few pro-Putin Internet projects connected to Russia's “troll factories” with a significant offline trail. Because of this, we can trace its operations better than we can with other similar schemes. Pulling the threads of Material Evidence reveals that it has exploited and fooled several individuals in its efforts to promote itself.
A touring exhibition of photographs and artifacts focusing on recent events in Ukraine and Syria, Material Evidence's imagery placed heavy emphasis on violent clashes during the Euromaidan protests, particularly on the supposed extreme-right elements in the movement. The show debuted in Moscow as “ВеЩдоки” [1 2, an abbreviated Russian portmanteau for Material Evidence], where it claimed to have the support of the Moscow Department of Culture and Russia's Syrian Embassy. The exhibit then moved on to Europe and the US, where it drew allegations of pro-Kremlin propaganda and “astroturfing,” both from journalists and from some skeptical visitors. At least one observer questioned the statistical validity of the infographics on display.
The appointed curator for the Material Evidence tour in the West was a man named Benjamin Hiller—a German-American photojournalist with over seven years of experience, particularly related to the MENA countries. RuNet Echo got in touch with Hiller to find out how he came to front the exhibition.
It was in May 2014, Hiller told RuNet Echo, that he was first contacted by Alexander Zhitenev, who was then acting as “manager” of the Material Evidence project in Moscow. Zhitenev was looking for “a proper curator to enhance the exhibition”—someone with a recognized journalistic background. A month later, in June (and despite some early reservations about the show's stance toward Syria and Ukraine), Hiller took on the job. WHOIS records show the English-language Material Evidence website was registered at exactly this time.
In a previous interview with Adrian Chen for the New York Times Magazine, Hiller claimed that the touring art show's costs were covered by crowdfunding. Having found no trace of Material Evidence on any of the leading crowdfunding sites, RuNet Echo asked him to elaborate.
“When I was brought into the project, I asked how they are financed. They told me via crowdfunding, and some single-donations from ‘middle class businessmen.’ I took it in the beginning (a bit naive, I know) as granted,” Hiller said. “After the New York Exhibition I got doubts—and as far as I know, there was never any crowdfunding involved. I was lied to in that regard by Material Evidence (as they did in so many other instances).”
It was Zhitenev, Hiller said, who acted as intermediary between him and the “businessmen”; it was also his job to handle the administration and pay the gallery staff. It remains unclear, however, how exactly Zhitenev got involved with the project. According to Hiller, he had no journalistic or creative background, deriving his main income from a cleaning business in Moscow. (Russian state records appear to confirm this, showing such a company, А-Сервис (A-Service), registered under the name of Alexander Zhitenev.) So how did he come to run a photographic exhibition?
Zhitenev claimed to Hiller that it was his wife who brought him into the role, which her work colleagues at an “advertising agency” were seeking to fill. RuNet Echo wasn't able to find information to confirm this, and Zhitenev did not respond to our request for comment.
As Material Evidence began to promote itself around New York in the autumn of 2014—employing an extensive ad campaign—allegations of political bias began to emerge. One article by Ukrainian singer and activist Ruslana pointed to the strange use of the name Svetlana Zakharova, a patriotic Russian ballerina, as the registered administrator of Material Evidence's website. Spotted along with it was the e-mail address of one Nikita Podgorny—the crucial detail that provided a link between St. Petersburg's Internet Research Agency and the pro-Kremlin web network in an earlier RuNet Echo investigation.
In a BuzzFeed article dated October 12, 2014, Hiller issued a strong rebuttal, calling the allegations “a lie.” When asked about funding, he stood by his previous claims about crowdfunding. Material Evidence, he said, had no connection to Zakharova: their Web designer had used the name without their knowledge and for reasons unknown. Hiller went so far as to suggest that Material Evidence might resort to legal action against the designer.
Was that designer Nikita Podgorny? Hiller maintains he never had any contact with Podgorny. Furthermore, he claims he had “no contact with the wider [Material Evidence] project”. Instead, all of this went through Zhitenev, who pledged to resolve the issue over the website. But Hiller says he heard nothing more on the matter.
This odd episode made Hiller further question the legitimacy of Material Evidence. In November 2014, he requested a face-to-face meeting with its elusive “businessmen” funders. But after initially agreeing, the backers never appeared. “I was sitting frustrated in Moscow (the first time in Russia for me), feeling more and more that I was being used as a pawn for a pro-Russian agenda,” Hiller said.
Hiller said he finally quit the project in February 2015.
The timeline of Material Evidence's appearance in Europe and the US matches periods of peak activity in the wider pro-Kremlin website network. Domain registration dates show that just over half of the 84 sites identified to date were created between May and August 2014 (as seen in the interactive graphic of the registration date distribution below).
The geopolitical focus of Material Evidence—on rebellion and protest in Ukraine and Syria—is also strongly reflected in many of the websites in the network, notably Syria Inform, Syria Union, and Emaidan.
In its early days, ВеЩдоки (the Russian Material Evidence exhibit) appears to have made significant use of online spam to promote itself. In the winter of 2013, as the show opened in Moscow, identical messages were posted across dozens of Russian forums (see examples 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) in an attempt to draw in visitors. The profiles involved were mostly fakes specifically created for the purpose, with some also spreading pro-Kremlin political sentiment on other topics. Similarly, the ВеЩдоки VK community was administered by an account otherwise dedicated to business promotion and marketing.
The now-defunct ВеЩдоки website credited the Syrian Embassy in Russia and the Syrian Information Ministry for assisting their venture. The site stated ВеЩдоки's rationale as:
Все россияне должны понимать, что происходит в Сирии и что заставляет российский МИД и лично Президента РФ прилагать огромные усилия на международной политической арене.
All Russians should understand what is happening in Syria and what makes the Russian MFA [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] and the Russian President personally engage in tremendous efforts in the international political arena.
The newspaper ЖУРНАЛИСТСКАЯ ПРАВДА (Journalistic Truth) was originally presented as the organizer behind Material Evidence, and some sources claim it is ultimately funded by the Internet Research Agency “troll farms” previously reported on by RuNet Echo. Its website, http://jpgazeta.ru/, was part of the same network that led to our original investigation, but its Google Analytics tracking code has since been changed. Both its VK profile and its Twitter account were apparently suspended for using spam techniques.
The now inactive Russian exhibit website вещдоки.рф (veschdoki.rf) was created in December 2013, presumably to further promote the project, but it seems no content was ever added to it. Records show that four other sites had been hosted on its server (1 2 3). One of them, nation-news.ru, features in the wider pro-Kremlin network. Another is Material Auction, an incomplete skeleton site bearing the Material Evidence logo. It was registered under Hiller's name shortly before he left the project in February 2015. An e-mail address, benjhil@yandex.com, also appears in its domain records. But Hiller denied any knowledge of the site or the Russian Yandex address, citing it as another example of how the project had acted dishonestly towards him.
“I regret to have been part of a pro-Putin propaganda show,” Hiller told RuNet Echo. “[Material Evidence] tried to use me and the photographers I organized as pawns for their propaganda war, and succeeded with that to a degree.”

author: Lawrence Alexander


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Vladimir Putin’s UN General Assembly Speech: Beyond Hashtags · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Edited photo shared widely and anonymously online.
Three dozen world leaders read speeches to each other in New York this Monday, September 28, at the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin's address to the UN was a national media event. TV networks broadcast marathon coverage, and Putin's remarks were carried live on primetime. After he was done speaking, talk shows assembled roundtables to discuss the speech. On the state-owned channel Pervyi Kanal, panelists debated whether Putin had more effectively sparred with Barack Obama or connected with the world community.
On the Internet, journalists drew attention to a handful of hashtags that appeared to be the promotional work of several bot networks. The most common among them, “PutinPeacemaker,” was an alliterative attempt to celebrate the Russian President's efforts to resolve the Syrian Civil War by backing President Bashar al-Assad. Using this hashtag and others like it, there were more than a few efforts to make it seem like ordinary folks really believe in Vladimir Putin's ability to solve this conflict and others.
While any kind of electronic popularity is easily inflated with bots, hashtags are particularly fraught with problems and vulnerabilities to manipulation.
The application TweetDeck offers a somewhat different way to isolate “popular” tweets, and that's how the following tweets about Putin were collected. Below you'll find an assemblage of tweets mentioning Putin's name (spelled in Russian) with more than 25 retweets. With one exception, tweets by news agencies have been excluded, as have tweets that simply quoted something Putin said during his speech or at one of his meetings afterwards. The idea of this list is to showcase what comments about Putin seemed to resonate best with Russian-speaking Twitter users today.
First on the list is a tweet by the Russian state-owned media outlet RIA Novosti, which hints that Putin managed to reach some kind of important deal with the United States today in New York. Notably, RIA Novosti also uses the hashtag #PutinPeacemaker, which didn't appear much in the “top tweets” recorded by TweetDeck, despite the efforts of an apparent bot network.
Путин посоветовал не искать тайных смыслов в фото с обеда в ООН http://t.co/4XSC9mvOiu #PutinPeacemaker #UNGA pic.twitter.com/5WqDLPsbWG
— РИА Новости (@rianru) September 28, 2015
Putin recommends against looking for secret meanings in photographs of his lunch at the UN. #PutinPeacemaker
One common interpretation of Putin's visit to New York was that his reception in the United States signals the West's failure to isolate Russia. Photographs of Obama and Putin dining and shaking hands are said to prove that Russia is, in fact, a vital member of the world community—even in a place like the United States, which has helped lead the campaign to punish Moscow for its policies in Ukraine.
Изоляция в самом разгаре. #ПутинМиротворец #Путин #PutinPeacemaker pic.twitter.com/P7nX8ZeplP — Леонид (@SPB_citizen) September 28, 2015
The very essence of isolation.
The #PutinPeacemaker hashtag managed to attract a significant number of retweets only one other time on this list. That tweet, found below, is typical of many of the posts featuring this hashtag (except for the fact that other Twitter users actually shared it). Like RIA Novosti's tweet, we find Vladimir Putin smiling and holding aloft a glass of wine, apparently in celebration.
Фото дня: #Путин #Putin #PutinPeacemaker #UNGA pic.twitter.com/0XtGgQOU9J
— Кот Путина (@VVPutin_cat) September 28, 2015
The photo of the day.
It wouldn't be a Putin celebration without mockery of Russia's anti-Kremlin political opposition. Many observers have noted that Putin has never spoken in public the name of anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny, considered by some to be the leader of the opposition. While Navalny's supporters and others say this is due to Putin's fear that naming Navalny would empower him as an adversary, Russians who don't think much of the anti-Kremlin muckraker seem more inclined to believe that Navalny-supporters’ gripes about Putin's rhetorical reticence are simple arrogance.
Сторонники Навального снова отметили, что Путин ни разу не сказал про Навального — rishikesh news (@rishikesh_news) September 28, 2015
Alexey Navalny's supporters have once again noted that Putin didn't once mention Alexey Navalny.
Among the highly-retweeted posts were several texts by prominent Putin supporters. Moscow city councilman Alexey Lisovenko was ready to speak for the whole world:
Внимательно прослушал выступления в ООН Обамы и Путина. Могу с уверенностью сказать: “Мир должен быть благодарен, что у него есть Путин”.
— ЛИСОВЕНКО АЛЕКСЕЙ (@deputat_LIS) September 28, 2015
I listened very carefully to the speeches by Obama and Putin today at the UN. I can say with certainty: the world should be grateful that it has Putin.
An account that regurgitates and mimics statements by Dmitry Kiselyov, a prominent television host and head of the Kremlin-controlled Rossiya Segodnya media conglomerate, shared more advice for the entire world:
Путин четко дал понять, что главенствовать в этом мире должна одна сила – ООН. И этот месседж понятен всем странам, кроме США и сателлитов.
— Дмитрий Киселев (@DmKiselevTV) September 28, 2015
Putin made it very clear that only one force in the world should override all others: the United Nations. And this message was clear to all countries, except the US and its satellites.
Other Twitter users found Putin's speech to be simply a good opportunity to make fun of the Americans:
Путин ни разу не сказал “пидарасы”, но все поняли – говорит про США. — Дмитрий Бабич (@D_Babich) September 28, 2015
Putin didn't once say the word “faggots,” but everyone knew he was talking about the United States.
Putin's supposed influence over the market was a theme exploited by both his fans and his critics. In this example, a Twitter user implies that Putin's tough talk in New York succeeded in driving down the US stock market.
Путин выступает – менялы дрожат ) pic.twitter.com/p8lTimazcg — HigherCause (@highercause) September 28, 2015
Putin speaks and the money-changers tremble.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko didn't get off the hook, either. Putin's star-studded schedule, when compared to Poroshenko's relatively less impressive meetings, was fodder for jokes about Kyiv's growing isolation, as the honeymoon phase of Ukraine's post-Maidan relationship with the West comes to a close.
- Путин встретился с генсеком ООН, президентом Ирана, премьер-министрами Ирака и Японии, президентом Обамой. – Порошенко встретился с белкой
— ★Нефритовый (@zapvv) September 28, 2015
Putin met with the Secretary General of the UN, the President of Iran, the Prime Ministers of Iraq and Japan, and President Obama. Poroshenko had a meeting with an open bottle.
In the spirit of speculating wildly about what photographs signify, an image of Obama extending his hand to Putin seemed to many Russian Twitter users to be proof that the White House was probably lying when it claimed the Kremlin “begged” to arrange the meeting between Obama and Putin.
Помните украинские и американские заголовки новостей “Путин умолял Обаму о встрече”? Оно и видно, кто кого умолял :) pic.twitter.com/udeXOfFaNm — Коробков☄Землянский (@korobkov) September 28, 2015
Remember the Ukrainian and American news headlines about “Putin begging Obama to meet”? Now it's obvious who begged whom. :)
Today's most resonate tweets about Putin's UN trip weren't all doting hashtags and photos of him consuming alcohol; the anti-Putin crowd was out in force, as well, flooding the Web with its own special brand of snark and angry mockery.
While the Russian President's fans celebrated his apparent ability to influence trading on Wall Street, his critics tied Putin's remarks to the slight depreciation of the ruble against the dollar during his UN address.
ПУТИН ХРЮЮЮ ЛИДЕР ХРЮЮЮЮ МИРА УИИИИ ХРЮЮЮ pic.twitter.com/7HDh3qlmBv — Все Плохо (@sranysovok) September 28, 2015
PUTIN OINK LEADER OOOOINK OF THE WORLD WEEEEEE OOOOOINK
After the US news network CNN mistakenly identified Putin as the late Boris Yeltsin (Russia's first post-Soviet president), some saw it as an opportunity to joke about Putin's advancing age:
CNN назвала Путина Ельциным – это показывает, что Путин для всего цивилизованного мира мертв.
— Серый Кардинал (@slevo4kin) September 28, 2015
CNN mistook Putin for Yeltsin. This shows that Putin is already dead to the whole civilized world.
As Putin's tenure as head of state approaches more than 15 years (including his time as prime minister under Dmitry Medvedev), obsession with Putin's death is palpable. For many both inside Russia and beyond its borders, imagining a new Russia is impossible without first removing Putin, who isn't expected to go quietly.
@Fake_MIDRF @MedvedRu Не важно, когда Путин встретится с Обамой, важнее – когда с Каддафи… — ХеровыйАгентГосдепа (@jimz_250) September 28, 2015
It doesn't matter when Putin will meet with Obama. What matters is when he meets with Muammar Gaddafi…
Putin's warning to the West that it risks repeating its Libya mistakes in Syria didn't impress anti-Kremlin blogger Kirill Mikhailov, who argued that Syria is already far bloodier and more chaotic than Libya.
Путин очень хочет, чтобы Сирия не превратилась в Ливию. Статистика по погибшим и беженцам в этих странах после 2011: pic.twitter.com/JtIEVHoKwK
— Лис Микита (@ReggaeMortis1) September 28, 2015
Putin really doesn't want Syria to turn into Libya. [Here are] the statistics for casualties and refugees in these countries since 2011.
Those who don't fantasize about a dead Putin content themselves with visions of the Russian President on trial, presumably for war crimes in Ukraine, or perhaps for repressive policies at home. Photographs of Putin sitting in a chair ahead of his speech at the UN unflatteringly made him seem quite miniature. The image proved to be handy material for jokes about “Putin on trial.”
На трибунале в Гааге Путин также будет сидеть перед лицом мирового сообщества и с полицейским за спиной: pic.twitter.com/TdzcFIgFqr
— Мuд Роисси (@Fake_MIDRF) September 28, 2015
When he's on trial at The Hague, Putin will also be facing the world community with a police officer at his back.
Not all the anti-Putin tweets were fanciful speculations about Putin's ultimate demise. Political commentator Andrei Piontkovsky said nothing of Putin's mortal coil, warning instead that Putin is dragging Russia into a Middle Eastern holy war.
Спасая задницу Асада, Путин бросает Россию в пекло средневековой религиозной войны между шиитами и суннитами. — Andrei Piontkovsky (@apiontkovsky) September 28, 2015
Saving Assad's butt, Putin throws Russia into the sizzler of a medieval religious war between Shiites and Sunnis.
Finally, some Russian Twitter users managed to gain an audience by flipping the pro-Putin crowd's rhetoric on its head.
Вопрос путинистам: Если Обама чмо, а Путин пожал ему руку, то кто тогда после этого Путин?
— Эльшад Бабаев (МВД) (@Elshad_Babaev) September 28, 2015
A question to all the Putinists out there: if Obama is a dick, but Putin shook his hand, what does that make Putin?

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Six Ways Pro-Government Forces Went After Hong Kong’s Occupy Movement · Global Voices
88 Bar

Occupy protestors prepare for a final sit-in at the protest area in Admiralty, Hong Kong, on December 11, 2014, after a judge issued an injunction allowing police to clear the last remaining camps. Photo by Jason Langley. Copyright Demotix
A recent paper by Lokman Tsui, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and longtime member of Global Voices, offers a chilling look at how authorities in Hong Kong outdid their rivals during the 79-day Occupy Central movement that hit the city in late 2014.
Thousands of protesters set up camp in downtown Hong Kong in September of last year to demand the freedom to choose candidates in the city's first direct vote of its chief executive in 2017. China has held that anyone vying for the top position in Hong Kong, a special administrative region with a certain degree of autonomy from the mainland, must get majority support from a nominating committee stacked with pro-Beijing members.
The Occupy movement braved police violence as well as political pressure and intimidation on and offline from Hong Kong and mainland Chinese authorities before being driven out by authorities. Technology played an important role in the movement's organization and coordination, becoming “a critical channel for communication with the public,” according to Tsui. He described this as “a fairly typical script” for how technology aids social movements.
In response, the government not only defended itself but, as Tsui states, went on the offensive. His paper describes the various tactics deployed by the government and its allies to dissuade and diminish the Occupy movement.
The current surveillance regulation ordinance only refers to telephone, fax and postal mail, and makes no mention of Internet communications. By repeatedly refusing to confirm whether its protections extend online, the government is implying that there are none.
“One of the more problematic arrests made under [Crimes Ordinance] Section 161 includes charging a 23-year-old from Mongkok with ‘access to computer with criminal or dishonest intent’ and ‘unlawful assembly’ for allegedly messaging folks on an online discussion forum to join him in a protest in Mongkok.”
“The number of requests for content removal in the four months of October 2014 until February 2015 exceeds the number of requests made in the previous four years combined.”
“The pro-government side was able to hit a series of critical websites with an unprecedented amount of junk traffic (500 Gigabytes per second), including the website of the Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, and PopVote, Hong Kong University’s online voting platform, leading Matthew Prince, the CEO of a hosting company that specializes in DDoS protection, to call it the ‘largest cyber attack in history.’”
Pro-government comments flooded online forums, blogs and social media networks similar to the paid online commentators working for the government elsewhere. It is generally believed that the pro-government commentators are hired by political groups sponsored by the Hong Kong government and Beijing.
In the case of Hong Kong, the government was “pushing a narrative of ‘foreign interference’, a xenophobic narrative that accuses civil society organizations of being inauthentic, that they are being used and funded by foreign governments, especially the United States government, who seek to undermine and weaken China by fomenting revolution in the name of ‘democracy.’”
Tsui ends the paper on a sobering note:
The Internet still has the potential to empower social movements; they might even allow temporary gaps of freedom. But the [Occupy Hong Kong] movement suggests that both the Internet and Hong Kong are at a crossroads, that both cannot take its freedoms for granted. This is not to say that spaces of autonomy and freedom no longer exist online or in Hong Kong; however, they are increasingly being marginalized and, at this point in time, are best understood as the exceptions rather than the norm.
Tsui's paper, titled “The coming colonization of Hong Kong cyberspace: government responses to the use of new technologies by the umbrella movement,” was published in the Chinese Journal of Communication in July 2015. Read the full paper on Tsui’s blog.

author: 88 Bar


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The Enormous Mural That Made a Mexican Neighborhood ‘Magical’ · Global Voices
Giovanna Salazar

Las Palmitas and the “macro mural” in its final stage. Photo taken with permission from the Germen Crew collective's Facebook page.
In the center of a small neighborhood located in the city of Pachuca, Hidalgo, the largest graffiti mural in all of Mexico, painted onto a canvas of 200 homes, was inaugurated this July. But the “macro mural” has done much more than simply give some color to the hillside district of Las Palmitas, a predominantly rural neighborhood with a certain degree of poverty and crime.
The collective effort has created jobs, reduced youth violence and instilled a sense of community spirit, turning Las Palmitas into what the project leaders have dubbed the “first magical neighborhood” — a play on the Mexican government’s separate initiative to promote “magical towns” (Pueblos Mágicos) as tourism destinations.
Leading the project was the independent Mexican collective the Germen Crew (Seed Crew), composed of urban artists specializing in graffiti art, mural painting and audiovisual documentary. A group which, through public and street art, aims to give new meaning to public spaces and restore social fabric for the benefit of communities. Their Facebook page reads as follows:
Nuestro trabajo es una ofrenda artística para nuestras ciudades ya que mediante colores formas texturas y técnicas mixtas compartimos nuestra forma de hacer y entender el arte, buscamos detonar la semilla de lo posible fortaleciendo el corazón y el entusiasmo de quien vive en los lugares que intervenimos, queremos refuncionalizar el espacio público haciéndolo más útil para quienes lo habitan, un lugar que eduque, motive, ayude aporte y germine una nueva relación de los ciudadanos con su entorno y las expresiones que ahí convergen.
Our work is an artistic offering for our cities. It is through colors, forms, textures, and mixed media that we share our way of making and understanding art. We seek to detonate the seed of possibility by strengthening the hearts and enthusiasm of those who live in the places we step into. We want to give new purpose to public spaces, making them more useful for their inhabitants, places that educate, motivate, and help to support and sprout new relationships with the surrounding citizens and the expressions that converge there.
Beyond the collaboration of the local and federal government, which facilitated the materials needed, the project was fueled in large part by the active participation of the 452 families that live in Las Palmitas (about 1,808 people). The residents were consulted throughout the three months that the project lasted, and they also took part in various cultural activities that were held at the same time: workshops, lectures, and tours, all with the objective of reducing juvenile delinquency.
In the above video documenting a workshop on lantern balloons, Las Palmitas residents remarked that the artistic activities were having a positive impact on the neighborhood:
Para nosotros es un día de fiesta en nuestra colonia, porque estamos viviendo cosas que nunca antes habíamos vivido.
For us it is a festive day in our district, because we are experiencing things we had never experienced before.
Veo que hay mucha armonía y convivencia, más que nada en las familias. Yo creo que con estos eventos mi colonia va a mejorar bastante y siento que no va a haber delincuencia.
I see so much harmony and coexistence, above all in our families. I believe that with these events my neighborhood will improve greatly and I don't think there will be so much delinquency.
In an interview with ideas magazine Planisferio, the Seed Crew explained that what makes their approach innovative is their focus on painting not institutional spaces, but rather public plazas, markets, and even marginalized areas with significant crime rates. At the same time, they said, their success is the fruit of their collective efforts and group dynamics.
The statement “Color is magic” opens a brief video that documents the transformation of Las Palmitas to a vibrant, colorful community.
With more than 13 years in existence, the Crew has undertaken projects in the Jamaican Market of Mexico City; in the esplanade of the new towns in Ecatepec in Mexico; and in Miravalle, Guadalajara, among many others. Now, they have achieved their aim of transforming Las Palmitas into what they call the “first magical neighborhood of Mexico,” and everything seems to indicate that there is still more to come.
More information about the work of Seed Crew can be found on their pages on Facebook and Instagram, and on their channel on YouTube.

author: Giovanna Salazar


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Malware Outbreak in App Store Alerts Tech Companies to Security Risks of China’s Great Firewall · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Image from US-China Perception Monitor. Non-commercial use.
A new iOS malware called XcodeGhost, which has infected thousands of iOS apps including WeChat, was revealed by Chinese developers in mid-September. Palo Alto Networks conducted an in-depth investigation and revealed more details on the incident.
XcodeGhost is a malicious version of Xcode (Apple's suite of software development tools) distributed among Chinese iOS developers who unknowingly build the code into  compiling their apps and distributed it through Apple's App Store.
Once the infected apps were installed on iOS devices, the malware collected information about the devices and uploaded the data to the attacker's server. The attacker could also read and write data in a user's clipboard, as well as control the apps to phish for users’ credentials, including passwords. It is estimated that XcodeGhost has potentially affected hundreds of millions of users, since WeChat, one of the most popular messaging apps in mainland China, was one of the infected apps.
The XcodeGhost malware is allegedly made by a group of people, and one of the key suspects is a graduate of Shandong University of Science and Technology. The suspect claimed that the malware was an experiment, yet Chinese programmers counter-argued that it was an organized act to undermine the reputation of iOS as the code was uploaded to a number of code sharing platforms. Meanwhile, Apple has removed the infected apps from the store.
What caused this security breach? If the infected apps had been flagged for malware in Apple's code review process, they would not have been distributed to the users in the first place. But the gatekeeper also raised a question in its FAQs on XcodeGhost:
Why would a developer put customers at risk by downloading counterfeit software?
Sometimes developers search for our tools on other, non-Apple sites in an effort to find faster downloads of developer tools.
Twitter user Larry Salibra explained that Chinese Internet censorship, i.e the Great Firewall that blocks access to overseas websites, is to blame for the slow connection speeds that push Chinese developers to get Apple's Xcode from other code-sharing platforms:
XcodeGhost is a consequence of Beijing's policies making CN internet slow & annoying http://t.co/97I0vSaktU pic.twitter.com/f51nC4Hwdd
— Larry Salibra (@larrysalibra) September 24, 2015
Prominent Chinese tech-blogger Huo Ju agreed with such a view and further explained the situation in China:
这次的事件之所以影响巨大，就是因为通过苹果官方渠道升级Xcode速度太慢，少则10多个小时，多则几十个小时，其间还有可能中断和重新下载。从国内随便下载一个Xcode用当然是错的，但在这样的环境下也不是完全不能理解，考虑一下互联网的下载速度只有50K，企业内网速度能高达10M的时候，谁会不从内网下载呢？
The incident's impact is pervasive because downloading Xcode from Apple official site takes too long. It takes more than 10 hours and sometimes more than a few dozen hours to get the download as the connection can be cut and you have to do it all over again. It is of course wrong to download Xcode from other sites in China, but it is understandable. Just imagine if the Internet speed is about 50K, while the domestic network is 10MB, of course people would download from the domestic network.
Huo Ju further explained the impact of the Great Firewall on Internet security:
GFW让中国本来开放的互联网环境，变成了一个巨大的企业内网，或者叫做中国局域网。除了速度和难以访问的影响，各种各样的DNS投毒，电信运营商干扰也是严重问题，你拿回来的DNS结果往往也未必是可信的，而运营商试图在HTTP请求中插入广告的行为，又经常会导致正常的应用表现不正常，而这些乱七八糟的毛病还经常变化，今天你可以这样对付，下周可能就需要换一个办法。要维持一个可信的软件环境，需要付出巨大的精力，能愿意付出这个代价的人越来越少。
GFW has turned the open Internet into a domestic network or the so-called China regional network. Apart from restrictions on Internet speed, [Internet users in China] also suffer from DNS poisoning and interference coming directly from ISPs. You can't even trust the DNS that they refer to you. Furthermore, very often, the content providers would insert ads through http requests, resulting in very poor performance of the network. All these conditions are evolving everyday, today you know how to deal with the situation, next week you have to find another solution. You have to devote a lot of energy to maintaining a trustworthy software environment, and very few people are willing to pay such a cost.
The blogger then addressed the issue of trust in the Chinese Internet business:
在这个环境中，我们能信任的什么呢？网络链接不可信，运营商不可信，DNS不可信，大企业不可信。[…] 但在中国，如果你敢信任百度，基本意味着你生活各方面都会出问题，用百度查个搬家公司，骗死你没商量，用百度查个快递电话，骗死你也没商量，用百度查个医院，你猜会怎么样？那是真要骗死你没商量，这里的骗死都不再是比喻了。你要信任百度的软件，更好玩了，它莫名其妙就给你把百度出的所有软件都装在你机器上了，人们管这个不请自来的大礼叫做百度全家桶。如此致力于坑害自己用户的大公司，在中国之外还真是罕见。
In such an environment, what can we trust? We can't trust the Internet connection. We can't trust the Internet operators. We can't trust the DNS and big Internet companies. […] In China if you trust Baidu, you will face a huge problem. If you look up a moving service company through Baidu search engine, you will be cheated. If you look up a delivery service company through Baidu, you will be cheated. If you look up a hospital through Baidu, guess what. You are doomed to die. If you trust Baidu's software, you will have more fun. It will install a whole set of Baidu software in your computer. People call such uninvited presents a “Baidu family bucket.” These kinds of companies that work so hard to harm their customers could not be found elsewhere except China.
The spread of iOS malware, however, indicates that the security and trust problems have extended from China's domestic network to the open Internet outside China through foreign companies which are considered to be more trustworthy.
As some tech bloggers have pointed out, Apple would have noticed the problem of extremely slow download speeds in China if they had monitored and addressed the issue reflected in the geographical distribution of the Xcode download numbers. Furthermore, the Apple AppStore has made it technically impossible to run a malware detection app that monitors other applications.
While Apple has a review system in place and iOS device users can still download from the official AppStore, the problem of malware in Android devices is even more severe as the Google play store has been disrupted for years and blocked in China since May 2014.
The incident is a wake up call for foreign Internet companies which want to have a market share in a country like China, where Internet insecurity has become a norm because of domestic policy. If they want to remain trustworthy in the eyes of their customers, they have to develop a policy and a system to address the distinctive security environment in their domestic network.

author: Oiwan Lam