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Zambia: What Comes After Universal Primary Education? · Global Voices
Gershom Ndhlovu

Village school class in Zambia. Photo by Jurvetson on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Looking at African literacy rate rankings shared by The African Economist last month, 37 of Africa's 52 countries now score above 50 percent, while 17 countries now score above 70 percent.
For a continent that is ranked the poorest to have such relatively high scores, there is hope that education and literacy levels could keep soaring with sustained efforts after the 2015 deadline passes for achieving eight UN Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), including universal primary education.
Certainly Zambia, which ranks 17th in Africa with just over 80 percent literacy levels, could climb the ladder if the current efforts of government, non-governmental organisations and individuals to improve education bear fruit.
Despite educational advances and an increase in the number of universities in Zambia, the lower education ladder is still problematic with many pupils failing to move up in the educational system.
School, and then what?
An OECD paper outlining recommendations on education for a post-2105 development framework suggests that educational targets and measurements are important once more universal access to primary and secondary schools has been achieved. The OECD notes that despite gains in school enrollment and attendance around the world since the MDGs were launched in 2000, many young people still leave school without the knowledge and skills they need to find jobs and thrive.
In Zambia last year, around 60,000 pupils failed grade seven out of 337,706 who sat for the exams.
Commenting on a story about grade seven results in the Lusaka Times, a reader, Chongo B.C, wrote:
The grade seven results for 2012 have been very impressive as compared to the past years. This has been a tremendous improvement. However,the Government through the Ministry of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Childhood should make sure that it provides adequate classrooms for these pupils to learn effectively. Above all, it should reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in classrooms in order to provide conducive learning environment. This will ensure quality education and productive citizens who will be useful in the society.
Another reader, Xhoisan X questioned one of the most touted policies by successive governments:
Please educate me. I was made to understand that Zambia now has compulsory education up to secondary school. So what are these results [the education minister] is announcing?
While the primary school progression rate may look bad, it is the sieve at grade nine that sends the most pupils into the wilderness. According to the Times of Zambia, only 100,824 candidates passed out of the 291,018 who sat for the examinations in 2012.
There are a number of factors that affects pupil progression to higher education but the biggest problem appears to be lack of classroom space at the lower levels with a teacher/pupil ratio in Zambia of 1 to 63 for 2011 according to the World Bank.
The government has embarked on building more classroom space at primary, secondary and tertiary levels to absorb as many pupils and students as possible. Opening a school in rural Zambia last year, President Michael Sata said:
Our aspiration is to put together a well-organized, valuable and reliable public education system through substantial investments in educational infrastructure. As Government we have an obligation to structure and shape the future of our general populace, particularly the younger citizens, who constitute a greater part of our population.
President Sata also laid out his government’s plans to build the universities in an inaugural speech to parliament in 2011, and he has so far commissioned the construction of Palabana University, formerly a dairy training institute, Chalimbana University, formerly a teacher in-service training school, and Robert Makasa Univesity, formerly Lubwa Mission. These new universities will exist in addition to three existing public universities, University of Zambia, Copperbelt University and Mulungushi University.
Although the government is making an effort, there are many challenges that make gaining access to education impossible for many people, among them the severe poverty that afflicts many households.
Looking to the future
As the OECD notes, while the importance of universal access to primary education would be retained, a post 2015 education-related goal is likely to incorporate the secondary education level and include a stronger focus on learning. The OECD itself supports a Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) where countries can measure results in comparison with one another.
While its not clear what the Zambian government would do to meet such standards, at least infrastructurally a start has been made. The construction of primary and secondary schools would ideally match the level at which public universities are being created, coupled with the training and recruitment of more teachers.
At the individual level, realising the predicament of children from poverty-stricken homes, a Zambian living in the United States, Isabella Mukanda Shamambo, has established an education centre called Beyond Universal Primary Education for All going by the acronym, BUPE (meaning “gift” in some Zambian languages). Introducing the project on the Community Prayer Centers website, she writes:
The near success of one of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals has left a generation of kids with 7th grade education roaming the streets of many major cities, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, the need has arisen for a universal Secondary education which most cannot afford. Kids roam the street of Ndola [city in Zambia] selling plastic bag in the hope of going back to 8th grade. Others wander the streets, hope of a better future completely lost.
The most progressive policy the Zambian government announced in 2012 were plans to upgrade 1,570 so-called community schools which are run mostly by NGOs to cater for vulnerable groups from poorer areas of urban and peri-urban areas. This is likely to help contribute to the attainment of MDGs and beyond.
Optimistically speaking, with the achievement of universal primary education around the corner, in Zambia in particular and Africa in general, we should prepare to take a confident leap beyond the 2015 Millennium Development Goals to focus on improving the curriculum and promote higher levels of learning.
This post is part of a series by Global Voices bloggers for the OECD engaging with post-2015 ideas for development worldwide. The OECD is not responsible for the content in these posts.
See the Wikiprogress post-2015 portal for more on this topic.

author: Gershom Ndhlovu


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App Tracks Argentina’s Congress Voting Records · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

An app called “Década votada” (A decade in votes) [es] aims to help citizens understand “Argentina’s National Congress elections and the degree of each candidate’s allegiance to their party at the moment of voting,” as Knight International fellow Mariano Blejman writes in Source.
Mariano, who specializes in data-driven journalism, interviewed the team behind the app. They told him, among other things:
We wanted to have a general snapshot of every vote to compare and visualize elections. Using colors to identify each political bloc, we were able to see how legislators were regrouped for various votes and understand the composition of Congress and which bloc approved or rejected each issue. By identifying individual legislators it’s possible to see how often they vote according to their party’s agenda.
We believe that we’ve solved the problem in a simple way that allows an easy querying of the role of blocs and legislators through time.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Silvia Viñas


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China Sets Up Fund to Research ‘Chinese Dream’ Campaign · Global Voices
Abby Liu

President Xi Jinping’s “Chinese dream“, a propaganda campaign reinforcing that the Communist Party is the path to economic prosperity and well-being, has been promoted in state-run media and by the government since Xi mentioned it upon taking power in November 2012.
Now this campaign, a twist on the so-called American dream, has become the topic of research with funding of 200,000 yuan (32,403 US dollars) from China’s Xiamen University in Fujian province.
On July 8, 2013, Xiamen University’s website announced that “comparative research study project into the systematic structure and operational levels of the Chinese Dream” has won money from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and will be conducted by professor Hong Yongmiao, dean of Xiamen’s School of Economics. The project is seen as an effort to provide academic support for self-confidence in the Chinese system.
The news about the China Dream research project on Xiamen University's website
The news has triggered criticism on China’s most popular microblogging site Sina Weibo. Many think it's a waste of money and urged the government to get real.
Veteran media personality Yang Jinlin wrote [zh] sarcastically:
佛洛依德精神分析法，足以解梦！
Freudian psycho analysis is enough to decode the dream.
“Sanzhang Liukuan”[zh] urged the government to get real:
中国梦不是拿理论来忽悠屁民，而是要给公民一条活路.
The Chinese dream is not to use the theory to fool around, but to give citizens a means of survival.
Cai Chengping from Sina Caijing criticized [zh] the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences:
中国科研费投入不少却做不出东西来的原因在此。
China has put in a lot of investment in scientific research, without many important results. This is why.
Professor from California University “Jiefu” pointed out the key to realizing the Chinese dream:
教授博士生们速速投入中国梦论题，以自己的研究阐释：实现真正美好和可持续的中国梦的唯一正路是宪法赋予公民的权利落实，人权和自由为目标的的民主法治！
Hope the professors step up, and use their research theory to prove that to realize the truly beautiful and sustainable Chinese dream, the only way is to realize citizens’ rights through rule of law and constitution and build a free and democratic society.

author: Abby Liu


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Indian MP Crowdsources Questions for Parliament · Global Voices
Rezwan

Indian Member of Parliament (MP) Rajeev Chandrasekhar has started an initiative called ASK (Ask Seek Know) through which he welcomes questions and queries from citizens via his website, Facebook, and Twitter for discussion in the Parliament, reports Media Nama.

author: Rezwan


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Is the New Lebanese Family Violence Law Enough? · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

A law to protect women against domestic violence was approved and amended in Lebanon by the Joint Parliamentary Committees to include all family members yesterday [July 23, 2013]. This comes a day after a protest was staged in Halba, Akkar, town of Roula Yaacoub, the 31-year old woman who was beaten to death by her husband a couple of weeks ago. The protest was merely one of many that have been occurring since 2008 calling for a complete law protecting women against domestic abuses of all kind.
Portrait of Roula with her mother sitting at the protest in Akkar on Sunday the 21st of July,2013.
Taken by Joey Ayoub
Lebanese netizens were quick to voice their doubts which were mainly focused around the vagueness surrounding marital rape, lack of gender focus, accompaniment of children and sectarian law overruling this law.
Nadine Moawad, a well-known Lebanese feminist activist, was one of many who pointed out the flaws in the law:
Law to #protectwomen suffered many loopholes in the past years, so we need to know which version passed first before we celebrate. #Lebanon
— Nadine Moawad (@nmoawad) July 22, 2013
We are looking for 4 important modifications to #protectwomen law: 1) Was marital rape criminalized? MPs had deleted that article.
— Nadine Moawad (@nmoawad) July 22, 2013
2) Does it have a gender focus? MPs had removed "women" from it and made it about the whole family – which defeats purpose. #protectwomen
— Nadine Moawad (@nmoawad) July 22, 2013
3) Accompaniment of children? MPs had removed clause that allowed women to take children with them when needing protection. #protectwomen
— Nadine Moawad (@nmoawad) July 22, 2013
4) Most important: MPs added article that allows sectarian personal status laws to overrule this law in case of dispute. #protectwomen
— Nadine Moawad (@nmoawad) July 22, 2013
But this is still seen as a first step towards a better law that would fully protect women in Lebanon. Ahmad Yassine, blogger at lobnene.com adds:
The law is good as a first step to #protectwomen in #Lebanon, but it's NOT ENOUGH YET.
— Ahmad M. Yassine (@Lobnene_Blog) July 22, 2013

author: Elia J. Ayoub


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Japanese Railway to Sell Customers’ E-Ticket Data  · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

Japan's largest rail company has announced that it will be partnering with Japanese multinational engineering and electronics conglomerate Hitachi to gather data from its e-ticketing system, strip it of identifying information such as names and addresses, and then sell it in bulk to third party companies.
East Japan Railway (JR East) will be using travel history information from its e-ticketing system, called Suica, according to technology news website Ars Technica. JR East counts about 42 million Suica users. The company plans to “sell the information in the form of monthly reports to retailers, eating and drinking establishments, and real estate agencies that operate near the train stations,” according to Japanese business news site Nikkei.
A June 28, 2013 Nikkei post reports that Hitachi “will profile commuter activity at each train station by parameters like gender, age, and times of use, analyzing such things as the customer-drawing power of each station and the potential for business in the area.”
The penguin is the mascot character for promoting Suica. Photo by Flickr user shibuya246, taken in April 2010 (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Takashi Yamaguchi, a JR East spokesman, told Computerworld, “There is no way to determine the identity of specific individuals from the data, so we feel there is no privacy issue.”
Selling E-ticket data stripped of private information is legally okay, but social media users voiced their concerns and skepticism:
@hikita suicaビッグデータ。たしかに個人情報保護法に直接的に触れる個人情報は入っていないが乗降履歴は継続的に収集すれば個人を特定しうるということで実質的な個人情報として扱うことになるのではなかったか？現時点では問題ないとはいえかなり疑義 http://t.co/3AUfmqDMHn
Big Data on Suica: it does not include “personal information” explicitly defined in the Private Information Protection Act. However, by repetitive collection of commute history, it may lead to identifying a person which could be practically personal information, or can it be? I have serious concern even if it is legal at this time.
一番の問題は、事前確認なしのデータ活用であるにも関わらずユーザーに対して説明しないことだが、もう一つ個別データを見ることができるのかどうかが気になるかな。再識別化できちゃうだろうし。→Ｓｕｉｃａ情報分析し販売 戸惑いも　NHKニュース http://t.co/T8RcBLB8BK
— Yasuaki Madarame (@madarame) July 15, 2013
The biggest problem here is that they started using the data without explanations and without prior acknowledgment by users. I wonder whether independent data can be seen or not, which could enable re-identification.
On social bookmarking site hatena, yoko-hirom commented in comparison with unique identities in real life.
yoko-hirom: 皆，顔も車のナンバーも隠さず交通機関や道路を利用している。しかし，個別に追跡・記録されたらどうか。Web だと閲覧履歴のトラッキング。それが販売される。不快感も嫌悪感も抱かない方がどうかしている。
Everybody uses public transportation and roads, without hiding one's face or license plates. What if it is tracked and recorded individually? When it comes to the Web, the subject is browsing history. And it is on sale. It's insane if you don't feel it discomfort or disgusting.
The use of private information needs to follow Private Information Protection Act, but there is no legal restrictions when the data is anonymized and does not include any identifiers. The Japanese government is planning to develop a legal framework for the use of personal data. The Cabinet approved “世界最先端ＩＴ国家創造宣言”, or temporally translated as “a Declaration of Creating the World's Most Advanced IT Nation” [ja] on June 14 2013 and it touches on the use of personal data to balance the use of personal information and privacy.
A recent keynote speech by the Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications at a ICT forum in Okinawa [ja] talked about the need to utilize privacy-enhancing technology and develop rules for the use of personal data. His slide [ja] wrote about how personal data should be used in the future, especially when the data is anonymized but leaves rooms for potential re-identification. The slide showed that personal data should only be used under a condition that it is properly anonymized, it is ensured that the data will not be re-identified, and third parties are banned by contract from re-identification.
While more users voiced concerns on the use of personal data, some didn't seem to mind.
KeiPipe was another Twitter user who felt the use of data did not matter to him:
便利になるならそれでいい。 僕個人に対する特別な興味があるわけじゃないだろうし – Reading: Ｓｕｉｃａ情報分析し販売 戸惑いも　NHKニュース http://t.co/QpMFTdpdNO
— けぃ not 真人間 (@KeiPipe) July 16, 2013
I don't mind as long as things become more convenient. I bet they have no special interests towards me personally.
People using pre-paid e-ticket to pass through the JR entrance. Photo by flickr user mikeleeorg ( CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Atsushi Fukuda, a creative director of digital media content, shrugged, arguing that all kinds of information are out there anyway:
まぁ、あらゆる情報は分析されちゃうわな。／Ｓｕｉｃａ情報分析し販売 戸惑いも　NHKニュース http://t.co/EeRaEOL1MI
— Atsushi Fukuda (@fukudadesuga) July 15, 2013
Oh well, I guess all kinds of information are destined to be analyzed.
Train tickets can be purchased through these machines. Passengers can choose to buy a single ticket or an e-ticket.
For Twitter user maipy1Q70, it is not so much about privacy as much as it is about the profits of using big data not being distributed to the masses who generate the data:
嫌な前例が既成事実化していますね。問題はプライバシーより、日立が無償かつ独占的に利用できる根拠が不明なこと、データの元になっている不特定多数のユーザーへの利益の再分配の仕組みがないこと。 http://t.co/54U0AxqKyg
— H. Imai (@maipy1Q70) July 14, 2013
This is becoming a nasty example. The problem is, aside from privacy, that there is no clear evidence that Hitachi can exploit it exclusively and as they wish to. Also there is no re-distribution of profit to the masses or the users who are the originator of these data sets.
Another hatena user emphasized the lack of compensation for customers who are generating the data:
I will forgive them if they give us a discount, like 20-30 percent off of the fare to customers contributing data. I don't care much about my emitted information, but it makes me upset that I won't be compensated [for contributing data sets].

author: Keiko Tanaka


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Protests for Election in Madagascar Lead to Violence, Arrest  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Protests in Antananarivo, Madagascar on July 22, 2013. Images via MaTV
Vola R of Ma-Laza reports that 7 were hurt [fr] following police repression of protests demanding elections in Antananarivo, Madagascar. The party leading the protest states that the current administration has no intention of organizing elections this year and is just hanging on to their position of power. The leader of the party was allegedly arrested following the protests.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Radio Vieques to Heal Puerto Rican Island Following Years of Bombing Exercises · Global Voices
Ángel Carrión

The island-municipality of Vieques, Puerto Rico now has its first community radio station, Radio Vieques 90.1 FM [es], a non-profit project created thanks to the efforts of the people of Vieques, with the help of people in solidarity with them on the main island of Puerto Rico and in the United States. Together they were able to use a cooperative model to create what will be a valuable tool for the environmental struggles of the so-called “Isla Nena”, or “Girl Island”.
The island of Vieques suffered over 60 years of use as a United States Navy military base and an area for bombing exercises. In spite of the fact that the people of Vieques suffer an incidence of cancer that is 31% higher than the rest of the country [es], the United States government recently denied that there is any connection between the high incidence of cancer and the bombings.
Robert Rabin, director of the radio station, said the following, as reported by El Post Antillano (The Antillean Post) [es]:
Radio Vieques Logo.
Radio Vieques será una herramienta clave para adelantar las luchas en la región por la descontaminación, la devolución de las tierras, a favor de la salud y por un desarrollo sustentable para nuestra gente y las próximas generaciones. Será también un espacio de comunicación entre la población y las entidades que bien le sirven a ésta.
Radio Vieques will be a key tool in moving forward the regional fights for decontamination and the return of lands, in favor of health and sustainable development for our people and the next generations. It will also be a space for communication between the people and the organizations that serve them well.
Waste left by the United States Navy in Vieques. Photo taken from the Facebook page of Radio Vieques.
In 2001, President George W. Bush ordered that the Navy leave the island, due to unprecedented activism in Puerto Rico, and the arrests of hundreds of people from all social and political backgrounds for participating in civil disobedience against the Navy. In 2003 the Navy withdrew completely and the military base was closed, but the land that it occupied went to the United States Department of the Interior, remaining in the hands of the federal United States government. Ten years later, the people of Vieques are still waiting for the United States government to carry out its responsibility of cleaning the land contaminated by the Navy.
The campaign to raise money to create the station had a large presence on the Internet for several months. An album was created using the platform Artists for Media Diversity, an organization dedicated to supporting community radio stations through the creation of virtual albums. Artists from Willie Nelson to Calle 13 contributed songs to help raise money. Radio Vieques also has a solid presence on Facebook [es] and it recently began to enter Twitter [es] territory as well.
http://youtu.be/jebCdV0ZW84
The campaign to raise money continued on Saturday, July 20th, with a radio marathon transmitted by Radio Isla 1320 AM [es] from 10:00 a. m. to 12:00 p. m. on the radio, and until 3:00 p. m. on the Internet, Puerto Rican time (U.S. Eastern).

author: Ángel Carrión


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Saudi Arabia Jails Seven Facebook Users for Calling for Protests  · Global Voices
Zanah

Seven Facebook users were slapped with prison sentences ranging between five to 10 years for allegedly calling for protests in Saudi Arabia. They were also further banned from travel, after the completion of their sentence.
According to Human Rights Watch:
Saudi authorities arrested the men between September 23 and 26, 2011, then detained them in the General Investigations Prison in Damman for a year and a half before charging them and putting them on trial on April 29. They were tried before the Specialized Criminal Court, set up in 2008 to deal with terrorism-related cases. Authorities did not accuse the seven of directly participating in protests, and the court failed to investigate their allegations that intelligence officers tortured them into signing confessions.
[…]
In the court judgment, which Human Rights Watch obtained, the charges against the seven varied. But the court convicted them all of joining Facebook pages to “incite protests, illegal gathering, and breaking allegiance with the king” and of “assisting and encouraging these calls and corresponding with the [Facebook pages’] followers and concealing them.” All seven were also convicted of violating article 6 of the Anti-Cyber Crime Law, which prohibits producing, sending, or storing any material via an information network that “harms public order.”
Yusur Al Bahrani comments:
Prisoners of #Ahsa are persecuted for writing pro-democracy posts on #Facebook https://t.co/qf50gIA4HV #PrisonersOfAhsa #humanrights
— Yusur Al-Bahrani (@YusurAlBahrani) June 25, 2013
And activist Tarek Siala asks:
سجن سبعة أشخاص في السعودية لدعوتهم للتظاهر ضد ولي الأمر من خلال صفحات #الفيسبوك لمدة مابين خمسة وعشرين أعوام! والتحريض عالقتل كم عقوبته
— Tarek Siala (@tarksiala) June 30, 2013
Seven people have been jailed in Saudi Arabia for calling for protests against the ruler on Facebook between five to 20 years! What is the punishment for incitement to murder?
Political dissent is not tolerated in Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy.

author: Zanah


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State of Islam in Southeast Asia · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Murray Hunter of the University Malaysia Perlis discusses the situation of Muslim-majority societies in Southeast Asia as well as the issues associated with the rise of Islam in the region.
Poverty, literacy, education, displacement, feudalism, unemployment, suppression, and control is dispossessing Muslims within ASEAN. Government and Ulama are trying to develop theocracies based little social and economic research and knowledge, and promote ritualized conformity instead. Islamic interpretations are patterned into rigid thinking and ideas where new interpretations are frowned upon.

author: Mong Palatino


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Two Spanish Aid Workers Freed After 21 Months in Captivity · Global Voices
Lourdes Sada

The unexpected release of two Spanish aid workers from Doctors Without Borders, kidnapped on October 13, 2011, was announced following 21 months of captivity.
When they were kidnapped, Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut were working on starting a hospital in Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world [es], located close to the Somalian border in Kenya, and home to at least half a million Somalians fleeing drought and war in their country. It is believed that the volunteers were taken to Somalia after being abducted and have remained there the entire time.
Montserrat Serra (left) y Blanca Thiebaut, the two Spanish aid workers freed after 21 months of captivity in Somalia. Photo posted on Twitter by José Campos.
It is also unclear if their captors were common criminals or members of a faction of Al Qaeda, though most observers attribute the incident to terrorists. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called a press conference following the news, but José Antonio Bastos, President of (MSF) Spain, said they could not release information on the liberation process “so as not to compromise the rest of the volunteers in Somalia nor the informants.” It has been MSF who has partaken in the negotiations to free the volunteer workers. The Spanish state has not intervened. What has not been revealed is whether ransom was paid, the amount that could have been paid, or who has taken responsibility for the supposed payment.
Many celebrated the release of the two women, such as Beli Álvarez [es], who tweeted:
@Mensaje de cariño y bienvenida a las dos cooperantes españolas de @MSF_espana Enhorabuena a esta ong por su labor tan grande en el mundo
@A message of love and welcoming to the two Spanish aid workers from @MSF_espana Congratulations to this NGO for their great work in the world
Nevertheless, not all were messages of congratulations. Many netizens took for granted that the Spanish state had paid the ransom for aid workers and expressed their dissatisfaction, sometimes accusing the aid workers of being reckless and seeking their own misfortune.
burbman89 left this comment to the news, which appeared on 20minutos.es [es]:
Vamos, que nos ha costado una pasta a todos los españoles que estas “buenas samaritanas” se vayan por ahí a darle alegría al cuerpo…. pero porque no se quedarán en casita!!!!
Come on, it has cost all of us Spaniards so much money for these “good Samaritans” to go there to make them feel good about themselves…. why won't they just stay home!!!!
In the same media outlet, 1-2-3-4 [es] blamed the volunteers for potential Al Qaeda attacks in the future:
Doctors Without Borders Spain press conference to announce the release of the two volunteer workers. Image published on Twitter by DWB Press.
(…) los islamistas comprarán armas con los millones de euros que les hemos regalado. Armas con las que los islamistas secuestrarán a mas occidentales y con las que asesinarán a un montón de africanos. Armas con las que cometerán atentados.
El daño causado por estas “cooperantes solidarias” es incalculable.
(…) the Islamists will buy weapons with the millions of euros that we have given them. Weapons with which the Islamists will kidnap more Westerners and murder many Africans. Weapons with which they will carry out attacks.
The harm caused by these “aid workers” is incalculable.
In his column, “The state is no longer what it was” [es], in La Gaceta magazine, Rafael Bardají says that [es]
[los cooperantes] Ya no son elementos neutrales a los que se respeta, sino que son una pieza más en los conflictos. Y eso es algo que afecta no sólo a su seguridad personal sino a todo el Estado (…). Pagarles por lo que hacen y pagar por la liberación de sus miembros es amoral e insostenible.
[the volunteer workers] Are no longer neutral elements that are respected, but rather another piece in the conflicts. And that is something that affects not only their personal security, but that of the entire State (…). Paying them for what they do and paying for the release of their members is amoral and unsustainable.
In the same vein, Ricardo Peytaví shares his opinion in his column “Altruism that we all pay for” [es] in the online newspaper El Día
Lo único que quiero es saber cuánto me cuesta todo esto en parte alícuota, habida cuenta de que este mes he pagado en impuestos más de un tercio de mis ingresos brutos. (…) cualquier ciudadano de este país se ha convertido en pieza fácil para todo facineroso que desee ganar dinero fácil.
The only thing that I want to know is how much this all costs me in terms of the share, given that this month I have paid over a third of my gross income in taxes. (…) any citizen of this country has become an easy piece for everything criminal that wants to make easy money.
Nonetheless, there have also been many netizens and bloggers who are pleased with the happy outcome of the kidnapping, and praised the work of the volunteers and the organization in a community so vulnerable like that of the refugees. Belén de la Banda spoke about this on the blog 3500 millones [es]:
Blanca, Montse y sus compañeros de profesión son los referentes morales que estamos necesitando en estos tiempos de incertidumbre y desconfianza. (…) nuestra sociedad debería buscar el modo de que sientan también nuestro abrazo, para agradecer el esfuerzo ímprobo y valioso de un trabajo que les ha llevado a esta situación extrema. Porque personas como ellas hacen que nuestro país y nuestro mundo sean mejores.
Blanca, Montse, and their colleagues are the moral examples that we need in these times of uncertainty and mistrust. (…) our society should look for a way to feel our embrace, to acknowledge the enormous effort and valuable work that has led them to this extreme situation. Because people like them make our country and our world better.
And 1358 left this comment [es] on the news appearing on El País [es]:
The volunteers at their arrival to Spain following their release. Image from the RTVE website.
Me uno a aquellos que SE ALEGRAN por la vuelta a casa de estás dos Personas y como CONTRIBUYENTE me PARECE MUY BIEN si es que se ha tenido que pagar por su liberación. La vida, incluso de aquellos que nos caen mál no tiene précio y mucho mejor gastarse el dinero (si es que se ha hecho) en PERSONAS que no en juegos de indios y vaqueros para que cuatro VAGOS jueguen y se crean chonvaine en “misiones” de “paz” y “reconstrucción”.
I am joining those who ARE HAPPY for the return home of these two People and as a TAXPAYER it SEEMS VERY GOOD to me if their release has had to be paid for. Life, even the lives of those who we do not like, has no price and it is much better to spend money (if it has been done) on PEOPLE than on cowboys and indians games so that four SLACKERS play and believe themselves to be chonvaine on “missions” of “peace” and “reconstruction.”
Regardless of the controversy that has been created around the payment of their rescue, the good news is that Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut are with their families, safe and sound. The DWB doctors and psychologists that have tended to them since their release have advised that they be given some time to recuperate and adapt to day to day life once again, meaning people will have to wait some time before they can talk about what they lived through these 21 months in captivity. They have only been seen getting off the plane in the Madrid airport, extremely skinny and appearing exhausted, but smiling. Hopefully they have a speedy recovery and return to their normal lives soon.

author: Lourdes Sada


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Vincent Wijeysingha: Singapore’s First Gay Politician · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Opposition politician Dr Vincent Wijeysingha posted on Facebook that he is gay making him the first openly gay politician in Singapore. He is a member of the Singapore Democratic Party member and a former parliamentary candidate. In a subsequent post, he explained his reasons for coming out:
Coming out is not the toughest bit. Well, eventually it becomes easier and easier as more and more people do. The harder thing is to begin and sustain the long and dedicated work that society needs to overcome the oppression that LGBT people experience everyday.
Dr Vincent Wijeysingha. Image from Facebook
Commenting on Facebook, Choo Lip Sin praised Dr Vincent:
I now feel Singapore can be the place to grow up and grow old in, in a country bonded by kindness and fairness. You have lifted many dying souls from despair by putting yourselves in their shoes and through the hardships they face everyday.
Anyhow Hantam also congratulated him:
The reception to this disclosure has generally been very warm with many praising him for ‘coming out’. In fact he went further to state that he doesn't have any ‘gay agenda’. Personally I felt it was a very gutsy decision on his part and congratulated him personally for admitting such a personal issue just in order to silence the critics.
simple & gayforward is thrilled to learn that Singapore now has an openly gay politician:
Oh wow, we now have an openly gay politician. How amazing is that? This is huge. Needless to say (but saying it anyway), it is incredibly brave of him to do so. He has so much to lose, so much more hardship and obstacles now to face as a consequence, but he did it anyway. Major balls. I hope his family, friends, colleagues, and everyone else who know him personally especially, all rally round him and give him further strength and motivation.
But Barrie wanted the young politician to reveal if he has a ‘gay agenda’:
I have no problem if there's a gay MP in Parliament. Just like I have no problem if the MP is a Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or an atheist. My problem with Dr Wijey is that he is the man the LGBT group is putting up, so that he could introduce unwholesome lifestyles into society through legislation. One of them is the legalizing of underage sex.
The Independent noted the importance of the LGBT community in Singapore politics:
From a political perspective, the change in government attitude reflects the new Singapore reality. The gay community and those who support their cause are generally anti-establishment and as the support for the ruling party at the elections continues to erode, this is a pressure group the establishment cannot afford to ignore
The Sun Shines on Singapore thinks that Dr Vincent’s coming out is a “double-edged sword” and warns that it would affect the Singapore Democratic Party in the 2016 elections.


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Watermelon Vendor’s Death Triggers Backlash Against China’s Urban Management Officers · Global Voices
Tea Leaf Nation

This article by Jiabao Du originally appeared on Tea Leaf Nation on July 22, 2013 and is republished as part of a content sharing agreement [Format adapted to facilitate translation].
At 5:11 a.m. on July 17, a 56-year-old farmer named Deng Zhengjia and his wife Huang Xixi departed for Linwu County to sell homegrown watermelons in the town. After four of their melons were confiscated by the chengguan, or urban management officers, they moved to another area were they where permitted to sell the fruit from a stall. At 10:35 a.m., the chengguan returned, and conflict erupted. Deng Zhengjia collapsed and died, while his wife was sent to the hospital with a head injury.
Chengguan are a unique Chinese institution: something less than a police officer, but more powerful than an average person. These urban management officers are hired by municipal governments to carry out undesirable tasks – like evicting residents unwilling to leave buildings scheduled for demolition – yet they do not technically represent the government. Due to the nature of their work, and the poor oversight of their actions, they have become more and more unpopular among Chinese in recent years.
Deng Zhengjia's wife, Huang Xixi. Via Sina Weibo.
While the authorities claim that Deng Zhengjia “suddenly collapsed and died,” Deng Zhengjia’s daughter initially claimed on Sina Weibo, one of China’s largest social networking sites, that he was beaten to death by the chengguan. Her posts of these accusations went viral, but were then deleted and later replaced with claims that her family was satisfied with what the government had done to make amends.
Which version of these events is the truth? Deng’s relatives along with the witnesses who were present on the scene have different stories.
Two versions of the story
On the afternoon of July 17, one Sina Weibo user (@hejx) [zh] tweeted: “On a street in Linwu County, Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, the chengguan have beaten a farmer selling watermelons to death.” He attached several gruesome photos from the scene. The tweet went viral and became headline news [zh].
At 9:37 a.m. on July 18, the Linwu City Government Emergency Management Deparment announced from their official Weibo account [zh] that Deng Zhengjia “suddenly collapsed and died” during his dispute with the urban management officials. The tweet was shared more than 20,000 times, and mockery of the phrase “suddenly collapsed and died” suffused the post’s over 34,000 comments.
That afternoon, the top government official of Wulin County, He Zunqing, declared at a news conference that there was no evidence demonstrating that Deng was beaten to death. However, the relatives of Deng Zhengjia and many witnesses insisted that Deng was beaten to death by the chengguan.
According to a journalist with China Central Television, Cao Xiaobo, Huang Xixi claimed [zh] that Deng, who was healthy, could not possibly have “suddenly collapsed and died.” “The government is avoiding responsibility,” Huang said.
Huang also claimed that the dispute erupted when she told the chengguan, “You are bandits,” after being denied an invoice for her payment of a RMB 100 (US$16.29) fine. She was knocked down by two chengguan and fell unconscious. When she woke up, her husband was dead.
In an interview with The Beijing Times [zh], a relative named Huang Sujun who witnessed the whole incident said: “After the dispute, five or six chengguan assaulted my uncle. In addition to hitting and kicking him, one guy even hit him with a steel pipe. When my uncle fell, he did not immediately die. We asked the chengguan to call for an ambulance. They brushed us off and left. The ambulance came an hour later, and by that time my uncle had died.”
The aftermath
The story did not end there. Two dramatic incidents occurred after Deng’s death, the first happening at 4:00 a.m. on July 18.
According to The Beijing News [zh], over 20 of Deng’s relatives and neighbors gathered spontaneously around Deng’s body after his death. Deng Zhangjia’s older daughter, Deng Shudan, also travelled home from Guangzhou after hearing of her father’s death.
At about 4:00 a.m., the street lamps went out suddenly. “A large group of police who kept maintaining order waved their clubs and drew us away,” Deng Shudan said, “They hit my boyfriend and me on our heads and shoulders.”
Many people were attacked including some passers-by. A reporter with The Beijing News [zh] met five of the wounded in a hospital.
After dispersing the crowd, the police dragged Deng’s body away and left it on the road leading to Liantang Village, his hometown. The body was not put in a coffin until 3:00 p.m, July 19, and was not buried until 5:00 p.m.
He Zunqing, the county’s top official, claimed that the police were helping Deng’s family to move the body back to the village and had obtained their consent to do so. In his version of events, after failing to instill order in the crowd, the police had to disperse the villagers by force.
One of those injured by the police, who wished to remain anonymous, questioned this version of events [zh]: “Why did so many people get injured if [the police] were just helping the family? Obviously, they were lying. What they wanted to do was to cremate the body and destroy the evidence.”
The incident became even more complicated when another questionable turn of events took place the evening of July 19.
On the morning of July 19, Deng Zhangjia’s younger daughter, Deng Yanling, tweeted from her verified Sina Weibo account [zh]:
现在临武所有参与将我父亲的事情发微博和其他论坛的，逐渐被叫去谈话，要求停止转发与评论。昨天尸检解剖出来颅内大量瘀血，并伴有头皮下出血，但是政府正着手掩盖事实，我父亲“被”心脏病或者其他突发性疾病，政府这样的做法是我们完全不能接受的！
All the people in Linwu County who have been active in raising awareness of my father’s case on Weibo and online forums have been asked to stop sharing and commenting. The autopsy results indicate that my father suffered a hemorrhage in his brain. The government is trying to cover up the truth. My father has been said to have had ‘a heart disease or other sudden disease.’ What the government is doing is totally unacceptable!
The tweet was forwarded more than 100,000 times.
However, an unexpected twist happened later that afternoon. The “V” on her Weibo profile page indicating that her identity was verified disappeared, and was later reinstated. At 6:32pm, after Deng’s funeral, Deng Yanling deleted the previous tweet and tweeted:
现在政府已经妥善的安抚好了家人,我们整个家族对政府的处理表示满意,今日下午爸爸已经下葬,我们承受了很多的痛苦,逝者已去,入土为安,我们已经不希望受到外界太多的打扰.感谢市县相关部门的妥善安置,感谢所有关心支持我们的人
The government has comforted my family in a proper way. We are content with what they have done.
She thanked the government and all people concerned with her family and made a request for privacy. The amounts of retweets and comments exceed 100,000 and 140,000 respectively, as netizens questioned whether the words were written by Deng Yanling or someone else. Deng Yanling admitted to The Beijing Times that she sent that tweet.
Shortly after Deng Yanling expressing gratitude to the authorities, Deng Qingqiang, Deng Zhengjia’s son, told reporters that their family would be compensated about RMB 897,000 (US$146,121). The authorities confirmed this [zh] on July 20. While the public speculated the authorities were bribing Deng’s family with  taxpayers’ money, on July 21, some villagers told reporters that Deng’s family had been warned [zh] by the authorities that the compensation would be reduced by RMB 100,000 (US $16,300) per day if they did not bury Deng Zhengjia on July 19.
One prominent microblogger, Zuoyeben (@作业本), tweeted his best guess at what was going on behind the scenes:
先承诺高额赔偿，然后给首付，家属同意下葬。家属签协议保证不再上网维权，再将微博帐户密码上缴，并配合政府做好稳定工作。事件平息后，支付余款。
First, the authorities promise a great sum of money as compensation. Then, they make a down payment. The family consents to bury the body and signs an agreement promising not to try to defend their rights on the Internet. Then they turn over the passwords to their microblog accounts. After the case has been wrapped up, the authorities pay them the rest of the money.
Anger and backlash
The case of Deng Zhengjai has not blown over quickly, but has led to public denunciation of the brutal and ruthless chengguan. Such denunciation has even escalated to expressions of disappointment with rhetoric about the Chinese Dream, a concept promoted by Xi Jinping.
At 9:47 p.m. on July 18, Li Chengpeng, one of China’s most famous bloggers, wrote [zh]:
这个叫邓正加的瓜农，不过想把瓜种得甜一些，收获多一些，快快把西瓜卖完，好回家吃饭。这是他的中国梦。你连一个瓜农的梦都保护不了，怎么坐下来跟我们谈中国梦。对你的人民好一些，对你种的瓜珍惜一些。种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆……最后，治大国如种西瓜。
Deng Zhengjia’s Chinese Dream was to grow sweeter melons, grow more melons, sell them earlier and get home in time to have dinner. How could you [authorities] keep talking about Chinese Dream when you even cannot protect a farmer’s dream? Be kinder to your citizens and take good care of your melons. You reap what you sow…Governing a nation is like planting watermelons.
In his lengthy essay, Li slammed the chengguan for their brutality. His essay was retweeted over 197,000 times. According to Yu Jianrong, a respected professor of social science, Li Chengpeng has been asked to keep silent for a month on Sina Weibo due to this essay.
Another popular tweet did not condemn the chengguan of Linwu County directly. “Pretending to Be in New York” (@假裝在紐約）, another popular Weibo celebrity, posted a series of photos of other cases of chengguan beating vendors. In one photo, a boy whose father’s stall was burned stared at the chengguan with intense hatred. The Weibo celebrity said that this particular image left the deepest impression on him:
这几年城管打人的新闻天天有，但我印象最深的一直是这两个孩子，哥哥仇恨的眼神和妹妹无助的痛哭。我不知道照片的出处和时间，只知道这事发生在2007年以前，两个孩子的父亲是下岗工人，摆了一个报摊，但被城管烧了。一个政府如果让它的孩子有这样的眼神，不管它取得多大的经济成就，我永远不会喜欢它。
If a government lets its children have such expression in eyes, even it has made remarkable economic achievements, I will never like it.
Even the official Weibo account of the People’s Daily, the mouth piece of Communist Party, posted:
城管形象屡屡崩塌，背后是公众对公权力越界逾矩的气愤.
Behind the collapse of the public image of the chengguan is mass indignation over out-of-line infringements on the rights of citizens.
It urged the government of Linwu County to launch an investigation and reveal the truth quickly.
Though the concrete reason behind the death of Deng Zhengjia has not yet been ascertained, many people are convinced that the chengguan are murderers, and continue to mock phrases like “suddenly collapsed and died” with acrimonious criticism. For example, Weibo user Fan Zhongxin (@范忠信) invited the leaders of Linwu County to “Show us how to collapse suddenly and die.” “If you fail to die after three times,” he wrote, “you’ve shamed yourself too much to continue living.”
Another Weibo user, Zhang Yaochen (@張尭臣), tweeted:
我们此刻当下，还有脸骂日本是流氓国家？国内流氓到处杀人越货，还抢尸体，还不承认.
With Chinese hooligans killing people, confiscating the property and even robbing corpses, how do we still have the nerve to call Japan a rogue state?
While some netizens have expressed irritation at a perceived betrayal by Deng’s family, Zuoyeben [zh] concluded that it may, in fact, be for the best.
让一个农户去跟地方政府对抗，其艰难生不如死，无法想象。
We cannot imagine how hard it is for a family in a rural area to stand up against their local government – it would be a life worse than death.

author: Tea Leaf Nation


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Mumbai Restaurant Forced to Pull Political Food Bills · Global Voices
Rezwan

Irked by a statement criticising the government that was being printed on a restaurant's bills and handed to customers, youth workers of India's ruling party stormed a Mumbai restaurant and filed an official complaint with the police. The restaurant was temporarily shut down.
On 22 July, 2013 about 30 to 35 workers of the Indian Youth Congress swarmed Aditi, a South Indian restaurant located in Parel, within Mumbai city, angry over a footnote added to bills that read:
As per UPA government, eating money (2G, Coal, CWG scam) is a necessity and eating food in an AC restaurant is a luxury!
Twitpic image of the restaurant bill uploaded by Tweeter user S. S. S. (@ekdum_veda)
The message referred to the introduction of service tax on eating at air-conditioned restaurants by the central government that went into effect in April 2013, irking both restaurateurs and customers, who are paying the extra cost.
Shetty explained this unique protest in an interview to the Mid-Day:
I have my opinion and India being an independent country, I have the right to express my views.
Because of the government including all AC eateries in its purview for paying service tax, I suffered losses and I had to shut down the AC section of my restaurant altogether.
A non-cognisable complaint was lodged with police against Srinivas Shetty, the owner of the eatery, for defamation (Section 501 of Indian Penal Code) by the Youth Congress members. A spokesperson of the Congress party's youth wing claimed that their protest of the restaurant was peaceful and it was not them but the police that shut down the restaurant, after their complaint.
The eatery has been reopened after the owner promised police that he will no longer circulate these bills. Being Cynical blog reacted to the decision:
Brilliant chronicles, I must say. We will loot the nation till the last penny and at the same time we won’t allow anyone to talk about our loot at all.
Blogger Maheep Singh questioned why Indians have to pay tax on entertainment, luxury or leisure:
Is it because we are a poor nation and the ones who can afford entertainment should pay a tax?
Meera Damji (@MeeMeera): @sa_lil They’re open and have got rid of the line on the receipt. Image via Twitpic
Blogger SM wrote that the message was an excellent idea to protest against the government. However, Vidyut at AamJanata didn't consider the Aditi Restaurant's footnote as free speech. The blogger explained:
* Official stationery of a business is different from your personal blog or Twitter feed. It expresses the view of the business. If the view is one that makes a factually incorrect statement – however deserved the anger underlying it may be – then it is defamation. [..]
* This logic of writing whatever you want on your own bill does not work when a customer who has already eaten food has no way of avoiding your bill. You have a political statement to make, make it upfront.
The news was trending on Twitter. Here are some examples:
Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39), president of Janata Party tweets:
All that Srinivas Shetty of Aditi said was that if eating up national assets is essential why eating in a restaurant is luxury? TDK fascist
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) July 23, 2013
Journalist, political analyst and founder of open-magazine Indian Exponent Ishaan Mohan Bagga (@IndianExponent) comments:
#AditiRestaurant incident proves that the fire which started in social media is now spreading to the real world http://t.co/YQGfGcHs4z
— Ishaan Mohan Bagga (@IndianExponent) July 23, 2013
Blogger and entrepreneur Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) says:
We ask for zero tolerance for corruption; zero tolerance for crime; for incompetence. What do we get? Just zero tolerance. #AditiRestaurant
— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) July 23, 2013
Blogger Atanu Dey (@atanudey) praises Aditi restaurant:
Thanks to the Congress goons, now I know of Aditi Restaurant. I will definitely eat there even tho’ it is pure veg http://t.co/fclKwBVHsH
— Atanu Dey (@atanudey) July 23, 2013
Political Commentor, blogger & writer Ashish kedia (@kediashish) says:
ADITI hotel message is clear-eat and enjoy the meal but don't forget u are also feeding robbers who rely on ur taxes to pay their bills.
— Ashish kedia (@kediashish) July 23, 2013
Damodar Shenoy (@itsdamslife) criticises the government:
This is the result if you speak truth in our country #AditiRestaurant Shame on the government. http://t.co/NC0h1l5c8h
— Damodar Shenoy (@itsdamslife) July 23, 2013
Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) sums it in a few words:
NOTICE: All funny bills can only be passed by Parliament. #AditiRestaurant
— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) July 23, 2013
Vidyut concludes:
If Congress workers attacked restaurant and forced it to close, they were wrong. If they only protested and cops shut down the restaurant, then I think Congress was well within their rights with their protest. Protest is a fundamental right in India anyway, regardless of how we treat protesters.


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Open Letter Calls for  Lawyer’s Release · Global Voices
Abby Liu

More than 400 Chinese citizens signed an open letter on July 23, 2013, calling on Chinese authorities to release Xu Zhiyong, a prominent lawyer and rights campaigner who was detained on July 16 after calling for the release of activists and campaigning against government abuses. CHINA MEDIA PROJECT has translated the letter into English.


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Peruvian Town Remembers Those Who Died Defending Water Rights  · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

[Links are to Spanish-language pages except where noted.]
One year after the anti-mining protests in the Cajamarca region [en] of northern Peru, those responsible for the deaths of five civilians during confrontations between protestors and police have yet to be identified.
On 3 July 2012, the city of Celendín was facing day 33 of a work stoppage organized as part of several protest measures against the Conga [en] mining project in different cities across Cajamarca.
That day a group of people seized the Celendín town hall, which resulted in clashes between demonstrators and the police. Initially, there were only reports of two injured police officers, which the Ministry of the Interior qualified as “criminal acts” brought about by “bad leaders,” according to then Prime Minister Óscar Valdéz.
However, it was discovered later that the confrontations [en] had left three dead and some 30 injured on the civilian side as well as two police officers and three members of the army wounded on the law and order side.
Damage to the offices of the Government and the Public Prosecutor as well as to private property were also reported. As a result, a state of emergency was declared in the provinces of Celendín, Cajamarca and Hualgayoc; it lasted two full months.
Eleuterio García Rojas, César Medina Aguilar, José Faustino Silva Sánchez and José Antonio Sánchez Huamán died on 3 July 2012 in Celendín; the next day Joselito Vásquez Jambo died in the town of Bambamarca. As of today, those responsible have not been found and justice has not been served.
A year since the deaths in Celendín
On this first anniversary, the community of Celendín gathered in the streets to peacefully commemorate the 3rd of July, now known as the “Day of Resistance and Dignitiy in Celendín”.
Peaceful demonstrations in Celendín on 3 July 2013. Photo courtesy of Jorge Chávez.
Approximately a thousand ronderos [members of a neighbourhood patrol] marched through the streets of Celendín “demanding the federal government and the Yanacocha mining company show more respect for local populations who do not want mining activity and that they investigate and punish by legal means those truly responsible for the murder of four citizens of Celendín,” according to the Cajamarca Global website.
A number of European organizations that support the Cajamarca protest against the Conga mining project issued a statement expressing their concern for what had occurred and the continuing situation:
Visto que el proyecto Conga no tiene la licencia social del pueblo de Cajamarca, estamos muy preocupados por la criminalización de la protesta social en Cajamarca. Condenamos el uso desproporcionado de la fuerza por parte de la policía y las fuerzas armadas, condenamos la estrategia de criminalización por medio de la cual los ciudadanos son detenidos arbitrariamente y procesados. El pueblo tiene el derecho a manifestarse y pronunciarse. Por eso insistimos que el Estado peruano garantice estos derechos.
Given that the Conga project does not enjoy the support of the people of Cajamarca, we are very concerned about the criminalization of public protests in Cajamarca. We condemn the disproportionate use of force by the police and armed forces; we condemn the strategy of criminalization by which ordinary citizens are arbitrarily arrested and accused. People have the right to protest and make their voices heard. For this reason we insist that the Government of Peru guarantee such rights.
Wilder Sánchez Sánchez recalls what happened in the blog Punto de Vista y Propuesta, through a summary of the activities organized by different groups in the cities of Celendín, Hualgayoc and Cajamarca:
El miércoles 3 de julio se cumple un año de la masacre en la ciudad de Celendín y el jueves 4 un año de la masacre perpetrada en Bambamarca por las fuerzas combinadas del Ejército, de la Policía “Nacional” convertida por el Gobierno Central en fuerza mercenaria al servicio de Yanacocha y por los propias fuerzas de seguridad de la minera (infiltrados en) y camuflados de policías. Como se recuerda, el 3 de julio del 2012 fueron acribillados por disparos de balas de largo alcance cuatro celendinos, además de numerosos heridos, golpeados, detenidos, perseguidos y judicializados.
Wednesday, July 3rd, was the first anniversary of the massacre in the city of Celendín; and Thursday, the 4th, a year since the massacre in Bambamarca through the combined efforts of the army, the federal police—turned into a mercenary force in the service of Yanacocha by the federal government—and the mining company's own security forces (infiltrating) and disguising themselves as police. As we remember, on 3 July 2012, four Celendinos were shot by long-range weapons, in addition to several others being injured, beaten, arrested, persecuted and dragged through the courts.
Jorge Chávez Ortíz, a university student from Celendín, reported on the blog Mi mina corrupta (My corrupt mine) about the vigil that took place on July 2nd in honour of the fallen:
En la vigilia se hizo la presentación del corto documental “La Tierra clama Justicia” elaborado por la PDTG con el apoyo de DOCUPERU y ACSUR Las Segovias, como también se presentó un vídeo elaborado con los diferentes mensajes enviados de varias partes del mundo solidarizándose con el pueblo de Cajamarca, se contó con la participaron varios artistas celendinos del campo y la ciudad.
In the vigil the short documentary “La Tierra clama Justicia” (the Earth Calls for Justice) by the PDTG with the support of DOCUPERU and ACSUR Las Segovias was presented along with a video of the different messages sent from around the world in solidarity with the people of Cajamarca and the participation of various Celendino artists from the countryside and the city.
Vigil in Celendín 2 July 2013. Photo courtesy of Jorge Chávez.
In the blog Celendín Libre, Jorge Chávez recounts how July 3rd was commemorated in Celendín:
ese día de recuerdo inicio con una misa en la iglesia matriz de dicha ciudad, esta misa fue en honor a los fallecidos del 3 de julio de 2012, la iglesia estuvo a su máxima capacidad, mientras la gente esperaba en la plaza de armar. Luego de la misa se realizó una movilización, iniciando con un plantón en la municipalidad de Celendín, donde la madre de José Sánchez Human, increpo a los policías que custodiaban el inmueble, mientras les enseñaba la foto de su hijo. Luego la movilización recorrió las calles de la ciudad rumbo al cementerio general “Sagrada Familia”, donde se encuentran las tumbas de las 4 personas.
the remembrance day began with a mass in the city's main church; this mass was in honour of the three victims of 3 July 2012; the church was packed, while people waited in the central square. Afterwards a rally took place, beginning with a protest in the town of Celendín, where the mother of José Sánchez Human admonished soldiers guarding the building, showing them a photograph her son. Later the rally moved on through the city streets in the direction of the “Sagrada Familia” cemetery, where the four people are buried.
Celendín, 3 July 2013. Photo courtesy of Jorge Chávez.
A few days before, YouTube user GeneroyMineriaPeru uploaded a video that showed several women who took part in the protests against Conga en Cajamarca, each in their own way:
Blanca nos presenta la vida campesina en Cajamarca desde su comunidad, desde su ser rondera y amante de su territorio, bañándose con Aguas de Libertad. Amalia, desde la ciudad, nos trae Memorias de Fuego caminando por los recuerdos de la lucha que unió a diferentes provincias alrededor de las ollas comunes en defensa de sus lagunas. Keyth se levanta por una Tierra que clama Justicia recorriendo las calles de Celendín, rastreando respuestas, combatiendo la impunidad.
Blanca shows us rural life in Cajamarca from her community, where as a rondera and lover of her region, she bathes in the Aguas de Libertad [waters of freedom]. Amalia, from the city, brings us Memorias de Fuego [memories of fire] wandering through the memories of the struggle that united different provinces around shared cooking pots in defence of their lakes. Keyth stands up for a Tierra [earth] that cries out for justice as she moves through the streets of Celendín, tracking down answers, fighting against impunity.
The Plataforma Institucional Celendina (PIC) published a manifesto calling for a day of dignity for Celendín, which was reproduced on the blog Sin Patrones. The manifesto ends with the following oath:
Juramos por la sangre de nuestros hermanos caídos y las lágrimas de nuestras madres y nuestros padres, por la tierra que nos vio nacer y donde descansan nuestros muertos, por las aguas y las plantas y los animales que nos acompañan y con los que vivimos, por el aire que respiramos y por el país grande en que vivimos que es el Perú pero es también el mundo, que vamos a resistir ante el invasor sin usar violencia pero con toda firmeza hasta que la amenaza sobre nuestras vidas y la de nuestros hijos e hijas y contra el futuro que anhelamos, ya no exista más.
We swear by the blood of our fallen brothers and the tears of our mothers and fathers, by the earth that gave us life and rest for our dead, by the waters and the plants and the animals that surround us and with whom we live, by the air we breathe and by the great country in which we live, the country of Peru but also the world, that we will resist the invader without recourse to violence but with absolute determination until the threat to our lives and that of our sons and daughters and the future we long for no longer exists.
In the end we are left with the moving testimony of Mrs. Adelaida Tabaco, widow of Eleuterio García Rojas, of how she experienced those terrible moments a year ago and how her life has been altered ever since.

author: Juan Arellano


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Petition to Amend Vietnam Laws that Restrict Media Freedom · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

More than 60 Vietnamese bloggers signed a unity statement urging the Vietnam government to improve its human rights record and commitment as it vies for membership in the UN Human Rights Council:
The Vietnamese government also needs to review the human rights situation in their own country and the Vietnamese people also have a right to freedom of opinion and expression, including on these matters.
As advocates for freedom of expression in Vietnam and victims of human rights violations because of our activism, we view Vietnam's candidacy for the Human Rights Council as a platform for constructive human rights discussions in our country.


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Sudanese Refugee Detained for Owning a Bicycle in Israel · Global Voices
Elizabeth Tsurkov

Darfuri asylum-seeker and actor, Babaker (Babi) Ibrahim was arrested by Israeli police on July 18, 2013 for not having a receipt for his bicycle, which was presumed to be stolen.
Babi, a well-known figure in the Sudanese community in Israel, is a member of a refugee troupe that recently staged a satirical play about the mistreatment of refugees in Israel, One Strong Black. Babi's arrest and indefinite detention without trial sparked outrage and an online and offline campaign to release him and other refugees in his situation.
In September 2012, the Israeli Ministry of Interior implemented a new regulation that allows the indefinite arrest and detainment, without trial, of asylum-seekers suspected of crimes, even if those suspicions are unsubstantiated and would have not led to a conviction in court. In July 2013, the regulation, The Procedure for Handling Infiltrators [the term used by the State of Israel to vilify asylum-seekers] Involved in Criminal Proceedings, was expanded to include refugees suspected of even misdemeanors. Over 500 asylum seekers have been detained under the Criminal Procedure and sent to the internment camps for refugees in the Negev desert until their possible deportation from Israel.
On July 20, dozens protested in front of the residence of Attorney General, Adv. Yehuda Weinstein, who approved the regulation:
The Hotline for Migrant Workers, an NGO advocating for the rights of refugees, migrants and human trafficking victims in Israel, provided an update about Babi's current legal situation [heb]:
לאחר שעתירת הביאס קורפוס שלנו נדחתה על ידי בג”ץ, אתמול הגשנו עתירה בשם באבי… עתירתנו דורשת את שחרורו של באבי וגם תוקפת את הנוהל שמכוחו הוא עצור בטענה שאינו חוקתי…
אנו נמשיך להאבק למען שחרורו של באבי ושל כל הפליטים הכלואים בישראל ללא משפט. לא ייתכן שיתקיימו בישראל שתי מערכות משפט נפרדות: אחת לפליטים ואחרת לכל היתר. לא ייתכן שפליטים ייזרקו למעצר עולם ללא ראיות, ללא משפט הוגן, ללא יכולת להתגונן ומבלי שהמשטרה תצטרך להוכיח שהם אשמים בדבר. לא ייתכן שבמדינה דמוקרטית יתקיים נוהל שמשמעותו הנחה מראש שכל רכוש שנמצא בידיהם של בני אדם בעלי צבע עור מסוים הוא גנוב.
After our habeas corpus petition was rejected by the High Court of Justice, yesterday we filed another petition on behalf of Babi… Our petition demands Babi's release and the abrogation of the regulations under which he has been arrested, claiming that the regulation is unconstitutional… We will keep fighting for Babi's release and the freedom of all refugees detained in Israel without trial. The existence of two separate legal systems in Israel: one for refugees and one for everyone else cannot stand. It is outrageous that refugees are sent to life in prison without evidence, without a fair trial, without the opportunity to defend themselves and without the police having to prove that they are guilty of anything. A regulation that it predicated on the assumption that all property possessed by people of a certain skin color is in fact stolen cannot exist in a democratic country.
Advocates Yonatan Berman and Oded Feller wrote on their blog Laissez Passer about the absurdity of detaining people for owning property:
הבלוג פותח בפני קוראיו את פינת הרולטה – נחשו מה יהיה הצעד הבא. ההימור שלנו – מבקשי מקלט שלא יוכלו להציג קבלות המוכיחות כי רכשו את הבגדים שלגופם ייעצרו. כך נבטיח כי כל מבקשי המקלט יסתובבו בעירום. או שאולי, בעצם, כך נבטיח כי כל מבקשי המקלט שיסתובבו לבושים ייעצרו בגין עבירת גניבה, וכל מבקשי המקלט שיסתובבו בעירום ייעצרו בגין התערטלות במקום ציבורי.
The blog opens the roulette section before its readers – guess what will be the next move [by the government]. Our guess – asylum seekers who won't be able to present receipts proving that they've purchased the clothes on their back will be detainees. Thus we will ensure that all asylum-seekers will walk around naked. Or maybe, actually, this way we will ensure that all clothed refugees will be detained for stealing, while all the asylum-seekers who walk around naked will be detained for indecent exposure.
Prominent leftist blogger Yossi Gurvitz wrote on his blog Friends of George:
כמעט 160 שנים אחרי דרד סקוט, כמעט 150 שנים אחרי שהתיקון ה-13 שם קץ לעבדות, מאשר וינשטיין בחתימתו שיש קבוצה שלמה של בני אדם – לגמרי במקרה, כמובן, צבע עורם שחור – שהם, אם לא סחורות ממש, פחותים מבני אדם. די בעלילה עליהם (למשל, מצד נוכל בן העם הנבחר שלא רוצה לשלם להם את משכורותיהם) כדי להשליך אותם לבור משפטי שממנו אין כמעט דרך לצאת. לאברהים יש מזל נדיר: הוא דמות מוכרת. יש לו לא מעט חברים. כמאה מהם יצאו במוצ”ש הביל של יולי להפגין למענו מול ביתו של וינשטיין. לרוב הפליטים אין מזל כזה. אין מי שיכיר אותם, אין מי שיגיש בשמם עתירות הביאס קורפוס. הם נאלמים, ונעלמים אל הבור שחפר עבורם וינשטיין. בציבוריות הישראלית, המקבילה של החלטת דרד סקוט של וינשטיין עברה ללא כל רעש; יש בה יותר מדי תואמי יאנסי, ומעטים עדיין מעיזים לומר ש”אתם טועים בנו, לא נעשה זאת.”
Almost 160 years after Dred Scott v. Sandford, almost 150 years after the 13th Amendment ended slavery [in the U.S.], Weinstein approved with his signature that there is an entire group of people – incidentally, of course – their skin color is black – that they are, if not property per se, are less than human. Libelous claims (for example, from a swindler of The Chosen People who does not want to pay them their salaries [refugees have been threatened with this by employers – E.T.] are enough to dump them into a legal hole from which it is almost impossible go get out. Ibrahim is very lucky: he is a known figure. He has quite a few friends. About one hundred of them went out on a hot July Saturday night to protest for him in front of Weinstein's home. Most refugees are not that lucky. There is no one who knows them, there is no one of file a habeas corpus for them. They are silenced and disappeared into the hole Weinstein dug for them. The Israeli public did not react to Weinstein's decision that parallels the Dred Scott ruling; there are too many twins of William Yancey [southern Democratic congressman, leading proponent of slavery] and few still dare to say “you mistake us. We will not do it!” [response by a northern Democrat to Yancey's demand that the Democratic Party's platform for the 1860 election include pro-slavery statements]
The Facebook page freeBabi was launched, quickly gaining hundreds of “likes”. The page asked users to submit photos and videos of themselves asking for Babi's release. Many sent in their photos, including famous Israeli actors and musicians.
Famous Israeli singer-songwriter Alma Zohar posted a photo of herself with a sign reading: “Free Babi! Keeping innocents in jail costs you and me a lot of money!”
The producers and directors of the play One Strong Black visited Babi in Giv'on Prison on July 23 and informed him about the ongoing campaign to release him. Babi is set to be transferred to the Sahaornim internment camp on July 24.
The campaign received attention in Turkey, Tunisia and Greece as well. Simge and Vulkan from Izmir, Turkey, took this photo of themselves.
John Brown created this meme using the image of Attorney General Weinstein:
“I don't always approve to lock up innocent people for life
But when I do, they're always black”
UPDATE: Following the online and offline campaign, Babi has been released from the Saharonim internment camp on the night of July 24, 2013. The procedure that made his indefinite detention without trial is still on the books and is being applied to refugees.

author: Elizabeth Tsurkov


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African Fabric Kimono Belt Supports Mothers in Earthquake Disaster Area · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

A group of Japanese mothers in Sendai city is producing special kimono belts with fairly-traded African fabrics.
Yumi Nakano, who organizes the fundraising [ja] by requesting a donation in exchange for the belts, hopes to encourage more people to enjoy the traditional Japanese kimono and help support the mothers of the area affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami to rebuild their lives at the same time supporting Africans [ja] who hand-loom the fabric.
A group of mothers made Japanese Kimono belt using African fabrics. Image used with permission by Yumi Nakano


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Alleged Fraud during Parliamentary Elections in Togo  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Parliamentary Elections are underway in Togo today (25/07/2013). The Save Togo Association has already reported instances of alleged fraud [fr]. Togolese activist Sylvio Combey posted an image from one of the polling station on twitter:
8h l'urne vient d'être montrée vide aux votants à #Kanyikopé #TGInfo #TG2013 #Nukpola #Fb pic.twitter.com/DZU1iFTPqI
— Sylvio Combey (@SylvioCombey) July 25, 2013
8:00, A ballot box is shown to be empty in #Kanyikopé (Togo) #TGinfo #TG2013 #Nukpola #Fb


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Ethnic Slurs Haunt Alexey Navalny · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

Alexey Navalny came under harsh criticism from Russian opposition movement colleagues as soon as he was released from Kirov jail on a “podpiska,” (an agreement to stay at his current place of residence — the Russian equivalent of making bail), and as soon as it became clear that he would continue to run for mayor of Moscow throughout the appeals process for his 5-year long prison sentence.
These fair-weather enemies restrained from public disagreement while it appeared that Navalny was getting the full brunt of government persecution in a trial most view as unjust and political in nature. However, now that Navalny stands a chance to keep himself out of prison by garnering a critical mass of public support in the mayoral elections against current mayor Sergey Sobyanin, the flood-gates have opened. First, Evgenya Chirikova, environmental activist and former opposition darling with her own mayoral ambitions [GV], wrote a harsh blog post [ru] attacking Navalny for skipping the environmental policy section in his electoral platform [GV].
Navalny responded to Chirikova's criticism promising to include the environment, but could not refrain from dismissively joking that her and her supporters would be distributed propaganda materials made out of “sticks, moss and tree bark. [ru]” It is partially his abrasive sense of humor and uneven tone that got Navalny in the next bit of trouble. The same day that Chirikova wrote her blog, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Moskovsky Komsomolets Ayder Muzhdabaev wrote an open letter [ru] in his Facebook asking questions about the opposition candidate's perceived nationalist views.
Navalny has never hid his sympathies for the Russian nationalist movement — only a few weeks ago he co-authored a statement on ethnic violence in Pugachev [ru] with prominent nationalist opposition leaders. Muzhdabaev's questions, however, were much more personal. In particular, he addressed allegedly racist episodes in Navalny's biography — one in which he reportedly called a female Azerbaijani co-worker a “darkie” (“chernozhopaia,” literally “black-assed”), and another in which he referred to Georgians as “rodents” (a play on words: Gruziny (Georgians) and gryzuny (rodents)) during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War.
Navalny's answer wasn't gracious. He started by tweeting [ru]:
Мой штаб требует, чтоб я ответил на какое-то отвратное открытое письмо. Ненавижу такое. Бездарная потеря времени. Тошнит просто
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) July 22, 2013
My staff demands that I answer some kind of disgusting open letter. I hate stuff like that. Total waste of time. It sickens me
With a mindset like this, it's no wonder that Navalny ended up with a letter [ru] that can be described as patronizing. After prefacing with how much he dislikes writing answers to such “pointed” [the scare-quotes are Navalny's – A.T.] questions, and how he is going to do it anyway because its his “duty,” Navalny petulantly wrote that he has already answered them 138 times (later he upped that figure to 138,000). At one point he started an answer with an exasperated “Hellloooowwww.” In fact, Navalny seemed so rude that some people drew comparisons between him and President Putin. Olga Allenova, a Kommersant journalist, wrote [ru]:
Этот хамский, снисходительный тон в ответах журналисту никого нам не напоминает? По-моему, парень – истинный преемник ВВП.
Does this boorish, condescending tone when answering a journalist remind you of anyone? I think the guy is a true successor to VVP [Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin]
Journalist Stanislav Minin made a similar connection [ru] to Putin's patented “macho” style of answering questions.
Rudeness aside, the biggest point of contention turned out to be the alleged ethnic slur against Saadat Kadyrova, who worked for the Moscow office of the opposition Yabloko party in the early 2000s together with Navalny. While in the original letter Muzhdabaev referred to statements that Kadyrova herself made about the incident (probably this November 2012 interview [ru] with Kadyrova where she says that Navalny's behavior forced her to leave the party), Navalny chose to interpret the question as referring to a blog post by a different former party colleague. He linked to a November 2011 post [ru] by Engelina Tareeva, an 88 year old woman who briefly mentioned the incident in her LiveJournal, but seems to have a generally positive view of Navalny. In this way Navalny evaded answering “Yes” or “No” to the original question, instead intimating that the incident was simply imagined by a half-senile “grandma” who only saw him a few times at the office.
This claim forced several of Navalny and Tareeva's Yabloko colleagues to chime in with their own recollections. Semyon Burd, former Deputy Chairman of Moscow's Yabloko, wrote [ru]:
Вот лжет и не краснеет. Я несколько раз был свидетелем длинных разговоров Энгелины Борисовны и Алексея в 101 комнате. Она работала много на выборах 2005 года, работала на телефоне, еженедельно рассказывала Алексею о своих результатах. […] Энгелина Борисовна была членом регионального совета, где Алексей Навальный был заместителем председателя. А теперь она стала бабушкой, видевшей его несколько раз в офисе.
He's a bold-faced liar. I have on several occasions witnessed long conversations between Engelina Borisovna and Alexey in room 101. She worked a lot during the 2005 elections, worked on the phone, and gave weekly updates to Alexey about her results. […] Engelina Borisovna was a member of the regional party council, where Alexey Navalny was deputy chairman. And now shes suddenly a grandma, who saw him in the office a few times.
Another former Yabloko activist wrote [ru]:
рабочие места милой бабушки и Алексея Навального на первом этаже в период избирательной кампании разделяло метров десять […]
the work spaces of the cute grandma and Alexey Navalny, on the first floor, during the election campaign, were about ten meters apart […]
He also recalled Kadyrova, as did Alexander Gnezdilov (Alexandra Garmazhapova posted the following in a Facebook comment [ru]):
Александр Гнездилов пишет: “Когда в 2007 году Навального собирались исключать за национализм – Явлинский на бюро при десятках свидетелей напомнил Алексею об этом эпизоде и тот даже не заикнулся о том, что это ложь […]”
Alexander Gnezdilov writes: “When in 2007 Navalny was being kicked out of the party for nationalism, during the working meeting [Party Chairman Grigory] Yavlinsky reminded Alexey about this episode in front of dozens of witnesses and he didn't even try to claim it was a lie […]”
Tareeva herself also weighed in [ru], thinking that Navalny made a mistake:
Ему не нужно было отрицать общеизвестный факт, я имею в виду эпизод с азербайджанкой, зафиксированный в партийных документах. Лучше было сказать, что этот случай имел место, что то, что он сказал, он сказал в состоянии аффекта, а вовсе не по тому, что так думает, что он сожалеет об этом, и извинился.
He shouldn't have denied a commonly known fact, I mean the incident with the Azerbaijani girl, which was recorded in party documents. It would have been better for him to say that it did take place, but what he said he said in the heat of passion, and not because he actually thinks like that, that he is sorry for it, and has asked for forgiveness.
The preponderance of evidence seems to suggest that Navalny lied when giving his answer — in her interview, Kadyrova mentions the incident in passing, and does not appear to think that it's at all controversial:
Он вместе со мной начинал работать в «Яблоке». И когда-то я впервые услышала от Алексея Навального националистические высказывания вроде «вы — чернож…е», я рассказала об этом Григорию Алексеевичу Явлинскому.
He started working at Yabloko when I did. And when I first heard Alexey Navalny say nationalist things like “you're darkies”, I told Grigory Alexeevich Yavlinsky about it.
A scene from the cult 90s Russian movie “Brat” (Brother). A veteran of the first Chechen war, played by Danila Bagrov, forces two raucous North Caucasian immigrants to pay for their tram ticket at gunpoint. Bagrov's character uses the slur “chernozhopyi” to address the men. Some accuse Navalny of exploiting the anti-immigrant sentiments which made this scene popular. YouTube screenshot.
Supporters were quick to defend Navalny, whose situation is still precarious, but who at the same time stands a slight chance of changing the balance of power in Russia. Afisha's Yury Saprykin, for example, thought [ru] that it doesn't matter what Navalny really thinks or how he would act when in office — to him, the situation is akin to Pascal's wager, i.e. the worst thing that could happen is that Navalny turns into another Putin, and Russia already has a Putin, so it can only get better. (Even Saprykin, however, thought that Navalny needs to dial down his haughtiness when talking to critics.)
Some, like blogger Varvara Turova and LGBT-rights activist Maria Gessen, disagreed. Turova wrote [ru]:
Представьте, что у Путина есть брат-близнец. И он точно такой же человек. И он борется с настоящим Путиным. Будете вы за него голосовать?
Imagine that Putin has a twin brother. And he is exactly the same kind of person. And he is fighting the real Putin. Will you vote for him?
Gessen simply said [ru], referring to Navalny's ambitions of eventually running for President:
Я не хочу такого будущего, оно у нас и так есть.
I don't want a future like this, we already have one like it.
For some Navalny supporters his nationalism is a feature, not a bug. The journalist Oleg Kashin made this joke [ru] (in somewhat poor taste), for instance:
- Алексей, скажите, вы действительно назвали черножопой женщину из партии “Яблоко”?
– Да, а что?
-Alexey, tell me, did you really call a woman from the Yabloko party a darkie?
-Yes, what of it?
The publicist Dmitry Olshansky went further [ru], seeing a nationalist strategy as the only way forward for a attracting the electorate:
Если бы Навальный в сознании всех жителей РФ, кто о нем откуда-нибудь узнает, четко связался бы с идеей, назовем это так, этнокультурного замещения – 50% победы было бы в кармане. “Придет Навальный – выгонит всех этих”
If Navalny, in the mind of all the denizens of Russia who ever find out about him was clearly tied with the idea of, lets call it ethnocultural replacement – 50% of the victory would be a cinch. “Navalny will come – and kick all of these [people] out”
Perhaps he is correct — people of all walks of life seem to be sounding off about the “minority problem.” Former government adviser Alfred Koch, for example, wrote this [ru] about Muzhdabaev (an ethnic minority), who started the ball rolling with his questions:
Этот Айдер Муждабаев – банальный провокатор. Все так очевидно. Взяли нацмена и вот он задает “острые” вопросы с национальным орнаментом.
This Ayder Muzhdabaev, is simply a provocateur. It's obvious. They took a natsmen [old Soviet abbreviation from “natsional'noe menshistvo”, ethnic minority, mildly derogatory/dismissive – A.T.] and now he is asking “pointed” questions with ethnic color.
With friends like this, who needs enemies? The satirical Twitter account IgorSechinEvilTwin (parodying the former deputy chief of Putin's administration, and current chairman of Rosneft) was on the same page [ru]:
Сергей Семенович, деньги на мочилово Навального выделять не нужно. Его поклонники справятся бесплатно.
— IgorSechinEvilTwin (@igor_sechin) July 24, 2013
Sergey Semenovich [Sobyanin], you don't need to find money for the Navalny-walloping. His own fans will do it for free.

author: Andrey Tselikov


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Facepopular, a ‘Popular’ Social Network Made in Argentina · Global Voices
Laura Schneider

[All links lead to Spanish sources unless otherwise stated]
The new social network Facepopular, created by six Argentine designers, already has thousands of users, not just in Argentina but also in other Latin American countries.
The website, launched on July 9, 2013, sets out it's objectives on their ‘about’ section:
El objetivo es generar un canal de comunicación e interacción comunitaria sin las arbitrariedades y modelos de imposición de otras redes sociales diseñadas y operadas fuera de la región Latinoamericana por corporaciones multinacionales..
Es una red latinoamericana, para hispanoparlantes, pensada y concebida bajo nuestros propios parámetros y estándares.
The aim is to generate a channel of communication and interaction without the arbitrary and imposed models that of other social networks, which are designed and operated outside Latin America by multinational corporations.
It is a Latin American network, for Spanish speakers, a concept thought of and conceived under our own parameters and standards.
The name “Facepopular” was not selected as a contrast to the existing and well-known social network Facebook; “face” derives from the acronym for “Frente alternativo contra el establishment”
(Alternative Front Against the Establishment).
However, Pablo Gutierrez on the technology website Fayerwayer says that “being similar to Facebook is a marketing strategy”, and that unlike on Facebook, on Facepopular there is a “Dislike” button and “icons relating to Argentine culture and politics to be identified with within the network”.
In the same article, Pablo comments on a video used to promote Facepopular:
En el video de difusión se reproduce la escena de Matrix en la que Morfeo hace que Neo elija entre permanecer en la matriz ficticia creada por sus opresores o liberarse y ver la realidad, pero con un diálogo en que se refieren a Facebook como la venda en los ojos para dominar a la sociedad.
In the video a scene from the Matrix is reproduced, in which Morpheus makes Neo choose between remaining in the fictitious matrix created by his oppressors or be liberated and see the truth, with a dialogue which refers to Facebook – in place of the matrix – as the blindfold used to dominate over society.
Pablo adds that:
[Facepopular] pretende unir a “quienes simpaticen con la idea de una Patria Grande, sin un sesgo kirchnerista” (por el partido oficialista [argentino]), aunque tenga todos los condimentos necesarios para quedar encasillada en el segmento de cibermilitantes oficialistas que inundan las redes a diario.
[Facepopular] intends to unite “those who sympathise with the idea of a ‘Great Homeland’ without the bias of the Kirchner-led pro-government party in Argentina”, although it has all the necessary aspects needed to remain typecast into the pro-government cyber militant segment that inundates the networks on a daily basis.
The webpage ClickParlante also refers to the ideological content of this new social tool:
La red social cuenta con contenidos a favor del gobierno de Cristina Fernández y agrupaciones políticas afines, y habría acumulado unos 400 usuarios. Por ello hay páginas dedicadas a funcionarios, temáticas y consignas kirchneristas.
The social network is filled with content in favour of [President] Cristina Fernandez Kirchner's government and political groups alike, accumulating some 400 users. There are pages dedicated to civil servants, and themes and slogans of Kirchner's ruling party.
In fact, the Néstor Kirchner Group, through their blog, comments on the future interactions with other militant groups:
estamos interactuando con todas las organizaciones que están con fuerte presencia en la Red, como el caso de RED NACIONAL DE MILITANTES DE TODO EL PAÍS, CIBERS K ADHONOREM, UNIDOS ORGANIZADOS Y CONECTADOS y otros grupos. En el caso del PARTIDO JUSTICIALISTA DIGITAL ARGENTINA, vemos positivo el trabajo en conjunto entre nuestras agrupaciones.
we are interacting with all the organisations that are strongly represented on the network, such as THE NETWORK OF MILLITANTS FOR THE WHOLE COUNTRY, CYBERS WHO HONOUR, UNITED-ORGANISED-CONNECTED- and others. In the case of the DIGITAL JUSTICE PARTY OF ARGENTINA, we see the cooperation and work amongst our groups as a positive thing.
The software used by the new network is based on the American software Phpfox [en], which is purchased in American dollars. Tribuna newspaper highlights this fact, considering that Argentinians are restricted in the use, possession and buying of the foreign currency and also in the acquisition of goods and services:
Si bien sus creadores aseguran que el portal tiene servidores alojados en la Argentina, el soft es norteamericano, y se paga en dólares.
Even if the creators assure that the portals have servicers based in Argentina, the software is North American and is paid for in dollars.
Netizens have also been talking about the new social network on Twitter. Eve Silva (@LaComandanta1) promotes Facepopular in Venezuela, where the number of users already surpasses the amount in other Latin American countries:
¡Unete ya, requisito indispensable, ser revolucionario! // http://t.co/77Vpe17gmL y tambien siguelos aqui @facepopularok
— Eve Silva (@LaComandanta1) July 20, 2013
Subscribe now, an essential requirement to be revolutionary! // http://t.co/77Vpe17gmL and you can also follow us here @facepopularok
User Tere, from La Habana, Cuba, (@TsabinaMoreno) writes:
#Facepopular una excelente alternativa creada por #Argentina x la integracion #Latinoamericana y vs el espionaje yanqui #Cuba #Tropa
— Tere (@TsabinaMoreno) July 20, 2013
#Facepopular is an excellent alternative created by #Argentina for #Latinoamericana [#LatinAmerican] integration and against yanki spying #Cuba #Tropa [#troop]
However, Anonymous Argentina (@Anons_Argentina) warns:
VIA @venomcorp: NO ENTREN A “#FACEPOPULAR” LA NUEVA RED SOCIAL DE #DELIA. PUEDEN LEER TU IP Y LOCALIZARTE DE INMEDIATO. COPIA
— Anonymous Argentina (@Anons_Argentina) July 15, 2013
VIA @venomcorp: DO NOT ENTER #FACEPOPULAR THE NEW SOCIAL NETWORK FROM #DELIA, THEY CAN READ YOUR IP ADDRESS AND LOCATE YOU IMMEDIATELY. COPY THIS POST
To gain access to the new social network, and make your own conclusions, you just have to sign in on the website. At the time of publishing this article, Facepopular displayed a message informing that “in the coming days new users will be able to register”.

author: Laura Schneider


text:
Sifting Fact From Fiction on the French Speaking Web  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

A recent row between a veiled woman‘s husband and the police in Trappes, a low-income suburb of Paris, was followed by numerous erroneous posts and images [fr] posted on social media websites. The blog Les Décodeurs, which strives to sift out truth from lies on the Francophone web, was quick to counter the false information.
Fabrice Florin, the French-speaking founder of NewsTrust and TruthSquad, explains the need for fact-checking initiatives:
There is a growing amount of misinformation, particularly in this political climate [..] With an expanding universe of news options, once someone finds a source of information they like or agree with, they tend to cling to it. The reason [for fact check] is to get people thinking about what they read and hear, and from there, questioning it.
Here is a review of recent events that were reviewed extensively by fact checkers in French-speaking online media.
Row in Trappes
On July 19, 2013 in Trappes, the husband of a Caribbean woman who was wearing a niqab (face veil), allegedly tried to strangle [fr] a police officer. Following the husband's arrest, 200 people protested in front of a police station destroying property, and were eventually repelled by riot police. Images posted on social media were erroneously tagged as originating from the violence during the protests. Les Décodeurs unpacked numerous errors [fr]:
Quelques personnes, en général connues pour leur activité militante, diffusent sciemment de fausses informations. C'est le cas de cette photo, diffusée par Stéphane Journot, ancien militant UMP, actif durant la campagne de 2012
Some people, known for their political activism, knowingly share false information. As is the case with this photo, shared by Stéphane Journot, a former UMP (right wing party) activist from the 2012 campaign.
Below is the erroneous tweet and photo [fr]:
Après on va crier au racisme mais… regardez… #Trappes pic.twitter.com/1vwch14eK6
— Stéphane Journot (@sjournot) July 22, 2013
you might call this racism but..look for yourself #Trappes
The photo was in fact an old image taken in 2010 in Lyon. Les Décodeurs adds that there were many similar tweets spreading, knowingly or not, the wrong information.
Fact checking on the African continent
African nations are well aware of the importance of fact-checking initiatives. Ushahidi, the world's first crowd-mapping platform  originated from the African continent. A project called Africa Check specifically monitors information from African leaders. Their mission statement says:
We test claims made by public figures around the continent, starting in South Africa, using journalistic skills and evidence drawn from the latest online tools, readers, public sources and experts, sorting out fact from fiction.
In Francophone Africa, the focus has been mostly on election monitoring. Election monitoring initiatives, in Senegal, Burundi, are well-established.  Elections are coming up in a few Francophone nations,including Mali, Togo and Madagascar. Pen Plus Bytes has dedicated a specific platform for election monitoring in Africa called the African Elections Project (AEP). The project wrote the following report on the ongoing Togolese parliamentary elections:
About 3.3 million registered Togolese voters will cast ballots today in 7,600 polling stations to select 91 Parliamentarians out of about 1,174 contesting candidates from the ruling and opposition parties. This election has been delayed for eight months amid concerns by opposition parties that the poll won’t be transparent and fair.
Sylvio Combey in Togo has already posted images of alleged fraud from his Twitter account:
8h l'urne vient d'être montrée vide aux votants à #Kanyikopé #TGInfo #TG2013 #Nukpola #Fb pic.twitter.com/DZU1iFTPqI
— Sylvio Combey (@SylvioCombey) July 25, 2013
8:00, A ballot box is shown to be empty in #Kanyikopé (Togo) #TGinfo #TG2013 #Nukpola #Fb
In Mali, Rising Voices (a Global Voices project) grantee Fasokan has been involved with the monitoring the upcoming Presidential elections. He wrote about the training of electoral observers [fr] :
Pendant cinq jours, plusieurs thèmes ont été abordés : la loi électorale, la charte des partis politiques, les genres journalistiques (compte rendu, portrait, interview…), les règles de déontologie et éthique du journaliste, les contraintes liées à l’exercice de la profession
For five days, several topics were discussed: the electoral law, the charter for political parties, the different journalistic activities (report, biography, interviews …), the rules of conduct and ethics of a journalist, the constraints while conducting journalistic activities
Training for Media and Elections in Mali. Photo by Fasokan published with his permission
Madagascar also awaits elections and concerns are already arising with false information posted on the web. During recent protests asking for a firm electoral calendar, a photo claiming that protesters were out in force was fact checked by Global Voices contributor Jentilisa.
Jentilisa wrote [mg]:
Fa maninona ho'aho ity sarin'ny tolon'ny 2009 na fony mbola tsy vita ny lapan'ny tanàna hita amin'ny “grue” manakaiky ny hazo avo ireo no miverimberina hanetanana ny tolonareo e? Sahala amin'ny hoe io no tao androany nefa tamin'ny 2009 ity sary ity?
Why is a photo from 2009 resurfacing again (and tagged as photo from recent events)? One can see with the crane in the background that it is clearly not a recent photo. This crane was there in 2009, wasn't it ?
The photo Jentilisa disputes is below:
Fact checked photo of protests in Madagascar via Jentilisa – Public Domain
With the worldwide growth of the web, it is critical that fact checking project becomes more mainstream and better known as well.