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Netizen Report: Mexican NGOs Push for Independent Investigation of Malware Attacks · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Cartoon by Doaa Eladl via Flickr, Web We Want ( CC BY-SA 2.0)
The Mexican government has failed to investigate allegations that government agencies used surveillance software to infect the smartphones of journalists and human rights advocates in the country, according to an official statement from groups affected by the software.
In June 2017, a group of experts revealed evidence of 76 incidents of journalists and human rights defenders being targeted with a surveillance software product called Pegasus, which is manufactured by NSO Group, an Israeli firm. Pegasus allows the attacker to access and monitor the victim’s mobile phone communications and activities. These incidents were documented by Article 19, the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab and Mexico City-based NGOs R3D and SocialTIC.
After the New York Times reported on the findings, President Enrique Peña Nieto asked the Attorney General’s office to respond to the allegations. The groups say that since June 2017, authorities have not sought documentation concerning the use of the software, nor have they investigated its technical deployments or interviewed any government employee who was trained to use the software.
They are now calling for an independent investigation of the findings, arguing that the Attorney General’s office is unable to do this, due to evidence that it was the agency that purchased the malware to begin with. And while the Mexican government has not yet to carry out a thorough investigation on its own, it has asked the US government to assist in the process — a request the US officials have rebuffed.
This is the latest update in a series of revelations and investigations into the use of surveillance software in Mexico that date back to 2013. Policymakers advocating for stronger public health policies and experts investigating the disappearances of 43 students in Ayotzinapa also have been among those targeted.
Nabeel Rajab, the outspoken leader of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was sentenced to five years in prison on February 21, over a series of tweets that prosecutors claimed were “insulting to national institutions” and “insulting to neighboring countries.” In the tweets, Rajab criticized Saudi Arabia’s position in Yemen’s civil war and also pointed to evidence of torture and ill treatment in Bahrain’s Jaw prison published by Human Rights Watch.
Malaysian cartoonist Fahmi Reza was prosecuted and found guilty of “uploading false communication” after he posted on Facebook a hand-painted cartoon of Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak wearing clown makeup. In a subsequent post about the case, he wrote:
“Painting the portrait of the PM with an evil clown make-up over his face was an at of protest against this corrupt government that uses the Sedition Act and other draconian laws to silence dissenting voices.”
He has been sentenced to one month in prison and a RM30,000 fine, as per Section 233 of the 1998 Multimedia and Communications Act. His lawyer intends to appeal the case.
Kashmiri photojournalist Kamran Yousuf has been behind bars for 150 days, after being arrested in September 2017. He was finally charged on January 18 with being associated with “funding of terror and anti-state activities in the Kashmir Valley.” His charge sheet also claims that he has not met the “moral duty of a journalist” for having neglected to cover any “social/developmental activity by the state government or Government of India.”
Yousuf rose to fame last year after his photos and videos of funeral processions and stone pelting battles went viral on social media, regularly receiving tens of thousands of views and shares. The Press Council of India has expressed concern about his detention. The Kashmir Editors Guild and the Committee to Protect Journalists have called for his release.
Police in Macedonia pressed charges against a person who took photos of on-duty police officers during local elections and then posted them on Facebook. The photographer posted 30 photos, as part of an effort to demonstrate evidence of possible irregularities in the electoral process. The Basic Court of Gevgelija found the person guilty of “abuse of personal data” and issued a suspended sentence of three months in prison. The person, identified only by their initials K.K., is appealing the decision.
Six Turkish journalists were issued lifetime prison sentences for “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” on the same day Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yucel was released after spending a year behind bars without charges. Yucel was arrested on suspicion of “inciting the people to racial hatred and enmity” and “spreading the propaganda of a terrorist organization.” His release came shortly after the Turkish Prime Minister’s visit to Germany. There are currently 155 journalists serving jail time in Turkey.
On February 16, a 22-year-old man in Spain was sentenced to two and a half years in prison by the country's Supreme Court for publishing tweets in 2015 and 2016 that “incited hate against women.” One of the tweets that authorities singled out read, “And 2015 will end with 56 women murdered, it's not a good record but was all that could be done, let's see if in 2016 we can double that figure, thanks.” The man had previously been sentenced to two years imprisonment for those tweets and for others that authorities said “glorified terrorism.” On review, the Supreme Court absolved the terrorism-related conviction, saying the tweets were “generic,” but increased the punishment for the anti-women messages.
The National Telecommunications Commission of Venezuela has expanded the (already long) list of personal data necessary to access telephone services in the country. It also has lengthened the period of time that operators should retain the data, from three months after a contract expires to five years.
The new rule makes Venezuela one of the countries with the longest data retention periods in Latin America, alongside Colombia. In addition to an identity document, signature, fingerprint, and complete name and address, users must now also disclose their email address, be photographed, and have their fingerprint taken with a biometric device. The commission said telephone operators should digitize the data collected, but did not specify how it should be protected, only that operators and the state's security apparatus should define the conditions for proper storage and treatment.
CORRECTION [March 13, 2018]: The original version of this report described the Basic Court of Gevgelija as having issued a sentence of three months in prison to the defendant in the case in Macedonia. The report has since been corrected to show that the sentence was suspended.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Marianne Diaz, L. Finch, Rohith Jyothish, Rezwan Islam, Inji Pennu, Karolle Rabarison, Elizabeth Rivera, Juke Carolina Rumuat and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Mexico’s Electoral Authority Announces Collaboration with Facebook, Casting Doubt on its Credibility · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Photo by Flickr user zeevveez. CC BY 2.0
In July 2018, Mexicans will elect a new president and all federal legislative offices will be renewed. At the local level, nine states will have elections to select a new governor. With more than 3400 public positions being contested, it is said to be the biggest election in the history of the country.
As the different offices and entities involved prepare for polling day, one key agency — the National Electoral Institute (INE) — has boasted about having a special ally in this election season: Facebook.
In the era of social networks and the rise of human interaction via the internet, it could make sense for the institution in charge of organising elections in Mexico to form an alliance with one of the internet's giants in content and advertising like Facebook. The Silicon Valley consultancy Pivotal Research estimates that Facebook and Google together took in half of global advertising revenues in 2017.
But according to the INE, the aim was something else, that has drawn even more attention. A joint agreement with the Silicon Valley company seeks to tackle the spread of what is known as  “fake news“.
In the context of the 2016 presidential elections in the US, Mexico's next-door neighbor, public opinion condemned the spread of so-called “fake news” through social networks like Facebook, something that many say benefited Donald Trump.
With the aim of avoiding similar results in Mexico, the INE announced its collaboration with Facebook as follows:
El INE y Facebook México firmaron un convenio con el fin de promover la participación ciudadana en las elecciones del próximo 1 de julio.
A través de esta colaboración, además, se busca contrarrestar noticias falsas.
The INE and Facebook Mexico signed an agreement with the aim of encouraging citizens to participate in the elections on 1 July 2018.
Through this collaboration, it also seeks to tackle fake news.
The announcement that was officially published by the INE was picked up by various media channels.
The website Plumas Atómicas elaborated on the statement from the INE, highlighting that:
…el INE informó a través de un comunicado que la participación de Facebook iniciará con la difusión de un material informativo dirigido a los usuarios de la red social que tiene la finalidad de facilitar la detección de fake news y así generar decisiones electorales mucho más informadas.
By means of a statement, the INE announced that Facebook's participation will begin with dissemination of informational materials to its users, in an effort to aid them in detecting fake news and thus producing much more informed electoral decisions.
The distribution of the reports left the public with two key questions: What would this collaboration entail? And how would it work in practice?
Of course, the document in which the agreement between the INE and Facebook was formalised could shed light on these questions. But when they were asked to share the document publicly, election organisers first denied this request for transparency: the INE said that the document signed with Facebook could not be disclosed due to a confidentiality clause in the document.
However, there are transparency laws in Mexico that order the release of any agreement or contract that government bodies sign with public or private entities. Because of this, after a few days and considerable social pressure, the INE published the document that it signed with Facebook Ireland Limited (a subsidiary of Facebook Inc.)
In fact, the document contains no reference to so-called “fake news”. It does include a series of ambiguous declarations in which the only entity bearing responsibility appears to be the INE.
With the text already published, some social media users helped to disclose the content of the document:
El secretísimo convenio entre el INE y Facebook que publicó El Universal. pic.twitter.com/xiYvvCMkoq — Карина Альмараз (@almarazkari) 14 February 2018
The secretive agreement between the INE and Facebook that El Universal published.
People following the issue have expressed surprise that the document in question (that has seven sections over a total of three pages) neither makes reference to the “fake news” issue, nor to the way in which it would supposedly tackle it, as had been announced by the INE.
Regarding this matter, Joel H. Santiago wrote an entire piece on the website La Silla Rota, in which he stressed:
El tema es que este convenio no dice nada de combatir las fake news, como afirmara Córdova Vianello [presidente del INE], y sí compromete con información proporcionada por el INE durante el proceso electoral y particularmente el día de las elecciones…
The issue is that this agreement does not say anything about tackling fake news, as Córdova Vianello [president of the INE] claimed, and yes, it commits to the INE providing information during the electoral process and the day of the elections in particular…
He then concluded with questions concerning the electoral body's performance:
¿Con pifias como esta van a llevar a cabo la organización y cuidado del proceso electoral 2018 en México?
With blunders like this are they going to proceed with the organisation and monitoring of the 2018 electoral process in Mexico?
The terms of cooperation between the INE and Facebook are described in the document as follows:
Durante el período de elecciones (del 30 de marzo al 1 de julio de 2018), Facebook tiene la intención (pero no la obligación) de hacer que algunos de sus productos de participación ciudadana estén disponibles en su plataforma para sus usuarios en México.
El día de las Elecciones, el Instituto proporcionará a Facebook información en tiempo real sobre los resultados de la votación.
During the election period (from 30 March to 1 July 2018), Facebook has the intention of (but not the obligation) making some of its civic participation products available for its users in Mexico.
On Election day, the Institute will provide real time information on Facebook regarding the voting results.
Some social media users thus began accusing the INE itself of creating “fake news” for having made false claims about the nature of its agreement with Facebook:
Pues, resultó que el INE terminó dando noticias falsas, ya que al divulgar su acuerdo con Facebook, vimos que éste no dice NADA acerca de contrarrestar las #FakeNews como se había cacareado. Han perdido credibilidad. https://t.co/CcA7sNpT6y
— Madame Déficit (@Alessia_mx) 15 February de 2018
Well, it turns out that the INE ended by giving fake news, given that by disclosing its agreement with Facebook, we saw that it says NOTHING about tackling the #FakeNews that it had boasted about. They have lost credibility.
The user J. Cabrales Robles described the issue as a “failure” of the Mexican electoral authority:
#FakeNews todo un fracaso del INE y lo único que hizo fue dar nuestra información, a ver si no afecta a las elecciones sus tonterías. @JTejadohttps://t.co/HAx64ytPZS
— J.Cabrales Robles (@Jaimesincabrale) 13 February 2018
#FakeNews an utter failure of the INE and the only thing it did was give our information, let's see whether their nonsense affects the elections.
For the moment, with the document signed between the INE and Facebook now public, it remains clear that the social media company has no formal obligation — nor has it shown any intention — to tackle the so-called “fake news” that so many people have been talking about over the past few days.
Let us remind ourselves that not far from Mexico, in Honduras, the Congress is debating a law that seeks to regulate the spread, also in connection with electoral matters, also in connection with non-transparent grounds.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: J. Tadeo


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One Country, Two Leaders and Four Censored TV Channels: Kenya’s Political Crisis Takes a Toll on Human Rights · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

Encouragement on the streets of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya ahead of election. Photo by Pernille Baerendsten, used with permission.
Elections annulled. Media gagged. A citizen deported. These phrases are easy to find in today's headlines in Kenya.
The ceremonial “swearing-in” was meant to be a symbolic gesture by the main opposition party led by Raila Odinga. But it has triggered a series of events leading to a clampdown on media freedom and a threat to the right of citizenship in Kenya.
To understand what is happening in Kenya, one must begin with the contentious presidential elections of August 2017. After the results showed sitting president Uhuru Kenyatta winning by a slim margin, opposition candidate Raila Odinga challenged the results in court.
On 1 September, the Kenyan Supreme Court annulled the election of Uhuru Kenyatta, due to “irregularities and illegalities” in the system, making Kenya the first country in Africa to have a presidential vote annulled by a court ruling. The court subsequently called for a repeat election.
Raila Odinga did not participate in the re-run, and encouraged his supporters to do the same, arguing that systemic flaws that produced these irregularities had not been addressed, and that a free and fair election was therefore impossible. Repeat elections took place on 26 October and were marked by protests, multiple incidents of violence and destruction of property.
In the repeat election, Kenyatta garnered only 7.4 million votes from a voting population of 19.6 million. His win was upheld by the same Supreme Court.
Due to the dubious legitimacy of the repeat election, and the fact that Kenyatta did not earn the support of even half of eligible voters in Kenya, Odinga's National Super Alliance (NASA) party have since argued that the people of Kenya were denied their right to vote for him as their president.
This became the basis for symbolically swearing him in as the so-called “people’s president” , which was planned for 31 January of this year.
Days before the oath ceremony that was set to take place in the country’s capital city Nairobi, President Uhuru Kenyatta and other executive staff were reported to have summoned media managers and “threatened to shut their stations down and revoke their licenses” if they proceeded with the broadcast, which the government felt was a threat to national security.
All the major TV channels ignored this directive and went ahead with the live broadcast. What followed was the switching off of the transmission signals of four privately owned media outlets: NTV, KTN, Citizen TV, its sister station, Inooro TV.
Three journalists at NTV — Linus Kaikai, Larry Madowo and Ken Mijungu — told Reuters that security agency sources warned them they'd be arrested, and that plainclothes officers came to their office and hovered outside the entrance, threatening to arrest them if they tried to exit the building.
The Kenya Media Council condemned the network suspensions and muzzling of the press by the government, calling the situation “the greatest threat and assault on freedom of expression.”
On February 1, Kenya's High Court suspended the shutdown of the affected stations. The government defied the court order for a week, until it finally switched NTV and KTN News back on after seven days, and Citizen TV and Inooro TV after ten days, on 8 February.
The clampdown on the TV stations’ transmission signals over an event that was largely viewed by Kenyans as symbolic (and not official), left many in shock.
EDITORS’ GUILD condemns move by the government to shut down three private TV stations; calls on the State to rescind the gagging orders immediately. #MediaShutDownKE pic.twitter.com/e3VM7p4rDe
— NationBreakingNews (@NationBreaking) February 2, 2018
The country is split down the middle on the issues in play. Some have voiced support for the move by the government, “so that it may be a lesson” to the opposition.
Honestly I think #MediaShutDownKE should continue. There's less political debates in households. Less gambling ads, less irritating political analysts, less drama.
People are talking to each other more.
— Ahmed Mohamed (@Asmali77) February 1, 2018
More shocking are the people loudly supporting the government move to shut down the media.A government that has the audacity to shut down media in 2018 is a dangerous government.They have crossed the red line and anything for them,going forward, will be fair game #MediaShutDownKE pic.twitter.com/bL8IJm6T4m
— Boniface Mwangi (@bonifacemwangi) February 2, 2018
One thing I love about Kenya is when something happens its affects all of us. the Media shut down affected all both jubilee and NASA supporters . That's is how hunger will do with Us Kenyan. #MediaShutDownKE#JamboKenya
— Eng. Machio malingu (@eng_machio) February 6, 2018
A cross-section of Kenyans did not see the shutdowns as an infringement on media freedom or their right to seek information, as many took the time to berate news organizations, arguing that they did not having the interests of Kenyans at heart:
Dear TV Stations,
When you are done with the Government, take time and go for a retreat, and rethink. Re-engineer the whole approach to information industry. Because your consumers are no longer with you. They do not miss you, most are not bothered.#MediaShutDownKE
— Patrick Safari (@patricksafariR) February 5, 2018
Day Kenyan media realize that Politicians & Ministers need media as fish need water & when they also always side with the people & not profits, then they will have True Freedom. Look at New York Times & Washington Post.. they are untouchable not even by Trump.. #MediaShutDownKE
— Donald B Kipkorir (@DonaldBKipkorir) January 31, 2018
Kenyan civil society, however, has condemned the government's actions as violating fundamental rights. The media shutdowns have been followed by intimidation and harassment of journalists, including the aforementioned NTV journalists, and staunch NASA supporters.
Hivos statement: Media shutdown in #Kenya is an affront to press freedom and a human rights violation! On day two of the #MediaShutDownKE we ask: Is it wrong to do the right thing? Read more https://t.co/1s5P8I0mVb pic.twitter.com/AZxNZiBn4z
— Hivos East Africa (@hivosroea) January 31, 2018
On 7 February, many woke up to the news of the arrest and deportation of Miguna Miguna, the barrister who oversaw the swearing-in of Odinga as Kenya’s “people’s president”. Miguna is a writer, solicitor, and firm supporter of NASA.
Miguna was deported to Canada on 7 February, in what many government authorities described as his “return home.” Miguna was born in Kenya, but also holds citizenship in Canada. He had run for Nairobi governor — and was cleared by the electoral body to do so — in the 2017 election, but he lost.
Kenya just illegally deported Miguna Miguna to Canada, a prominent opposition politician with dual citizenship.
What next? pic.twitter.com/lmG6wKby1X
— Larry Madowo, first of his name (@LarryMadowo) February 6, 2018
This recent turn of events has brought to the fore the question of citizenship. Many Kenyans are split on whether the government had a basis and legal right to deport a Kenyan citizen out of his country, though the constitution clearly protects the citizenship of any person born on Kenyan soil.
To whom does the blame lie on#DCI#IG or#Immigration department #MigunaDeported pic.twitter.com/KxQLuVnW9H
— Dante_deuces (@Josephdancan1) February 7, 2018
In a press statement released by AllAfrica.com, Miguna described the events that led to his deportation. The Ministry of Interior claims that he revoked his Kenyan citizenship, which he holds by birth, but Miguna said he had never done so.
Miguna subsequently filed suit against the government and on 15 February, Kenya's High Court ruled in his favor. Justice Kimaru said that Miguna's deportation “had no merit in law” and ordered authorities to relinquish his Kenyan passport within seven days.
Many Kenyans have expressed their anger at the latest government move in what is a clear violation of the human rights of a Kenyan citizen, whose only offense was to use his power as a barrister to legitimize Odinga's symbolic swearing-in.
How can you say someone born in Ahero, who went to Onjiko High School, NYS training at Gilgil before joining UON not a Kenyan. Do you guys even have Conscience? @OleItumbi , Power is fluid it won't last forever, that's Miguna @MigunaMiguna at UON #migunadeported pic.twitter.com/b43QzgHC6v
— michael_myless1 (@Michaelmyless1) February 7, 2018
The media clampdown, disregard for the Kenyan judicial system by the executive branch, and the illegal deportation of a Kenyan citizen despite a standing court order is going to have far-reaching implications for human rights in Kenya.
With the recent events, the illusion of an independent Kenyan media that is free from state interference has evaporated. The disregard for human rights continues to play out in the local and international media as Miguna Miguna continues to fight his extradition from Ontario, Canada.

author: Njeri Wangari


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Photoshopped Image of Christ Reveals Limits of Spain’s Right to Free Expression · Global Voices
Lourdes Sada

Image for which the youth from Jaén, Spain has to pay a fine, for “offending religious sentiments.” Photo published by laicismo.org and used with permission.
Daniel Serrano was ordered to pay a fine of 480 Euros for superimposing a photoshopped image of his face over that of Christ and circulating the resulting collage on the internet.
Almost a year ago, the 24-year-old shared the image on his Instagram account with the caption “Christ Disrobed.” The image of Christ came from a sculpture belonging to a group called the Hermanidad de la Amargura (brotherhood of bitterness) who use the sculpture during the Holy Week procession in the city of Jaén, Spain.
According to the town's daily newspaper, the brotherhood ordered Serrano to remove the photo from his account. He ignored the request, saying that he didn't consider the image offensive. The brotherhood decided to report the matter, and a local court agreed to hear the case
Prosecutors charged that Serrano had shown “a disregard towards and a mockery of the brotherhood,” adding that the photo was created with the “intention of offending the religious sentiments of its members.” They asked that Serrano pay a fine of 2160 Euros, or spend 180 days in prison if he was unable to pay.
Confronted with the possibility of jail, Serrano made a deal with the prosecution to plead guilty in return for a 480 Euro fine.
Serrano, who has a temporary job with an olive processing company, calculates that the fine constituted 10 days’ worth of pay.
The judge's decision caused a wave of indignation and solidarity with Serrano online. Supporters created a crowd-funding support page and, in less than an hour, people had raised enough money to pay the fine.
Widespread exasperation at the decision caused a “Streisand effect”, contrary to what the brotherhood had been trying to achieve. Far from hiding the image, the case has now caused it to appear all over the internet.
Twitter was filled with memes of images of Christ and “Christ Disrobed” with a variety of different faces:
@amargura_jaen ya tenéis 480€ pero muy poca vergüenza.
El efecto Streisand en la cara de Cristo: la red se rebela ante la multa a un joven por su montaje https://t.co/uOdn9tBCQB #KallaLaBoca #OpFreeSpeech pic.twitter.com/TugdI2JiNt
— M. (@Ma_Madrid) 8 de febrero de 2018
@amargura_jaen You have 480 Euros and a little embarrassment.
The Streisand effect on the photoshopped face of Christ: the web is rebelling against the young Spaniard's fine over his image https://t.co/uOdn9tBCQB #KallaLaBoca #OpFreeSpeech pic.twitter.com/TugdI2JiNt
— M. (@Ma_Madrid) 8 de febrero de 2018
#CristoFace El cristo de la amargura ya no está amargao. Ahora se llama Yisus B Boy y tiene todo el flow! pic.twitter.com/U0QLPZD2x7
— Athman M. Charles (@AthmanMCharles) 10 de febrero de 2018
#CristoFace the image of the embittered Christ isn't so embittered anymore. Now his name is Yisus B Boy and he's got moves!
pic.twitter.com/U0QLPZD2x7
— Athman M. Charles (@AthmanMCharles) 10 de febrero de 2018
One Twitter user, Carlos Vidal Ojea, has even created a web page where anyone can easily photoshop their face onto the image in question.
Joaquín Urias, ex-magistrate of the Constitutional Court of Spain, also joined forces with internet users reproducing the photo, to make clear his position on the right to freedom of expression:
Bueno, pues como lo de condenar a un chaval por hacer un montaje de su cara con un Cristo me parece una barbaridad…me solidarizo. Un saludo a la fiscalía!! pic.twitter.com/JB2sFUpizj
— Joaquín Urias (@jpurias) 7 de febrero de 2018
Well, punishing a guy for photoshopping his face onto an image of Christ seems barbaric to me. I stand beside you. A big hello to the prosecutor's office! pic.twitter.com/JB2sFUpizj
— Joaquín Urias (@jpurias) 7 de febrero de 2018
This is just the latest example of the attacks on freedom of expression in Spain in recent years. Due to a series of legal reforms passed in 2015, Article 525 of the Spanish Penal Code now imposes a sentence of eight to twelve months for:
“…offending the religious sentiments of members of a religious group, by public speaking, or by writing or through any kind of documents which have derisive remarks, about their dogmas, beliefs, rituals or ceremonies, or harass, also publicly, those who believe or practice.”
Drag Sethlas en la Gala Drag Queen 2017. Foto de eldiario.es, con licencia CC BY-SA
The vagueness of the law means that measuring the severity of the offence is a completely subjective process that depends of the judge's interpretation of the matter, which could vary substantially.
In an opinion piece for ElDiario.es (the Spanish newspaper), criminal law professor Isabel Elbal explained that all of these supposed “crimes” were already punishable by the civil court, although they carried a lesser punishment.
Furthermore, while civil action can only be taken by people directly affected by the speech, the penal channel is open to any accuser. This combined with the previously mentioned lack of clarity in the law has lead to a wave of people and organisations representing extreme political or religious  groups bringing (mostly outlandish) complaints.
Such is the case of the lawsuit against Dani Mateo and Gran Wyoming, who were accused by the Asociación para la defensa del Valle de los Caídos – a monumental memorial constructed after the Spanish Civil War and home to the tomb of Spanish dictator Franco – of making fun of the enormous cross that sits at the top of the site. The case was later thrown out.
The Spanish Association of Christian Lawyers also has brought some high-profile cases. A year ago it brought to trial the case of the artist Drag Sethlas, for the show which won him the Gala Drag Queen award at the Carnival of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, in 2017. The lawsuit was later thrown out by a judge.
Another case was brought against a group of people who carried a huge vagina through the streets of Seville, in what they called the procession of the “Blessed Rebellious Vagina,” a parody of the usual Holy Week parade featuring the Virgin Mary. They were not so lucky, and saw the case against them reopened after the Christian Lawyers fought an appeal against the dismissal of their case.
Cartel del Carnaval de A Coruña de 2017. Foto de eldiario.es con licencia CC BY-SA
One of the most bizarre cases of late came with a complaint filed by the president of the Widow's Association of the city Lugo, northwest Spain, against the City Counselor of Culture for the nearby city of La Coruña for using posters to advertise the city's carnival celebration, which depicted a puppet dressed up as the Pope. That case was also thrown out.
Although the majority of these cases did not result in criminal charges being brought, there are many others which ended with sanctions filed against the defendants. There is also the stress and expense by such cases, in which people are brought to court primarily for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, which is theoretically protected by the Spanish Constitution.
Joaquín Urías, professor of Constitutional Law, in his article ¡Menudo Cristo! ¿Qué hacemos con el delito de blasfemia? (That's Some Jesus! What do we do with the crime of Blasphemy?), believes that Spanish jurisprudence continues to be strongly linked to the principles and values of the Franco era:
La sobrevaloración del fenómeno religioso -especialmente católico- permite que todavía se utilice a menudo un parámetro religioso para decidir los límites de la libertad de expresión.
El derecho penal puede perseguir las ofensas contra quienes practican una religión. Pero no corresponde a los practicantes definir qué es lo ofensivo.
Over-valuing religious phenomena — especially when they're Catholic — means that religious parametres are still sometimes used to decide the limits of freedom of expression. Criminal law can be used to prosecute offenses against people who practice a religion. However, it is not their job to define what an offence is.

author: Lourdes Sada


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All of the Soviet Union’s Academy Award-Winning Films Are Legally and Freely Available Online · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

The most famous version of the logo of Mosfilm, the most influential film studio in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) which produced three Academy Award winners.
Although the communist Soviet Union's (1922-1992) official ideology derided America's capitalist film industry, it submitted films to their Academy Award (also known as the ‘Oscars’) competition for Best Foreign Language Film between 1963 and 1991. Three films actually won the award.
In 2011, Mosfilm, the biggest production company in USSR, which continues to dominate the industry in independent Russia, opened ‘a treasure trove of Soviet films’ by uploading a collection of dozens of classics on YouTube for anyone to watch for free. (Ed. note: Some of the contents uploaded to YouTube might not be available in all countries in the world due to its internal policies.)
While the interface of the Mosfilm archive is in Russian only, most of these films have been published with English subtitles, and over the years subtitles in other languages such as Spanish, Turkish or Serbian has been added to some of them.
Among these classics are many of the 24 Soviet Oscar submissions, including quite a few of the nominees. Global Voices presents all three Soviet Academy Award winners for your viewing pleasure (especially recommended for a weekend viewing).
One of the many scanned posters that advertised War and Peace at the time of its release in the USA, available on IMDB. Fair use.
The epic war drama War and Peace (Russian: Война и мир) was written and directed by Sergei Bondarchuk, chronicling the misadventures of five families during the French invasion of Russia, and its impact on the aristocracy. The film, released in four installments throughout 1966 and 1967, had a cast of leading Soviet drama actors of the time, including Bondarchuk as the main male protagonist.
All four installments of War and Peace posted on YouTube can be viewed in full-screen mode:
Warning: Watching this movie can't be considered a replacement for reading the Leo Tolstoy's classic 1869 novel War and Peace, which has been required reading for students in many countries. Alongside the history-based plot, this pivotal work of world literature also provides lengthy philosophical and psychological discussions through life dilemmas faced by memorable characters.
Dersu Uzala (Russian: Дерсу Узала, Japanese: デルス·ウザーラ) is a 1975 Soviet-Japanese co-production directed by legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Besides the Oscar, it won numerous other international awards.
The film is based on the 1923 book by Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev, honoring the memory of his native guide, Dersu Uzala (1849–1908). While retelling the life story of the Nanai trapper and hunter, Arsenyev chronicled the exploration of the Sikhote-Alin region of the Russian Far East in the early 20th century, as well as the transformation of Siberia through colonization and economic exploitation.
Movie posters for Dersu Uzala in Russian and Japanise, via Mosfilm and Wikipedia. Fair use images.
On YouTube the film is available in two parts, with subtitles in English, Bulgarian, Spanish and Turkish:
An USA poster for Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears. Source: Wikipedia (fair use).
The urban drama Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (Russian: Москва слезам не верит) takes its viewers to more modern times, depicting the lives of three women and their families in 1958 and 1979. Written by Valentin Chernykh and directed by Vladimir Menshov, it made a star out of the leading actress Vera Alentova, who was named the best Soviet actress according to a poll by the illustrated magazine Soviet Screen in 1980.
According to the Russian version of Maxim magazine, the film contributed to a ‘pleasant moment’ in world history, during the Cold War détente:
В 1985 году, перед посещением СССР, американский президент Рональд Рейган посмотрел «Москва слезам не верит» восемь раз, чтобы проникнуться русским духом. Говорят, что впечатление от фильма подвигло Рейгана удалить фразу «Россия — империя зла» из своего лексикона.
In 1985, before visiting the USSR, the American president Ronald Reagan watched “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears” in order to get an insight into the Russian soul. Rumor has it that this experience influenced Reagan to remove the phrase “evil empire” from his vocabulary.
This movie's soundtrack includes a number of popular songs such as the Mexican hit “Kiss me a lot” (Spanish: “Bésame mucho”) to the Soviet WWII hit “Let's take a smoke” (Russian: Давай закурим).
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began the Academy Awards in 1956 but the USSR waited seven years before proposing its first Soviet candidate for nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Even though the Academy didn't accept it as a nominee, the 1962 film Ivan's Childhood became a legend in and of itself, winning critical acclaim and making famous its director, the then-debutante Andrei Tarkovsky.
This war drama tells the story of the 12-year orphan boy Ivan Bondarev and his horrific experiences on the Eastern Front during World War II. Through the swamps and forests of Belarus, Ivan repeatedly joins the Soviet Army and partisans in the fight against the Nazis, in order to avenge the death of his family and the inmates of the Maly Trostenets extermination camp. It's based on the short story “Ivan” by Vladimir Bogomilov.
Ivan's Childhood was sometimes released as My Name Is Ivan in the United States. It won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 1962 and was praised by numerous intellectuals in the 1960s, such as Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, who said that his “discovery of Tarkovsky's first film was like a miracle,” while French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre devoted an essay to the film.
Movie posters for Ivan's Childhood in Russian and English, via Wikipedia and Rotten Tomatoes. Fair use.
This tragic anti-war film was also widely popular and is well known across Central and Eastern Europe, one of the regions that suffered the worst atrocities during World War II. It had commercial success in cinemas after its release in the 1960s, and in the following decades enjoyed a second life through numerous television reruns.
Although the themes and approaches of these four films vary in both scale and tone, they continue to appeal both to critics and viewers. On the film review site, Rotten Tomatoes, War and Peace and Ivan's Childhood have 100% positive ratings on the ‘Tomatometer’, and all four films have high audience scores, from 87% to 94% approval ratings.
If you feel like binge-watching, get ready to spend about seven hours on the first one, and over six hours for the other three.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Saudi Arabia, a United Nations Human Rights Council Member, Continues Rights Crackdown · Global Voices
Gulf Center for Human Rights

Bandar bin Mohammed Alaiban, President of the Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Commission at the 34th Session of the Human Rights Council on 28 February 2017. Photo Credit: United Nations Photo by Jean-Marc Ferré (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
This post was written by Khalid Ibrahim, executive director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) an independent, non-profit organisation that promotes freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in the Gulf region and its neighbouring countries.
Saudi Arabia, a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), continues its crackdown on human rights.
The HRC, consisting of 47 Member States elected by a majority of the members of the United Nations General Assembly by direct and secret ballot, is the highest international body dealing with human rights issues around the globe.
The General Assembly is supposed to consider candidate Member States’ contributions to the protection of human rights, as well as voluntary pledges and commitments when applying for council membership. But Saudi Arabia was elected twice in succession despite its well-documented and ongoing human rights violations.
In October 2016, Saudi Arabia was elected as an HRC member for the second successive time, despite a lack of elections or secret ballot nor an assessment of the nation's human rights record. The council distributes seats geographically and the Asia-Pacific States, with four out of 13 seats vacant, presented Saudi Arabia as one of its four candidates. Therefore, Saudi Arabia was able to keep its seat until the end of 2019 without having to undergo due process and faced zero accountability for its human rights violations to date.
The international human rights community reacted with disappointment and condemnation to Saudi Arabia's re-election to the HRC due to its role in the war in Yemen. Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has been leading a coalition war against Houthis rebels in Yemen. The coalition's airstrikes have killed and injured thousands of civilians, including children.
In addition to its violations in Yemen, Saudi Arabia continues to target human rights defenders inside the country. In fact, the rights situation in the kingdom, an absolute monarchy, has markedly deteriorated with a renewed crackdown against human rights defenders since the accession of Mohammad bin Salman as Crown Prince in June 2017. The environment for human rights defenders has become increasingly dangerous as authorities systematically target them on a daily basis.
Writers, academics, online activists and clerics have been among those arrested in recent months. In one week alone in September 2017, more than 20 prominent human rights defenders were detained following a wave of house raids and arrests.
Human rights defenders Mohammed Al-Otaibi and  Abdulla Al-Attawi – The GCHR Archives
On 25 January, the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) in the capital city of Riyadh sentenced rights defenders Mohammed Abdullah Al-Otaibi and Abdullah Madhi Al-Attawi to 14 and seven years in prison respectively, over rights-related activities. Al-Otaibi and Al-Attawi are founding members of the Union for Human Rights which monitors and advocates for the respect of human rights in Saudi Arabia.
In 2013, they were summoned with two other founding members of the organisation by the public prosecutor in Riyadh and ordered to freeze their activities. Due to serious threats from authorities, Al-Otaibi and Al-Attawi agreed to fully close their organisation but were still referred to the SCC and continued to work as human rights defenders in their personal capacities.
The two were charged with a number of accusations including setting up a human rights organisation prior to obtaining an official permit and spreading petitions deemed harmful to ”the reputation of the Kingdom and its justice and security institutions” on the internet.
The Association for Civil and Political Rights in Saudi Arabia (ACPRA) was also targeted by authorities. All its founding members were arrested and tried on a range of fabricated charges. Mohammed Al-Qahtani, who is currently serving a ten-year jail sentence, was convicted in March 2013 on a number of charges including membership in an unlicensed organisation (the ACPRA), incitement against the kingdom, as well as cooperation with the HRC as stated in the indictment.
Internet Activist Noha Al-Balawi – The GCHR Archives
Saudi Arabia prohibited women from driving until recently when a royal decree issued in September 2017 permitted women to drive starting in June of 2018. Despite the conservative kingdom's pledges to reform, discriminatory rules against women still exist. For example, the male guardianship system requires women to have the consent of a male relative guardian to travel outside the country, apply for a passport, get married or to even rent their own places.
Women who call for reform and campaign to end the guardianship system are silenced and often face interrogations and arrests for engaging in online advocacy work. On the day of the royal decree announcement to repeal the ban on women driving, authorities phoned several prominent women’s rights defenders to warn them against making comments on the decision or they would face legal consequences.
Activist Noha Al-Balawi, a college student from the city of Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia, was arrested on 23 January for speaking out online on Saudi Arabian politics as well as supporting women's rights. On 5 February, Al-Balawi's detention was extended another month.
According to some reports, Al-Balawi was arrested for publishing a YouTube video in which she criticised Saudi Arabia's relations with Israel. However, the International Federation for Human Rights reported that she was questioned about her rights activism:
The authorities questioned her on tweets and videos she had posted, including on a video in which she supports the driving campaign for women and shows solidarity with the prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia. She was also questioned about her connections with the successful campaign on women’s right to drive, and with the women’s rights and human rights movement in Saudi Arabia generally.
On 22 February 2018, reliable sources confirmed to the GCHR that Al-Balawi has been released after 29 days of arbitrary detention.

author: Gulf Center for Human Rights


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These Sámi Women Are Trying to Keep Their Native Skolt Language Alive · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Tiina Sanila-Aikio leads a workshop on Sámi languages at the Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos. Credit: Nicholas Magand for GEN
This story by Lucy Sherriff for GlobalPost originally appeared on PRI.org on February 16, 2018. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
Tiina Sanila-Aikio isn’t your everyday president. The 34-year-old is the head of the Sámi people in Finland, the only indigenous population recognized in the European Union. She is also the creator of the world’s first Skolt-language rock albums. Skolt is a Sámi language spoken by just 300 people.
Although the Sámi population numbers at least 75,000, their languages are dying out. The Sámi are made up of nine different tribes across Norway, Sweden, Russia and Finland and speak various dialects. The lack of Sámi language education means young Sámis are growing up not speaking their mother tongue.
“I’m very sad to say the number of people who speak a version of Sámi as their first language is going down, and fast,” Sanila-Aikio said. “At the same time, the Sámi population is growing.”
In the 1960s, 75 percent of Sámis spoke the language as their mother tongue, according to records at the Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos. Research from 2007 revealed only 24 percent of Sámis were native speakers, and some dialects have already disappeared. Out of the 11 dialects, nine are still spoken, and Ter Sámi is spoken by just two people.
Sanila-Aikio is a Skolt Sámi and grew up in the village of Sevettijärvi, where the Skolt culture and language are still very much alive. She was so passionate about reviving her language she became a teacher and taught at the Sámi Education Institute in Inari, a unique vocational upper secondary education school, which teaches in Finnish and Sámi and promotes Sámi culture throughout the area.
“I was very worried about the trend, and I wanted to do something about it,” she said. “We have the Sámi Language Act — which covers situations where Sámis have the right to use their language when dealing with authorities. First of all, the authorities should have staff who speak the Sámi languages, and secondly, they can have interpreters if they don’t. But in reality, this doesn’t happen.
“It is a big struggle.”
Not content with teaching Skolt Sámi, Sanila-Aikio wrote — and recorded — two rock albums in 2005 and 2007.
“Sámi people loved it. We sold every copy we released, which was 2,500. Having rock in their own language is one way to get young people interested in their roots and bring the language to life in the modern day.”
Speaking Skolt — and other Sámi languages such as Inari Sámi — is entwined in the Sámi way of life, which is under threat due to mining, illegal logging and lack of land protection.
“When a new road is built through our reindeers’ grazing land, or a forest is felled, it changes the way we do things,” Sanila-Aikio explained. “That area cannot be used for reindeer herding anymore.
“So, traditional knowledge and the way of using that area disappears. We can’t teach it to the next generation anymore, and that’s why the language is being forgotten — because our culture is changing.
“But the government does not put these things together, and that’s our most difficult work at the moment — to try and make the issue of losing our culture and language visible.”
Currently, Sámi children living outside Sámi-populated areas do not have the opportunity of learning the language. The curriculum is taught in Finnish, and although Sámis can learn at the university level, access is varied.
Sara Wesslin works as a broadcast journalist at the Finnish media organization, Yle, headquartered in Inari at the Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos, which also houses Sámi Parliament.
The Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos is home to the Sámi Parliament and Finnish radio station, Yle. Credit: Lucy Sherriff/PRI
The 28-year-old broadcasts across radio and television in Skolt Sámi, and is one of only two journalists in the world doing so — that she knows of. (The other is Wesslin's colleague at Yle, Erkki Gauriloff.)
“I feel I have a huge responsibility for making this language seen and heard,” Wesslin said. “I live in a rare area where the Skolt Sámi language is strong and alive, and we have to take care of that.”
Wesslin said it’s important for her to be able to speak and work in her grandmother’s mother tongue.
“I didn't learn Skolt as a mother tongue — Finnish is — and so I've had to work really hard to keep the language in my life. In my family, I am the only one who speaks Skolt with my grandmother, but it is very difficult because we have been speaking Finnish for 20 years. It takes [a] lot of energy from both of us.
“My job as a journalist is one of the few places where I can meet Skolt-Sámi-speaking people and use my language.”
Sara Wesslin broadcasting in Skolt Sámi from Finnish radio station Yle. Credit: Ville-Riiko Fofonoff
Wesslin shares Sanila-Aikio's concerns about the future of Skolt and says women are the backbone of keeping the language alive.
“Women have [a] huge role to keep the language in their family. Children normally spend more time around their mothers, especially in traditional reindeer-herding Sámi families, where the men are out all day.
“Adults and children are enthusiastic to learn the language, but we should make a situation where Skolt Sámi is becoming a normal language to use in everyday life.”
Media has a very important role to play in reviving the language, she added. “And little by little, there is more music and other popular culture being produced in Skolt Sámi.
“I think it motivates children to use their minority language.”
Sámi Parliament has set up an educational institute to teach adults and teenagers Sámi culture and offers a one-year intensive Sámi language course. The programs are financed by EU grants, but Sanila-Aikio says the government does not contribute — and that’s something the parliament is fighting.
Sanila-Aikio believes in leading by example. Her 8-year-old daughter, Elli-Då’mnn, is learning her mother tongue, Skolt Sámi, as well as Inari Sámi — the language spoken in her father’s family.
And as for another rock album, Sanila-Aikio's presidential duties don’t leave her much time to spend on music, but she’s not ruling anything out: “Maybe someday.”
Lucy Sherriff reported from Finland.

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Seoul’s Doing Cafe Creates Community Around Feminism, Still a Taboo in South Korea · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Doing Cafe, a feminist cafe in Seoul, opened a year ago in March. In that time, over 10,000 people have passed through — most of them women in their 20s and 30s. It's the first place like it in South Korea, according to owner Kim Ryeo-il. Recently, the cafe held its first birthday party, which drew over 50 of its supporters. Credit: Ann Babe/PRI
This story by Ann Babe for GlobalPost originally appeared on PRI.org on February 20, 2018. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
Ha Yoon-na always believed in feminism, but never wanted to call herself a “feminist.” In South Korea, that word carries a negative connotation, and Ha, a 30-year-old book translator, worried she’d be judged and marginalized.
Ha overcame her fear last year when she visited a feminist space in Seoul. At Doing Cafe, among its more than 1,000 volumes of feminist literature, plus plenty of patrons eager to discuss them, she felt comfortable enough to talk openly about feminism for the first time.
“I had low self-esteem until I came here. I wasn’t sure about myself,” Ha said recently, sitting at a table with a book and a lemon tea. “Doing Cafe empowered me and allowed me to admit I’m a feminist.”
Tucked beside Cheongdam Station on the streets of the capital city’s poshest district, Gangnam (featured in Psy's 2012 pop hit, “Gangnam Style”), Doing Cafe would be unassuming if not for its vivid yellow exterior. Upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the place is more than a simple cafe — a sign on its door proclaims that it's a “cultural home of feminism.”
Except for the bright yellow color, Doing Cafe is unassuming from the outside. Credit: Ann Babe/PRI
In South Korea, where patriarchal and misogynistic attitudes remain deeply embedded in the mainstream culture, Doing Cafe is sort of an unusual, if subversive, establishment. It's the first feminist cafe of its kind in South Korea, according to owner Kim Ryeo-il, adding that it's attracted more than 10,000 visitors, mostly women in their 20s and 30s, from across the nation since opening in March 2017. It’s also inspired a handful of other local feminist spaces.
Through Doing’s many resources and events — including a feminist library, art exhibitions, guest lectures, store merchandise, social gatherings and one-on-one counseling (conducted by Kim, who has an advanced degree in feminist theology) — it aims to support young women like Ha in their struggle to assert their right to equality.
The cafe's owner, Kim Ryeo-il, has long wanted to open a place like this, but never imagined she'd be able to bring it to fruition. Credit: Ann Babe/PRI
“This cafe is for the sake of a cultural, societal movement,” said Kim, who also goes by the English name Liz. Most people find out about Doing through social media.
Fifty-year-old Kim hopes today’s movement will bring greater change than the first feminist wave of the 1990s — and less of a backlash. “It hasn’t become a good world,” she said, shaking her head. “Today’s generation of women in their 20s and 30s … don’t live in a better society than I did.”
Indeed, despite South Korea’s global reputation for cutting-edge technology and trending pop culture, the country lags far behind when it comes to gender equality. It holds one of the worst records in the world, according to the World Economic Forum, ranking 118 out of 144 nations, and among OECD countries, it comes in last for wage parity.
The Post-it notes on this display inside Doing Cafe share patrons’ wishes for the future and messages of thanks. Credit: Ann Babe/PRI
Social analysts say South Korea’s inequality stems, in part, from its Confucian culture that enforces rigid social roles and gender norms. For Ha, this inequality is felt within her own family, whereby she says her parents treat her younger brother like a “prince,” while they criticize her feminist beliefs as “an escape from reality” and a “self-delusion.”
“I thought of myself as the odd one out because my family is very conservative and very Confucianist,” Ha said. “I felt lonely.” Like Ha’s parents, her younger brother and sister also eyed feminism as a “dangerous” form of “female chauvinism” and told her they didn’t understand her interest in it.
This reaction is not uncommon in South Korea. “Feminist ideas are still very alien to many people here,” said Helen Noh, professor of social welfare at Soongsil University. “Feminist issues can bring a lot of discomfort.”
A sign on this cafe bookshelf reads, “Cultural Home of Feminism.” Credit: Ann Babe/PRI
That’s because feminism is still taboo, widely misunderstood as the hatred of men or the superiority of women. “When people hear the word feminism, they imagine a very extreme image,” Noh said. “They do not know the real meaning.”
Even Ha wasn’t completely sure what the term meant, despite unknowingly agreeing with its values. So, she joined Doing in search of a better understanding — mostly for herself, but that understanding ended up extending to the people around her, as well.
“My notion of feminism was very vague. I wanted to explain feminism, but I couldn’t because I didn’t have concrete thoughts,” she said. “Now, I share my views with my younger brother, and he wants to know about feminism and gender equality.”
Ha Yoon-na always believed in feminism but was reluctant to call herself a “feminist” until she found a community at Doing Cafe. Credit: Ann Babe/PRI
Fifteen years ago, when Kim was divorced and raising two kids on her own, she dreamed of building a feminist space, but couldn’t have imagined it would someday be a reality. At that time, she was struggling just to make ends meet.
In May 2016, everything changed. That’s when, one night in a Gangnam restroom, a man stabbed a young woman to death; he had waited for more than 50 minutes as six different men used the toilet and then targeted the first woman who entered. The man later confessed, “I did it because women have always ignored me.” While the murder was not charged as a hate crime, connected instead to mental illness, it shook the country and sparked dialogue about its entrenched misogyny.
For Kim, it pushed her to get to work on opening Doing.
Doing filled a gaping void. “There aren’t many places discussing these sorts of issues in Korea,” said Ha. “It helps people interested in feminism but afraid to call themselves feminists. It brings them together and helps them share their ideas.” Ha believes that by serving as a starting point for awareness building and education, Doing can bring feminist ideas to the broader Korean community.
Still, not every patron understands Doing’s mission. “Passersby don’t know what this cafe is about,” said Kim, who has on occasion encountered people that stop in randomly and end up having anti-feminist conversations, vocalizing their homophobia or bragging about buying cheap sex.
Additionally, the first year has been so tough on Kim financially that she often thinks about closing up shop, but the teary-eyed gratitude she receives from her patrons keeps her going. “In the end, maybe we can really build a better world,” she said. “That is my dream.”
Another patron, 17-year-old Casey Kim, who identifies as nonbinary (a gender identity that is neither entirely male nor entirely female), says they first heard about the space when living in Gangwon-do, the far eastern province where the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics are currently being held. But that didn’t stop Casey Kim from commuting regularly to the cafe, which felt like home.
Many of the feminist cafe's regulars turned out for its one-year anniversary with kimbap rolls, wine and music. Seoul's Doing Cafe features a feminist library, art exhibitions, guest lectures, store merchandise, social gatherings and one-on-one counseling. Credit: Ann Babe/PRI
On a brisk February night, Casey Kim, Ha and about 50 other supporters of Cafe Doing gathered in celebration of its first birthday. Doing turns 1 in March. The atmosphere was boisterous, with the lights dimmed and a disco ball throwing bright reflections off the art- and book-lined walls. Attendees mingled, ate kimbap rolls and drank wine against the backdrop of a carefully curated playlist of women’s empowerment music; cafe owner Kim Ryeo-il emceed.
Looking over her patrons, she beamed. The crowd clapped and cheered.
“Doing helped me to find my voice,” said Ha. “Getting rid of misogyny totally will not happen in my lifetime … but I feel it’s my duty to say, ‘It’s wrong,’ and explain why.”
Ann Babe reported from Seoul, South Korea.


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Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce Quits As Private Affair Becomes Public Scandal · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

In the public interest? Image: Screenshot Mediawatch video from YouTube.
Colourful, unconventional and controversial Australian politician Barnaby Joyce has announced his resignation as leader of the National Party and Deputy Prime Minister of Australia effective on Monday, 26 February 2018. This follows a series of crises over recent months. The saga of both private and political scandal has dominated both mainstream and social media.
In October 2017 the High Court ruled that his dual citizenship from Australia and New Zealand made his election to the House of Representatives in 2016 invalid. Nevertheless, he achieved a resounding victory in the subsequent by-election for his seat of New England and returned to his role as deputy PM.
Joyce has had a reputation as a larrikin [maverick] and self-promoter. Arts and science journalist Penny Durham was bemused by his newly-found modesty:
Why do people say humbled when they mean the exact opposite?
‘Utterly humbled’ Joyce declares victory in New England by-election – ABC News https://t.co/Z59Uk8lZSx
— Penny Durham (@pennydee) December 2, 2017
The wheels on Barnaby ‘s bandwagon started to wobble when it was revealed in the mainstream media that he was living with a former member of his staff and they were expecting a child.
One of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, claimed to have broken the story (although Online True Crime News Weekly is thought to have beaten them to the punch). The editor Christopher Dore posted their front page on Twitter:
Front page of The Daily Telegraph #auspol pic.twitter.com/n6EeoqARSM
— Christopher Dore (@wrongdorey) February 6, 2018
There was considerable questioning by journalists and the general public about the ethics of revealing the private lives of parliamentarians. The ABC’s Mediawatch program asked whether it was a legitimate story in the public interest. One tweet had no doubt:
@farrm51 you should be ashamed of yourself! “The girl” @Barnaby_Joyce had an affair with is a woman! Shame on you for airing a private matter in public – no consideration for wife & family! Shame on you!
— Lara Blamey (@lkblamey) February 12, 2018
Joyce is a conservative politician who represents a rural electorate. He has campaigned strongly about the importance of traditional values, especially traditional marriage, and against the dangers of promiscuity. He opposed same-sex marriage during the contentious postal survey last year so it was not surprising that many of its supporters saw this as gross hypocrisy. At the time, he told parliament that his marriage had broken down but did not mention his new partner.
Online True Crime News Weekly had in fact broken the story of the affair without revealing details in “MARRIAGE HYPOCRITE! Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce cheats on wife with long sexual affair with staffer while lecturing public on gays ruining marriage.”
Following the Daily Telegraph front page story, Rob Stott of pop culture website Junkee canvassed the issue:
One of the few times it’s acceptable to talk about the private life of a politician is when their private actions fail to live up to their public statements — when a politician’s hypocrisy is so clear and egregious that it can no longer be ignored.
Under that logic, the time to discuss Barnaby Joyce’s affair passed long ago.
There were assertions that the journalists in the Canberra press gallery were protecting Joyce during the by-election. At online journal ‘Independent Australia’, Ross Jones, who had also revealed the story in October, thought there had been a deliberate “shroud of silence”.
Following the outing by the Daily Telegraph, accusations of misuse of political power blew up, especially on social media. Firstly, it emerged that two of his National party colleagues, a government minister and the chief whip, had employed the staffer after she left Joyce’s office. In addition, the couple had been living rent-free for 6 months courtesy of a business “mate” of Joyce’s. There were also claims of misuse of travel allowances.
Sports tragic Master Sharky took to Twitter:
@Barnaby_Joyce has to go, not for his private life. But for the creating of jobs on public money for his GF. It's a rort and he should pay the price!
— MasterSharky (@MasterSharky) February 11, 2018
The prospect of Joyce acting as PM while Malcolm Turnbull was Donald Trump’s guest in Washington seemed to bring matters to a political head. Turnbull gave his deputy a public dressing-down saying he “appalled all of us” and should “consider his own position”. Joyce fired back calling the PM “inept”.
Turnbull also announced a change to ministerial guidelines, prohibiting sexual relations between ministers and their staffers. Social media reveled in what became known as the #bonkban. Many saw the new rule as a distraction from the issue of political integrity:
How Pathetic is @BarnabyJoyceLNP The victim card played again…It's not about the #BonkBan it's the rorting the lies the greed.. the need for a #RortBan You're not fooling anyone.!!
— MormorLady (@mormorlady) February 23, 2018
A host of hashtags has competed for social media attention. #Barnabygate was joined by #Beetrooter, a reference to both his ruddy, red complexion and ‘root’ [the Aussie slang for sexual intercourse].
@Barnaby_Joyce says it’s time to move on and stop discussing his affair. Conveniently forgets it’s the fraudulent use of taxpayer funds to facilitate his affair is the real point. The only party that needs to move on is the #Beetrooter – move on from Deputy PM and out of office
— Truly Tragic (@80stragic) February 21, 2018
An accusation against Joyce by a prominent Western Australian woman of sexual harassment was the last straw. Though denying the claim, Joyce chose to resign his leadership of the National Party, a position that brings the deputy prime-ministership. This brought the inevitable hashtag #Barnabye:
The new Nationals leader and deputy PM is low profile Veterans Affairs minister Michael McCormack who is regarded as a safe choice. However, he is already copping criticism for his past when, as a journalist, he attacked homosexuality as “sordid”. He has since disowned his 1993 homophobic remarks. However, it didn’t stop social media user Kiera from letting fly on Twitter:
WARNING: This is the homophobe who wants to replace @Barnaby_Joyce as Deputy PM: Michael McCormack. #BarnabyGate #AusPol pic.twitter.com/y5CwwaXRHg
— Kiera (@KieraGorden) February 21, 2018
However, given his past tenacity, some are speculating about whether this is the end of Barnaby Joyce’s political career:
Don’t think we’ve seen the last of @Barnaby_Joyce. Likely to be just in a “dust settling holding pattern”
— David Burt (@Bluecent65) February 23, 2018

author: Kevin Rennie


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Can a Court Order and Protests Save Centenary Trees on Bangladesh’s Jessore Road? · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

Centenary trees at Jessore Road. Screenshot from YouTube.
In a developing country like Bangladesh, large-scale expansion can be harmful as the battle for space threatens the existence of tree canopies. A controversial government decision to cut the century-old canopy trees that line the Jessore-Benapole highway has led to protests from both environmentalists and the public. Last month, the court intervened and halted the decision; however, the fate of these important trees continues to be at risk.
Last year, the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) of Bangladesh decided to cut down 2,700 trees on the Bangladeshi side of the 38-kilometer road from Benapole to the Southwestern city of Jessore in order to make room for a four-lane highway.
The main feature of this road is the existing canopy trees that line either side — some of which are more than 170 years old. On the other side of the border, Jessore road (now known as National Highway 112) extends to Kolkata, the capital of the Indian State of West Bengal, featuring similar kinds of trees.
The decision by the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has caused widespread protests across the country, with protesters demanding that the government cancel its plan. Environmental activists highlighted the fact that the decision will be detrimental to the environment as the trees cover an area of over 210 acres which many consider to be the size of a forest.
Save jessore road tree pic.twitter.com/8hN2lZjYgg
— Abhijit Paul (@avijitpal) April 9, 2017
People took to social media to underline the significance of these trees. Vlogger Anupam Debashis Roy uploads a video on YouTube explaining why the trees need to be saved:
Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, a Human Rights NGO, filed a writ petition against the felling of the trees and, on January 18, 2018, a High Court in Bangladesh issued a stay order for six months against the government decision.
Jessore Road: Tree felling halted for 6 months pic.twitter.com/QYr3YRxGRr
— A.K.MSaifullah Nadim (@nadim421) January 19, 2018
In 1840, Kali Poddar Babu, a Jamindar (landlord) of Jessore first took the initiative to build a road from Jessore to Kolkata (that time both belonging to united India) and lot of saplings were planted on both sides of the road to bring beauty to the journey.
A post shared by ✋✋Md Abdul Muttaleb✋✋ (@m_a_muttaleb) on
The trees have also born witness to two historic refugee exodus': The first during the partition of the Sub-continent in 1947, and the second during country's Liberation War. Millions of refugees passed through the road to shelters in India in 1971 to escape from the 1971 Bangladesh genocide. Seeing the long line of refugees, American poet Allen Ginsberg wrote a poem titled September on Jessore Road. This was sung by Bob Dylan on August 1, 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York for the Concert For Bangladesh, a benefit concert for the refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War:
A similar move by the West Bengal government to fell trees on the Indian side of the Jessore road (NH-112) was also blocked by the court. Environmental activists are proposing a solution that the road in some stretches can be constructed with the trees as a natural divider between the two lanes.
After the stay order from the Bangladeshi court, the government said that they will be looking for options to see if the trees can be spared.
Belayet Hossain Mamun, who works in the movie industry, demands that the Jessore road be declared a national heritage because of its role as witness to the history of refugees.
Unfortunately, some social media users note that the tradition of cutting trees in the name of development is very old. Sobak Nirbak (pseudonym) writes on Facebook:
গাছের জন্য সচেতন নাগরিক এখন কান্না করলেও গাছের কান্না যুগ যুগ পুরানো! দেশের অন্য সড়ক বা মহাসড়ক গুলোর গাছ কাটা ও চুরি কোনটাই থেমে নেই। ঠিক এই সময়ে রাস্তার প্রশস্ত করণে হাজারে হাজারে গাছ কাটা হচ্ছে বা কাটতে হচ্ছে। কর্তিত গাছের বিপরীত নতুন সড়ক বনায়নের পরিকল্পনার অঙ্গীকারও বন অধিদপ্তর করেনি। তারপরেও নাগরিক সচেতনতা সেসব যায়গায় একেবারেই ঘুমন্ত। এই উদাসীনতারও উত্তোরণ চাই!
Many are reacting emotionally hearing about the felling of trees at Jessore Road, but this is not the first time people are crying about it. There are a lot of trees being felled in other parts of the country in so many other roads due to theft or for widening the roads. The forestry department should replace the felled trees with forestation in other parts of the country as a policy. This is also not being done. Our public conscience is sleeping in those areas. We need to overcome this ignorance.
Others are in favor of development and point to the need to make room for road expansion. GM Mithun is a student leader of the ruling party. He wrote on Facebook:
যশোর রোডের গাছ কাটা নিয়ে অনেক কথা হচ্ছে। কিন্তু নতুন কিছু সৃষ্টি করতে, পুরাতন কিছু ত্যাগ করতে হয়, এটাই বাস্তবতা। গাছ গুলোর বেশির ভাগই ভঙ্গুর অবস্থা। রাস্তা অত্যান্ত জরুরী। সুতরাং ঐতিহ্যের কথা বলে চার লেন বাধাগ্রস্থ করা ঠিক হচ্ছে বলে মনে হয় না। …
There have been a lot of discussion on the trees of Jessore road. But to create something new you have to let go of the old. The trees are not in a good shape and affecting the road. The road development is absolutely necessary. So in the name of protection of heritage, we should not block the development into four-lanes.
However, a Facebook page titled Save Trees on Jessore Road, claims that the government statement which cites the proposal of a four-lane highway is inaccurate and, in fact, only provides provisions for the expansion of the existing two-lane road. Via the Right To Information Act, the group obtained and shared the project development plan from the Roads and Highways department of Jessore.
The government plan does not reflect the four-lanes as promised. Image courtesy: Save Trees on Jessore Road Facebook Page.
In a note they claim:
এই প্রকল্পের কাগজপত্র ঘেঁটে দেখা গেছে যে, এখানে রাস্তাটিকে চারলেন তৈরির কোন পরিকল্পনা নেই। রাস্তাটিকে দুই লেন রেখেই প্রকল্পটি বাস্তবায়িত হবে। অর্থাৎ, বর্তমানে যে অবস্থায় আছে প্রায় সেভাবেই রাস্তাটিকে সংস্কার করা হবে। এই প্রকল্পের আউট কাম হিসেবে কয়েকটি বিষয়ের কথা বলা হয়েছে-
০১. রাস্তাটির পুরুত্ব বাড়ানো হবে ০২. বর্তমান রাস্তাটিকেই সংস্কার করা হবে ০৩. রাস্তার দুই পাশে হার্ড শোল্ডার নির্মাণ করা হবে ০৪. আরসিসি কালভার্ট নির্মাণ করা হবে ০৫. কিছু ড্রেন তৈরি করা হবে ০৬. রোড সেফটি মার্কার ও রোড লাইনার আঁকা হবে।
We have seen the project plan and that revealed that the road is not being upgraded to four lanes (at least now). They are developing the existing two lanes. These are stated at the outcome of the project: 01) The thickness of the road is to be increased 02) Renovating the esisting road by widening it 03) Hard shoulders will be built on both sides 04) RCC Box Culverts will be built 05) Some dranes will be built 06) Road Safety marker and road liners will be added.
The landmark judgment in Bangladesh issuing the stay order on Jessore road might have set a precedent in these types of cases as it is now not the only tree-cutting plan being brought to a temporary halt. On February 13, 2018, the High Court issued a stay order to the government to maintain status quo on felling around 4,000 trees on Singair-Hemayetpur road in Manikganj for the next six months.
The Jessore road in Bangladesh and the NH112 in India will be part of the proposed Asian Highway (AH1). The AH1 is the longest route of the Asian Highway Network, running 20,557 km (12,774 mi) from Tokyo, Japan via many Asian countries to the border between Turkey and Bulgaria west of Istanbul where it finally joins with European route E80. As Bangladesh and India are caught between a desire for development and preservation, it remains to be seen whether or not the canopy trees of the Jessore road on both sides of the border will survive the pressure.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


text:
The Untimely Death of Sports Journalist Daniel Peredo Provokes Outpouring of Grief in Peru · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Daniel Peredo. Image from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
On February 19, 2018, Peruvian football fans received unexpected news. Sports journalist Daniel Peredo, well-known for his excitement while narrating football games, passed away due to a heart failure. He was 48-years-old.
The surprise was even bigger because just the day before Peredo had narrated the match between two local football teams, Alianza Lima and Sporting Cristal, at the Alejandro Villanueva stadium — more popularly known as Matute. On his Twitter account, his last posting is about that match:
Diego Haro hizo un mal arbitraje. Se le comenzó a escapar la conducción desde la primera acción cuando no amonestó a Calcaterra. Después, nunca pudo controlar la dirección del juego.
— Daniel Peredo M (@danielperedo17) 19 de febrero de 2018
Diego Haro did a bad job as referee. From the first action, the direction [of the match] started to drift away from him when he didn't reprimand Calcaterra. After that, he was never able to control the game.
Peredo was well-known for the excitement he displayed when narrating goals by the Peruvian national team. Here we can listen to him as Peru marks the goal that solidified its qualification for the World Cup after a 36-year absence from the games.
[0:25, after the first goal] Goal! Goal! […] We found the spot! We found the spot!
[2:55, after the second goal] Goal! Goal! Peruvian goal! […] (Christian) Ramos came up to tell us all that there is no evil that lasts 36 years or Peruvian football to endure it!!! […]
[5:05, when referee whistles the end of the match] We are back, back in the World Cup! Everybody has gone mad here. […] It was meant to happen today. Peru is back in the World Cup after 36 years […].
His phrases, which became his signature, were very well known and widely used. In the days after his passing, his most popular phrases were remembered online as an homage:
1. ¡Ahí, en el área, de goleador!
2. ¡Un gol más va a haber!
3. ¡A ese dámelo siempre!
4. ¡Era hoy Ramón!
5. ¡Cuando no se puede jugando, siempre, siempre la pelotita parada!
6. ¡Los palos son así, a veces juegan para los arqueros!
7. ¡No sé si es justo, solo sé que es cierto!
8. ¡Consejo de pata, anda al área!
9. ¡Si quisieras Sheput!
10. ¡Con los huevos de Vargas, con el empuje de Vargas, con el pundonor de Vargas, con el corazón de todos!
1. There, at the scorer zone!
2. There is going to be another goal!
3. That one, always give him to me!
4. It was today, Ramón!
5. When during the game is not possible, always, always, with a stopped ball!
6. Crossbars are like that, they sometimes favor goalkeepers!
7. I don't know if it's fair, I only know it's true!
8. Advice from a buddy, go to the goal zone!
9. If you'd like, Sheput!
10. With Vargas’ balls, with Vargas’ thrust, with Vargas’ nerve, with everybody's heart!
Condolence messages came from all over. Even popular football commenter Mister Chip dedicated a post to Daniel Peredo when he learned about his passing:
⏱ LA CUENTA ATRÁS#Rusia2018 ?
? FALTAN 1⃣1⃣4⃣ DÍAS
? UNA HISTORIA CADA DÍA
?EL CIELO PODÍA ESPERAR?
(dedicado a ??Daniel Peredo??)
Para leer la historia…
? ?? https://t.co/o3HvEr8oJq
? ?? https://t.co/e9fro7eNIY
? Infografía ?? @Futbolmania01 pic.twitter.com/olxHNGJtWs
— MisterChip (Alexis) (@2010MisterChip) 20 de febrero de 2018
HEAVEN COULD WAIT!
————–
⏱ COUNTDOWN TO Russia 2018 ?
? 1⃣1⃣4⃣ DAYS LEFT
? A STORY EVERY
? HEAVEN COULD WAIT  ?
(to ?? Daniel Peredo ??)
To read the story…
? ?? https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfa5X2IH_jL/
? ??https://www.facebook.com/2010MisterChip/posts/1602563143154842
And on his Instagram account, Mister Chip wrote:
EL CIELO PODÍA ESPERAR: […] La historia de hoy va dedicada a todos esos aficionados que tuvieron que esperar hasta dos o tres generaciones para volver a ver a su país jugar una Copa del Mundo, con una mención muy especial para mi querida Perú ?? que es la única selección en la historia del fútbol que ha tenido que esperar hasta en DOS OCASIONES un período de 30 (o más) años para volver a asistir al gran evento.
[…]
.? Quiero dedicarle esta historia, con todo el cariño del mundo, a Daniel Peredo, la voz de la selección peruana, que falleció el 19 de febrero de 2018 a los 48 años, cuando sólo faltaban 4 meses para ver cumplido su sueño: narrar un partido de la Bicolor en la Copa del Mundo. No tuve ocasión de conocerle personalmente, pero me consta que me tenía gran aprecio y que a menudo usaba mis datos en sus retransmisiones, respetando siempre la fuente. Si él tuvo que esperar 36 años para volver a ver a Perú en un Mundial, bien podría el cielo haber esperado un poco más antes de llevárselo. Que descanse en paz.
HEAVEN COULD WAIT: […] Today's story is dedicated to those fans who had to wait for two and even three generations to see their countries be part of a Football World Cup, with a very special mention to my dear Peru, ?? the only national team in football History that had to wait even TWICE a 30 year-period (or more) to be part again of the great event.
[…]
.? I want to dedicate this story, with all my heart, to Daniel Peredo, Peruvian national team's voice, who passed away on February 19, 2018 at 48 years old — only four months away from his dream: to narrate a match of his national team at the World Cup. I didn't have the chance to meet him personally, but I'm aware he appreciated me and that he used my facts for his retransmissions, always mentioning the source. If he had to wait 36 years to see Peru in a World Cup, heaven could wait a liitle before taking him. May he rest in peace.
Peruvian national team coach Ricardo Gareca also sent his sympathies via his Twitter account:
El profesor Ricardo Gareca y su Comando Técnico envían sus más sentidas condolencias por la partida de Daniel Peredo. pic.twitter.com/m9ERM6lhZu
— Selección Peruana (@SeleccionPeru) 20 de febrero de 2018
Mr Ricard Gareca and his technical command send their deepest sympathies for the passing of Daniel Peredo.
Team captain Paolo Guerrero briefly tweeted:
Descansa en paz, Daniel Peredo. pic.twitter.com/gWc67webWV
— Paolo Guerrero (@PaoloGuerreroOf) 20 de febrero de 2018
Rest in peace, Daniel Peredo.
Two days after his passing, Daniel Peredo's coffin was taken to the Peruvian National Stadium where he was honored by thousands of fans:
Increíble. Nunca antes visto. Hasta siempre, Daniel Peredo pic.twitter.com/ZeGRzlwYi0
— Nicolás Villafana (@nico_villafana) 21 de febrero de 2018
Unbelievable. Never seen before. Goodbye forever, Daniel Peredo
De acuerdo con que poner cualquier imagen del velorio/familia es una mala idea…pero me llegó este video de la tremenda cantidad de arreglos florales afuera del velorio de Daniel Peredo y me parece que sí vale la pena compartir. <3 pic.twitter.com/AodFYRpVNO
— francisco josé (@surquiyork) 21 de febrero de 2018
I agree that sharing any image of the funeral service or family is a bad idea… but I got this video with the amazing number of flower arrangements outside Daniel Peredo's funeral, and I think this is worth sharing.
No recuerdo en la historia que la muerte de un periodista haya sido tan sentida y que se le haya dado el último adiós tan apoteósicamente como hoy sucede con Daniel Peredo en el Estadio Nacional, ojalá todos los profesionales de prensa fueran tan dignos de una despedida como él. https://t.co/2hWN30NGsV
— Mary Gutierrez (@marygut33145724) 21 de febrero de 2018
I can't remember any passing of a journalist, or a farewell so moving or incredible as the one happening today with Daniel Peredo at the National Stadium. I wish all media professionals were as worthy of such honors.
Daniel Peredo: los hinchas le dieron el último adiós en el Estadio Nacional https://t.co/PSRdk1uxch pic.twitter.com/cnqbrCq8hq
— Periodismo 2.0? (@PrensaPeru) 21 de febrero de 2018
Daniel Peredo: football fans gave him a final goodbye.
Unfortunately, some took the opportunity to misuse the sad moment, as this tweet reports:
Esta circulando una foto de Daniel Peredo en el ataúd. No puedo creer que haya un ser humano tan, pero tan bajo, tan rastrero, tan sádico, tan morboso. Qué indignación sacar provecho del dolor de sus familiares y de las personas que lo conocimos. Eso no tiene nombre
— Alexandra Salgado O. (@alesalgado) 20 de febrero de 2018
A picture of Daniel Peredo in his coffin is being shared. I can't believe there is a human being that vile, that despicable, that sadist, that unhealthy. It's outrageous to take advantage of his family's grief and for those of us who met him. This is unspeakable.
And a final tribute:
Los amigos de Daniel, queremos despedirlo con un minuto de aplausos en todos los estadios, porque cuando el telón baja, el verdadero protagonista es el aplauso, no el silencio. #AplausosparaPeredo pic.twitter.com/9FzzJcQ6UP
— Diego Rebagliati (@diegoreba) 21 de febrero de 2018
Today, we don't want a minute of silence, we want a minute of applause for Daniel Peredo.
Applause for Peredo!
———-
We, Daniel's friends, want to bid him farewell with a minute of applause at each stadium, because when the curtain falls, the real star is the applause, not the silence.
Peruvian football fans will miss Daniel Peredo's voice and excitement at the Russia 2018 Football World Cup.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


text:
Twitter Thread of Observations and Surprising Moments in Japan Goes Viral · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Smoking Room in Japan. Photo by Nevin Thompson
When Marcin Wichary, the well-known past design lead and typographer of the blogging platform Medium, visited Japan for several weeks, he immediately took notice of the UI or “user interface” of Japanese life. The signs, buttons and general ways of doing things such as lining up for the train or purchasing a meal might be facts of life that Japanese people take for granted but are surprising to people from other parts of the world.
Over the course of his two-week stay in Japan, he starting using Twitter to document his observations about Japan's approach to everything from signage to trash receptacles. The result was a massive thread with 300 individual tweets that quickly went viral:
This epic thread of @mwichary‘s observations and surprising moments in Japan, with an emphasis on everyday UIs, is just the best. I wish this was a blog. https://t.co/L1hi2Qvlxt
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) February 12, 2018
This was Wichary's first trip to Japan, and immediately he noticed the difference between the Tokyo subway system and the BART rapid transit line in San Francisco, where he works.
11. The fare gate closed on me in a rather gentle way when I tried to walk past it without inserting the ticket.
(Contrast: San Francisco BART gate that slammed itself into my thigh and gave me a bruise *after* I paid my fare.)
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
As he live-blogged on Twitter, Wichary frequently asked for insights about the various phenomenon he encountered such as these signs notifying subway users how far above sea level the entrance is. (These signs are in case of tsunami — tsunami waves following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake towered over thirty meters above sea level in some places on Japan's northeastern coastline):
28. Does anyone know why does this subway entrance tell me this? pic.twitter.com/ix5BbCo3UW
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 2, 2018
In other ways, Wichary's trip to Japan, such as this style of analog clock commonly found in Japanese train stations, uncovered some nostalgic memories:
150. (150!)
This is a particularly Marcin-shaped mystery. I know this clock from my childhood. From Poland.
I recreated it in JavaScript. I wrote about it (https://t.co/4swcDxsmPQ). So why is it here, now, all over the place!? pic.twitter.com/ZakyxPAz23
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 12, 2018
Wichary frequently took note of train and subway signage intended to improve manners and social harmony:
60. Manspreading: A global epidemic. :·/ pic.twitter.com/2A2cReIqH6
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 3, 2018
147. The tone of this ad is kind of incredible. pic.twitter.com/O1BFEEudi4
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 12, 2018
Other times, he investigated the user interface of the mundane experiences of daily life in a big city in Japan such as purchasing tickets at a quick-service lunch counter:
17. Interesting system: you pay for a ticket to a restaurant in front of it, and then enter and give it to a server. No tips, and after finishing you just get up and leave? pic.twitter.com/DVkYPhPl1S
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
As a designer, Wichary was also interested in the aesthetic of Japanese currency:
23. All of the yen coins have arabic numerals… except one of them (5).
In general, only 50/100 look like they’ve been designed together. pic.twitter.com/ctioQ41m8O
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
25. I’ve been informed by @txsector that a one-yen coin will float on the surface of the water, and I can confirm this.
(As you can see, it took me a while.) pic.twitter.com/GW7Z36CYte
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
Like many visitors to Japan, vending machines were also a mystery to be deciphered:
21. This vending machine had a flap covering the banknote port. I don’t understand why. pic.twitter.com/J89hE6LQ2k
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
63. I didn’t know I had so many feelings for vending machines until I started seeing dozens of them outside, exposed to elements.
(Which explains the money cover above.)
Also, vending machines don’t seem to be gross here! Which is becoming kind of an overall theme. pic.twitter.com/iVDps94mxs
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 3, 2018
Wichary also noted some of the more subtle differences between Japan and the United States, where, out of superstition, buildings typically do not have a thirteenth floor:
7. My hotel room is on the 13th floor, which I love. pic.twitter.com/ZGvjMw0AR5
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
His hotel room was also a source of curious observations:
20. Super interesting hotel flashlight. There is no on/off switch. The thing that mounts it on the wall also separates the two batteries and cuts off the power.
What do I need this for, though? pic.twitter.com/K9JfzGzDiR
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
In the replies to the Tweet, it was pointed out that the flashlight would come in handy in the case of an earthquake or another event where there might be no power and therefore no lighting.
Wichary, who is writing a book about the history of the keyboard, took a special interest in Japan's approach to keypads:
First keyboard I interacted with in Japan was already kind of amazing. Mechanical numeric keypad in an ATM! pic.twitter.com/U0bnG3rWui
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 1, 2018
Keyboard mystery: I’ve seen a bunch of older Mac keyboards today (including the legendary black MacBook) where Control key is adorned with an extra pen icon. What is that all about? I have never seen this before. pic.twitter.com/kPgbIWecwD
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 3, 2018
Mystery solved! The pen was to draw attention to the menu allowing you to switch between many modes of entering Japanese. It otherwise behaved as ^ or Ctrl.
The shortcuts still work today, but the special icon and key are gone. I am not sure why the intro’ed it or removed it. pic.twitter.com/PRUr9oBkgw
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 3, 2018
Read the rest of the Twitter thread on Japanese keyboards here.
Wichary also noticed that signage can be overly complex with high information density in Japan.
46. Is there a name for this kind of esthetic? Is western text stretched thin in here (which I see very often) just to make the low information density slightly less unbearable? pic.twitter.com/xqFwhS9B8u
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 2, 2018
Like many visitors to Japan, Wichary was struck by the care taken in Japan to avoid disturbing others. For example, Wichary noted that construction worksites typically post a schedule to alert locals about when work will take place:
78. It seems that construction sites are supposed to tell you ahead about their work schedule for the week? Some of those displays are even electronic!
(I drew the complicated one on my trackpad. It says 解体工事: demolition work. February 4 is Sunday = no construction.) pic.twitter.com/aVUnNHaP2a
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 3, 2018
By the end of his trip, Wichary was impressed not only with the courteousness he observed, but how certain approaches to life were common throughout the archipelago:
You probably noticed a lot of patterns. Here’s another one. A lot of my discovery of Japan followed this routine:
1. Discover something amazing.
2. Realize this amazing thing is EVERYWHERE, a baseline.
3. Discover an even more extraordinary version of that thing, in some places.
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 17, 2018
Wichary's original Twitter thread can be read here, and he has also just published a blog post about his trip to Japan:
Apparently it’s a rite of passage to write a guide to visiting Japan after visiting Japan.
Here’s mine, with links to other good ones. If you’re like me and are planning to visit, I hope it’s useful: https://t.co/BgrTp9UK7W
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) February 24, 2018
This article has been updated to reflect Marcin Wichary no longer works for Medium.

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
Censored, But Not Backing Down: Cuban News Site Staff Say They Won’t Change Their Editorial Line · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

“The Internet is shit! Let's see… whoever wants Internet, raise your hand.” Cartoon by Lázaro Saavedra, reproduced with permission.
El Esturnudo (“The Sneeze”), an independent narrative journalism site “written from inside and outside Cuba” is no longer accessible for internet users in Cuba.
The magazine, which includes critical essays and feature articles on social issues and cultural change, joins the ranks of media outlets in the country that are or have been temporarily censored by state authorities, in an ongoing effort to limit what information Cubans can access on the internet.
The move adds insult to injury in a country where internet connectivity is scarce, and the cost of using the internet is still prohibitively expensive for many citizens.
In an official response to the block, the editors of El Estornudo wrote an open letter addressed to “the Censor” that was republished by other local independent media outlets including Periodismo de Barrio and 14yMedio (a news site run by blogger Yoani Sánchez, that has also been blocked inside Cuba):
…el gobierno cubano ha decidido bloquear el acceso directo a la revista desde el territorio nacional, haciéndonos perder…[lectores] aquellos para los que El Estornudo probablemente cumplía una función más vital, ciudadanos que padecen la grisura informativa de los medios de propaganda del Estado y buscan con denuedo el relato verídico y honesto de un país que se asemeje al país en el que realmente viven y vivimos, gobernado hasta hoy con ineptitud y puño de hierro.
…the Cuban government decided to block access to our magazine from inside the territory, causing us to lose….[readers] for whom El Estornudo probably fulfilled a more vital function,  for citizens who endure the mediocrity of the information provided by the State's propaganda, and want to take a closer look at a true narrative, one that reflects the country they actually live in, a country governed with ineptitude and an iron fist.
The letter goes on to say that the block will not change the editorial position of the magazine, “nor will it put El Estornudo into dialogue with political power in the terms that political power expects.”
No vamos a descender a esa forma conciliatoria y pusilánime del discurso en el que hacemos periodismo casi como si pidiéramos perdón, dando explicaciones gratuitas al represor en vez de exigírselas…
We are not going to descend to that conciliatory and pusillanimous form of discourse in which we do journalism as if we were asking for forgiveness, giving free explanations to the repressor instead of demanding them
El Estornudo is hosted in Australia and counts among its contributors Cubans on the island, along with Cubans who now live in the US, Spain and other countries.
In an interview with Revista7im, editor Abraham Jiménez says the magazine's aim is not only to make visible their critiques of the Cuban government, but to tell the stories of the “other Cuba” that that is not part of the official story.
Although it is difficult to determine the precise number of people in Cuba who regularly access the global internet, even the most optimistic estimates confirm that Cuba has one of the lowest internet penetration rates in the Americas.
The challenges that Cubans confront in getting online or getting access to digital media has been a hot topic among tech savvy Cubans in the country and in the diaspora for some time. Local outlets including El Estornudo, Cachivache Media, and OnCuba all routinely publish news and informative essays about digital media literacy and informal networks of media exchange on the island.
While outlets like El Estornudo produce a full suite of content on their websites, editorial staff in-country typically use a range of distribution methods — including email (Cubans can maintain state-issued email accounts on the country's state-run intranet, which is freely accessible to all citizens), mobile messaging, local area (LAN) networks and pen drives circulated by hand. This is to say that while the site may not longer be accessible in Cuba, the stories and essays from El Estornudo will probably find some way to reach the site's most dedicated readers.
The letter to the Government Censor also expresses the importance of working not only for those reading about Cuba today, but those wanting to understand today's Cuba in the years to come:
En un país donde no pueden circular publicaciones impresas fuera de los márgenes del Estado, donde el acceso a Internet es sumamente limitado, y donde luego bloquean la dirección de tu medio de prensa para que ni siquiera a través de ese acceso limitado lleguen a leerte, hemos de recordar que esta revista también existe para que los cubanos puedan enterarse mañana de qué les sucedía hoy.
In a country where print publications cannot circulate outside the margins of the state, where internet is very limited, and where they block the URL to your outlet so people cannot even read you through that very limited access, we should remember that this magazine exists also for Cubans to find out tomorrow what was happening to them today.

author: Laura Vidal