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The Russian Military Commander Allegedly Leading Ukraine’s Separatists · Global Voices
Aric Toler

Images mixed by Kevin Rothrock.
Vladimir Putin has attracted considerable attention for comments in Budapest yesterday, February 17, where he urged Ukraine to accept defeat in Debaltseve after losing to “yesterday’s miners and tractor drivers.” Putin's appeal comes as many on the RuNet believe they've found video proof that someone with slightly higher military credentials than a tractor driver is calling the shots in Debaltseve: Deputy Commander of Russia's Ground Forces Aleksandr Lentsov.
Dutch blogger “Dajey Petros,” who runs the popular Ukraine@War blog, seems to be one of the first online to have suggested Lentsov’s involvement in commanding the separatists who laid siege and recently captured Debaltseve. He tweeted on the evening of February 17 saying that Lentsov is “overseeing the takeover of Debaltseve,” comparing a still from a video apparently showing “Lentsov” in Debaltseve to a confirmed photograph of Lentsov in his military uniform. Soon after this tweet, a number of popular Ukrainian and Russian social media users shared his findings, expanding the possible discovery into a full-fledged Internet phenomenon.
Russian Lt-General Alexander Lentsov himself is overseeing the take over of #Debaltseve. https://t.co/og6AQP2b2F pic.twitter.com/g5IOhfuGCE
— Ukraine@war (@DajeyPetros) February 17, 2015
In the video “Dajey Petros” cites, the man resembling Lentsov counts off Ukrainian prisoners and later discusses the surrender of the Ukrainian soldiers alongside a rebel commander of the Luhansk People’s Republic. A second video later emerged, supposedly showing “Lentsov” issuing commands on a radio during an attack in or near Debaltseve.
Whether or not this man is actually Lentsov remains unconfirmed, but it's hard to deny the resemblance between the man in the separatist videos and the man who we know to be Lentsov. The OSCE Twitter account does indicate, however, that Lentsov was at the JCCC quarters about 35 miles from Debaltseve, in the eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar, on the night of February 16. OSCE reports also state Lentsov met with Luhansk and Donetsk separatist representatives in Debaltseve in December 2014 in his official capacity as head of the Russian Representation in southeast Ukraine.
Many on the RuNet have already made up their minds about Lentsov, tying what they claim to be his leading role in the Debaltseve battle to Putin’s comments of separatists being “miners and tractor drivers”:
Генерал-тракторист РФ Ленцов, он же “полковник ЛНР Киселёв”, командует “шахтёрами” под Дебальцево. pic.twitter.com/WW00SRBvlL
— Мысли Перзидента (@VVP2_0) February 18, 2015
General-Tractor Driver of the Russian Federation Lentsov—also known as “colonel of the LNR [Luhansk People’s Republic] Kiselev,’ who commands “miners” near Debaltseve.
“Простой шахтер” и и зам.главкомом Сухопутных войск РФ Александр Ленцов https://t.co/72wUMTRsf2 pic.twitter.com/P5e0zzVG9T
— opol4enec (@RUopol4enec) February 18, 2015
On the left, a “simple miner” and, on the right, Deputy Commander of the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation Aleksandr Lenstov.
Vitaly Kiselev, a commander of the Luhansk People’s Republic, was actually standing next to “Lentsov” during the video, thus the confusion over the name that was “attributed” to Lentsov during the clip.
“Lentsov” on the left, Kiselev on the right in this screenshot posted to LiveJournal.
Some skeptics suggested the Lentsov doppelganger was actually a local man who had risen in the ranks.
Это бывший тракторист, ныне таксист, возит Захарченка.
He used to be a tractor driver, and now he's taxiing around Zakharchenko [head of Donetsk People’s Republic].
Not all of the commentary was focused on jokes about tractor-drivers and miners, as others recalled Lentsov's checkered past as a military commander, calling into question why he in particular was involved in the Ukrainian conflict now:
Сегодня доблестный десантник, товарищ генерал -лейтенант Ленцов стал звездой интернета, хотя его видная фигура уже неоднократно засвечивалась в Украине с начала войны в лугандоне. Ранее этот бравый вояка был отмечен боевыми наградами за утюжение населенных пунктов с мирными жителями Чечни, ну а российская десантура, думается не забыла, что именно Ленцов отказался дать огневую поддержку цинично подставленной 6-ой роте псковских десантников , из-за чего погибло 84 бойца в 2000 году. В общем генерал как раз то что надо для подлой войны.
Today the valiant paratrooper, comrade Lieutenant General Lentsov, became a star of the Internet, even though his prominent figure has popped up in Ukraine since the beginning of the war in Lugandon [Lugansk and Donetsk]. Earlier this brave soldier was honored with military awards for flattening residential neighborhoods in Chechnya, and Russian paratroopers have probably not forgotten that it was Lentsov who refused to provide covering fire for the 6th Pskov paratrooper infantry—a cynical decision that led to the deaths of 84 soldiers in 2000. Basically, this general is just what this vile war needs.
The degree of citizen verification flame wars online was such that Lentsov himself finally spoke to Russia's state channel Pervyy Kanal and denied his presence in Debaltseve on February 16 or 17, claiming “it would have been impossible for him to get into the area” even if he had wanted to. While this might extinguish the fervor of some fact-checkers on social media, others will no doubt take Lentsov's excuses with a grain of salt.
The verification pros on the RuNet, it seems, can be as entrenched in their views as pundits and political commentators on mainstream media. Given that both the Ukrainian and Russian sides have committed fact-checking blunders in the past and have tried to use fake evidence to prove or disprove the presence of Russian military in eastern Ukraine, getting the public to believe any such proof might be a long and thankless battle.

author: Aric Toler


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Slovakia’s ‘Batman’ Is Leading the Fight Against Illegal Advertising in Bratislava · Global Voices
Tibor Blazko

Screenshot of the Slovak Batman from “Everyone Needs Advertising – A Documentary About Visual Smog”.
You can catch a glimpse of him in the 26th minute of “Everyone Needs Advertising – A Documentary About Visual Smog” made by students of the Academy of Performing Arts Bratislava that criticizes the amount and methods of outdoor advertising in Slovakia. He is a husband, a father, and an entrepreneur, but he claims to be a Batman of sorts, a vigilante who battles inappropriate, and often illegally posted, outdoor advertising. His face is blurred in the documentary for the sake of anonymity, but he has spoken to media several times in recent months about his activities.
The so-called Slovak Batman writes down the details of every successful action he takes against advertising cluttering his city, like his feats of destroying unlicensed makeshift billboards in Bratislava. His notebook already contains over 500 records of such examples. In an interview with SME newspaper, he offers this explanation for why he's taken this course of action:
„Chodil som aj po úradoch, no s nulovým efektom. … Nemám čas a trpezlivosť prevádzkovať združenia a otravovať kompetentných. Výsledky chcem hneď
I was visiting [authorities’] offices but with zero effect. … I do not have the time and patience to go to the NGOs and annoy authorities. I want results immediately.
Bratislava has become cluttered with outdoor advertisements left and right, and Batman isn't the only resident trying to do something about it. Civic organization Green Patrol is also among those who have been speaking out and organizing activities to clear the cluttered capital Bratislava.
An example of the outdoor advertising space that buildings, companies, and even individuals sell throughout Bratislava. Photo by Green Patrol, used with permission.
Attempts in Slovakia's national Parliament or at city levels by several organizations and citizens to limit advertisements has not brought visible results, despite the fact that many people would like a cleaner Slovakia.
Discussions about the topic can be found online, like the one in the comments section on the mentioned SME article. Some simply commended Slovak Batman for his work:
čistič: konečne že sa niekdo “pustil” do tých “priblblých” reklamných pútačov a reklamy ako takej. Samozrejme kto iný to “musí” začať ak nie občan.
čistič: finally someone “attacked” those “stupid” billboards and advertising as such. Of course who else “must” begin if not a citizen.
Peter Kudlička: dobrá práca, držím palce
Peter Kudlička: good work, keeping my fingers crossed
Others asked if and how they could become the Robin to his Batman:
ferikus44: Spravne, ten bordel co spati nase ulice treba vyhadzat von. Asi nabuduce tiez nieco ztrhnem :-)
ferikus44: Correctly, the mess which clutters our streets should be knocked down. Probably next time also I will maul something :-)
TheProzac: Tak to už hej vítaná iniciatíva – na mieste je otázka môžem sa pridať? A ako sa môžem pridať?
Celkom sa mi pozdáva tá hodina týždenne čo by som mohol venovať mestu
TheProzac: Yeah so that's a welcomed initiative – there is a question: can I join? And how can I join?
I quite like that hour a week I could give to the city.
sme12345: Zrejme by sme aj ostatní mali priložiť ruky k dielu, inak zodpovedným nezapne, že máme tých reklám plné zuby
sme12345: Obviously also we others could put ourselves to work like this, otherwise authorities will not understand that we are fed up with those ads
Some commenters added their own suggestions to the vigilante's activities:
yuri2: a co tak tie billboardy neustale prelepovat vyzvou na odstranenie nelegalnej instalacie ? to celkom odradi zakaznikov aby si tam objednavali reklamy…
yuri2: and how about always adding a label to those billboards with an appeal to remove illegal installations? it will totally discourage advertisers to purchase ads there
Newly elected Mayor of Bratislava, Ivo Nesrovnal, who ran and won as an independent candidate, seems to have a better understanding of what Bratislava's residents want. Nesrovnal recently denied the extension of several advertising licenses for companies throughout the city and has vowed to have the city arrange new terms and a better concept for outdoor advertising in the city. In a recent statement to media, the new mayor was quoted as saying:
Absolútne nekontrolovaný nárast reklám na každom kroku spôsobuje, že sa úplne ničí dojem z mesta a ľudia sú na to alergickí. Oprávnene. Musíme začať z verejných priestorov odstraňovať vizuálny smog všade tam, kde sa to, čo i len trochu dá.
Absolutely uncontrolled growth of advertisements at every turn causes complete destruction of any sense of the city and people are allergic to it. Rightly so. We have to start from public spaces in removing visual smog wherever it is, even [if it is] a little bit at a time.
Perhaps with a new mayor in Gotham, Slovakia's Batman can get some rest and spend more time with his family now.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Tibor Blazko


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Cyber Sex Did Not End Well For These Syrians Fighting Assad’s Regime · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

Sex as a weapon against Syrian Revolution. Photo by @R22Blog
An estimated 7.7 GB of data has been stolen from the computers and mobile phones of anti-regime fighters in Syria, a new study has revealed.
Sexual entrapment has become a dominant pillar of cyber warfare launched by President Assad's regime. Syrian opposition and rebel fighters have been subjected to piracy and hacking. Stolen data includes military and political information, humanitarian activities, refugees profiles, communication and media. The material has been obtained by hackers, posing as seductive women, to entice military secrets from the fighters through the use of malware.
The revelations are detailed by FireEye, a private company that provides cyber-security solutions to governments and corporations. Its special report “Behind The Syrian Conflict's Digital Front Lines” [pdf], focuses on the Syrian regime's sex-based hacking operations:
We uncovered these battle plans in the course of our ongoing threat research. It quickly became apparent that we had come across stolen documents containing the secret communications and plans of Syrian opposition forces that had fallen victim to a well-executed hacking operation.
Seduction and sex as weapon is as old as the story of Delilah, when she seduced the powerful Samson. “Delilahs” in 21st century are Pro-Assad hackers who have tricked Syria's rebels (possibly, some from ISIS) into falling for the oldest scam on the Internet in chats with “girls”. The hackers establish contact with fighters via Skype, pretending to be an attractive woman. They then send an image malware – tailored to PC or smartphone – which automatically establishes a remote-access tool known as DarkComet, embedded in their sexy selfies.
On its report, on page 12, FireEye reports a representative chat between IMAN (hacker) and her target (victim):
IMAN: How are you on skype? On a computer or on your phone?
TARGET:How are you?
IMAN: Are you opening Skype on your mobile?
TARGET: Computer and mobile
TARGET: How old are you?
IMAN: 25
IMAN: And you?
TARGET: What is your date of birth?
IMAN: 10-3-88
TARGET: Lololol
TARGET: 10-3-89
IMAN: What a nice coincidence
IMAN: Sent file New-Iman-Picture.pif
TARGET: You drive me crazy
Iman and the victim sharing the same date of birth is no coincidence. The fighter’s birthday is available on Skype and social networking sites, information the hackers already have.
AnonymousHQ comments on the reported cyber incidents on its website:
It is not yet clear whether the hackers have passed the stolen information of the Syrian rebels to the Syrian government or not. If the stolen information is passed on to the Syrian government, it would help them in defeating the rebels. We don’t have any information regarding the hackers behind this operation.
Screenshot of the FireEye report.
7.7GB of Data Stolen
According to the report, these hacking actions resulted in 7.7 GB of stolen data, including military and political information, humanitarian activities, refugees profiles, communication and media. It says 64 Skype account databases, 31,107 conversations, 12,356 contacts and 240,381 messages have been compromised.
In an Arabic post on Raseef22 blog, Mohamad Ghazi writes about previous sex scandals top anti-regime officers have been embroiled in recently. The article outlines, in detail, how several officers of armed Syrian rebels have become victims of sex hackers, who later on published their “virtual” encounters, including their photographs in compromising positions and videos of their sexual acts, to blackmail them. It explains how the officers fell from grace, and disappeared from public life.
This is not the first time that an international organization exposed how the Syrian regime tends to spy on its opposition. In December 2012, when the Internet was back in Syria after three days of a blackout, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reported that it detected two new campaigns of malware targeting Syrian activists associated with the same IP address.
The last report by FireEye comes after 47 weeks of a violent war between fragmented armed divisions opposing the Assad regime who still denies any human rights violations and yet continues to bomb civilian targets despite international condemnation. The war that has killed 210,000 Syrians since March 18, 2011, could now be dictated by information obtained through cyber sex.

author: Rami Alhames


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Trolling Russia’s Hearts and Minds · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Images edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Wars are fought at the front lines, but winning a nation’s hearts and minds comes at the home front. In Russia, the conflict in eastern Ukraine is a hotly contested political subject, and nothing counts more than rhetoric about the people who have died. This is hardly surprising, given that almost 6,000 people—many of them Russian citizens fighting for “Novorossiya”—have been killed in eastern Ukraine since the start of hostilities last year.
In the polarizing environment of war, many online are especially anxious to cling to any information that reinforces their preconceptions about the conflict. Last week, users of the image-board 2ch.hk (known in Russian as “Dvach”) launched a campaign to test Russians’ gullibility about information concerning the “fallen heroes” of the Donbas separatists:
ЗООНАБЛЮДАЕМ за нашими дорогими соотечественниками и пытаемся разузнать насколько толстым должна быть деза, чтобы среднестатистический ватник в нее не поверил, края пока не видно, но мы выстоим.
We’re going to zoo-observe our dear compatriots, and try to find out how ridiculous disinformation has to be, before a vatnik [a derogatory term for those who support eastern Ukraine’s pro-Russian separatists] starts to second-guess it. We don’t know if there’s even a limit, but here goes nothing.
The plan was simple: choose a famous public person—a politician, an actor, an infamous criminal—and claim they either died fighting for the separatists in Ukraine, or attribute to them a strongly pro-Russian statement. These photo mashups are typically signed with intentionally misspelled names, often translated awkwardly into Russian. For its experiment, Dvach targeted users of Odnoklassniki, Russia’s second-most popular social network that attracts an older, more conservative crowd.
Dvach’s project uses what are known as “troll quotes,” an image-macro meme that dates back at least to 2010. Know Your Meme defines troll quotes as images created to annoy people:
Troll quotes are image macros that feature a quote from a popular movie or TV show and attribute the quote to a character in another popular movie or TV show. Often the background image will come from a third unrelated pop culture source. These images are created in order to annoy or troll members of all the involved fandoms who will quickly identify the obviously incorrect attribution.
This “troll quote” features words by Star Wars’ Yoda, a photograph of Ian McKellen’s Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, and is signed by Dumbledore, the wizard headmaster from Harry Potter.
Dvach’s innovation is using its image macros as a test for political gullibility. By getting hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Odnoklassniki users to “like” some of these dis-informative images, Dvach exposed an important effect of the echo chambers operating online (especially on social networks, where individuals can tailor their information flows to media outlets and communities that never challenge their prejudices).
The image macro above shows a photo of the famous Ukrainian nationalist Dmitri Yarosh, head of the extremist group Pravyi Sektor, claiming he died fighting Kyiv’s “fascists” in Debaltseve. In the text, Yarosh’s name is reversed to read “Dmitry Shorya,” and his organization is renamed “Our Cause Is Right.” The comments below the image say, “Respect…,” “RIP Dmitry Shorya,” and “May you rest in peace!!!”
This image shows American former pornstar Sasha Grey, whose surname is translated into the Russian word meaning “grey,” claiming she died as a first-aid worker in eastern Ukraine. Her obituary contains several sexually suggestive double entendres (for example, “they say she could raise even the most hopelessly wounded men to their feet”).
This macro shows Josef Mengele, the Nazi physician who ran the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Renamed “Yegor Mangelov,” he’s identified as a field surgeon “tortured and executed by the Ukrainian fascists,” and is said to have gone by the nickname “Angel” (a play on Mengele’s real nickname, “Angel of Death”). Comments below the image read, “Oh God! So much for the ceasefire… May he rest in peace,” “the Euro-Ukrainians did this,” and “may this hero of Novorossiya rest in peace!”

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Trolls Target Brazilian Woman After She Shares Her Traumatizing Rape Story on Facebook · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

Screenshot of Viviane Teves’ Facebook post.
Viviane Teves, a 28-year-old Brazilian, decided to go to her Facebook page on Monday, February 9 and do one of the toughest things a woman who was raped could do: share her story.
Eu tento, constantemente, apagar as cenas da cabeça. Eu sei que sou forte, eu sempre fui. Mas dessa vez eu não consegui. Tudo que eu tinha esquecido nestes anos que se passaram, voltaram mais fortes do que nunca. Eu relembro o rosto, eu relembro o ato, eu relembro o dia, a dor, a droga na minha bebida, a roupa rasgada, o dinheiro roubado, o carro batido.
I try, constantly, to erase the scenes from my head. I know I’m strong, I’ve always been. But this time I couldn’t bear it. Everything I had forgotten in these past years are back stronger than ever. I remember the face, I remember the act, I remember the day, the pain, the drug in my drink, the torn clothes, the stolen money, the crashed car.
Ten years have passed since February 12, 2005, when she says she was raped. But the wounds remain. In her post, Teves says she decided to post about it to create awareness about rape victims:
Tenho um namorado que me dá força todos os dias e está ao meu lado me dando carinho nesta fase ruim. Tenho minha mãe que me relembrou que eu passei por coisas muito, mas muitos piores na minha vida, com pessoas ruins que passaram por ela. Tenho amigos e mais amigos que estão ao meu lado. Tenho minha família. Mas ainda dói. Dói muito! Sempre vai doer. Eu sou forte, eu sei que sou. Mas dói e essa dor está me consumindo. Novamente, eu sou forte. A fase vai passar. Os dias bons irão voltar. Já se foram 10 anos. Depois serão 20, 30, eu nunca vou esquecer, mas ficará mais fácil. Ficará mais fácil lidar que isso é ruim, mas acontece. E o que devemos fazer? Levantar a cabeça. Crescer. Aprender. Lidar com as adversidades e mostrar que, acima de tudo, eu sou forte. Eu consigo. A vida vai continuar seguindo e ela vai ser linda.
I have a boyfriend who gives me strength every day and who is by my side giving me affection during this bad phase. I have my mother who reminded me that I’ve been through even worse moments in my life, with mean people who crossed my path. I have friends who are with me. I have my family. But it still hurts. It hurts a lot! It always will. I am strong, I know I am. But it hurts and this pain is consuming me. Again, I’m strong. This phase shall pass. The good days will come back. It has been 10 years. Then it will be 20, 30, I will never forget it, but it’ll get easier. It will get easier to deal with the fact that this is bad, but it happens. And what shall we do? Raise our heads. Grow up. Learn. Deal with adversities and show that, above all, I’m strong. I can do it. Life will go on and it will be beautiful.
In her first post she received a lot of support from friends. Her testimony received more than 2,500 likes and more than 180 comments from people congratulating her for her bravery. But what came after was far from any kind of sympathy. Thursday morning, she took to her Facebook page once again:
Desde meia-noite eu tenho recebido mensagens no meu WhatsApp. Mais de 40. Descobriram meu número e jogaram em um grupo de zoeira para pessoas aleatórias me zoarem. Todas me parabenizando por esta data e desejando que aconteça novamente
Since midnight last night I have been receiving messages on my WhatsApp. More than 40. They found out my number and threw it in a joke group so random people could mock me. Everyone congratulating me for this date and wishing it would happen again.
Teves posted an album with screenshots of the harassment, which was later removed. In the post, she said she had contacted lawyers, but was still asking people what she should do to fight the cyber bullying from trolls who were congratulating her for the 10th anniversary of her “latest rape” and making other abusive and degrading comments about her.
In a different post published the same day, Teves explained that the people who sent the messages had been trolling and harassing her for years because of some online communities dedicated to dark humor that she used to manage on Orkut, a social network that was popular in Brazil between 2003 and 2008, before Facebook arrived.
Rape is a serious problem in Brazil. The last Annual Public Security Report – research carried out by the Brazilian Forum for Public Security — revealed that in 2013 the country registered 50,320 cases of rape. However, as the report also notes, taking into consideration that most rape victims don't file a report, the number could be as high as 143,000.
Another study, conducted by the Institute of Applied Economical Sciences (IPEA), estimated that each year 527,000 Brazilian citizens are raped, with 89 percent of the victims being women.
In 2013, a report published by the National Secretary for Women reached another terrifying conclusion: every 12 seconds a woman is raped in Brazil. The document used the new Brazilian Federal Law definition of rape from 2009: “to coerce somebody, through violence or serious threat, to have a sexual relations, or to practice or to allow them to practice any other libidinous act” (which includes non-penetration acts). Rape is a crime in Brazil punishable with six to ten years of jail time.
Even with this law, to some specialists the country still has to improve how it treats the victims. In an interview with the BBC in April 2014, Ana Gabriela Mendes Braga, an attorney and researcher for the criminal justice system in Brazil, pointed out that the law is often misinterpreted by police officers or judges during different stages of the process. Braga also commented on what could be a factor of intimidation for many rape victims:
Para dar queixa de um crime sexual, por exemplo, a demanda dela não é só criminal, é também psicológica. […] Há delegacias para mulheres em que a sensibilidade de delegada e as guardas não difere da dos funcionários de delegacias comuns.
When filing a complaint for a sex crime, for example, her demand is not only a criminal one, it is also psychological. […] There are some specific police bureaus for women where the sensibility of the police chief or the officers is no different than that from officers from a regular bureau.
After waiting 14 years to go to a vote, another law that will offer further protection to rape victims was approved unanimously by both houses of Congress and sanctioned by President Dilma Rousseff in 2013.
Proposed by Deputy Iara Bernardi, the Law 12.845/2013 elaborates on something that women already had guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution: the right to abort in case of sexual violence. The law requires all public hospitals to treat rape as an emergency and offer the victims diagnosis and treatment of injuries, exams to detect STDs and pregnancy, social and psychological support and full disclosure of the victims legal right to abort.
However, a report published in news portal iG showed that a year after the law's sanctioning the service still wasn't working. Not only were the victims misinformed by public officers when looking for assistance, many public health units either refused to treat them or didn't know how to act.
This means that even though Brazil has made progress on paper, the system is still failing rape victims in practice. Teves’ case is an example of how Brazilian society sees them — and it seems it'll take even longer for this society to change than what it took our Congress to pass a law.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Tweet in Your #MotherLanguage to Celebrate Linguistic Diversity Online  · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Tweet bird Image by Id-iom and used under a CC BY-NC 2.0 Creative Commons license.
Of the approximately 7,000 languages spoken around the world, only a small fraction are found on the Internet. On the platform Twitter, 85% of the tweets are written in one of just eight languages, according to one study – not exactly an accurate reflection of the planet's cultural and linguistic diversity.
Even though more and more communities are beginning to discover the possibilities of sharing their language online, much more can be done to raise awareness and highlight these efforts. For International Mother Language Day on February 21, Rising Voices, along with our organizing partners the Living Tongues Institute, Endangered Languages Project, and Indigenous Tweets, as well as a wide range of participating partners, are coming together to launch the campaign “Tweet in Your #MotherLanguage.”
Through this online campaign, we want to recognize and encourage Internet users who are sharing their language on Twitter with a special focus on indigenous, endangered and minority languages, all of which may not be as well represented online.
It's easy to get involved:
For more details on how to take part, take a look at the campaign website.
Despite the increase in the number of languages being used online, many communities still face ongoing challenges when trying to communicate through social media. Some languages lack a keyboard that allows users to write in their language, and many parts of the world still lack adequate connectivity, excluding them from the online conversation.
However, Internet communication has proven to be an important part of language preservation and revitalization. Easy-to-use digital tools allow for more people to create content in their language, and the Internet for speakers of these languages to connect, regardless of geographic distances.
This campaign will highlight the work of many individuals and groups committed to using their languages on the Internet, many of whom may be considered “language digital activists” for their role in bridging this divide and encouraging a new generation of speakers. We are fortunate to count the participation of “ambassadors” such as Rodrigo Pérez (@ISF_MX) from Mexico, who regularly tweets in the Zapotec language and Ignacio Tomichá Chuve (@MonkoxBesiro) from Bolivia, who regularly tweets in the Bésiro (Chiquitano) language, who created these videos extending an invitation to participate in the campaign. More ambassador videos are on their way and will be added to the playlist:
Thanks to help of many people around the world, the campaign website has already been translated in more than 25 languages, including Odia, Sena, and Lezgian. Many of these translations came from members of the Global Voices’ Lingua Project, a community of volunteer translators.
With your help, we can pave the way for a more multilingual Internet where different languages are celebrated, not excluded. All it takes is a tweet or retweet!

author: Eduardo Avila


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Argentina Creates Registry of Interpreters of Indigenous Languages · Global Voices
Laura Schneider

Pilagá Indigenous from Formosa Province in Argentina – Image: Laura Schneider
Following the case of Reina Maraz, a Bolivian Quechua who was detained in Argentina for three years without knowing why, the Court of Buenos Aires province has approved the Registry of Translators for Indigenous Languages.
According to research from the Instituto Nacional de Asuntos Indígenas (National Institute of Indigenous Affairs), during 2004-2005 it recognized the existence of 38 native people communities based on a Complementary Poll of Indigenous Communities from Argentina:
Los pueblos con mayor población a nivel nacional en orden descendente son: el pueblo Mapuche con 113.680, el pueblo Kolla con 70.505 y el pueblo Toba con 69.452 habitantes. En cuanto a los de menor población, se encuentran los pueblos Quechua con 561, los Chulupí con 553, los Sanavirón con 528, los Tapiete con 484 y por último, el pueblo Maimará con 178 habitantes.
Similar registers already exist in Peru, with its Registry of Interpreters of Indigenous and Native Languages, and Bolivia, whose General Law of Linguistic Rights and Policies outlines its main objectives as:
1. Reconocer, proteger, promover, difundir, desarrollar y regular los derechos lingüísticos individuales y colectivos de los habitantes del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia.
2. Generar políticas públicas y obligaciones institucionales para su implementación, en el marco de la Constitución Política del Estado, convenios internacionales y disposiciones legales en vigencia.
3. Recuperar, vitalizar, revitalizar y desarrollar los idiomas oficiales en riesgo de extinción, estableciendo acciones para su uso en todas las instancias del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia.

author: Laura Schneider


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Cuban LGBT Activist Takes On Conservative ‘Family Code’ · Global Voices
Sandra Abd'Allah-Alvarez Ramírez

Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Alberto Roque, a prominent Cuban activist for sexual diversity, posted on his blog Homo Sapiens an open letter to five members of the Cuban Parliament, in which he warns about the traditional, conservative and heteronormative treatment that the Cuban press has given to the topic of the family, precisely on February 14, the “Day of Love,” and also St. Valentine's Day in some countries.
Roque, a member of the Cuban Society for the Multidisciplinary Study of Sexuality (SOCUMES), takes as starting point an article by journalist Lisandra Fariñas, “A Love Code for the Family,” published in the country's largest circulation newspaper, the state-sponsored Granma. In the article, the journalist says:
Asimismo, el texto persigue el fortalecimiento del matrimonio legalmente formalizado o judicialmente reconocido, fundado en la absoluta igualdad de derechos de hombre y mujer; el más eficaz cumplimiento por los padres de sus obligaciones con respecto a la protección, formación moral y educación de los hijos para que se desarrollen plenamente en todos los aspectos y como dignos ciudadanos de la sociedad socialista y la plena realización del principio de la igualdad de todos los hijos.
The text [of the Code] also seeks to strengthen legally formalized or judicially recognized marriage, based on absolute equal rights of men and women; the most effective compliance by parents of their obligations with respect to protection, moral training and education of their children to develop fully in all aspects of life as worthy citizens of the socialist society, and the full realization of the principle of equality for all children.
This is precisely what Roque’s criticizes: the piece celebrates a Code that is obsolete and that fails to understand the complexity of the Cuban family. In his letter to the members of the Cuban Parliament (Miguel Barnet, Miriam Ofelia Ortega, Mariela Castro Espín, Raúl Suárez and Oden Marichal), Roque, who is also a medical doctor, proposes:
El Código de Familia vigente es conservador y obsoleto a la luz de nuestro proyecto socialista de inspiración martiana y desde las evidencias científicas disponibles. Por lo tanto requiere una actualización urgente que promueva la garantía de los derechos de un grupo numeroso de ciudadanas y ciudadanas cubanos que no nos sentimos representados en la letra y espíritu de la versión actual.
The Family Code in force is conservative and obsolete on the basis of our socialist project inspired by Jose Marti and from the available scientific evidence. Therefore, it urgently requires an update that promotes the rights of a large group of Cuban citizens who, like us, do not feel represented in the letter and spirit of the current version.
At the end of the article in Granma, Lisandra Fariñas says:
Vanguardista, revolucionario, símbolo de progreso: relaciones más justas, democráticas y equitativas al interior de la familia; que puede traducirse en más que concordia y amor, eso ha sido el Código de Familia.
Cutting-edge, revolutionary, symbol of progress: more just, democratic and equitable relationships within the family; which could translate into more than harmony and love, this is what the Family Code has been.
The blogger and activist Francisco Rodriguez, as a reaction and in support of Roque's letter, expressed on his blog Paquito el de Cuba:
De todos modos, es lamentable que no haya en toda este extemporáneo panegírico de una ley ampliamente superada por el tiempo, ni siquiera una mención a cuáles son esas nuevas “demandas” y “escenarios” sociales que obligarían a cambiarla, ni qué “modificaciones” comprende ¡ese tan largo estudio! que buscaría darles respuesta.
However, it is unfortunate that there is no mention in all this extemporaneous eulogy of a law widely surpassed by time, there is not a single mention of what are those new “demands” and social “scenarios” that would force to change it, or what “changes” are included in that long study(!) that would seek to answer them.
A new Cuban Family Code has been waiting to be presented and discussed in the Cuban Parliament for over 15 years. This proposal was promoted by the Commission for Assistance to Youth, Children and Equal Rights of Women of the Assembly and the Federation of Cuban Women, and includes fundamental changes such as civil unions for same sex couples, and transgender inclusion policies, and would make it illegal for a father or mother to exclude their children from their home or impinge on their rights.

author: Sandra Abd'Allah-Alvarez Ramírez


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Hindus Flock to Nepal’s Ancient Pashupatinath Temple for Shivaratri Celebrations · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Priests performing aarati (burning lights) to worship Lord Shiva at Pashupatinath Temple on the eve of Maha Shivaratri in Kathmandu. Image by Sunil Sharma. Copyright Demotix (11/2/2010)
Shivaratri (also known as Maha Shivaratri), the birthday of Lord Shiva, was celebrated with a huge fanfare by Hindus at Pashupatinath shrine in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal.
The temple, dating back to 400 AD, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most significant Shiva temples in the world.
On February 17, over a million visitors visited the temple to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva, according to the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT).
As per the officials, 150,000 Indian pilgrims visited the temple along with devotees from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
Sri from Vijayawada, India tweeted:
#MahaShivratri Nepal,Millions of Hindus attend Shivaratri together from all over the world at Pashupatinath Temple pic.twitter.com/RFolN8g6az
— Sri (@srithh) February 16, 2015
During the festival, the temple sees a surge of sadhus, or Hindu holy people, from India and other parts of Nepal. This year around 6,000 sadhus of different sects arrived at the temple.
The sadhus are a special attraction at the temple. People not only come to worship at the temple but also visit the sadhus.
Thomas Dutour, a stock photographer based in Kathmandu, tweeted a picture of sadhu:
Today at #Pashupatinath, sadhus were getting ready for #Shivaratri! #Nepal #Kathmandu pic.twitter.com/5Zn1pCAY09
— Thomas Dutour (@dutourdumonde) February 16, 2015
Anup Kaphle, digital foreign editor at The Washington Post, tweeted:
Even a hermit wants to make sure he is looking pretty. Happy Shivaratri, and ॐ नमः शिवाय, to all Hindus! pic.twitter.com/cGwGFe3rMg
— Anup Kaphle (@AnupKaphle) February 16, 2015
The festival, a national pride, sees a lot of advance preparation from the PADT and the Government of Nepal.
The Clean Bagmati Campaign supporters removed 26 metric tonnes of waste from the Pashupati-Gaurighat section of the holy Bagmati River, which flows by the temple, on the Saturday preceding the festival.
The Kathmandu Post tweeted:
Clean Bagmati Campaign: Gaurighat, Pashupati areas cleaned ahead of Shivaratri http://t.co/93EilC6fBX pic.twitter.com/qutRwCHqWa
— The Kathmandu Post (@kathmandupost) February 15, 2015
Likewise, the authorities deployed 6,000 security personnel and 3,500 volunteers in and around the temple to manage and assist the crowd.
The Metropolitan Traffic Police Division was kept busy diverting vehicular movement on all major roads around the temple so as to make it easy for the devotees to get to the temple.
Following the custom, President Ram Baran Yadav and Prime Minister Sushil Koirala offered Pooja (worship) at the temple. And the authorities had to manage the visit and the crowd at the same time.
While the authorities were busy managing the crowd, people from all walks of life enjoyed the aura of the festival at the Pashupati.
Kelsey Koontz, a feminist and activist, tweeted:
#ShivaRatri festival at #Pashupatinath. #Sadhu holy men, #Dada blessings and #cremations along the river. #Nepal pic.twitter.com/bQEfGR8XtI
— Kelsey Koontz (@kelskoontz) February 16, 2015
Due to the increasing population and modernization, the celebrations are completely different from the past.
Nepal Picture Library, a Nepali digital photo archive, tweeted a photo by Bikas Rauniar:
One more #Shivaratri celebration from the archives. #Pashupati circa 1986 Photo: Bikas Rauniar pic.twitter.com/ogNOSvjyJ0
— NepalPictureLibrary (@nepalpiclibrary) February 17, 2015
In Shivaratri, devotees also organize bonfires to warm Lord Shiva. It is a common belief that the God might be feeling cold as the festival is observed at the end of winter season.
In Kathmandu, children collect money by stopping the passers-by. The collected money is used to buy fuelwood to organize bonfires.
Ashok Bhattarai, a developer and traveller, tweeted:
Happy Maha ShivaRatri to all. Kids in the streets are blocking the road saying Maha ShivaRatri ki Jay. #GhumGham #Pashupatinath
— Ashok Bhattarai (@ashokbhattarai) February 17, 2015
Stephane Huet, a cultural reporter at Nepali Times, tweeted:
“You have to give money, or else we won't let you pass” #Shivaratri #Kathmandu pic.twitter.com/Bqmu9Wb8Wg
— Stéphane Huët (@fanuet) February 17, 2015
Shivaratri is not only famous for its religious significance, but also for the sadhus and devotees smoking marijuana at the temple premises. However, to discourage young people from engaging in trading and consuming marijuana, hashish and other drugs, the PADT stepped up vigilance and issued warnings.
The PADT allows only the visiting sadhus to smoke marijuana and other hallucinogens.
Quipping at the bad practice, Archana, a social worker, tweeted:
शिवरात्री को नाममा टन्न गाजा तान्ने हरुले सरस्वती पुजाको दिन चाही टन्न पढे कि पढेनन होला नि ?
— Eyes never lies (@smiluarchana) February 17, 2015
Did the young people smoking loads of marijuana in the name of Shivaratri study lot on the day of Saraswati Pooja [day for worshiping the goddess of learning]?

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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Japan Seizes Syria-Bound Photographer’s Passport Amid ISIS Fears · Global Voices
Shoko Baba

Photo: Saku Takakusaki. License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs confiscated the passport of Japanese freelance photojournalist Yuichi Sugimoto on February 7, citing his intention to travel to Syria.
The unusual decision by the Japanese foreign ministry resulted in protests, notably from foreign media, who argued that the Japanese government had violated Sugimoto's rights.
Video: Sugimoto's press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (with English translations).
The controversy brings to light the issue that, compared to societal or cultural attitudes in the US and Europe, it could be argued that Japan as a culture is not as committed to protecting individual rights as other countries.
The decision by the Japanese government to seize Sugimoto's passport comes in the wake of the brutal murder of two Japanese nationals, journalist Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, by ISIS at the end of January. Their executions came as a profound shock to Japan as a whole, which until the murders had never considered itself as being seriously regarded as an “enemy” or adversary by any group.
This national perception changed overnight. There is now a vague sense in Japan that there are some places that are not acceptable for travel. Instead of questioning why a journalist's rights have been taken away, the common question posed by society instead is, “Why would anyone ever want to travel there?”
Obviously no Japanese person wants to see such cruel murders repeated, and this societal sentiment may have played a key role in the foreign ministry's decision to confiscate Sugimoto's passport.
However, whatever the reason, it should not be so easy to overlook the fact that a freelance photojournalist has had his passport confiscated. While preventing travel to Syria may served as a valid reason to take Sugimoto's passport, going forward there must be thorough debate if another such case arises.

author: Shoko Baba


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Poor TV Coverage Makes Trinidad & Tobago Carnival Lovers Feel They Missed Out  · Global Voices
Jason Nathu

A portrayal in the 2015 Kings and Queens Carnival competition in Trinidad and Tobago. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
2015 Carnival celebrations have come to an end in Trinidad and Tobago, but for many who could not not participate in the spectacle, substandard coverage by local television stations left many viewers disappointed.
Trinidad and Tobago Carnival distinguishes itself from other pre-Lenten Carnival celebrations around the world, with unique events such as the King and Queen of Carnival, the Junior Parade of the Bands and miscellaneous parties (or fetes), cultural showcases and musical concerts leading up to the main event on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.
These events are usually broadcast live on national television, but this year's coverage seemed to be a departure from that tradition. Social media was abuzz on Saturday morning, with the realization that both the King and Queen competition and the Junior Parade of the Bands were not covered by either of the state's two television stations.
Was there coverage of the kings and queens that I missed last night? Will it be broadcast at all? Stickfighting?… http://t.co/HClZxytAWS
— Caroline Taylor (@carolineneisha) February 14, 2015
TTT used to show all Carnival events. What's up CNMG? #carnival2015
— Melissa Wong (@trinimel) February 14, 2015
So none of the tv stations bring kiddies carnival live /:
— Denergizer (@desedenergizer) February 14, 2015
Masqueraders at the 2015 Junior Parade of the Bands, Trinidad & Tobago Carnival. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
The criticism continued on Sunday night, as viewers expressed their disgust at the quality of the broadcast for the annual Dimanche Gras show.
so @ctelevision @cnewslive we know that it is Dimanche Gras 2015, what we wouldn't mind seeing is the name of the performer and the song…
— Kevin40 (@kramTT) February 16, 2015
I trying to Decide which wuss between Dimanche Gras and Soca Monarch. The Carnival product is becoming embarrassing. — Nigel T. Reid (@NigelTReid) February 16, 2015
How long we doing this #DimancheGras ? Telly stations still can't get it right? Pause. Blank. Pause. Maybe it's just my feed. — Knycky Cordner (@knycky) February 16, 2015
Like @cnewslive didn't pay for TV rights? This looking like they filming from the stands
— Mitzi (@Trini_mitz) February 16, 2015
Omg nah @cnewslive this is the worse coverage of this #dimanchegras I have seen! poor lightening…..poor commentary..disappointment!
— Cris (@yoits_cris) February 16, 2015
The outcry prompted state-owned Caribbean New Media Group to issue a press release explaining themselves, which was posted to its official Facebook page on Carnival Monday:
Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG) wishes to make the following statement with respect to broadcast coverage of the 2015 Carnival celebrations.
· CNMG did not have broadcast rights for coverage of the Carnival Kings and Queens Competition last Friday night.
· Despite paying National Carnival Commission (NCC) for broadcast rights for live coverage of Dimanche Gras competition on Sunday night and having firm contractual arrangements, CNMG was not afforded the opportunity to properly install equipment to ensure the quality broadcast for which we are known. CNMG was asked to install a camera behind a large pillar, contrary to broadcast standards. All other video and audio had to be obtained from a contractor retained by NCC. This compromised the broadcast product.
· Up to the time of the issuance of this statement, CNMG has obtained limited accreditation from NCC and the National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA) for our professionals to work at Queen’s Park Savannah.
· Repeated efforts to have these breaches of contractual arrangements addressed by senior officials of NCC and NCBA have failed.
· CNMG has not been granted preferred camera positions at Queen’s Park Savannah for broadcast of the Parade of the Bands competition. This will impede the quality of the broadcasts.
· CNMG does not have rights for internet streaming of the Parade of the Bands competition on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, despite efforts to obtain such for the benefit of our international audience.
· In spite of these challenges, CNMG is proud to be the major broadcaster of the events of Carnival 2015, with such coverage including national and regional events, popular parties and in-studio programmes.
· CNMG has enjoyed tremendous working relationships with Pan Trinbago and Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation (TUCO), the results of which were the quality and expanded show broadcasts and programmes we were able to afford our viewers and listeners.
The statement however, did not appease anyone; in fact, it drew even more ire from netizens. Aldric-George Bailey commented on Facebook:
As a camera operator, who is Trini and based in foreign… this is the saddest news ever… Not to mention that I am the son and nephew of one the great Carnival families…
I see things differently I suppose, since I push and promote both the island and the culture as much as I can, however, when the stakeholders play games with the meat of the country, it leaves me sick to the stomach that this goes on…
As a broadcaster (and a national one at that) you should be heartbroken to have to make this release. […]
We really should be taking a page from […] Barbados’ book and REALLY MARKET what we have…
Because, at the expense of everything we do as a nation, (crime and all) when de oil done, it is all we really have… […]
Meanwhile, Janice Lawrence-Clarke noted:
Somebody, please explain to me, objectively, how does a National Media Company NOT get the rights to broadcast a National Event??? Seriously, please…I must be missing the nuances of doing biz in TT. Thank you.
Another poster, Lee James, chimed in:
I was really wondering about the King and Queens of the Bands. I really look forward to seeing that Show. Now I know why it was not broadcast. What is really going on. Channel 4 used to be dedicated to ALL THINGS CARNIVAL, but that seems to be NO MORE. We really regressing in this country. We Reach!!!
Marc Chauharja Singh also expressed his disappointment:
NCC/NCBA, you are messing up. How do you expect our festival to grow if you block all attempts to broadcast the events locally and internationally? I get that you want to make money, but why don't you grant proper broadcast licenses? You are denying broadcast rights and then not allowing those who you give the rights to the ability to set up their equipment properly, thus ensuring that the broadcast quality is poor. This looks bad on an INTERNATIONAL scale.
Many netizens theorized that the quest for profits has eroded the cultural aspect of Carnival. Kathy Ann Black put it this way:
CNMG I thank you for your statement. I must admit that I was one of the persons who called to ask ‘what de hell going on with allyuh coverage”. I was told that you all did not have any rights to the coverage – I did not understand then, and because of your statement I understand now. Ok, so what happens now – how is this breach of contract going to be addressed – THESE PERSONS on the board of NCC and NCBA who make decisions on behalf of the COUNTRY (i.e. you , me and everybody) should not have ANY POSITION IN ANY OF THESE ORGANISATIONS – they don't have one Patriotic Bone in their bodies. I wonder if anyone of them ever played any kind of Mas’ or had any kind of intimate dealings with Carnival and the celebrations at all. All decisions made appear to be selfish and it is all about the MONEY. What part of the decision making was about the PEOPLE OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO. They don't care.
As the curtain closes on Carnival 2015, it is hoped that stakeholders will review the challenges faced by broadcasters, and act in the best interest of the public in the future.

author: Jason Nathu


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President Obama’s Countering Violent Extremism Summit Divides American Muslim Activists  · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

“Somali-American religious leaders speak about their values and their work to develop their communities #OpenCVESummit” by Twitter user @Shahed
The White House is convening a massive 3-day international summit on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) this week, with community leaders and government officials from 60 countries. CVE is a US government policy that calls for local community and religious leaders to work with law enforcement and government agencies to fight violent extremism.
The government policy is accused of heavily targeting Muslims in America and largely ignoring domestic right-wing extremism and other violent hate groups, while fueling Islamophobia in the country. Muslim American activists taking part in the summit have faced criticism for participating.
Canada-based Twitter user Maher Arar tweeted to his 11K followers:
“Countering Violent Extremism” should have been named “Countering Violent Islamic Extremism” bc that's what it's about. #CVESummit
— Maher Arar (@ArarMaher) February 19, 2015
Maher's bio says, “I have been called torture victim, al-Qaeda pawn, FBI agent, activist. Call me whatever you wish but let us together make the world a better place to live in.”
The summit comes days after the Center of American Progress (CAP) released an interactive document “Fear, Inc. 2.0, The Islamophobia Network’s Efforts to Manufacture Hate in America.” The report shows that since 9/11, a $57 million network of “misinformation” Islamophopic experts have helped marginalize the country's 2.6 million Muslims by advocating for discriminatory policies.
The central tenet of the Islamophobia network is that American Muslims want sharia law to supplant the US constitution. Even though the American Civil Liberties Union has labeled it a “mythical” threat that “clearly seeks to ride the recent wave of anti-Muslim bias in this country”, more than 32 states have introduced “anti-sharia” legislation, with language “cut and paste” from members of the network, according to the Center of American Progress.
CAP's interactive report maps anti-sharia legislation bills in the US.
The CAP investigation explains how anti-Muslim hysteria has impacted ordinary American Muslims through surveillance and profiling by law enforcement agencies, and documents the rise of hate crimes, following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, and attacks similar to the recent Chapel Hill murders of 3 Muslim students.
Before the summit commenced, civil rights group Muslim Advocates said:
By primarily focusing on Muslims, this summit and government CVE programs undermine the safety of all Americans, including American Muslims, who are living with the very real, well-founded fear that their neighbors may do them harm. Muslim Advocates has urged the administration to broaden the focus of the summit and is extraordinarily disappointed that it has refused to do so.
Muslim-Canadian journalist Sana Saeed, who works in the San Francisco based AJ+, critiqued the summit:
#CVESummit is the official, from @WhiteHouse, govt issuance of Muslims being inherent potential threats — Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) February 18, 2015
For Muslim-America community leaders attending the summit, the outpouring of distrust on social media was counter-productive. Wajahat Ali, a Muslim-American journalist, and Haroon Moghul, a Muslim-American writer, were live tweeting from the conference:
.@BarackObama: “We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.” Thank you, Mr. President. #CVESummit
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) February 18, 2015
.@BarackObama: “Nobody should be profiled or put under a cloud of suspicion simply because of their faith.” (1/2) #CVESummit
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) February 18, 2015
.@BarackObama: “Engagement with communities can’t be a cover for surveillance.” (2/2). I hope law enforcement pays attention. #CVESummit
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) February 18, 2015
Obama didn't just describe the history of Islam in America but said it's a story every American needs to know #OpenCVESummit
— haroon moghul (@hsmoghul) February 18, 2015
Wajahat, also quoted American Muslim lawmaker Keith Ellison referring to the three victims of the Chapel Hill shooting:
.@keithellison: Deah, Yuosr, Razan were living, breathing examples of countering violent extremism daily & they were killed #OpenCVESummit
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) February 18, 2015
speakers here stress terrorism is not a Muslim problem only, and most extremism in the US is white supremacism #OpenCVESummit
— haroon moghul (@hsmoghul) February 18, 2015
@amadshk I just attended a panel half of whose participants focused on white and Christian extremism. So don't know what you mean.
— haroon moghul (@hsmoghul) February 18, 2015
Some Twitter users were not convinced:
The greatest trick Obama ever pulled was convincing the world that his rhetoric matches his intentions #CVEsummit
— imran ali malik (@_iamalik) February 19, 2015
While the summit was going on, articles like “What The Atlantic Gets Dangerously Wrong About ISIS And Islam” and “Enough about Islam: Why religion is not the most useful way to understand ISIS” and were being shared by activists.
The latter article concludes: “To understand and counter ISIS’s threat and appeal, frame it properly. Identity-based extremism and millenarian apocalyptic cults provide a far more useful framework for understanding ISIS than Islam does.”
At the end of the first day of the summit, Wajahat Ali wrote this on his public Facebook page:
I welcome critiques of today's CVE summit and the government's foreign policy, counter terrorism efforts and national security endeavors that have created a tremendous trust deficit with Muslim communities, both here and abroad. Law enforcement “engagement” has been often abused as surveillance in the post 9-11 climate by some local, state and federal law enforcement agencies: NYPD spying, mosque crawlers, community rakers, shady GPS devices attached to cars, and on and on. [..]
To all who observe this for the past two decades, this reeks of hypocrisy; it betrays the best of our America values, erodes our civil liberties and gives credence to extremist messaging that indeed “The West is at War with Islam.” The feeling of “security” gained by depriving liberties of those who are often the most marginalized is illusory and self-defeating.
But, violent extremists – especially abroad – do exist, and their victims are mostly Muslims. The ones who die at the hands of ISIS and pick up guns to fight the scourge of ISIS are Muslims.
There are numerous problems that exist. Whether we like it or not, the government is going to move forward with CVE and CT measures. Does it suck? Yes, it sucks. That doesn't mean you accept it wholesale, but you have to accept that this is the current and forseeable [sic] reality. […]
You don't have to agree, and it's perfectly legitimate to be frustrated by the polarizing rhetoric, self-defeating policies, myopic strategies and some troubling actors. But know it'd be a lot worse if people didn't participate and act in their respective capacities.
Better to be a participant than spectator.

author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


text:
Quiz: Are You At Risk of Becoming a Terrorist? · Global Voices
Global Voices

“I hope you realize that if they deploy the fried mozzarella cheese sticks, I'm switching teams.” tweeted by Twitter user @LibyaLiberty
This week The Intercept revealed a rating system that the US government encourages social workers, teachers and law enforcement workers to use to detect potential terrorists.
The ranking system is “supposed to alert US government officials to individuals at risk of turning to radical violence, and to families or communities at risk of incubating extremist ideologies.”
The system detailed in a 36-page internal government document obtained by the digital magazine was put together by the National Counterterrorism Center and is part of a wider government strategy for Countering Violent Extremism, which calls for local community and religious leaders to work together with law enforcement and government agencies.
The White House is currently hosting an international 3-day summit on Countering Violent Extremism with representatives from over 60 countries.
Under categories like “Expressions of Hopelessness, Futility,” “Talk of Harming Self or Others,” and “Connection to Group Identity (Race, Nationality, Religion, Ethnicity),” the ranking system asks teachers, social workers and police officers to rank individuals from 1 to 5.
While reading the document at Global Voices, we couldn't help but laugh out loud because of the reductive approach of the survey. We decided to make our own quiz based on the simplistic assumptions the National Counterterrorism Center made, in its ranking system.
This Quiz was created by Taisa Sganzerla, Elizabeth Rivera, Amira Alhussaini and Sahar Habib Ghazi.

author: Global Voices


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#SaveSaman: A Final Effort to Save Iran’s Saman Naseem from Execution · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Activists around the world are rallying urgently to stop the Iranian government from executing 22-year-old Saman Naseem, who was arrested five years ago when he was still a teenager for being a member of an armed opposition group.
Iran is a signatory on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and human rights workers say Naseem's execution would violate its obligations under this treaty.
International law unequivocally bans the execution of juveniles #SaveSaman #Iran
— Tavaana (@Tavaana) February 18, 2015
Amnesty International has been leading a call to action to stop the execution scheduled for today, February 19. Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, explained:
That the Iranian authorities are preparing to put to death a young man who’s been tortured for 97 days to ‘confess’ when he was 17 years old beggars belief. ..Saman’s execution must be immediately stopped and his case thoroughly reviewed.
In a letter published by Amnesty, Naseem said the conditions of his incarceration have been severe:
During the first days, the level of torture was so severe that it left me unable to walk. All my body was black and blue. They hung me from my hands and feet for hours. I was blindfolded during the whole period of interrogations and torture, and could not see the interrogation and torture officers. They repeatedly told me that they had arrested my family members including my father, my mother, and my brother. They told me that they would kill me right there and would cover my grave with cement. When I wanted to sleep during nights, they would not let me rest by making noises using different devices, including by constantly banging on the door. I was in a state between madness and consciousness. I could not have any contact with my family during this time. During the trial, even the presiding judge threatened me with more beatings a number of times and my lawyers were removed under pressure.
A social media campaign using the hashtag #SaveSaman is underway to tag Iranian officials in pleas to halt to Naseem's execution. Many Twitter users have been tagging @khamenei_ir, the account of Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader.
Iran: Halt Saman Naseem’s execution & end #DeathPenalty for juveniles! #SaveSaman http://t.co/V9jlKlMnqv @khamenei_ir — Tori (@ETori) February 18, 2015
Beaten for hours on Sunday to force a ‘confession’. Ask @khamenei_ir to #SaveSaman before his execution in two days pic.twitter.com/VYTd6wGVuL
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) February 17, 2015

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Take a Stroll Through the Backstreets of Japan · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Matsushima, Tsuruga. Photo: Nevin Thompson
In the age of ubiquitous smartphone cameras and free online video storage, Slow TV has become a phenomenon. In this emerging genre, videos featuring complete train journeys are popular, as well as three-hour videos of tropical fish. Artist Kees Colijn has embarked on a video project that documents his “walk to the East.”
One Japanese YouTube user, satobo3104, has uploaded hundreds of videos documenting walks through old neighbourhoods all over Japan.
The videos do not feature any commentary. It's just a stroll down quiet side streets. It's a unique, meditative way to become immersed in the sights and sounds of places one might never normally get to see.
Tsuruga is a small city on the Japan Sea Coast about an hour north of Kyoto by car. Matsushima is an older neighbourhood in Tsuruga, and the video perfectly captures the atmosphere of a quiet summer day.
Watch Part 2 and Part 3 here.
Takaoka is another small city on the Japan Sea Coast, and features many old-style Japanese houses in neighbourhoods that haven't changed much in several hundred years. The video takes us on a walk through the Yokota and Kanaya neighbourhoods, visiting shrines and temples along the way.
Of particular interest is the Senbon-koshi neighbourhood in Kanaya, a heritage site featuring streets lined with restored traditional homes.
This video provides a glimpse of a Japanese shotengai, or traditional shopping area in Sonoda, Amagasaki, just east of Kobe.
For much of Japan's postwar period, shotengai served as the heart of urban neighbourhood life in Japan. Small family-owned shops and eateries provided cheap and convenient staples, and often there are awnings overhead that protect shoppers from rain, snow, and hot sun. As Japan's population ages, fewer families live in these older neighbourhoods. Fewer local customers means shotengai are becoming a thing of the past.
Covered markets still do quite well in some parts of Japan, especially if they cater to tourists. This video features a stroll through Kyoto's Nishiki Market. It's a great chance to catch a glimpse of everything from snow crab to cut flowers being offered for sale.
In this video we catch a glimpse of daily life in the heart of Tokyo, the world's largest city. We take a stroll through Tsukiji, just east of Ginza. The narrow streets are lined with older houses, providing a sharp contrast to the sleek, gleaming cityscape located just a few blocks away.
Many more videos of neighbourhood walks in Japan can be found on satobo3104 channel.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Twitter Chatter About Putin and Poroshenko: The Language Breakdown · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
This article is part of a citizen-media data-analysis project, a collaboration between RuNet Echo and the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. Explore the complete article series on the All the Presidents’ Tweets page.
When we started collecting our Twitter data last October, we were predominantly interested in what Russians and Ukrainians were saying about their presidents. But we decided to cast a wider net and collected all the tweets containing the last names of the heads of states in Russian (Путин and Порошенко), Ukrainian (Путін and Порошенко), and English (Putin and Poroshenko). We ended up with over six million tweets—6,342,294, to be exact.
Once we had our data, we faced a problem: how can we tell when a Russian or Ukrainian tweets about Putin or Poroshenko as opposed to a Brit or a Korean? There are several attributes of tweets and Twitter accounts that help indicate a user's country and language. First, there is the location a user chooses to add to their profile. Then there is the language a user sets for their account and interface. Third, each tweet also has a language indicator, determined from the keyboard setting and tweet content. Finally, some users choose to turn on geolocation on their smartphones, and in this case each tweet also gets a set of coordinates that can be put on a map.
None of these options tells you what the user's nationality is with 100% certainty, of course, but each of them gives us some useful information. So in this installment, we'll look at the language use in the tweets contained in our data set, and will leave geolocated tweets and further discussion of country-specific tweeting until next time.
Here's the breakdown of our six-million strong tweet archive.
It is immediately obvious that tweets in Russian dominate the space, accounting for over half of all tweets in the dataset. But Twitter users posting in Russian include not just Russians, but also Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Moldovans, and citizens of other post-Soviet states. Russian-speaking immigrants anywhere from Italy to Australia also contribute to the massive presence of the language in our data set.
Although Russian holds the top spot, lots of Ukrainians tweet in Russian and Ukrainian intermittently, so there is no real correlation between the number of tweets in Russian and Ukrainian and the number of Twitter users in Russia (over eight million in 2014) and in Ukraine (about 600,000 as of July 2014).
Additionally, we know both Russians and Ukrainians often tweet in non-native languages, e.g., English and French. This is especially evident during times of political upheaval, and is consistent with tweeting behavior that Poell and Darmoni observed in their 2012 study of the Tunisian revolution, where people tweeted in English to engage the Western mainstream media and English-speaking users.
The use of both Latin and non-Latin hashtags in the same tweet is another factor complicating language analysis. In her analysis of millions of tweets during the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine, Katerena Kuksenok observed a “large number of tweets using equivalent hashtags in multiple languages” (eg, “#Євромайдан #Евромайдан #Euromaidan”), ostensibly to maximize exposure of the tweets’ messages.
While Russian and Ukrainian at the top of our language pyramid are easy to explain, some other languages at the top are less obvious, especially if we compare the results from our sample with the broader statistics on Twitter's most used languages.
The popularity of English is evident, since Anglophone users come not only from English-speaking countries like the US and the UK, but from countries all over the world. Spanish is popular across Twitter in general, and that seems to be reflected in our sample as well.
However, French is less popular overall, and German even less so, and yet they have a fairly significant presence in our sample. This might be because both France and Germany are intimately involved in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia around the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, so the media and social network denizens of both countries are paying more than average attention to the affairs of Poroshenko and Putin.
The same seems to be true of Turkish and Italian Twitter users, as the number of Turkish-language tweets mentioning the two presidents is almost equal to the number of tweets in German, and the Italian is not far behind, indicating heightened attention to the fate of their neighbors.
A notable absence is the relatively small number of tweets in Japanese in our sample, given that a massive 16% of overall Twitter content is produced in Japanese. Arabic, Malay and Portuguese also constitute a negligent percentage of tweets about the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, whereas Indonesian-speaking Twitter users appear to be more interested in the matter.
While the world at large is obviously interested in what the leaders of Ukraine and Russia are doing, an overwhelming amount of interest and opinions seems to be concentrated in the Russian-speaking Twitter sphere and its Ukrainian counterpart. As we dig deeper into this particular domain, we expect to bring you new insights about political debate and discussion on the RuNet, and a more nuanced understanding of what the personas of Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko mean to Twitter users in Ukraine and Russia.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Afghanistan Makes History in Cricket World Cup, Despite Debut Loss to Bangladesh · Global Voices
Rezwan

Image from the Bangladesh-Afghanistan match from Manuka, Oval. Image By Rezwan
February 18 was a historic day for Afghanistan, as its national cricket team took on Bangladesh at Manuka Oval Stadium in Canberra, Australia, for the country's first ever game in a Cricket World Cup.
Even though Bangladesh showed off its experience and talent, beating Afghanistan by 105 runs in a quite one-sided game, it was clear the country had come a long way. Afghanistan learned the game from neighbouring Pakistan, where countless Afghans fled following the 1979 Soviet invasion of their homeland, and cricket is now the most popular game there.
Bangladesh is also comparatively new to the World Cup. It played its first World Cup game in 1999.
Ahead of the game Afghanistan was pumped up from its victory over Bangladesh at the last Asia Cup in 2014 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. However, the conditions in Australia were much different. The pitch at Manuka Oval offered more by way of pace and bounce than that Asia Cup surface.
Huge crowd queueing up for the Bangladesh-Afghanistan match on Feb. 18, 2015. Image by Rezwan
Despite the loss, Afghanistan thrilled its supporters as its bowlers kept up the pressure on Bangladeshi batsmen in the first 25 overs with a low run rate and took four wickets. Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim combined for a 114-run 5th wicket partnership and Bangladesh posted a total of 267. Afghanistan was not up to par in reply as it was reduced to three wickets with only three runs in the first three overs. The team never quite recovered and was all out for 162 runs in 42.5 overs.
Canberra is home to a small population of Bangladeshis maybe 7,000 to 8,000 strong. However, many Bangladeshis from Sydney and Melbourne came to the Australian capital to watch the game. The official match crowd was 10,972, out of which Bangladeshis were more than 9,000, transforming the stadium into a little Bangladesh.
Here are some pictures from the crowd:
Bangladeshi supporters. Image by Rezwan (18/2/2015)
Afghan Supporters. Image by Rezwan (18/2/2015)
Bangladeshi supporters wore the green-and-red team jerseys, the same colors as the Bangladeshi flag. Image by Rezwan
Afghani supporters were also colourful. Image by Rezwan (18/2/2015)
Twitter hashtags #cwc15 and #BanvsAfg were trending on that day as many were talking about the game.
The big game for @BCBtigers! Players to Watch from both sides. @Sah75official and @MohammadNabi007. #BANvAFG #CWC15 pic.twitter.com/SSHG8ohdh9
— Bangladesh Cricket (@BCBtigers) February 17, 2015
Love for my team! #RiseOfTheTigers @BCBtigers #CWC15 @ICC #Bangladesh I wish you ALL the very best! pic.twitter.com/mnCPOXHprY
— Raihan Jamil (@RainSoakedPoet) February 17, 2015
OUT! Afghanistan slump to 3 for 3 and Bangladesh are rampant in Canberra! http://t.co/d5nJSzn4DX #BanvAfg #cwc15 pic.twitter.com/uByBF03x4f
— ICC (@ICC) February 18, 2015
Plenty to smile about for @BCBtigers fans! AFG 3-19 (9) without a boundary: http://t.co/QTLwYsUiOw #cwc15 #BANvAFG pic.twitter.com/V6q8fRS2Vs
— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) February 18, 2015
The fun and festivities continue here at Manuka Oval SCORES #cwc15 #BANvsAFG http://t.co/8mVzyfEOfx https://t.co/803jJwryxu
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) February 18, 2015
Safe to say these fans are pretty happy with @BCBtigers who are closing in on victory at Manuka #cwc15 #BANvsAFG https://t.co/8XdssYsHTt
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) February 18, 2015
.@BCBtigers and @ACBofficials players shake hands at the end of a historic match #cwc15 #BANvsAFG pic.twitter.com/lAtH8X8lhD
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) February 18, 2015
A tweet by the US Embassy in Kabul declaring victory for Afghanistan before the end of the game generated a lot of buzz. It was retweeted more than 300 times and favourited more than 100 times:
Aww, another US body @USEmbassyKabul living in denial as usual. Nbd. #BANvsAFG pic.twitter.com/o0QZjmwfH1
— Samira Sadeque (@Samideque) February 18, 2015
Afghanistan v Bangladesh: Americans declare victory in Kabul too early… again http://t.co/GlTEEoTFWS
— AfghanNews (@AfghanNews24) February 18, 2015
The embassy acknowledged their “premature posting” in another tweet, but maintained their excitement about Afghanistan's participation at the World Cup.

author: Rezwan


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Ali Abdulemam: ‘I Have Not Lost My Identity. I Am Bahraini.’ · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Ali Abdulemam (center) walks in a protest march with Nabeel Rajab (left) and Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja in February 2011. Photo by Mohamed CJ via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
This narrative was originally published by Index on Censorship.
Ali Abdulemam is a Bahraini blogger and founder of Bahrain Online, a pro-democracy news website and forum. In August 2010, Abdulemam was arrested and imprisoned by Bahraini authorities, on accusations of “spreading false information.” He was released in February 2011 and subsequently went into hiding following a crackdown by the government on pro-democracy protesters. Tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison in absentia, Abdulemam fled the country in 2013 and was granted political asylum in the UK, where he now has political asylum. He currently works with both Bahrain Watch and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. He is also a member of the Global Voices community.
Last week, Bahrain revoked Abdulemam’s citizenship along with another 71 Bahraini citizens, many of whom are journalists or bloggers. This is in contravention of Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees everyone the right to a nationality and states that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.” This is Abdulemam’s reflection on losing his citizenship.
When I first registered on Facebook back in 2005, I wrote in my biography “Lost Identity”. It wasn’t an expectation of what was going to happen to me 10 years on, so much as expressing my thoughts regarding “identity”, and how it works in everything around me, how it affects me, affects my way of thinking, the way I look into other people, the way I define things, in this century we can call it the “Identity Era”.
I first heard the news about the stripping of my nationality while I was talking with a friend on the phone. A popup message in WhatsApp appeared, saying: “Urgent. 72 citizenships revoked.” I told him “I think my citizenship has been revoked” and he laughed at me. Hearing him laughing I opened the link to see the names and scrolled down to No. 49 and there was my name, Ali Hasan Abdulla Abdulemam. I confirmed it to him. “I think yours is also there,” I said and scrolled down to No. 70. He stopped laughing when I told him: “your name is there as well.”
The first thing I did it was tweet: “When I woke up this morning I was Bahraini, and when I wake up tomorrow I will be Bahraini.” I am sticking with my identity. I don’t want to leave it. Now, I have my own definition of the “identity” that I love and the main part of this identity is not “lost”. It is “BAHRAINI”. It is not for the government to give it or take it away, it is not for them to take me from my roots, I will not accept to be unrecognised by the world. I will keep telling myself, my kids, and my friends that I am from the country that created the Lulu revolution. (Lulu refers to the 2011 uprising named after the Pearl or Lulu Roundabout, where public demonstrations took place.)
“What does it mean to be Bahraini?” This is a question with different answers depending on the time you want the answer. I got to know the real meaning of this question when I first left jail at the end of February 2011 at three in the morning and went directly to Lulu square where the protesters were freely sleeping in peace. I felt the dignity and smelled my real “identity” which I almost lost inside prison, when they tortured and threatened me. I felt they were targeting my identity, not targeting me personally. Those officers who imprisoned and tortured me didn’t know me, hadn’t met me before. They had a problem with me being different from them. They wanted me to be like them.
Now I am stateless. I don’t know how I will be able to visit my aged mother, my brothers, sisters and my friends. There are so many places I love in Bahrain that I can’t imagine I will die before I visit them again: that beach I use to play in it when I was kid, that unpainted wall with graffiti that says “the parliament is the solution” from the 1990s. I still want to take a selfie with it. I miss going to Spalion cafe where my friends are still gathering to share stories and chat about culture, politics, and religion and to again ask Abbas the waiter for “one bastard tea”. The most important place I want to visit, and spend as much time as I can, is the cemetery where my father has rested in peace for the past six years. I haven’t been there for almost five years. My father is the first person who taught me what is meant to be Bahraini.
There is a proverb my father used to tell me when I was a child: “Those who disown their roots don’t have any.” That’s what I want to tell my nine-year-old son. I will point his finger to that beautiful, tiny island in the Gulf and tell him “your father came from here, and here is where we belong.” I refuse to recognise this decree by the king, I will keep writing I am Bahraini on any application form. I will not accept to be “Lost Identity” again. I have an identity and I am proud of it.

author: Guest Contributor


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Can Istanbul Be Saved from Overdevelopment?  · Global Voices
Ece Basay

An installation exhibited at the Istanbul Design Biennial. It reads ‘Construction, my dear prohpet’, satirising the thirst for construction of Turkey's religiously-inclined AKP (Justice) party. Widely shared on Twitter.
In the space of the last decade, Turkey has become a land of construction: highways, strategic bridges, ostentatious hotels and other items are constantly being built throughout the republic in the name of development and economic prosperity. Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, lies at the heart of this frenzied process.
Critics argue that this construction culture has become a form of violence. By relentlessly covering Istanbul in concrete, they argue, forests, sites of historical and cultural importance, and the spirit of the city itself are under threat.
The following are just some of the numerous projects that have aroused anger among residents that want to claim back their public spaces.
Plantations in danger
One of the things residents of Istanbul complain about most is the lack of green areas within the city. In this sense, large plantations such as Validebağ and Emirgan assume a special significance to local people. Both are currently threatened by ongoing construction projects.
Validebag is one of the biggest protected green areas of Istanbul. It is a shelter to many animals, including migrating birds, and also one of the few green spaces left in the city. Since last year people have been struggling against plans to construct a mosque within Validebag's boundaries.
Despite a court injunction against the construction, the mosque grows more visible every day.
Moreover, Validebag is not the only green space under threat. Recently, TOKİ (the Housing Development Administration) announced the sale of 158,479 square meters of land located close to Emirgan plantation for the construction of yet another hotel and shopping mall.
Citizens protest against mosque construction at Validebag
on November 2, 2014. Photo by Avni Kantan. Demotix ID: 6171532.
The owner of the construction company has tried to calm people by explaining that construction will interrupt neither the plantation nor the Bosphorus skyline, but few believe him.
Validebağ Korusu'ndan sonra şimdi sıra Emirgan Korusu'nda. Yeşili seven ve koruyan #1Türkiyeİstiyorum çok mu şey istiyorum acaba?
— Özbilge Otuk (@ozbilgeotuk633) February 2, 2015
Time has now come for Emirgan Plantation after Validebag. I just want a Turkey that protects and loves green spaces. Is this too much to ask?
Tarlabasi Project
At the same time, many areas of Istanbul are undergoing aggressive gentrification. Old neighbourhoods have been destroyed to make way for lucrative commercial projects.
Tarlabasi, near the famous Taksim district, is one such area. With its historical buildings, and its central location, it is one of the most valuable areas in Istanbul. In 2012, many of the residents living there were forced to move out and sell their houses in return for small amounts of money as a giant redevelopment of the area began.
Some areas of the Tarlabasi neighbourhood in Istanbul are undergoing aggressive redevelopment, while others are being being deliberately neglected by municipal officials. Photo by Soultana Kabouridou. Demotix ID: 2684393.
Those who refused compensation and insisted on staying in their neighbourhood have had to endure water, electricity and gas cuts, the smell of non-collected trash, and threats from municipal officials.
Laetitia Vancon, a French photographer who documented the stories of the families — many of them low-income ethnic minority groups — explains:
Tarlabaşı, located almost in the centre of the city, is a quirky, urban conundrum in the throes of a government gentrification drive. Officially, they are calling it a renewal programme – in reality, it’s a complete makeover and redevelopment, involving tearing down old structures, which are part of Istanbul’s architectural heritage, to make way for a new commercial zone, comprising shopping centres, malls and hotels.
In July 2014, residents of Tarlabasi won a law suit to prevent the expropriation of their land and stop the redevelopment in its tracks. Ahmet Misbah, the Mayor of Beyoglu district and a member of the ruling AKP (Justice) party argues that such judicial experiences prevent the modernisation of the city.
But opponents of the process say this modernisation mostly benefits the wealthy elite with a stake in these projects, as real estate prices in the gentrified area soar.
Kentsel dönüşüm bir tek sulukule-tarlabaşı halkını fakir ve evsiz bıraktı anlaşılan.
— özgür yeşilbaş (@449981) November 1, 2011
It seems like the only people gentrification left poor are the residents of Tarlabasi and Sulukule.
Kentsel dönüşüm ile birlikte Tarlabaşı'nda 10 yıl önce 50 bin liraya satılan dairenin fiyatı şimdilerde 2 milyon dolara çıkmış. — Politik Analiz (@analiz_politik) March 8, 2014
With the gentrification, apartments in #Tarlabasi, which used to cost 50 thousand lira 10 years ago,now cost $2 million.
Kentsel dönüşüm, kentsel bölüşüm Tarlabaşı : RANTİSTANBUL pic.twitter.com/0xcLHnRR
— marcos muratyan (@eyjafjellajokul) April 27, 2012
Gentrification, Gentri-distribution: UNEARNED INCOME ISTANBUL
Tarlabasi's story is covered by the Istanbul Stories blog, which consists of features from different neighbourhoods in the metropolis.
Destruction of Historical Places
While some of Istanbul's history is UNESCO-protected, much of it is vulnerable to redevelopment drives. Historical landmarks such as Haydarpasa train station lose their original purpose and are converted into hotels and shopping centres.
Emek theatre is Turkey's oldest and most prestigious cinema. It is a part of the Cercle d'Orient complex, which is currently being converted into a shopping mall.
The theatre was closed down in 2010, when authorities argued that the building was in a poor and neglected shape. Since then, the struggle against Emek's demolition has been ongoing. While the construction firm working at the site argues that they are not destroying Emek theatre but moving it up a level, many people see this as another cultural space sacrificed in the name of profit.
In 2014, an Istanbul court decided to suspend construction. But the apparent injury of a worker on the site suggests the court order is being violated.
A child carries a banner at the Emek movie theatre protest on April 5, 2014.
Photo by Görkem Keser. Demotix ID: 4396772.
Emek Sinemasi'nda hukuka aykiri insaat devam ediyor. pic.twitter.com/brI17WC3yZ
— Gökhan Baykal (@gkhnbykl) January 14, 2015
The unlawful construction at Emek movie theatre continues.
On February 5, the Turkish Council of State, the highest administrative court in the land, ruled to block the implementation of specific gentrification regulations that lend disproportionate power to TOKİ, the housing and development body.
Following this ruling, many have expressed hope that Turkey's biggest and most overdeveloped city can find space to breathe.

author: Ece Basay


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Cologne’s Carnival Parade Tones Down Its Charlie Hebdo Satire · Global Voices
Lena Nitsche

The Charlie Hebdo float as it was originally planned. Image courtesy Kölner Karneval's Facebook page.
Whether they know it as Karneval, Fastnacht, Fasching or the fünfte Jahreszeit (Fifth Season), Carnival never fails to divide Germans each year. While in some regions of the country, a state of emergency prevails throughout the six Carnival days because of the large turnout, other regions hold no celebrations at all.
In Cologne, one of the well-known strongholds of the festival in Germany, Carnival was extra contentious this year. After announcing in late January that it would scrap a planned Charlie Hebdo float in order to not detract from the “free and lighthearted nature of Carnival,” festival organizers surprised spectators by including a Charlie Hebdo design in the Rose Monday parade.
Köln Festival ve Karnaval Komitesi.. #CharlieHebdo pic.twitter.com/9kIH8NK5IX
— ☆ k I z I L ☆ (@ErkinkIzIL) 16 February 2015
Cologne Festival and the Carnival Committee.. #CharlieHebdo
Festkomitee #Kölner #Karneval gibt bekannt, dass doch ein #CharlieHebdo-Wagen beim #Rosenmontagszug mitfährt.
— RTL WEST (@RTLWEST) febrero 16, 2015
The #Kölner #Karneval Festival Committee makes it known that a #CharlieHebdo float will be joining in with the #Rosenmontagszug parade after all.
Instead of a clown sticking a pencil into the chamber of a gun held by an armed militant, the float showed the clown watering a pencil growing out of the ground like a plant, with the word Narrenfreiheit, or “Jester's choice,” written on it. The head of the militant rested at the clown's feet.
In January, the Carnival parade festival committee had explained the reasoning behind their decision to stop construction on the original float on Facebook:
Wir möchten, dass alle Besucher, Bürger und Teilnehmer des Kölner Rosenmontagszuges befreit und ohne Sorgen einen fröhlichen Karneval erleben. Einen Persiflagewagen, der die Freiheit und leichte Art des Karnevals einschränkt, möchten wir nicht. Aus diesem Grund haben wir heute entschieden, den Bau des geplanten Charlie-Hebdo-Wagens zu stoppen und den Wagen nicht im Kölner Rosenmontagszug mitfahren zu lassen.
We want all visitors, citizens and participants of the Cologne Rose Monday Parade to be able to experience a cheerful Carnival in a free atmosphere, without any concerns. A parody float that limits the free and lighthearted nature of Carnival is not something we want. For this reason, we today decided that the construction of the planned Charlie Hebdo float will be stopped, and that the float will no longer be part of the Cologne Rose Monday parade.
The design was selected on Facebook prior to the Carnival. Over 2,400 participants voted for the winning design.
Subsequently, a great deal of discussion took place in the media on the security situation at the Cologne Carnival, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. According to the festival committee, speculations about special forces and marksmen stationed along the parade route were rife, despite the security risks being low. The parade organisers commented on the decision on the Cologne Carnival Facebook page:
Uns ist klar, dass nicht jeder mit dieser Erklärung einverstanden sein wird. Trotzdem hoffen wir, dass viele von euch unsere Beweggründe zumindest respektieren und den Rosenmontagszug dennoch genießen werden. Die Entwürfe, die wir euch heute vorab vorstellen, geben einen kleinen Ausblick darauf, dass wir auch in diesem Jahr politische und gesellschaftskritische Themen ansprechen. Dass wir uns dabei selbst von der Kritik nicht ausnehmen, zeigt euch hoffentlich der Wagenentwurf „Scheißjob” …
We're certain that not everyone will agree with this explanation. However, we hope that many of you will at least respect the motivation behind our decision, and will still be able to enjoy Rose Monday. The designs that you can have a sneak peek at today offer a small glimpse into the political and socially critical themes we're addressing this year. The fact that in doing so, we're not placing ourselves above criticism is hopefully demonstrated by our “Scheißjob” float design …
A critical reflection from the Cologne Carnival Festival Committee: their “Scheißjob” float acting as an alternative to the withdrawn Charlie Hebdo float. via the Cologne Carnival Facebook page
Many had reacted with disappointment to the announcement, having expected a little more courage from the parade organisers.
Twitter user Tom depicted the disappointment of Cologne residents in this image, which reads in a mix of French and German “I am Cologne,” a play on the French phrase Je suis Charlie in solidarity with the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris:
#CharlieHebdo #JeSuisCharlie #koelnerkarneval #koeln pic.twitter.com/AybRGTtwXT
— Tom (@TsVontom) 30 January 2015
Düsseldorf also displayed a Charlie Hebdo-themed float, which read, “You can't kill satire”:
#charliehebdo carnaval Düsseldorf “on ne peut pas tuer la satire” pic.twitter.com/bu3kLjbnHS
— Pascal Thibaut (@pthibaut) 16 February 2015
The Shrovetide Carnival days are Christian in origin, and traditionally herald the start of the six-week Lenten period. The Carnival was originally celebrated throughout the whole of Germany, but following the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, the pace of festivities in the Protestant regions of Germany slowed considerably, as this German-language link demonstrates.
The public holidays are today celebrated predominately in the Catholic regions of southern Germany and the Lower Rhine, especially in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Mainz and Rottweil. In the traditionally Protestant cities of Berlin and Hamburg, however, barely a hint of the revelries can be detected. Indeed, German satirical magazine Der Postillon even joked about granting refugees from the Carnival strongholds asylum in northern Germany.
North German radio station N-JOY had the following to say about Carnival in the north of the country:
+++ EIL ++ Karneval im Norden ++ Plätze wegen Überfüllung geschlossen ++ Läuft bei uns +++ #Helau +++ #Alaaf ++ EIL pic.twitter.com/tfS94cvMeE
— N-JOY (@NJOYDE) febrero 12, 2015
+++ HURRY ++ Carnival in the North ++ Parks closed due to overcrowding ++ Walk with us +++ #Helau +++ #Alaaf ++ HURRY
On the other hand, the Carnival in Cologne looked more like this:
Jeck in NRW! Bilder, Videos und Co.von gestern! Nochmal entspannt durchklicken! http://t.co/r8ZqTIngFn #wdrjeck https://t.co/ZaSosz2AVx
— WDR (@WDR) febrero 13, 2015
Clown in NRW! Photos, videos etc. from yesterday! Take another look!
The most important days of the German Carnival are Weiberfastnacht, the women's carnival, on Thursday, and Rose Monday, the day before Shrove Tuesday. Traditionally, Weiberfastnacht is the day on which the Carnival is most celebrated — at home, in schools, at work, in public institutions and on the streets, in pubs and clubs. The most important aspect, however, is that everyday life gets completely turned on its head. Any age group can be found wearing fancy dress in the Carnival cities. Rose Monday is the true high point of the festivities and the day on which the large Carnival processions are held.
An essential part of the German Carnival is the satire levelled at political and social events. This satire takes no prisoners — in particular, politicians often find themselves the subjects of scathing ridicule on the slogans of floats taking part in the Carnival parades. Take a look at a few of the most accomplished specimens from the last few years below.
Putin's freedom of the press. Carnival float at the Rose Monday procession in Düsseldorf, 2009. Photo by Twitter user Paola Farrera. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Obama and Snowden, Düsseldorf Carnival 2014:
@forever11011 @VdveenDavid тот же Karneval in Düsseldorf. Rose Monday 2014 pic.twitter.com/ISZnU84Bgs
— Nyash Myash (@_LeraRussia) 5 May 2014
The French and German economies, represented by President Hollande and Chancellor Merkel, Düsseldorf Carnival 2014:
Fifth float – somehow, it all goes back to hunger #Rosenmontag #Düsseldorf #Helau #Merkel #Hollande pic.twitter.com/gAIhJKj87h
— Christoph Ullrich (@ullrich001) 3 March 2014
Vladimir Putin in 2014:
Partying gets political at Carnival http://t.co/gChPID9DYn pic.twitter.com/KGbRtjhD00 #PUTIN and #MERKEL .. ))) pic.twitter.com/a3hMNUox08
— VeroNika (@NikaVero22) 3 March 2014
Despite the biting satire, many Germans view the Carnival as dusty, authoritarian and paternalistic. Many Carnival associations are dominated by men, while women are often little more than dancers with short skirts and fixed grins. An example of a Carnival association that challenges the established traditions is the Stunksitzung in Cologne. Stunksitzungen are critical or satirical, left-leaning comedy programmes, with sketches and musical performances. The Stunksitzungen aim to distance themselves from the traditional Carnival, which is characterised by brass bands, traditional uniforms and hierarchies.

author: Lena Nitsche