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Reducing the Gap Between Africa’s Rich and Poor · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Thousands of people are demonstrating on the streets to protest against low salaries, the high cost of living and an insufficient state safety net.
A reaction to austerity measures in Greece? Or a follow-up to the Arab Spring? No, these are protests for greater equality in Sub-Saharan Africa, most recently in Burkina Faso.
The widening gap between rich and poor is as troubling in Africa as in the rest of the world. In fact, many Africans believe that inequalities are becoming more marked: A tiny minority is getting richer while the lines of poor people grow out the door. The contrast is all the more striking in Africa since the poverty level has been at a consistently high level for decades, despite the continent's significant average GDP growth.
The second most expensive yacht in the world, belonging to the son of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of Equitorial Guinea – Public domain
A columnist from the independent daily L'Observateur Paalga in Burkin Faso explains the general feeling of discontent [fr]:
Les uns prennent l’avion pour aller soigner un rhume des foins pendant que les autres bouffent les pissenlits par la racine parce qu’ils n’ont pas l’argent pour aller traiter un simple palu.
Some take a plane to get treated for hay fever, while others are pushing up daisies because they can’t afford basic malaria treatment.
However, growth in Africa is expected – the World Bank paints an optimistic picture of African potential, but warns against persistently high inequalities:
Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains strong with growth forecasted to be 4.9% in 2013. Almost a third of countries in the region are growing at 6% and more, and African countries are now routinely among the fastest-growing countries in the world […] [however the report] notes that poverty and inequality remain “unacceptably high and the pace of reduction unacceptably slow.” Almost one out of every two Africans lives in extreme poverty today.
Revenue inequality in African towns via French documentation – Public domain
Denis Cogneau, responsible for research at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD), explains that these inequalities in Africa have a well-defined historical origin [fr]:
Les États postcoloniaux ont hérité d’institutions économiques et sociales extractives, caractérisées par un dualisme extrêmement marqué entre un secteur formel de taille réduite, et un vaste secteur informel incluant la paysannerie. De même, beaucoup de pays se caractérisent par un dualisme scolaire et sanitaire, caractérisé par la coexistence d’institutions d’élite publiques et privées coûteuses situées dans la capitale, et d’un secteur de base (écoles primaires et dispensaires) faiblement doté en personnel, médiocrement approvisionné et inégalement réparti sur le territoire. Dans ce contexte, l’école a joué un rôle très dangereux, car elle a été (et est toujours) l’une des clefs d’accès, «non seulement aux emplois dans le secteur moderne, mais aussi aux positions dans l’appareil d’État et au pouvoir politique, suivant en cela les évolutions des sociétés européennes». L’inégalité des chances dans l’accès implique, par conséquent, une reproduction plus accentuée des élites politiques.
Postcolonial states inherited extractive economic and social institutions, characterised by a sharply marked dualism between a small formal sector and a huge informal sector, including farmers. Similarly, many countries are characterised by a dualism in education and health, distinguished by the coexistence of expensive, private and public elite institutions situated in the capital, and a core sector (primary schools and health centres) lacking personnel, poorly stocked, and unevenly spread out across the region. In this context, school plays a very dangerous role, as it was (and still is) one of the keys of entry “not only to jobs in the modern sector, but also to positions in the state apparatus and political power, mirroring the evolution of European societies”. Consequently, the unequal chances of gaining access imply a more marked reproduction of the political elite.
What measures can be taken to reduce these inequalities?
At a a local level, efforts are often not made to understand the exact circumstances that lead to growing inequality. Several organisations have implemented tools to monitor the lives of vulnerable populations in order to clarify the reasons behind it.
In Madagascar, CIRAD (a French research centre working with developing countries to tackle international agricultural and development issues) has proposed the creation of an observatory to carry out monitoring and improve living standards in rural areas [fr]:
Le Réseau des observatoires ruraux (ROR) constitue un dispositif de suivi et d’analyse des conditions de vie des ménages ruraux. Un des objectifs principaux est d’appréhender l’évolution de la situation des ménages ruraux et l’impact des mesures publiques et des chocs externes sur ces ménages. Chaque observatoire comporte un panel de 500 ménages sur des sites choisis de manière raisonnée avec le bailleur. Le questionnaire couvre les principaux aspects des la vie des ménages sur une période de 12 mois. Les résultats permettent une comparaison des situations dans le temps (par année) et dans l’espace (entre les observatoires).
The network of local rural observatories (ROR) consists of a tool that tracks and analyses living conditions in rural households. One of the principal objectives is to gain an understanding of the evolution of the situation in rural households and the impact that public measures and external shocks have on these households. Each observatory is made up of a panel of 500 households in sites chosen in agreement with the landowner. The questionnaire covers the main aspects of household life over a 12-month period. The results mean we can make a comparison in time (per year) and in space (between observatories).
Sexual inequality in Burkina Faso has been identified as a significant barrier to development, as studies have shown that the participation of women in the active life of a country has a considerable impact on its development. Bougnan Naon explains what the Dakupa Association is doing [fr] on this topic in the Boulgou province:
L'enjeu du projet est de permettre la création d'un réseau fonctionnel avec des membres compétents pour influencer les attitudes/pratiques traditionnelles, ainsi que les politiques et stratégies locales de lutte contre les inégalités de genre [..] (L'objectif est de): former 50 acteurs-clefs locaux aux stratégies de prise en compte du genre dans la mise en œuvre des projets et programmes par an, d'organiser des suivis-supervisions pour faciliter l'application effective de l'approche (maîtrise des outils et de l'identification d'actions genre pertinentes) par les ONG au profit de leurs cibles.
The aim of the project is to enable the creation of a functional network with competent members in order to influence traditional attitudes/practices, as well as local policies and strategies which fight against gender inequalities […] (The objective is to) create 50 local key players with strategies to ensure gender is taken into account when launching projects and programs each year, and for the NGO to get closer to its targets by organising supervisors to facilitate the effective application of the approach (learning the tools and identifying pertinent gender actions).


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Russia’s Crackdown Ahead of Crimea’s Referendum · Global Voices
Valentina Lukin

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, bemoaning the lack of “calm” on Russia's streets, images mixed by Kevin Rothrock.
Months into the protests in Kiev at Maidan, Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky gave a speech [ru] on the parliament floor, where he lashed out at Russian bloggers and opposition members for disrupting the nation's “calm.” Zhirinovsky, the firebrand leader of Russia's misleadingly-named Liberal Democratic Party, singled out environmental activist Yevgeniya Chirikova, politician Boris Nemtsov, and anti-corruption blogger Alexey Navalny, arguing that the latter two figures belonged under house arrest, in order to restore quiet to Russia. (Zhirinovsky cited the house arrest of protest figure Sergei Udaltsov as a precedent for taking politically troublesome Russians off the streets.)
At the time of Zhirinovsky's speech, Nemtsov was serving out a ten-day imprisonment after being arrested at an unsanctioned demonstration in Moscow. A court soon sentenced Navalny, who was in jail with Nemtsov, to house arrest on dubious accusations that he'd violated restrictions on his movement within Moscow. Russia's most prominent blogger is now barred from using the Internet or speaking to anyone outside his family.
These moves came in the same week that hostilities mounted in the Crimea, where the Kremlin allegedly deployed thousands of troops in violation of its basing agreement with the Ukrainian government. Navalny's new political party, incidentally, has strongly stated its opposition [ru] to Russian intervention in Ukraine.
In a Facebook post [ru] last week, Nemtsov also expressed his opposition to a war with Ukraine:
Пока я под арестом, Совет Ярославской Думы (!!!!)поддержал решение Совета федерации о вводе войск на территорию Украины. Единогласно. Так вот, господа депутаты. Я категорически против ввода российских войск. Я категорически против братоубийственной войны с Украиной.
While I am under arrest, the Council of the Duma of Yaroslavl (!!!!) upheld the decision of the Council of the Federation to invade the territory of Ukraine. Unanimously. So, dear deputies, I am categorically against Russian troops. I am totally against the fratricidal war with Ukraine.
Earlier this month, Chirikova's Moscow-based “ecological defense” organization joined an anti-war statement [ru] by several Ukrainian NGOs.
“March 15, 2014, Moscow, The March for Peace,” banner from Facebook event.
Amidst the crackdown on Russia's civil society leaders, eyes now turn to March 15, when Muscovites will demonstrate against Russian intervention in Ukraine, a day before Crimean voters decide between secession and expanded autonomy. At the time of this writing, roughly 2,600 Facebook users have RSVPd for the rally in Moscow. Another 22,000 people have been invited.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Valentina Lukin


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SayIt: Civic Software for ‘Smart’ Transcripts · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

One of the most recent civic tools to come on the market is SayIt, an open source software that publishes transcripts that are easy to read, search and share on the Internet.
SayIt was built by MySociety, an organization whose mission is “to help people become more powerful in the civic and democratic parts of their lives, through digital means,” in collaboration with Poplus, an “international network of civic hackers building open source components.”
According to Poplus's blog, SayIt can be used to publish or read PDF and Microsoft Word transcript files, among other various formats.
SayIt is a new way to publish transcripts online – transcripts such as parliamentary debates, court trials, speeches, or even playscripts. It can be embedded into your website, or used as a standalone instance.
SayIt's “Help” page explains a few more things. Among them, why it's important to have better transcripts.
Transcripts are a kind of oil that greases the wheels of well-functioning societies. They let people discover when powerful people have made pronouncements that affect less powerful people. We believe that by making transcripts function better, more people will end up learning about decisions and opinions that affect their lives.
The application is still in Alpha format, meaning the developmental stages. But it has already captured specialized media interest. Wired, for example, spoke with Myfanwy Nixon, Marketing and Communications Manager for MySociety. Nixon explains that SayIt works with Akoma Ntoso, an open data standard, and that work has largely consisted of the transcripts being displayed correctly.
“The transcripts tend to be in all sorts of different formats — PDFs, Word documents, scans, you name it — and each requires a slightly different approach. You can't just run a magic piece of code and immediately get them all nice and shiny.”
She adds that the project's second phase will launch a direct creation interface. This will format transcripts while being created.
” […] we also foresee that a lot of organisations and individuals will have existing transcripts that they want to publish. We're keen to see this happen, but we know that the biggest task will be transforming them into a format we can use. Not impossible, just (often) labour-intensive,”
Robert Sharp also comments on his blog about SayIt's launch. “It is this sort of thing that empowers grassroots campaigns and catalyses democracy,” he writes, in addition to explaining why it has him enthused.
Readers of this blog will know how irritated I get with the quality of parliamentary and government papers online.  Transcripts and other documentation are frequently uploaded as PDFs, as if the only thing a researcher or campaigner plans to do with the document is print it.
On the other hand, Mark Ballard writes about SayIt's launch on the Computer Weekly blog, Public Sector IT. He places it in the context of British politics, where not long ago the governing Conservative Party erased 10 years worth of transcripts from the internet. CW spoke with the founder and director of MySociety, Tom Steinberg, who among other things expressed:
“The whole business of transcripts – whether its parliament or celebrity interviews – needs bringing up to speed. It's woefully old-fashioned. We want people all over the world to find out when powerful people talk about things that matter to them. If someone is talking about your road in a local government meeting today, you will never know. […] structured data is what makes each Tweet a beautifully-structured thing. It's what makes Facebook work. And it's what makes everything on the internet work. But as of today transcripts are not structured at all
Diverse netizens from around the world have also displayed their hopes in seeing how the tool works.
@mySocietyIntl needs your help to test @SayItPoplus… it could be a great tool in the fight for #humanrights #OpenGovernment
— Diana Delamer (@DoruntineUK) January 20, 2014
@sinarproject will soon focus on getting important transcripts accessible with Sayit thanks to @mySocietyIntl http://t.co/IWjpeEntf1
— Khairil Yusof (@kaerumy) January 17, 2014
.@SayItPoplus As a Human Rights lawyer, I am loving this tool. Already in mind the @RiosMonttTrial and the Manning trial!
— Renata Avila (@avilarenata) January 15, 2014
How many times does Shakespeare mention ‘Africa’ in his plays? @SayItPoplus new tool can tell you http://t.co/DDNYZCrtxT
— The Indigo Trust (@indigotrust) January 16, 2014
Three examples taken from U.K. archives have been put up in order to give us an idea of how SayIt works: The Leveson Inquiry, an investigation into the ethics of Britain's press; The Charles Taylor Trial, judgement for war crimes against Liberia's former president; and the Plays of Shakespeare (you can search them using any key word, by speaker, or by speech). In addition, a pair of short guides have been published for non-technical readers and for developers as a way to help in the process of uploading a transcript.
The people at MySociety say in a blog post that SayIt can be a great aide in publishing transcripts and documenting local board meetings, court audiences, electoral campaigns, interviews, discussion groups on academic research, academic seminars, conferences, re-inactments, discussion groups on market studies, and historical event archives, such as a coronation or an important debate.
There are certainly a lot of possibilities. One waits to see how civil society, activists groups, or even common citizens will use it. On a final note, here's a recent Google hangout with MySociety's director, Tom Steinberg, talking about SayIt.

author: Juan Arellano


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Trinidad & Tobago: Lara’s Poor On-Stage Innings  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Wired 868 takes more jabs at cricket hero Brian Lara's public embarrassment at a fete in Trinidad than Michael Holding took wickets when the West Indies dominated the sport.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Academics and Experts to Discuss Digital Discrimination in Barcelona · Global Voices
Danica Radovanovic

The ICUD International Conference: Digital Discrimination and Social Networks takes place on March 13 and 14, 2014 in Barcelona, Spain. It will be a discussion space for academics, researchers, Internet and sns experts, NGOs, knowledge providers, and anyone interested in the issues surrounding discrimination on the Internet, especially in regards to social networking sites.
The ICUD Project aims to “creatively unveil” hidden forms of discrimination on the Internet, especially on social media sites such as Facebook, and provide practical tools to combat discrimination online. Hot and complex topics like teen usage of Internet tools and social networks, racial discrimination, digital divides, youth and identity will be discussed during the two-day conference.
The full program is available on the official site of the ICUD Conference site, while live streaming and simultaneous translation will also be available.

author: Danica Radovanovic


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Activists Mobilize for Passage of Brazil’s Internet Bill of Rights · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Internet rights activists are in Brasilia today to pressure the National Congress to approve the Brazilian bill of rights for Internet users, known as the Marco Civil. One of them is former Global Voices collaborator Diego Casaes, who works with global civic organization Avaaz and wrote on Facebook [pt] before heading to the capital city:
Hoje a Avaaz se juntou ao grandioso Gilberto Gil e a diversos movimentos e organizações de direitos civis em uma campanha que interessa a todos nós: a aprovação do Marco Civil com a defesa da neutralidade da rede.
Faz mais de 3 anos que eu acompanho o Marco Civil, desde o processo de consulta pública online até o dia em que o PL entrou na Câmara dos Deputados. A votação foi adiada 10 vezes, pelo menos, no que demonstra um embate homérico entre a sociedade civil e as empresas de telecomunicações: do nosso lado, parlamentares que defendem a liberdade na rede e uma série de movimentos civis que lutaram contra vários Golias bilionários, do outro os Golias, as empresas que controlam a estrutura das telecomunicações do Brasil, e que todos os anos lucram quantias absurdas, mesmo oferecendo um serviço ineficiente.
Essa semana muita coisa pode mudar: se aprovarmos o Marco Civil (garantindo a neutralidade da rede) daremos um passo gigante na luta pela nossa privacidade, pelos nossos direitos, e para manter a natureza democrática da internet.
Eu tô com o Gil, e já assinei. E vou à Brasília falar com os deputados na quarta-feira. Por isso eu peço: assinem e terão a garantia de que haverá pessoas comprometidas com nossos direitos, argumentando, dialogando e fazendo valer a voz do povo no Congresso antes da votação.
Today Avaaz joined the great Gilberto Gil [a famous musician and former Minister of Culture] and many movements and civil rights organizations in a campaign that concerns us all: the adoption of the Marco Civil with the defense of net neutrality.
I have been following the Marco Civil for more than three years, from the process of online public consultation until the day that the bill entered the Chamber of Deputies. The vote has been postponed at least 10 times, which demonstrates a Homeric struggle between civil society and telecommunications companies. On our side, members of parliament who defend net freedom and a series of civil movements that have fought against several Goliath billionaires; on the other side, the Goliaths, the companies that control the structure of telecommunications in Brazil, and that profit absurdly every year, even if they offer inefficient service.
This week a lot can change: if we pass the Marco Civil (guaranteeing net neutrality) we will take a giant step forward in the fight for our privacy, our rights, and to maintain the democratic nature of the Internet.
I am with Gil, and already signed. And I'm going to talk to the deputies in Brasilia on Wednesday. So I ask you: sign and have the assurance that there will be people committed to our rights, arguing, talking and enforcing the people's voice in Congress before the vote.
Avaaz's petition, “For a free and democratic Internet“, has gathered more than 290,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.
On Twitter, #MarcoCivil, #MarcoCivilJa and #VaiTerMarcoCivil are the main hashtags in use. The topic was trending on the eve of the vote, March 11, 2014.
All rights from every netizen must be fully respected. Therefore There will be #MarcoCivil! http://t.co/M6wBW6vNAM #VaiTerMarcoCivil
— Marco Civil Já (@MarcoCivilJa) 11 March 2014

author: Sara Moreira


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Chinese President Xi Jinping Cartoons  · Global Voices
Abby Liu

Under a special section dedicated to China’s on-going National People’s Congress, iFeng.com, a pro-Beijing TV broadcaster based in Hong Kong, featured series of Chinese president Xi Jinping cartoons. The cartoons are about Xi meeting with ordinary people. Some stories in the cartoon are based on real events.
Offbeat China has translated the dialogues in the cartoons.

author: Abby Liu


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For Abortion Rights in Bolivia, A Modest Gain · Global Voices
NACLA

Pro-life rally in Bolivia. Photo shared by @EmisorasUnidas on Twitter, February 14, 2014: “Bolivia doesn't decriminalize abortions, but it eliminates judicial authorization in legal cases.”
This article, written by Emily Achtenberg, was originally published on the NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America) blog Rebel Currents. Emily Achtenberg is an urban planner and the author of Rebel Currents, covering Latin American social movements and progressive governments.
On February 13, Bolivia’s highest court issued a long-awaited ruling addressing provisions of the country’s penal code that criminalize abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, or when a woman’s life or health is endangered.
In a closely watched case that has dragged on for two years, the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal (TCP) rejected a challenge to the 1972 law based on Bolivia’s new Constitution, which guarantees women’s sexual and reproductive rights and prohibits gender-based discrimination. But it also threw out an existing rule that requires a judge to give consent before a legal abortion can be performed, which has been a major obstacle to achieving safe abortions where they are permitted by law.
Both pro-choice and pro-life advocates have found reasons to celebrate the Solomon-like decision. The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), citing the TCP’s explicit rejection of abortion as a reproductive right under the Constitution, calls the ruling a “stinging defeat” for proponents of decriminalization. The TCP also affirmed that respect for life is a fundamental pillar of the Bolivian state.
But for IPAS, an international NGO that supports reproductive rights groups in Bolivia, the TCP’s elimination of the prior judicial consent requirement is a “significant, positive step for women’s rights in the region.” A 2012 IPAS study found that judicial authority for therapeutic abortions is routinely denied, leaving even rape victims and women whose health is endangered at the mercy of clandestine procedures. Reportedly, only six abortions have been approved in the more than 40 years since the penal code was enacted.
Elimination of judicial consent was a major demand of two United Nations committees that urged Bolivia last year to conform to the growing body of national and international jurisprudence affirming women’s rights to legal abortion. Among other positive aspects of the ruling, IPAS cites the TCP’s directives to the Bolivian Congress and executive branch to ensure universal access to safe therapeutic abortions, and to develop health and educational programs to protect women’s sexual and reproductive rights.
Of interest, too, is the novel legal framework [es] used by the TCP to rationalize its decision, in a seeming effort to reconcile Bolivian constitutional principles with international treaties and traditional indigenous beliefs. In defense of Bolivia’s limited abortion rights, the ruling adopts an Andean-centric vision of human life as part of a cosmic cycle, without beginning or end, which is constitutionally protected. At the same time, it recognizes Bolivia’s responsibility, as a member state to international treaties, to guarantee safe abortions for women covered by the law.
For the moment, at least, the ruling has served to defuse the emotionally charged debate stirred up by the case in this overwhelmingly Catholic and indigenous country. Opponents of decriminalization have argued their case largely on moral and religious grounds.
In the words of indigenous deputy Emiliana Ayza [es], head of the ruling MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) party bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, “abortion is murder, a sin in the eyes of God.” According to a 2010 survey, this view is shared by close to 80% of Bolivian women. Still, 34% of those surveyed thought that, if faced with an unwanted pregnancy, a woman should seek an abortion.
The Catholic Church, a strong presence in Bolivia throughout its history (although the Catholic religion lost its official state status in 2009), has played a leading role in opposing abortion on political as well as religious grounds. According to Archbishop of Santa Cruz Sergio Gualberti [es], abortion is an imperialist strategy for population control, promoted by international NGOs and foreign governments that are seeking to undermine Bolivia’s sovereignty. This argument evokes the 1960s controversy [es] over alleged efforts by the U.S. Peace Corp to sterilize indigenous women, which resulted in the Peace Corps’ expulsion from Bolivia.
Decriminalization advocates have focused on the public health crisis surrounding illegal abortion, with the highest risks incurred by poor and indigenous women. Despite current restrictions, an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 [es] abortions are performed annually in Bolivia, often using unsafe methods, and mostly in impoverished urban peripheries where indigenous populations are concentrated. In close to half the cases, post-abortion emergency hospital care is required.
Studies show that unsafe abortions account for nearly one third of maternal deaths in Bolivia, which has among the highest rates of maternal mortality in Latin America. The large volume of unwanted pregnancies is also closely tied to sexual violence, which victimizes seven out of ten [es] Bolivian women (the second-highest rate in Latin America, after Haiti).
Studies also cite an “alarming number” of procedural investigations (775 cases in the La Paz and Santa Cruz districts alone, between 2008 and 2012) against women suspected of having an illegal abortion, who are overwhelmingly poor and indigenous. Instigated by health care providers, relatives, and public prosecutors, these complaints typically languish for years in the judicial system, although relatively few have led to criminal convictions. (Under the law, the act of undergoing, performing, or abetting an illegal abortion is punishable by a prison term of one to six years.)
Reproductive rights activists say that complaints are often used to harass and intimidate women. In one high-profile case, an indigenous Guaraní rape victim spent eight months in preventive detention before obtaining a release for the balance of her remaining two-year sentence.
The MAS government leadership, which typically closes ranks in public, has been openly divided on the issue. While President Evo Morales has stated his personal belief that abortion is a crime, five cabinet ministers [es] (including three women) have affirmed their support for decriminalization. The original case challenging the constitutionality of the restrictive abortion law was brought by indigenous MAS deputy Patricia Mancilla (in her personal capacity).
The TCP ruling is the latest in a growing trend of judicial and legislative actions that are reducing barriers to legal abortion in Latin America, a region with some of the world’s most restrictive reproductive rights laws. In late 2013, Uruguay voted to allow early stage abortions without restriction, joining four others (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guyana, and French Guiana) along with Mexico City that have largely decriminalized abortion. Six Latin American countries (Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, Venezuela, and Ecuador) allow therapeutic abortions under circumstances similar to Bolivia. In seven countries (Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, Suriname, and the Dominican Republic), abortion remains totally prohibited.
While the new ruling will not put an end to unsafe abortions, Bolivia’s reproductive rights advocates are optimistic that it will make legal abortions easier, quicker, and more widely available. “For women, it’s an advance,” says Patricia Mancilla [es]. “But the struggle is just beginning.”

author: NACLA


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Mexicans are Pushing for the ‘Redemocratization’ of Democracy · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Peter Watt from the NACLA blog Mexico, Bewildered and Contested interviewed professor John M. Ackerman (@JohnMAckerman) about Mexico and U.S. relations, self-defense groups, the arrest of the Sinaloa cartel leader, El Chapo Guzmán, and more.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Russia’s Best News Portal Decimated · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

So ends an era for Russian news portal Lenta.ru. Image mixed by author.
Galina Timchenko, long-time chief editor of Russia’s most popular news website, Lenta.ru, lost her job today. Following government censors’ second official warning to Lenta.ru in less than twelve months (a legal pretext for revoking the outlet’s media license), owner Alexander Mamut suddenly fired Timchenko, replacing her with Alexey Goreslavsky, who in the past has managed several pro-Kremlin media projects. The staff at Lenta.ru responded with a public letter of protest, published on the site’s splash page, which another news website, Slon.ru, claims is a letter of mass resignations. Individually, several of Lenta.ru’s most celebrated journalists, including Ilya Azar (still reporting from Crimea), have indicated on Twitter and Facebook that they refuse to work under Goreslavsky.
Lenta.ru’s troubles today began with news that Roscomnadzor (Russia’s communications regulatory agency) issued the site an official warning over a hyperlink that appeared in an article published on March 10, 2014. The offending link was inserted into an interview by Azar with Andrei Tarasenko, head of the Kiev chapter of the Ukrainian-nationalist paramilitary group Pravyi Sektor—an organization the Russian government frequently blames for unrest in Ukraine.
On March 3, Roscomnadzor complied with a ruling by Russia’s Attorney General, ordering Vkontakte, Russia’s most popular social network, to block access from Russian IP addresses to 13 Ukrainian nationalist groups, including Pravyi Sektor.
Though Azar’s interview was with a high-ranking Pravyi Sektor figure, Roscomnadzor objected only to a hyperlink in the text that redirected readers to a separate interview with Yarosh, published on a Ukrainian website in the summer of 2008. Lenta.ru quickly removed the hyperlink, leaving Azar’s interview online and accessible to the public. Still chief editor, Galina Timchenko wrote on Facebook this morning, “the whole problem was just in the hyperlink,” suggesting to readers that the day’s drama at Lenta.ru had ended.
Three hours later, Timchenko posted to Facebook again, announcing the end of her tenure at Lenta.ru, offering thanks for “interesting times.”
What happened?
Looking back, Timchenko’s fall and the collapse of public trust in Lenta.ru that her dismissal has precipitated are not so surprising. In May 2012, Timchenko spoke openly about resigning from Lenta.ru, saying she planned to leave in a couple of years, agreeing with characterizations that compared her to Boris Yeltsin shortly before he handed over power to Vladimir Putin. (“I’m tired, I’m leaving.”) Two years ago, Timchenko said that Russia’s 2011-2012 “Winter of Discontent” mass protests had no special impact on Lenta.ru, contrasting the site with TV Rain, a television station that transformed itself into a mouthpiece for the new street opposition.
Galina Timchenko, Lenta.ru's former chief editor, ousted today.
In an interview earlier this year, Timchenko compared herself not to Yeltsin but Vsevolod Rudnev, commander of the doomed Russian cruiser Varyag, which Rudnev scuttled rather than let it fall into Japanese hands in 1904. Roughly two years have passed since she signaled her plans to leave Lenta.ru, but Timchenko’s departure today is anything but voluntary.
Her replacement, Alexey Goreslavsky, has managed two notoriously pro-Kremlin media projects: Vzgliad.ru, an openly pro-government news website, and Agency One, a public relations firm. Criticizing Goreslavsky’s appointment today, blogger Alexey Navalny called Vzgliad.ru a “complete failure,” despite its “inconceivable” (i.e., remarkably large) budget. Agency One, meanwhile, is responsible for a series of racist viral videos meant to help Sergei Sobyanin’s recent Moscow mayoral campaign. Last December, in his capacity as representative for Lenta.ru’s parent company, Goreslavsky was one of the only Russian media figures who was even remotely receptive to signing a controversial government memorandum on digital anti-piracy measures.
Lenta.ru’s independence survived multiple corporate shakeups, until early 2013, when owner Vladimir Potanin (apparently under Kremlin pressure to facilitate greater consolidation of Russia’s media outlets) agreed to merge operations with fellow tycoon Alexander Mamut. The merger might have spared Lenta.ru big changes, were it not for the loss of Rafael Akopov, who left Potanin’s company just months before the deal. According to TV Rain, Akopov was instrumental over the years in protecting Lenta.ru’s autonomy. With him out of the picture, in Russia’s jingoist climate today, it became far easier for owners and state authorities to meddle in the politics of the country’s most popular news portal. When Lenta.ru hyperlinked to comments by a Ukrainian nationalist—an extremist and an enemy of the state, says Moscow—it offered an ideal excuse to purge the website’s leadership.
Meet the result: Alexey Goreslavsky and the decimation of Lenta.ru’s reputation.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Saudi Arabia Controls Babies Names  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

You are not allowed to name your newborn daughter Eman, or Sandy, or Yara. And if it is a boy, names like Abdelnasser, Amir or Abdulmoeen are a no go. But that's only in Saudi Arabia. On Twitter, Iyad El Baghdadi shares this list of baby names banned in the absolute monarchy:
List of banned baby names in KSA. Includes: Abdulnasser, Amir, Maya, Linda, Sandy, Loren, Benjamin, Yara, Eman. pic.twitter.com/XHyrdT9bKQ
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) March 12, 2014
And there is a photograph of an officially stamped list to go with this notice.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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State Stops the Opening of Free Clitoral Repair Hospital for FGM Victims in Burkina Faso   · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

The first hospital to offer free clitoral repair for victims of female genital mutilation (FGM) was open to the public  its doors in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso on March 7 but the government refused to allow doctors to treat the 80 patients scheduled for surgery [fr] because of incompletion to fill in the adequate paperwork. Clitoraid, the association that sponsored the event, opines that the government was pressured by religious groups to stop the event [fr] :
Cette opération chirurgicale permet de réparer les dommages physiques encourus par les victimes de MGF. Mais l'Église catholique et ses acolytes se sont opposés à cette merveilleuse mission en menant une campagne de dénigrement à des fins purement égoïstes
This surgery can repair physical damage incurred by victims of FGM. But the Catholic Church and its followers were opposed to this wonderful mission through a smear campaign for purely selfish reasons.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Syria: I Am Aleppo, Aleppo Is Me · Global Voices
مرسيل شحوارو

This post is part of a special series of articles by blogger and activist, Marcell Shehwaro, describing the realities of life in Syria during the ongoing armed conflict between forces loyal to the current regime, and those seeking to oust it.
Marcell Shehwaro at the funeral of her mother, who was killed at a Syrian regime forces’ checkpoint in June 2012. Fellow activists paid tribute by carrying red roses. Image courtesy Marcell Shehwaro.
Who am I? I have always considered this the most difficult question to answer or write about, especially today, three years from the start of the Syrian revolution. The truth is that I don't really know how much I resemble the young woman I was before. Writing for Global Voices could be an opportunity for me to reaquaint myself with myself, or at least remind myself of who this person whom I live with, and who is me, has become.
Today I am 29 years old. My name is Marcell. The name means “young warrior”. I come from a small family. My late father, may God have mercy on his soul, was an Orthodox priest. And my late mother, may God have mercy on her soul too, was a housewife and a great mother.
I studied dentistry in the city of Aleppo until I reached a point where I realised that I was more concerned with social issues. I left medicine and I studied political science – international relations and diplomacy, to be more precise.
I cannot introduce myself without telling you about my city, Aleppo, as the two of us are exactly alike: worn down, exhausted, full of fire, full of the desire to live, confused.
Aleppo is the second largest city in Syria. According to statistics, its population used to be 5 million. I am not sure how many of them still remain, and how many refugees from other places have come to live here.
I discovered my ability to express myself orally and in writing from a young age. It could be a characteristic I inherited from my father. I enjoyed writing essays at school, a chore other students considered boring. I read everything that fell into my hands. I also used to write on anything I could write on: bills, tissue paper in restaurants and in the margins of books I was reading. And when blogging arrived, naturally, I took it up. And this is what happened.
I started blogging in 2008. At the time, I had friends who were paying the price of freedom of speech in Syrian regime prisons. This was enough for freedom of speech to become my mission, which turned me into a regime opponent early on. An opponent of a regime that supressed general freedom and civil life.
When the revolution started in Egypt, it paralysed our ability to mobilise ourselves in any other direction except towards our hope that a revolution would take place in Syria too. So without further thought, I joined the revolutionary wave. At first, I wrote about it. Then, I joined the protests. I still remember the feeling of euphoria mixed with worry, and the fear and embarrassment that at the back of my throat as I chanted, “The people want to overthrow the regime!”
During one protest, volleys of bullets started raining on us from the Syrian security forces’ firearms, and those around me began running. I discovered then that I am one of those people who is paralysed by fear, which prevents me from moving and turns me into an obstacle for those trying to run away. My friends grabbed my hands and pulled me away to protect me, and since that time I have been collecting stories about being on the verge of death, injury or arrest, and how people more rational than I would intervene and rescue me.
It took some time for the Syrian secret service to develop a dossier on me, especially considering that there is at least one informant for every 10 Syrians. During that period, and after a year of protests and listening to advice on being careful from family and friends, the turning point arrived: my mother was martyred at a Syrian regime forces’ checkpoint in Aleppo.  I lost a part of me forever.
Because of the amazing funeral, attended by many revolutionaries who carried my pain with red roses, the authorities began calling me in and interrogating me about my activism on a weekly basis. At that time, the armed revolution was edging closer to Aleppo. At the time, I was against armament in all its forms. I believed peaceful change would guarantee Syrians their rights and result in the smallest number of sacrifices. In fact, large portions of my city have already been liberated, except for my neighbourhood and the places I am familiar with, which have remained under the Syrian regime's control.
When the interrogations became more serious, and it looked inevitable that I would soon be arrested, I decided to accept a scholarship to study for a Masters degree in human rights in the UK. Like any survivor of bloody events such as I have witnessed, during that year I returned to Syria over and over again, to Aleppo, driven by guilt. I moved from one friend's house to the other, as it was dangerous for me to return to my own home, until my friends’ lives, too, became endangered as a result of their association with an activist like me. I was then forced to make what was obviously the right decision, and moved to the liberated part of Aleppo, leaving behind friends, family, memories, my home and the two graves of my parents. In short, most of the life I was used to.
Living alone as an activist during wartime, alone and away from family and familiar surroundings, posed new challenges. I had moved to an area which I knew nothing about, except that the regime's security apparatus had no presence there. But it wasn't free of all the other forms of death.
As one of the very few unveiled women in conservative and humble surroundings, among people who are very kind, despite the violence of their environment, I sometimes suffer from petrifying loneliness. I live with the constant fear of being kidnapped. At times I can withstand it, but at others I break down in exhaustion.
I am surrounded by stories of heroes whose heroism might inspire others to effect change themselves. Because of all this, and because our daily lives are full of events which may not be enough for one lifetime, I have decided to write for you. My articles will some times be about my everyday life. At other times they'll touch upon memories and what we would love our lives to be like, despite the horrors we see.
You are free to choose to sympathise with me, or be harsh with your judgements. But my hope is that what I relate to you reflects some of the dream, the desire to change, and the trust that this change is possible, as far-fetched or painful as that dream might be.
Marcell Shehwaro blogs at marcellita.com and tweets at @Marcellita, both primarily in Arabic.

author: مرسيل شحوارو


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The Land of Fires, Italy’s “Gateway to Hell” · Global Voices
Bah Abdoulaye

2014 began with renewed concern about pollution in a part of the Italian territory known as the “Terra dei fuochi” (Land of Fires) [All links lead to Italian-language web pages unless otherwise noted]. In this area, which is located between Naples and Caserta, the Ecomafia has been disposing of toxic waste for years.
Since the '80s a union of interests between the Camorra (an organized crime group active mainly in Naples and the surrounding region of Campania), the industrialists and the Neapolitan and Campania political class has poisoned this part of Italy, which is amongst the most beautiful areas in the country. The blogger, Enzo Ciacco, writes on lettera43.it:
I territori colpiti dai veleni di camorra sono quelli tra le province di Napoli e Caserta. L’area è compresa tra i comuni di Qualiano, Giugliano in Campania, Orta di Atella, Caivano, Acerra, Nola, Marcianise, Succivo, Frattaminore, Frattamaggiore, Aversa, Mondragone, Castevolturno, Villa Literno, Pozzuoli, Bacoli, Marano, Cicciano, Palma Campania, Melito di Napoli. A Napoli, il quartiere Pianura.
A firmare il Patto per la Terra dei fuochi, l’11 luglio 2013, sono stati ben 57 comuni tra Napoli e Caserta. Ma la verità è che nessuno sa quanti e dove siano i rifiuti tossici sepolti nel corso degli anni nell’area. L’Arpac, l’agenzia campana per l’ambiente, ha contato più di 2 mila siti inquinati.
The areas affected by the Camorra's toxic waste are those between the provinces of Naples and Caserta. The area includes the towns of Qualiano, Giugliano in Campania, Orta di Atella, Caivano, Acerra, Nola, Marcianise, Succivo, Frattaminore, Frattamaggiore, Aversa, Mondragone, Castevolturno, Villa Literno, Pozzuoli, Bacoli, Marano, Cicciano, Palma Campania and Melito di Napoli. In Naples, the Pianura neighbourhood.
57 municipalities between Naples and Caserta signed the Land of Fires Pact on July 11, 2013. But the truth is that no one knows in how many places and where the toxic waste has been buried in the area over the years. ARPAC, the Campania environmental agency, has found more than 2,000 contaminated sites.
Enrico Ferdinandi quotes the reformed mafioso, Carmine Schiavone's 1997 declarations made in front of the parliamentary committee on Ecomafias, and whose confessions brought down the Casalesi clan.
Avevamo creato un sistema di tipo militare, con ragazzi incensurati muniti di regolare porto d’armi che giravano in macchina. Avevamo divise e palette dei carabinieri, della finanza e della polizia. Ognuno aveva un suo reparto prestabilito». I rifiuti, raccontò il pentito, venivano scaricati di notte e le pale meccaniche vi spargevano sopra del terreno. Ma talvolta la spazzatura finiva anche a 20 o a 30 metri di profondità.
Nei verbali si può apprendere che alcuni rifiuti radioattivi, per la precisione fanghi nucleari provenienti dalla Germania: «dovrebbero trovarsi in un terreno sul quale ci sono le bufale e su cui non cresce più erba».
We had created a type of military system, with boys with no criminal records and a valid firearms license in the car. We had Carabiniere, police and finance police uniforms and signalling disks. Everyone had their own set unit“. The waste, according to the the reformed mafioso, was unloaded at night and the bulldozers would cover it with earth. But sometimes the rubbish ended up 20 or 30 metres deep.
The records show that some radioactive waste, to be precise nuclear sludge, from Germany: “should be in a field where there are buffaloes and where the grass does not grow“.
The effects on health, above all, are disastrous. The website laretenonperdona.it indicates the illnesses that the population is suffering from:
In questi territori sono stati riscontrati picchi di patologie quali tumori allo stomaco, al rene, al fegato, alla trachea, ai bronchi, ai polmoni, alla pleura e alla vescica nonché malformazioni e difetti congeniti.
In these areas rates of disease increased such as stomach, kidney, liver, throat, lung, bronchus, pleura and bladder cancers as well as malformations and birth defects.
Quoting Gaetano Rivezzi, president of the Italian section of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE) [en] in Campania, the website liberainformazione.org published the following:
… in alcuni distretti c’è stato un aumento del 300% di queste malattie in pochissimi anni. L’esempio più eclatante è il distretto di Frattamaggiore, 5 comuni con un bacino di 100 mila abitanti: qui i medici hanno registrato 136 casi nel 2008 diventati 420 nel 2012. Poi ci sono i numeri del distretto di Casalnuovo – precisa – qui i codici 048, cioè le persone con un tumore, passano da 384 a 622 in 5 anni.
… in some areas there was a 300% increase in these diseases in just a few years. The most striking example is of the district of Frattamaggiore, containing 5 municipalities with a catchment area of 100,000 inhabitants: here doctors registered 136 cases in 2008 which rose to 420 in 2012. Then there are the figures of the Casalnuovo district – he adds – here the 048 codes, in other words people with tumors, have risen from 384 to 622 in 5 years.
Map of the “terra dei fuochi” taken from “laretenonperdona.it”
Annalisa Tancredi on ambientequotidiano.it, analyses the consequences of this pollution, which affects the surface of the land, groundwater, plants, rivers, the sea and the air:
Il risultato è che questi campi agricoli, nonostante i divieti, sono ancora oggi coltivati dai contadini che producono verdure ed ortaggi di ogni genere – come pomodori, zucchine, cavoli, broccoli e altra frutta -, e li rivendono nei mercati ad aziende multinazionali per la produzione di passate di pomodori e minestroni surgelati che vengono rivendute non solo in tutta Italia, ma anche in Europa e all’estero….
Sempre nella zona della Terra dei Fuochi, ad essere contaminati non sono solo i terreni e le falde acquifere, ma anche gli allevamenti che mangiano e bevono i prodotti di questa terra. Un ex allevatore ha denunciato la morte di 2.700 su 3.000 capi di bestiame a causa di malattie, deperimento e malformazioni alla nascita: ha raccontato di veri e propri mostri delle malformazioni genetiche come agnelli con due teste o con la coda sullo stomaco.
The result is that these fields, despite the prohibitions, are still cultivated by farmers who produce all kinds of vegetables and pulses such as tomatoes, courgettes, cabbage, broccoli and other fruit -, and sell them on to markets and multinational companies who produce pasta sauces and frozen soups that are sold not only in Italy but also in Europe and the rest of the world…
In the Terra dei Fuochi area, not only the land and groundwater have been contaminated, but also the livestock that eats and drinks this land's produce. A former farmer has reported the deaths of 2,700 out of 3,000 head of cattle due to disease, decay and birth defects: he told of real monsters with birth defects like lambs with two heads or with a tail coming out of their stomach.
Faced with this situation, the inhabitants of the infected areas have many concerns. In a post Giuliana Caso comments on the people's anger and asks herself:
Photo from the TV investigation by the programme ‘Le Iene’, but if they do not explain clearly we risk reducing all of Campania to the Terra dei Fuochi. Source  the movimentopaceambasciatori blog
Perché tutto quello che ha saputo produrre l’ex ministro della sanità Renato Balduzzi è stato un miserabile progetto di studio? Che accidenti c’è ancora da studiare? Le pecore deformi di Alessandro Cannavacciuolo non sono abbastanza? Le decine di bambini morti non sono abbastanza? Le centinaia di casi di tumore non sono abbastanza? I contadini criminali e ignoranti che hanno irrorato i campi con il mix letale di concime e veleni del nord non sono abbastanza? Che accidenti ancora serve perché si dichiari lo stato emergenza?
Why has the former Health Minister Renato Balduzzi only been able to produce a pitiful draft project? What the hell is there left to clarify? Are Alessandro Cannavacciuolo's deformed sheep not enough? Are dozens of dead children not enough? Are hundreds of cases of cancer not enough? Are criminal and uneducated farmers who sprayed the fields with a lethal mix of fertilizers and poisons from the north not enough? What else do you need to declare a state of emergency?
While letteradonna.it notes that:
L’emergenza ambientale nella Terra dei Fuochi ha provocato un effetto psicosi nella vendita dei prodotti tipici, dalla mozzarella di Bufala Dop all’ortofrutta, crollate nell’ultimo mese del 35-40%. Lo dice la Cia-Confederazione italiana agricoltori, sottolineando che nonostante le rassicurazioni di istituzioni e associazioni di categoria, i consumatori continuano a identificare la Campania con quella limitata porzione di territorio regionale devastato da roghi e veleni.
L‘effetto-fuga dai prodotti campani può diventare pericoloso per l’economia e l’occupazione, visto che si tratta della terza regione in Italia per produzione agricola con oltre 136 mila aziende e 65 mila addetti.
The environmental emergency in the Terra dei Fuochi has caused a psychosis effect in the sale of typical products, from mozzarella to fruit and vegetables, which dropped by 35-40% last month. The CIA – Italian Farmers Confederation, points out that, despite the assurances of institutions and associations, consumers continue to identify the Campania region with that small part of the region ravaged by fires and toxins.
Avoiding Campania products can become dangerous for the economy and employment, as it is the third region in Italy for agricultural production with over 136,000 companies and 65,000 employees.
Following a letter from Cardinal Sepe and the bishops of the dioceses of the Terra dei Fuochi, the head of state, Giorgio Napolitano, has called on the government to deal firmly with this emergency. The website lettera43.it quotes his letter:
“IL GRIDO DELLE MADRI”. Nella sua lettera, Napolitano ha ricordato “il grido accorato delle madri dei bambini colpiti da gravi patologie tumorali ricondotte al criminale inquinamento dei vostri territori della Campania”, rinnovando “la mia intima partecipazione al loro dolore, confidando che non abbandonino la fiducia nell'impegno delle istituzioni, reso più coeso e credibile anche grazie alla partecipazione attiva della rete di comitati e singoli cittadini che non si contentano di denunciare i crimini subiti, ma sostengono con le loro iniziative, le operazioni di monitoraggio e di bonifica dei siti”.
“THE CRY OF MOTHERS”. In his letter, Napolitano noted “the anguished cry of the mothers of children with serious tumours linked to criminal pollution of areas of Campania, [renewing] my intimate involvement with their grief, trusting that they do not abandon their trust in the commitment of the institutions, made more cohesive and believable thanks to the active participation of the network of committees and individuals who are not content with only denouncing the crimes suffered, but support monitoring operations and site decontamination with their initiatives.”
“Just think, this used to all be Campania” comic strip about the fires in the Terra dei Fuochi by Cecigian
The government branch directed by the Prime Minister Enrico Letta, decided in early January 2014 to send the army to Campania “to counter the eco-mafia”. However, according to the reactions reported by the media, many citizens question the usefulness of the army in these areas. Here are some comments made by the readers of corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it:
gengiscano14 GENNAIO 2014 | 18.49
“Manderemo l'esercito per contrastare le ecomafie”. Cosa vuol dire , che i militari se vedono sversamenti abusivi di sostanze nel terreno possono sparare? Che se vedono gente appiccare fuochi all'immondizia possono arrestarli? Se non è questo , lasciamoli in caserma. Risparmiamo soldi.
gengiscano14 JANUARY 2014 | 18.49
“We'll send the army to counter the eco-mafia”. What does that mean, that if the military see people illegally dumping substances in the ground they can shoot? That if they see people set fire to garbage they can arrest them? If that's not what they are here for then leave them in the barracks. Let's save money.
Lettore_519922815 GENNAIO 2014 | 13.25
mossa solo demagogica. Meglio impiegare questi soldi per carabinieri e polizia e corpo forestale che hanno compiti investigativi. A che servono ora i soldati? Servivano venti anni fa quando gli sversamenti erano in atto, ora bisogna bonificare ed impedire roghi, cosa che può avvenire con indagini per capire chi ha interesse e chi è l'autore dei roghi tossici.
Lettore_519922815 JANUARY 2014 | 13.25
Only a demagogic move. It would be better to use this money for the Carabinieri and the police and the forest rangers who have investigative duties. What do we need soldiers for now? We needed them twenty years ago when the dumping was taking place, now we need to clean up and prevent fires, which can be done with investigations to find out who is to gain and who is creating the toxic fires.
Journalist Paul Tessadri describes how migratory birds after long journeys to other continents are poisoned by drinking the toxic water of about a thousand ponds that are located in this area before continuing their flight in ilfattoquotidiano.it. His article was then picked up on by numerous blogs and elicited several comments from readers.

author: Bah Abdoulaye


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Video: China’s Social Media Reacts to the Kunming Attacks · Global Voices
Abby Liu

The attack at a railway station in China’s Southwestern Kunming city has led to heated discussions on Chinese social media. Many netizens think western media were trying to downplay the incident by calling it “a senseless act of violence.” Watch the video below to find out more comments and discussions on Chinese social media.
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5 Important Points on Colombia’s Parliamentary Elections · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Bloggings by boz lists 5 points on Colombia's parliamentary elections, which took place on March 9, 2014.
1) Though his coalition lost seats, President Santos keeps a divided and fragile majority coalition in Congress. […]
2) Colombia's party system is divided and weak. No party received over 20% of the vote and the four top parties combined received less than 60%. […]
3) For those trying to identify or map a left-right divide, Colombia is tough. […]
4) A good portion of Colombia's population is against the system as a whole. Voter turnout was around 42%. […]
5) A more secure Colombia. The country did not face any major attacks or even significant threats during election day. It was a peaceful day of voting, a solid change from elections past and a sign of success and hope for the government's security policies (including the ongoing peace process). […]
Read more about each point in Bloggings by boz.


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Barefoot Lawyers Empowering Rural Bangladeshi Women · Global Voices
Rezwan

In Bangladesh, around 6,000 “barefoot lawyers” have been trained by the country's biggest NGO under its human rights and legal services (HRLS) program, reports Scott Macmillan at BRAC blog. These women act as one-woman mobile legal services clinics for the poor, especially women in rural areas where the traditional justice system tends to stack the odds against them.

author: Rezwan


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“Come Home Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370” · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, lost contact with airport authorities on March 8, 2014. As of this writing, the plane carrying 239 passengers on board is still missing.
Vigil for missing Malaysia Airlines passengers at the Independence Square in Kuala Lumpur. Photo by  Asyraf rasid Copyright @Demotix (3/10/2014)
There have been numerous theories about the mysterious disappearance of the plane; but in the end, government officials are still unable to locate the plane and provide conclusive explanation about what happened to MH370.
It has been an agonizing week for families and friends of the passengers and crew of MH370. Many have expressed disappointment and anger over the lack of any update about MH370. Some have turned to cyberspace to write what they feel. For Lokman Mustafa, he hopes to see his beloved sister again:
At this trying time, I find comfort and strength in the words of encouragement and consolation extended by colleagues, relatives and friends to me and my family.
But truthfully, we are prepared for Allah’s will, be it good or bad news.
My sister is a kind-hearted person, and I would miss her dearly if things turned out for the worst.
Have I said my last farewell to my beloved sister, the youngest among my siblings? Time will tell.
Maira Elizabeth Nari, whose father is the chief steward of MH370, often tweets her longing to be reunited with her father. She also thanked everyone who sent their messages of support.
I miss him so much. Sigh..
— . (@Gorgxous_) March 13, 2014
You know what makes me keep on going? Supportive family members, friends & all of you who never stop giving positive support and prayers.
— . (@Gorgxous_) March 9, 2014
Ceekay is moved by the Twitter posts of Maira:
Reading what Andrew's daughter tweeted yesterday brought tears to my eyes as I tried to remember when was the last time I met him and what was said between us as we parted for I, like everyone, take for granted that we will meet again on some other flight.
MH370 inspired many Malaysians to unite and show solidarity for all relatives and friends of the passengers of the flight. Razlina Yakub is hoping for a miracle:
I hope all Malaysians will keep imagining wonderful imaginations about our MH370.
But most of all, most important of all, never stop praying. Never give up hope, never give up.
I believe in miracles. Miracles happen.
When people have so many speculations, let us pray for a miracle, and our MH370 will come back, safe and sound.
Santhini Subramanyah urged everyone to continue hoping:
This note is especially dedicated to the Family members of the passenger who boarded the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. No matter what happens never let go the rope of HOPE! Stay STRONG! I bet your loved ones wanted you to be that way.
The hashtag #PrayForMH370 is used by netizens to comfort and support the relatives of the passengers of MH370.
"Please Share Your Prayers for #MH370" pic.twitter.com/MfpvmETNmZ
— BERNAMA Radio24 (@bernamaradio24) March 13, 2014
This is nice. #PrayForMH370 pic.twitter.com/DKKEzO1YnG
— YasminNorah (@YasmineHaron) March 13, 2014
Please be safe #PrayForMH370 pic.twitter.com/LIwIwdGh5O
— Tired (@Kimmy29vip) March 13, 2014
TOUCHING PHOTO: #MH370 projected onto a building in Shanghai Wednesday.#PrayForMH370#MalaysiaAirlines pic.twitter.com/dNMvuCF6Dm
— Missing Flight MH370 (@ClubSkygeng) March 13, 2014

author: Mong Palatino


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Iran: Deceased Blogger’s Mother Erased Out of News Photo · Global Voices
Farid

These are the two versions of a photo of a meeting at the Austrian Embassy in Tehran, one with Sattar Beheshti's mother, and the other without. Javan newspaper say they altered the photo to protect her. Source unnamed.
There were warnings and protests from Iranian hardliners last weekend, when European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton  met with with several human rights activists at the Austrian embassy in Tehran on Saturday, March 8, 2014.
In a negative article about the meeting, conservative newspaper Javan, doctored a photo, erasing an image of Gohar Eshghi, the mother of the blogger Sattar Beheshti, who died under torture in police custody in 2012.
Javan later published both photos with an explanation, saying they had censored the photo to avoid criticism for labeling the bloggers’ aging mother a “seditionist”.
Half Saddam, half Ashton
Mohammad Hassan Najmi tweeted a photo of a propaganda billboard showing Ashton's face halved and shared with Saddam Hussein's.
نصب پوسترهایی در تهران که نیمی از آن چهره #اشتون و نیم دیگر چهره صدام است. pic.twitter.com/SRFFCcVhZm
— Mohammad Hasan Najmi (@mnajmi64) March 12, 2014
In Tehran, some posters on billboards depict Ashton's face as half Saddam Hussein [former Iraqi president who led a war against Iran, 1980-88].
They censor because they fear
Mehdi Mohseni tweeted a satirical image of Sattar Beheshti's mother being cut out:
سانسورت مى‌كنند چون از حقيقت مى‌ترسند! #ستار بهشتى #اشتون pic.twitter.com/9XhZ97eOFu
— Mehdi Mohseni (@mehdimohseni) March 12, 2014
They censor because they are scared.
Mohammad Moni tweeted on March 11 on the likelihood of government complicity with the protest:
گروهی از «دانشجویان» در اعتراض به «اقدام خارج از عرف» #اشتون، در برابر سفارت #اتریش تجمع می‌کنند/توجه: تو این مملکت آب‌بازی هم مجوز میخواد
— محمّد معینی (@mmoeeni) March 11, 2014
Several students protested against Ashton's meeting with activists in front of the Austrian Embassy. Keep in mind you need a permission for even a water fight here. [several people were arrested after a playful water fight in public in 2011]
“Ms. Ashton, Iran is not Ukraine”
A small group of hardliners demonstrated in front of Austrain embassy. One of the slogans was: “Ms. Ashton, this is not Ukraine.”
It was the first visit of an EU foreign policy chief to Iran since 2008.

author: Farid


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El Salvador’s Election Tribunal Announces Winner in Presidential Race · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

El Salvador's election tribunal announced that Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the left-wing FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) beat conservative candidate Norman Quijano from the ARENA (Nationalist Republican Alliance) party on Sunday's run-off election. Sánchez Cerén won with 50.11% of the vote.
Linda from Linda's El Salvador Blog served as an international election observer on Sunday. She shares pictures and reports in a two-part series (1, 2) in her blog.


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Less “Experts”, More Thinkers Needed in Jamaica  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Annie Paul publishes on her blog a tribute to the late Stuart Hall by “three of the younger members of the Faculty of Social Sciences” at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, saying:
We ought to use the moment of his passing and the local apathy to it as an opportunity to do some serious soul-searching about the stifling levels of anti-intellectualism in this country.


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Pavel Durov’s Seven Reasons to Stay in Russia · Global Voices
Gina Lentine

Pavel Durov, Russian entrepreneur and the brains behind the social networking site VKontakte.ru, recently wrote on his page there, that more and more young people are deciding to emigrate from Russia over the past eight months. Durov quipped [ru], “In typical fashion, I've decided to go against the trend — and want to outline seven reasons to stay put in Russia.”
Here are Durov's seven reasons:
1) Low Taxes — Russia has a flat income tax of 13%, something that Europeans can only dream of.
2) Talented People — Russians often show off their talents by becoming champions in many fields, from computer programming to figure skating.
3) Breathtaking Scenery — Russia is a leader in terms of the volume and diversity of natural resources on its territory.
4) Beautiful People — As someone who has spent several years outside of Russia, Durov says that he can confirm that the percentage of beautiful girls in Russia is significantly higher than in most other countries.
5) Freedom of Expression — Taking a creative approach to pushing the envelope is Russia's national characteristic.
6) Potential for Economic Development — Many like to underscore Russia's lack of development. However, thanks to the lack of development, this leaves the possibility to create new possibilities, which developed countries lack.
7) A Rich Cultural History — Russia gave the world dozens of writers, architects, composers, artists, and scientists.
It remains to be seen if these positive aspects of Russian life are enough to outweigh the negative, and convince potential emigrants that they have more of a chance at home.

author: Gina Lentine


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Russia Blocks Four Opposition Media Portals · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

RIP RuNet. Images remixed by Kevin Rothrock.
The chickens of Russian Internet censorship are coming home to roost. Over the past year RuNet Echo has written extensively about the slow creep of legislation and regulation that could allow the Russian government to extrajudicially block any online resource through Russian ISPs. On March 13, 2014 the Russian Attorney General's Office requested [ru] Roskomnadzor (Russia's mass media regulatory body) to include four websites in its registry of blocked websites, the so-called Internet “blacklist.”
Three of the blocked websites are the opposition news portals Kasparov.ru (founded by Garry Kasparov), Grani.ru, and EJ.ru. The reasons given are the following:
Указанные сайты содержат призывы к противоправной деятельности и участию в массовых мероприятиях, проводимых с нарушением установленного порядка.
The said websites contain calls to illegal activity and participation in mass events that are conducted contrary to the established order.
According to Kasparov.ru [ru], the specific illegal activity probably relates to calls to attend “unauthorized protest actions.”
Also blocked was the personal blog of putative opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who is currently under house arrest for allegedly violating court orders (he is not supposed to leave Moscow while under investigation in an embezzlement case). Navalny's blog is updated by his wife for the duration of his sentence, even though he is supposed to be incommunicado during the house arrest period, or as Roskomnadzor put it:
Функционирование данной интернет-страницы нарушает положения судебного решения об избрании меры пресечения гражданину, в отношении которого возбуждено уголовное дело.
The functioning of this web page violates the provisions of a judicial decision about the measure of restraint for a citizen who is under criminal investigation.
Although the blocking has already started, the webpages do not yet appear in the Unified Registry [ru] of blocked websites administered by Roskomnadzor. The first three media portals, however, appear in the unofficial list on Antizapret.info [ru]:
The Registry of Blocked Websites. Screenshot. March 13, 2014.
Bloggers have started noticing the blockages. One of the first was the journalist Oleg Kashin, who asked [ru] his Facebook friends to let him know if they were having trouble accessing these websites. 100 peoples responded, offering screenshots and reporting which ISP they were using. For some of them, it seems that the blocking had yet to take place, most, however, were affected. Grani.ru also asked their readers to let them know what the blockage looks like from their side. Blogger Victor Korb responded with a screenshot:
@GraniTweet pic.twitter.com/R6H6g3USLV
— Victor Korb (@Victor_Korb) March 13, 2014
Navalny (or his wife) also posted [ru] about the news on his blog, ending with “I don't even know if anyone is reading this anymore.”
Kashin later wrote [ru]:
Так завтра твиттер выключат и все. Что делать-то, ке фер?
So, tomorrow they'll turn off Twitter, and that that's it. What is there to do, que faire [“what to do” fr.]?
Earlier this week, on March 12, Tweet aggregator tjournal.ru reported [ru] that the pornography streaming website Pornhub was being blocked by Roskmonadzor.

author: Andrey Tselikov


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Should Trinidad & Tobago Have Let Lev Tahor Through?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidad and Tobago was thrust into the international spotlight earlier this month as members of a Canada-based Jewish sect entered the country en route to Guatemala. Immigration officers noticed inconsistencies in the religious group's answers to standard questions and detained them.  The government eventually decided to send them back to Canada where the sect is facing a legal battle surrounding issues of child protection.
Pride, a Caribbean news magazine based in Canada reported that Trinidad and Tobago's Attorney General confirmed the deportation:
He said the Trinidad and Tobago government could not breach an order from a competent court in Canada and that failure to send the members back to Quebec could have resulted in diplomatic problems between the two countries…[and] that Trinidad and Tobago could not turn its back to the Court ruling regarding the Child protection order whereby the children would have been handed over to child protection agencies in Canada.
‘The welfare of the children was foremost,’ he said on television, adding that the decision to deport the members of the group came after their appeals of the High Court order to the Immigration authorities were denied.
He said he had been asked to provide legal advice on the matter and that he had informed the immigration authorities that the appeal was not within the time limit included in the Immigration Act and as a result ‘there was no legal basis or justification for the group to remain in Trinidad and Tobago’.
One Trinidadian blogger, Guanaguanare, was interested in the developments.  He posted a video that highlighted the Grand Rabbi's message before the group's departure form Quebec, along with a comprehensive list of links to the local media's coverage of the story.
He also checked out the Lev Tahor website, republishing a statement that addressed Trinidad and Tobago's decision to deport the group back to Canada:
Trinidad and Tobago called…Guatemala that agreed to accept the family if they are not criminals. The law in Trinidad expressly allows a person who came from abroad to immigrate to every place in the world, if he is not a criminal.
Having no other choice, and acting against the law, came the Canadian police plane with the Canadian police. When in…history [did] Canada sent a plane that [tried] to end a procedure without a trial?
Finally, the blogger contributed his own commentary:
I have not been able to come to any glib conclusions about Lev Tahor. I think that we have to find the pieces of the puzzle, even the untruthful ones as they are also instructive. The fairest assessment does not involve rushing to judgement. What I am trying to do for myself at this time is to understand what the group is about by reading what is available online. As with everything else, I have found a spectrum of opinions.
He continued:
I have too many unanswered questions to be able to move on. What exactly did we do with these people when they were on our territory and asking simply to be allowed transit? The details provided by the media and by officials about what transpired at Piarco International Airport and behind closed doors in the offices of government officials and the Canadian embassy are murky and inconsistent. I know that much was left undisclosed. Who believes that T&T's immigration officials relied solely upon their superior Spidey senses to find the group suspicious? Who believes that these people were not in detention? Who believes that any extraordinary care was given to making them comfortable in a place in which it was never their intention to linger? Who believes that they were given a fair hearing? Who believes that international laws were wrongly interpreted, if not broken?
The blogger expressed concern about the way the members of the sect may have been treated while detained and wondered why they had chosen Trinidad as their in-transit point. He also questioned the widespread perception that the sect was a cult, saying:
Cults, as Tom Wolfe succinctly put it, are religions without political power and that is obviously not a description of Judaism.
But what if you are on the wrong side of that political power? Lev Tahor, has chosen that very path in their strict interpretation of the teachings of the Torah which tells them that they are to submit to being in exile until the coming of the Messiah. They would be classified by us as an ultra orthodox sect within Judaism.
On Facebook, however, the tone of the discussion was very different, with users more concerned about the welfare of the children in their care than the group's rights as travelers in transit, especially since they are facing the courts in their home country. On the Express Newspapers Facebook Page, Josanne Antoine commented:
But ent is ‘child abuse’ they wanted for…y not just deport them all this gallery for what…it have innocent hardworking people who r residing here n getting deported no questions asked…this place really unfair
Once it was announced that the group would be sent back to Canada, more discussion ensued. Rachel Rajkumar-joseph said:
Is ab time Trinidad make a stand and let Ppl know our country is no yr hide away place when u doing yr crime
Richard K Mason had a different view:
they can be denied entry, I agree…but to return them to their port of origin? can they not just go on to another destination? is there evidence of criminal conduct by these people? Canada saw it fit to permit them to leave, why send them there?
In another thread, Sandra Bridgelal added:
I saw them on Tuesday at the airport and they were freely moving around so the claims their lawyer made are ridiculous…..if they landed in the USA they would have been held in worse conditions. You cannot commit a crime and use our Country to flee…..message sent….go home and face the music…..
On Twitter, commentary primarily consisted of links to mainstream media stories about the group's deportation back to Canada.


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The Underground Football Scene In Bangladesh · Global Voices
Rezwan

Football was once popular in Bangladesh and then cricket took over in the late nineteen nineties. However the appeal has not died. Padya Paramita digs into the Bangladeshi underground football scene:
At the moment, the underground scene is very competitive, (as well as popular) and attracts large crowds with each tournament.
Md. Omar Mostafiz at Jhalmoori remembers when the “underground” trend started:
The whole concept was developed in the year 2005, by some university students, who were football fans looking to play regular football.
There are many “underground” girls’ and boys’ teams playing regular tournaments in the capital Dhaka.


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Update: Russia Blocks Fifth Liberal Website · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

In addition to Grani.ru, EJ.ru, Kasparov.ru, and Alexey Navalny's LiveJournal blog [Global Voices report], today some ISPs also blocked the website of the liberal radio station Echo Moskvy (Moscow's Echo). According to antizapret.info, the website was blocked at the behest of the Attorney General's office because it contains a mirror of Alexey Navalny's blog at www.echo.msk.ru/blog/navalny. Echo Moskvy Deputy Editor-in-Chief Vladimir Varfolomeev tweeted that at least one ISP is working on resolving the problem:
Пресс-секретарь Акадо сообщил, что идёт работа по возвращению доступа к сайту Эха, но по-прежнему будет закрыта страница Навального на нём.
— Владимир Варфоломеев (@Varfolomeev) March 13, 2014
Akado's [ISP -ed.] press secretary told me that they are working on returning access to Echo, but Navalny's page there will still be blocked.
Some bloggers are also reporting [ru] problems accessing their LiveJournal blogs, likely because of the same issue of over-zealous blocking.


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2,715 schools to be Connected With Internet in Nairobi · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

2,715 schools in Nairobi, Kenya will soon be connected with free internet:
Wanachi Group has signed a $3 million (approx. 270m) deal with the Nairobi county, to connect 2,715 schools in Nairobi with internet.
The project was launched today and by June this year (yes, in 3 months), the pilot of 245 schools is expected to be done.  After that the project will be evaluated and the second phase rolled out in three to five years.
“In addition to the free Internet, Wananchi will provide each school with a digital set top box for connection to a television for use in delivery of audio content to students. Pre-primary kindergartens will be equipped with a digital set top box and a small television,” said the release from Wananchi.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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China’s Crackdown on WeChat  · Global Voices
Abby Liu

Some popular public WeChat accounts were shut down on the night of March 13, 2014 without forewarning. Most of these accounts became a popular venue for discussing politics during the past few months since the big crackdown on Weibo last year.
These deleted accounts include highest profile WeChat account by legal scholar Xu Xin and self-media like True Words Channel (Zhenhua pindao). Visitors attempting to access those accounts receive a message that the given account “has been repeatedly reported,” and upon investigation has been shown to be “in violation of the rules, and all of its functions have been deleted.” The message advises users to stop following the accounts. TeaLeafNation has more details.


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Discussing Aid System with a Light Touch · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

This blog takes a satirical view of aid system in the world:
Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like is an ongoing series of sometimes satirical, sometimes ironic, usually humorous (but sometimes dead serious), always honest vignettes of the humanitarian aid industry from the inside. Sometimes we want to complain about one of the many ills of the Aid System. Other times we celebrate that same system. Sometimes we expose odd behaviors we recognize in ourselves. Sometimes we call out things we see other Expat Aid Workers doing that we find humorous or offensive. Sometimes we attempt to impress you with our erudition as we explicate the subtle nuances of ethics and morality where cultures and world views collide. Sometimes we will be harsh (it’s a harsh world out there). Sometimes we try to set the record straight. Sometimes all we want is to one-up you with a story of how we’ve suffered in the field.
We are aid workers. We are expats. This is the stuff we like.


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Facebook ‘Courage for’ Page versus the Knights Templar’s Cartel · Global Voices
Andrés Monroy-Hernández

Residents from Michoácan, Mexico are trying to regain control of their towns from organized criminals. They are also actively using social media for their efforts. Although these Mexican militias have received a fair amount of media coverage, its fascinating social media presence has not been examined.
Saiph Savage, a grad student at UNAM/UCSB, and I have started to collect some data, and wanted to share some initial observations of one of the militias’ online spaces: Valor por Michoacán [es], a Facebook page with more than 130,000 followers devoted to documenting the activities of the self-defense militia groups in their fight against the Knights Templar Cartel. We contrast this page with a similar one from a different state: Valor por Tamaulipas [es], which has enabled residents of that state to cope with the Drug War related violence.
Militias since 2011
In 2011, a group of vigilantes from the small mountain town of Cherán managed to expel a band of illegal loggers backed by La Familia Cartel. This uprising became one of the first cases of ordinary citizens joining forces to challenge Mexico's criminal organizations. Two years later, new armed groups known as the ‘autodefensas’ or self-defense forces emerged in the same state but much stronger and well-organized, presumably with the backing from wealthier ranchers.
The groups gained national and international attention after successfully taking over a number of bigger towns previously controlled by the Knights Templar Cartel (a spin-off of La Familia). These new groups are similar to the Cheran group; however, their activities are more actively documented on social media, especially on Facebook, where people show support for the movement and interact with one another.
We have previously reported how citizens come together online to form alert networks; however, this form of offline collective action coupled with online action is a new phenomenon in the Mexican Drug War.
“Courage for” pages on Facebook
The Facebook page on the spot is Valor por Michoácan [es], Spanish for Courage for Michoácan. The page is particularly fascinating because it has succeeded in linking offline and online collective action by documenting the activities of the autodefensas in their fight against the Knights Templar and recruiting new supporters.
This is not the first time Mexico witnesses these “courage for” Facebook pages, though. In fact, the about page [es] of Valor por Michoacán itself references Valor por Tamaulipas [es] as its inspiration. The Tamaulipas page has been documenting unsafe situations in the state since 2012, despite its administrator being targeted by the cartels [es], and has focused on helping people spread alerts about unsafe situations, known as “situaciones de riesgo” or SDR. That said, this page has not focused much on forming groups to rise against the cartels.
To better understand how the Facebook page Valor por Michoácan has evolved and to compare it with the Valor por Tamaulipas, we collected the two Courage for pages full set of posts (5,195 for Michoácan and 1,914 for Tamaulipas) between the birth of Valor por Michoacan in August 19th, 2013, and February 18th, 2014. The table below summarizes the analysis of information collected from the two pages.
Table: comparing two active Courage for Facebook pages
Paradoxically, we find that although the Michoacán page is qualitatively more focused on offline actions, the Tamaulipas one has a lot more postings with specific location references, and time details. This is in part because Valor por Tamaulipas focuses on sharing reports of unsafe situations (“situaciones de risego”) like the ones we have documented happening on Twitter.
The Valor por Michoacán page appears to be used more as a platform to motivate residents to take action or show support for militias, often posting their propaganda. For example, over 40% of the posts from this page incorporate photos and/or videos. In contrast, only 5% of the posts on the Valor por Tamaulipas page include pictures or videos.
“I prefer to die fighting, then to die tied up” Pro-militia imagery in Courage for Michoacán Facebook page showing one of its leaders.
Patterns
When looking at the number of posts shared daily on the two “Courage for” pages we notice spikiness in Valor por Michoacán, in contrast with more cyclical activity in Valor por Tamaulipas (see below).
Most of the peaks on the Valor por Michoacan page correspond to major offline events. For instance, the biggest spike occurred on January 14th, 2014, the day military entered the city of Apatzingán to disarm the self-defense forces. Similarly, on September, 17, 2013 the page's activity had a peak of activity when “Hurricane Ingrid” hit the sate. Unlike Michoacán, the Tamaulipas page is a lot more cyclical. This could be partly to the volatile nature of the situation in Michoacán in this time period, as well as due to the affective desensitization Tamaulipas residents are experiencing after many years of recurrent unsafe situation.
Daily activity in Courage for Michoacan and Courage for Tamaulipas Facebook Pages
In order to get a sense of how themes of the posts for each page might change over time, we started by plotting the percentage of posts containing the page's most frequent terms (see below). What we noticed, again, is a cyclical Valor por Tamaulipas, for example showing a consistent presence of terms like “ayer” (“yesterday”) and “colonia” (“neighborhood.”) These terms are often associated with reports of unsafe situations. Also, we see where these reports might be coming from: Ciudad Victoria, Reynosa and Matamoros.
In contrast, Valor por Michoacán seems to have changed more over time. Initially, the page made references to the state (Michoacán) and to the “pueblo” or “the people,” presumably to establish a populist alternative to the local cartel. By November, the words associated to “narco” peaked, matching the time when the self-defense forces took over towns formerly controlled by the narcos (i.e., Knights Templar). Also, we notice a small but consistent presence of mentions of the government throughout the period we observed.
Percentage of monthly posts associated with the most frequent terms used
Final thoughts
Although these two Courage for pages carry similar names, and both describe themselves as safe spaces to report incidents, their posting patterns and goals seem to be very different. When the self-defense forces had the most vigorous opposition from the government, the Valor por Michoácan community became increasingly active online. By strategically posting patriotic photos and videos, Valor por Michoacán may be effectively and unconsciously creating a public relations campaign for some of the militias’ offline campaigns. This might help the web page recruit more people and gain support throughout Michoacán.
As we continue to dig into this data, we are interested in better understanding the nature of the messages that incite the most reactions online and offline, and to see if there are ways of examining if and when online interactions translate into offline collective action.

author: Andrés Monroy-Hernández


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GV Face: Happy 25th Birthday, Web! · Global Voices
Ellery Roberts Biddle

It's the 25th birthday of the World Wide Web! In this edition of GV Face, Global Voices veterans talk about their early experiences with the web and all it has enabled us to do in our (nearly) ten years as an organization. Alan Emtage, web developer and inventor of Archie, the Internet's first search engine, speaks to us from Barbados on his experience as a Web pioneer. And GV community leader Renata Avila and Free Press Internet Campaign Director Josh Levy tell us about the Web We Want campaign, a new initiative that promotes global conversation about human rights and the Internet.

author: Ellery Roberts Biddle


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Jamaican Dancehall Star Vybz Kartel Found Guilty of Murder  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The wait is finally over.  The jury in the Vybz Kartel murder trial reached a verdict earlier today: Guilty. But the verdict itself is as rife with controversy as the trial had been.
Tweets from journalist and blogger Emily Crooks were coming seconds apart, as she reported on the situation in downtown Kingston:
Lawyers have been summoned to judge's chamber. Tension inside; Tension outside. No hallelujah in the middle #KartelMurderTrial
— Emily Crooks (@emilynationwide) March 13, 2014
Some of her tweets contained photos of Kartel's supporters gathering outside the court; others showed the heavy police presence in the island's capital:
NOW – Part of the #KartelCrowd – downtown Kingston pic.twitter.com/oTNmqJVlmF
— Emily Crooks (@emilynationwide) March 13, 2014
NOW- Police everywhere. This is King Street immediately in front of Supreme Court #KartelMurderTrial pic.twitter.com/KHCqFJy7Fz
— Emily Crooks (@emilynationwide) March 13, 2014
Earlier in the afternoon, there was speculation as to whether the judge was even inclined to hand over the case to the jury – the tension outside the court was palpable:
Calm on the inside now. Tension on the outside#KartelMurderTrial pic.twitter.com/n0oJElWnHy
— Emily Crooks (@emilynationwide) March 13, 2014
Anticipation on social media mounted once Crooks tweeted that the judge had indeed sent the jury to deliberate:
BREAKING – at 3:42PM on the 13th March, 2014 Justice Lennox Campbell has sent the jury out to decide Kartel's fate!#KartelMurderTrial
— Emily Crooks (@emilynationwide) March 13, 2014
Soon, Crooks began crunching the numbers when it came to the way the jury would vote:
My note – However after 2 hours, judge can accept majority of not less than 9:3. Interesting here as panel is 11 not 12 #KartelMurderTrial
— Emily Crooks (@emilynationwide) March 13, 2014
As it turned out, the jury came back with a 10:1 guilty verdict amidst rumours that one of the jurors attempted to bribe the others. Sadly, the hearsay turned out to be true:
Breaking – police were lined up here to arrest juror number 3, a male for attempting to bribe others jurors #KartelMurderTrial
— Emily Crooks (@emilynationwide) March 13, 2014
In the end, the attempt didn't affect the outcome of the trial and word soon began to spread about the decision of the jury:
Adidja Palmer – GUILTY
Shawn Campbell – GUILTY
Kahira Jones – GUILTY
Shane Williams – Not GUILTY
Andre St John – GUILTY
Kartel, 38, whose real name is Adidja Palmer and his co-accused went on trial on November 20 in the Home Circuit Court.
Emily Crooks tweeted the judge's response to the outcome:
Judge to jury-'i will say this u couldn't have done anything else on this evidence presented here. It was not possible'#KartelMurderTrial
— Emily Crooks (@emilynationwide) March 13, 2014
Then the action really started, as Kartel's supporters, not liking the decision, became more vocal:
NOW -Shouts coming from Tower Street now 'we waan Kartel' Police closing in on the crowd gathered there
— Emily Crooks (@emilynationwide) March 13, 2014
The situation continued to escalate; up to two hours ago, protests were still taking place:
Police directing traffic away from King Street now as bottles are being thrown – police say
— Emily Crooks (@emilynationwide) March 14, 2014
Some netizens seemed overwhelmed by the barrage of information on the breaking story, while others joked about it:
My TL moving too fast…I can't keep up #VybzKartelMurderTrial
— SonLoray (@sonloray) March 13, 2014
That Emily Crooks lady should thank the #VybzKartelMurderTrial for 87% of her followers. LOL
— Matthew Allan (@Besses) March 13, 2014
Dancehall Worldwide shared a video on Facebook that demonstrated the anger of the crowd:
Some Twitter users were irritated by the protests:
Some wata dem want.. Police need fi tun on di hose dem. RT @I_Got_kush_: People like rice #VybzKartelMurderTrial
— #InstigatorOF (-_-) (@WhytesWorld) March 13, 2014
…while other entrepreneurial types made the most of the situation on the streets:
Lol@Da_MoneyJunkie: Meanwhile on Facebook.. Dwl I swear, Jamaicans a real sample enuh lmaoo!!#VybzKartelMurderTrial pic.twitter.com/EFzXDYmIRi"
— ♛Nigh†N∪R∫∃♕ (@BrowneyezForeva) March 13, 2014
The calls for Kartel's freedom continued, and dominated the evening's news coverage:
Listening to Nationwide News at 5pm … the chants of FREE WORLD BOSS are deafening #VybzKartelMurderTrial
— RickyRich (@rickjam) March 13, 2014
On Facebook, blogger Annie Paul, who was also following the trial, observed that amidst all the hype of the trial, the murder victim was somehow dismissed from being top of mind:
really glad i caught the tail end of @djmillerJA's interview w Lizard William's sister, he really has been forgotten in all this.
She quipped:
Scandal going to seem tame tonight after #KartelMurderTrial verdict…#Guilty

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Khodorkovsky’s Curious Trip to Ukraine · Global Voices
Gina Lentine

Khodorkovsky in Kiev reimagined as Hanoi Jane. Image distributed anonymously online.
This time last year, oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky was behind bars, scribbling the occasional public letter to remind the world about his captivity. Last weekend, he stood before thousands of people in Kiev's Independence Square, where he delivered a short speech calling on Ukraine to continue its struggle for freedom. (Read the speech here in Russian and here in English.) As the crowd chanted “Russia, rise up!” Khodorkovsky encouraged Ukrainians to remember that not all Russians support interventionism:
Слава народу новой, демократической Украины! […] Российская пропаганда, как всегда врет. Здесь нет фашистов и нацистов, точнее, их не больше, чем на улицах Москвы или Питера. Здесь нормальные ребята: русские, украинцы, крымские татары, мои ровесники, воины афганцы. Это прекрасные люди, которые отстояли свою свободу. Я всем им желаю удачи и всего самого лучшего. […]
Я хочу, чтобы вы знали – есть совсем иная Россия. Есть люди, которые, не смотря на аресты, не смотря на долгие годы, которые им придется провести в тюрьме, выходили на антивоенные митинги в Москве. Есть люди, для которых дружба между украинским и российским народом важнее их собственной свободы.
Glory to the people of a new and democratic Ukraine! […] Russian propaganda has been telling lies, as always. There aren’t any fascists or Nazis here. To be more accurate, there aren’t any more of them than in the streets of Moscow or St. Petersburg. These are perfectly normal people, Russians, Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars. They are wonderful people who have successfully defended their freedom. I wish them luck and all the very best. […]
I want you to know that there is another Russia. There are people there who, during those days, took to the streets to participate in anti-war rallies. They did so despite arrests and many years that they will have to spend in prison. There are people there who value the friendship between Ukrainians and Russians over their personal freedom.
Russian-Internet users were intensely curious about Khodorkovsky's reasons for appearing in Kiev. Indeed, many online speculated that his visit could indicate plans to launch a career in politics.
Twitter user svolputotouta noted that Khodorkovsky met in Kiev with Yuri Lutsenko, a former Ukrainian Interior Minister and a fellow freed political prisoner:
Ходорковский прилетел в Киев и посетил Майдан в компании Луценко: Бывшие узники
— Egor (@svolputotouta) March 13, 2014
Khodorkovsky flew into Kiev and headed straight to the Maidan to be with Lutsenko. [They're both] former prisoners.
Many Russians seemed to welcome the suggestion that Khodorkovsky might enter politics. Twitter user Vladyslav Chernovay tweeted:
@kgorchinskaya Ходорковский, будущий президент рф.
— Вячеслав Чернобай (@blackbaykr) March 9, 2014
Khodorkovsky—the future president of the Russian Federation.
Not everyone, however, was so optimistic about Khodorkovsky's prospects:
Ходорковский, приехав на майдан, совершил политическое харакири.
— Gateway to the Futur (@swarog09) March 11, 2014
Khodorkovsky, having come to the Maidan, has committed political suicide.
Twitter user fonKyunnap, for instance, was downright cynical:
Майдан, я с тобой-сказал Саакашвили и улетел в США, Майдан, я люблю тебя – сказал Ходорковский и улетел в Швейцарию.
— fonKyunnap (@fonKyunnap) March 11, 2014
“Maidan, I am with you,” said Saakashvili, and he flew off to the USA. “Maidan, I love you,” said Khodorkovsky, and he flew off to Switzerland.
Pro-Kremlin LiveJournal blogger Marina Yudenich was unsurprisingly suspicious of Khodorkovsky's motives, reminding readers about his past as a power-hungry businessman:
Когда-то М.Ходорковский был акулой российского бизнеса и крупным жуликом. Может быть, одним из самых крупных в России. Сегодня перед нами мелкий политический напёрсточник
Sic transit… Да.
Once upon a time, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was a shark in the Russian business world and a huge crook. Perhaps one of the worst in Russia. Today we see a smalltime political scammer. Sic transit… yes.
Whatever Khodorkovsky's true purpose was for going to Kiev, his mixed reputation clearly followed him. The speech at Maidan and other engagements in Ukraine mark Khodorkovsky's biggest public appearances since he was suddenly freed from prison late last year. Now he's attended a rally in a city that just overthrew the Moscow-backed Yanukovich regime. Without mentioning the name of the man who signed his pardon, Khodorkovsky's comments at Maidan were fiercely critical of Russian intervention in Ukraine. That being the case, why did he refrain from criticizing more directly Russia's leader? Where was the word “Putin”?


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North Korea: When It Will Collapse?  · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Although South Korea seems to be plugging unification with North Korea, experts are a little hesitant about projecting North Korea's imminent collapse. NKnews.org published a nice post on the chance of the dictatorial regime's disintegration, concluding that ‘Pyongyang's belated economic reforms make ‘middle-run’ scenarios more likely’.

author: Lee Yoo Eun