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Guyana: Timeline of an election impasse · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Guyana's State House and Parliament building. Photo by Hans Birger Nilsen on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
April 2, 2020 marks a full month since Guyana held its general election. The country's electoral commission, GECOM, has not re-verified votes cast in the contentious Region 4, but it has also not declared a winner — leaving the future of the next government in limbo.
The legal twists and turns along this journey have been numerous and complex. The Carter Center has called Guyana's 2020 election a “high-stakes” one: the country is on the verge of an economic boom, thanks to the recent discovery of massive oil reserves. In an effort to clarify the situation, here's a timeline of important events during the past month:
March 2: General elections are held, with voters turning out at polling stations across all 10 electoral districts known as regions.
March 5: Nine of the country's 10 regions declare results, at which point the opposition People's Progressive Party (PPP) leads by more than 50,000 votes. When the Returning Officer (RO) for Region 4, Clairmont Mingo, declares the outstanding district's results later that day, it appears that the governing coalition, A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), has enough of a margin in Region 4 to win the entire election.
There is controversy, however, over proper procedure. Allegations abound over the improper use of a spreadsheet: By law, results must be verified according to the official Statements of Poll. There are also reports of a data entry clerk having access to an unauthorised laptop and flash drive. The PPP is granted a court injunction barring Region 4's RO from declaring the results until they can be properly verified.
Meanwhile, there are reports of media personnel and election monitors being removed from GECOM headquarters. The situation prompts statements of concern from election observers.
March 6: GECOM receives the court order pertaining to the PPP's injunction.
March 8: Guyana's acting chief justice (CJ), Roxane George-Wiltshire, rules that the court has jurisdiction to hear the Region 4 verification suit.
March 10: Arguments pertaining to the suit are heard.
March 11: CJ George-Wiltshire rules that the Region 4 results were “unlawful” as they did not fall in line with the requirements laid out in Section 84 of Guyana's Representation of the People Act, which refers to the counting of votes polled.
Her nullification of Region 4's declaration, coupled with her order for GECOM to conform with the law, means that the final results of the country's general elections hang in the balance until the recount is properly conducted.
The same day, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) heads arrive in Guyana and urge President Granger and his governing APNU+AFC coalition to abide by the law.
March 12: GECOM requires observers to be newly accredited and limits the number of observers allowed per team as the Region 4 re-verification process is carded to begin. The process is stalled, however, when the results continue to be read from the contentious spreadsheet, in contradiction of the CJ's ruling.
The PPP files contempt proceedings against the Region 4 Returning Officer. The CJ makes it clear that the RO must read the results based on the Statement of Poll.
March 13: Region 4 verification recommences, though the approach is still unclear. The GECOM requests a location move to better facilities in downtown Georgetown, the capital.
The verification takes place in a shed in the yard of GECOM in Georgetown, at which the RO displays photocopies of the Statements of Poll — allegedly 19 with visible signs of alternations — and once again declares Region 4 for the APNU+AFC despite protests from people in attendance.
The OAS observer mission pulls out of Guyana over the “flawed” process, and international election observers express concern about the lack of transparency.
March 14: President Granger asks for an independent, high-level CARICOM team, led by Barbados Prime Minister and CARICOM Chair Mia Mottley, to oversee the recount of Region 4 ballots, in accordance with the CJ's March 11 ruling; the PPP agrees. In fact, the government and the opposition both go a step further, agreeing to a recount in all 10 regions.
March 15: The CARICOM team meets with GECOM and agree upon the conditions and parameters of the recount, which is scheduled for March 16. Containers with ballot boxes are moved to the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, where the recount is to take place.
March 16: The CARICOM team, along with other observers and stakeholders, arrive at the conference centre, but GECOM claims to still be working out the modalities of the process and denies them access.
At approximately 3:30 that afternoon, GECOM officials issue a press release stating that they need signed authorisation by President Granger, Opposition Leader Jagdeo and the CARICOM team before they can accommodate. They also advise that the building needs to be sanitised against COVID-19 before they can allow entry.
Police remove all observers and political party representatives from the premises, though GECOM grants permission for representatives of the various political parties to stay overnight to guard the containers.
March 17: Ulita Grace Moore, who ran as a candidate for the governing coalition in Guyana's 2018 local government elections, successfully files an ex-parte injunction to block GECOM from acting on the recount agreement made with CARICOM.
GECOM is accused of deliberately delaying the recount to facilitate the injunction. Since the recount never began, the upholding of this injunction gives GECOM the freedom to declare the election result in the government's favour — something it has not yet done.
An injunction hearing is slated for March 20. Meanwhile, the two sides sign the CARICOM agreement, as requested by GECOM.
March 20: Justice Franklin Holder, the judge overseeing the injunction, hears arguments for both sides. Only four media houses are allowed entry to hear the proceedings, which reportedly take place in chambers.
While various regional voices call for President Granger to uphold his promise of having the recount done, APNU+AFC supporters accuse the PPP of playing a “dangerous game.”
March 27: Justice Holder rules against GECOM having to produce the Statements of Poll in court, having determined that he has jurisdiction to hear the matter.
March 30: The PPP appeals the decision and wins. Despite the governing APNU+AFC's adamance that it won the elections, the AFC arm of the partnership suggests a power-sharing arrangement with the PPP.
March 31: CJ George-Wiltshire discharges Moore's injunction and orders her to pay the PPP's legal costs. GECOM is now free to conduct the recount.
April 1: A GECOM meeting to decide the way forward is postponed, on the grounds that GECOM needs to “study” the court's ruling.
It is unclear whether GECOM will proceed with the agreed recount or declare a winner based on unverified results, and what effect Moore's decision to appeal the Full Court’s discharge of her injunction will have. The appeal is due to be heard today, April 2.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Healthcare workers attacked as fears about coronavirus take hold of India · Global Voices
Devika Sakhadeo

Image by Cico Zeljko from Pixabay. Used under a Pixabay license.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
India's nationwide lockdown has been in full swing since March 24 in an effort to combat the spread of coronavirus in the world's second-most populous country. Fears about mass community spread have led to the stigmatisation of the very people dedicated to helping stop the virus: medical professionals.
Working in understaffed facilities with less equipment has already been a concern for doctors; however, public attacks are now being added to their concerns. Accounts of health officials being pelted with stones and reports of medical professionals being evicted have started making headlines.
India's biggest problem is shortage of safety gear for health workers. “If we cant protect our doctors, Shame on us” @RojerNath, Association of Medical devices, tells #Mojo. He calls for Army & garment Cos to help. Says “Police beating our workers &truckers”# Preview of my intvw pic.twitter.com/PQPeoDPnm6
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) April 1, 2020
This discrimination has been triggered by fears that healthcare workers treating COVID-19 positive patients will spread the virus in their communities and housing complexes. Landlords and housing societies have gone so far as to evict healthcare workers and some have been forced to sleep in hospitals. The Resident Doctors’ Association of AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) located in Delhi had to write a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking help against the discrimination and forced eviction faced by doctors across the country.
COVID-19 Pandemic :
Indian health professionals demand secure residence and transport facilities during the lockdown.@PMOIndia @MoHFW_INDIA @drharshvardhan @AmitShahOffice @nitin_gadkari @narendramodi @HindustanTimes @the_hindu @timesofindia @NavbharatTimes @aajtak pic.twitter.com/UDBVRmKcI8
— RDAAIIMS (@AIIMSRDA) March 24, 2020
I'm myself a govt. doctor being threatened by my Society. Please help @narendramodi sir. @PMOIndia @ZeeNews https://t.co/NHQoQDMOaY
— Sanjibani Panigrahi (@DrSanjibani) March 23, 2020
In addition to the threats to their homes, India has seen rise in verbal and physical attacks against healthcare workers. Recently, a team of health professionals was attacked while conducting sample collection from an area called Taat Patti Bakhal in the city of Indore. During the incident, two doctors were pelted with stones after asking a woman, who had contact with a COVID-19 positive patient, to accompany them to the hospital for testing.
#WATCH Madhya Pradesh: Locals of Tatpatti Bakhal in Indore pelt stones at health workers who were there to screen people, in wake of #Coronavirus outbreak. A case has been registered. (Note-Abusive language) (1.04.2020) pic.twitter.com/vkfOwYrfxK
— ANI (@ANI) April 1, 2020
The video went viral and netizens quickly took to Twitter and Instagram to condemn the act.
Sad to see that Millions are quarantined inside their homes trying 2break the corona chain while many are going hungry due 2the lockdown.Then there are those breaking quarantine & pelting stones on Cops & doctors who are working without proper PPE. Whats happening to India???#Sad
— Preity G Zinta (@realpreityzinta) April 2, 2020
Epitome of madness. Health workers come under violent attack in Indore. They were screening residents for signs of #Coronavirus Two women doctors injured. If people keep attacking Doctors, soon medics will be unwilling to do their job and then we will suffer without treatment. pic.twitter.com/fn06vS7ddA
— Rahul Kanwal (@rahulkanwal) April 2, 2020
Claps to Slaps .. #moronavirus Apni jaan bachaye ki patients ki..
urgent need for doctor's safety. Aftr discrimination lik don't enter shops, don't use lift & now stone pelting … Mindset needs to be changed.. @BDUTT @drkamnakakkar @DrRebellious https://t.co/KYJL1antqV
— Gopal Chawla (@drgchawla) April 1, 2020
According to reports, attacks on doctors have seen a rise in the past weeks, as relatives of a COVID-19 patient died due to comorbidity in Hyderabad allegedly attacked the doctors.
Assault of Doctors in Telangana treating COVID patients.
Appeal to @MoHFW_INDIA @AmitShahOffice @PMOIndia to provide safety to frontline warrier in this COVID-19 pandemic.
Immediate need of Central law on violence against doctor.#stopviolencetodoctors@TOIIndiaNews @the_hindu. pic.twitter.com/dRH6BujRWB
— RDAAIIMS (@AIIMSRDA) April 2, 2020
First you dont provide PPE , doctors and nurses beg you for weeks for them yet you remain ignorant ,and when there is no option left with doctors and nurses but to preserve themselves then you do this@AvtarSi62019107 @suraiya95 @ManojTiwariMP @VijayGoelBJP @docvjg @MoHFW_INDIA pic.twitter.com/qy1xwcG4RE
— Dr Sanjeev Choudhary (@drsanjeevindian) April 1, 2020
As fear of the virus continues to create panic, other workers are also facing discrimination. Airline staffers, some of whom were working flights that rescued thousands of citizens from Wuhan, Italy, and Iran, are also reportedly being discriminated against.
With people mistreating those who are fighting the battle against COVID-19, it raises questions about whether the government is capable of providing protection for the people who are risking their lives to keep India healthy.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Devika Sakhadeo


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Nigeria’s elite ‘above the law’ as the poor struggle with COVID-19 measures · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

A volunteer from Justice and Empowerment Initiatives, an NGO that works with slum dwellers to fight demolitions, paints numbers on the walls of a building in the Orisunbare Ijora Badia slum. Lagos, Nigeria, April 2015. Image by George Osodi / ICIJ. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Researchers at Nigeria’s University of Ibadan have predicted that COVID-19 cases in Nigeria will spike to about 312 by Friday, April 3, 2020, and noted “a consistent increase in the daily reported cases” since March 19.
The coronavirus has infected about 862,000 people globally. As of April 1, Nigeria has confirmed 139 cases of COVID-19, with two deaths and 9 recoveries.
Beyond the numbers specific to COVID-19, however, structural inequalities within the Nigerian society will seriously derail the fight against COVID-19.
On March 29, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a two-week lockdown to slow the spread of the virus in Abuja, the capital, the megacity of Lagos, and neighbouring Ogun State — all epicentres of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
But while social distancing and self-isolation have proved effective in the West, it is absolutely essential to contextualize this for a developing nation like Nigeria.
Most Nigerians cannot afford the privilege of self-isolation.
In a typical family that lives in a “face-me-I-face-you” run-down flat, that is certainly not possible. Most families lack sufficient sleeping areas with shared restrooms, public utilities and kitchen. In these types of living conditions, a lockdown and restriction of movement may not produce the desired effect.
The nature and organisation of housing in any society is a reflection of the socio-economic realities in that society, asserts Lee Ogunshakin and Olatokunbo Osasona, urban development scholars.
It is therefore not surprising that, according to the World Bank, most Nigerians exist on barely $2 United States dollars per day. This means that 69 percent of Nigeria's estimated 200 million population lives below the poverty level.
Many Nigerians depend on their daily wages for survival. As expected, the price of staple food like garri, rice and tomatoes has skyrocketed across the country, an SBM Intelligence investigation reveals. With the economic realities of a lockdown, how will these people cater to their families?
Foodstuffs displayed for sale in a market in Nigeria. Image by RNW.org (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Chris Akor, a political scientist living in Alabama, United States, told Global Voices by email that the lockdown is “practically a blockage against the poor”:
How will a man with his wife and say, five children, who live in a one bedroom apartment and who survive on the man's daily earnings of 3,000 nairas (about $8 USD), survive for two weeks when the man is unable to go out and earns nothing? The poor are being effectively sacrificed to save the elite and middle class. It will not work. The result is that very soon, there'll be cases of burglaries, arsons, and riots in urban centres where lockdowns persist.
Keith Richards on Twitter makes a similar point:
So I keep getting tweets that LAGOS is locked down & gov’t is doing a good job. I keep saying all these video’s are middle class areas – these are the real stories! https://t.co/jvr7hTmx5B
— Keith Richards (@Outsiderinside1) April 1, 2020
The economic palliatives by Nigeria’s Central Bank for the COVID-19 was designed to exclude these class of citizens. The stringent conditions for getting household loans are beyond the reach of the average person.
However, it is commendable that the Lagos State government has recently launched a relief package for indigent residents. The intervention will target 200,000 households with rations of staple foods that should last for a 14-day period:
Good One!
Lagos State Government has started delivering the promised #Covid19 Emergency Food Response Packages to Vulnerable Families across different LGAs in the State.
These pictures are from EPE and IBEJU LEKKI LGAs. pic.twitter.com/rRXB5lJXd5
— Daddy Fareed (@iam_ademuyiwa) March 31, 2020
Lagos, Africa’s largest city, has an estimated population of 21 million, 8.5 percent (1.7 million people) of whom live in poverty. As of 2006, there were 19,667 documented households in Lagos State.
From the beginning, the COVID-19 intervention by the government for indigent Lagosians is like a drop of water in an ocean.
Working from home is also expensive for Nigeria’s middle class. Each household is a municipal council that provides private electricity supply, security, water and internet access.
During the lockdown, it means that many Nigerian middle-class households will spend more money on fueling their generators for electricity. Without power, they cannot pump water from the boreholes either.
Internet access in Nigeria is slow and expensive.
However, internet data is cheaper in Nigeria than in other African countries. Stears Business, an online business news analysis portal, states that one gigabyte of data costs around “US$2.78, compared to $2.33 in Rwanda, $3.63 in Ghana, and $5.99 in Gabon.” Quartz Africa argues that the speed of the internet within the African continent still falls short of the “global minimum standard.”
Working from home is therefore not so easy around here.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the putrid underbelly of Nigeria’s political class.
Nigerian elites live in two separate realities: in private, they live beyond the law; in public, they say just the right things for the camera.
Three Nigerian officials — Abba Kyari, Seyi Makinde and Garba Shehu — are potent illustrations of this Janus-faced duality among Nigeria’s ruling class.
On March 24, Abba Kyari, chief of staff for President Buhari, tested positive for the coronavirus following a trip to Germany and Egypt, BBC reports.
“Abba Kyari at Siemens Office Germany, March 7th. This picture was received that day from a friend in celebration of another milestone towards improvement of power supply in Nigeria.
He was not on holiday or medical visit. This was service to the nation. pic.twitter.com/35tO7qdbuL
— LMAN ✨ (@scullzs) March 24, 2020
What was baffling was that three days earlier (March 21), Kyari publicly chided 25 lawmakers for violating the COVID-19 airport screening protocol on their return from the United Kingdom. Rather than going into self-isolation, the lawmakers continued to mingle with their colleagues.
Apparently Kyari failed to live out his own advice.
Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde also acted with this attitude of being above the law when he hosted a political rally in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria, on March 18, against social distancing measures.
Makinde later apologized for that “lapse in judgment.”
Similarly, on March 21, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu defied government prohibition on large gatherings. Shehu was the guest speaker at an event by his old-boys’ association in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
In Nigeria, the law is meant for the poor and underprivileged, while those in power flout the law at will.
The COVID-19 measures are not going to change this mentality.
As though this was not enough, in the midst of poverty and ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, legislators in Nigeria’s House of Representatives received a delivery of 400 newly acquired Toyota Camry 2020 models:
In other news, the @HouseNGR have started taking delivery of the Toyota Camry 2020 model cars acquired for members as official cars.
Car luxury amidst #COVID19 pandemic & multi-dimensional poverty!!!https://t.co/wEWNjwwZTg#AskQuestions#TakeResponsibility#OnePerson pic.twitter.com/yzYpqkGbaq
— EiE Nigeria (@EiENigeria) March 27, 2020
The legislators had on February 18, rejected local brands. The new cars cost about 5 billion nairas (approximately $13 million USD), according to the Vanguard newspaper.
Nigeria's ruling class exhibits an agonizing discordance with the rest of society that is excruciatingly inhumane — in the face of extreme poverty, politicians are more interested in buying posh cars at taxpayers’ expense.
Expecting them to care less about the impact of COVID-19 on the vulnerable is asking for the impossible.
These issues will likely make a mess of whatever competent intervention that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control is implementing to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.
Thus, beyond the flowery promises mouthed by politicians, most Nigerians are in for a rough ride during this COVID-19 season, being at the mercy of both the pandemic and financial insecurity.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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As Japan’s COVID-19 cases jump four-fold, Abe government launches response · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

“Two masks per household”. The image, widely shared on social media, is a parody of popular television show ‘Sazae-san’, where multiple generations of one family live under one roof.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Update (April 6, 2020): Japan has declared a limited state of emergency as COVID-19 cases continue to climb throughout the country.
After Japan appeared to successfully contain COVID-19 in February and early March, there have been growing concerns the country is headed for a new explosion of infections. Measures announced in late March and early April by the government of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo to deal with the coming crisis have resulted in confusion, derision, and viral memes.
On April 1, after Japan's confirmed cases of COVID-19 had nearly quadrupled over the previous ten days, the government pledged to distribute face masks to 50 million households. However, public response to the plan was less than enthusiastic when it became apparent the scheme would only give two masks per family, and would not solve a chronic mask shortage in the country.
Besides a popular Japanese version of the “Downfall” meme that lampooned the Abe government's COVID-19 response, many took to Twitter to share parodies of the mask distribution scheme.
Using the hashtag #Abenomask, itself a parody of flagship Abenomics economic policy, the Twitter mashups incorporated stills from popular animated films, television shows and video games such as “Whisper from the Heart”, “Spirited Away”, “Pokemon” and “Sazae-san”.
いい感じに日本全体（ツイッター民）が大喜利大会になってて、世の中を明るくするって視点で見たらめちゃ成功してる?面白い悔しい?
1世帯につきマスク2枚配布#マスク2枚 pic.twitter.com/3R6bJ6BUTl
— プリュ酒井 (@haruki126) April 1, 2020
“Two masks per household.” The Japanese Twitterverse was able to quickly ad-lib a response. It's great that there can be such a funny and whimsical outlook at times like these.
[Images, clockwise, from top-right]: Spirited Away; Dugtrio, a kind of Pokemon that appears in threes; Saze-san; Whisper from the Heart.
One image, widely shared on social media(see featured image, above) is a parody of the popular television show “Sazae-san,” where multiple generations of one family who all live under the same roof must share two masks.
By April 3, the Abe government had announced households that have seen their salaries impacted by COVID-19 would receive a one-time cash payment of 300,000 yen (3,000 USD).
Save for clusters of COVID-19 in Osaka, Wakayama, and parts of Hokkaido, Japan seemed to have largely contained COVID-19 in February and March, thanks to aggressively focusing on cluster identification and contact tracing since January. However, as in other parts of the world, in Japan there are concerns that some COVID-19 deaths are going unreported in official statistics, masking the real scale of the pandemic there.
As the disease spread around the world, the Abe government was criticized for focusing more on ensuring the 2020 Olympics continued as scheduled. However, on March 22 the Japanese Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee announced that the Olympics would be postponed until 2021.
On March 23, Japan reported a large jump in COVID-19 infections, resulting in calls for increasing social distancing, including shutting down non-essential businesses and allowing employees to work from home if they can.
While many Japanese people started to practice social distancing and remain at home during the month of March, the death of beloved (if sexist) comedian and entertainer Shimura Ken due to COVID-19 on March 29 brought home the reality of the pandemic to Japan.
これw #志村けん
pic.twitter.com/NvmrJT1d04
— フィリピンあるある??セブ島留学とコロナウィルス (@FilipinoAruAru) April 3, 2020
This is funny.
On Monday, March 30, Tokyo governor Koike Yuriko made a “request” to Tokyoites to practice social distancing, while lacking any real legislative power to enforce such regulations. So far, the Japanese central government has resisted implementing its new Special Measures Law, which, similar to state of emergency legislation in other countries, could help encourage, if not enforce social distancing.
Due to Japan's existing constitution, which has strong protections for civil liberties, the Japanese government has a very limited power to compel businesses to close and citizens to stay off the streets. In a widely shared Twitter thread by Japanese-to-English interpreter Derek Wessman, who has worked as an aide in the Diet, Japan's parliament:
P.S.#4
I haven’t addressed a “lockdown.”
The Japanese word most used for lockdown is 封鎖; it *is not* in the Special Measures Law.
There is no “lockdown” legally available to the Japanese govt.
It can only force facilities/entities to close under strict emergency conditions.
— Derek Wessman (@dwvcd) March 29, 2020
Political leaders in regional Japan have also sent out mixed or simply confusing messages about the threat that COVID-19 presents to the nation. The governor of Ishikawa invited tourists from Tokyo and other parts of Japan to enjoy the “fresh air” of his prefecture, while the governor of economically important Aichi Prefecture suggested that infecting others with COVID-19 might be beneficial.
Governor of Aichi helpfully explains on television that “COVID, like influenza, gets better after you pass it on to someone else”…. 愛知・大村知事「うつって治るというのが感染症」→大炎上 https://t.co/g1fIgOp2H5
— Hikosaemon (@hikosaemon) April 2, 2020
As in other countries since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, visible minorities in Japan have reported discrimination. For example, media attention has focused on a cluster of COVID-19 cases in the northeastern city of Sendai, supposedly ignited by a gathering of non-Japanese teachers at a pub.
However, a few days before, 52,000 people had been encouraged to gather in the same city to observe the Olympic torch relay, despite mounting concerns about the threat of COVID-19.
As the seriousness of the health threat continued to become apparent, foreign residents and visible minorities started to be blamed for COVID-19.
There are wild rumors flying around Japanese social media that “30% of COVID-19 cases in Japan are foreigners”. The Ministry of Health denies this and says they don’t keep track of the nationalities of cases, and that nationality was not a priority. https://t.co/w7JiggTJOB
— Makiko Itoh-self isolating since January (伊藤牧子) (@makiwi) April 1, 2020
Anti-foreign sentiment became overt when a Japanese legislator stated that only Japanese residents should be eligible for any government programs aimed at providing relief for the unemployed.
As other countries around the world have done, on April 1, Japan blocked citizens of at least 49 countries from entry. The measure also seemingly “locked out” non-Japanese residents who were traveling abroad from returning home, unless they hurried back quickly. Non-Japanese residents in the country expressed confusion and anxiety about their own status until immigration authorities announced a three-month extension for renewing visas.
Meanwhile, the uncertain situation in Japan has caused the United States and other countries to direct their citizens to come home.
“While we have confidence in Japan’s health care system today, we believe a significant increase in COVID-19 cases makes it difficult to predict how the system will be functioning in the coming weeks.” https://t.co/NNnrASWyP7
— Jesse Johnson (@jljzen) April 3, 2020

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
As Russia goes into lockdown, feminists fear an epidemic of domestic violence · Global Voices
Anya Shevchenko

Women in St Petersburg protest against domestic violence, January 2020. Photo (c): United Feminist Movement of St Petersburg / Instagram. Used with permission.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
As coronavirus cases in Russia rise rapidly, many cities across the country have gone into lockdown. At the time of writing, all of Russia's large cities scored four to five points on Yandex's “self-isolation map“: meaning that there is “nearly nobody on the streets.”
Home should be a refuge from the pandemic — but for many women and girls, it means being locked up with a serial abuser.
“For a large number of women and children, home can be a place of fear and abuse,” said Dubravka Šimonović, the UN's Special Rapporteur on violence against women, in her recent believes that the coronavirus will lead to a surge in violence against women. Across the world, that already appears to be happening. In Brazil, China, Cyprus, Italy, and Spain, activists and local authorities have recently reported an “explosive increase” in desperate pleas for help from terrified women, following the tightening of restrictions on public movement.
Will Russia follow suit? On March 30, Oksana Pushkina, deputy chairperson of the State Duma committee on women, children, and family affairs, noted that the country had around 15 crisis centres for victims of domestic violence, many of which have already closed due to quarantine regulations. On April 2, nine Russian public organisations working with victims of domestic violence appealed to the government to urgently protect and support vulnerable people in quarantine. They called for the creation of a coordination centre to help victims, the maintenance of shelters, public information campaigns against domestic violence, education for law enforcement on how to tackle the problem, and exempting victims of domestic violence from the fines and other punishments for leaving quarantine.
The outlook in Russia is grim; for several years, human rights defenders and feminist activists have tried and failed to secure official recognition of and protection for victims of domestic violence. Since the 1990s, about 40 drafts have been proposed. A bill in 2016 was rejected. The following year, the State Duma relaxed punishments for some forms of domestic violence, amid a conservative campaign for “family values.” Last December, Pushkina and several activists submitted a draft law against domestic violence. It has not yet been adopted, and faces strong resistance.
That's why many feminists feel that Russia simply hasn't treated domestic violence seriously. Now, vulnerable women could pay a heavy price.
Gruesome cases of domestic violence regularly make the headlines in Russia. We could, and should, remember the case of the Khachaturyan sisters, who stabbed their father after suffering years of sexual and physical abuse at his hands. In December 2017, Margarita Gracheva‘s husband chopped off her hands. Last November, the 24-year-old student Anastasia Yeshchenko was decapitated by her professor and partner, 63-year-old Oleg Sokolov.
These cases have rightly captivated public attention. But alongside them, there are no less horrible crimes which take place every day. They are less widely discussed, as the exact number of domestic violence cases in Russia is unknown.
Some cases can be, and are, fatal. By using data cited in news reports, the independent project femicid.net has tried to make its own calculations. According to its 2019 report on femicide (or the murder of women) in Russia, which was also shared by Radio Liberty. The report counts 1,461 cases of domestic violence ending in murder referenced in public sources between January 2019 and January 25. Of these, 593 were committed by intimate partners, 73 by former intimate partners, 266 by family members, and 332 by acquaintances. These numbers are much higher than officials suggest.
These data can't simply be requested from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Russian criminal law does not include any specific definition of “gender-based violence” or “femicide,” making it hard to measure the full scale of the problem. Therefore, these crimes dissolve into other categories. For example, a woman who dies in hospital after being beaten up by her husband would not be considered a victim of murder in the course of domestic violence.
Femicid's 2019 report cites “Men and Women of Russia-2018″, the digest of the Federal State Statistical Service. It states that 36,200 women died that year from “external causes of death,” which include poisoning, accidental falls, strangulation, drowning, injuries, electrical shocks, burns, firearms and so on. The project's authors suggest that behind each of these terms could be several hidden acts of femicide.
And while a common retort in Russia is that “women can also kill, and do so brutally,” the statistics say otherwise. Official data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs cited by the report show that women are responsible for much less crime than men (16% of the total), and that 79% of extremely serious crimes committed by women were committed in self-defence (though that rarely counts for anything in court). Women form the absolute majority of victims of sexual violence.
The most relevant statistic here is that when it comes to murder, the most dangerous place for a Russian woman is her own home. Of the 1,461 cases in 2019, 446 took place in a home the victim shared with her partner, and in 302 places in her own home.
Today, many women's rights activists say that for all the state's other provisions (such as programmes against gender-based violence, shelters for victims, and restraining orders against perpetrators), Russia's dismal record on femicide and domestic violence will either remain unchanged or get worse unless the government passes a law explicitly forbidding domestic violence.
That struggle is as much about societal norms in Russia as it is about high level politics. As Lubava Malysheva from Moscow Women's Museum put it in a February 8 article for Radio Liberty:
В обществе культивируется представление о том, что повышенная мужская агрессивность и социальная безответственность – следствие мужской природы и неизбежность, с которой ничего невозможно поделать. Но такие идеи противоречат реальности развитых стран.
A set of beliefs are being cultivated in society according to which men’s excessive aggression and lack of responsibility is a consequence of their nature; an inevitability which nothing can be done about. But these ideas are contradicted by the reality of more developed countries.
To get a sense of the widespread normalisation of domestic violence in Russian society, just take a look at its portrayal in mass media. Just a few days before International Women's Day this year, a sketch was performed on Comedy Club, a famous Russian TV show. The skit was about a couple discussing how to spend the coming weekend. While the wife was proposing various activities such as shopping, the husband addressed the audience with suggestions of another kind: how to beat his wife up or kill her:
─ Может заехать в “Ля Моду”?
─ Может заехать в Ля морду?
─ А лучше поедем в IKEA
─ А хочешь, сломаю тебе шею?
─ Заскочим на рынок, тут за углом?
─ А может пырнуть тебя ножом?
─ Только сначала дойдем до банкомата
─ Может расстрелять тебя из автомата?
─ Поехали на Горбушку!
─ Хочешь, ушатаю тебя с вертушки?
─ А может просто пройдемся по магазинам?
─ А может просто облить тебя бензином?
─ Maybe we’ll go to a fashion place?
─ Maybe I’ll punch you in the face?
─ Or better yet we'll go to IKEA
─ Breaking your neck is a better idea
─ Let’s drop by the market
─ Let me get you stabbed
─ First let's find an ATM
─ Maybe first I'll shoot you dead
─ Can we go and buy some food?
─ Better kick you in the face with my foot
─ Maybe we'll just go and do some shopping?
─ Maybe I’ll just douse you with gas and do some burning?
In light of the statistics cited above, this “joke” becomes less hilarious. The online feminist journal 9oemarta.ru drew attention of the Facebook feminist community to the outrageous video. The sketch received sarcastic, but not surprised comments; this kind of misogynistic rhetoric is not uncommon on Russian television as well as media as a whole.
Read more: Priest wins online anti-prize for Russia's ‘sexist of the year’
The most common response from feminists was that the video was just too repulsive to watch. And that's understandable. In the country where there's still no law protecting women against domestic violence, jokes about domestic violence on TV are not just bad taste, but also a sad reminder of how little is being done. While women are murdered, jokes about their murder will be laughed at as if in another reality – as feminists know all too well.
Reports of the first cases from a country under quarantine are beginning to emerge. According to nasiliu.net, one of Russia's leading online resources about domestic violence, a man was detained by national guardsmen on April 3. He had murdered his ex-wife, with whom he had been self-isolating in the town of Petrozavodsk, capital of the Karelia region in Russia's north-west.
This was probably not the first case, and it will not be the last. Valentina Frolova, coordinator for women's and children's rights at the Zona Prava NGO, told the daily newspaper Kommersant that the sharpest rise in calls for help from domestic violence victims would not come immediately after the introduction of quarantine measures, but possibly up to a month later.
Zona Prava is one of several human rights organisations to have recently set up a hotline for domestic violence victims. Unfortunately, it will be needed. Russia may need a lockdown to survive the coronavirus, but for some Russian women, the priority is to survive an epidemic of domestic violence.

author: Anya Shevchenko


text:
Lockdown in Colombia will affect the right to abortion, says human rights lawyer · Global Voices
Estella Porras

Photo by Alvaro Bejarano, under Pixabay license.
See Global Voices’ special coverages of how women are fighting gender-based violence in Latin America and the global impact of COVID-19.
Although necessary for the health protection of citizens, measures taken by the Colombian government to contain the COVID-19 infection, including the national lockdown and closing the borders, may hinder the access of Colombian and Venezuelan women to services that are essential to their sexual and reproductive health.
“In times of pandemic, women will still require the services necessary for accessing safe abortions, emergency contraception, and protection from sexual violence and abuse,” Selene Soto, a lawyer from the Women’s Link Worldwide organization in Bogota, told Global Voices.
In Colombia, abortion is legal on three grounds: a serious fetal malformation, a risk to the life and health of the mother, and rape. Despite past court rulings upholding this right, there is still a lack of access to information, as well as social and economic barriers, that prevent women and girls, especially in poor and remote regions, from terminating their pregnancies safely.
If abortion takes place outside of those three exceptions, it is illegal and punishable with one up to three years in prison. With the lockdown, many women, especially the poorest and those in rural regions, might avoid seeking legal and healthcare guidance concerning their pregnancy and unnecessarily undergo unsafe abortions at home.
For Soto, “if the emergency health policies and decrees are not designed within a human rights framework or from a gender perspective, many women will be at risk and unprotected.”
Colombia is in national lockdown until April 13 and this may be extended. At the time of writing this story, there were 798 confirmed COVID-19 cases and the number is rising. The government is only allowing the movement of people in exceptional circumstances, including stocking up on food and going to health facilities, among others, but the right to sexual and reproductive health is not mentioned.
Those who fail to comply with these mandatory lockdown isolation measures could be punished with fines, or up to 8 years imprisonment.
“These exceptions must explicitly include services that make it possible to maintain and guarantee access to sexual and reproductive health,” says Selene Soto.  “And not just access to abortion, but also to emergency contraception and access to health for women who are victims of sexual violence”.
For example, Soto says that if a woman in a remote region needs an abortion and this requires a transfer to a care center in another city, this case will need administrative procedures and safe conduct passes that may not be arranged in time. This situation has a direct impact on the possibility of terminating unwanted pregnancies on time and could force women to undergo unsafe abortions, thus worsening their risk of death.
Although the figures aren't clearly specified, it is estimated that each year, an average of 400,000 women in Colombia undergo unsafe abortions and 70 women die because of these procedures.
“During this time of humanitarian emergencies, the continuance of [the right to abortion under the three conditions] must be guaranteed”, says Soto.
Despite closing the border, Venezuelan migrants despairing over the extreme poverty and the collapse of public health in their country are still crossing it on foot, using illegal roads and paths. This situation overwhelms authorities, putting migrant women and girls at a greater vulnerable risk of falling victim to human trafficking and sexual violence.
“With greater vulnerability, a greater risk of infection and without health authorities controlling the border situation, women [migrants] will be at greater risk and will have far greater difficulty in accessing health services”, says Soto. This vulnerability includes pregnant and breastfeeding women.
Even before this pandemic, with the presence of almost 2 million migrants in Colombia, limitations in sexual and reproductive health services were already being seen in response to the needs of migrant women. Many of them do not know their rights and legal protections and they sometimes face barriers and mistreatment from healthcare providers.

author: Estella Porras


text:
Mozambique and Cape Verde’s telcos offer affordable mobile internet as citizens urged to stay home · Global Voices
Dércio Tsandzana

Santa Maria Avenue, Cape Verde. Photo by Miccaela, Wikimedia Commons. CC-BY 3.0
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
As more and more Africans are ordered to stay at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Mozambique and Cape Verde state-owned telcos are offering significant discounts on mobile data.
To date, Mozambique has registered a total of 10 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no deaths, while Cape Verde has had six cases and one death. Last week, both countries have imposed a 30-day state of emergency, with the possibility of extension.
According to Portugal's news agency Lusa:
As duas operadoras cabo-verdianas de telecomunicações móveis, CV Móvel e Unitel T+, anunciaram hoje uma campanha conjunta disponibilizando gratuitamente um pacote de 2.000 MB de Internet para apelar à permanência em casa, como prevenção da covid-19.
Denominada de pacote “Fica em Casa”, a campanha foi anunciada em conjunto pelas duas operadoras, numa mensagem divulgada nas redes sociais na qual assumem que “uniram forças” para que os cabo-verdianos fiquem “bem em casa”.
A campanha oferece aos clientes das duas operadoras, além de um pacote de 2.000 Mega Bytes (MB) de dados, 15 minutos de comunicações para todas as redes nacionais, para serem consumidos até o dia 30 de Abril.
The two Cape Verdean mobile telecommunications operators, CV Móvel and Unitel T+, announced today a joint campaign that will make available a free package of 2,000 MB of internet to encourage citizens to stay at home, as a form of prevention of COVID-19.
Titled the “Fica em Casa” (“stay home” in English) package, the promotion was announced by the two operators on social networks in a message that says they have “joined forces” so that Cape Verdeans stay “well at home”.
The package offers customers of both operators, in addition to the 2,000 MB data package, 15 minutes of calls for all national operators to be used up until April 30.
Covid-19: Campanha dá 2.000 MB de Internet para deixar cabo-verdianos em casa – https://t.co/QOBPKE5rGD pic.twitter.com/rSUDEuT7vo
— Agência Lusa (@Lusa_noticias) March 29, 2020
COVID-19: Campaign gives 2000 MB of internet to help Cape Verdeans to stay home.
A few people have questioned the efficacy of such campaign as many Cape Verdeans don't have regular internet access:
Isso é que gozação!!! Quantos cabos verdianos tem internet? Vão gozar com o raio que os partam!
— José Carlos Lima (@JosCarl18423278) March 29, 2020
What a joke !!! How many Cape Verdeans have internet? Go sneer in hell!
In Cape Verde, an island country of 560,000 people, 57 percent of the population use the internet, according to 2017 data by the World Bank. On that year, the world average was 50 percent.
In Mozambique, where internet penetration is even lower — the same World Bank report says only 10 percent of its 30 million people are internet users –, state-owned operator TmCel launched a similar promotion, with the same “stay home” slogan.
The promotion consists of packages ranging from 1 to 5 GB, costing from 25 to 100 meticals (0.37 to 1.50 USD).
Activa já as ofertas #FicaEmCasa a partir de 25MT válidas por 30 dias. Digita *219# escolhe a tua oferta e Fica em casa com à Tmcel.
Para mais informação visita o link abaixo:https://t.co/dKoUI0E0wT
— Moçambique Telecom, SA (@tmcel_mz) March 29, 2020
Activate the #StayAtHome offers from 25 meticals valid for 30 days.
Use *219# choose your offer and stay at home with Tmcel. For more information visit the link below: :https://t.co/dKoUI0E0wT
Although the offer seems to have been well received, a few Twitter users posed questions:
Boa iniciativa.
A qualidade é boa também?
— DiPaulo (@APaulo27) March 29, 2020
Good initiative.
Is the quality good too?
Staying home is not an option for the many informal and daily subsistence workers in Mozambique and Cape Verde. Activist Tomás Queface tweeted:
O #Coronavirus revela mais uma faceta das desigualdades sociais. Enquanto que #StayAtHome é um privilégio para poucos, para os pobres é um constante dilema: ficar em casa sem sustento, ou continuar a trabalhar e arriscar a sua saúde ou pôr em risco a saúde de outros.
— Tomás Queface (@tomqueface) March 30, 2020
The #Coronavirus reveals yet another facet of social inequalities. While #StayAtHome is a privilege for few people, for the poor it is a constant dilemma: staying at home without food, or continuing to work and risk your health or endangering the health of others.

author: Dércio Tsandzana


text:
COVID-19 diaries from Wuhan: Restrictions tighten · Global Voices
Winston Chiu

The desk and staff of the community service center at an intersection. (Photo credit: Guo Jing)
The following post is the fourth in a series of diaries written by independent filmmaker and feminist scholar Ai Xiaoming and feminist activist Guo Jing. Both are living in Wuhan at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the links to the first, second and third part of the series.
This fourth installment was written between February 11-16, 2020. The original Chinese diaries are published on Matter News.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
今天是阴天，早上我本不打算出门，结果看到武汉市新冠状肺炎防控指挥部在半夜发布通知，决定在全市范围内所有住宅小区实行封闭管理。这下我必须出去了。我要确认这是不是真的已经开始落实，以及封闭管理究竟是怎么回事。
小区门口除了保安还有3个人，我出门的时候并没有人阻止我。我去了超市，蔬菜很多，肉基本被抢空，酸奶在半价卖。我到肉柜前的时候刚好称重的工作人员又称了几包肉放过来，我就买了3袋肉。一些零食也被卖光了，我买了一些牛肉干。
这可能是我最后一天出门，我想在外面多待会，就骑着车游荡。
我进小区的时候，他们对我说：“尽量少出门。”我担忧地说：“那买菜怎么办？”
“多买一些。”
“那吃完了也要出去买。”
“可以出”
“你们每天都在这里吗？”
“不会，保安会在，市里检查。”
面子工程总还是会有人力。封锁的不只是病毒，还有人。
回家后，我把3袋肉分成了14份，接下来的两周我都有肉吃。
It is a cloudy today. I did not plan to go out this morning. However, I saw a notice sent from Wuhan COVID-19 Prevention and Command Center last night and they decided to implement lockup management of all residential districts all across the city. I feel the need to go out to see whether this new measure has started, and what is the meaning of lockup management.
There were three people other than the security guard at the entrance of the residential district. No one stopped me when I went out. I went to the supermarket. There were a lot of vegetables, but most meat was sold out.  Yogurt was sold at a 50% discount. When I went to the meat counter, the staff put a few types of newly packed meat on the shelves and I bought three packs. Some snacks were sold out, too. I bought some beef jerky.
As I anticipated that this might be my last day to go out, I wanted to stay outside as long as possible. I rode my bicycle around the city. When I went back to my community, they told me, “It is better not to go outside so often.” I was worried and asked them, “How about buying food?”
“Buy more.”
“I still need to go out when I run out of food.”
“You can still go out.”
“Will you be here every day?”
“No. The security guard will be here every day. Today there is an inspection from the city government.”
They do not only lockup the virus, but also humans.
Back home, I separated the three packs of meat into 14 small packs. Then I will have some meat to eat every day during the following two weeks.
风尘之后，有个女权伙伴问我是否了解风尘中的家暴问题，她担心地说“如果女人受到家暴，Jing茶还会不会出警？她能否获得支持？”
在封锁的城市里，一个女人遭受了家暴，一些认为这是家务事的这个时候更加不愿意处理这样的案件。
受暴者此时也很难获得社会支持，也都没有上班。
她想离开家都是困难的，很难有人会收留她，没有交通也很难走远，也都没有营业。
After the lockdown, a colleague in our women’s rights working group asked me how much I know about domestic violence in a locked down city. She said with worry, “If a woman becomes a victim of domestic violence and reports it to the police, would policemen go to check it out? Would the victims receive the support they need?”
In a locked down city, when a woman becomes a victim of domestic violence, the policemen who usually consider domestic violence domestic would be more reluctant to check it out.
Furthermore, it is difficult for the victims to find social support, because all social service institutions are closed now. It is also difficult for the victim to leave her house, because it is not likely to find someone willing to accommodate her now. Since public transportation is currently shut down, she cannot go somewhere far, and most hotels are closed.
People lined up outside a supermarket. (Photo credit: Guo Jing)
早上出门的时候，阳光刚刚透过云层照到地上。我出门的时候，保安没有拦下我，也没有问我，能自由地出门让我感到幸运。昨天有朋友问我现在缺什么，我没有任何思考，脱口而出说“缺自由”。
风尘后，城市的马路上没有了喧嚣，可以听到鸟叫声。有个老人家在一栋楼的侧面打太极，超市开始控制人进入，队伍是从离门口五六米的地方才开始排的，人与人之间隔着一米的距离。
有一个路口摆着桌子，是供社区工作人员用的，桌子上放着体温仪和洗手液，旁边有八九个人，有两个人坐在桌子后面。有个老人家跟两个人说着什么，其中一个戴着社区工作人员专属的红帽子。
过了一会，老人家离开了，我走过去问她怎么回事。她着急地说：“老伴要去医院看病、开药，但他不是肺炎，是脑溢血，要一个月去一次医院，哪晓得出了这个事，都熬了好几天啦。他也走不到医院，社区不给安排车。”
她老伴吃的药有处方药，很难买。前面站着五个穿制服的人，老人家又过去跟他们说自己的情况，穿制服的人说：“这个还是找社区。”老人家无奈地走了。
This morning when I went out, I saw sunshine penetrating through the clouds and touching the ground. When I walked out, the security guard did not stop me or ask me any questions. I felt lucky to go out freely. Yesterday a friend asked if I am lack anything right now. I lack freedom.
There has been less traffic noise since the city was locked down. I can hear the birds singing. I saw a senior citizen practicing Tai Chi on another side of the building. The supermarkets started to manage their customers: people have to queue up 5 to 6 meters away from the entrances, and people have to maintain 1 meter distance.
At a road intersection there was a desk for community workers. There were thermometers and sanitizers on the desk. I saw an old lady talking to two of them.
After a while, that old lady left. I went to her and asked her what happened. She told me, “My husband needs to go to the hospital to see the doctor and buy some medicine. He does not have pneumonia. He suffered from stroke, and he needs to go to the hospital once a month. Who could predict what happens now? We have been waiting for several days. He could not walk to the hospital, but the community refused to arrange a car for him.”
It is difficult to buy the medicine that her husband needs. She talked to the other five in uniform in front of us. They told her that she should ask the community workers. She left in disappointment.
一个在湖北某县城的朋友说她所在的小区已经被限制出入好几天，社区通知昨天开始完全禁止出入，买菜都不行。
昨天早上，她家人赶快带着口罩和通行证出门买菜，很多人在菜市场抢菜，她家人去买土豆的时候前面一个人打算买完所有的土豆，她家人请求他留一些，她家人才买到一点土豆。下午，她家人想再出去买一些东西就出不了小区了。这如同武汉风尘时的套路，临时通报，没有告知居民生活如何得到保障。
Z_F在应对传染病的时候，除了控制病毒本身，还要将人们的恐惧考虑在内。可是恰恰相反，有的地方开始鼓励举报，举报一个新冠状病毒肺炎病人奖励1万元，病人自觉去医院也会奖励一些钱。
人们对Z_F的信任、人与人之间的信任不断地被消耗，恐慌却在被加强。这几天周围被管控得越来越严，超市限制进入的人数、周边被封起来的地方越来越多、更多的隔离区域。而很多人需要帮助的时候，社区工作人员、穿制服的人都成了无能者。我感到深深地绝望。
A friend in another city in Hubei Province told me she has been restricted to go out for several days. Yesterday, she received an announcement that no one in the community is allowed to go out, not even to buy food.
Yesterday morning, a member of her family put on a mask and hurried to buy some food with a pass. Many people were panic buying in the market. When she went to the potato corner, the person in front of her grabbed all the potatoes on the shelf and she had to beg the person to leave her some. In the afternoon, when members of her family tried to go out to buy more food, no one was allowed to leave anymore. This is exactly what happened when Wuhan was locked down — it was announced suddenly without informing the residents about how they could manage their lives.
When the government responds to a pandemic, in addition to containing the virus, it should also consider people's fear. However, on the contrary, some local governments encourage people to report suspects of COVID-19. One report would be awarded for RMB ten thousand (around US$1400 dollars). If a patient reports oneself, they would receive some cash too.
Our trust in the government and our trust in other people are consumed over time, but our fear is reinforced. In these days, control is getting more and more strict. The supermarkets restrict the number of customers inside. More and more districts have been locked up, and more and more quarantine centers have been set up. When people need help, the social workers and those in uniforms cannot do anything to help. I feel desperate.
下午我发现我住的房子外侧漏雨，水渗进了里面…我跟房东说了房子漏水，房东让我跟物业讲一下。这也不是紧急的事情，现在物业肯定不会管。
下午下了雪，作为一个北方人这几年在南方很少见到雪，我想着可以顺便看看雪，就下了楼。我看到物业的门关着，以为没人，就去门卫室问一下物业的情况。到了小区的门口，我还没开口，保安就拦下我，说：“现在只有看病和上班可以出门，要去物业开出门证。”我担心地问：“那买菜怎么办？”
“买菜也可以，要开出入证才行。”
“什么时候不让出门的？”
“今天开始，市里发的通知。”
我问社区的人说：“买菜怎么开出入证吗？”
“三天出一次。”
“我刚好下了楼，这个口罩都用了，能不能让我出门买个菜？”
“不能因为这个出门”
我只得上了楼。
I found water seeping outside the wall of my apartment this afternoon, and the water infiltrated into my apartment…I told the landlord about it, and she asked me to tell the estate manager. This is not something pressing, so I do not think the manager would not bother fixing it.
It was snowing this afternoon. I grew up in northern China, but I have seldom seen snow since moving to southern China. I thought if I went downstairs, I could see the snow. When I went downstairs, I saw the door of the estate manager was closed, so I thought there was no one inside. I went to security guard to ask about the property management service. When I walked to the gate of our community, the security guard stopped me before I spoke. He told me, “You can only go out if you go to a hospital or go to work, and you need to ask the estate manager to give you a pass. I was worried, “How about buying food?”
“You can go out to buy food, if you have a pass.”
“When did the new rule that forbids us to go out start?”
“It started today. We received the announcement from the local government.”
I asked other people in this community, “How can we get a pass to buy food?”
“We can go out once every three days.”
“I already used this mask and walked downstairs, can you let me go out and buy some food?”
“You cannot go out.”
All I could do is go back to my apartment.
The fences separating communities. (Photo credit: Guo Jing)
我对限制出门感到担忧，我再次有一种恐慌感，聊天的时候我有点像吃东西，好像也不是因为饿，但不知道什么时候会没吃的，吃了一个牛肉粒，也不敢多吃。
睡前我开始胡思乱想：如果物业不让出门，我可以从被暴风雨破坏的临时围栏的空隙中偷着跑出去。可是，我不知道如果我偷着跑出小区被发现会有什么惩罚，我担心我现在承受不起破坏规则的代价，尽管这个规则是不合理的。
因为昨天要求出小区被拒绝，我不知道今天能不能开到出门证。我抱着试一试的心态到了物业管理室，我说要出去买菜，工作人员给我开了个“居民临时通行证”，这个通行证看起来是批量生产的，上面写着住址和出入日期，出入日期最早是2月12日。
超市门口水果架上的水果比以往空了一些。蔬菜挺齐全的。有个放速冻食品的冰柜空了，酸奶的架子比较空，午餐肉、香肠这些都没了。今天的肉柜里有肉。
我今天的心情和第一天风尘有点像，再次为生存担忧。现在是三天外出一次，不知道明天会不会改成五天一次，甚至十天一次，一个月一次。我又买了5公斤大米、两袋面条和够我吃一星期的菜。
从风尘到封小区，我们的活动被控制得越来越紧，我们对世界的掌控感被一点点剥夺。
我下次出门的日期是2月19日。
I am worried about the new rules that forbid me to go out. I feel panic again. When I chatted with friends, I ate some food not because I was hungry but because I do not know when I will not have any food to eat again. I ate a piece of beef. I dare not eat too much.
I had some wild thoughts before I fell asleep: If the estate manager does not allow me to go out, I can sneak out from a broken fence. However, I am not sure what kind of punishment I would face if I sneak out. I am afraid that I could not bear the consequences of breaking the rule now, eventhough the rule is not reasonable.
Because I was rejected when I requested to go out yesterday, I did not know whether I could get a pass today. I gave it a try and went to the estate manager’s office. I told him that I wanted to buy some food, and the manager gave me a ‘temporary pass for residents’. My address and the dates that I can go out are written on the pass. The first date on it is February 12.
The fruits on the shelf outside the supermarket were less plentiful than usual. There was a lot of vegetables. The frozen fast food in one fridge was all sold out. There was less yogurt than usual. There were no spam or sausages. There was meat at the meat counter today.
What I felt today is similar to what I felt on the first day of the city lockdown. I am worried about survival again. Now we can go out once every three days. I do not know whether it will become once per five days, or once per ten days, or even once per month. I bought another 5kg pack of rice, two packs of noodles, and vegetables sufficient for one week.
From the city lockdown to the community lockup, restrictions on our activities have become stricter and stricter, and we are deprived of our power little by little.
The next time I can go out is February 19.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the Global Impact of COVID-19.

author: Winston Chiu


text:
Is India fighting COVID-19 the ‘mass surveillance’ way? · Global Voices
Subhashish Panigrahi

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Used under a Pixabay License.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
In addition to a country-wide lockdown, India has been experimenting with technology that will help them control the spread of COVID-19. On April 2, the government launched its COVD-19 mobile tracking app, Aarogya Setu. The app, which alerts users when they are within six feet of a person infected with the coronavirus, is creating major concerns about potential digital security issues.
Arogya Setu App – Stay informed with the latest updates on the fight against COVID-19.
The Government has launched a Bluetooth based ‘Aarogya Setu’ app to strengthen the fight against COVID-19.
pic.twitter.com/O5SdjHPBEX
— Gujarat Information (@InfoGujarat) April 4, 2020
Aarogya Setu users sign up using their mobile phone number and can add personal details as well as past travel history. A feature allows users to perform a self-assessment if they suspect they might be infected with the virus.  It also alerts government authorities if a person's tracked details — such as recent travel to any country with high infection rate or medical symptoms — draw suspicion. The app was developed by the National Informatics Centre under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) who claim that data they collect will only be shared with government agencies. Google Play store has already registered more than one million installations of the app.
During the launch of Aargogya Setu, Neeta Verma, General Director of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) said:
[…] the app will enable people to assist themselves [from] the risks of catching coronavirus infections. The risk score is calculated based on their interactions with others using cutting edge Bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence. Citizen privacy is taken into account while designing the app. Personal data collected stays secure on the phone until it is needed for medical intervention.
In a series of tweets, Krishnaswamy Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific adviser to the Indian government, says the app will let citizens know if they accidentally come in contact with infected people around them. In one of the tweets, he also advised the users to keep the phone Bluetooth turned on and “always” share their location:
How does it work? Install the App, switch on Bluetooth, set location sharing to “Always”. The App detects other devices with Aarogya Setu installed that have come in the Bluetooth / GPS proximity of your phone. Aarogya Setu is available on both iOS and Android.
— Principal Scientific Adviser, Govt. of India (@PrinSciAdvGoI) April 2, 2020
Raghavan also assures that the collected data is encrypted with “state-of-the-art” technology but, so far, there are few details available about the encryption standards followed.
Users like Vijaita Singh also find the requirement to keep Bluetooth turned on all the time “jarring”.
I downloaded the Arogya App yesterday, it informs about any COVID positive patient near you. But for that the bluetooth has to be kept on at all times. Jarring feature. pic.twitter.com/FfnLSg2xlE
— vijaita singh (@vijaita) April 3, 2020
Prasanna S., a lawyer and author of internet rights issues, questions the lack of clarity around the data being collected and retained both in the app and on the server:
[..]There isn’t enough information available on what data will be collected, how long will it be stored and what uses it will be put to. If the data gets shared with the government of India, what the government can use it for needs to be specified. Otherwise, it will be a violation of the notice and consent principles. [..]
[..]On the data retention part, the app’s privacy policy mentions that all information provided at the time of registration will be retained for as long as the user’s account remains in existence “and for such period thereafter as required for the purposes for which the information may lawfully be used.[..]
Screenshot of the Aarogya Setu app in the Google Playstore.
Concerns over data breaches are not unfounded as India has been accused of being unable to protect personal information found in its biometric database, Aadhaar. Aarogya Setu is also only one of 11 official apps that the federal and provincial governments have launched to fight COVID-19. Another app, Corona Kavach, has also drawn criticism over privacy issues. In an article published on the Hindu on March 28, journalist Suhasini Haidar wrote:
The government’s efforts to monitor people advised quarantine for the novel coronavirus ran into privacy issues on Friday, after the database of hundreds of passengers who returned from “coronavirus affected countries” was leaked online and shared by social media groups. In addition, the government defended its newly launched pilot or beta version of a mobile phone application called “Corona Kavach” which uses the data of confirmed coronavirus patients to alert subscribers when they are in close proximity.
Haidar also notes that WhatsApp and Facebook groups were able to share information that included the names, passport numbers, flight details, mobile phone numbers and addresses of 722 passengers who arrived in New Delhi on March 9 and March 20.
When many of the recent government approaches in India blur the line between scientific approaches to fight COVID-19 and the protection of individual rights, the rushed use of technology is troubling. Privacy expert Apar Gupta told India Today:
As India does not have a pre-existing data protection law and there is a lack of statutory protection in place there is also a further problem given that these specific applications on the Play Store itself do not link to applicable privacy policies.
India is one of many countries using technology to help stymie the spread of the virus. Joseph Cannataci, United Nations special rapporteur on the right to privacy, expressed concerns over how countries are enforcing strict surveillance and other measures during the pandemic that are dangerous to individual freedom.
The digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is one of many to point out that governments around the world that are advocating for “dragnet” location-based surveillance technology have not shown any significant ability to fight the pandemic using this technology.

author: Subhashish Panigrahi


text:
Bangladeshis turn to video sites during COVID-19 lockdown · Global Voices
Rezwan

Screenshot from a video of The Ajaira Ltd. Click on the image to play video.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Every day around the world, more than two billion users watch over one billion hours of content on YouTube. The platform is so popular that more than 500 hours of content are uploaded every minute.
In Bangladesh, YouTube's growth had long been hindered by slow internet speeds and low penetration — but ever since the roll-out of 4G services in 2018, YouTube viewership in the country has skyrocketed. Driving this surge is a plethora of new content makers boasting a huge number of subscribers and views, especially in the Bangla (Bengali) language.
During the ongoing COVID-19 “nationwide holiday” (lockdown), Bangladeshis are reportedly using internet data at more than 50 percent of their usual average, with many of them watching YouTube and Facebook videos in local language.
As of February 2020, Bangladesh had over 166 million mobile phone subscribers and 99.98 million internet users, with over 94 percent of them using their mobile phones to go online.
Over the past three years, the number of internet users in Bangladesh has grown by more than 50 percent. According to a report by the Daily Star, in 2018 there were over 29 million YouTube viewers, with 28 percent of them between the ages of 18 to 24, and another 23 percent between the ages of 25 and 34.
These figures rose significantly after the government cut internet bandwidth prices by 50 percent in June 2019.
The top viewed content category  for local language videos is entertainment (47 percent), followed by music (24 percent) and lifestyle (17 percent).
A number of original content creators have gained prominence over the years. Salman Muqtadir created his channel, “SalmoN TheBrownFish”, in 2012; he now has 1.32 million YouTube subscribers. His funny skits on the lives of young Bangladeshis continue to entertain many viewers:
Other popular YouTube entertainers include “The Ajaira Limited” and “Prank King Entertainment”.
Young Towhid Afridi, who started as a YouTuber in 2015 and now boasts three million-plus subscribers, offers amusing anecdotes and travel blogs that have won the hearts of young Bangladeshis. Afridi has also joined other YouTubers in posting messages about how to be safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the name suggests, “G-Series Bangla Movies” is a YouTube channel offering free “Dhallywood” Bangla movies, many in HD quality. Started just five years ago, the channel — which has hundreds of movies in its library — has attracted over three million Bangladeshi subscribers, both from within the country and throughout the diaspora. “Jazz Multimedia” is another movie-based entertainment channel.
Bangla television dramas are also very popular among viewers, so there are several channels dedicated to such series, including “NTV Natok”, attracting millions of subscribers.
“Mayajal” is a Buzzfeed-style content channel in Bengali. Started by a few young YouTubers, in the past four years, is also extremely popular.
Screenshot from Mayajal. Click on the image to play video.
Music — from Bangladeshi bands, as well as soundtracks from movies and TV dramas — contributes to about a fourth of YouTube viewership. “Eagle Music Video Station”, one of the most popular, has 4.92 million subscribers and more than 950 million views.
Close on its heels are “G Series Music”, “Anupam Movie Songs”, and “Sangeeta Music”.
“Gaan Bangla” satellite TV's YouTube channel also gained popularity attracting 1.48 million subscribers. “Folk Studio Bangla”, which publishes Bengali folk songs, is also widely viewed:
Screenshot from Folk Studio. Click on the image to watch video.
While you can easily find recipes for Indian, Asian or Western food online, sourcing recipes for Bengali dishes was challenging until a few years ago, when Bangladeshi YouTubers began uploading cooking videos. Many of these channels are hugely popular.
“Cooking Studio by Umme”, for instance, has 1.46 million subscribers and more than 213 million total views. In her videos, Umme explains the reasoning behind each step in the recipe, and often suggests alternative methods of cooking the same dish — like the recipe for the famous “Haji Biryani” of old Dhaka:
“Spice Bangla” is another beloved cooking channel, as it extends its culinary coverage to continental delicacies, inclusive of Indo-Chinese cuisine. Meanwhile, Nahida Tuli's channel, which concentrates on cakes and cookies, reached a million subscribers in December 2019.
Thanks to the absence of cable TV in many rural homes in Bangladesh, coupled with the proliferation of smartphones with cheap internet access, many television stations have also launched YouTube channels offering livestreams of news, as well as other content. These channels attract high levels of viewership, ranging from 1.84 million to over 5 million subscribers.
There is also a ready audience for a range of other topics, including tech reviews, education, and religious content.
The Rajshahi Catholic Diocese, for example, has a YouTube channel, which it uses to share sermons, Sunday Masses and other messages from the bishop. According to Father Patrick Gomes, secretary of the Diocesan Commission, the aim is “to nourish the spirit of the faithful who cannot participate in the liturgy”, since the weekly day of rest in the Muslim-majority nation is Friday, not Sunday.
“Farjana Drawing Academy” is a channel by a Bangladeshi girl who uploads videos of her pencil drawings. With close to four million subscribers worldwide, her videos have been seen over 459 million times in the past four years alone.
With just over 2.5 million subscribers, “AroundmeBD” is another extraordinary channel. Liton Ali Khan, who hails from Shimulia in Kushtia, Western Bangladesh, started uploading videos about his village's fish market, with tips on how to commercially farm fishes. Once his channel became popular, he used his YouTube earnings to feed between 500 and 1000 people in his village every week and shared the initiative on his channel. Ever since Sonny, a renowned American food blogger, reviewed Khan's channel, Shimulia has become known as the first YouTube Village — videos about the activities of the village are uploaded to YouTube and they collectively get returns from it:
Online entertainment viewing in Bangladesh is not limited to YouTube, however. Platforms like BongoBD, which started in YouTube, also produce content in Bengali and streams online. Dubbed the “Netflix of Bangladesh”, Bongo BD offers a subscription-based video streaming platform and a dedicated app.
Rabbitholebd Entertainment is a similar entertainment platform, which also maintains its popular YouTube channels.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the “BongoBD” YouTube channel has been uploading a number of educational videos, sharing information in the local language about safety precautions:
In an effort to keep people entertained at home once the lockdown began, “BongoBD” made the entire entertainment library on its video streaming site free for all users in Bangladesh.
Dr. Jahangir Kabir, who runs a free YouTube consultancy channel for weight loss and lifestyle modification, is sharing tips on yoga and exercises to stay fit during the lockdown.
Viewership of YouTube content in the country  grew by 61 percent year-on-year in 2019. With the current trend, it will continue to expand, making it an attractive market for local language content makers.

author: Rezwan


text:
Hong Kong censures public broadcaster for raising question on Taiwan’s WHO membership status · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Screen capture from the Pulse via RTHK's Youtube channel.
The Hong Kong government's Commerce and Economic Development Bureau released a statement on April 2, 2020 accusing the city’s public broadcaster, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) of breaching the “One China” policy.
The statement, signed by the Bureau's minister Edward Yau, pointed fingers at RTHK’s news programme, “The Pulse”, in which journalist Yvonne Tong pressed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative Bruce Aylward to comment on Taiwan’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as its WHO membership status.
Taiwan used to sit in WHO meetings as an unofficial member until 2013, when Beijing used its diplomatic pressure to sideline the country. After Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-Taiwan independence Democratic Progressive Party won the presidential election, Chinese president Xi Jinping decided to enforce a full isolation policy.
The episode in question, which aired on March 28, looked at global countermeasures to the pandemic. When Aylward was asked, during his interview segment, whether the WHO would reconsider Taiwan’s membership status, Aylward said he could not hear the question and abruptly ended the call. The journalist called back and asked for his perspective on Taiwan’s performance in controlling the spread of COVID-19, but Aylward said he'd already given his view on China and ended the interview.
Although Taiwan alerted the WHO to the potential of human-to-human transmission as early as the end of December 2019, thanks to the isolation policy it was excluded from a January 22 emergency meeting to address the coronavirus outbreak. Nevertheless, Taiwan has outperformed many other countries in blocking the spread of COVID-19.
Against this backdrop, Aylward's refusal to answer the question was interpreted as evidence of the WHO's pro-China political stand. The video clip went viral on social media, with many accusing the WHO of conspiring with China in downplaying of the severity of the pandemic:
Bruce Aylward @WHO did an interview with HK's @rthk_news When asked about #Taiwan he pretended not to hear the question. The journalist asked again & he even hung up! Woo can't believe how corrupted @WHO is. pic.twitter.com/uyBytfO3LP
— Studio Incendo (@studioincendo) March 28, 2020
Beijing was outraged about the incident. The very next day, the China Central Television (CCTV) website published commentary accusing the reporter of her “ill-intention”.
The Hong Kong government echoed Beijing's stand, accusing “The Pulse” of breaching both the “One China” policy and “the purposes and mission of RTHK as a public service broadcaster as specified in the charter”.
RTHK’s spokesperson rebuked the government’s criticism by stressing that the episode was about global responses to the pandemic, and that the segment on Taiwan was simply a part of the programme. It also pointed out that the journalist had referred to Taiwan not as a “country” but a “place”, and hence had not violated the “One Country, Two Systems” principle or the RTHK Charter.
The public broadcaster's Programme Staff Union categorised the government’s statement as a move to shoot the messenger and urged the public to defend the autonomy of its newsroom.
A member of RTHK's programme advisory panel, Fermi Wong, believed that the government’s statement came as a result of pressure from Beijing:
When you look at the interview done by the Pulse reporter, it is about the coronavirus issue, it is about health. I don't really understand why when a reporter is asking something relating to health, she or he has to remember there is ‘One Country, Two Systems’ … in line with the government or China. I believe the government statement may come after some kind of pressure from the Foreign Ministry or the Chinese Communist Party, I don't know. But I think the statement is the biggest nonsense.
In 2004, after Beijing failed to to pass a set of national security laws under Article 23 of the Basic Law, it began to tighten its control over Hong Kong’s media outlets. Since then, RTHK has been under political pressure for failing to fall in line with government policy. In recent years, a number of the broadcaster’s popular public affairs programmes — including its satirical news commentary “Headliner” and its weekly public forum “City Forum” — have received tremendous pressure to self-censor.
The latest wave of pressure emerged in August 2019. Against the backdrop of months of anti-China extradition protests, RTHK journalists investigated the Hong Kong Police Force's failure to protect citizens from a July 21 mob attack in Yuen Long. By August, pro-Beijing protesters staged several protests outside RTHK’s headquarters, accusing the public broadcaster of “bias”.
Commissioner of Police Chris Tang also filed a complaint to the Communications Authority against RTHK’s “Headliner” programme, accusing it of undermining police work and eroding law and order.
In March 2020, following a request made by the city’s most dominant commercial free-to-air broadcaster, TVB, the Communications Authority attempted to curb RTHK’s influence by lifting TVB’s license requirement, which formerly required a compulsory weekly airing of 3.5 hours of RTHK programmes.
Meanwhile, the chair of RTHK's board of directors, Eugene Chan, proposed establishing a three-member working group to look into complaints about RTHK's programmes — a move which the broadcaster's Programme Staff Union slammed as direct interference in the station’s daily operations.
Beijing's agenda to turn the public broadcaster into a mouthpiece has been reflected in the slogan “RTHK should represent the voice of the government” as put forward by the pro-Beijing protesters outside RTHK’s headquarters. Now the pressure coming from the Hong Kong government is mounting.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Blocked websites, internet shutdown, and media arrests undermine free speech in Myanmar · Global Voices
Juan Cebu

Screenshot of the Narinjara News Webpage. Accessed from Telenor.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Myanmar's Ministry of Transport and Communication has directed four major telecommunication service providers to block websites supposedly in the name of combatting disinformation amid the government's campaign to contain the spread of COVID-19. On March 30, 2020, telecom company Telenor confirmed that it has complied with the order by blocking a total of 221 websites.
Although it was not revealed which websites are covered by the order, many groups noted that blocked websites included adult entertainment pages, unspecified alleged “fake news” sites, but also websites of registered ethnic media agencies.
A coalition of 250 Myanmar civil society organizations responded by releasing a statement decrying the government's actions as unlawful and contrary to international standards to protect the freedom of speech. Burma News International, a coalition of ethnic media groups, also released a statement asking the ruling National League for Democracy to immediately unblock the legally registered ethnic media websites. Media groups also noted that the government has been consistent in using the notorious Telecommunications Law to clamp down on free speech.
Internet shutdown and attacks on free speech
Among many that are blocked, two notable news media included Narinjara and Development Media Group (DMG), both of which are based in Rakhine State where the internet has been restricted over the past nine months already in areas where there are armed conflicts between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, the Rakhine ethnic armed group.
A statement issued by several civil society groups described the blocking of news websites and the continuing internet restriction in the region as an oppressive measure which deprives people of their right to access information:
We further note with concern that the blocking of the websites, which include independent media websites from Rakhine state, comes in parallel to a 9-month long internet shutdown affecting 9 townships in Rakhine and Chin States, compounding restrictions on the right to information and freedom of expression of the population in these areas. […] blocking websites of the news agencies working in these areas is an authoritarian-like violation of the right to the access to information, a basic right crucial to media freedom, democratic transformation, and regions’ development.
Activists and human rights groups said that the government is using the coronavirus crisis to hide the human rights abuses and atrocities committed by state forces in Rakhine state. They are also worried that free speech is being undermined in the name of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic:
We are concerned that the government is taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to censor legitimate information and curtail freedom of expression.
On Facebook, Nyi Khine Thwee, a Rakhine artist published these cartoons to depict the human rights abuses in Rakhine state amid the COVID-19 crisis:
As of April 3, 2020, the Myanmar Ministry of Health and Sport reported that the country has a total of 20 COVID-19 patients.
Cartoon by artist Nyi Khine Thwee. Source: Facebook page of the artist, used with permission.
Cartoon by artist Nyi Khine Thwee. Source: Facebook page of the artist, used with permission.
Editor charged for rebel interview
On March 30, the editor of the Voice of Myanmar website, Nay Myo Lin, was arrested and charged for interviewing a representative from the Arakan Army, which has been declared as a terrorist organization a few days earlier.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged authorities to drop the case
We call on Kyaw Swa Lin, the judge who ordered this journalist’s detention, to dismiss these utterly absurd and disproportionate terrorism charges. Nay Myo Lin complied fully with journalistic ethics and published this interview with the aim of serving the public interest by helping to restart the talks needed to end the conflict in Rakhine State.

author: Juan Cebu


text:
#NiñasNoMadres: Argentines protest against the forced pregnancy of young girls · Global Voices
Romina Navarro

Photo credit: Emergentes/Flickr, taken during the demonstration of May 11, 2018. Under CC license.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of how women fight gender violence in Latin America.
The only jurisdictions in Latin America where abortion is legal on request are Cuba, Uruguay, and a few states in Mexico. In Argentina, abortion is legal in only two circumstances: When the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother's life, and when the pregnancy is the result of rape.
On February 19, pro-choice activists demonstrated in front of the Argentine National Congress, in the capital Buenos Aires, calling for the approval of a bill that would make abortion fully legal. Protestors also demanded that the right to abortion in circumstances that are already allowed by Argentine law is also fulfilled.
Demonstrators remembered the story of Lucía, an 11-year-old girl forced by doctors, religious leaders, and legal authorities to carry a pregnancy to term after she was raped by her grandmother's partner. The case shocked Argentina and became a symbol in the struggle for the right to safe abortion in the country.
As the age of consent in Argentina is 13 years old, the penal law considers that any sexual relation with minors below that age to be rape. Activists highlighted that point in the protest: “A pregnant girl is a raped girl,” as the motto of a pro-choice campaign says.
Lucía, a pseudonym created to protect the victim's safety, had been suffering from stomachaches when her mother took her to a clinic in a rural area of the northern Argentine province of Tucumán. Doctors found out she was 19 weeks pregnant.
Lucía's mother then took her to a provincial hospital and requested doctors performed an abortion, the mother told the Argentine press. But medical staff refused to terminate Lucía's pregnancy, alleging conscientious objection, which means the procedure offended their personal values and beliefs.
The mother said that doctors argued an abortion would put Lucía's life in danger and that the child was pressured to carry the pregnancy to term. She added that a group of people gathered around the hospital shouted “killer” at them as they left.
Lucía's story quickly spread around the province. Religious vigils were organized in the child's hometown to “impede the abortion.” The province's archbishop summoned his congregants to “protect all human life” in an audio message that went viral on social media — he went so far as to reveal Lucía's real name in the recording. Meanwhile, pro-life groups marched in the provincial capital San Miguél de Tucumán, insisting that the child survivor of rape bring the pregnancy to term “for the good of the [unborn] child.”
By the time a regional court ordered the hospital to perform the abortion, Lucía was six months pregnant. A c-section was performed on February 26, 2019. The fetus died ten days later from respiratory complications. The death coincided with International Women's Day, March 8.
Argentina's Christian Democratic Party, which is backed by religious and fundamentalist groups, filed a police report against the doctors who performed the procedure, seeking a manslaughter charge.
Two weeks later, a Tucumán family judge ruled that the deceased fetus would not be registered as Lucía's daughter since the child “had no procreational will or vocation to maternity.”
“Alive with laughter, alive playing: In a just world, girls are not mothers.” Image from Distribution Network, used with permission.
According to Gabriel Castelli, the National Secretary of Children, Adolescents, and Family, the pregnancy rate of young girls in Argentina decreased by 20 percent between 2015 and 2018. Even so, 87,188 teenage girls became pregnant in the country in 2018. The majority of pregnancies of girls under 15 years of age resulted from intrafamily sexual abuse, according to sociologist Silvina Ramos.
Complications during pregnancy or following unsafe abortion attempts, as well as obstruction during labor, are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In Latin America and the Caribbean, 30 percent of pregnant women are under 18 years old. Latin America is the only region in the world where pregnancy of young girls is on the rise, according to the campaign Niñas, no madres (“Girls, Not Mothers” in English).
The same campaign denounced several Latin American nations before the UN Human Rights Commission by sharing specific accounts of girls who were barred from accessing legal abortions and the necessary means for preventing unwanted pregnancy.
Lucía's case drew the attention of international media and rights NGOs.
In March 2019, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) urged Argentina to guarantee that rape victims have access to safe abortions.
A few months later, six human rights organizations testified against Argentina at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), for “failing to live up to its obligations under international and regional human rights law when it comes to accessing legal abortion for victims of sexual violence, particularly young girls.”
“My mom says that you think I look too young to wear a green handkerchief [symbolizing pro-abortion], you can imagine me being forced to give birth. #MakeItLaw #LegalAbortionNow #SafeAbortions #FreeAbortions.” Image from @lulidibuja, used with permission.
In 2012, the Argentine Supreme Court ratified the right to abortion in cases of rape. And in December 2019, the Ministry of Health of the recently-elected Alberto Fernández administration enacted a protocol for hospitals to ensure patients have access to abortion in legal circumstances.
However, only 10 out of 23 Argentine provinces currently have adequate protocols or adhere to the national one.
According to Chequeado, an Argentine fact-checking agency, “the lack of protocol does not mean that legal abortions cannot be carried out in these provinces, since it is a right upheld by Argentine law. However, the lack of sufficient protocols that comply with the court’s ruling impedes women’s real access to this right.”
Lucía's case is the living proof that the law alone isn't enough to protect children like her.
Almost a year later, on February 14, 2020, Lucía's rapist was sentenced to 18 years in prison. In a heartfelt letter, the mother expressed gratitude for the support the family has received and her wish that other girls would not undergo the same obstacles as they did.
During the rally on February 19, the Chilean collective Las Tesis adapted the lyrics of their well-known anthem “A rapist in your path”:
Duerme tranquila mi niña madre,
Sin que te importe quién te violó,
Que por tu hijo, bebé inocente,
Vela la Santa Inquisición.
Sleep peacefully my little girl mother,
No matter who raped you,
Your child, innocent baby,
Will be protected by the Holy Inquisition.

author: Romina Navarro


text:
Caribbean cooking in the time of COVID-19 · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Channa (ckickpeas), beans, and “roti” (a Trinidadian hybrid of a soft naan bread). Photo by Isle Chile, used with permission.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Each Caribbean territory has its own individual customs, quirks, and cultural and social traditions. Naturally, this extends to cuisine.
Jamaica, for instance, is known for its ackee and saltfish or jerk-style meats; Barbados, its flying fish and cou-cou; Trinidad and Tobago, its pelau, shark and bake or doubles — but it's likely that Carribeans enjoy all types of food from every region. This is especially true for members of the diaspora, for whom Caribbean cooking brings a sumptuous whiff of home.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, one Trinidadian diaspora blogger decided to use the mandated isolation time to get creative in the kitchen. “Not wanting to go out unnecessarily,” Isle Chile writes, “we are trying to utilize the ingredients we have at home to make our meals.”
The result is a batch of easy-to-make, flavourful recipes, often accompanied by amusing anecdotes or Caribbean-centric musings, that may very well make time spent in isolation more pleasant. Here are a few highlights…
A version of “pelau”, a beloved rice dish in Trinidad and Tobago. Photo courtesy Isle Chile, used with permission.
This one-pot meal, involving browned rice, peas and your choice of meat, is hugely popular. Isle Chile explains:
I can’t think of a specific time when Trinis eat pelau. It works any time of year, at any festival or celebration […] It can be stored for the week in the fridge and the staler the pelau, the nicer it tastes, in my opinion.
As far as the method goes, she says, “pelau is all about cooking down the food together.” She said that a couple of tablespoons of coconut milk to ramp up the flavour, which may contribute to the fact that in her version, the rice is not as brown as in a typical pelau dish. However brown the pelau, however, the secret is to find “that sweet spot in the cooking time where [the] dish is not overly dry and not soggy”.
A wrapped “roti”, a Trinidadian dish in which a soft type of naan bread is filled with an array of curried ingredients. Photo by Isle Chile, used with permission.
While the blogger is comfortable making curry, making the dhalpouri (roti skins made from flour and split peas) in which to wrap them is not her forté. Thankfully, these are often pre-packaged, and she happened to find some in her freezer, so a short while later, there was both chicken and beef roti to be enjoyed. She writes:
In Trinidad, my family, like many, would accompany a roti with a red soft drink (pop), sweet drink or as we would call it (cutting off the last letter of the first word) a sofdrink or a sweedrink. Of course, I didn’t have one […] so I got creative and made a cranberry spritzer instead…Look, it red oui [yes], and I was happy to pretend.
Roti is so beloved in Trinidad and Tobago that there's a saying, “You cannot please everyone. You are not roti.” In this vein, Isle Chile mused, “There is nothing more tasty, more special and no better way to say ‘I love you’, in my opinion than bringing me roti…”
Stewed chicken, pigeon peas and macaroni pie, all typical “Sunday lunch” fare. Photo by Isle Chile, used with permission.
For most West Indians, the concept of “Sunday lunch” is a big deal. Not only does it usually come with some measure of pomp and circumstance, bringing out the “good” flatware and cutlery, but it's also an opportunity for families and friends to come together. Isle Chile has fond memories of the tradition:
There was nothing like smelling Mummy’s pot on a Sunday and very often, when we were riding our bikes in the neighborhood, the wafting smells from everyone’s Mummy’s pot came together to make your belly growl as you played as you made sure you were close enough to home to hear your mother shout, ‘Come inside for lunch!’ Those were simpler, purely happy times and as I look in my fridge today to pull together my version of Sunday lunch in this time of pandemic, these memories will keep a smile on my face and the love of my birth land […] will flow from my heart, to my hands, to the spoon to the pot and to my family this afternoon. I think I will play a little soca [music] too, to transport me mentally to Trinidad and put me in a cooking mood.
Her step-by-step recipe covers both the meat and peas portions of the meal, as well as the macaroni pie, both of which, according to her son, she “throws down” in the kitchen. This is definitely a dish to be enjoyed.
Cheese paste sandwiches, a Caribbean staple. Photo by Isle Chile, used with permission.
A staple of Caribbean cuisine, cheese paste concoctions can be found in everything from puff pastries to sandwiches. Popular at children's parties, people often add food colouring, then build rainbow-like, multi-layer sandwiches. Needless to say, kids go through them really fast!
Feeling for some comfort food, Isle Chile naturally turned to the “good old Trini cheese paste sandwich”:
Lately, I find comfort in a cheese paste sandwich on plain, soft, white bread. It is not the best nutrition and so many people look down on white bread but you know, life is short and when you need to comfort yourself while you live a life on lock down you should indulge.
Her recipe includes cheddar cheese, mustard, mayonnaise, black pepper, cayenne and parsley flakes, and her instructions end with a few words of wisdom:
Today I made a sandwich that was much more than a sandwich — it was a taste of the pleasure of simplicity. Life is going to get really simple in weeks to come. The spread of the virus will peak. Please stay at home. Make whatever your comfort food is and know that if we could all sacrifice our way of life for a few weeks for the greater good, we will help stop the spread of this virus. […] Find your cheese paste, my friends, because this too shall pass.
To view all the recipes, go here.