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2015, a Year of Learning for Our Volunteer Translator Community · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Tower of Babel painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Image upload to Flickr by user Thomasthomas CC licensed Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Another year of translations has passed for Global Voices in Spanish. To celebrate the New Year as well as the anniversary of our volunteer translation project, let's do something that fits right into Global Voices’ mission and give a voice to those who usually go unnoticed — in this case, our translators, who tell us what translating in general, translating for Global Voices and being part of its community means to them.
We start with Antonia Pasqualino, one of our new translators who joined Global Voices in 2015:
Soy profesora de inglés y estudiante del último año del traductorado técnico, literario y científico en el mismo idioma. Hace poco tiempo he sido aceptada como traductora voluntaria de Global Voices en español. Es realmente para mí una gran alegría y una experiencia muy gratificante. Esto no sólo tiene ver con que colaborar con ustedes y permitirme poner en práctica lo que he estado aprendiendo durante estos años, sino fundamentalmente también porque soy una apasionada del lenguaje. Amo la comunicación y la combinación perfecta y armoniosa de las palabras para lograrla. Desde mi punto de vista, el poder de ellas es muy valioso, por tal motivo  poner mi granito de arena a través de la traducción para que el mensaje llegue a los que necesitan interpretarlo me hace realmente muy feliz.
I am an English teacher and a senior student on technical, literary and scientific translation into English. I have recently been accepted as a volunteer translator at Global Voices in Spanish, which to me represents a great joy and a very rewarding experience. Not only by working with you and being able to put into practice what I've been learning over the years, but also because I am passionate about language. I love communication and the perfect and harmonious combination of words to achieve it. I believe in the power of words, and for that reason being able to do my part through translating, so that the message reaches more people, makes me really happy.
Marian Rubio, a translator who live in Spain and has recently started working with Global Voices, writes:
Estudio el Grado en Traducción e Interpretación en Málaga y estoy cursando el último año en estos momentos. Hace ya unos meses que empecé a colaborar con Global Voices en Español y lo cierto es que es la primera vez que traduzco artículos para que sean publicados. Esta me parece una magnífica oportunidad no solo para enriquecerme conociendo lo que ocurre en otros países y aprendiendo a trabajar y a formar parte de una cadena, sino también para ayudar a transmitir la información a través de otras culturas. El lenguaje es lo que nos permite formar parte de una sociedad y, gracias a los traductores, no supone ninguna barrera cuando de lo que se trata es de conocer cualquier suceso.
I am a senior student in translation and interpretation in Malaga, Spain. A few months ago, I started working with Global Voices in Spanish and it is the first time that I have translated articles to be published. This seems to me to be a great opportunity not only to improve myself by getting to know what happens in other countries and learning to work as part of a network, but also to help convey information through other cultures. Language is what allows us to be part of a society and, thanks to the work of translators, it is not a barrier when it comes to communicating.
Lucas Lanero, another translator who joined Global Voices this year, writes about his experience:
El traducir para Global Voices es un aprendizaje permanente, ya que mejoramos como traductores pero también descubrimos cosas nuevas con cada texto. Nunca se sabe de que nos podemos enterar y cuando me trabo con alguna frase o término pienso…¿por qué no elegí otro texto? Pero al resolverlo me doy cuenta que esas complicaciones son las que me hacen mejorar. Personalmente disfruto colaborando y si bien aún soy un estudiante, el día de mañana voy a poder decir que mi primera experiencia en esta hermosa profesión la tuve en GlobalVoices! Que tengan un excelente año
Translating for Global Voices is a lifelong learning opportunity, as it helps us improve ourselves as translators and at the same time makes us learn new things with each text. You never know what you may encounter in a given post, and when I get confused with a phrase or a term, I tend to think … why didn't I chose another post? But in trying to resolve it, I realize that overcoming these difficulties is what makes me a better translator. I personally enjoy working as a volunteer translator, and even though I am still a student, in the future I will be able to say that my first experience in this beautiful profession was at Global Voices! Have a great year!
Verónica Barroso, a translator and English teacher from Argentina, says that for her Global Voices is not just about translating, but also reading stories:
Hace unos pocos meses me incorporé a este grupo para colaborar. Tuve mis miedos al principio ya que no poseo muchos años de experiencia, de hecho estoy terminando mi tesis para recibirme. Por otro lado tuve que aprender a utilizar otros métodos y programas. Esta oportunidad me sirvió para ampliar no sólo mi experiencia y práctica en la traducción sino también mis conocimientos sobre hechos que suceden en otras partes del mundo y que no llegan a los grandes medios de comunicación. Pude leer historias que no encuentro en mi país en ningún lado. Es muy enriquecedor, por eso, a pesar de no siempre contar con el tiempo suficiente, intento seguir colaborando.
A few months ago I joined GV as a volunteer translator. At first, I was unsure due to my limited experience, in fact, I am actually finishing my thesis. On the other hand, I had to learn how to use other methods and programs. This opportunity allowed me not only to broaden my experience and expertise in translation but also my knowledge of events taking place throughout the world that are not covered by mainstream media. I get to read stories that I can't find in any other media in my country. It is very rewarding, therefore, despite lacking time sometimes, I try to keep translating as a volunteer.
Despite what some people may think, being a translator is not so simple. Elisa Lopez explains:
Para este 2015, me había propuesto pasar de ser una buena traductora a ser una muy buena traductora. Creo haberlo logrado, después de un año de mucho esfuerzo y estudio, y con la oportunidad y ayuda que me brindó Global Voices. Para mí, colaborar con Global Voices comenzó siendo mi manera de ayudar, de dar, de contribuir. Pero al final terminé llevándome mucho más.
Soy parte de una comunidad alentadora y solidaria. Los compañeros del grupo de GV me apoyan, me dan respuestas y hasta comparten material y guías de consulta. A través de las correcciones que hace el equipo de GV en mis traducciones, este año aprendí sobre las trampas de la traducción del inglés al español. Aprendí a tener cuidado con los anglicismos y a transformar construcciones propias del inglés en otras propias del español.
Puntualmente, aprendí a evitar las construcciones pasivas y los gerundios; revisé reglas ortográficas (¡no más tildes en fue, vio y dio!); aprendí sobre casos de concordancia (veintiuna mujeres, no veintiún mujeres) y reparé que hay muchas otras trampas más (Había tres personas, en vez de habían; o detrás de mí, en vez de detrás mío). Gracias, Global Voices, por ayudarme a ser mejor persona y traductora.
Ahora, para el año 2016, me propongo ser una excelente traductora. En un año les cuento si lo logré.
For 2015, I had intended to go from being a good translator to being a very good translator. I think I have succeeded, after a year of hard work and study, and with the opportunity and help I received from the Global Voices’ community. I started working at Global Voices as a way of helping, giving and contributing. But in the end, I ended up benefiting a great deal from the experience.
I am part of an encouraging and supportive community. My colleagues from GV are very helpful, answering my questions and even sharing reference guide material. Through the corrections that GV editors made, I learned about the pitfalls of translating from English into Spanish. I learned to be careful with anglicisms and to transform English sentences into Spanish sentences that sound natural.
Specifically, I learned to avoid passive sentences and gerunds; I had to revise spelling rules; I improved my skills on grammatical agreement and became more aware of all those language pitfalls. Thank you, Global Voices, for helping me to become a better person and translator.
In 2016, I intend to become an excellent translator. In a year's time I will let you know if I succeeded.
Romina Navarro tells us about her experience in the Global Voices biannual summit:
Las dos cosas que más me gustaron de este año: Tuve la posibilidad de estar presente en la cumbre bianual de Global Voices, donde finalmente conocí a varias de esas personas maravillosas, distintas entre sí y a la vez con mucho en común, y compartimos momentos tan inolvidables como divertidos. Y en esa cumbre surgió la propuesta de estrechar más los lazos en el grupo de GV en español para hacer artículos y reportajes en conjunto, proponer ideas nuevas y originales y tener la libertad de ser cada vez más creativos. ¡Imposible aburrirse con los GVers! ¡Gracias por ese gran equipo!
The two things I most liked about this year: the opportunity to participate in the Global Voices biannual summit and meet several of these wonderful GV people, who although coming from very different backgrounds have so much in common with each other, and where we shared a memorable and fun time. And the proposal that arose at that summit to strengthen ties within the GV in Spanish group to try to do joint articles and reports, to propose new and original ideas and have the freedom to be increasingly creative. It is impossible to get bored among GVers! Thank you all for this great team!
Last but not least, Cecilia Cardenas from Argentina, who in addition to being a regular volunteer translator also fills in as substitute editor, shares her experience:
En teoría la tarea del editor consiste básicamente en planificar qué se va a publicar y cuándo, detectar y corregir errores de ortografía, gramática y puntuación, verificar cifras, nombres propios, encabezados, títulos y subtítulos y formato, hacer pequeños cambios para mejorar la legibilidad sin alejarse del sentido original, pero en GV también incluye: controlar que el sistema haya publicado lo programado y si no hacerlo manualmente, manejar la cuenta de Twitter, contestar preguntas de los traductores lo más pronto posible, enviar comentarios editoriales si fuera necesario, actualizar posts traducidos que han sido modificados, pedirle al grupo alguna traducción urgente, tratar que los posts no envejezcan sin ser traducidos, recortar los títulos o modificarlos de manera que Google los trate mejor, y estar preparado para fundamentar decisiones editoriales en caso de que surja algún reclamo.
Por ejemplo, cuando tuve que hacerme cargo del proceso editorial, hubo un día en el que después de haber revisado 8 posts llegó un cambio de último momento, era tarde, me quería ir a dormir y recorté el título porque era muy largo para Google y al hacerlo sin pensar demasiado cambié caterpillar por topadora, palabra que en mi variedad del español sonaba normal, al día siguiente tenía el justo reclamo de la traductora que pidió que respetara su elección, obviamente hice el cambio y de ahí en adelante tuve más cuidado con las diferencias regionales.
In theory the editor's task is basically planning what post will be published and when, to detect and correct spelling, grammar and punctuation errors, to verify figures, proper names, headlines, titles, subtitles and text formatting, to make small changes to improve readability without straying from the original meaning. But at GV it also includes: checking that the system has posted on schedule and if not to do it manually, managing the Twitter account, answering translators’ questions as soon as possible, sending editorial comments if necessary, updating translated post that have been modified, asking the group to do some urgent, last-minute translation, trying to get all the posts translated, adjusting or modifying titles in order to get Google to treat them better, and being prepared to support editorial decisions should there be any issue.
For example, when I was in charge of the editorial process, there was a day when a last-minute change came up after I'd gone through revising eight posts. It was late, I wanted to go to sleep, so I cut out the title because it was too long for Google and in doing so, without thinking too much, I changed the word caterpillar for bulldozer (topadora), which in my variety of Spanish sounded normal. The following day I received the rightful complaint from the translator who asked me to respect her choice of wording, I obviously made the change and thereafter I learned to be more careful with regional differences.
2015 was a year full of stories, and with eventful political and social dynamics at a global level. Today more than ever, the Web not only hatches stories, but is the place for conversation about whatever is happening in every corner of the world. In 2016 we expect to continue being the bridge between those stories and the Spanish-speaking readers, translating for them all the stories published on Global Voices in English, in a timely and truthful fashion.

author: Juan Arellano


text:
Hong Kong’s Government Is Walking All Over Chinese Dolphins—Literally and Figuratively · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The photo showing Hong Kong government chief secretary standing on the dolphin's nose is interpreted as a “step” to “kill” the Chinese dolphins.
A photo showing Carrie Lam, the chief secretary of Hong Kong, standing on the nose of a Chinese white dolphin painted on the ground at Taipo Coastal Park has gone viral in the past few days — for all the wrong reasons.
For netizens, the snapshot captures authorities’ destructive attitude toward the marine mammal, which has flirted with extinction due to a series of government-led infrastructure projects that involve large-scale land reclamation.
The photo was first uploaded to the the Hong Kong government's Facebook page on January 10, 2016. As the government is set to go ahead with the construction of a third airport runway located in the heart of the Chinese white dolphins’ habitat, Carrie Lam's pose was interpreted as her taking a “step” to “kill” the iconic animal.
Below are some of the most popular comments on the government's Facebook page:
中華白海豚俾你地d工程搞死哂啦，仲好意思攞佢地黎做宣傳?
The Chinese white dolphins have been killed by your construction projects, how dare you make use of them for your propaganda?
他們對海豚趕盡殺絕，然後在一個沒有海豚的海岸，畫上假海豚讓自己作個狀乘風破浪。自欺欺人，惡俗至此，的確是人到無恥膽自大。
They have forced the dolphins into extinction. Then they painted some fake dolphins and pretended to be excited at the seashore where there are no more dolphins. So hypocritical, so banal. People can be fearless when they are shameless.
呢頭有真既唔要，趕盡殺絕，果頭踩住假既笑到四萬咁影相究竟咩心態
You don't want the real one and kill them all. Then you step on the fake one and take a photo while laughing. What kind of mentality is this?
中華白海豚喺回歸時被利用做吉祥物，到依家去到東涌，用中華白海豚嚟做招徠嘅廣告仍隨處可見，每一次見到白海豚嘅宣傳照，都有一種哀悼嘅感覺。白海豚嘅生存權完全被漠視，但就不停地被利用做宣傳，被消費，被抽水！依家白海豚只剩番喺幅畫度，都仲要俾呢Ｄ狗官踩住個鼻，情何以堪！
The Chinese dolphin was used as a mascot during the handover of Hong Kong to China [in 1997]. Now when you go to Tung Chung, there are many ads making use of the white dolphins. I feel sad just by looking at the posters. People don't care about their right to survive, but keep using them for promotion, they keep exploiting them. Now the white dolphin is turned into a painting on the ground, and the shameless government officials are stepping on their noses. What does that mean?
The Chinese white dolphin has inhabited the area near the Pearl River Estuary since the 1600s. It is listed as a “Grade 1 National Key Protected Species” in mainland China and is protected under the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance and Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plant Ordinance in Hong Kong.
However, the population has steadily fallen since the mid-1990s because of land reclamation, water pollution and heavy marine traffic. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the dolphin as “near threatened.”
According to Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society, only 61 dolphins appeared off Hong Kong's shores in 2014, while in 2003 the count was about 158. The decrease was believed to be related to the construction of the 42-kilometer-long Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.
If the Hong Kong international airport's third runway construction project is approved, the white dolphins could find that their already shrinking habitat is made even smaller. Another environmental watchdog, the Hong Kong World Wild Fund, pointed out in its environmental impact report:
Over the past 20 years, at least 2,000 hectares of dolphin habitat in Hong Kong alone has been damaged or destroyed through dredging, dumping and reclamation works. The construction associated with the third runway will reclaim 650 hectares of the sea. During the construction phase an additional 981 hectares will also be heavily impacted.
The location of the proposed third runway is at the heart of three Chinese white dolphin hotspots […] A new runway would firstly create a physical barrier in the water, disrupting dolphin activities and movement between these important habitats.
Regardless of all the environmental concerns, the government's airport authority is determined to build the multi-billion-dollar third runway, claiming that the construction project is the only way to maintain the city's competitiveness in the Pearl River region, even though the Hong Kong airspace is already too crowded and there is not yet any agreement made on the regional air traffic management that gives more airspace to the city.
The step that the Hong Kong government takes may not only end up killing the Chinese white dolphins, but public trust as well.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Taxicab Confessions, Kyrgyz Style: Lawmakers Get Behind the Wheel to Chat With Voters · Global Voices
Abdulfattoh Shafiev

Photo from the Facebook page of Ibraim Nurakun Uulu, the Kyrgyz parliament spokesperson.
When you hail a taxi on the street, you're probably not expecting the driver to be a current member of parliament. But that's what residents of Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, will be experiencing in a rare move by officials in Central Asia to reach out to the ordinary people who vote them into power.
Every week a member of the Kyrgyz parliament, which is called Jogorku Kenesh in the local language, is getting behind the wheel of a taxi for the TV program “Parliament Taxi”. The show, which was launched by the parliament's communications department, is broadcast by two local TV stations on evening prime-time. The parliamentarians-turned-cab-drivers use a Toyota Camry from the parliament’s fleet. It is not explained if the lucky passenger pays for this special ride or not.
The first driver, a member of parliament from the ruling Social-Democratic Party, kept his official dress on and drove around two elderly women.
The idea, as any other idea, found both its supporters and opponents. Larisa Kuznetsova liked it:
Отличная идея! И конкретная помощь населению и главное общение с депутатом!
A great idea! A concrete way to help the population, as well as a chance to chat with a member of parliament!
Asel Yssyk-Kul Lake recalled history:
Это как в старину, цари переодевались в нищих и ходили среди народа и узнавали как они живут.
Like old times, when kings dressed like beggars and walked among the people to see how their people live.
The show's organizers say that the main goal of launching this project is to provide an opportunity for voters to talk to their representatives and share their worries and problems with them, as well as to give members of parliament the chance to check in on their voters’ lives.
That raised questions with some Kyrgyz commenters, particularly with Aicholpon Dadaeva, who suggested other jobs would serve the purpose of the show better:
как будто они прям такие сразу стали депутатами, им это все знакомо, лучше бы в детские дома няньками поработали бы или в больнице санитарами)
It seems like they always were parliamentarians. All of them know everything. They would be better off working as nannies at orphanages or as medical orderlies in hospitals.
Other Kyrgyz Facebook users offered up different positions, such as Jyldyz Djambolotovna:
Дешевый пиар! Лучше занимались бы своими проф. обязанностями! Пишите законы которые будут работать на народ !!!!
A cheap PR move! They should be doing their own actual job – writing laws that are useful for people!
Or this idea from Mirulan Sydykbekov:
Нет, пусть лучше на маршрутке, там народов больше и эффектов быстрее будет!
Better off driving a microbus, there are more people and it gives a better effect!
Photo from the Facebook page of Ibraim Nurakun Uulu, the Kyrgyz parliament spokesperson.
Kyrgyzstan, where two presidents have been turfed out over the past decade, remains the only country in Central Asia where the government seems to care about listening to regular people. An attempt to provide people such a platform to meet and talk with their members of parliament, even if it is just PR, is a move you do not see and wouldn't expect from the other four Central Asia stans’ sultans.
However, some demanding Kyrgyzs said they wanted their country not to be compared with its neighbours, but with the developed world, offering the example of Danish parliamentarians, who take bikes to the office.
Meanwhile, after the first show was broadcast, some keen-eyed viewers remarked that the parliamentarian violated driving rules by not fastening his seat belt.

author: Abdulfattoh Shafiev


text:
Printers Censor Another New York Times Article, Shedding Light on Pakistan’s Stifled Speech Environment · Global Voices
Sana Saleem

Front page of International New York Times on March 21, 2014, when a story on Osama Bin Laden was omitted. Photo by Aysha Raja, shared on Twitter.
Pakistani printers removed a front-page story titled “Imperiled Bloggers of Bangladesh” from the 2 January 2016 edition of the international version of The New York Times, leaving blank spaces behind.
Salman Masood, the New York Times’ correspondent in Pakistan, tweeted the two different versions of the paper:
The printing partner of New York Times in #Pakistan removes an article. Readers get white spaces on two pages pic.twitter.com/ccjFvWtorj
— Salman Masood (@salmanmasood) January 2, 2016
This is what the Asia edition of New York Times actually looks like today, without the censor in Pakistan pic.twitter.com/SqFRejdu2s
— Salman Masood (@salmanmasood) January 2, 2016
The article describes the killings of Bangladeshi bloggers who write about secularism, atheism, human rights and civil liberties. It begins by profiling Asif Mohiuddin, who survived a stabbing attack in 2013 and was soon after imprisoned for his progressive writings. His story is similar to those of numerous other Bangladeshi bloggers who have been targeted and sometimes killed after being singled out and accused of “atheism” by religious hardliners. Atheists have the same rights as all other citizens in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, but the country's secular government has nevertheless done little to discourage the attacks or bring the killers to justice.
The fact that the front-page story was removed in Pakistan by the Express Tribune, the printing partner of The New York Times, created a stir on social media. Many pointed out that this censorship is nothing new in Pakistan.
Don't get it. Why would the Pakistan edition of NYT censor an article related to the death of bloggers in Bangladesh. Help, anyone?
— Osama Munir (@osamamunir_) January 2, 2016
@HaticeAVCI_ @nytimes actually not the first time. It's almost a daily occurrence. @salmanmasood
— Abid Hussain (@abidhussayn) January 2, 2016
Some even compared it to authorities’ iron grip on media during the rule of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq from 1978 to 1988:
Blank columns of the NYT reminiscent of the Zia era #Pakistan #censorship https://t.co/SwVNrUfKSl
— Mohammad Taqi (@mazdaki) January 4, 2016
Shortly after, The New York Times published a statement providing a note from the printers on why they had chosen to leave the story out. The note was brief:
We are compelled to remove the article appearing on front page and page 2 of the [International New York Times’] Saturday Jan. 2-3 2016 as it contains comments on the Quran and Prophet Muhammad that can cause serious offence to our readers.”
The New York Times’ public editor Margaret Sullivan wrote that the newspaper was not given a chance to contest the article’s removal.
Pakistani-based author and blogger Bina Shah reacted sarcastically:
I was somewhat relieved that they had removed the article: in Pakistan, where being a journalist or a writer or a blogger can get you in a lot of trouble, nobody needs to be given ideas about slaughtering us to silence us.
Indeed, this is not the first time a major story has been removed from the local print edition of the New York Times. In March 2014, a Times story on Pakistani authorities’ possible knowledge of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts was censored, and the front page was left almost entirely blank.
Self censorship?: The Intern. NYT in Pakistan, minus @carlottagall ‘s story on bin Laden pic.twitter.com/Y1ayRnsEkR [Photo by @aysharalam]
— Michiel Huijsman (@michielhuijsman) March 23, 2014
A month later, an opinion piece on blasphemy by Ali Sethi also “disappeared”, again leaving a conspicuous empty space behind. In response, Bina Shah wrote about how censorship was being carried out by media outlets themselves, not by official order from the government:
You might think the Pakistani government ordered this to be done, but no, the newspaper's editors took the decision to do this all on their own. Right now, things are bad in Pakistani media… very bad. With the fate of GEO, the country's biggest television channel, hanging in the balance, charges of blasphemy against senior media personalities, and an all-out war against the Jang Group in which all media houses have taken sides like pirañhas [sic] scenting blood in the water, the Express Tribune probably decided they didn't need any more trouble, and so simply cut the piece out in the crudest way possible. The last time they did this was over the Carlotta Gall report about the whereabouts of bin Laden.
In the past few years, authorities in Pakistan have been heavily criticised for the ad hoc manner in which content is blocked online. Although much debate on the issue has focused on the government's ban on YouTube, the blocking of Al Jazeera and BBC's website has also raised concerns about the state of freedom of information in the country. The Express Tribune newspaper in particular came under scrutiny after an ex-employee revealed the ways in which political pressure shaped their coverage.
In this instance, the act of censorship reflects a dark, crude reality for speech in Pakistan. As Shah put it:
It's an empty gesture given that the article is available online, but this blank space in the newspaper speaks volumes about the conditions under which we live and write in Pakistan today. Say no to censorship in all its forms, because only when information flows freely is any country truly free.

author: Sana Saleem


text:
Triangulating Sources to Thin the Fog of War · Global Voices
Aric Toler

Ghost village, by Christos Tsoumplekas. January 6, 2012. Ano Simi, Crete, Greece. CC 2.0. Edited by Kevin Rothrock.
This article is part of a larger guidebook by RuNet Echo to help people learn how to conduct open-source research on the Russian Internet. Explore the complete guidebook at the special project page.
The war in eastern Ukraine was the first European war to take place in the ubiquitous presence of the Internet, documenting nearly every aspect of the war as it played out. The conflict's ideological battleground unfolded online, making tragic events into fodder for propaganda (for Internet users in both camps of the war).
As historians and investigators look back at the fighting, it will be vital to collect as many views as possible on individual events, in order to discern fact from fiction. This guide will show you how to find pro-separatist, pro-Ukrainian, and independent-observer (OSCE) reports for specific days, using as a case study the January 13, 2015, shelling attack on a civilian bus near the town of Volnovakha, which resulted in the deaths of 12 passengers.
Contents
Much like the Ukrainian government, various separatist groups issue dispatches that summarize recent battles and military activity. Also like dispatches from Kyiv, these should not be trusted without extensive verification through outside sources. Below is a list of some of the most popular separatist dispatches, most of which have information going back to the first half of 2014. Many of these dispatches duplicate the same information, but they may also contain additional photos, videos, and context:
Searching for one of these outlets (Новости Новороссии) with the date parameters of the day of and after the attack, we find dispatches on pro-separatist RusVesna.su for the two days:
For the January 13 report, the separatist dispatch says, “The armed forces of Ukraine shot up a passenger bus with peaceful citizens at a checkpoint near Volnovakha. 10 people are dead, 13 are wounded.” More information can be found searching for another of these dispatches—the News of the Donetsk Republic—with the data parameters and the keyword “Volnovakha” in Russian:
In the first result, the news site provides quotations from separatist commander Igor Girkin (Strelkov) and pro-Russian/pro-separatist blogger Boris Rozhin (“colonelcassad”). Girkin accused Ukraine of “attempting to hide the truth” and said that there were “clear signs of bullet wounds from small caliber weapons,” contradicting Ukrainian claims that separatists shelled the checkpoint with artillery. Rozhin sees a more complicated plot, saying that there should be “several craters” at the site and not just one near the bus, and that Ukraine fired a single shell at the passenger bus to blame separatists for the attack. In a real separatist attack with a Grad artillery system, as Rozhin's argument goes, there would be dozens of shells fired at the location.
The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (СНБО, or NSDC) releases regular dispatches regarding casualty figures, the locations of battles, and sightings of Russian and separatist military equipment in eastern Ukraine. You can access these from various Ukrainian news sites, including the video dispatches that usually include Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) spokesperson Andrey Lysenko. Like the separatist dispatches, the information contained in these NSDC and ATO dispatches should not be taken at face value and should always be verified with additional sources.
To find a situation map or dispatch for a particular day, Google the phrase “АТО СНБО,” plus the date, or change the Google search parameters to include only a certain day. The Ukrainian news site 112.ua hosts videos and reports on nearly all of these dispatches. You can also find information from ATO dispatches and National Security and Defense Council reports on social media, such as NSDC's English-language Twitter account.
The first three results are Ukrainian news reports on the updated maps and situation reports from the Ukrainian NSDC for January 13 and 14, 2015—the day of and after the Volnovakha bus attack.
On the map, the red square denotes Volnovakha, where the bus attack occurred. As we can see, the area is well under Ukrainian control.
Further investigation with searches of Волноваха автобус (Volnovakha bus), using the date parameters of January 13-14, 2015, gives us a tremendous amount of information, as this incident made news headlines for several days in Ukraine and Russia. Shortly after the attack, various Ukrainian news outlets published a video of the attack from security footage, showing approximately 88 shells fall around the checkpoint, with fire seemingly coming from the northeast in the direction of separatist-held Dokuchaievsk.
The OSCE is the only international organization allowed to conduct monitoring in eastern Ukraine, thus making it a valuable resource for independent information about the conflict. The OSCE produces daily updates, along with spot reports on special events, regarding any fighting observed, groups of vehicles spotted, investigations into particular attacks, and other events. The daily OSCE updates can be accessed here, along with the spot reports.
One of the most widely discussed OSCE updates was its spot report on the Volnovakha bus attack, following a separatist artillery attack near a checkpoint. With allegations flying from both Ukraine and separatist forces, the OSCE report was a stabilizing force in the controversy, dismissing separatist allegations of a landmine triggering the attack or a Ukrainian “false flag” attack against its own checkpoint.
The OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) arrived at the location of the incident at 5:45 p.m. and witnessed the removal of two dead passengers from the bus. The bus had shrapnel damage consistent with a nearby rocket impact, estimated by the SMM to be 12-15 meters from the side of the bus. The SMM visited the Volnovakha hospital where the staff confirmed that 10 persons on the bus were killed instantly, while two died later in the hospital. Another 17 passengers were injured.
The OSCE later confirmed that a Grad rocket, fired from the northeast of Volnovakha, was the source of the attack on the bus. This information corroborates Ukrainian accusations that separatists fired an artillery attack from territory to the northeast of Volnovakha, as seen in the security footage from the checkpoint.
There is more information about the Volnovakha bus attack than most incidents in the Ukrainian war, as this particular attack drew international outrage and commentary from world leaders. Nevertheless, the same research principles can be applied to study events as minor as an empty town being hit by mortar fire, or as major as the MH17 tragedy. Though the Volnovakha attack was fairly unambiguous in culpability, not all incidents are so clear, as Ukrainian sources often compete with separatist spokespersons to produce unreliable reports. Even with the flood of wartime information created and made accessible by the Internet (dispatches, videos, photographs, and eyewitness accounts), the fog of war is still thick. But it's not impenetrable.

author: Aric Toler


text:
Ukrainian Separatists Block 100+ News Websites in ‘Lugansk People’s Republic’ · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Users in occupied parts of Lugansk region report over a hundred Ukrainian news sites as blocked. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
More than one hundred Ukrainian news websites are currently inaccessible in the self-proclaimed “Lugansk People's Republic,” a section of eastern Ukraine's Lugansk region that has been occupied by a pro-Russian militia since shortly after the 2014 protests that led to the ousting of former president Viktor Yanukovych.
The separatist leaders say they are blocking access to news websites in order to protect citizens from the “destabilizing” influence of Ukrainian media. The blocking reportedly took hold on January 8, in compliance with a decree from the separatist authority's Ministry of Information.
Independent eastern Ukrainian news website Ostrov reports that separatist officials in Lugansk pressured local Internet service providers to implement the censorship order, and had approached providers in mid-December 2015 with a list of approximately 117 URLs to be blocked. The number of websites currently reported as blocked hovers between 113 and 117, according to various media reports.
Ukraine's national government regards the Lugansk People's Republic as an unofficial and illegal zone of the region. It is not surprising that local leaders take issue with independent news sites, many of which reflect conflicting views on the status of the territory.
Although the initial December list of URLs to be blocked included Ostrov's own website, ostro.org, along with the BBC news service in Ukrainian, both sites are currently still available in Lugansk. However, popular news websites such as Ukrainska Pravda, Obozrevatel, Novoe Vremya, TSN, and 24 TV are allegedly blocked. Users attempting to access these and other websites in the separatist-held territory report receiving a “Webpage is unavailable” error. As early as December 21, 2015, there were sporadic reports that some Lugansk ISPs had already started blocking Ukrainian news websites, before the “information destabilization” decree went into effect.
Radio Liberty, whose Ukrainian website was also on the list of blocked websites, reminded its followers on Twitter about circumvention tools such as Psiphon that could allow users to access blocked content.
На території угруповання «ЛНР» не працює низка українських новинних сайтів. Як обійти блок https://t.co/s5dxvVhcPR pic.twitter.com/aT9STeJvPd
— Радіо Свобода (@radiosvoboda) January 13, 2016
A number of Ukrainian news websites don't work on the territory held by the “LPR” group. Here's how to get around the blockings [embedded infographic explains how to search for, download, install and use Psiphon to connect to blocked websites through a regular browser].
The breakaway parts of eastern Ukraine have long sought to restrict access to Ukrainian media online to cement their hold on the information sphere. In June 2015, the other pro-Russian separatist “republic” in Donetsk region instituted an Internet blacklist registry as part of a new law passed to “help regulate the use of information technologies and provide for information security.” Although separatist authorities never released a full list of blocked URLs, local media reported that the blacklist contained a number of Ukrainian news websites.

author: Tanya Lokot


text:
A Male and Female Take on Cricketer Chris Gayle’s Display of Sexism · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Kieron Pollard talking to Chris Gayle”. Photo by bob walker, used under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
‘Gayle’-force winds have been blowing through the Caribbean blogosphere in the aftermath of West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle's inappropriate on-air advances towards Australian sports reporter Melanie McLaughlin. The incident — and Gayle's subsequent fine and possible ban from his cricketing league — has inspired intense online discussions about sexism and race, with two extremes emerging: those who categorise Gayle's actions as harassment and those who say his punishment far outweighs the crime, turning the predator into the prey.
To help clarify the intricacies of the discourse on sexism, race, sport and culture, Global Voices talked to two Trinidad and Tobago-based bloggers: one male, Wired868 sports reporter Lasana Liburd, and the other female, writer, political blogger and cultural studies researcher Rhoda Bharath.
Global Voices (GV): Can you put your finger on the thing that peeved you most about Gayle’s comments?
Sports journalist Lasana Liburd. Image used with the permission of the subject.
Lasana Liburd (LL): ‘Don’t blush baby!’ For me, that put an exclamation mark on his pathetic soliloquy. It hinted at his own inflated ego and arguably sought to reduce his target’s professionalism in one swoop. And it showed he was not paying attention to the body language of the female reporter and, quite possibly, did not care a jot.
Rhoda Bharath (RB): His blithe arrogance. Gayle felt entitled to speak to the reporter in a way that was unprofessional — because he was being interviewed in his capacity as a sportsman of the region — and sexist. Further, when challenged, his response was even more tone deaf.
GV: Was Gayle’s behaviour sexist? Was it sexual harassment? What’s the difference?
LL: I feel there was a touch of sexism in his closing because she certainly was no ‘baby’ of his and it felt like his speech was partly about reducing her professionally, whether intentionally or not. Because she became less a sport journalist at that point and simply a ‘babe with a microphone’. I think it was harassment in that she was put in an awkward, uncomfortable position against her will while just trying to do her job. If Gayle had said ‘no comment’, it would have been much better for all concerned. I don’t think it crosses the line to be considered ‘sexual harassment’ though. It is a sex-less scandal.
RB: My laywoman's understanding of sexism is when you discriminate against someone based on their perceived gender. So, if I assume someone is physically weak because she is a woman or someone is emotionally underdeveloped because he is male, that is sexism. Sexual harassment refers to abusing your position of power over someone to make unwelcome and inappropriate sexual advances. A good example of sexual harassment would be a tall, handsome, popular athlete using his close proximity to a female journalist and the awkward position of being on air to talk about some part of her body (eyes), make a sexualized comment (don't blush) and an advance (let's have a drink) that would put her in an uncomfortable and compromising position. Why speak to her like that on air? It diminishes her as a professional person, objectifies her on camera no less, and robs her of the opportunity to respond as she really would like because she is at work. Maybe she would have said yes; but that is irrelevant. Gayle showed no respect for the reporter as a professional or a person.
GV: The gaffe has ignited a public discussion about sexism in our society. How should we approach this and what kind of a difference would it make considering that it’s a part of West Indian culture and language?
Writer and blogger Rhoda Bharath. Photograph by Mark Lyndersay, used with permission.
RB: Sexism is part of how our society was structured. I say constantly that were are a stratified society: Race, class, gender, age, wealth. You name it. We approach sexism every day and shrug. For many reasons. Some of us accept it as a cultural norm. Some of us are so numb to it we do not recognize it anymore. Some of us do not have the language or awareness to articulate and examine it. I think people with the awareness and vocabulary need to tackle and target it. Individuals and groups. And it should be a consistent discussion because sexism permeates every aspect of our lives. Everything. Culture and language systems evolve and change. There is no reason we cannot. What we need is awareness of the issue at hand and mature discussions using the right vocabulary.
LL: I think it is about respect as much as anything else. I’ve had female bosses and I’ve never heard anyone refer to [media executive] Sunity Maharaj, [writer] Kathy-Ann Waterman or [media executive] Shida Bholai as ‘baby’. In fact, I don’t think anyone would have referred to [former Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister] Kamla Persad-Bissessar as ‘baby’ in a professional setting over the last five years. So I am not convinced that it is just our culture. I think it is something we do when we feel we can get away with it. And it shows a lack of respect for our target. That is when it is done inappropriately, of course. It is a tender, loving term when used properly with someone you have some sort of relationship with. I’m not sure who should lead the charge. It might very well be that the biggest impact in this battle can be done on Facebook walls and the equivalent of water cooler conversations where men and women are made to understand why this is wrong. I feel we need to understand, in a social context from our peers and not necessarily some Tanty heading a NGO, that this will not go over well.
GV: There have been calls for public education on this issue locally, but what would really effect enduring change?
LL: An enduring change would only result from consistent enforcement of a new social norm and tutoring children in what is unacceptable social behaviour and why.
RB: Education isn't a static thing. People think education is a lecture or a lesson. It is ongoing and requires practice exercises. So, I am always going to be advocating for public education. In its realest sense: ongoing discussion and linkages with pragmatic and practical approaches of the skills learned to life. When people become aware of how sexist our language and customs are, the next step has to be how do we address changing these things…and that is ongoing. That is practice.
GV: Lasana, you made the point on a Facebook thread that the entire sports media culture struggles with this, so Gayle is a product of that as well as of macho West Indian society. But should netizens be taking offence at a double standard as well? Why would tennis star Maria Sharapova’s flirting with a journalist not be an issue but Chris’ come-on was? Are West Indians more sexually permissive than their peers down under?
LL: I definitely don’t think we are more liberated. As in everything else, we simply get away with more in the Caribbean and act accordingly. Sharapova made arguably an inappropriate compliment to a male journalist. If Gayle had stopped at ‘your eyes are beautiful’ then we would not have had a problem. Everything he said after that opening was what got him a $10,000 fine. But, yes, I think society is far from blameless. Television stations hire the prettiest faces they can find because they think it helps them to woo viewers and lure athletes into interviews. I think nine out of ten marketing or PR managers look stunning too. It arguably shows that looks and sexiness have become prerequisites in certain fields. Gayle responded to that.
RB: I'm not focused on sexism only in sport. Sport is a kind of crucible, that no doubt would intensify the way sexism is performed. I think all sexism, all kinds, needs to be addressed, not just sexual harassment, which is what the Gayle and Sharapova issues are about. Sexual harassment is one type of sexism. There are many other issues that need tackling.
GV: There has been a lot of talk about whether this would have got as much heat as it did if Gayle were not a black man from the Global South and McLaughlin were not a white woman from a developed country. Did race come into play?
RB: Race comes into everything. And that became even clearer after Gayle's grudging apology. The journalist accepted. The white male media and sporting fraternity continued to froth and call for larger portions of his head. In fact, it began to look like Gayle was being harassed and bullied.
LL: I read a story about Frank Sinatra referring, jokingly, to female Australian reporters as hookers back in 1974. This was the response to that, according to the UK Guardian: ‘The reaction was swift and comically stunning. The Australian press demanded he apologise; Sinatra refused. By noon the next day, the unions were involved, and airport refuellers flatly refused to fill his Gulfstream, while terminal staff announced none of their number would serve him. For the next few days, Sinatra ended up marooned and under siege on the 23rd floor of a Sydney hotel. It took the arbitration and conciliation services of Bob Hawke –- then the ragingly popular leader of the Australian Council of Trade Unions –- to get Sinatra to sign a grudging apology, which finally permitted him to escape the country. That said, I would not rule out an element of racism. There often is. But I don’t think the first response was racist. In fact, the reporter’s own colleagues initially responded with stifled laughter and the hashtag #smooth, while Gayle has also got support from white colleagues in the media, sporting world and among cricket fans. I don’t think this situation has descended into race yet, although I’m sure many racists have been sharing their opinions too.
GV: What many people cringed at was Gayle’s tone. Condescending. Entitled. Disrespectful. What does that tone say about sexism and how it can be dealt with?
RB: Condescending, entitled, disrespectful: we could easily be talking about the attitudes of the wealthy elite to the Caribbean…and to black bodies. And I start off that way to explain that Gayle's response is learned behavior. He picked that up from somewhere. His culture at home or in the community. We need to question who has shaped our culture and how. We need to question and grapple with what is our culture and why. Only then can we move forward. Gayle's arrogant and exploitative attitude isn't new or particular to his gender or ethnicity or discipline. Which makes this even more dire a situation. It means that it is prevalent. And to root it out will be a long and difficult process.
LL: Men with prehistoric views on a woman’s role on this planet are a big challenge for women’s fight for equality. But, to be frank, groupies are an equally big challenge. Some people cannot tell the difference between groupies and women and I think that contributes to incidents like that. Maybe Gayle meets more groupies than women and is more used to dealing with the former than the latter. In most other walks of life, including as a journalist, groupies are not part of the landscape though. So in that case, men have to respect the occupation of the woman in front of them or understand that the woman in the party didn’t get dressed with you specifically in mind. You really need a cultural shift for that to sink in though. And, in that sense, it is absolutely right to use high profile scenarios like this one to make a point and hopefully sway a few people.
GV: What was the weirdest part of the whole scenario for you?
LL: I was bemused by statements that it was just Chris being Chris. Chris needs to pretend to be someone other than Chris then, so he can live in a civilised society. There are many people in cells right now who were keeping it real with their dark sides. We all have to compromise to share space with everyone else on the planet. Celebrities included. Even those who are really good at hitting a cricket ball.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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After Attack, Defiant Indonesians Declare #WeAreNotAfraid · Global Voices
Anton Jo

A peace rally was held in Jakarta a day after armed men attacked several locations in the city. A child carries a placard with the slogans Melawan Terorisme (Fight Terrorism) and #KamiTidakTakut (We are not afraid). Photo taken by Carolina
A day after the Indonesian capital of Jakarta was hit by a series of blasts and gun attacks, life is back to normal for many residents, but the country's security forces continue to be on high alert.
Militant group ISIS later claimed the attack on January 14, 2016, was the handiwork of one of its networks in the world’s most populous Muslim-dominated nation.
The first blast followed by gun shots were heard around 10:50 a.m. in Jakarta's Thamrin area, which is near the presidential palace, foreign embassies and United Nation offices.
Jakarta was previously targeted by the Jemaah Islamiyah, an Al Qaeda splinter, in 2001, 2004, and 2009. This spate of violence left seven people dead, five of whom authorities said were assailants, and raised security alerts across Indonesia and nearby countries in the Southeast Asian region.
President Joko Widodo condemned the attack and advised citizens to remain calm. He also urged the public to cooperate with government forces in keeping the capital city safe.
Saya berbelasungkawa atas korban aksi teror. Kita akan kejar, tangkap dan hukum pelaku serta dalangnya -Jkw pic.twitter.com/siAf9hEXSI
— Joko Widodo (@jokowi) January 14, 2016
My condolences to the victims. We will apprehend and bring to justice the perpetrators and those who masterminded the attack
Tidak ada tempat untuk terorisme di bumi Indonesia. Semua warga dunia juga harus bersatu memeranginya -Jkw
— Joko Widodo (@jokowi) January 15, 2016
There's no place for terrorism in Indonesia. Every citizen of the world must fight it.
One of the hashtags that trended after the attack was #KamiTidakTakut (We're not afraid), which reflected the sentiment of many Indonesians to remain strong and united in the face of adversity. Even the police acknowledged the value of the hashtag in promoting unity in the country:
Selamat pagi Mitra Humas, menindak lanjuti info terkait kejadian Sharinah Thamrin kemarin, segenap keluarga besar Polri mengucapkan terimakasih atas kerjasama generasi Muda Indonesia yang mengusung hashtag #KamiTidakTakut. Dan dalam hitungan jam trending telah bergeser kepada Jakarta Kuat, tukang sate, aksi heroik, Polisi ganteng, serta meme meme lucu. Terimakasih kepada buzzer positif Indonesia, terus tingkatkan perjuangan anda. Salam Tribrata.
Good morning partners, following up on yesterday's attacks in Sarinah, Thamrin. All of us at National Police extend our thanks to the Indonesian youth who initiated the hashtag #KamiTidakTakut (We are not afraid). It trended just hours after it was launched and highlighted other topics too. Thank you for being positive buzzers, keep up the fight. Tribrata Salute.
These tweets also capture the resolve of many Indonesians to overcome this tragedy:
Serangan Ini Tidak Akan Melemahkan Indonesia Tapi Malah Sebalikny.. Ini Akan Membuat Indonesia Makin Kuat.. #KamiTidakTakut
— Junior Motivator (@Lilyx_Nurahman) January 15, 2016
This attack won't weaken Indonesia; on the contrary, Indonesia will be stronger.
We defend Surabaya from mechanized Allies roops in 1945 for 30 days using Bamboo spear, why we frightened to 7 dumbass? #KamiTidakTakut
— Rinto Friday (@RintoFriday) January 15, 2016
#Bali shot a great example of Indonesians standing up in the face of terror https://t.co/E9UfGcxxL7 #kamitidaktakut pic.twitter.com/7t83G0LiCx
— Coconuts Bali (@Coconuts_Bali) January 15, 2016
Happy Friday! #KamiTidakTakut pic.twitter.com/Nhm28MCHqc
— Plesbol (@PLESETANBOLA) January 15, 2016
These photos of street vendors near the site of the violence went viral and was used as a proof to show the resiliency of the Indonesian people:
When you're about to take down terrorists but damn that mango is dope pic.twitter.com/EMwMWNf23s
— RDX (@radixhidayat) January 14, 2016
Bombs did not make us afraid, Only in indonesia Terror didn't affect us #indonesiaunite #JakartaAman #KamiTidakTakut pic.twitter.com/DK30md4us8
— Jem Ahmad (@Jem_Libra) January 14, 2016
Although most Indonesians have a Facebook account, the social network didn't activate its Safety Check feature. In response, Indonesia netizens used the hastags #Jakarta and #SafetyCheck to inform their friends about their situation.
Anyone see the #Facebook #safetycheck feature in #TurkeyAttack or #JakartaBlasts ?
— Yiğit Üşenmez (@Yigitusenmez) January 15, 2016
Some believe that authorities failed to prevent the rise of cells loyal to ISIS in the country:
Antiterror peop shld remember tht supporters of GenPrabowo/FPI openly flew ISIS flags@ '14 rallies n downtwn Jakarta https://t.co/3MKhs1icpU
— Allan Nairn (@AllanNairn14) January 15, 2016
Prabowo was a presidential candidate who lost in 2014, although he remains influential; while FPI is radical Islamic group in Indonesia.

author: Anton Jo


text:
An Indian Student Blogs About Being Ostracised and Bullied After Reporting Sexual Abuse · Global Voices
Rezwan

Screenshot from the cover of the free e-book, “Sexual Harassment at Workplace in India: Let’s Stop It Together” by LawSikho.com (Click on the image to read the e-book on Slideshare)
“Sexual harassment is like God, it is everywhere,” one Indian woman activist jokingly said about the perennial problems of abuse of women in India.
And it doesn't stop with the initial assault. A recent incident at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), a film and television institute located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, illustrates how speaking up against abuse can open the door to even more harassment of victims.
Last month, three faculty members at the SRFTI were suspended following complaints of sexual harassment against them. The allegations were made in a November 2015 meeting of a number of female students with the chairperson of the Internal Complaints Committee for Sexual Harassment. The charges included faculty members engaging in body shaming of students in class and making comments of a sexual nature. Another professor was accused of supporting a male student's stalking of his female classmates.
A student at SRFTI writing under the screen name Kunjila revealed that she was one of the complainants and had accused her professor of “forcing her to have sex with him”. She described how the student community turned against her after her identity was divulged:
I am writing this blog post to update on the developments that have happened after i came out as the complainant who lodged the complaint against a professor in SRFTI who forced me to have sex with him. On 25th December 2015, Sri, whom i used to consider a friend, a student from the same batch as i, called up a meeting of all girls of the institute. The messages were on the whatsapp group which is called SRFTI General Body of which i am a member too. She had given the link to my blog post and the report in TOI (The Times of India). Another male batchmate remarked in the group that the last line of the report was ‘atrocious’.
And it got ugly, as she wrote in another blog post on January 3, 2016:
Meanwhile in SRFTI, where the crimes took place, people were busy ganging up against me. The first problem, as always, was that the reputation of the institute was getting tainted. On social media a few girl students put up posts saying they have never felt that SRFTI was unsafe for women. [..]
Some ex students took those posts as a good opportunity to judge my character and say that i was lying. One said that i was an ‘ugly woman’, another that i was a ‘psychiatric case with a history of suicide attempt’, a post by a female ex student suggested that this was probably personal vendetta. Another female student said that it was the classic case of boy calling ‘tiger tiger’ twice when there was no tiger.
Between April 2014 and March 2015, there were 75 documented cases of sexual harassment in higher educational institutes reported across India.
Former justice Sujata Manohar of the Supreme Court of India explained in a seminar that there are no effective laws in India to address sexual harassment at the workplace, and that the Supreme Court guidelines are very broad hence they get interpreted in many ways. She said (pdf file):
One of the hurdles in dealing with this problem is that often such harassment is not recognized as offensive behaviour which can cause trauma and distress to the victim. Another myth is that the seriousness of sexual harassment has been exaggerated; most so-called harassment is actually trivial and harmless flirtation.
In an op-ed for the online commentary platform the Daily O, Edmond Fernandes, the CEO of the Center for Health and Development, Mangalore, and Homolata Borah, a research scholar at the Center for the Study of Regional Development in New Delhi, argued that now is the time for change:
It is time research scholars and post-graduates became very vocal about any untoward incident, be it inappropriate touch, a stare, sexual abuse, threat or bribery and immediately report the issue not only to the university authorities, but also the police, their family and friends so that it builds a cumulative pressure on the culprit to be brought to book and not let the case be hushed up.
It is also time that we witnessed institutional reforms and ensured that the promise of safeguarding women employees against sexual harassment is delivered.
On Facebook, Gagan Judge criticised the lack of support for Kunjila experienced at SRFTI:
I am amazed at SRFTI's women students who have extended almost no support to their fellow student. Some of the arguments I have heard from your male and female students are equally ugly and bunch of baloney. The saddest part in a sexual harassment case is what happens to the victim after she complains and I can see all the classical reactions here. “We are all safe. Our institute is being insulted!”. No one is insulting your institute and good that you and many others are safe as you claim. That is how institutions survive. Some people are always safe but what about that one girl who has spoken against sexual harassment. Why aren't you girls holding her hand?
And Subal Kr. commented:
Does everybody seriously believe this will hurt SRFTI ‘image’? What is SRFTI image? Since we are all students of cinema, before jumping and judging, at least wait for the truth to come out. Because your dirty comments not only hurt the girl, but also will scare other human souls to speak out their sufferings.
Award-winning documentary filmmaker Nishtha Jain, who directed the documentary “Gulabi Gang” about a group of Indian women activists against sexual violence, talked about the double standards at play in a Facebook post:
The fact is that most women don't even realize that they are being sexually assaulted or coerced, they take it in their ‘stride’. Most women don't report and that's actually a disservice to other women. I myself have not reported several such incidents, including those that took place in [Film and Television Institute of India]. I regret that now because I know these men are serial violators. There should be a ‘violator list’ that women should circulate so that their fellow students/colleagues/friends can be made aware about the violator. [..]
I think Indian men need to learn to hear the NO. And women need to say the NO louder and clearer. This is not to say that there are no false cases filed against men. There are, but these are much less in number because it takes huge courage for a woman to register a complaint even today in 2016. It's still the victim who's ostracized, largely by the society while the men are usually forgiven and accepted by their girlfriends/wives/families/ friends/colleagues.

author: Rezwan


text:
Angkety Map Highlights Digital Resources for Australia’s Indigenous Language Revitalization · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Screenshot of the report.
How are digital resources being used to preserve and revitalize indigenous languages in Australia? What are some of the challenges and strategies employed to mitigate risks for communities using these digital resources? These are some of the questions addressed in a new report called “Angkety Map”, which is a word from the Anmatyerr language meaning “many stories”.
First Languages Australia, an organization that supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities with all facets of language preservation and revitalization, released this summary following a 15-month project that collected the experiences of language activists of using digital technologies to provide learning and revitalization opportunities for their communities.
Researcher Ben Foley worked closely with the First Languages Australia team to survey and interview advocates during several language and technology events throughout the country, such as Puliima, the National Languages and Technology Conference held in Melbourne, and Ngirrma Puwal Pukang, the Queensland State Languages Conference held in Cairns. Online surveys were also distributed to cast a wider net to collect information from individuals that did not attend these events, and phone interviews were conducted with language centers, software developers, and other activists running local language projects.
These conversations highlighted resources and content created by local communities, such as:
Many of these examples are highlighted in the report as case studies of innovative methods to use technology for language learning and revitalization.
First Languages Australia hopes that the report will help guide policymakers in deciding funding priorities as well as facilitate discussions among language communities to help maximize opportunities to utilize technology, reduce duplication, and address potential challenges when applying digital resources.
Download the summary report here.

author: Eduardo Avila


text:
Enterprising Refugees Invited to Show Off Their Business Acumen in Europe · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Kos, Greece: More refugees arrive every day to the Greek island of Kos where they await to the access to Europe. Photograph by Jose_Hinojosa. Copyright: Demotix
More than one million refugees and migrants have crossed the sea to Europe last year escaping wars and unrest in their countries, seeking better lives for themselves and families.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) put the number at 1,034,745 by 29 December. The vast majority of refugees arrived by sea to Greece (839,561) and Italy (152,864) and the top five nationalities come from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Iran.
One organisation, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, has turned its attention to entrepreneurial refugees among the influx, in a bid to help them put their business acumen into good use in order to build new lives for themselves in their new homes.  Speaking on behalf of the team behind Entrepreneurial Refugees, Tarek Amr told us more about the project and what they aim to achieve from it. Amr is also a Global Voices contributor.
bidx: Like most people, we – at bidx – have been following the news about the refugees in the past few months, or what some media outlets like to call “refugees crisis”. Our initial thought was: how can we help? Our next thought was: how can we challenge the ongoing misapprehension that refugees are a burden on their new home’s economy, when in fact they can contribute to its growth.
We decided to build an online platform for refugees who are willing to start their own business, to connect them with mentors and investors who can support them. Entrepreneurial refugees upload their business ideas. Volunteers from their new homes join the portal as mentors, to offer advice and help them start their business. We also hope promising ideas will find their way to investors on our platform who are willing to fund them.
bidx: Bidx main product is called a bidx Portal, which is an online platform for matching entrepreneurs to mentors and investors, as well as providing automated ways for evaluating business plans and collaboration among members of the platform. This product is mainly sold to incubators, banks and business school in order to manage their startup communities. We usually tailor each portal to the wants and needs of our clients. This time we created a portal hoping that we can provide some help to entrepreneurial refugees.
bidx: The website offers members the ability to present a business plan, search for business plans, give feedback, connect and communicate. The website provides some basic measures for evaluating businesses, like how complete a business plan is. Mentors and investors can rate businesses so that good plans can easily be found. We rely heavily on volunteers, especially those who advise entrepreneurs in the form of mentorship.
Our team will start off by moderating the website ourselves. Our goal is to find sponsors in a later stage, when the number of entrepreneurial refugees is substantial.
bidx: Our plan is to raise awareness among two groups of people; the refugees and the volunteers. As for the refugees, once we are done with translating the website into Arabic, we will start contacting refugees centers and try to distribute flyers explaining our concept. As for the volunteers, we will use social media, and our friends in mainstream media to spread the word among those who are willing to volunteer by joining as mentors or possible investors.
This page describes how to help: https://entrepreneurialrefugees.bidx.net/get-involved/
bidx: It is available for all entrepreneurial refugees all over Europe. The size of our team has made us focus on the Netherlands more in this stage, as it is easier for us raise awareness locally. However, we want to offer as much support as possible to all refugees in Europe.
Entrepreneurial Refugees homepage
bidx: We have asked ourselves the same question. We know many refugees own smartphones and use them to communicate with each other about where to go. We also hope refugees reception centers and the volunteers there can help by giving the refugees access to computers. Additionally, we are actively looking for sponsors who can help us provide refugees with access to computers and internet connections.
In the end, we hope our portal will be useful to entrepreneurial refugees, to set up their business and improve their welfare.
bidx: That’s a very valid question, and we have done our research in this area. Let me first emphasise that we would like to our portal to be inclusive to all refugees regardless of their asylum status. In the Netherlands,  refugees are not permitted to work during the first six months of the asylum procedure. Later on, things change 180 degrees, once they are naturalised as citizens.
As for the latter case, there are already thousands in the Netherlands, and we hope our portal will help them right away. While for the former case, one possibility we are thinking of, is the Dutch startup visa scheme. As explained by the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service, the startup visa “makes it possible for ambitious entrepreneurs to apply for a temporary residence permit for in the Netherlands. The residence permit for  ‘startup’ entrepreneurs allows ambitious entrepreneurs to start an innovative business for a year”. It is worth mentioning that the start-up must be guided by an experienced facilitator in the Netherlands.
As for other European countries, it is clear that different states have different regulations. That’s why we hope the local mentors in our portals will work with refugees and guide them through ways they can legally start their business.
Using the portal's services, for both the refugees and volunteers mentoring them, is free of charge.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Miss Me? Witty Hackers Put Sherlock Villain Moriarty on Kyiv Subway Screens · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Moriarty, the villain from BBC's Sherlock series surprised Kyiv metro riders on January 14. Image from Nash Kiev Facebook community.
The subway passengers in Ukraine's capital Kyiv got quite a shock on January 14 when images of Moriarty, the infamous villain from the Sherlock books and films, started popping up on the screens in the subway cars, replacing the usual boring safety announcements.
Social media quickly filled with photos capturing the hacked screens, featuring the version of Moriarty played by actor Andrew Scott in the popular BBC Sherlock TV series. The images also featured the words “Miss me?,” echoing the plot of the final episode of the third season of the TV show, where Sherlock's nemesis, previously thought dead, appears on ad screens around London.
A photo capturing the sudden appearance of Moriarty on subway screens. Image from Nash Kiev Facebook community.
Kyiv's social media communities speculate that the prank is the work of hackers, but so far no one has taken responsibility for the images. The press-service of the Kyiv subway system told the AIN.UA website that they didn't sanction the placement of the Moriarty photos and that they're investigating the matter. The press-service also noted that the content on the ad screens in the metro cars falls under the purview of the ad agency contracted to manage the advertising placed in the subway.
While the hacking incident didn't lead to any issues in the metro system's work and seems to have been done in good fun, AIN.UA notes that it does raise questions about the security of the subway's information systems.


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The African Legacy of Alan Rickman and the Harry Potter Series · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

“Alan Rickman BAM 2011-01-11 n1″ by © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons. CC 3.0.
British actor and director Alan Rickman died of cancer on January 14, 2016. A well-liked entertainer, Rickman was known best for his roles as Professor Snape in the Harry Potter film series and as Hans Gruber in the movie Die Hard. Reducing the wide range of his talents to those movies, however, doesn't do justice to Rickman's career, which involved much more than acting. His influence was also felt through the charities he supported, benefiting people all around the world.
Rickman was a discreet person outside of his film work. As he stated in a recent interview, “If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work.” Yet, he was hardly shy about being active in the charities he supported, like Saving Faces (a foundation that helps the treatment of facial diseases), Anno's Africa (a charity running educational arts projects for children living in slum conditions in Kenya), and the International Performers’ Aid Trust (IPAT, a global charity created to relieve poverty where people are involved in the performing arts).
RIP Alan Rickman. A generous supporter of causes. Here at a SAFE event with Bee Gilbert, who runs Anno's Africa. pic.twitter.com/uFXgrz5iKm
— Ian Warwick (@IanWarwick2) January 14, 2016
One IPAT-supported project is Pa Bobo Jobarteh, which teaches children in the Gambia the ancient and traditional instrument of the kora. Constructed using 21 fishing lines, the kora is a mandinka harp that takes hours of study and practice. It is central to the musical culture of West Africa, as the video below demonstrates:
Fans of Rickman's work and of the Harry Potter series worldwide have mourned his death.
Canaille, a resident of Dakar, Senegal, shared the following video on twitter:
#Alan_Rickman #Professeur_Rogue Est décédé ce matin, pour les fans #Harry_Potter un hommage en vidéo RIP https://t.co/tLt3WhgvMR
— Canaille (@Canaille987) January 14, 2016
#Alan_Rickman #Professeur_Snape died this morning, for fans of #Harry_Potter here is a tribute video
In Antananarivo, Madagascar,Vola Raz wrote heartbrokenly:
The world has lost again one of its best diamonds. He was an amazing British actor. #RIPAlanRickman 💔❣😭
— VolaRaz | 182 (@VolaRaz) January 14, 2016
Mariam Diaby, a resident of Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, also paid tribute to Rickman's character in Harry Potter:
L'acteur britannique Alan Rickman, qui incarne le professeur Rogue dans #HarryPotter, est décédé à l'age de 69 ans #Cinéma
— Mariam Diaby (@macmady) January 14, 2016
British actor Alan Rickman, who played Professor Snape in #HarryPotter, died at the age of 69 #Cinema
Rickman's role in Harry Potter clearly left an impression on fans in Africa. In fact, recent news reports have highlighted the link between Harry Potter and the African continent, following the announcement that Swaziland-born actor Noma Dumezweni will play the lead role in the much-anticipated stage production of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” a play that is set 19 years after the final book.
Some of my favourite Hermione fanarts next to our new Hermione! pic.twitter.com/80bIkcLBMJ
— alice in wonderland (@alwaysdragxns) December 20, 2015
Yet the African legacy of Harry Potter is greater than Dumezweni's role as Hermione. In the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling included the continent in many storylines. For instance, the other wizarding school, the Uagadou School of Magic, is located in Mali, West Africa. Mauritius is the home of the Diricawl, a fluffy and feathered magical bird, and Harry Potter's godfather, Sirius Black, was in hiding in Africa during the plot of the Goblet of Fire.
In the real world, the Harry Potter Alliance, an association that aims to make activism accessible through the power of story, has opened chapters in Liberia and Uganda and raised US$123,000 for Partners in Health in Rwanda.
Fans have flocked across the continent to watch Harry Potter movies, as seen here in Johannesburg, South Africa:
And children in Rabat, Morocco, were inspired to stage their favorite scenes:
In the words of fellow actor Ian Mckellen (known for playing Magneto in the X-Men films and Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies), Rickman was “a constant agent for helping others. Whether to institutions like RADA or to individuals and certainly to me, his advice was always spot-on. He put liberal philanthropy at the heart of his life.”

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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The Conflict in the Middle East Is Not Between Sunnis and Shias and Doesn’t ‘Date Back Millennia’ · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Distribution of Sunni and Shia Islam in the Middle East and North Africa. Photo by Peaceworld111 on Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0
In his last State of the Union address US President Barack Obama stated that conflicts in the Middle East “date back millennia.” One Arab researcher takes time to explain to him that one aspect of the conflict — today's so-called Sunni-Shia rift is anything but ancient.
“The Middle East is going through a transformation that will play out for a generation, rooted in conflicts that date back millennia,” Obama said.
In a series of tweets, entitled About the so-called “ancient” Sunni-Shia rift, Palestinian writer, career entrepreneur, and Arab Spring activist Iyad El-Baghdadi delves into history picking examples of times when the sect of scholars and politicians did not matter:
In the late 19th century, Shiite scholar Al Afghani was a prominent member of the anti-colonialist, pan-Islamic revival movement.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
Al Afghani's disciple was none other than prominent Sunni scholar Mohammad Abduh, who would later become Egypt's Grand Mufti.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
One of the Sunni Abduh's lasting works was his commentary on Nahj al Balagha, one of most important Shia references.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
In 1931, Iraqi Shia cleric Kashif al Ghita led Sunni clerics in prayers in Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, at an anti-imperialist conference.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
In the 1940s, Pakistan, a majority Sunni state, was founded by Jinnah, a Shiite Muslim.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
In the early 1950s people answering the Iraq census didn't know whether to pick “Sunni” or “Shia” coz many were mixed.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
In 1958, Egypt's Grand Mufti declared that Shiism will be taught in Al Azhar as the fifth school alongside Sunni schools of jurisprudence.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
In the 1960s Sunni Saudi Arabia supported the Zaydi Shias in Yemen in a civil war against Egypt-supported Republicans.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
In the 1980s, the majority of the Iraqi army fighting Iran in the Iraq-Iran war was made up of Arab Shias.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
In the 1990s & 2000s, Shiite Iran supported Sunni Palestinian militant group Hamas.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
El-Baghdadi further explains the “divide and conquer” rift is political in nature and a “willful and cynical sectarianization of a regional power struggle.” He tweets:
The current dynamic isn't a conflict of sectarianism but a willful and cynical sectarianization of a regional power struggle.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
According to El-Baghdadi, tyrants are the only beneficiaries of this split and that sectarianism has been “weaponised for power”:
Tyrants are rarely ideologically committed to Sunnism or Shiism; but are happy to exploit either when it's expedient.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
Sectarianization became the pragmatic thing to do. Hatemongering ideologues became useful and hence became stars on TV and media.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
Fact is, I acknowledge the old theological rift and the communal differences but I emphasize their modern political weaponization.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
Has the region been sectarianized? Yes. Are the differences real? Yes. Is the current war posturing an ancient theological dispute? No.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016
Many theological and communal differences are innocuous, mundane, and not particularly deadly, until they are weaponized for power.
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) January 13, 2016


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The Victims of Mexico’s Drug War Deserve to Be in the Spotlight, Not El Chapo and Sean Penn · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

American actor Sean Penn (left), who interviewed the Sinaloa cartel leader, Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, ignited a media firestorm around journalism ethics that buried who should be really the center of the story: the victims of the drug war.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, considered until recently one of the most wanted drug dealers in the world, once again dominated headlines in Mexico and the United States — as well as elsewhere in the world — when he was arrested by Mexican security forces for the third time on January 8. Besides his previous sensational prison breaks, the revelation of his secret meeting with actors Sean Penn and Kate del Castillo while still on the run fueled the buzz even more.
These three have become stars of the story, stealing away attention from who really deserves it: the victims of the war on drugs.
Poet and Mexican activist Javier Sicilia spoke about this in an interview for NBC News:
The face of El Chapo is a smokescreen. Behind the kingpin's image, which is magnified by the media and the politics of Mexico and the United States, is the hidden truth… of the dead and those who are still disappearing.
El Chapo is a symbol [of the drug war] that governments use to award themselves a victory against the drug cartels and organized crime… [but] reality is different… People are still dying. People are still disappearing. People are still living in fear… […]
At the center of the media firestorm is Sean Penn's debatable journalistic merit and the murky ethics of allowing Guzmán, who heads the Sinaloa drug cartel, to approve the interview before publication in Rolling Stone magazine. The professional and citizen journalists who risk their lives every day covering the drug trade and corruption in Mexico have never themselves enjoyed such intense public awareness. In the last decade, more than 80 journalists have been murdered and 17 have disappeared according to Reporters Without Borders.
Pity that Sean Penn didn't ask #ElChapo about Mexico's missing and murdered journalists, many of whom were victims of drug cartel attacks
— David Agren (@el_reportero) January 10, 2016
The same can be said of the 164,000 dead civilians and approximately 22,000 missing persons during the drug war, in which El Chapo has undoubtedly been a key player.
@charlierose ask Sean Pensky why he didn't interview family members of victims that have been killed by El Chapo in cold blood.
— pete (@peteb1974) January 12, 2016
@jacobnoori@CJR enjoy consuming unethically produced content that abandons El Chapo's victims for a cheap non-scoop. All yours, clown.
— Luke Thomas (@SBNLukeThomas) January 12, 2016
The Rolling Stone profile presents a generally sympathetic view of Guzmán, saying that he only uses violence when its “advantageous,” “unlike many of his counterparts who engage in gratuitous kidnapping and murder”. Regarding the gangster's sweetened image, writer and journalist León Krauze wrote in the post “El Triunfo de Joaquín Guzmán” (Joaquín Guzmán's Triumph) on his blog Letras Libres (Free Words):
Así, El Chapo resulta un hombre de familia, que visita y quiere mucho a su madrecita, que cuida de sus hijos y sueña con disfrutar de sus últimos días en el terruño sinaloense, que se volvió narcotraficante porque de algo tenía que vivir, que no es violento más que para defenderse, que no ha hecho ningún daño a México, que es un narcotraficante como muchos otros, que no se droga y sólo bebe en presencia de una dama, que no recurre a la violencia ni para escaparse, que “no busca problemas. De ninguna manera”. Un hombre caballeroso, que da abrazos de “compadre” y está sonriendo casi todo el tiempo. Un hombre casi amable de no ser por los diez mil asesinatos que se le atribuyen al Cártel de Sinaloa y los millones de vidas destrozadas por el tráfico de droga a 50 países del mundo.
Thus El Chapo turns out to be a family man who visits and loves his mommy, who cares for his kids and dreams of enjoying his retirement years in his Sinaloa home place. Who became a drug dealer because he needed to make a living somehow, who is not violent unless it's self-defense, who hasn't harmed Mexico. A drug dealer, like many others, who doesn't take drugs and only drinks if a lady is around, who doesn't resort to violence even it is for escaping, and who “is not looking for trouble in any way”. A gentleman who gives friendly hugs and smiles all the time. A good man if it wasn't for the ten thousand murders the Sinaloa Cartel has been accused of and the millions of shattered lives caused by drug trafficking in 50 countries around the world.
Also, Twitter user IndyMama stated:
Everybody idolizing El Chapo shld be smacked in the face at least once by a surviving family member of his victims
— IndyMama (@hoosierworld) January 12, 2016
The war against organized crime in Mexico is far from over, even though one of the most notorious drug dealers of recent years is once again behind bars. Nor is the humanitarian crisis of hundreds of internally displaced left behind after the operations carried out by the Mexican government to find El Chapo and who were not taken into account when President Enrique Peña Nieto declared “mission accomplished”.
One of the people displaced is Martha's, who had to abandon her house in the El Verano community after Mexican marines raided it on October 6, when they were allegedly looking for the runaway criminal. Her story was recounted in the radio program “Sin casa por El Chapo” (Homeless because of El Chapo) by Cadena Ser:
Sentimos un poco de miedo porque ellos (la Marina) nos amenazaban, nos decían que si salíamos de las casas nos podían disparar y que si salíamos en vehículos nos podían echar algún tipo de explosivos y que ellos en sí no se hacían responsables de nosotros.
[…] nosotros si estamos con familiares y amigos pero la mayoría se asisten en albergues.
Personas de otras comunidades, como “El Limón” tuvieron que salir caminando. Hicieron alrededor de tres días, cuatro días (para llegar a Cosalá a refugiarse)
[…] el rancho está vacío, los animales están muriendo de hambre. En sí es una tristeza de comunidad.
We were somewhat afraid because they (the marines) were threatening us, telling us that if we went out of our houses they could shoot at us, and if we took our vehicles they could throw some kind of explosives at us, and that they were not responsible for us.
[…] we are staying with family and friends, but most are refugees in shelters.
People from other communities, like El Limón, had to leave walking. It took them three or four days (to reach Cosalá for refuge)
[…] the ranch is empty, the animals are starving to death. In fact, the community is desolated.
The Mexican government hasn't announced any type of compensation for people like Martha who have lost everything. In contrast, authorities boasted and celebrated Guzmán's re-capture. Anchorman and comedian Víctor Trujillo, known for playing a creepy clown character named “Brozo”, criticized the president's behavior:
Igual que fue de imperdonable cómo se les fugó, es imperdonable cómo lo celebraron. Tan heroico quisieron hacer el asunto que hasta cantaron el Himno Nacional, parecía que con la captura de ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán se acababa automáticamente la violencia que vive el país desde hace 20 años.
The same way as it is unforgivable that he ran away, it is unforgivable how they celebrated. They wanted the matter to be so heroic that they even sang the National Anthem. It seemed like “El Chapo” Guzmán's apprehension automatically ended the violence that the country has been experiencing for 20 years.
In the same interview with NBC News, activist Javier Sicilia asked Sean Penn and Kate del Castillo to use their fame to tell the story of the victims, and he added:
[…] only when the names of those who were killed are known, when the stories of their suffering are heard, and multiplied by the thousands, people everywhere will call out to end the war.

author: Elizabeth Rivera


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Let’s Not Forget There Are Still Political Prisoners in Iran · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Four Iranian-American prisoners were released today in an agreement with the U.S. government. Image by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
Four Iranian Americans including Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter who was imprisoned for the past 18 months on dubious espionage charges, were released in a prisoner swap with the United States over the weekend.
The Tehran Prosecutor said that the exchange, in which seven Iranians held by the US were released, was “in the national interest.”
Alongside Rezaian, dual citizens Saeed Abedini, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, and Nosratollah Khosravi were granted their freedom. Iran also released American student Matthew Trevithick, whose name had originally been withheld because his family had not wanted to publicize his arrest.
The news was certainly a happy development for families and friends of those imprisoned, but threatened to overshadow the plight of Iranian political prisoners who do not have a powerful foreign power to lobby on their behalf.
“If this release signals Iran’s desire for international reconciliation, so too it must move forward with national reconciliation,” Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, said in a press release. The campaign is a partner of Global Voices. “And that means the release of the many political prisoners behind bars in Iran.”
The campaign listed some of the names of those who remain behind bars in Iran for their peaceful work:
Global Voices Advocacy has also been following the stories and advocating for the release of the unjust arrests of technologists, netizens and others persecuted against freedom of expression rights such as Saeed Malekpour, Atena Farghadani, and Mostafa Azizi. Other dual and foreign nationals still in prison in Iran, according to the campaign, include Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American arrested in September 2015; Kamal Foroughi, the 76-year-old Iranian-British national held since 2011; and the Lebanese national Nazar Zaka who lived in the US and was arrested while attending a conference in Tehran in September 2015.

author: Mahsa Alimardani