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China and Hong Kong Are Supposed to Be ‘One Country, Two Systems.’ Someone Remind China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

White Paper by Badiucao for China Digital Times. The political cartoonist depicts the cover of the white paper, with a logo used by Occupy Central protesters reinterpreted as a noose. Non-commercial use.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong, a diplomatic agreement that ensures the political and economic autonomy of the former British colony – the idea of “one country, two systems” – upon handover to communist China.
But a recent official document from the Beijing government suggests that it may have a looser interpretation of “autonomy” than that agreement stipulated, to the alarm of many in Hong Kong.
This white paper places Hong Kong in the position of all other municipal and provincial administrative regions, where “China's central government has comprehensive jurisdiction” over them. The paper also makes “love of country” as the main criteria for Hong Kong's administrators, including judges and judicial officers.
Many judges in Hong Kong are not Chinese nationals, making it a strange requirement for them to pledge their love to another country. While Chinese nationality is a requirement for top officials in the administration according to the city's constitution known as the Basic Law, it is never a requirement for judges. The Hong Kong Bar Association, a statutory body for barristers, criticized the paper for undermining judicial independence in Hong Kong and stressed that the judiciary should not carry out any political missions of the government.
According to the “one country, two systems” principle in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hong Kong's previous capitalist system and its way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years until 2047. The Basic Law specifically states that Hong Kong will be independent in its judiciary system and “the common law, rules of equity, ordinances, subordinate legislation and customary law shall be maintained”.
Sources from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the press that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang planned to secure a signed document declaring the Sino-British Joint Declaration a success during his visit to the U.K. Such a document, according to Martin Lee Chu-ming, a founding member of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, would stop the international community from further commenting on the Hong Kong affair. He urged the U.K government not to sell Hong Kong out for a Sino-British trade deal.
By the end of Li's visit, the British government did not sign any joint document on the success of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, but Prime Minister David Cameron made a brief statement on the city. Evan Fowler commented on the diplomatic response in his column for House News:
The mood in Britain, in Europe, and in America, is increasingly anti-interventionist. There are too many other crises around the globe at present for [Hong Kong]’s political status to be a priority in Western capitals. […] Britain has not implied that it supports China's line on Hong Kong. Its support is for the promotion of “prosperity and stability of Hong Kong”. It is worth noting that this is “of Hong Kong”. […] Should Britain feel that China is denying this, Britain reserves the right to call China out as is its right under the Joint Declaration.
Public opinion in Hong Kong largely sided against the white paper. In mainland China, however, party mouthpieces claimed that all sectors from Hong Kong welcomed Beijing's white paper. Tibetan writer Woeser retweeted an image circulating online to counter the lie:
脸书上香港网友热转的图：“收回你的白皮書”！党的喉舌们居然还好意思说：「香港各界歡迎中央白皮書：釐清社會誤解」。 pic.twitter.com/GvXqAqS8H1
— འོད་ཟེར།唯色Woeser (@degewa) June 12, 2014
A widely circulated image on Facebook: “Withdraw your white paper”! The mouthpieces of the party dare say, “All sectors from Hong Kong welcomed the central government's white paper: Clarification of misunderstanding”.
The Chinese characters for “withdraw” (收) and “cover” (皮) when put together in Cantonese means “f**k off”.
Au Kar-lun, a former journalist, interpreted the political intention behind the white paper in his column for House News:
當年，強調「兩制」之特殊地位，強調香港有權、強調自治，目的是要香港人留下，叫香港人放心；今天，強調「一國」是前提，強調中央有權，一國壓倒兩制，權在我手，給你的，不是承諾，只是賞賜。懂了沒有？
Back then, the stress on “two systems” and the emphasis on the right of Hong Kong to enjoy autonomy was to ease Hong Kong people's anxiety and keep them in Hong Kong. Today, the “strong country” emphasizes “one country” as the precondition and that the central government has power [over Hong Kong]. One country is above two systems, power in their hand. The power we have is a gift [that you have to receive with a bow in gratitude], rather than a promise. Do you understand?
Kristine Chan summed up the major problems in the white paper from a Hong Konger point of view and called it the new Basic Law:
這洋洋數萬字寫的就是從中央的視角談談如何直接管治香港。政治方面完全收緊對香港管治權的控制，一國先於兩制，沒有所謂剩餘權力（residual power），即是說有什麼中港紛爭都由中央決定，香港人只可以做中央容許的事。[…] 這份文件除了政治宣言以外，亦列出了中央對香港的經濟及民生論述。中共的恩主心態低調地宜揚著：「要不是97年亞洲金融風暴我救了你們，之後不斷在金融（人民幣）、貿易（CEPA）、旅遊（自由行）給你著數，你早就玩完了！」[…] 請問香港有否高度自治、港人治港？請問這份白皮書有否諮詢過香港人、有否從香港社會出發？請問港府同內地政府簽協議有沒有香港人的同意？[…]不難想像，香港政府已經搶出來說這是「新基本法」，香港人的自治權蕩然無存。
The thousands of words talk about how to govern Hong Kong directly from the central government's point of view. It strengthens its political control over Hong Kong and places one country above two systems. There is no residual power, which means the central government has the power to decide all cross-border issues. Hong Kong people are allowed to do whatever the central government allows us to do. […] Apart from making a political statement, the document also talks about Hong Kong economy and society. The central government is presented as a benevolent ruler: “We have saved you from the 1997 Asia financial crisis. Without introducing the beneficial policies in finance (RMB exchange center), trade (Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement) and tourism (individual tourist visa to Hong Kong), Hong Kong will be over. […] Does Hong Kong have a “high degree of autonomy” and “Hong Kong people running Hong Kong”? Did they even care to consult Hong Kong people when writing the white paper? Is the paper written from the perspective of local society? Do the Hong Kong people have a say in all the arrangements signed between the Hong Kong government and the mainland Chinese government? […] It is not hard to imagine that the Hong Kong government has taken the white paper as the “new Basic Law”, meaning there is no more autonomy in Hong Kong.
Charles Mok quoted his friends poem that comments on the white paper as well as included a political cartoon:
好友方蘇為白皮書寫下的：「六月北風緊，烏雲壓港人。白皮載萬字，黑手懸千鈞。一國慣弄假，两制豈容真。基本目無法，自治化煙塵。」 pic.twitter.com/Ow3eySL8ld
— Charles Mok 莫乃光 (@charlesmok) June 13, 2014
My good friend Fong Su's words on the white paper: “The north wind is so fierce in June, dark clouds cover Hong Kong. The white paper carries thousands of words. Great danger behind the black hands. The one country is always pretending, the two systems will never be genuine. The Basic has no Law, autonomy has vanished.”
Follow our in-depth coverage: Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution


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Beyond the World Cup Headlines: Protests in Brazil, a Jailed Writer in Cameroon and Foul Play From Fans · Global Voices
Deji Olukotun

A banner reads “FIFA go home” during a protest in Rio de Janeiro against the hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. June 15, 2014. Photo by Nicson Olivier. Copyright Demotix.
This post was originally published on Pen American Center and is republished with permission.
As the World Cup stokes increasing excitement, let's take a closer look at the free expression and human rights issues simmering beneath the glitzy headlines.
The USA rightfully celebrated a gutsy win against a skillful Ghana team this week, but the country still gets a red card for free expression based on the NSA's ongoing bulk surveillance. And Cameroon, which in previous World Cups has captured the hearts of soccer fans around the world, has found its on-field performance paralleled by its abysmal treatment of journalists and writer Enoh Meyomesse, who remains in prison after repeated postponements to his trial.
Street protests in Brazil against spending on lavish stadiums have continued, but are much more muted than the million-strong demonstrations of a year ago. The first on-field protest began before the opening kickoff, when the son of Guarani author Olívio Jekupe hefted a poster for indigenous lands rights against logging and illegal settlements. The poster was censored from the international television feed.
It is unclear at this point whether FIFA has forced Brazil to implement kangaroo courts like it did in South Africa, which were used to mete out up to 15-year prison sentences in less than 24 hours. Many of the allegations of foul play by fans remain rumors, such as Brazilians fraudulently buying tickets meant for the disabled and leaping out of their wheelchairs at exciting moments in the game, or Argentine fans chanting racist slurs.
Meanwhile, there is growing recognition that diversity is important for World Cup teams to succeed. The Fusion network documented the importance of immigrants to the U.S. national team, and Global Post looks at immigrants in international clubs.
And for readers out there, check out Three Percent's World Cup of Literature, where they pit books by authors from all 32 countries against one another in a rough-and-tumble contest with plenty of dives and bold calls by the referees.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Deji Olukotun


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Honduras: Thoughts After the Match Against France · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Honduran fans. Image on Flickr by usuario rcolonna. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
The blog Bitácora del párvulo (Prekindergatener log) writes thirty minutes [es] after the match the national team played against the French crew, where the latter scored three times and the Honduran team none:
Francia 3, Honduras 0 con tecnología o sin ella. ¡Estamos en el Mundial, señores! ¿Quién les dijo que a un mundial se le va a pegar al contrario como única estrategia de contención? […] Un estilo que la policía hondureña explica muy bien cuando afirma que su peculiar forma de apabullar a golpes y luego investigar se debe a que cada institución policial del mundo tiene su estilo…
[…]
Contra Ecuador veremos un fútbol más duro, más alarmante en su incapacidad de echar aunque sea un gol. No habrá gol de mundial en Honduras. Si logramos un gol será por una extraña rabia que a todos llena de estupor.
France 3, Honduras 0 with or without technology. We are part of the World Cup, you guys! Who told you that you go to a World Cup to strike the rival as the only defense strategy? […] A style the Honduran police explains very well when it claims that its peculiar way of overwhelming into fisticuffs first and investigate later is because every police institution in the world has a style of its own…
[…]
Against Ecuador we will see a harder football, more alarming in its inability to score at least one goal. There won't be a World Cup goal in Honduras. If we manage to score a goal, it will be caused by a rare rage that astonishes us all.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Urban Pakistani Musicians Jam With a Rural Folk Singer and Create Something Beautiful for the Internet · Global Voices
Rezwan

A growing number of mainstream and indie musicians around the world choose to release their songs on social media first to connect with fans and generate revenue in new and unique ways.
But in Pakistan, where YouTube has been blocked for close to two years, and a popular music band's Facebook page was recently also blocked, it may seem peculiar that a new production house chose to release their very first music video for free on social media.
Yet, that is exactly what the people behind the video linked above did.
The collaboration between Mai Dhai, a rural Sindhi folk singer in Pakistan's south, with some talented young urban musicians in the country's northeast was released last week on Facebook and Vimeo. So far it has been shared more than 1,600 times on Facebook, played more than 3,000 times on SoundCloud and more than 1,600 times on Vimeo. Their effort generated hundreds of comments. Meher Faruki wrote on Facebook:
What a beautiful creation! So many great sounds! And whoever put the video together….love their spirit of fun.
Mustufa Pervez Khan wrote:
Can't understand a word but still sounds bloody awesome
Adrian David Emmanuel wrote:
Beautiful Jazz interpretation and fusion with local dialect and music Proud to have such musicians here in Pakistan Amazing stuff guys
The company that put it together – Piphany Productions – is a start-up and “Sarak Sarak” is their first fully mastered track with a video for the Internet. Danish Khawaja, co-founder of Piphany and one of the guitarists in the video, flew from Lahore to Sindh to convince Mai Dhai, the folk singer, to fly over to Lahore and do the collaboration. Pakistan's Institute for Preservation of Arts and Culture (IPAC) writes about Mai in a Facebook post:
Mai Dhai is a traditional Manganiyar singer and dhol player from the Thar desert region. The Manganiyars are a caste of Muslim musicians who traditionally performed for the kings of Rajasthan in the Subcontinent. Over the years, their patrons have shifted from Kings to anyone who can offer them a meal. Their repertoire ranges from ballads about the kings to Sufi songs written by various mystics. They also sing songs for various occasions like birth, marriage, rains, feasts etc.
The rawness of the folk and the complexity of classical music is what makes their music so special.
The song is in  Marwari, which was known as the language of the desert of the Subcontinent. The lyrics and their English translations can be found here.
East meets west music collaboration in Pakistan is as old as the country, but this phenomena went mainstream in 2008 when Coke Studio, a Pakistani TV series that records and airs studio collaborations for TV and online audiences, became wildly popular. Pakistani blogger Taha Kehar called the series a “Blessing in Disguise” that helped revive the Pakistani music industry and preserve folk tradition, as well.
Global Voices spoke to Tabish Habib, creative director at Piphany Productions and the producer for the video, to learn about their music and their choice to release it for free on the Internet.
Global Voices (GV): Tell us more about the collaboration. How did a rural Sindhi folk artist end up collaborating with two urban underground musicians?
Tabish Habib (TH): The collaboration came to life last summer, in I think maybe July or August. Danish had travelled with his brother-in-law Mohammed Ali (also a producer on this project) a native of the village Tando Jam in Sindh where they planned on spending the Summer. It was there that Danish received word about a folk singer named Mai Dhai from a village called Umerkot and proceeded to seek her out and jam with her. Danish was blown away by her voice and convinced her to fly down to Lahore and record a track with him in a proper studio environment. I think we spent a total of maybe 24 hours in the studio but we managed to record two tracks, the second of which we plan on releasing soon.
GV: Were you surprised by the response that you got online? Or is this exactly the kind of collaboration that Pakistan's net savvy youth craves?
TH: I think the speed at which the video got around was surprising but we did anticipate a good response. When talented people from different walks of life come together to make music, one can only expect a good response.
GV: Does Mai Dhai even know what the Internet is? Has anyone told her she's become famous on the Internet?
TH: Mai lives in Umerkot with her son and I doubt she has any idea what the Internet is. They have one cell phone at their home which has no Internet capability.
GV: Tell us more about the song she is singing. What's the message behind it?
TH: The song is a folk tale about a conversation a little girl is having with her Mamo (uncle). She is basically asking for his help and attention both financially and emotionally. She wants him to fix her broken shoe and buy her jewellery. It's a very innocent and cute sort of narrative. I don't know if there is a message behind it but you can see the lyrics with translation in the description in the Vimeo link.
GV: What about the musicians in the band – how long have they been playing music?
TH: The musicians in the band play sessions for various commercially successful artists, so I don't know if I would call them underground specifically. But they all have they're own musical passion projects which get little attention from the media and have managed to develop their own niche following. Danish Khawaja plays for Poor Rich Boy, who are currently touring the States right now with the State department. Zain Ali plays bass for Zeb & Haniya and has his own progressive Jazz band Red Blood Cat. Kami Paul plays sessions for almost everyone in the Pakistan music industry, from Noori to Mekaal Hasan band, he's quite a house hold name. Sameer Ahmed is another veteran and plays bass for coVEN and Jimmy Khan & the big Ears. They are all a very talented bunch. The tabla player in the video is Moharram and is actually Mai's son. He was also acting as translator during the whole recording process because Mai doesn't speak a word of Urdu. The harmonium player, Jamal is also part of Mai's folk act. A big thank you to Mekaal Hasan for letting us record at Digital Fidelity Studio.  None of this would have been possible without his help.
GV: Why did you choose to release the song for free online instead of releasing a CD that people could buy in the market?
TH: We went around asking a few people to fund the idea but nobody showed us any interest. The commercial music industry in Pakistan likes to play it safe. Nobody wants to try anything new or creative and it was for that reason that we planned to release it online through social media, we had a very strong hunch that it would be received well, while we were composing the track. So we decided to fund the whole project ourselves. In retrospect we're very glad we did.
GV: Tell us about the urban underground music scene in Pakistan. How do these musicians release their music for the wider audience?
TH: Facebook, SoundCloud, Vimeo, social media is honestly your best bet. Musicians in Pakistan have to act as their own agents and managers. A bunch of indie-artists and musicians in Karachi started Lussun TV to promote themselves through online webisodes and in Lahore you have the independent recording label True Brew Records which provides a platform for underground artists and a venue for live shows but apart from that the scene is very dismal. Hopefully the success of the track will encourage people to promote more creatively diverse musical projects.

author: Rezwan


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Peru’s Congress Suspends Two Lawmakers In One Decisive Day · Global Voices
Alex Pashley

Cenaida Uribe, image of Flickr by user Congreso de la República del Perú. CC BY 2.0.
Congressmen Julio Gagó and Cenaida Uribe were suspended on Wednesday June 18, for 120 days by a house vote, after an ethics body ruled they had breached parliamentary code in isolated incidents.
In a double whammy in Lima’s Congress, both were convincingly relieved of their duties until October after the Commission of Parliamentary Ethics published separate reports into alleged malpractices.
Mr Gagó broke a contract law which prevents congressmen from doing business with the state, the report said. An office equipment firm, Copy Depot, of which allegedly he and his brothers are shareholders, sold millions of products to the Peruvian government. Gago failed to declare the conflict of interest and to demonstrate he is not related to the firm.
The website Mis notas lists five reasons [es] why Mr Gagó should be suspended, and on the fourth reason, states:
No importa que los audios sean antiguos
Gagó ha reconocido que la voz de los audios difundidos es suya pero dice que ahí no hay ningún delito, pues fueron grabados antes de que él jure como congresista. Pero lo que de verdad importa no es que le haya dado órdenes a los trabajadores de Copy Depot, sino que el fin de eso era seguir beneficiándose de las licitaciones con el Estado mientras era congresista. Y eso es lo mismo a lo que ha llegado este informe.
It doesn't matter if the audios are not recent.
Gagó has recognized his voice on the audios (where he talked about some future businesses) released is his, but he claims there is no crime there, as they were taped before he was sworn in as congressman. But what really matters isn't he giving orders to Copy Depot personnel, but that the goal was to keep on benefiting from public tenders before he became a congressman. This report has come to that same conclusion.
Despite protests from the Fujimorista bank, the second largest coalition in Congress, of which Gagó is a member, the vote was carried with 72 votes in favour 29 abstentions and 1 vote against.
Ms Uribe allegedly pressured a school to renew a billboard advertising campaign with a marketing firm Punto Visual, according to the school’s director. Ms Uribe is presumed to have had a relationship with a manager of Punto Visual, and further flouted the rules of office by allowing him to travel abroad with her on her diplomatic passport.
Some days before the suspension, the website NoticiasPerú-Hoy, summed up [es] her situation:
Se sabe, que la legisladora Uribe, es acusada de haber realizado gestiones ajenas a su trabajo como funcionaria pública ante el Colegio Alfonso Ugarte, lo cual habría dañado la investidura parlamentaria, y a su vez, habría infringido los principios éticos.
As it's known, the legislator Uribe, is accused of having carried out some tasks unconnected with her job as public servant with (public school) Alfonso Ugarte, which would have damaged the Parliament status and, at the same time, would have violated ethical principles.
Some 60 votes in favour, amid 21 against and 24 abstentions, were enough to suspend Ms Uribe. The Gana Perú congresswoman wasn’t present at the judgement.
The state acted “quickly and with conviction”, said president of the congress, Freddy Otárola. Both lawmakers wouldn’t be paid a salary during their suspension.
Peruvian politicians are periodically linked to corruption. Its two former presidents, Alan García and Alejandro Toledo are being currently investigated by the public prosecutor, while Alberto Fujimori is serving a prison sentence for “crimes against humanity”.
Twitters users heaped scorn on the disgraced politicians. Ms Uribe was named the least popular politician in a poll in the El Comercio newspaper on Monday.
@VeroLinaresC todavía les dan vacaciones ………. que verguenza me da este @congresoperu
— Mario Vélez (@medio_dedo) June 19, 2014
They still given them holidays.. what shame Peru’s Congress gives me.
@VeroLinaresC les pagamos miles de soles, para q se aprovechen de sus cargos y encima pasen el tiempo defendiéndose de acusaciones.
— PEPE GALLO (@PEP_L) June 19, 2014
They pay them thousands of soles, and they take advantage of their positions and spend time defending themselves against accusations.
@verolinaresc Nada más? Solo un descuento en sus sueldos? Y la cárcel?
— Jonathan (@CDBufalo) June 19, 2014
That's it? Only a reduction in their salaries. What about prison?
@Agencia_Andina que bien, esos sinvergüenza tienen que aprender
— frehison calle akaro (@frehisoncalleac) June 18, 2014
Great, these shameless people have to learn.

author: Alex Pashley


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Russia’s Failed e-Democracy? · Global Voices
Marina Smolnikova

Images mixed by Kevin Rothrock.
In an attempt to engage the public in the government’s decisionmaking, last year the Kremlin launched an online portal called the Russian Public Initiative (ROI), allowing anyone with Internet access the chance to propose new legislation and vote on others’ petitions. Every initiative that collects 100 thousand votes within a year automatically goes to a government council, which determines if lawmakers in the Russian parliament will consider the legislation.
Though ROI has been up and running for fifteen months, the 100-thousand-votes threshold has proved too great for all but four initiatives, each of which the government’s review board has declined to send to the parliament. One of the four successful petitions, for example, called for the abolition of a 2013 federal law that allows the state to block access to websites that host pirated intellectual property. The government’s expert council refused to let the parliament review the initiative, arguing that it proposes “unreasonable” reforms.
Another successful initiative, rejected by experts earlier this month, advocated revoking public officials’ traffic privileges. The petition’s chief promoter was Petr Shkumatov, who coordinates the so-called “Blue Bucket Society,” a protest group formed in opposition to public servants’ arbitrary, self-serving use of emergency rotating blue flashers on the highways. On ROI, Shkumatov proposed restricting the use of these sirens to strictly emergency personnel.
Blue Bucket Society activists prepare a car for a protest against abuses on Russia's roads. April 25, 2010. Lookatme.ru.
On May 15, 2014, after the Blue Bucket petition collected its 100 thousandth signature, ROI’s expert council treated the initiative as though it called for highway anarchy:
Необходимо отметить, что вопросы использования специальных световых и звуковых сигналов, устанавливаемых на транспортные средства […] и получения преимущества такими транспортными средствами перед другими участниками дорожного движения в достаточной мере и исчерпывающе урегулированы действующим законодательством Российской Федерации. Предоставление преимущественного права проезда указанных транспортных средств соответствует нормам международного права – Конвенции о дорожном движении, заключенной в г. Вене 08.11.1968, которая на ряду с общепризнанными принципами и нормами международного права является составной частью правовой системы Российской Федерации.
It is necessary to note that there are already adequate and comprehensive regulations in the laws of the Russian Federation on the matter of using special light and sound signals mounted on vehicles […] and receiving special privileges on the road. Granting the right of way to special vehicles corresponds to the norms of international law – in particular the November 8, 1968, Vienna Traffic Convention, which is an integral part of the legal system of Russian Federation, alongside other norms and principles widely recognized by international law.
Reacting to the negative feedback, Shkumatov expressed in the Blue Bucket Society’s LiveJournal community how disappointed he was in the ROI petition process.
Чиновники прямо на моих глазах взяли и спустили ручку унитаза, в котором утонули 100 тысяч наших голосов, включая и мой. Конечно, я не верил в чудо, но я надеялся. Полный крах моих надежд произошел именно вчера. Я понял и лично увидел, что чиновники просто и непринужденно “валят” неудобные им лично инициативы и рьяно поддерживают те инициативы, которые сами и выдвигают. РОИ превратилась из инструмента прямой демократии в инструмент имитации демократии, после чего потеряла всякую значимость для думающих людей. Увы.
Before my very eyes, these public officials reached out and flushed down the toilet 100 thousand of our votes – mine included. Of course, I didn’t expect a miracle, but I had hope. It was yesterday that my hopes completely collapsed. I saw that these officials simply “cut down” any inconvenient initiatives and passionately support the ones they've proposed themselves. ROI has transformed from an instrument of direct democracy into an instrument of imitated democracy, robbing it of any meaning for people who can think on their own. Oh well.
When a commenter asked if he was officially giving up, Shkumatov promised to fight on. The Blue Bucketeers have obliged him, continuing to collect information about traffic violations and post online photos and videos documenting abuses on the highways. Indeed, on the 19th day of every month, the group stages an automotive rally, where members drive around with actual blue buckets atop their cars, mocking the sirens used by state officials.
Another ROI petition that might come before a government council later this year is an initiative that would require travel visas for visitors from countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus, as a means of curbing illegal immigration into Russia. The petition, which currently has over 66 thousand signatures, enjoys the vociferous support of anti-corruption blogger Alexey Navalny, who is a self-described Russian nationalist. Considering the expert council’s history of rejecting successful petitions, not to mention the Kremlin’s tireless persecution of Navalny and its growing interest in developing the economic zone with the East, it is unlikely that ROI would ever send a visa-regime initiative to the parliament. If and when the government does dismiss legislation to crack down on immigrants from the East, however, it is sure to reignite Russia’s nationalist debate, which periodically sparks ethnic riots throughout the country.
Yelena Mizulina, July 26, 2013, Izvestia.
While some have welcomed Russia’s online petitions system as a means to participate in decisionmaking on the federal level, others have preferred to use independent portals like OnlinePetition.ru. One popular campaign on that website targets lawmaker Yelena Mizulina, who has spearheaded controversial legislation to restrict LGBT rights, ban adoptions of Russian orphans by foreigners, and censor foul language. The petition calls on Russia’s Health Ministry to conduct a psychiatric evaluation of Mizulina, to determine if she is mentally fit to serve as a member of parliament. (The authors of the initiative are skeptical that she is.)
The anti-Mizulina petition has over 100 thousand signatures, but it’s not hosted on ROI, making it entirely unofficial and nonbinding on the Russian government. In other words, ROI doesn’t even have to assemble its team of experts this time. The passage of time and the RuNet’s fading interest will be enough to protect Mizulina and Russia’s other hated politicians from the booby hatch.
But many in the public, undaunted it seems, will keep asking.

author: Marina Smolnikova


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Chile Sends Spain Packing in Stunning World Cup Defeat  · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Thousands of people in Santiago watch Chile beat Spain 2-0 in their Group B FIFA World Cup match. Photo by Fernando Lavoz. Copyright Demotix.
Chile's national football team knocked out the defending champion Spain in a 2-0 win during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil at the Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro, with goals by Eduardo Vargas in the 20th minute and Charles Aránguiz in the 43th.
Almost immediately on June 18, 2014, Chileans around the world took to the streets to celebrate. The commentary online began to roll out in earnest, as well. El blog de mi fútbol ecuatoriano (My Ecuadorian football blog) recalls some history:
La Roja, humillada por Holanda en la primera jornada (5-1), consumó la debacle este miércoles al caer derrotada por Chile y se queda ya sin opciones de clasificarse, incluso antes del tercer partido ante Australia.
El equipo de Vicente del Bosque se convierte en el cuarto campeón en la historia en despedirse a las primeras de cambio al no haber sumando un solo punto tras dos partidos.
La Roja [The Red, a popular name given to both national teams, the Chilean and the Spanish], humiliated by the Netherlands in their debut (5-1), cemented their collapse on Wednesday June 18 after being defeated by Chile and has no more options to move forward to the second stage, even before their third match with Australia.
The team coached by Vicente del Bosque become the fourth world champion in history to say goodbye in the beginning after not being able to score a earn a single point in two matches.
Website Florida Diario summed it up:
España, el último campeón del mundo que prometía en Brasil, fracasó en sus primeros dos partidos y terminó eliminado por una destacada selección de Chile.
Spain, the current promising defending world champion in Brazil, failed in its two matches and ended up knocked out by a remarkable Chile national team.
Twitter users also weighed in, some celebrating the victory of “their” red-shirted team:
#EliminamosAlCampeonMundial #CopaMundialEspanaChile #EspanaVsChile #LaRojaEsChilena ajjaaj los paseamos en la cancha!!!
— ♡rusher (@rusherforevah2) junio 19, 2014
LOL!!! We breezed right by them on the field!!!
Qué lindo ver al pueblo chileno festejando! pic.twitter.com/HQ9a9Vn7T3 #LaRojaEsChilena . Desde Argentina es hermoso verlos así!
— Fans de Benja Vicuña (@VicunaMORIfans) junio 18, 2014
It's so nice to see Chilean people celebrating! From Argentina, it's just wonderful to see them like this!
#EliminamosAlCampeonMundial En la Antártica también lo festejan pic.twitter.com/6KVhryyPY3 @deportes13cl vía @riveros_freddy #LaRojaEsChilena — Prensa Antártica (@prensaantartica) junio 18, 2014
In the Antarctic, we are celebrating too.
Some Spanish fans tried to be positive in the loss:
Querer a un equipo va más allá de derrotas o victorias. @SeFutbol, gracias por estos años. Los campeones siempre se levantan. Ánimo.
— Atlético de Madrid (@Atleti) junio 18, 2014
Loving a team goes beyond defeats or victories. Spanish national team, thanks for all these years. Champions always get back on their feet. Cheer up.
Pau Gasol, a popular Spanish professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers, offered his words of support:
Mucho ánimo a nuestra @SeFutbol . Nos habéis hecho vivir momentos muy especiales y estoy seguro que nos los volveréis a hacer sentir. #Vamos
— Pau Gasol (@paugasol) junio 18, 2014
I encourage our national team. You've given us very special moments and I'm sure you'll make us live them again.
Sports news organization Fútbol Mediaset quoted Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas apologizing after the match:
Iker Casillas: “Pedimos perdón a la gente, pero hemos hecho todo lo posible” http://t.co/AmSR48ixuB #Mundial2014 pic.twitter.com/LAROzfLJpl
— Fútbol Mediaset (@FutbolMediaset) junio 18, 2014
Iker Casillas: “We apologize to the people, but we've done everything that we could”.
Some people weren't so forgiving, like sarcastic Twitter account @iauraB:
Oye Iker Casillas si quieres unas clasecitas de como ser un buen portero te puedo contactar con Memo Superman Ochoa.
— La Dra (@iauraB) junio 17, 2014
Hey, Iker Casillas, if you want to take some lessons about how to be a good goalkeeper, I can put you in contact with Memo Superman Ochoa.


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“We are Leaderless” in Cuba · Global Voices
Elaine Díaz

Young Cubans (Photo: El Microwave)
In an emotional post by Rafael González, author of the blog El Microwave, he questions: Are any of us willing to sacrifice time, prestige, fortune and emotional stability in support of an improbable change in the climate of the state of affairs in Cuba?
The author builds on multiple issues which the current Cuban society has yet to resolve.
El basurero recoge los desechos cómo y cuándo le parece; que el médico tiene –conscientemente o no– instaurada la cultura del regalo como método de sobrevivencia; que el abogado solo está buscando cómo extraerle algunos pesos de más al cliente; que a los comerciantes no les basta con lucrar irracionalmente sino que encima pretende –y logra– robarte en la mercancía; que los maestros han confundido, en el mejor de los casos, la instrucción con la cultura, cuando no han llegado a sucesos como el de Waterpre.
The garbage man picks up the rubbish how and when he feels up to it; the physician has –consciously or not– imposed the gifting economy as a method of survival; the attorney is only searching for ways to take away yet a few more pesos from the client; it's not enough for the shopkeeper to profit unreasonably, but also sets out –and achieves– to short you your goods; the teachers have confused, in most cases, an education with culture, when happenings like the Waterpre haven't even surfaced.
“What is left for us with such outlook?,” asks the author.
Al periodismo –periodistas mediante– le queda recuperar su responsabilidad social como bien público que es, y a la sociedad en general reasumir esa condición ética que –dicen– atraviesa nuestra historia y explota de tanto en tanto.
In journalism–by means of reporters– accountability of the social responsibility has yet to be recovered as a public asset, and  as a society in general, resuming that ethical status –which they say– runs through our history and exploits from time to time.
“If so much discontent exists and so many sense the issues and its probable causes, why is that nothing changes?,” he questions once again.
No tenemos líderes (…) el no tener líderes es fatal para cualquier proceso de transformación social, por más inquietudes ciudadanas que hayan.
We are leaderless(…) not having leaders is fatal to any social transformational process, no matter how many citizen's concerns there are.
Since the remarks, Disamis Arcia points out:
No puede evitar preguntarte si entonces tiene que existir primero un líder para que la gente se mueva, o si la indiferencia esta que padecemos in extensus no tiene causas más jodidas que la inexistencia de liderazgo.
One can not fail to ask if a leader needs to exist, in order for the people to take action, or if the indifference that we suffer from in extensus is stemmed from no other than the damned nonexistence of leadership.

author: Elaine Díaz


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Do You Suffer From Device Upgrade Fever? These People May Have Found A Cure  · Global Voices
Janet Gunter

Curing upgrade fever the Restart Project way. Image by RestartProject (CC BY-NC 2.0).
This is the story of how I rescued my love for communication technology literally by rolling up my sleeves.
Ever since my dad brought home an Apple Macintosh—one of the earliest models—I've been a keen user of technology. My brother and I used MacPaint and printed out our artworks on a dot matrix printer. Then came page design, and then came blogging. I started my first blog in 2001, in East Timor, a new country “at the end of the world”. I worked on an old PowerBook, transferring blog posts via floppy disk to a computer at my workplace, which had a satellite connection to the outside world.
Blogging for me was much like making a fanzine. What I loved about it wasn’t so much the “many to many” aspect, but the “many to few”. I loved writing for the 12 people in the world who cared about the same obscure topics I did. It was a powerful way of connecting, all made possible by computers and the Internet, neither of which I took for granted.
Later, Twitter arrived, and I got sucked in. Then I quit my day job and became a self-employed slave to a smartphone, constantly frustrated by the device, and feeling the pressure to upgrade with each new model. My day job, at an international development NGO, had already sensitized me to the absurd way in which we in Europe and North America devour and discard gadgets. I'd worked for years with people in Asia, Latin America and Africa who made the most of everything they had, carefully maintaining and refurbishing their equipment. Then I would return home and see the same people who refused plastic bags at the farmers’ market upgrading their mobile phones every nine months.
I began to feel a growing disquiet with the tools that afforded me such joy, such a feeling of connection with friends, family and like-minded strangers across the world. After decades of loving technology, I felt compelled to do something to change my own behavior, and test how many people wanted to join me in doing the same.
My friend Ugo Vallauri and I started hosting “Restart Parties” in London, events that brought together talented electronics tinkerers and fixers, and frustrated owners of electronics. The idea was not to provide a free repair service, but rather to empower owners of devices to open up their gadgets, learn how they worked and have a go at fixing them. In the process, people would learn how to buy for longevity and be smarter users of technology.
In two years, we’ve run over 55 events in pubs, churches, galleries and community centers, saving an estimated 895 kilograms from waste. More importantly, we’ve uncovered a huge potential for change at the grassroots level, not led by any government, “green” company or mega-NGO.
A tablet and a hand blender get a new lease on life at a “Restart Party” in London, UK. Image by RestartProject (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Our inspiration for acting came from the same place as our blogging, and interest in living and working abroad. In fact, a key inspiration was contact with vibrant repair and reuse cultures in places like Kenya and Brazil, where professionals still make money fixing all kinds of devices.
A more subconscious influence was the Brazilian “mutirão”, a collective of people who each offer what they can to a group effort. (The word can be traced to the Guaraní word motirô, although its historical etymology remains obscure.) The mutirão is characterized by its loose structure. Leadership, such as any exists, is fluid and not institutionalized. Often, a mutirão would be called upon to deal with an immediate, shared problem, like painting a wall or cleaning a drain, or building houses or schools.
Another, more explicit, influence is Brazilian scholar and activist Paulo Freire, and his emphasis on transformative, dialogic learning.
Today we have friends in five countries remixing our idea and jump-starting their own communities of people engaged in electronics repair. Contacts in ten more countries are keen to host their own “Restart Parties”. This burst of bottom-up activity was made possible by the power of the social internet, as we have been sharing every step of our journey online. A big part of this involves releasing our materials, such as photos and how-to documents, under a Creative Commons license.
Electronics repair communities are only the beginning for us: our mission is to fix our relationship with electronics. We would like to do more to link with commercial repairers, testing new business models for electronics repair and reuse, as well as work with teachers, children and parents to promote a critical consciousness. We also have in mind sharing more disruptive, guerrilla-style projects. And we’ll be sharing every step of the way.
Bringing a toy bus back to life at a “Restart Party” in Brixton, London, UK. Image by RestartProject (CC BY-NC 2.0).

author: Janet Gunter


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Ending Illegal Wildlife Trade in Southeast Asia · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Daniel Besant of Southeast Asia Globe has interviewed photojournalist and activist Karl Ammann about the efforts to end the illegal wildlife trading in Southeast Asia:
At the moment, I’m convinced that 90% of what’s being done in Southeast Asia is window dressing and lip service. Making pronouncements, signing MOUs [Memoranda of Understanding], that’s the easy part. I have identified dealers, particularly a major dealership outside of Hanoi, that sell kilos and kilos of real rhino horn on a daily basis.
Once something changes on that front, then I will believe that something is really happening.
Few people have done more to expose SE Asia's rampant illegal #wildlife trade than Karl Ammann http://t.co/fq6iFKDEY0 pic.twitter.com/YLymbs7tKu
— Southeast Asia Globe (@SEA_GLOBE) June 19, 2014

author: Mong Palatino


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The United States’ Gender Pay Gap Through the Lens of Social Media · Global Voices
Tejasvini Prasad

Activists, community leaders and politicians gather on the steps of City Hall in New York to rally against pay disparity on Equal Pay Day. April 8, 2014. Photo by Richard Levine. Copyright Demotix.
The recent news that Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, was reportedly paid 600,000 US dollars last year as a special correspondent at network NBC riled many on social media – journalists and partisans alike.
If that figure is accurate, it means Clinton made more than former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, who was let go last month due to an alleged wage gap dispute, for a much lighter work load.
One overpaid woman isn't an accurate representation of women who work in mainstream media, or even the workforce at large, but the sticker shock of her salary managed to revive once more the debate on the gender pay gap in the U.S.
Much research and media coverage has been devoted to the gender pay gap to explore why women on average make less in the U.S. than men. In April, the issue earned even more attention, thanks to President Barack Obama, who signed an executive order to mandate that government contractors publish wage data by race and gender. The idea is pay transparency could empower women to demand equal pay for equal work and force employers to analyze wage disparities in their organizations that would normally never be examined.
The issue has been a popular topic of discussion on social media, too. There, some have shared personal anecdotes of the pay gap under the anonymity of online usernames.
Women, often more timid at negotiating than men, demand less money when offered a job, ending up with a lower base salary that will impact lifetime earning. A manager at a large multinational company wrote on the Twoxchromosomes subreddit on Reddit:
I work for a large multinational tech company, I regularly hire woman for 65% to 75% of what males make.
…
Our process, despite the pay gap, is identical for men and women. We start with phone interviews, and move into a personal and technical interview. Once a candidate passes both of those, we start salary negotiations. This is where the women seem to come in last.
The reason they don't keep up, from where I sit, is simple. Often, a woman will enter the salary negotiation phase and I'll tell them a number will be sent to them in a couple days. Usually we start around $45k for an entry level position. 50% to 60% of the women I interview simply take this offer. It's insane, I already know I can get authorization for more if you simply refuse. Inversely, almost 90% of the men I interview immediately ask for more upon getting the offer.
Women are hesitant to negotiate with just cause. A study from Carnegie Mellon has shown that women who negotiate are negatively perceived by both male and female evaluators.
In March 2014, the blog The Philosophy Smoker told the story of a young woman who had recently graduated and was offered a tenure track position at a college in upstate New York. She negotiated for a higher salary and a semester of maternity leave, among other things, and the offer was rescinded.
Inside Higher Ed picked up the story. One commenter, “MJL,” explained what is expected of women applying for employment:
Female candidates are told never, ever to bring up maternity leave or imply in any way that child or elder care responsibilities will be an issue. Some are even advised to leave wedding rings at home and not admit to having a spouse or children, or ever wanting a spouse or children. We are also told to negotiate, and never warned that the offer could be withdrawn. Terror of unemployment has kept me from ever negotiating for more than increased moving compensation, though.
Another contributing factor to the gap is lifestyle choices. Men and women achieve pay parity until their 30s. When couples start families and have kids, women cut back on their hours and lose income over the rest of their lifetime, as shown by this graph from the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan American think tank.
More mothers than fathers say they've had career interruptions in order to care for family http://t.co/5I784OCpuY pic.twitter.com/GeDHqzArHS — Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) December 11, 2013
This raises the question – “Is the income gap between men and women mainly due to women making bad career choices?”. Erica Friedman, a writer and speaker, responded on question-and-answer site Quora:
Women are subject to internal and external pressures and societal expectations that are different from men's. Little things like being expected to stop working to have a family and the very natural human tendency to prefer people similar to ourselves around us mean that a woman is unlikely to learn to negotiate her worth, be expected to leave at some point and generally not be one of the guys. This leads to “bad decision making” like needing a suboptimal job when her husband can't/won't/doesn't support the family, not having the internal and external power to change the terms of an agreement, or working too long and too hard for people who are disinclined to notice.
Dr. Claudia Goldin, a Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and director of the non-profit National Bureau of Economic Research’s Development of the American Economy program, believes that changing workplace culture will mitigate the gap:
The gender gap in pay would be considerably reduced and might vanish altogether if firms did not have an incentive to disproportionately reward individuals who labored long hours and worked particular hours
Chelsea Clinton is one woman who makes more than her male counterparts, but the U.S. has much to do to achieve pay parity. While there is no clear path to equal pay, constant examination of the issue and incremental changes must be an ongoing priority. Otherwise, as Neera Tanden, president of think tank Center for American Progress, said:
“A society that undervalues half it's population is bound to underachieve.” @neeratanden #ywca2014 #wagegap pic.twitter.com/UqftskZVu0
— (@AlexisBreakfast) June 13, 2014

author: Tejasvini Prasad


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Iran’s Internet Under Hassan Rouhani: Hope and Disillusionment as Narenji Bloggers Face Prison Sentence · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Narenji bloggers arrest in December 2013. Screenshot from YouTube via Freedom Messenger.
Written with Fred Petrossian.
A court in Iran’s Kerman province handed down the jailed Narenji technology bloggers an ambiguous sentence of one to 11 years in jail on Thursday. Arrested in a round up last December, the bloggers had written and edited for Narenji, a technology blog that featured news and product reviews.
After spending six months in jail, the bloggers were tried and issued what appears to be a “badavi” verdict, where those prosecuted can appeal the decision in 20 days. It is unknown what each sentence is for each blogger, or if those who were previously released will also serve jail time.*
This and other recent arrests of bloggers and netizens have undercut the message of a more open society and Internet that dominated western media coverage of current President Hassan Rouhani’s campaign for the office. Many Iranian voters were seduced by Hassan Rouhani’s campaign narrative. His victory kindled hope in the hearts of many young Iranians for a brighter future and easier access to the Internet — an important factor in a nation with one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the region.
Unfortunately, these hopes are beginning to wane. Almost a year into Rouhani’s presidency, technical censorship persists as usual and online writers and activists continue to face persecution and jail. Internet policy presents a challenge for the office of the president, as with any reform in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where institutions outside of the control of the elected government often wield the most power and influence on policies.
A tightening of Internet controls
Rouhani criticized the state of Iran’s Internet throughout his campaign, noting in June of 2013: “We are living in a world in which limiting information is impossible. Youth are faced with bombardment of information and we must prepare to handle it.”
His statements regarding his hope that all Iranians can access websites such as Facebook and Twitter were complemented by his acknowledgement of the importance of having Iranians as members of social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google applications during a conference on Information and Communication Technologies.
The institutions responsible for monitoring Iran’s Internet operate outside the jurisdiction of the Rouhani government, accountable to the separate authorities of the judiciary and sometimes the Supreme Leader. Rouhani’s supporters argue that the judiciary acts independently from Iran’s government. Unfortunately, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the same argument when he was asked about jailed political prisoners.
Contrary to Ahmadinejad however, Rouhani has been involved in battles over filtered websites. This was best illustrated when Rouhani had to veto the decision to block WhatsApp by the Committee Charged with Determining Offensive Content (CCDOC), under the control of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC) and influence from the independent judiciary, both institutions accountable only to the Supreme Leader.
While the situation has not come to a decisive conclusion, WhatsApp has yet to be filtered inside Iran. However, the blocked status of both WhatsApp and the popular photo sharing application Instagram are currently under review by both the CCDOC and the judiciary.
But those following Internet policy news have increasingly lost hope that positive change is in the future. Nima Akbarpour, a BBC Persian tech journalist, recently tweeted, “there is so much baseless filtering in Iran that increases day by day, that it has become a chore to report the [Internet censorship] news.” News of Iranians unable to access Google Sites and Wikipedia Farsi pages, as well as restrictions on using Instagram in Iran, have signalled a tightening of Internet controls within the country (although, as of this past week what seem to be glitches in the filtering system have given the appearance of freedom with accidental openings in Google Play and Twitter).
What explains the recent moves to tighten controls within Iran’s cyberspace alongside Rouhani’s liberal Internet ethos? Cyberspace has always posed one of the hardest challenges to the control of the Islamic Republic over its population. And today it arguably has become the biggest area of struggle between Rouhani and the powerful institutions that hold stake in the situation and are outside the Rouhani administration’s control.
While the Internet under Rouhani has not broken free, we can observe three trends in Iran’s virtual world.
Mastering forbidden social media
Most of the 2013 presidential candidates used social media tools that are blocked by the Iranian government to publicize their campaigns — an activity that was pre-dated by the Supreme Leader, who has been on Twitter since 2009. Rouhani and several of his ministers, particularly Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, are mastering the art of communicating through social media. Zarif has become a de facto Facebook “rock star”, with even his most quotidian of posts garnering thousands of likes and comments. The Rouhani Twitter account has become a platform for the administration’s policies, if not subtle disagreements with decisions taken within institutions outside the presidency's control.
Use of the Internet by the Iranian government is welcomed by many as a bridge between Iranian authorities and citizens. However, international social media websites remain yet another tool that Iranians can access only through circumvention tools, despite the fact that these tools too are illegal in Iran.
A war of words
Rouhani has continually expressed concern about the state of Iran's Internet and has criticized filtering on several occasions. But his strong words on the country’s Internet conditions are often followed by conservative counter pressures that come in the form of remarks by the conservative press or decisions made in government bodies outside of Rouhani’s control.
This war of words is seen by some as a real conflict between different factions within the regime — a clash between pragmatists and conservatives, or the moderates against the hardliners.
Last month, following the arrest of the six young stars of a viral YouTube video featuring Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy”, the official Rouhani account tweeted a quote from his 2013 election campaign: “#Happiness is our people's right. We shouldn't be too hard on behaviors caused by joy.”
The director of the video, Sassan Soleimani, was associated with Rouhani’s 2013 presidential campaign and is speculated to have chosen his purple campaign colors. Many consider this a smoke-in-mirrors approach, designed to convince the Iranian people that the Rouhani administration is trying to implement change. Rouhani is the good cop pushing back against the bad cop hardliners. But both sides are very much products of the system of the Islamic Republic.
In this scenario, Rouhani can often be seen as the valiant defender of Internet freedom against the old clerical ranks. But is this really true? Take the CCDOC, the body that recently clashed with Rouhani. They are the centralized censorship body affiliated with the Ministry of Justice that determines which websites are filtered. Six out of the 13 members of the committee are appointed by Rouhani’s office, including representatives of the Ministry of ICT, Culture and Islamic Guidance, Justice, Science, and Education. Is the Rouhani government ineffectual against Iran’s hardline elements, or just powerless within the odds of six against 13?
The administration’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology has also announced a partnership between the Iranian government and academic institutions in order to “loosen” Internet censorship through intelligent filtering of “depraved and immoral sites”. But the actual process for this remains ambiguous. There has been no indication of what qualifies as immoral content subject to the smart filtering. The previous administration discussed the possibility of “intelligent” filtering as a means to unfilter websites such as Facebook, while placing blocks on select content, but this topic has not been broached by the new administration.
Jailed netizens
If you are using the Internet in Iran to exercise your right to free expression or access to information, the probability that you go jail today is no different than it was before the Rouhani administration. Stories of the increasing number of popular websites and applications entering the ranks of blocked content — and entering into popular discourse as dangerous tools against national security — have increased.
The unfortunate realities of the continuous arrests and detentions of netizens has also heightened. Following the arrest of the 16 cyber activists and tech journalists of Narenji in December, eight individuals were arrested in May and sentenced to a combined 128 years in prison for comments and views they posted on Facebook that were deemed insulting the Islamic Republic and the Supreme Leader on Facebook.
The past few weeks have seen the struggle for Internet freedom in Iran play out in a number of different ways, both signaling either an inability, or ineffectiveness in the Rouhani administration’s ability to effect change. For now it seems netizens are vacillating between holding out hope for change under Rouhani and disillusionment with the seemingly unchanged status quo.
*The actual ruling does not identify those arrested as members of Narenji, but it can be assumed that those sentenced are among the Narenji bloggers, as well as the other cyber activists taken in a wave of arrests this past December.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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ISIS Advances in Iraq Echoed in Bahrain · Global Voices
Noor Mattar

Top Bahrain government officials took to Twitter to show what is being perceived as support for the advances of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a splinter group of the terror organisation Al Qaeda, in Iraq.
On June 11, Bahrain government spokeswoman and Minister of Information Sameera Rajab tweeted [ar]:
أتمنى ان أكون مخطئة،،، وهناك من يؤكد ان داعش اسم يتردد في الاعلام للتغطية على إرادة الشعب العراقي في الحرية والكرامة
— Sameera Rajab (@SameeraRajab) June 11, 2014
I hope to be wrong but there are confirmations that ISIS is a name that is being thrown around in the media as a cover up to silence the will of the Iraqi people for freedom and dignity
Some interpreted this statement as being sympathetic with the extremist Sunni ISIS in its “revolution” against the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government. Following its swift takeover of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, on June 10, the ISIS has since seized a number of smaller cities and towns and it's troops are marching towards the capital Baghdad.
In another tweet, on the same day, Mrs Rajab said [ar]:
وقد تكون احداث الأنبار ثورة ضد الظلم والقهر الذي ساد العراق لأكثر من عشر سنوات، ولم يتعود العراقيون على الاهانة والصبر على الظلم
— Sameera Rajab (@SameeraRajab) June 11, 2014
And the events in Anbar might be a revolution against the injustice and oppression that has reigned over Iraq for more than ten years, and the Iraqis are not used to being insulted and they have no patience for injustice
Meanwhile, chairman of the Foreign Affairs, Defense and National Security Committee at the Shura (Consultative) Council, which is appointed by the King, Dr Shaikh Khalid Al Khalifa doubted that the ISIS was in Iraq to begin with. He tweeted [ar]:
داعش خلال الثلاث سنوات الاخيره في سوريا لم تحتفظ باسير واحد..فكيف في العراق لديها اسرى..هل هي داعش بالفعل في العراق؟
— Khalid Alkhalifa, Dr (@alkhalifabh) June 17, 2014
The ISIS in Syria kept no prisoners in the last three years, how come they have prisoners in Iraq? is it really ISIS in Iraq?
In another tweet, he pointed the finger at regional and international players with a master-plan to destroy the Arab World and tear it apart, saying [ar]:
تتوافق المصالح:ايران لديها اطماعها عند العرب واسرائيل وامريكا تهدف الى تفتيت وتشتيت العرب وحجه التعاون الامريكي الايراني لضرب العرب الارهاب.
— Khalid Alkhalifa, Dr (@alkhalifabh) June 14, 2014
Interests intersect: Iran has ambitions in Arab countries and Israel and the US aim to break up the region and turn it into factions. The excuse for the American Iranian cooperation to attack Arabs is terrorism
And in another tweet, Dr Al Khalifa noted:
يجب جر ايران للمعارك في العراق و عدم ترك العراق و اﻻ سوف تاتي المعارك الى دول الخليج و خير وسيله للدفاع هي الهجوم..اللهم احمي العراق.
— Khalid Alkhalifa, Dr (@alkhalifabh) June 13, 2014
Iran should be dragged into the wars in Iraq and Iraq shouldn't be left or else the wars will come to the Gulf countries. The best way to defend [yourself] is to attack. May God protect Iraq
However, the only official reaction issued by the country on Iraq concerns the pulling out of diplomats from there “due to the unfolding security situation.”

author: Noor Mattar


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The Humanitarian Tragedy of Children Emigrating Alone · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

From Mexico, Katia D'Artigues, author of the blog Campos Elíseos (Champs Elysées), writes about the children who see themselves forced to emigrate on their own [es], and calls this a “humanitarian tragedy”:
Son niños que son orillados a cruzar la frontera solos. No lo hacen por aventura, sino porque muchas veces no les queda de otra, por pobreza; porque buscan reunirse con un familiar quizá su padre o su madre que ya está en Estados Unidos. Su número crece día con día. Ya se cuentan en miles y al menos un centenar son detenidos todos los días de acuerdo a cifras no oficiales.
They are children who are pulled to cross the border by themselves. They don't do it for the sake of adventure, but because most of the times they don't have any more choices, out of poverty; because they are looking to reunite with a relative, maybe their father or mother who is already in the United States. Figures grow day by day. They are already counted by the thousands and at least a hundred are put into custody every day, according to unofficial numbers.
She then adds:
Cómo están estos niños? Independiente de su estatus y nacionalidad son niños y tienen derechos. […] Lo cierto es que ya se estipuló que se les asignará un abogado gratis para ver su proceso que, como es obvio, es único en cada caso. Ahora, son solo 100 abogados que comenzarán a trabajar en diciembre de este año o enero de 2015.
No van a alcanzar.
How are those children? No matter their status and citizenship, they are children and have rights. […] It's established already that they will be provided an attorney for free to assess their process, which obviously is one per child. For now, there are only 100 attorneys who will start working by December this year or January 2015.
They won't be enough.


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Why Some People in Mexico Are Happy to See Michoacán’s Governor Resign · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Fausto Vallejo. Photo by Twitter user @EjeCentral.
Michoacán de Ocampo, a Mexican state located in the west of the country, has seen an alarming wave of violence in the last year, a topic of Global Voices coverage on several occasions.
Now, the state's Governor Fausto Vallejo will leave his post, reportedly for health reasons.
The news was first announced by journalist Joaquín López-Dóriga via Twitter:
Me confirma @faustovallejof que se retira del gobierno de Michoacán por razones de salud y que ya se lo informó a @EPN como les adelanté.
— Joaquín López-Dóriga (@lopezdoriga) June 18, 2014
Fausto Vallejo has confirmed to me that he will remove himself from the Michoacán government for health reasons, and has already informed President Enrique Peña Nieto, as I advised.
User Madame Déficit expressed the following on the news of Vallejo’s resignation:
¡El día que muchos mexicanos esperaban! El inepto de @faustovallejof (rodeado de gente corrupta) se va del gobierno de #Michoacán.
— Madame Déficit (@Alessia_mx) June 18, 2014
The day that so many Mexicans have been waiting for! The inept Fausto Vallejo (surrounded by corrupt people) is leaving the Michoacán government.
In the same vein, L’Homme Virtuel wrote:
Oficial, el inútil gobernador de #Michoacán @faustovallejof deja su cargo. Ya sólo faltan sus cuates, de #Jalisco @Aristotelessd. Y @EPN
— L'Homme Virtuel (@HommeVirtuel) June 18, 2014
[It’s] official, the useless governor of #Michoacán Fausto Vallejo is leaving office. We’re only lacking his buddies, from Jalisco [Governor] Aristóteles Sandoval and [Mexican President] Enrique Peña Nieto.
Earlier, journalist Carlos Loret de Mola had reported that a meeting occurred between Vallejo’s son with organized crime leaders, which had potentially sensitive implications:
Me lo han confirmado tres fuentes del más alto nivel en el gabinete de seguridad del presidente Enrique Peña Nieto: Rodrigo Vallejo Mora, hijo del gobernador de Michoacán, aparece con Servando Gómez Martínez “La Tuta” en uno de los videos incautados en una casa de seguridad del Cártel de Los Caballeros Templarios.
Three sources, from the highest levels of the security cabinet of President Enrique Peña Nieto, have confirmed: Rodrigo Vallejo Mora, the governor of Michoacan’s son, appears with Servando Gómez Martínez “La Tuta” in one of the videos seized in a Knights Templar Cartel safe house.
After questioning the political machinations that have been used to keep Fausto Vallejo in power, Loret de Mola pointed out:
El gobernador Fausto Vallejo dijo en Radio Fórmula a Joaquín López-Dóriga que se va a ausentar unos días de su cargo para someterse a un chequeo médico a mediados de junio. Podría ser una coyuntura.
Governor Fausto Vallejo told Joaquín López-Dóriga on Radio Fórmula that he is going to be absent from his post for a few days to undergo a medical check-up in mid-June. It could be a critical juncture.
It isn’t only Vallejo’s son who has been tied to organized crime, but also his former “number 2”, who served as the government secretary of Michoacán, according to Ciro Gómez Leyva:
De ahí la relevancia de la caída en desgracia del coordinador de la campaña de Fausto Vallejo al gobierno de Michoacán, dos veces secretario de Gobierno en esa administración y gobernador interino por seis meses, Jesús Reyna, hoy bajo arraigo y ya degradado políticamente por sus presuntos nexos con Los caballeros templarios.
Se prueben o no los vínculos (recuerdo las cuatro entregas publicadas aquí entre el 5 y el 8 de agosto pasado, sobre la forma en que Reyna y los suyos quisieron negar el secuestro del viejo ganadero Joaquín Ponce de León), el presidente Peña Nieto parece haber mandado la señal de que quien desobedezca las órdenes para enfrentar a los criminales no debería dormir tranquilo.
Hence, the significance of the fall from grace of Fausto Vallejo’s campaign director for the governorship of Michoacán, twice government secretary in that administration and acting governor for six months, Jesús Reyna, now under arrest and already politically abandoned because of his alleged links to the Knights Templar.
Whether or not the ties are proven (remember the four installments published here between August 5 and 8, regarding the way Reyna and his [associates] tried to deny kidnapping the elderly rancher Joaquín Ponce de León), President Peña Nieto seems to have sent a signal that whoever disobeys the orders to take on the criminals will not rest easy.
Regarding the fact that Vallejo told the president and not the electorate about his decision, Arih Uriel said:
Quien eligió a Fausto Vallejo? @EPN o los michoacanos? 1ro notifica a la presidencia y por Twitter a sus aún gobernados; vaya
— Arih Uriel (@arihuriel) June 18, 2014
Who chose Fausto Vallejo? Peña Nieto or the Michoacans? First he notifies the president and then by Twitter to the governed, really?
Augusto Íñigo, meanwhile, took the opportunity to satirize the announcement and the fact that the King of Spain would cease to be king in the next few hours:
No tardan los conspiradores q vean como sospechosa casualidad q el mismo día, Rey de España firme su abdicación y Fausto Vallejo su renuncia
— Augusto Iñigo (@Cesarprix) June 18, 2014
The conspirators didn’t waste any time seeing a suspicious coincidence that the same day the King of Spain signed his abdication, Fausto Vallejo signed his resignation.
With Vallejo’s exit, the legislature will need to appoint an interim governor to exercise Vallejo's functions for the remainder of the period for which Vallejo was elected.

author: J. Tadeo


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Peru Watches the World Cup from Afar… Again · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

The Peruvian flag in the crowd during a football match. Image on Flickr by user Teru Kaleru. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Four years later, history has repeated itself. Peruvians are again watching the World Cup as an outsider, without a team of their own to cheer for.
The country has seen eight World Cups come and go since the last one that they were in – the 1982 FIFA World Cup Spain 32 years ago.
The blog CappoCanonieri by Communications student Fernando Serra tried to find an explanation for the phenomenon:
Venga Bielsa, Guardiola, Gareca o tantos otros buenos entrenadores mundiales, lamento decirles que no iremos a ningún lado. ¿Saben por qué? Por lo mismo que les puse al inicio de esto. Hacemos todo de prisa. Somos una sociedad que se acostumbró a la pendejada, a tomar el camino corto para llegar a nuestro objetivo. […] Eso es lo que ocurre en el fútbol peruano. Somos un perro hambriento que solo quiere un poco de agua sucia para calmar la sed.
[Well known coaches] Bielsa, Guardiola, Gareca or many other good coaches may come, but I regret to tell you that we are not going anywhere. You know why? Due to the same thing I mentioned in the first lines of this post. We do it all in a hurry. We are a society that got used to the foolishness, to taking shortcuts to reach our goal […] This is what goes on with Peruvian football. We are a hungry dog who just looks for some dirty water to quench its thirst.
¿Perú al Mundial? (Peru to the World Cup?) took a much more sarcastic tone in explaining the situation:
El fútbol no es el deporte universal del que todos hablan. Existen lugares en la galaxia donde esta actividad no ha llegado, donde no se practica, no se conocen ni sus reglas ni sus modos: ese lugar se llama Perú. Los aborígenes de esa tierra sí tiene una propia actividad recreativa, pero lejos está del galante uso de los pies. Es una variante a medio camino entre los 100 metros planos y el cuatro por jonca [cajón de seis botellas de cerveza]. Se le conoce como Fulbo y es fácil confundirlo con la disciplina del verdadero fútbol. Pero las diferencias se hacen evidente en un exámenes minucioso. En el primero vence el que más goles anota, en el otro el que más pollos escupe en el césped. […] Si Perú no juega el Mundial de fútbol, es porque ellos no quieren participar.
Football is not the worldwide sport everybody is talking about. There are places in the galaxy where this activity is unknown, where no one practices it, its rules and styles are not known: that place is called Peru. Indigenous from that land do have a recreational activity of their own, but one that's far from the gallant use of feet. It's a halfway version between the 100-meter dash and the four per jonca [a box of six bottles of beer]. It is known as Fulbo and it's easy to get mixed up with the real football discipline. But the differences become evident after thorough examination. During the former, the team that scores the most goals wins; during the latter, the winner is the one who spits the most. […] If Peru doesn't take part in a football World Cup, it is because they don't want to.
“Please, let me see Peru in Russia 2018″. Photo on Twitter by user @terra.pe.
Meanwhile, in a post published on Father's Day, the blog PPGOL-ILO didn't lose faith:
[…] hoy sobran motivos para festejar como debe ser, en casita junto a la familia, degustando algo rico y mojando la gargantita luego de gritar las goleadas que se dan en el Mundial de Brasil; importante competencia que Perú solo lo ve en la Tele, guardando las esperanzas de algún día llegar…
[…] today we have lots of reasons to celebrate as it ought to be, at home with the family, eating something delicious and putting our throat to use yelling at the large number of goals at the World Cup in Brazil; an important event that Peru just watches on TV, keeping alive the hope of being there some day…
Some months ago, website El Bocón wrote about the time when two successful coaches of teams participating in the World Cup were in charge of Peruvian teams, with very different results:
Dos técnicos extranjeros que vinieron al Perú años atrás están en la palestra del fútbol mundial. Y es que Jorge Luis Pinto clasificó a Costa Rica al Mundial de Brasil 2014 y Jorge Sampaoli está a un paso de hacerlo con Chile; en ambos estrategas resalta una virtud: la disciplina, sin eso no se llega a nada.
Two foreign coaches that came to Peru years ago are now in the world football arena. So, Jorge Luis Pinto made Costa Rica qualify for the World Cup in Brazil and Jorge Sampaoli is about to do so with Chile; with both strategists there is a virtue that stands out: discipline, without that, we get nowhere.
People on Twitter also wondered about Peru's absence, some more seriously than others:
Y Perú le gano a Chile el año pasado… Queda claro que no fuimoa al Mundial para no humillar a los demás
— Pablo Centeno (@Cento975) junio 18, 2014
And Peru defeated Chile last year… It's evident we didn't make it to the World Cup so we won't humiliate the rest.
DT's que dirigieron en Perú triunfan con el mundial. Creo que vienen a Perú para aprender que cosa no hacer
— Bien Este Eres (@dilmar207) junio 18, 2014
Coaches that worked in Peru succeed in the World Cup. I think they come to Peru to learn what not to do.
el ultimo mundial de peru fue antes de cristo
— loui$ bb (@lordxmalik) junio 16, 2014
The last World Cup for Peru was before before Christ.
From afar once again, may the best win!


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Russia’s Irresistible Putin Swag · Global Voices
Aric Toler

Images mixed by Kevin Rothrock.
Vladimir Putin’s public image has taken many forms since New Year’s Eve in 1999, when he first assumed the presidency. In the West, Putin is known best for his cult of ultra-machismo, which the Kremlin has propagated tirelessly with photos of the President engaged in manly physical activities, like shirtless horseback riding, martial arts, airplane piloting, and so on. Superhero antics aside, the political appeal of masculine strength is very real for Russians, millions of whom still remember the destitution and humiliation suffered in the 1990s.
Ask the struggling autoworkers of one of Russia’s monotowns, or the human rights activists in Moscow, and you’ll find that poverty and embarrassment haven't disappeared. But many Russians – indeed, the vast majority, according to pollsters – are riding the euphoria of international triumphs in Crimea, Syria, China, and elsewhere. Patriotism is booming in Russia, and Putin’s strenuous life is available to anyone.
Now you can even own the Putin t-shirt. Collect all fifteen!
Last week, designers Anna Trifonova and Ivan Yershov opened a kiosk in a shopping mall outside Red Square, selling the Putin t-shirts as a part of the AnyaVanya clothing line. With each shirt priced at roughly $35, Trifonova and Yershov sold their entire stock – 5 thousand shirts – on the first day of business. People lined up to buy the Putin swag.
Trifonova said that the shirts were inspired by Russia’s “latest victories” on the international stage, including the Winter Olympics, the absorption of Crimea, and Russia’s victory in the World Hockey Championship.
Putin t-shirts on sale. “I am reading your thoughts” (left) and “The Most Polite of All People” (right). June 11, 2014. DNI.ru.
Russia’s pro-government media welcomed the apparent success of the Putin t-shirts, covering the story as sure proof of the President’s enduring popularity. The Guardian’s Shaun Walker has noted, however, that outlets like the notoriously pro-Putin Lifenews seem more invested in promoting the fashion craze than understanding public opinion. Publications like NTV, Russia-1, and Lifenews reported on the demand for the Putin shirts without irony, though many Russians, online at least, find the spectacle to be quite absurd.
Writing on LiveJournal, blogger Andrey Malgin highlighted some of the pro-Kremlin excesses of Russian media reports by reproducing a few choice excerpts.
Путин в очках, на коне, в форме или на пляже. Кому какой больше нравится. Здесь же чехлы для телефонов. Сюжет тот же.
– Все понравилось, и Путин нравится больше всех.
За модными обновками выстроились и иностранцы — немцы, итальянцы, французы.
То, что сделано на родине, пришлось по душе и московским модницам. Louis Vuitton и Prada сменили на Путина и “made in Russia”.
Putin in glasses, on a horse, looking fit, or standing on a beach. Whatever you like best. Here are some cell phone cases. The story is all the same.
“I liked everything, and I like Putin most of all.” Even foreigners are lining up for the new clothes. Germans, Italians, the French. A homemade product has captured the hearts of Moscow’s posh dressers. Louis Vuitton and Prada have been swapped out for Putin and “made in Russia.”
Malgin’s readers, most of whom are committed opponents of the Kremlin, were not so happy about Putin’s face launching a clothing craze. Many comments were quite scathing.
Хочется надеяться, что хотя-бы одну футболку купили для публичного сожжения.
I want to hope that at least one of these shirts was bought for a public burning.
Ничего нового. Россия топчется по кругу. Потом культ разоблачать будут. Каяться. И создавать новый.
This is nothing new. Russia continues to go around in circles. Later, they’ll denounce [Putin’s] cult. Next they’ll repent. And then they’ll create a new one.
Истерия набирает обороты.
The hysteria is picking up steam.
If Malgin's readers are correct that Russia is doomed to repeat its infatuation with strong leaders, one wonders what form the next president's swag might take. Perhaps Putin's successor can sell his voice to tomorrow's turn-by-turn guidance systems, steering future Russians down streets paved with gold….

author: Aric Toler


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Russia Claims to Have Forced Twitter into Submission Ahead of Crowell’s Moscow Visit · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

The Kremlin seems eager to show Twitter who's boss. Images mixed by author.
Twitter’s head of global public policy, Colin Crowell, is traveling to Moscow next week to sit down with Russia’s federal communications agency, Roscomnadzor. Ahead of that visit, Roscomnadzor claims to have forced Twitter to delete a fake account posing as Crimean politician Vladimir Konstantinov. “Attempts to impersonate a famous person on social networks in order to mislead audiences is qualified as an illegal use of personal data and a violation of the laws of the Russian Federation,” Roscomnadzor declared in a public statement on June 20.
Twitter has indeed deleted the account in question, @konstantinov_rc, which appeared in late April 2014, and posted just 78 tweets and attracted only 1,673 followers in its brief existence. Unlike the RuNet’s many popular parody accounts, Konstantinov’s doppelgänger on Twitter did not attempt to satirize or entertain. The account’s tweets were largely anodyne, like posts sharing information about personnel changes, government statistics, and holiday preparation in Crimea.
Vladimir Konstantinov's Twitter impersonator. Google cache screen capture.
Though Roscomnadzor’s press release implies that Twitter was compelled to obey Russian law, the fake Konstantinov account was in clear violation of Twitter’s own internal policy on “parody, commentary, and fan accounts,” which forbids impersonations without clear statements acknowledging as much in a user’s avatar, account name, and bio. Last month, Russian officials also claimed a victory in the regulation of Twitter, which agreed to block an account belonging to a Ukrainian ultra-nationalist group. (Twitter’s compliance was extremely limited, however, as users can easily circumvent the restriction by changing their accounts’ location settings.)
Given the approaching meeting between Twitter and Russia’s chief censorship outfit, it appears that Moscow is trying to convey that Internet giants like the world’s most popular microblogging service must conform to Russian sovereignty. This message is particularly easy to send, of course, when Russian laws reproduce Twitter’s own Terms of Service.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Russia Says the Internet Spreads Extremism · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Is the Internet Russia's greatest extremist threat? Images mixed by author.
Russia’s Interior Ministry has drafted a ten-year strategy for countering violent extremism, which under federal law includes everything from hate crimes to armed revolution. Under this long term plan, leaked to the newspaper Kommersant, authorities would crack down on extremist information sources and work to cultivate resistance to extremist ideas.
The plan identifies street protests as a “basic instrument for radicalizing society,” arguing that extremists can transform peaceful rallies into riots by spreading hateful ideas online.
According to Kommersant, the Interior Ministry’s new strategy would shift the state’s efforts from focusing on “manifestations of extremism” to challenging “extremist ideology” directly. In practice, this could expand the government’s policing powers by authorizing officials to suppress materials online that are imbued with certain ideological sentiments without being explicitly violent.
The plan suggests four major steps for fighting extremism:
“The authors of the strategy,” Kommersant reports, “are hoping for the ‘ideological support’ of civil society and the mass media.”
Russia isn’t the only country that has identified the Internet as a weapon of extremism. A report by the US government in 2011, for example, called the Web “an increasingly potent element in radicalization to violence, enabling violent extremists abroad to directly communicate to target audiences.” The White House leads what is called a “whole-of-government coordination” against extremism, which includes after-school programs, community-based organizations that assist new immigrants, violence-prevention programs, and other “non-security partners.”
Russia’s counter-extremism policy, however, could have an even greater impact on the Internet. “Unlike the Interior Ministry’s plan,” writes Viktor Stepanov at the RuNet-monitoring website TJournal.ru, “America’s battle against online extremism doesn’t stipulate blocking Web resources or ‘working with Internet providers.’”
Reports suggest that Washington’s fears about extremism and the Internet have more to do with terrorism and national security than with ideology. Moscow, on the other hand, talks of combating online social networks and street demonstrations, which suggests that the Kremlin’s concerns lie more with Russia’s political opposition than terrorism.
The Interior Ministry recently presented its counter-extremism strategy to the Presidential Council on Human Rights, a consultative body that assists the Kremlin with matters regarding political freedom and civil society. The Council’s members have reacted ambivalently to what would be only the latest in a seemingly endless series of laws eroding freedom on the RuNet.


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Russians Amused by National Team World Cup Performance · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

“Welcome, Sir”: a Russian goalie's mistake. Anonymous image found online.
Ahead of an important match with Group H leader Belgium tomorrow, and after a 1:1 tie with South Korea last Tuesday, the Russian national soccer team is probably questioning its chances of making it to the playoffs. And so are the Russian fans. The tie was largely due to a crucial mistake by Russian goalie Akinfeev, who got a fair amount of flack for it on Twitter. In fact, RuNet users were on the whole uncharitable toward their team, criticizing them for a poor performance and a boring game.
Twitter funnyman duo KermlinRussia was at the top of their game during the match:
Первый тайм закончился. Из опасных моментов могу вспомнить только то, как я представил, что вместо Кореи сборная Германии.
— Пeрзидент Роисси (@KermlinRussia) June 17, 2014
The first half is over. The only dangerous moment I can remember was when I imagined that instead of Korea we are playing the German team.
As usual, Kermlin veered into politics:
Вот если бы мы играли с Северной Кореей, была бы битва двух сверхдержав. А так играем непонятно с кем.
— Пeрзидент Роисси (@KermlinRussia) June 17, 2014
If we were playing North Korea, it would be a battle of two superpowers. Right now, who cares who we are playing against.
Another Twitter user made a reference to the Winter Olympics and the South Korean speed skater who won several gold medals competing for Russia:
Надеюсь, Виктор Ан успел провести с корейцами беседу, что они потенциально тоже россияне.
— Timur Batrutdinov (@BatrutdinoFF) June 17, 2014
I hope Victor An had time to talk to the Koreans and explain to them that they are also potential Russians.
“Hook-hands.” Anonymous image found online.
Soon after Akinfeev barely missed stopping a Korean goal, Russia's veteran player Kerzhakov managed to even the score. Russian Twitter was still not appeased, however:
Кержаков наконец-то вышел на ту дистанцию, с которой невозможно ударить выше ворот, и забил.
— Пeрзидент Роисси (@KermlinRussia) June 17, 2014
Kerzhakov finally got close enough to the goal, so that it was impossible to miss, and scored.
Continuing with a political theme, “Joseph Stalin's” Twitter account referred to a Soviet-era practice of counting one year of labor camp prison sentences for two, in return for good behavior, (a tone deaf joke, perhaps, if one remembers the North Korean national soccer team who were reportedly punished after a series of humiliating losses during the 2010 World Cup):
Гол Кержакова нужно считать за два!
— Иосиф Сталин (@StalinGulag) June 17, 2014
Kerzhakov's goal [note: in Russian “god” is “year” while “gol” is “goal”, ed.] should count for two!
One blogger lambasted both teams:
Мда, досмотрел я все-таки это позорище. Своя изюминка и здесь, впрочем, была – ее придавали корейцы. Дело в том, что, как оказалось, сб. Южной Кореи – просто совершеннейший брат-близнец нашим! Такие же нелепые, неумелые, робкие и тупые до изумления игроки. Создавалось порой полное впечатление, что сборная России играет сама с собой.
Yeah, so I finished watching this travesty. There was an interesting detail — it was provided by the Koreans. It appears that the South Korean team is a complete twin of ours! The same kind of awkward, unskilled, timid and remarkably stupid players. Sometimes there was a complete illusion that the Russian team was playing itself.
Not all of the political jokes were at the expense of the Russia-South Korea match. This meme, using Russia's head propagandist Dmitry Kiselev, made fun of his coverage of Ukraine, playing off of the Mexico-Brazil uniform colors (red and black for the Right Sector, yellow and blue for the Ukrainian flag):
Anonymous image found online. The caption reads: “During the World Cup in Brazil a team of Banderovtsy could not overcome the national team of the Right Sector.”
After the late-night broadcast of the Russia-South Korea match was over, and it became clear that Russia would have to win against the daunting Belgium to have a good chance at advancing, some reacted predictably, if a bit tongue in cheek:
Светает. Я иду переворачивать корейские автомобили во дворе
— Петр Кузнецов (@peterkuznetsov) June 17, 2014
The dawn nears. I'm going to go turn over Korean cars on my street.
The next few days and Spain's unexpected loss to Chile brought some much needed solace, however:
Вот все ругают сборную России, но ведь натуральный кошмар это игра команды, составленной из футболистов Реала и Барсы.
— Георгий Черданцев (@cherdantsev) June 18, 2014
Everyone is on the Russian team's case, but the real horror is the performance by a team that consists of Real Madrid and Barcelona players.

author: Andrey Tselikov


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Syrian Man Turns Artillery into Art · Global Voices
Syria Untold

This post was previously published on SyriaUntold.
Syrian artist Ali Abu al-Fawz decorates a rocket shell in Douma, Damascus. Source: Abu al-Fawz's facebook page.
Turning artillery into art. That is the work of Douma-based artist Akram Abu al-Fawz, who collects missile and rocket shells and transforms them into a wide array of art objects and ornaments.
Abu al-Fawz, known in his community as Mohammad Douma, has been forced to move from house to house after his home was burned by Syrian regime troops. The 35-year-old father of three believes that his work is no less important that the battles on the ground.
“Weapons will not be enough to get rid of the slavery we have lived in,” he explained in an interview with SyriaUntold. “We also need art, culture and civilization to weave our freedom.”
A girl sits on a rocket shell decorated by Abu al-Fawz. Source: The artist's Facebook page
The city of Douma, located in the outskirts of Damascus, has become one of the most punished, yet resilient areas since the beginning of the popular uprising in March, 2011. First home to large peaceful demonstrations and gradually turned into an open war zone, it is also known for its restless artistic and creative contributions. Just like Abu Ali al-Bitar, who managed to create stoves, motorcycles, medical supplies and music instruments from rockets and bullet casings, Abu al-Fawz makes life from death.
Abu al-Fawz continues to face huge difficulties to pursue his task, from displacement to the lack of necessary tools. He believes the effort is worth it, in the hope that these artifacts will “one day bear witness to the crimes against humanity committed in Syria.”
Syrian artist Ali Abu al-Fawz works on a rocket shell in Douma, Damascus. Source: The artist's Facebook page
This post was previously published on SyriaUntold.

author: Syria Untold


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Russian Phone Prankster Fools Belarus Dictator · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

Lukashenko and Bart Sympson. Images remixed by Andrey Tselikov.
Fans of Bart Simpson's prank calls to Moe's Tavern may be happy to find out that Russia has an enormous online community devoted to telephone pranks, not all of them as innocent. “Prankery” or “prankers” are a bustling online subculture, well established by 2009, when they were described by urban anthropologist Mikhail Alekseevskiy in Russian Academy of Sciences collection of articles on “Moscow Youth Subcultures.”
Although similar in spirit to simple prank calls beloved by many since the advent of the phone, Russia's prankers have reached a wider audience than usual, by posting the results of their calls on the Internet, first on dedicated forums, and later on social networks like VKontakte. In 2009 they were more interested in finding regular people to prank — preying particularly on older men and women, who they would call over and over, goading them into obscene tirades, which would be recorded and turned into local memes. In effect, this constituted “real life trolling” — an analog analogue to image boards like 4chan's infamous /b/.
But even back then, prankers pranked celebrities, and the most successful of them became celebrities of their own. A pranker who goes by “Vovan” is one such celebrity, a member of the pranker elite and a politically motivated troll who concentrates on making funny phone calls to well known people. In 2011, for example, he called up the head of the Russian Electoral Committee, Churov, claiming to be calling from the President's Administration, and fired him over the phone. This spring Vovan pranked Crimea's newly famous prosecutor general Natalia Poklonskaya, also claiming that he was calling from the President's office, and offering her to do a racy photo-shoot in Maxim.
Recently, however, Vovan might have overstepped his boundaries, when he prank-called Belorussian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, claiming to be the son of deposed Ukraine President Victor Yanukovich. During the call, the fake son asked Lukashenko for political refuge for his father. Lukashenko was sympathetic to the idea. After Lukashenko found out he was a victim of a prank, he apparently gave his security apparatus “a week” to find Vovan and bring him to some form of justice. Since it is likely that Vovan is a Russian citizen, it is unclear what such justice would entail.
Interestingly, while Vovan has admitted to making the call on his VKontakte page, he also said that he wasn't the one who leaked it to Ukrainian journalist Mustapha Nayem (who first broke the news). In fact, Vovan says that the particular recording leaked to Nayem began before he placed the call, and that Nayem did not appear to realize it was a prank. Which begs a logical conclusion, says Vovan, that someone was wire-tapping the President of Belarus. These wire-tappers were, in fact, also pranked:
Эти “слушатели” дали осечку – они не поняли, что с Лукашенко разговаривает совсем не сын Януковича и приняли разговор за реальный. После чего, возможно, они слили данную запись киевским властям. А те в свою очередь, тоже не разобрав подвоха, придали гласности этот “сенсационный” разговор через близкого к ним журналиста Найема.
These listeners made a mistake — they didn't realize that Lukashenko wasn't actually talking to Yanukovich's son, and thought the conversation was genuine. After this they, perhaps, leaked the recording to the powers in Kiev. Who, in turn, without realizing the scam, publicized this “sensational” conversation through Nayem, who is close to them.
If this is true, and it is this easy to cause an international scandal, we may have entered a brave new world of telephone pranks. Let's hope Russian “Barts” can keep up.


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Sharing with Great-Grandparents · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

On the website OhLaLá!, Inés Saínz remembers her great grandmother on her blog De la mamá (From mom) and reflects on inter-generational sharing now that she is a mother of two:
La manera que la nonna tenía de demostrar cariño era a través de la comida. Ahí sí se excedía. Podía pasarse horas en la cocina, amasando, cortando los tallarines con cuchillo, preparando la salsa de tomate. Era tan generosa con los condimentos como con las cantidades.
[…]
Paso todos los días por la puerta del edificio de la nonna y más de una vez pienso: qué fácil sería tocarle el portero. Cómo me comería un plato de tallarines con tuco. Cómo me gustaría volver a internarme en su departamento sólo para curiosear aquellos adornos de cerámica, entre angelicales y aniñados. Y abrir los cajones para robarle caramelos.
[…]
Pero hay distancias que no se resuelven con un viaje. Distancias que anulan toda posibilidad de encuentro, de un encuentro humano, palpable, sabroso, incluso incómodo.
Hay distancias que me obligan a recordarme: No dejes de alimentar el intercambio de tus hijas con su bisabuela… ahora que ella está. Acá. Acá nomás. A 40 minutos de colectivo o auto. Casi a la vuelta.
The way Granny had to show off her love was through food. There she outdid herself. She could spend hours in the kitchen, mixing, cutting the noodles with a knife, preparing tomato sauce. She was as generous with condiments as she was with the portions.
[…]
I pass her building entrance every day, and more than once I think: It would be so easy to knock on the door. I would eat a dish of noodles with tomato sauce. How I'd loved to enter her apartment once again just to have a peak at those ceramics ornaments, between angelic and childish. And open the drawers to take candy.
[…]
But some distances can't be solved with a trip. Distances that annul any possibility of a reunion, a human encounter, palpable, tasty, even awkward.
There are distances that make me remember. Don't stop nourishing your daughters’ exchange with their great-grandma…  now that she is around. Here. Right here. Just 40 minutes away on a bus or car. Almost around the corner.