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Macedonian Police Harass Journalists Covering Protests · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Police harassment of media seems to have become a regular occurrence in Macedonia, which has included the detainment and sentencing of some journalists in the country. On August 25, 2014, Macedonian Nova TV journalists were harassed and “stopped from doing their jobs” by police officers while covering protests held in front of the Customs building in Skopje.
In May 2014, there were no consequences for the Macedonian police officers who strong-armed journalists into erasing footage of arrests during riots in the ethnically-charged protests in Skopje. After a complaint was filed by journalists involved in the incident, the Minister of Interior stated that all 34 policemen engaged in the action were interviewed and not one reported such incident. Nova TV compared the metadata in the Word document sent as statement by deputy minister [mk] at the time and calculated that each interview and the compiling of written statements had taken about 7 minutes per policemen, consecutively. Nevertheless, the official investigation of the incident was closed.
On August 26, 2014, Nova TV editor-in-chief Borjan Jovanovski published a public protest letter [mk] informing that police again obstructed journalists while covering a protest. This time it was a protest of disgruntled former Customs workers [mk] in Skopje, who were fired after complaining about work conditions.
Полицијата пресудува на лице место
По не знам кој пат полицијата дрско спречува новинари на НОВА во извршувањето на работните задачи.
АНАЛИЗА: Полицијата во цензорска акција
Полицијата одзема видео и фото материјали од новинарите во Ѓорче Петров
Денеска нашиот репортер Дехран Муратов имаше задача да го регистрира протестот на граѓаните кои сметаат дека им биле повредени правата при одлуката на Царинската управа да ги избрка од работа. Овие лица заглавени во правните лавиринти на (не)правната држава денеска сакаа да добијат одговор од одговорните во Царинската управа за нивниот нерешен статус. Нивниот обид да го добијат тоа што им следува НОВА имаше намера да го регистрира аудиовизуелно. При извршувањето на оваа задача на новинарот Муратов дрско му пристапи полицијата со барање да им го даде неговиот мобилен телефон. Телефонот му бил привремено одземен по што полицајците без никаква основа си дозволиле да ги прегледуваат содржините во телефонот на новинарот Муратов.
Овој случај на дрско попречување при извршување на професионална задача од страна на полицијата и уште погрубо одземање на нечија сопственост, како и претурање во базата на неговите лични податоци немаме намера да го пријавиме во службата за внатрешна контрола бидејќи немаме дилеми дека станува збор за грубо прекршување на законите од страна на полицијата, но и како последица на нашето последно и горчливо искуство со Секторот за внатрешна контрола при МВР кога наша колешка од НОВА и други новинари од Фокус и Радио Слободна Европа на свој грб ја почуствуваа „независноста“ на Секторот за внатрешна контрола на полицијата. Нашата преставка ја споделуваме јавно со потсетување на членовите од законот за полиција. Во членот 57 од овој закон се вели:
Полицискиот службеник може привремено да одземе предмети со наредба на суд, во случаите утврдени со Законот за кривичната постапка.
Одземањето на предмети може да се изврши и без наредба на суд во следниве случаи:
1) кога постојат основи за сомневање дека се работи за предмет на кривично дело, прекршок или имотна корист прибавена со кривично дело или прекршок кој може да послужи како доказ во постапката, доколку постои опасност од одлагање;
2) кога заради заштита на општата безбедност, одземањето на предметот неопходно е потребно и
3) на лице на кое привремено му е ограничена слободата на движење, а поседува или може да употреби предмет за самоповредување, напад или бегство.
Исто така, јавно се обраќаме до Здружението на новинарите за ова грубо кршење на слободата на медиумите и попречување на новинарите да си ја извршуваат својата работа. По поплаките кои во минатото ги упативмe директно до ЗНМ за слични инциденти сега до нив упатуваме јавен апел да ги превземат сите неопходни мерки за да ги заштитата правата на новинарите на што ги обврзуваат сите основачки акти.
Police Passes Judgement on the Spot
Yet another time police impertinently stopped NOVA journalists in performance of their work tasks.
Analys: Police in censoring action [mk]
Police seized video and photo materials from journalists in Gjorche Petrov [mk]
Today our reporter Dehran Muratov had an assignment to register the protest of citizens [mk] who claim that their rights were violated with the decision of the Customs Authority to fire them. These people are stuck into the legal labyrinths of the (un)legal state gathered to demand answers by the Customs Authority about their unsolved status. NOVA intended to create audiovisual documentation of these efforts. While performing this assignment, police officers approached the journalist Muratov, harshly ordering him to hand over his mobile telephone. Muratov’s telephone was temporarily requisitioned, and without any legal ground the policemen browsed through the stored contents.
We do not intend to file an official complaint to the Police Internal Control Office regarding this case of impudent prohibition by the police in performing a professional task, and moreover the rough seizure of personal property, including rummaging through a database containing personal data. While we have no dilemmas that this is a case of harsh violation of the laws by the police, we base our decision on the previous bitter experience with the Ministry of Interior Internal Control Office. Then, our colleague from NOVA, as well as colleagues from Fokus and Radio Free Europe felt the “independence” [mk] of this sector.  Therefore we share our complaint publicly, to remind about the relevant Article 57 of the Law on Police, which states:
Police officer can temporarily seize objects with a court order, in cases proscribed by the Law on Criminal Procedure.
Seizure of objects can be done without court order in the following situations:
1)	When there are grounds to suspect that the object has been appropriated during performance of a criminal act, misdemeanor  or as material benefit resulting from a criminal act or misdemeanor which can be used as evidence during the court procedure, if there’s an peril of postponement;
2)	When in order to ensure protection of public safety, the seizure of the object is necessary, and
3)	From a person with a temporarily limited freedom of movement, and owns or may use the object to inflict self-harm, for assault or escape.
NOVA also publicly demands that the Association of Journalists of Macedonia address this harsh violation of freedom of the media and obstructing journalists to perform their duties. After the complaints we addressed to AJM about similar incident we now send a public appeal to conduct all necessary measures to protect the rights of journalists, according to their acts of incorporation [i.e. Statutes].


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Scholars and Experts Are Urging the German Government to Rethink Its Unconditional Support of Israel · Global Voices
Katrin Zinoun

Screenshot from the open letter's website. It reads, “Open letter by German Middle East experts on the Gaza crisis.”
In an open letter to the German government, numerous scholars are demanding a change to the country's foreign policy in the Middle East in light of Israel's assault on Gaza, which has left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead.
The current German government like others before is supportive of Israel and its offensive against the strip. The petition is signed, amongst others, by Middle East scholars and experts working in the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as famous German personalities who are concerned with the subject. It reads:
Über einem Monat haben wir einem zerstörerischen Krieg zusehen müssen, der […] auf Monate, möglicherweise auf Jahre hinaus die Entwicklungsperspektive des Gazastreifens beeinträchtigt und Hoffnungen auf einen dauerhaften Frieden in Nahost schmälert. Wir verurteilen die Anwendung von Gewalt zur Durchsetzung politischer Ziele. Gewalt, die sich gegen Zivilisten richtet, ist weder von militanten palästinensischen Gruppen noch von Seiten Israels zulässig.
For over a month we've had to sit and observe a destructive war which […] will compromise any prospects of progress in the Gaza Strip and dash any hopes for long-term peace in the Middle East for months, possibly even years to come. We condemn the use of violence for the implementation of political aims. Violence aimed at civilians is unacceptable, both from Palestinian militant groups and from Israel.
According to its writers, the letter is meant to direct the focus of the debate in Germany back to the actual conflict. Due to several anti-Semitic outbursts from some protesters, the reporting on Gaza over the past few weeks has been overshadowed by a debate on anti-Semitism, and it no longer seemed feasible to promote discourse on current foreign policy in Israel. Kai Hafez, a communications expert, said in an interview with German radio station Deutschlandfunk:
Also es ist schon etwas bezeichnend, dass wir in Deutschland immer wieder kulturell orientierte Debatten über Islam und Judentum in Zeiten führen, wo man eigentlich eine politische Analyse oder sogar Kriegskritik führen müsste.
Well, it is quite typical for us to be leading a culture-oriented debate in Germany about Islam and Judaism at the times when we should actually be carrying out political analysis or even a critical review of the war.
In the letter, the German government is urged to make concrete steps towards changing their current foreign policy in the Middle East. This was – and still is – shaped by “Germany’s historical guilt” stemming from the Nazis’ systematic genocide of millions of Jews during World War II. German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke before the Knesset, the legislature of Israel, in 2008 about “Germany’s special historical responsibility for Israel's security”. And even to this day, the chancellor emphasises Israel's right to self-defence, while rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza are vehemently condemned.
The letter demands the recognition of the right to a life without fear, one which also applies to Palestinians:
Die israelische Zivilbevölkerung hat ein Recht auf ein Leben ohne Angst. Das gilt ebenso für alle Palästinenserinnen und Palästinenser. Fast 2.000 Opfer, nach UN-Schätzungen rund 80% Zivilisten, von denen wiederum nach UNICEF-Angaben bis zu 30% Kinder sind, dürfen nicht mit dem Argument des Anti-Terrorkampfes oder des Rechts auf Selbstverteidigung hingenommen werden.
The Israeli civilian population has the right to a life without fear. The same applies to all Palestinian men and women. Almost 2,000 victims – 80% of those being civilians according to the UN’s estimations, and then 30% of those being children according to information offered by UNICEF – cannot be swept under the mat by using the argument of the war on terror or the right to self-defence.
The writers of the letter are addressing some of their appeals to the German taxpayers because there are also projects funded by German tax money which are being destroyed in Gaza. The German government had already explained in 2012 that German-funded projects were being hampered or even destroyed in the Palestinian territories under Israeli control. The writers claim that, in the present conflict, almost the entire work of international development organisations, charities and NGOs working on the ground in the Gaza Strip has also been destroyed; in a material sense with the bombings, but the effects on the people are even worse. The entire civilian population is traumatised. The writers state that this situation cannot be changed through projects and that there’s a need for a wholesale policy reform, as demanded in the open letter.
The scholars urge the German government to:

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Katrin Zinoun


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Two Months After Flooding, Digital Freedoms in Serbia Are Still in Trouble · Global Voices
SHARE Foundation

Severe flooding hits Serbia.
19 May 2014 by Aleksandar Levajkovic. Demotix.
There's a worrying trend in Serbia's digital world. Media websites are increasingly the target of mysterious technical attacks that render inaccessible certain politically sensitive content. The harassment of online journalists, including physical threats, is also rising.
In the wake of devastating floods that hit Serbia in May 2014, several local websites that published materials that criticized the government's relief efforts suffered technical attacks. Also, the whole blog section on a popular daily newspaper website was taken down after a satirical post by one of the bloggers. Some of the people who criticized the government's handling of the floods have also had unexpected visitors: police questioned a handful of citizens, on suspicion of “spreading panic” on social networks.
Monitoring of Internet freedoms in Serbia conducted by SHARE Foundation for June and July 2014. Image by SHARE Foundation.
The OSCE's representative on freedom of the media has expressed concern about the Web attacks and police actions, while the head of the EU Delegation and the US Ambassador in Serbia both called for greater respect of online free speech, joining a organized effort by bloggers and media representatives by local bloggers and media representatives. In a letter addressed to a European Commissioner, European MP Marietje Schaake also expressed concern about Internet censorship and pressures on the news media in Serbia.
The attacks that have rendered several Serbian websites inaccessible have relied mostly on distributed denial-of-service mechanisms. The website Peščanik, which publishes news and opinion, allegedly suffered a DDoS attack in June 2014, after posting articles claiming that Serbia's Internal Affairs minister plagiarized his dissertation. Around that time, another Peščanik exposé revealed that the former rector of a well-known private university in Serbia lied about having a doctorate from a London university. One of the authors who worked on these stories says malicious hackers accessed her personal emails. The newspaper Kurir has faced similar problems online, where DDoS attacks have brought down the site more than once—most recently on August 10.
Attacks on news portals are nothing particularly new in Serbia, where the prime minister's political party holds an absolute majority in the current government. In the past, the regime has tried to stifle the independent media, especially during the last election cycle earlier this year. In December 2013, for instance, the website of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) was hacked after it published a story about self-censorship in the Serbian online media. CINS suffered similar attacks again in February 2014.
Individual journalists have also faced greater pressures, especially in smaller cities, where reporters and citizen journalists are often at the mercy of “local lords”. In June this year, the Serbian prime minister and German chancellor held a joint press conference in Berlin. Natalija Miletić, a journalist working in Germany, asked about alleged media censorship in Serbia and academic plagiarism by high-ranking officials in the Serbian government. Miletić didn't get an answer, but the Serbian embassy in Berlin soon let her know that she'd not be welcome at future press conferences.
In another nasty episode, Serbia's Emergency Situations minister insulted a CINS journalist when the reporter called to verify certain information for a story. The minister later apologized and tried sending roses as a peace offering, but the flowers came back return-to-sender.
Also this summer, Serbian police arrested an RTV Mladenovac journalist for a Facebook post that allegedly “damaged the reputation” of a high-ranking official in the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. A hotel owner threatened the proprietor and editor of a news portal in Ruma, and a city official in Smederevo accused several journalists of spreading false information on Facebook, going so far as to leave threatening comments and even a menacing picture of the Grim Reaper on his personal page.
These cases and other incidents documented by SHARE Foundation suggest that the state of free speech in Serbia's media space should be a growing concern. If online commentary by journalists and ordinary citizens is any metric, the Serbian government's response to the summer's floods has room for improvement. Unfortunately, rather than address its own failings, the state has discouraged free expression on the Internet and turned a blind eye to violations of digital rights and freedoms.
Things could soon get better in Serbia, however, as the country recently adopted new media laws that leave digital media out of the regulatory scope, while still providing certain registration options that grant online media outfits the privileges of traditional media.

author: SHARE Foundation


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Serbia’s ‘Declaration of Internet Freedom’ Wins Big Support from Western Dignitaries · Global Voices
Danica Radisic

Thanks to a group of independent bloggers and communications professionals, Serbia now has a Declaration of Internet Freedom. The document was born earlier this summer, in the wake of national elections and massive flooding, at event organized by some of the people responsible for Serbia's “Blog Open, Blog Closed” conference.
At the event this June, a panel of experts assembled to discuss troubling developments in Serbian media practices, such as frequent censorship and an absence of political pluralism. There are new concerns about free speech on social networks, too, after police questioned several individuals for “inciting a panic” on the Internet by criticizing the government's flood response. (The bloggers were let off with a warning.)
Three foreign dignitaries spoke at the conference: Michael Davenport, the head of the EU delegation to Serbia, Michael Kirby, the US ambassador to Serbia, and Deniz Yasici of the OSCE's Freedom of the Media office. All three addressed the importance of media freedom and free expression in the development and maintenance of democracy. The event was well attended—indeed, it's hard to see the speakers through the crowds of journalists in video footage now available on YouTube.
Over 100 people came to the conference, and hundreds more watched it online, tuning in to the live stream online, provided by Livetv.rs, a professional local video streaming service. As if on cue, a DDoS attack crippled the event's online video stream, just as the expert panel readied to discuss Internet freedom in Serbia. As people complained on Twitter that the video feed wasn't working, the video streaming service confirmed that a DDoS attack was making it impossible to stream the event live. Employees of Livetv.rs who were present at the event could not identify who conducted the DDoS attacks on their servers, but did confirm that the attacks were heavy and well-organized. Archived footage of the event, however, is now available online:
Media freedom is on the decline in many eastern European countries, where politics has a way of creeping into a variety of content. Increasingly, bloggers and common social media users appear to be facing pressures previously reserved for professional journalists. This became apparent after the devastating floods in Serbia, when authorities began bringing individuals in for questioning, under suspicion of “inciting panic during a state of emergency”, in other words, for publicly posting comments critical of the government on social networks.
As the organizers of the “Blog Open, Blog Closed” conference put it in their announcement, which was sent and forwarded throughout the blogging community in Serbia just days ahead of the event:
Ključno pitanje i cilj blogerskog okupljanja nisu da upiremo prstom u krivce i tražimo odgovore na to šta vlast i, da li, čini da bi se kreirala ovakva atmosfera i ohrabrivala praksa napada na javno izgovorenu reč i gušila kritika i sloboda govora, već šta vlast (ne)čini da ovakve pokušaje obeshrabri.
The key goal of this blogger gathering is not to point fingers at guilty parties and see what, and whether at all, authorities are doing to create this atmosphere and to stifle public criticism and encourage attacks on free speech. But [we're] here to ask to ask what the government is (not) doing to prevent such attempts [at stifling and attacks].

author: Danica Radisic


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A Private Hospital in Bangaldesh Held a Patient’s Body Ransom Because the Family Couldn’t Pay Up Immediately · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

A police guards the front of United Hospital in Dhaka. Image by Firoz Ahmed. Copyright Demotix (7/7/2011)
United Hospital Ltd., a private hospital situated in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, has bowed to pressure to release the body of a patient who died in its facility after initially refusing because the man's family couldn't pay the bill immediately, sparking public outrage.
The patient was transferred to United Hospital from another hospital on July 3 with cardiac problems and multi-organ failure and was under treatment in the coronary care unit. He died on the night of August 15, 2014.
There was much debate in social media about the unethical practice of keeping the dead body until accounts are settled. Blogger Kowshik Ahmed wrote on BDNews24.com's blog:
কল্পনা করতে পারছি না যে, বিলের জন্য লাশ আটকিয়ে রাখতে পারে চিকিৎসার মত মহান পেশায় জড়িত ঢাকার অতি উন্নত একটা হাসপাতাল। ৩১ লাখ টাকা বিল ছিলো, কেবিন /আইসিইউ ভাড়া ছাড়া এত বিল কিভাবে হয় যদিও সেটা নিয়ে প্রশ্ন থাকছেই, যার ১২ লাখ টাকা মৃতের পরিবার সাথে সাথে পরিশোধও করেছে– বাকী ১৯ লাখ টাকার জন্য হাসপাতালটির এই পৈশাচিক চরিত্র প্রকাশ্য হয়ে পড়েছে।
I cannot imagine how a modern hospital with a motto of providing medical services can keep a dead body for ransom of unpaid bills. The bill was more than 3.2 million BD Taka (about US $40,000) and the question remains how the costs can be so high. The family of the deceased had already paid 1.2 million (about $15,000). The evil face of the hospital has been exposed by its lust for the remaining $25,000.
Blogger Russel Parvez asked the hospital to beg forgiveness for its “unethical” behavior:
লাশ জিম্মি রেখে বকেয়া আদায়ের অসভ্য-অন্যায় আচরণের জন্যে আশা করছি আজ রাতেই হাসপাতাল কর্তৃপক্ষ ক্ষমা প্রার্থনা করবেন। প্রতিটি মৃত ব্যক্তির স্বজনের তার লাশ ধর্মীয় বিধান অনুসারের সৎকারের অধিকার রয়েছে। ইউনাইটেড হাসপাতাল কর্তৃপক্ষ পাওনা টাকা আদায়ের জন্যে এই অসভ্যতা করে বাংলাদেশে আইনানুগ ব্যবসা করছে কোনো জরিমানা না দিয়ে এমনটা হওয়া উচিত না।
I hope the hospital will beg for forgiveness by tonight for their unjust and unethical attitude of keeping the dead body as ransom to collect dues. Every deceased person's family has the right to take care of the dead body and arrange a funeral. The hospital should be fined for this kind of attitude.
This is not the first time United Hospital has withheld a patient's body until bills were paid, reminded blogger and journalist Abu Sufian.
United Hospital issued a press release saying they had warned the patient's family about the costs. The hospital continued treatment with their assurance that the family is capable and the dues will be paid. The hospital stressed that the remaining $25,000 is the cost of life-saving drugs and equipment and non-payment will incur a great loss for the hospital. The hospital did not, however, mention about keeping the body from the family for non-payment.
According to 2006 statistics, 40 percent of the 1,683 hospitals in Bangladesh were government hospitals, while the rest were non-governmental. In absence of affordable and effective health insurance policy, hospitalisation for a chronic illness can be a burden for any family. Some elite private hospitals like United can charge fees that are beyond the ability of ordinary Bangladeshis to pay.
Blogger Nir Sondhani commented in a post in Sachalayatan depicting the commercial nature of the private hospitals in Dhaka. Journalist and blogger Mahbub Morshed warned citizens not to go to private hospitals if they do not have the financial resources:
দেশে কোটিপতিদের চিকিৎসা-সেবার জন্য কয়েকটি হাসপাতাল তৈরি হয়েছে। হাসপাতালগুলো দেখতে ভাল। যে কারো মনে হতে পারে, ভর্তি হয়ে যাই। তবে ভর্তি হওয়ার আগে বা কাউকে ভর্তি করানোর আগে একবার ভাবুন আপনি কি কোটিপতি? যদি না হয়ে থাকেন তবে লাখপতিদের হাসপাতালে যান। লাখপতি না হলে পিজি বা ডিএমসিতে ট্রাই করুন।
There are some hospitals meant for the millionaires. These are good in quality, shiny. One may want to be admitted there for better treatment. But before that please ask yourself, are you a multimillionaire? If not, go for a less expensive hospital. If you still can't afford it, you can go to the government hospitals.
Facebook user Durjodhon termed the audacity of going to a private hospital instead of a government one without having the financial capability as an “inferiority complex”:
[…] তারা কিন্তু আমাকে জোর করেনি আসার জন্য, জোর করেছে আমার “ইনফিরিয়রিটি কমপ্লেক্স”- সরকারী হাসপাতালের মতন বাজারে (!)গিয়ে চিকিৎসা নেব আমি ? আমার মাঝে বাঙ্গালি সমস্যা, অন্যের চোখে ক্ষুদ্র হয়ে যাবার সমস্যা […] আমার সামর্থ্য আর সাধের মাঝে ফারাক বোঝার অক্ষমতা অথবা অনিচ্ছা- এইসবই এই প্রাইভেট হসপিটালগুলোর কাছে আমাকে শিকার বানিয়ে দিচ্ছে, আমার আত্মীয়ের লাশের জন্য এখন তাদের কাছে হাত পেতে থাকতে হচ্ছে ।
[…] They did not force me to come here, my inferiority complex made me do it. Will I go to the common people's government hospital? No. We have the typical Bengali problem, fear of being cheap in the eyes of others. […] The inability or reluctance to fathom the gap between want and ability makes us easy prey for these commercial private hospitals. So we have to beg to them for our nearest one's dead body.
On World Health Day a group of workers from a NGO in Dhaka forms a human chain in the city protesting commercialisation of health services. Image by Firoz Ahmed. Copyright Demotix (7/4/2012)
The cost between the government and private hospitals vary widely, not so much in service or quality of doctor, but in quality of the medical instruments, amenities and comfort. A heart patient's treatment over seven days can be as low as BDT 4,000 to 5,000 ($50 to $64) due to subsidies from the government. A private hospital could charge the same patient BDT 100,000 (around $1,300).
Bangladesh, with a population of 150 million, has only one doctor for every 2,000 citizens. For every 3,000 citizens, there is one hospital bed. Bangladesh has extensive health infrastructure throughout the country, but in government health institutions 48 percent of posts for doctors are yet to be filled. The deficiencies in the government hospitals and the uncertainties regarding service prompts people to chose private hospitals at a huge expense.
And adding to that is the treatment runaround faced by the patients. Helen Ahmed, a user at the Quora-like Bangla social network Besto, recalled about someone close to her:
[…] বুকে pain হচ্ছে। তাই ডাক্তার একটা আল্ট্রাসনোগ্রাম করতে দেয়। বিকেলে রিপোর্ট আনে দেখি নিচে লেখা ছিল তার লিভার এ tumar ধরা পড়েছে। রিপোর্ট দেখে কাঁদতে কাঁদতে ডাক্তার কাছে গেলাম, বললাম আপা, ক্যান্সার তো লিভারে আছে, ডাক্তার বলল কাঁদবে না। রিপোর্ট ভুল আসতে পারে। তুমি এখনই ৭ হাজার টাকার লিভার ct স্ক্যান করাও। টাকার সমস্যা সত্তেও ওই দিন আবার লিভার ct স্ক্যান করাই। রিপোর্ট আসে লিভার ক্যান্সার নয়। ৭ দিন পরে আবার রিপোর্ট আসে ফুসফুসে ক্যান্সার। আমার কান্নায় আকাশ বাতাস এক হয়ে যায়। কেন বার বার এত হয়রানি।
[…] There was pain in his chest. So a doctor prescribed an ultra sonogram. I collected the report in the afternoon and it said that he had cancer in the liver. I went to the doctor crying. He said the report could be wrong. He prescribed another expensive CT scan. I managed to arrange that money with difficulties and avail the test. The report revealed that he does not have cancer in his liver. After seven days, another test reveals that he has cancer in the lungs. I sink into an ocean of teardrops again. Why so much harassment?
The government has formed a committee to investigate the United Hospital incident. The hospital has given the patient's family five months to repay BDT 1.5 million, giving a 25 percent discount. Otherwise they say they will sue the family.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


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Why Activists Sent 128 Tomatoes to Every Single Member of Lebanon’s Parliament · Global Voices
Thalia Rahme

A slogan used for a protest on Aug. 19: “No to the extension of trash,” likening members of parliament to garbage. Posted among others on the “Take Back Parliament” Facebook page.
With the Lebanese parliament's term coming to its end this November, some are campaigning against a possible second extension of the current members’ mandate — with tomatoes.
The current parliament extended its four-year stay for the first time in May 2013. And like a year before, various parties are supporting the move this time around under the pretext of security conditions.
Last year, activists threw tomatoes at legislators’ vehicles. This year, 128 tomatoes were sent to the 128 representatives of the people, with a sticker reading “No to extension.”
People are also taking to the streets and speaking out online in both Arabic and English under the slogan #NoToExtension or #لا_للتمديد. Many artists and public figures have joined the campaign.
The tomatoes by the Civil Movement for Accountability
Film director and producer Nasser Fakih, for instance, published a wake-up call for his more than 25,000 followers on Twitter:
من نحنا و صغار بهددونا بالفراغ … ليش في دولة ليكون في فراغ ؟؟ صار وقت تكبّوا الأرجيلة على جنب و تسمعوهن صوتكن عالعالي : #لا_للتمديد
— Nasser Fakih (@fakihn) August 19, 2014
They've been threatening us with void since were kids. But mustn't there be a state first for there to be a state of political and leadership void? It's time you put aside your sisha and make them hear your voice loudly: #NoToExtension
The end of the parliamentary term comes amidst a period of turmoil in Lebanon. The country has lacked a president since May 25 after parliament failed to elect a new head of state and top officials could not reach political consensus. A general strike by syndicates demanding to approve a new enhanced wage scale for civil servants has threatened to paralyze the entire country. Lebanon has experience instability on both Syrian and Israeli borders after soldiers were kidnapped by members of Islamic militant organization ISIS.
Twitter user Mariam called for sanctions against the current members of parliament:
#لا_للتمديد لنفس النواب الي ما عم يقدرو يأمنولي ابسط حقوقي من علم و حكمة و كهربا و مي بس لعيش كمواطن
— #لا_للتمديد مريم ج. (@coolmaster18) August 25, 2014
#NoToExtension for those same deputies who are unable to meet my merest rights such as education, access to health, electricity and water, just so that I can live like a citizen.
Kamal Abboud refused to vote for people who never acted as such:
#لا_للتمديد لازم قبل ماتعمل نائب تتعلم شو يعني نائب عن شعب الي بعمركم ماشتغلتو شي يفيد هالشعب
— #لا_للتمديد Kamal (@kimoabboud) August 18, 2014
#NoToExtension, before you become a deputy you should learn what it means to be a deputy for people you never did anything useful for
Yielding to pressure, the council of ministers signed a decree calling for the electoral committees to convene and sent it to legislators for approval. But this move was far from convincing, as TV reporter Christine Habib pointed out to her more than 30,500 followers:
مجلس الوزراء يوقع مرسوم دعوة الهيئات الناخبة ويرمي الكرة في ملعب مجلس النواب: وبعدُن عم يستلمونا! #لا_للتمديد
— Christine Habib (@Christine_Habib) August 19, 2014
Council of ministers signs the decree convening the electoral committees and throws the ball in the camps of the parliament: And they are still making fools of us. #NoToExtension
Jamil Warrak was not so optimistic about preventing an extension:
I have a feeling that the campaign #لا_للتمديد will be a fundamental motif that might lead to #التمديد
— Jamil Warrak (@jamilwarrak) August 24, 2014
I have a feeling that the campaign #NoToExtension will be a fundamental motif that might lead to #extension
Mohammad Abdallah shared the same feelings:
#لا_للتمديد حملة كل لبناني وانشالله ما نضطر نمدد ها لحملة
— Mohammad Abdallah (@ma123450809932) August 25, 2014
#NoToExtension is the campaign of all Lebanese and I hope we won't have to extend that campaign
Not all Lebanese were strictly against extending parliament's term. Hicham Rustom is an example:
انو فكركن اذا عملوا انتخابات رح يتغيرو النواب ؟؟!! #نعم_للتمديد #التمديد_اشرف
— Hicham Rustom (@HichamRustom) August 23, 2014
You think if they held elections, MPs will change??!! #YesToExtension #Extension_is_more_Honorable
“While the March 14 political alliance namely the parliamentarian block headed by Saad Hariri block seem to back the extension, the March 8 coalition has many objections, demonstrated by Free Patriotic Movement political party member and Foreign Affairs Minister Gebran Bassil‘s tweet:
نعيش تمديداً مرشحاً لتمديد تمدد معه حالة حرمان المواطن حقه في إختيار نوابه #لا_للتمديد
— Gebran Bassil (@Gebran_Bassil) August 20, 2014
We are living an extension and with it the deprivation of the citizen's right to chose his or her deputies. #NoToExtension
To which Twitter user Hadi replied:
@Gebran_Bassil عنجد عم تشارك المواطن ولا كمان عم تلعبه انتخابات؟؟؟ بعتذر منك بس بطلنا نصدقكم
— hadiلا_للتمديد# (@hadicom1975) August 20, 2014
Are you really with citizens or are you preparing for elections? Sorry but we stopped believing you
Another protest march is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 28 at 6 p.m. facing the Parliament, with a Facebook page mobilizing people for the cause .
A public call to demonstrate against the extension the Lebanese Parliament's term shared by many organizations opposed to the extension . It reads: “The civil Movement for Accountability invites you for a march on Thursday, Aug. 28 at 6 p.m., starting from the Ministry of Interior in Sanaye till Ryad al Solh square to reject the extension of the Parliament. #NotoExtension”
Despite the pushback against a possible extension, nothing is sure yet. Will parliament extend its term or not?

author: Thalia Rahme


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Cameroonian Striker Albert Ebossé’s Death in Algeria Raises Questions About Stadium Security · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Screenshot of Albert Ebossé, 1990-2014, Cameroonian striker for JSK Kabylie
Cameroonian striker Albert Ebossé, who played for Algerian football club JS Kabylie, died on 23 Aug. after being hit by a projectile thrown from the stands, following his team’s 2-1 home defeat by USM Alger on the second day of the Algerian football championship.
Ebossé was taken to a hospital in Tizi Ouzou, Kabylie (110 km east of Algiers), where he later died of the head injury.
He had scored the only goal for his team, whose home defeat provoked the anger of JS Kabylie’s supporters. They started throwing projectiles from Tizi Ouzou stadium’s stands as the players were returning to the changing rooms. One of them fatally hit the Cameroonian player.
The 24-year-old's death was a shock to those close to him and to the footballing world and prompted some to question the security of Algeria's stadiums.
His JSK Kabylie teammate Kamel Yelsi described the tragic event to football news site Goal.com:
En fait, il a reçu deux projectiles: le premier sur le poignet et le second sur la nuque. Albert n'a pas pu l'esquiver, il a été transporté directement à l'hôpital où ils ont fait tout ce qu'ils ont pu. Je ne sais pas quoi dire. C'est le problème de l'Algérie on va dire. Dans pas mal de stades ils sont tellement passionnés que cela fait peur. Ça devient comme de la haine. Alors les insultes qui fusent, à la limite, on peut faire abstraction. Mais les projectiles c'est plus des blocs que de simples cailloux.
He was actually hit by two projectiles: the first on his wrist and the second on the back of his neck. Albert had no chance of avoiding it; he was rushed straight to hospital, where they did all they could. I don’t know what to say. Let’s just say it is an Algerian problem. In many of the stadiums, the supporters get so worked up, it’s frightening. It turns into a kind of hatred. When the insults are flying, you can almost ignore them. But the projectiles they throw are not just stones, they are boulders.
Ebossé was born in Douala on 6 Oct., 1989. When he arrived at JS Kabylie in July 2013, Ebossé shared his first impressions of the welcome he was given by the town in an interview with JSK TV. He said at the time that:
Tizi Ouzou est accueillante, sa population est sympathique
Tizi Ouzou is very welcoming, the people here are friendly
On the web, disbelief turned to anger. The Cameroonian Kamtoo blog expressed its sorrow at the circumstances of his death:
Ebossé rêvait de porter un jour le maillot des Lions Indomptables. La bêtise humaine a mis définitivement à ses rêves ce samedi 23 août 2014 sur un terrain de football. Là où il avait multiplié les exploits depuis son arrivée en Kabylie.
Ebossé dreamed of wearing the [Cameroonian national football team] Indomitable Lions jersey. Human stupidity ended those dreams forever this Saturday 23 August 2014 on a football pitch – the place where he had achieved so much since arriving at Kabylie.
Others on Twitter criticised the lack of security in the stadiums :
Comment l'Algérie peut elle prétendre organiser la CAN alors quelle n'arrive même pas à sécuriser un petit stade de 10.000 places #Ebossé
— Tahar Hani (@taharhani) August 24, 2014
How can Algeria expect to host the African Cup of Nations when it cannot even ensure the security of a small 10,000 capacity stadium
Algeria has annonced its candidacy to host the African Cup of Nations in 2017.
Côte d'Ivoire's sports minister also responded:
Pourquoi autoriser des spectateurs à accéder au stade avec des armes? Violence sur les stades en Afrique du Nord #Ebossé #Complaisance
— ALAIN LOBOGNON (@ALAINLOBOG) August 24, 2014
Why are spectators allowed to enter the stadium carrying weapons? Violence in the stadiums of North Africa.
Olivier Enogo (via Julie Owono of Global Voices) would like Ebossé’s footballing colleagues to ensure that progress is made regarding regulations for this problem:
Chers amis footballeurs, ç'aurait pu être votre tête à la place de celle d'Ebossé. Qui parlera pour ce jeune homme ? Qui défendra sa mémoire ? Qui osera au sein du football international africain dire intelligemment stop à cette bêtise ? Au lieu de vous battre pour des primes, ces restes que les plus puissants veulent bien vous céder, défendez ce qui vous appartient et qui n’ a pas de prix : votre dignité et celle de ceux qui vous ressemblent. Imaginons juste un jour vous vous refusiez de jouer pendant un temps indéterminé, jusquà ce que la FIFA adopte des règles contraignantes, allant jusqu'à la suspension de l'équipe dont les supporters auraient eu des comportements racistes.
Dear footballing friends, it could have been your head instead of Ebossé’s. Who will speak on behalf of this young man? Who will defend his memory? Who in African international football will dare to have the intelligence to say no to this stupidity? Instead of fighting for bonuses, those scraps that more powerful people are happy to give you, stand up for your most priceless possession: your dignity and the dignity of people like you. What if one day you refused to play indefinitely, until FIFA adopted binding rules, including suspension of any team whose supporters displayed racist behaviour.
According to Algerian professional football league president Mahfoud Kerbadj, the Ministry of the Interior has ordered a judicial enquiry into this death, .
As a tribute to the young player, here is a video compilation of highlights from his career:

author: Rakotomalala


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Ceasefire Reached in Gaza After 50 Days of War and Catastrophic Damage  · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

A view of Gaza at the time of the ceasefire, taken by Dan Cohen
On August 26, Israel and the Palestinian factions agreed to halt fighting indefinitely, putting an end to seven weeks of catastrophic destruction and loss of life in Gaza.
At least 2,137 Palestinians were killed, including 577 children, and 10,870 wounded, since Israel launched a massive offensive called Protective Edge against the 40-kilometer-long coastal strip on July 8.
This was Israel's third military operation in Gaza in the last six years. Excessive restrictions from Israel in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank aggravate conditions in areas that most of the world and the United Nations considers occupied by Israel.
Seventy-two percent of Palestinians killed in this offensive were civilians, according to the UN. About a third of the wounded children, will be forced to live with permanent disabilities. One-third of Gaza's total population, over 520,000 people, have been displaced of whom 279,389 were taking shelter in 83 UN-run schools.
The deal
Hamas and Islamic Jihad – the main Palestinian militant groups involved in this conflict and Israel agreed to an Egyptian-brokered peace deal , which seems similar to the one reached in 2012 after Israel's “Operation Returning Echo”. Mahmoud Abbas also took part in the deal, his Palestinian Authority (PA) has been exclusively governing the West Bank since Hamas won elections in Gaza in 2007.
The immediate demands of the peace deal include: the end of hostilities on both sides; opening of the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza; handing over administration of Gaza's borders from Hamas to the PA, reconstruction of Gaza in coordination with the PA and international donors, including the EU; narrowing the security barrier along the inside of the Gaza border from 300 to 100m, easing restrictions on fishing in Gaza from 3 miles (4.8km) to 6 miles (9.6km). The international allowance is 12 miles (19.3 km.)
The long-term demands to be negotiated are: the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners kidnapped by Israel in June after the killing of three Jewish teenagers in the West Bank; the release of long-serving Palestinian prisoners as demanded by the Palestinian Authority; Israel wants all body parts and personal effects of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza; Hamas wants a sea port built in Gaza in order to allow goods and people to move freely; Hamas wants the un-freezing of funds to allow it to pay 40,000 police, government workers and other administrative staff who haven't had any salary since last year; Palestinians are asking for Gaza's airport, built in 1998 and destroyed in 2000 by Israel, to be rebuilt.
In Gaza, reactions to the ceasefire were divided. While everyone rejoiced the end of the war, bloggers, activists and journalists on the ground, as well as ordinary Gazans, opted for mourning the dead and wondering what's next.
Gazan journalist Lara Abu Ramadan tweeted:
I feel nothing, I just want to cry and scream. It's over!
— Lara (@laraaburamadan) August 26, 2014
We faced death during 51 days, thousands were killed and injured. We didn't count days, we only wanted to survive. :(
— Lara (@laraaburamadan) August 26, 2014
Gazan activists Haneen El Qadi, Omar Ghreib, and ‘WhateverInGaza‘ shared her sadness:
I am celebrating the victory with my own way.. Lots of tears! .. Elhamdulilah for everything. #gaza
— لُــور (@HaneenElQadi) August 26, 2014
call me a party pooper, call me a drama queen, I am not happy, I'm numb & worried! Just a little glad that no more people will die. #Gaza
— Omar Ghraieb (@Omar_Gaza) August 26, 2014
We r so exhausted. #gaza
— WhateverInGaza (@WhateverInGaza) August 26, 2014
Some wondered if the agreement reached was fair to Gazans
I'm glad we survived, no attacks on #gaza anymore! But I'm deeply sad, the agreement is horrible, it shows how much we count which is nth !
— Nalan Al Sarraj (@NalanSarraj) August 26, 2014
Catastrophic damage in Gaza
Since July 8, Gaza has been hit 59,973 times — 7,690 by air, 15,673 from the sea and 36,610 on the ground. The Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights reports that the total number of houses demolished or damaged in the 51 days of war exceeds 15,671, with 2,276 fully destroyed. They estimate the economic loss to Gaza from the Israeli assault to be $3.4 billion.
This infographic by the Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights helps understand the scale of the devastation in this conflict:
Infographic done by the Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights
Homeless in Gaza
Speaking for the tens of thousands of refugees in Gaza, Chris Gunness, a Spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) released a video of the destruction and tweeted the following:
UNRWA is providing assistance to almost 314,000 displaced in #Gaza staying in UNRWA schools and in 7 government shelters in the North RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) August 21, 2014
The number of displaced in #Gaza seeking refuge in UNRWA schools is unprecedented: 279,389 IDPs in 83 UNRWA schools RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) August 21, 2014
219 #Gaza schools damaged & 22 schools destroyed. #Gaza education sector was already at a crisis point prior to this escalation RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) August 21, 2014
The death toll for Israel stood at 68, including one child. The percentage of Israeli civilians killed is 4 percent, with 96% of deaths being IDF soldiers. Four hundred and fifty soldiers and 80 civilians were also wounded. Between 5,000 and 8,000 Israelis living in the south fled the fighting.
Also see our in-depth 2014 coverage on war-battered Gaza.

author: Elia J. Ayoub


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‘Citizen Lawmakers’ in the Philippines Are Organizing a Campaign To Do What Politicians Won’t: Abolish Pork Barrel · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

@cjlagarista: Cebu Archbishop Palma among the first to sign in the people's initiative. @BayanMunaNeri #SignUpvsPork #AbolishPork
Various groups in the Philippines have joined forces to pass a law through a popular initiative that will abolish the corruption-tainted presidential and congressional pork barrel spending.
The People’s Initiative is a mechanism allowing for the enactment of a law outside of Congress through a nationwide signature campaign, in accordance with the Philippine Constitution and Republic Act No. 6735 or the “Initiative and Referendum Act.”
The campaigners said the initiative has become necessary since the pork barrel system continues to be a major source of corruption and political patronage.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the congressional pork known as the Priority Development Assistance Fund is unconstitutional. It also ruled that the substantial parts of the president's budget reform called the Disbursement Acceleration Program is another violation of the constitution.
But despite these rulings, many people were outraged to learn that pork funds were secretly distributed to agencies in the executive branch such as the Department of Health and Commission on Higher Education. In addition, the president's 2015 budget proposal retains billions of lump sums and non-itemized discretionary funds.
Anti-pork groups and activists cited these reasons in urging the people to take matters into their own hands and abolish the flawed budget system through a People’s Initiative.
If approved, the law proposed through People’s Initiative entitled “An Act Abolishing the Pork Barrel System” will prohibit pork barrel, which it defines as:
a lump sum public fund assigned by law, regulation or practice with sole discretion given to the President, legislator or group of legislators, or any public officer. The exercise of discretion by public officers relates to the allocation, release or use of these public funds, the identification or selection of projects, implementors or beneficiaries, or any or a combination of or all of these.
Those who authorize or partake in the use of pork barrel funds will be penalized with imprisonment of six to ten years and permanent disqualification from seeking public office.
The People’s Initiative would need the signature of 10 percent of the entire voting population – around 6 million signatures – and 3 percent of voters in each of the country’s 234 districts before a referendum on the bill can be organized by the Commission on Elections.
@pinoyweekly: Jampacked at Mariner's Court, Cebu for historic launch of Ppl's Initiative to Abolish Pork Barrel. #SignUpvsPork
Declaration of Unity: People's Congress to abolish the abominable pork barrel! #SignUpvsPork #AbolishPork
Over 1,000 people from all regions of the country gathered together in Cebu City on Aug. 23 for a People’s Congress that approved the People's Initiative draft.
The proposed law was then presented in a public rally, which attracted over 5,000 people at the Plaza Independencia, Cebu City on the afternoon of the same day.
This marked the beginning of the nationwide signature campaign, which the organizers vowed to bring to communities, schools, offices, and public spaces.
@venzie: People Power in Cebu! Thousands gathered here in Plaza Independencia to #SignUpVsPork!
The campaign kicked off in the country’s national capital with a 30,000-strong rally and signature drive at Luneta Park on National Heroes Day on Aug. 25.
Former legislator Teddy Casiño called on all Filipinos to become “citizen lawmakers” through his blog:
Congress will never pass a law to abolish the evil pork barrel system and neither will the President propose it because they are the ones benefiting most from the political patronage and corruption that the system feeds. So if they won’t do it, YOU WILL!
That’s right. It’s not only congressmen and senators who can make laws. The Constitution provides for ordinary people like you and me to also propose and enact laws. This is called the people’s initiative. By signing up for the petition, you become a citizen lawmaker. Imagine that.
@emmidejesus: 10,000 ang pumirma kanina sa #PeoplesInitiative vs Pork Barrel sa #MillionPeopleMarch sa Luneta #NationalHeroesDay
@emmidejesus: 10,000 signed in the #PeoplesInitiative vs Pork Barrel at the Luneta #MillionPeopleMarch on #NationalHeroesDay
Phoebe Zoe Sanchez, a sociology professor from the University of the Philippines-Cebu, praised the united effort to fight pork corruption on Facebook:
My hair stood on my skin as I saw the hall packed-up with all delegates from the different Islands and organizations all over the country… It was quite an overwhelming event. The people, the church, the social movements are all one against the government and its sustained stubbornness to hold on and justify its wickedness.
Sarah Raymundo, another professor from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, wrote that the People’s Initiative is an exercise in “direct democracy”:
Relative to the any law passed through a constitutional commission or a constituent assembly, PI is more compelling as it operates on the principle of direct democracy, i.e. the people making laws for the people and not just representatives of the people making laws for the people. The former empowers the citizenry to say, “Let’s make laws that will be good for us.”The latter, as configured by representative democracy, entitles politicians to their undying claim: “We know what’s good for you.”
Labor rights advocate Carlos Maningat meanwhile pointed out the rough challenges that the campaign will face from the country’s ruling elites who will lose much from the abolition of pork.
Assuming that the People’s Initiative will be successful in ridding all forms of pork, will politicos still run for public office? …but of course the country’s elites will fight tooth and nail to retain the lifelines of graft and plunder in the bureaucracy. Without pork, politicians’ lives in our country would be very boring. They would have no money to splurge for their mansions and mistresses, and no “incentive” to keep patronage transactions well-oiled. It would be the end of Philippine politics, as we know it.
Luneta rally, view from the stage. #SignUpVsPork #abolishpork
The People’s Initiative to Abolish Pork Barrel is led by eight major anti-corruption alliances, namely the Abolish Pork Movement, Cebu Coalition Against Pork Barrel, Church People’s Alliance Against the Pork Barrel, E-PIRMA, Solidarity, Scrap Pork Network, and Youth Act Now.
#standupsignupvspork cartoon from the People's Initiative to Abolish Pork Barrel website.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the Catholic Educators Association of the Philippines, and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the national organization of lawyers in the Philippines, has declared full support for the People’s Initiative.
Updates on the People’s Initiative to Abolish the Pork Barrel System can be found by checking the website or following the hashtags #abolishpork, #signupvspork, and #peoples initiative, or inquiring through the email piap dot congress dot org.

author: Karlo Mongaya


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Former Prime Minister Feeds the Meme Machine With Rejection of Trinidad & Tobago’s Highest Honour · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

Patrick Manning thanking his constituents on June 7, 2010 after his party's defeat in Trinidad and Tobago's 2010 General Elections. Photo by Taran Rampersad, used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.
Former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Patrick Manning has rejected the country's highest award, accusing the current prime minister of breaking the proper award procedure and blasting her for “vicious attacks” against him in past election campaigns.
In addition to Manning, current Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar also offered the Order of Trinidad and Tobago to another former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, who founded the United National Congress — the political party which Persad-Bissessar now heads.
Both former prime ministers had troubled tenures. Manning's People's National Movement government was accused of corruption via the construction of high-rise buildings that eventually cost billions of Trinidad and Tobago dollars (6.4 TTD = 1 USD), while the Panday administration's most enduring legacy has been the Piarco airport corruption scandal, for which two of the perpetrators are still fighting a legal battle to avoid extradition to the United States on fraud and money laundering charges. Interestingly, Kamla Persad-Bissessar's government is still feeling the backlash over legislation that it tried to slip by the country two years ago, which would have provided a loophole for the accused in the airport project to go free.
In a statement published on his Facebook page, Manning, the incumbent minister of parliament for San Fernando East, a politically important constituency in the south of the island, announced that he would not accept the award for several reasons. Firstly, he did not believe in accepting awards while in public office, but he also chastised the prime minister for not adhering to proper protocol in offering or announcing the award, especially given his claim that the current government had vilified him in the run up to the 2010 elections:
The Hon Kamla Persad Bissessar was able to win government on May 24th 2010 through a series of sustained and vicious attacks on my character that was led personally by her. These attacks continue. Through this nomination announcement is the Hon Prime Minister retracting those venomous accusations and charges against me?
Additionally, I was made aware of this nomination through persons who saw it reported on the social media, Facebook. […] I was neither consulted, nor advised prior to this announcement. I consider this approach a gross discourtesy. Under PNM administrations, a committee considers these distinguished national awards, with the Chief Justice as Chairman and subject to the imprimatur of the Prime Minister. Due process for these awards includes informing the potential recipients through the Office of the Prime Minister in a confidential manner. Only recipients who have agreed to accept an award are then announced publicly, and with dignity. Had I been consulted beforehand, I would have been able to privately decline.
Manning's “public distancing” from the award has naturally caused the prime minister a great deal of embarrassment. The Internet memes began straight away:
Criticism became more rife when, after Manning declined the award, the prime minister retorted by claiming magnanimity and saying Manning should not have brought politics into it. Facebook user Rhoda Bharath quipped:
Kamla behave like them fellas who, after they suit a girl, she blank them with a steups; and then the same girl they was suiting, they start to cuss she and call she names and tell she they didn't want she anyway.
Yep….our PM THAT classy!
Manning's Facebook page was filled with messages of support. Natalie Austin said:
Hats off to you Mr Manning, how can your character be assassinated in one breath and praised in same? this is just another distraction from everything that's plaguing them right now […]
Others thought the offer was nothing more than an election tactic:
Kamla don't have a clue about how things are done, this is another way of disrespecting Mr. Manning. Election around the corner. Stand firm Mr. Manning.
Netizens were commenting on Twitter as well:
Former PM Patrick Manning deserves an award for rejecting PM Kamla's award.
— Chica Emery (@ChicaEmery) August 22, 2014
Why didn't PM Kamla address what Manning said about not being contacted and informed he was nominated for the award?
— Brandon (@BrandoHD) August 23, 2014
The decision by former PM Patrick Manning not to accept the ORTT is commendable in the face what we see coming out from our present leaders.
— Richard Logan (@richlog) August 23, 2014
Basdeo Panday still has not indicated whether or not he will accept the award.

author: Matthew Hunte


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In Defense of the National Gallery of Jamaica’s Director · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Over the last month, the National Gallery of Jamaica's executive director's leadership was the target of criticism, first via an anonymous letter written to the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper, and then in a blog post written by blogger Annie Paul, which she prefaced by saying:
I’ve been closely involved with the Gallery, serving on its Exhibitions Committee for the last few years and before that its PR Committee. In these capacities I’ve been privy to some of the internal workings of the institution and have experienced at first hand some of the problems I will be detailing in this post.
Now, a different perspective has come to light, in the form of a letter to the editor from Jamaican artist Jacqueline Bishop, who writes “about the Veerle Poupeye I know”:
I have never known anyone to champion Jamaican art and Jamaican artists as tirelessly as Veerle Poupeye does.
Consequently, I have watched with growing alarm and dismay as her name has been maligned, and someone of great integrity and generosity is consistently caricatured in, among other places, The Gleaner.
The ‘Concerned Visitor’ of the July 19 letter is right to point out the lack of financial and other support to the National Gallery of Jamaica. And I, too, wonder about the alignment of ‘youth’ and ‘culture’ under a single government portfolio. However, there is more than enough for Jamaicans of all shades, stripes and kinds to discuss and critique and try to understand and work against and through and towards in Jamaican art and visual art culture, without resorting to name-calling and character assassination.
The National Gallery of Jamaica will launch an exhibit to celebrate its 40th anniversary on August 31.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Kyrgyzstan’s Soviet-era Poster Child Gets an iPad · Global Voices
Chris Rickleton

Kyrgyz daughters old and new. Image mixed by author.
When he wasn't depicting Kyrgyzstan's awesome natural environment, Semyon Chuikov, an Honoured Artist of the USSR born in what is now the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek in 1902, was always careful to make sure his artwork didn't stray beyond the strict, socialist parameters provided for by Soviet artistic policy.
Were Chuikov still alive, he might be surprised to learn that one of his most famous and iconic paintings – “Daughter of Soviet Kyrgyzia” – is being remade with a twist thanks to the help of a grant from the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek.
“Daughter of Soviet Kyrgyzia” is a jewel of Soviet-era propaganda, emphasizing social and economic progress in Moscow's rural hinterland. The painting's muse — a red headscarf-wearing Kyrgyz schoolgirl striding to her classes with an exercise book in hand — became famous across the USSR. In Kyrgyzstan, then the Soviet Socialist Republic of Kyrgyzia, she turned into something of a national icon.
Daughter of Soviet Kyrgyzia became a union-wide stamp in her heyday.
By the start of the school year this year she will have a new look, spray-painted onto the facade of a four-story state school in Bishkek, holding what appears to be an iPad and wearing what appear to be Apple's signature white ear phones. The remake was paid for by the U.S. Embassy and completed by a group of local artists working with an American painter.
Some have already registered their irritation at the image, currently half-painted on Bishkek's School No.12. On independent media outlet Kloop.kg's facebook page, one user, Rimma Borubaevna Diushenbieva, wrote:
можно было картину не трогать: не надо торопиться, лишь бы себя показать или затронуть автора. Это прекрасная картина.
They could have avoided defacing the painting: there was no need to rush to show themselves off or take something away from the [original] author. The [original painting] is simply beautiful.
However, Kloop.kg founder Bektour Iskender cautioned against sentimentalizing the country's historical heroes and revelling in the past:
Конечно, планшет и наушники – это банальщина невероятная. Но пусть будет. Это хорошо, когда можно безнаказанно модифицировать священное. Я за абсолютную свободу творчества.Не должно быть ничего, на что мы должны бояться дышать. Я хочу, чтобы в моей стране можно было не бояться шутить о Манасе, калпаке, Курманжан датке, Чингизе Айтматове и, разумеется, о любой религии (или об атеизме – но с этим проблем как раз нет). Мы будем сильны тогда, когда сможем спокойно относиться к юмору над любым явлением нашего прошлого, а не тратить силы на борьбу с мельницами.Я представляю, какие шлакоблоки гнева будут высирать все борцы за святое из-за того, что Дочери советской Киргизии дали в руки планшет. Ну что же, на здоровье.
Of course, the tablet and headphones – it's incredibly trivial. But let it be. It is good when you can modify the sacred with impunity. I am for absolute creative freedom. There should not be anything or anyone around which we should be afraid to breathe. I want my country not to be afraid to joke about Manas, Kalpaks, Kurmanjan Datka, Chinghiz Aitmatov…We are strong when we can relate easily and with humor to any phenomenon of our past, and not when we waste our time fighting with windmills. I can already imagine the embers of fury pouring forth from the soldiers of the sacred, all because the Daughter of Soviet Kyrgyzia has been given a tablet. Well, good health to them.
The painting will be unveiled at the “first bell” of the Kyrgyz school year on September 1. Apple will no doubt pass on their thanks to Washington for the free advert.

author: Chris Rickleton


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Nigeria Successfully Curtails Ebola to One Patient · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Nigeria's Health Minster, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, recently announced that Ebola though not “totally eliminated”, has been successfully curtailed. Nigeria has only one case of Ebola currently. According to Onyebuchi, as quoted by TheCable:
“As of today [August 26, 2014], Nigeria has 13 cases of Ebola virus disease. That is including the index case – the late Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer. Five did not survive, however two more Nigerian patients have been discharged. Both of them health workers, were discharged yesterday. This brings the number of those discharged now to seven. As I speak to you Nigeria has only one case of Ebola virus. This is thus far an indication that  Nigeria has contained the virus.”
Follow our in-depth coverage: The Struggle to #StopEbola in West Africa

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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With Body Bags Returning from Ukraine, ‘the War’ Comes Home to Russians · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Ukraine sends 145 vests and helmets to ATO fighters in East Ukraine, 10 June 2014, by Oleg Pereverzev. Demotix.
The evidence is mounting that an unannounced Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine is underway. After Moscow landed troops in Crimea earlier this year and later annexed the peninsula, an unhappy waiting game has played out around Donetsk and Luhansk, where separatist militia have resisted an “anti-terrorist operation” launched by the national government in Kyiv. At the wrong ends of bullets and bombs, people have been dying in Eastern Ukraine for months already. There are new signs, however, that Russian soldiers are now joining in the bloodshed.
Last week, the Ukrainian military claimed to have captured two Russian armored personnel carriers (APCs), and inside them documents proving that the vehicles were from Russia, based in Pskov. Journalists and bloggers spent the next few days tracking down the social media accounts of the soldiers identified in the recovered paperwork, discovering several Vkontakte accounts where updates suddenly ceased just before the APCs were destroyed in Luhansk.
This week, Russian journalists discovered a series of fresh graves in Pskov, belonging to soldiers who died under mysterious circumstances. On August 26, when more reporters tried to visit the cemetery where they were buried, anonymous men attacked them and told them never to return. A team did return to the cemetery later the same night, hoping to gather more evidence about the recently departed, but the men were waiting for them again. The reporters retreated a second time, as their assailants bashed their car and flattened their tires.
На нас напали на кладбище, где вероятно хоронили десантников. Пробили колеса и пытались разбить стеклоЕли ноги унесли pic.twitter.com/vMErc8l0H6
— Владимир Роменский (@Romenskiy) August 26, 2014
We were attacked at the cemetery, where they’ve probably buried the soldiers. They punctured the tires and tried to break the windshield. We narrowly escaped.
Despite being chased off by nameless goons, Vladimir Romensky, one of the journalists, still managed to snap a few photos of one of the new graves:
Еще одна могила вероятного десантника, который есть в списках обнаружена на псковском кладбище в районе Кресты. pic.twitter.com/jSpC1pOB9Y
— Владимир Роменский (@Romenskiy) August 26, 2014
Here's another grave that likely belongs to one of the marines, whose name is in the [Ukrainian] lists, found in the Pskov cemetery in Kresty district.
As independent journalists have risked their personal safety to find out more about the buried soldiers in Pskov, some Russians online have wondered why the story isn’t getting coverage from the country’s most active investigative journalists, namely LifeNews, whose reporters seem to arrive at crime scenes before the police.
Если бы @AramAshotich сейчас взял и отправил бы людей в Псков, сделал бы материал, то он был бы на вершине журналистики реально. Но нет же
— Maria Baronova (@ponny1) August 26, 2014
If Aram Gabrelyanov [the owner of LifeNews] up and sent his people to Pskov and produced a report, he’d shoot to the top of all Russian journalism. But, nope, nothing.
Not everyone on the Web, however, is clamoring for more grave photos. Twitter user Natalia Grafskaya, for instance, shared her anger with TV Rain for airing pictures from the cemetery.
@tvrain Телеканалу “Дождь”дОлжно быть стыдно пиарить себя на кладбище-где у людей-горе. Телеканал “Дождь”-это ИУДА для современной России.
— Графская Наталья (@natalyaGraf) August 26, 2014
The television station RAIN should be ashamed of promoting itself at a cemetery, where people are mourning. TV Rain is the Judas of modern Russia.
In a similar vein, the deputy head of Russia's federal communications agency asked ominously on Twitter if Slon.ru, one of the first major news websites to publish images of the graves, had first obtained permission from the soldiers’ relatives. (Slon never responded, on Twitter at any rate.)
On August 26, a day after photographs of the graves flooded the RuNet, the President’s Council for Human Rights—a semi-independent consultative body within the Kremlin—addressed a public letter to federal investigators, asking police to get to the bottom of the situation in Pskov. If these soldiers all died in some related incident, officials should open a criminal case, Council members Ella Polyakova and Sergei Krivenko reasoned.
Incidentally, Polyakova, the head of a “soldiers’ mothers” organization in St. Petersburg, wasn’t finished making headlines. Hours after asking the Investigative Committee to look into the graves in Pskov, Polyakova told TV Rain, Russia’s only independent television station, that a hospital in St. Petersburg had just admitted nearly 100 wounded Russian soldiers. (The cause of the injuries remains unknown at the time of this article’s publication.)
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government claims to have captured ten Russian soldiers 12 miles deep in Ukrainian territory on August 24, posting YouTube videos of the interrogations of four men. In the videos, the captured servicemen, members of the 96th airborne division based in Kostroma, say they were conducting official training exercises, when Ukrainian forces intervened and apprehended them. “This is all just politics and money,” one soldier told his interrogator, explaining obsequiously that an independent Republic of Donetsk can never exist. Writing on Facebook, Ukraine’s defense minister appealed to the families of Russian soldiers now on active duty, imploring them to find out where their loved ones are, before they’re sent to fight in Ukraine.
Back in Kostroma, military officials met privately on August 26 with the family members of soldiers in the 96th airborne division. According to reports online, the soldiers’ relatives unanimously refused to talk to reporters after the meeting, despite earlier promises to answer questions.
The Kremlin, for its part, denies that Russian troops have been deployed inside Ukraine, though Putin himself admits that patrols sometimes cross into Ukraine by accident.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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‘Showcase of Shame’ Campaign Is Forcing Venezuelans to Confront the Uncomfortable Reality of Teen Pregnancy  · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

“In Venezuela, every minute three teenage girls under 18 get pregnant. Your daughter could be one of them”. Screenshot from the video of the campaign.
Shop windows are usually home to mannequins dressed in the season's latest fashions, not a shocking display of an uncomfortable truth. But one Venezuelan foundation did just that to raise awareness about the country's high rate of teen pregnancy.
The video by Friends of Children Who Deserve Protection (known as Fundana) begins with the statement, “Shop windows display desires, but when they reveal hidden realities, they cause fear, astonishment and shame.”The camera cuts to a mall where people stop and stare at a shop window, shocked at something not yet revealed to the viewer. Finally, the video reveals the object of people's attention: mannequins dressed as schoolgirls with pregnant bellies.
Every minute, three girls under the age of 18 become pregnant in Venezuela, according to the organization. A 2013 World Bank report found Latin America and the Caribbean was the region with the third highest teenage fertility rate behind Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Venezuela ranks among the top 40 of the list, along with other seven countries in the region. The same document mentions the five regional countries with the greatest success in terms of reducing teenage pregnancy rates during this period: Colombia (-25 percent), Haiti (-23 percent), Costa Rica, El Salvador and Peru (-21 percent).
Fundana's campaign is aimed at parents with teenage children and teens themselves to emphasize the risks of pregnancy at a young age, such as being forced to drop out of school.
The blog Vida como mamá (Life as a mom) reposted the video and wondered:
Qué estamos haciendo nosotras como madres, como familias, para prevenir un embarazo no deseado o una enfermedad de transición sexual. Están nuestras niñas y adolescentes recibiendo la información oportuna y a tiempo de mano de nosotros.
What are we doing as mothers, as families, to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, or a sexually transmitted disease. Are our girls and teenagers getting timely information from us?
Website Panfleto negro (Black flyer) reflected on how people deal with a delicate issue such as teenage pregnancy, given that the video leaves the viewer with the obligation of doing something they might not want to. But it's important that parents and adults take on the issue:
Tampoco es justo pedirle al video que resuelva el problema; bastante ha hecho llevando nuestra atención hacia ese tema tan incómodo. Así que valga este comentario como una de las conversaciones necesarias para continuar la labor iniciada por la campaña.
Neither is it fair to ask the video to solve the problem; it has done enough making us pay attention to this very uncomfortable issue. So, may this remark be one of the necessary conversations that go along with this task that the campaign has launched.
On Twitter, the hashatg #VitrinaVerguenza (showcase of shame) showed a variety of opinions:
Para entender las problemáticas una nación hay que empezar por las cosas básicas #VitrinaVerguenza #Activate https://t.co/r3CrsmiaJr
— Gabriel Dasilva (@g_Dasilva_G) agosto 15, 2014
To understand a nation's problems, we have to start with the basic stuff.
Con #VitrinaVerguenza promovemos que se informe y converse que el embarazo precoz en Venezuela tiene el mayor índice de la región.
— 141 COIMBRA (@141COIMBRA) agosto 15, 2014
With this campaign, we promote information and discussion, as teenage pregnancy rates in Venezuela are the highest in the region.
Some tweets were addressed to parents:
Quieres q tus hijos dejen clases y no se preparen por un descuido? Habla con ellos, que sepan todo del embarazo precoz #vitrinaverguenza
— Jean Paul Garcia (@JeanPaulGarcia) agosto 15, 2014
Do you want your children to drop out of school and not be prepared for the future because they were careless? Talk to them, let them know everything about teen pregnancy.
Other users compared Venezuela's figures with those of other countries:
Países como Colombia, Haití y Perú redujeron en más de 20% los índices de embarazo precoz, ¿qué pasa en Venezuela? #VitrinaVerguenza
— María José (@majoauday) agosto 15, 2014
Countries such as Colombia, Haiti and Peru reduced their teenage pregnancy rates by more than 20%. What about Venezuela?
However, not everyone agreed with the campaign:
“Vitrina verguenza” es una campaña contra la dignidad, a meterle el ojo @MinMujer http://t.co/JFhiIJrCC9
— Karina García (@karinagarciaro1) agosto 14, 2014
“Showcase of shame” is a campaign against dignity, don't miss it.
¿vitrina verguenza? ser mamá joven no tiene nada de vergonzoso estimados venezolanos
— Negra (@Catitamayorga) agosto 20, 2014
Showcase of shame? To be a young mom is nothing to be ashamed of, my dear fellow countrymen.
Panfleto Negro ends up its entry by saying:
Hay, por supuesto, otros temas asociados, como la falta de políticas públicas, o cómo los esfuerzos de prevención del embarazo precoz (y de cualquier cosa en Venezuela) se hacen con las uñas y sin apoyo articulado del gobierno. Como se ve, una gran caja de Pandora que este video, enhorabuena, se ha atrevido a abrir para nosotros.
There are, of course, other issues associated with this, such as lack of public policies, or how those prevention efforts related to teenage pregnancy (as any other thing in Venezuela) are carried out on a shoestring budget and without articulated support from the government. As we can see, a large Pandora's box that this video, congratulations, has dared to open for us.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Trinidad & Tobago: Back-to-School Apps · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

ICT Pulse shares 5 useful apps for staying organised once school starts.


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Activist Blogger in Vietnam Gets 3 Years Behind Bars for ‘Obstructing Traffic’ · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Policing traffic in Hanoi, 20 November 2013, by Cesar Torres. Demotix.
On Monday 25 August @hrw statement to demand #Hanoi release of #Vietnam dissident Bui Thi Minh Hang & collegues pic.twitter.com/n3gqN5Rdf8
— Phil Robertson (@Reaproy) August 22, 2014
A court has sentenced prominent Vietnamese activist blogger Bui Thi Minh Hang to three years in prison for posing a “serious obstruction to traffic.” Her two other companions, Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh and Nguyen Van Minh, received sentences of 2 years and 2.5 years, respectively.
The three were among the 21 arrested last February while riding motorbikes from Ho Chi Minh City to the Dong Thap province, where they planned to visit a lawyer and a former political prisoner. Of the group, however, police charged only the three with violating Article 245 of the criminal code (causing public disorder).
Bui Thi Minh Hang is a known anti-China activist, and also a vocal critic of the government’s policies on land, religion, and human rights. Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh is a fellow activist blogger. Nguyen Van Minh is a Hao-Hao-Buddhist-sect follower and an activist for religious freedom.
After six months of detention, the guilty verdicts came in this week. Many people, as well as friends and relatives, gathered in the Dong Thap province to support the accused on the day of the verdicts, but the police kept the crowd at a distance, arresting anyone who came too close.
On his blog and on Twitter, Ngoc Nhi Nguyen narrated the extreme police measures used to quell the protest outside the court house:
Since early this morning, the police barricaded all entrances to the block where the Court is situated. Anyone trying to get pass would be stopped and asked to be searched and have their ids checked. Anyone taking photos had their phones or cameras confiscated. Many were arrested, put onto waiting police buses and taken away, unsure where to.
This is what the Vietnamese government, a member of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, calls an open trial!!
News from 7.30am: With approx 60 police surrounding the courtroom, cameras are being confiscated, people are being taken away onto buses.
— Viet Tan (@viettan) August 26, 2014
According to reports, police even harassed some of the defendants’ relatives the night before the hearing:
…three groups of activists were locked in their hotels in Dong Thap, many of them are members of the Vietnam Path Movement, No-U Hanoi, No-U Saigon. Five members of the Vietnamese Association of Women for Human Rights were confined to their without food and water. One of them, Nguyen Thi Anh Ngan (Nguyễn Thị Ánh Ngân) had her seven-month old child with her.
Fellow #Vietnam activists preparing to attend the trial of Bùi Thị Minh Hằng, NVMinh & NTQuỳnh. Img from Anthony Le pic.twitter.com/JuYhNg2wJC
— Viet Tan (@viettan) August 25, 2014
Global human rights groups wasted no time condemning the prison sentences and the crackdown outside the courthouse.
Appalled to hear that Bui Thi Minh Hang, Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh, and Nguyen Van Minh were sentenced to a combined total of eight years
— The 88 Project (@The88Project) August 26, 2014
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, railed against Vietnamese authorities for using traffic laws to prosecute the pro-democracy activists:
The Vietnamese government is now resorting to bogus traffic offenses to criminally prosecute activists. The authorities should recognize this case is not worth the international ridicule it will cause and drop the charges immediately.
Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s Deputy Asia-Pacific Director, called on Vietnam to release all those who were detained by the police:
Today’s verdict appears to be another attempt to punish peaceful activism in Vietnam.
Vietnam should rein in its police and stop attacks on peaceful activists, their families and supporters.
All those imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights should be immediately and unconditionally released.
Even the United States Embassy in Vietnam has issued a statement expressing concern over the guilty verdict handed down to the activist bloggers:
The use of public disorder laws by Vietnamese authorities to imprison government critics for peacefully expressing their political views is alarming.
Vietnam is no stranger to criticism about its human rights. The national government has faced criticism for its severe treatment of dissident bloggers in the past. Indeed, this new trial that's put behind bars a prominent activist blogger and an advocate of religious freedom has further emphasized the gloomy state of human rights and free speech in the world's 13th-most-populous country.

author: Mong Palatino


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Ebola Scare: Trapped on the Cameroon/Nigeria Border for Over 40 Hours · Global Voices
Dibussi Tande

On August 19, 2014, the Republic of Cameroon closed its borders with Nigeria in a bid to halt the spread of the Ebola virus. However, the government made this decision without giving enough thought to the thousands of travelers – mostly Cameroonian citizens and Nigerians resident in Cameroon – caught on the wrong side of the border. Consequently, many of these travelers ended being trapped on the Cameroon/Nigeria border for days, in appalling conditions, while waiting to be screened for the Ebola virus before being allowed back into Cameroon.
Batuo's Blog published the first-person narrative of Patricia Temeching, one of the travelers who was trapped on the Cameroon/Nigeria border for over 40 hours:
I go through Nigerian security checks and my passport is grudgingly returned to me. I walk across the bridge. The Cameroonian side of the bridge is crowded, as is the police/customs post that is perched three meters away from the end of the bridge… When I inquire why there are so many people on the bridge a miserable-looking woman replies, “We are waiting for the medical team to screen us for Ebola before we can go into Cameroon…”
‘How long have you been waiting?’ I ask.
“Fifteen hours. I came yesterday just after the medical team had left.”
I join the throng of people on the bridge and we wait and wait. Hunger and anger consume me. All I have in my travelling bag are a few clothes and my academic papers. By evening more and more people have joined us and we are all crowded on the bridge and in the small police post building, where we spend the night on our feet. The stench of urine and faeces emanating from the back of the building combines with the unhealthy sweat from two hundred unwashed bodies and leaves a nauseating sickening feeling in the air.
In the morning we receive information that the medical team will arrive soon. We are all looking forward to it. By noon nothing has happened…
This afternoon, after I have spent 24 hours at the border post, we are allowed to trek to Ekok town. It is a trek an Ebola patient will certainly not survive. We pay boys to carry our bags. When we reach Ekok town we are bundled into an empty building with no lights, no toilet facilities and no beds. This it to be our accommodation until the medical team arrives. Finally the “medical team” arrives. It is the doctor from Eyumojock. We go through the “screening”. This is how it happens: Eau de Javel [bleach] is poured into water. We file in and wash our hands. We also wash our mouths. Then you are cleared.
Once I am cleared (at 10 p.m.), I leave the ‘quarantine’ building and go to look for a hotel. I find a run-down inn and finally crawl into a sorry-looking bed with tired sheets. After spending forty hours on my feet this bed feels like a king’s bed. I sleep the sleep of the dead.
This is my greatest worry: What if one person among us (two hundred travellers) actually came with Ebola from Nigeria? The chances are we might all have become contaminated in the past fifty hours from being held promiscuously together, and we would now be taking the virus to two hundred different Cameroonian families.
Follow our in-depth coverage: The Struggle to #StopEbola in West Africa

author: Dibussi Tande


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From a “Gaza Stripper” in Texas to Chinese Migrants in Egypt, Kim Badawi Photographs Intercultural Encounters · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

Thiago Pater Kayapo and Samantha Aweti Kalapalo, the day before they are wed despite their tribal differences, at Aldeia Maracanã on February 2, 2013, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “Since tensions have existed between both of these ancestral tribes. Thiago and Samantha are only not allowed to date but definitely not to get marry. Nonetheless, within the safe-space of Aldeia Maracana, their forbidden love is welcome.” Photo by Kim Badawi, published on Phmuseum's website. Used her with permission.
In his pictures and through his visual work, Kim Badawi has been able to capture and expose unexpected and yet very real exchanges happening in different parts of the world. One might say his work tries to capture visual representations of contemporary cultural encounters. Whether it's through images of indigenous groups in Brazil living in urban spaces, or Chinese communities living in Egypt, Badawi's work shows how these encounters take place. A “cultural hybrid”, as he calls himself, Badawi concentrates on the everyday aspects of such intersections, highlighting the different sides of each experience.
Global Voices talked to Badawi to learn more about his work (some of which is shared below). Badawi described his main motivations and some of the most memorable moments in his career. He argues that online social media can be an important space for sharing stories that the mainstream media fails to report, or shows no interest in discussing.
Global Voices (GV): What sort of stories do you try to tell through your work?
Kim Badawi (KB): Being a cultural hybrid myself, I have worked in the past closely within cross-cultural subjects. I am to this day fascinated by the notion of “identity”, even “national identity” and subsequently by the idea of stereotypes, in general. Perhaps it is for these reasons that much of my work is largely about bipartisanship or showing the flip side to more commonly media enforced stereotypes.
One example of such work is Badawi's piece, “The Gaza Stripper“, a provocative film about Ari Lauren Souad Said, a woman “born of an Israeli mother and a Palestinian father [who has] spent much of her childhood torn between two conflicting faiths and cultures in Israel”.
The Gaza Stripper from Kim Badawi on Vimeo. Used with permission.
GV: What kind of images do you think mainstream media fails to show?
KB: In general mainstream media is a slave to the “like” button. Visual stories need to short, and to the point. Fortunately or perhaps unfortunately not everything is black and white. [The story about the community of Chinese migrants in Egypt] failed to have traction from two reasons: First of all, while I was working on this story just about every editor who asked me what I was working on, after I explained to them that I had discovered a network of illegal migrant Chinese workers living in Cairo, their response would be, “That's great! But Kim, what does this have to do with the Egyptian revolution?” Nothing, and that is why I pursued it.
Fortunately for me, I had received funding from the French American Foundation and was free to work within my own limitations and work schedules. This story also didn't hit the pages of many magazines because it was shot in black and white. In short, because I see this as a historical document
The Migratory Silk Road : Chinese in Egypt. from Kim Badawi on Vimeo. Used with permission.
GV: What advantages do you think you have with the use of social media?
KB: In many of the cases where I have documented social movements, subcultures or communities in the past, social media and the internet in general have served as a platform for the individuals to connect [outside their locations]. In [the case of the Chinese migrant community in Egypt] however, the language barrier and the fact that Egypt was going through a social uprising, [communication had to go] on a person-to-person basis. The Chinese I photographed, however, were very present themselves on social networks and communicated daily using Chinese instance messaging, or QQ. It never ceased to surprise me that instead of a regular email address with a catchy name (like we would do it), they had really long QQ addresses that consisted solely of a series of numbers.
GV: Is there any idea/anecdote you would like to share with us?
KB: In this link I mention several anecdotes, including how I begun the project in the first place. This entire project was made difficult by language barriers. Because even with translators I was, for the most part, lost in translation. Whether it was Chinese speaking Arabic or Egyptians speaking Chinese, accents were so hard to grasp that I think this would have made for a humorous situation in itself. To make matters more confusing, differences in cultural attributes, manners and even culinary taste made for much discussion and at times, misunderstandings.
Once, I spent all day photographing a farmer family in the outskirts of Cairo, in Falloum. Explaining where exactly their farm was to an Egyptian taxi driver was my first challenge. Finding it was another. Once I was there, I spent most of the day photographing the family working under the hot sun. Around dusk, the father invited me into their small home, and said, “Do you know what a farm does after a hard day's work?” He proceed to pull out a bottle of moonshine with floating seahorses inside. It tasted like fire, but after the first glass, it went down a little better. We chatted on into the night, until I asked if one of his children could help me get a taxi back to Cairo. I don't recall getting home, but remember waking up and feeling great at 8am! I had no idea what I had drunk, nor where they managed to find seashores in Cairo, but was told later that at least I wasn't drinking liquor fermented with insects, as that is custom in China!
Badawi's work has also addressed the ongoing exchange between some indigenous communities in Brazil and the country's rapidly growing urban population. Brazil's recent World Cup provided a particularly resonant frame for these images, which showcase how two worlds can coexist peacefully, if uneasily.
More of Badawi's art can be found on his website and his Vimeo channel.

author: Laura Vidal


text:
Locusts Invade Madagascar’s Capital City  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

#valala pic.twitter.com/YHzOx5Q8QU
— Vaintche Rahouli (@vincraholi) August 28, 2014
Twitter and Facebook users from Madagascar's capital city, Antananarivo, have posted several photos of locusts invading the city. Locust invasions are not unusual in Madagascar, especially after tropical storms, but they are very uncommon in larger cities. Locusts can have a devastating effect on crops, especially in a country that has struggled with bouts of famine in past years.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


text:
Outspoken Mozambican Hip-Hop Artist Azagaia Is Appealing to Fans for Donations to Remove His Brain Tumour · Global Voices
Dércio Tsandzana

Photo by Rita da Silva published on the page Ajuda O Mano Azagaia (Help Brother Azagaia) and used with permission. The campaign raised 10% of the funds for treatment on its first day.
Mozambican rapper Edson da Luz, better known as Azagaia, has revealed on his social media accounts that he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Some weeks ago, he suffered a strong epileptic attack and started to show behavior inconsistent with his personality, such as states of mental confusion and memory loss. Exams in Mozambique and South Africa confirmed a tumor on the left side of his brain.
If not operated on soon, the 30-year-old singer could die within two years. Considering the high cost of intervention in Mozambique and the probable wait time for surgery through the country's national health system, Azagaia was advised to continue treatment in India. Meanwhile, without financial resources to pay for the operation costing US $25,000, the musician is asking for contributions from his fans:
Tudo o que quero é conseguir o dinheiro para essa operação na India, mas sempre rezando por um milagre. Do fundo do meu coração, o milagre que desejo ver acontecer, é que esse tumor desapareça assim como apareceu, ou seja, sem que tenham que meter uma faca na minha cabeça.
All that I want is to get the money for this operation in India, but always praying for a miracle. From the bottom of my heart, the miracle that I want to see happen, is that this tumor disappears as it appeared, that is, without them having to take a knife to my head.
Azagaia, whose name means spear, has won fans for challenging those in power and addressing social issues in his music. His lyrics have caught the attention of government officials, too; in 2008, he was called in for questioning at the attorney general's office related to his music allegedly inciting violence.
Fans reacted by sharing the Facebook post by his management over 700 times on Monday, Aug. 25. They left numerous messages for the singer in the comment thread. Many, like Moises Jesus Alberto, demonstrated their unconditional support for the rapper:
Mano Azagaia tenha fe que o povo sta contigo, voce e a fonte d inspiração de muitos jovens, incluindo eu
Brother Azagaia have faith the people are with you, you are a source of inspiration for many young people, including me
Marcelo Massaite Jossias wrote:
O Mocambique e consigo, tenho a certeza que muitos nao precisaram de ir a igreja orar por ti, mas logo que tomaram conhecimento do seu estado pedem a Deus a cada minuto para ele te ajudar.Estamos consigo mano.
Mozambique is with you, I am sure that many do not need to go to church to pray for you, but as soon as they hear of your condition they will ask God every minute to help you. We are with you bro.
Edgar Kamikaze Barroso shared a video of support for Azagaia on his wall:
Espalhem a mensagem, ajudem no que puderem. Há no final do vídeo o número das contas bancárias e o contacto dos titulares, para eventual informação adicional.
Spread the message if you can. At the end of the video there are bank account details and contact details if you need any extra information.
An equal number of messages of support appeared on Twitter:
fiquei estupefacto e triste ao mesmo tempo com o vídeo do Azagaia
— Bruno Amaro (@brunoamaro17) agosto 26, 2014
I was speechless and sad at the same time with Azagaia's video
Vamos ajudar o Azagaia :) Pouco ou muito vamos ajudar.
— Marita Matilde シ ♥ (@MaryMaTiilDee) agosto 26, 2014
Let's help Azagaia. A little or a lot let's help.
Solidariedade com o mano Azagaia, a voz dos sem vozes. http://t.co/go7Lq1LQxE
— Araújo Manjor (@Ishokamot) agosto 26, 2014
Solidarity with Azagaia, the voice of the voiceless.
A Facebook page called Ajuda O Mano Azagaia (Help Azagaia) already has 3,300 likes. The crowdfunding campaign Azagaia Brain Tumor Operation Fund has reached US $5,724 with 10 percent of the goal donated on the first day alone.

author: Dércio Tsandzana


text:
Powerful Video Shows a Syrian Toddler’s ‘Rebirth’ From Under the Rubble of a Bombed Building  · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

A screenshot of a YouTube video by Nour Media Center showing the rescue operation
Good news from war-torn Syria is rare these days. Just last week, the United Nations revised its death toll for the bloody conflict between forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad and the factions that are opposed to his rule to more than 191,000. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay lamented that there is “no end in sight.”
With the situation so grim, let’s revisit one of those rare uplifting moments to come out of Syria in the last year. To those who don't believe in miracles, here is one.
This video, which has been watched more than a million times on YouTube via various accounts, shows a Syrian toddler being saved after the young child was completely buried in the ruins of her home following an explosion from a barrel bomb attack in Syria's second largest city, Aleppo.
Originally posted in Arabic by Nour Media Center, the video of the miracle survival was shared by news site euronews and YouTube user Cometotruth on January 24, 2014.
The good news came one week after her rescue on January 29, 2014. ATJEH CYBER WARRIOR shared the English-subtitled video identifying the toddler as a girl named Ghina:
Ghina is alive again after she was pulled from under the rubble. The warplanes shell the buildings, but human beings and children are the victims. Ghina lost her mother when they were buried under the rubble due to shelling. Ghina was lucky, but her mother wasn't. Now Ghina lives with her father and six siblings in their displaced house that lacks the minimum necessities of life.
Ghina is one of thousands of Syrian children who are paying a heavy price in the civil war, now in its third year. More than 191,000 people have died in the bloody conflict for control of Syria between forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad and the factions that are opposed to his rule, who first rose up during the wave of Arab Spring demonstrations across the region. Ghina was a victim of the crude barrel bombs that the government has dropped on civilian areas despite international condemnation.
Want to help Syria's children? Take a look at our post “Children Crisis in Syria” to learn how.

author: Rami Alhames