text:
Skepticism and Expectation Ahead of Ruling on Maritime Boundary Between Chile and Peru · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

On January 27, 2014, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague will announce a decision on the dispute about the maritime delimitation between Perú and Chile. United Nations photo on Flickr, under license from Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Just a few days before learning of The Hague's decision on the controversy about the maritime delimitation between Chile and Perú, it would appear that skepticism has overtaken the public, or at least those who share their views on the internet, unlike a few weeks ago when the atmosphere was more lively.
The divergence of views between Chile and Peru about The Hague’s ruling concerning immediate application or not may have contributed to the feeling that even with a favorable outcome for Peru, in reality nothing will change.
Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno stressed that Chile’s position is that “The Hague’s ruling regarding Peru’s maritime lawsuit will not be applied immediately, due to the need to review the changes before implementing them.” Peru’s position is that it must be applied immediately, [es] although President Ollanta Humala recently stated [es] that “implementation of the ruling will be gradual and in agreement with Chile.”
Another issue being reported in the Peruvian media was the situation of a group of Peruvian fishermen who remain detained in Chilean territory for fishing in the disputed maritime territory. These fishermen must pay fines of around 70,000 soles (approx. US $25,000) to the Port Authority of Arica in order to recover their ships and return to Peru. They currently survive thanks to the solidarity of Chilean fishermen and the efforts of the Peruvian consulate in Arica.
But fishing is not just limited to this issue within the framework of The Hague decision. While some sources speculate that the fishing industry would grow by 250,000 tons if The Hague decides in Peru's favor, others indicate [es] that, due to Peruvian regulations, fishing could not take 100% advantage of the disputed zone if Peru wins at The Hague.
Representatives of the industrial fishing sector (anchovies), who are asking to expand fishing in the territory bordering Chile, claim that “the Peruvian government doesn’t give us the freedom to fish in our own territory, a benefit that the Chilean boats do have,” which results in billions of dollars in anchovy fishing that passes from our sea to the Chilean sea, enriching and strengthening their fishing industry.” However, President Humala declared that the anchovy depredation is the result of the “big fishing interests (industrial fishing) that, ignoring national interests, have violated industry standards, destroying much of the biomass of our coast.”
It is precisely this fishing issue on which Soledad Arriagada Barrera, a Chilean living in Peru, focuses on in the blog Feministas [es]. Soledad contends that The Hague’s ruling “won’t change anything for most Chileans, except for a few families.” After explaining how the Chilean sea belongs to seven families, and how one of them, the Angelini family, would be hardest hit with an unfavorable ruling for Chile, she concludes:
sé que el 27 muchos y muchas celebrarán si algo se gana frente a Chile, porque se tratará de algo simbólico, que repara, que mejora… y se lo explicaré lo mejor que pueda a mi hija [peruana – chilena, NdE], para que ella también sienta esa reparación como propia… pero ojalá en esa pequeña reivindicación no se pierdan objetivos ocultos por los poderes reales que también marcan la agenda de este Perú: ojalá que acá no se hipoteque también el mar y que este proceso no sea también parte de la traición que los mismos de siempre vienen cocinando hace siglos en contra de nuestros intereses.
I know that on the 27th many, many will celebrate if they win against Chile, because it represents something symbolic, that sets things right, that improves things…and I’ll explain it the best I can to my daughter [Peruvian/Chilean], so that she, too, will claim this mending as her own…but hopefully in this small vindication, the hidden agenda by the true powers in Peru is not forgotten: hopefully they are not mortgaging even the ocean and that this process isn’t part of the same betrayal always being cooked up against our interests.
Moreover, the blogger Luis Fernando Poblete from La Sotana del Inquisidor summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of Peruvian diplomacy in this dispute. Among the weaknesses he mentions [es]:
hay un argumento de forma muy auspicioso para la posición chilena: el Perú acude ante la Corte echando mano de principios recogidos en la Convención del Mar de 1982, pese a no haberla suscrito, a diferencia de Chile que sí lo hizo. Y así como los argumentos de fondo (que nos favorecen) son importantes en todo proceso judicial, lo son también los de forma, y esto nos lleva a preguntarnos por qué nuestro país no es parte de la CONVEMAR. La respuesta que dan los entendidos se resume en una sola palabra: patrioterismo. Empeñados como estamos en nuestra declaración unilateral de doscientas millas de mar territorial, nos hemos quedado en la popa de un barco que navega hacia otro rumbo. Doscientas millas sobre las que –vale decirlo- nunca hemos ejercido actos de plena soberanía ni de vigilancia absoluta.
There’s a very promising argument for the Chilean position: Peru comes before the Court claiming principles taken from the Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982, even though it wasn’t a signatory, as Chile was. And just as the substantive arguments (which are in our favor) are important in any judicial process, so is the form, and this leads us to ask ourselves why our country is not a party to UNCLOS. The answer given by those in the know is summarized in one word: patriotism. Entrenched as we are on our unilateral declaration over 200 miles of a regional sea, we are left at the stern of a ship navigating in another direction. Two hundred miles over which—it must be said— we have never exercised full sovereignty or absolute oversight.
The journalist Enrique Larrea summarizes [es] the six possible decisions from the ruling, according to Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, the president of the Peruvian Institute of Maritime Rights:
1) El Fallo favorece totalmente a Perú.
2) El fallo le reconoce 12 millas paralelas a Chile.
3) El fallo le concede a Perú 12 millas de equidistancia.
4) El fallo favorece totalmente la posición chilena.
5) El fallo combinado.
6) El Fallo combinado con línea media equidistante
1) The ruling completely favors Peru.
2) The ruling recognizes 12 miles parallel to Chile.
3) The ruling concedes 12 equidistant miles to Peru.
4) The ruling completely favors Chile.
5) The ruling is mixed [for both countries].
6) The ruling is mixed with a midline equidistant.
And from the Peruvian border city Tacna, the young “Bictor Noel” tells us how things are going in the city with respect to The Hague, and the different positions taken even within his own family. He concludes by sharing [es] his mother's reasoning:
En fin, acá en Tacna, el número de personas que creen (y estimulan) seriamente el conflicto peruano-chileno es reducido. Definitivamente, los tacneños queremos que se haga justicia y se nos otorgue la franja que se nos debe aun a riesgo de ganarnos alguna ira del sur. Estamos, no obstante, confiados en que el grado de civilización a que hemos llegado impide las ideaciones más pesimistas de ambos bandos, más bien, lo contrario, la espera de una mayor amistad y cooperación entre estos países
Well, here in Tacna, the number of people who seriously believe in (and encourage) the Peruvian-Chilean conflict is small. Tacneños definitely want justice to be served and that we be given the strip we are owed, even if that earns us some ire from the south. We, however, are confident that the degree of civilization we have attained precludes the most pessimistic constructs from both sides—to the contrary, the hope of a better friendship and cooperation between these countries.
But he can’t help but imagine what he would do if he followed his father’s reasoning:
El día 27, si pudiera –ganas no me faltan- iría con mis amigos a la playa, alquilaría un bote pesquero y, apenas anunciado el Fallo favorable, izaría la hermosa rojiblanca y enrumbaría a nuestro ‘nuevo’ territorio acabado de rescatar, pescando sin parar, y me dirigiría hasta el extremo del ‘nuevo’ límite para allí, orgulloso, apuntar a mar chileno y desaguar el espíritu sobre él. Es mi padre quien sonreiría socarronamente a esta iniciativa, y a mí solo me quedaría decirle: “¡Gracias, viejo, por tener la misma sangre que tú!”
On the 27th, if I could—I’m certainly willing—I’d go with my friends to the beach, I’d rent a fishing boat, and as soon as the ruling was announced, I’d hoist the beautiful red and white and I’d head to our ‘new’ territory that we just saved, fishing like crazy, and I’d head towards the end of the ‘new’ limit, proud, point towards the Chilean sea and drain the lizard on it. My father would smile roguishly at this act, and the only thing left would be to tell him: “Thanks, old man, for having the same blood as you!”
Jokes aside, it’s true that the border cities of Tacna and Arica [es] are the ones with more expectations for The Hague’s ruling. While the Peruvian side has announced that police will tighten security in Tacna during this time, on the Chilean side, President Piñera has planned a trip to Arica on the eve of the announcement. It’s expected, despite rumors [es] of military moves, that the ruling will be met with calm and serenity on both sides.

author: Juan Arellano


text:
The Other Side of Social Media · Global Voices
Rezwan

That’s Twitter – it makes a joke out of serious issues and takes jokes seriously.
- comments blogger Purba Ray while discussing Sunanda Pushkar’s sudden death who underwent a Twitter spat with a Pakistani journalist. The unusual death of the wife of Indian minister Shashi Tharoor has created a lot of controversy pointing fingers at Twitter.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rezwan


text:
What Does Climate Change Mean to You? Documentary Competition · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Young filmmakers from all over the world are invited to produce and submit a 1-12 minute video documentary telling a story about climate change. What the #Action4Climate video challenge wants to know is:
How is climate change impacting your community? What are you doing about it? What needs to be done to solve the climate challenge?
The deadline is April 1, 2014. To learn more about eligibility, prizes and the jury, visit the competition's webpage at connect4climate.org and watch the short video below:
Updates are being shared on Facebook and Twitter.

author: Sara Moreira


text:
Alarm Bells Ringing (Again) Over China’s Housing Bubble · Global Voices
Jack Hu

Despite the property bubble alarms, skyscrapers keep emerging in major cities in China. Photo from Chris CC: AT-NC-SA
Continuously jumping home prices in the past year have raised concerns again about a real estate bubble in China as the government refrains from introducing any measures that would hinder economic growth.
New home prices in China's 70 major cities [zh] in December continuously rose from a year earlier, led by the large cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou going up 20.6 percent, 21.9 percent, 20.4 percent and 20.3 percent respectively, according to National Bureau of Statistics data. The sole exception was Wenzhou city from Zhejiang Province.
Alarms over China’s real estate bubble from experts and analysts at home and abroad have appeared time and time again during the past decade, but the bubble has yet to burst. Writing on popular microblogging site Sina Weibo, economist Zhao Xiao believed China’s housing market and economy would continue growing, but might result in a devastating side effect:
目前，海内外再度出现了许多谈论中国金融崩溃、楼市崩溃甚至经济崩溃的文章。这些文章都指出了很好的问题，但在近4万亿美元外储及城市化背景下，我相信中国经济仍将前行。真正要担心的是一种类似于＂温水煮青蛙＂的后果，杨小凯所讲的＂后发劣势＂加孙立平所讲的＂社会溃败＂在中国同时出现！
Much commentary from both domestic and overseas media outlets has talked about the collapse of China’s financial and real estate markets, with some even predicting the collapse of the economy. All of them have good arguments, but I believe the economy will still grow as China still has nearly four trillion US dollars reserved and the country is still going through urbanization. What really concerns me would be a “warm boiled frog” effect, the situation as described by economist Yang Xiaokai as the “curse to the latecomer” and the “social decay” scenario as mentioned by sociologist Sun Liping!
Even though the bubble has not burst as the banks have enough money to support the economy, Zhao predicted that the hot property market will intensify social inequality (or “social decay”) because latercomers would have to pay for a property price that they could not afford. Popular online social critic “Rongjian2009” echoed Zhao Xiao's analysis and criticized the government for its lack of determination to change the economic structure:
我的估计，最后必定是饮鸩止渴，通过继续注入流动性以延缓经济的崩溃，当然，由此引发的恶性通货膨胀必定会制造一场更大规模的危机。这是“我们就是不改”的必然后果。
I expect [the government] would end up quenching a thirst with poison, delaying the collapse of the economy by pumping liquidity [by issuing more bank notes] into it. Certainly it would prompt a vicious inflation which could create a crisis on a larger scale, a simple effect of “we just don’t change”.
“Victor Liu Lei”, an investment expert, also highlighted the relationship between the oversupplied currency by China’s government and the jumping of asset prices:
自2006至今，中国的货币供应翻了三倍。货币潮水般地涌入，推动经济走向新高，也将资产价格推至高点。房价飙升，人们对泡沫的恐惧也不断增加。
China’s currency supply has tripled since 2006. The flood of currency has stimulated economic growth, as well as pushed asset prices to peak. Public fears about a bubble have increased with housing prices soaring.
Despite the alarms, policymakers are not keen to bring the market to a shuddering halt because real estate is a major driver of the economy, supporting some 40 other industries and generating about 16 percent of the country's 8.5 trillion US dollar GDP. Indeed, property is one of the best investment options, and local government revenues mainly depend on land sales. Zhao Xiao shared the latest economic data with his Weibo followers:
最新数据：2013年房地产业销售6.4 万亿元（猜猜地价多少）；缴纳契税2874亿元;房产税1372亿元;营业税4051亿元;土地增值税2719亿元;缴税合计约1.1万亿元;银行房贷余额12万亿元;获8400亿元利息;土地收入28517亿元;政府和银行从房地产获利47917亿元;占6.4万亿元收入的75%。您还要再问明年房价会不会降吗？
Fresh data: sales revenue of real estate is 6.4 trillion yuan [approximately 1.06 trillion US dollars] (guess how much is the land price); deed taxes are 287.4 billion [approximately 47.5 billion US dollars]; real estate taxes 137.2 billion [approximately 22.68 billion dollars]; business operating taxes 405.1 billion [approximately 67 billion dollars]; increment tax on land value 271.9 billion [approximately 45 billion US dollars]; total tax amount about 1.1 trillion [1800 billion US dollars]; mortgage balance 12 trillion [1.98 trillion US dollars]; interest gains 840 billion [138.87 billion US dollars]; land revenues 2851.7 billion [471.45 billion US dollars]; government and banks gained 4791.7 billion [792.17 billion US dollars], accounting for three quarters of sales revenue. Do you still ask if housing prices will decline next year?
However, the over-dependence on the property market in the economy has resulted in a vicious cycle. In response to the news story that a factory owner with one thousand employees in Wenzhou made a million-yuan profit in a year while his wife earned 30 million yuan in property investment in eight years, Zhang Wenxue, a clerk working in Sina, sighed at the unjust economic game:
一个朋友哭诉，犹豫一年没买房，房价飙升，7年白干了。这是对勤奋劳动的巨大打击，也是不公平的。这么搞，谁还愿意做实业，都玩房地产游戏得了，早晚出事。
A friend of mine complained his seven-year work ended in vain due to housing prices soaring after he postponed to buy for a year, a big blow to diligent work and unfair. In such an environment, who will still do industry? People scramble for real estate and game markets. The economy will derail sooner or later.
While overseas media, such as Forbes, believe that the deteriorating living environment and air quality in Chinese cities will take a toll on China's skyrocketing home prices, many Chinese people think otherwise.
Polarized development
The polarized development of urban and rural regions has resulted in the concentration of resources like job opportunities, education, medical services, etc. Nearly all of the central state-owned entrepreneurs’ headquarters are located in the capital, and scores of key universities and hospitals are concentrated there, while some other provinces just have one.
However, it is extremely difficult for young people to settle in first-tier cities. Oriental Morning Post commentator “Tong Dahuan” predicted that in a year or so, the property prices in big cities would become absolutely unaffordable to the majority of young people:
一线城市将迅速告别30岁以下年轻人买房的时代，除非你爸是大官或大款,或者拆迁飞来横财。够得着的就抓紧吧，不出半年到一年，大部分年轻人将永远和一线城市独立产权房无缘。到时可别怪我没提醒你。
The times when young people under 30 could buy homes in the first-tier cities will be gone, except when your father is a big official or tycoon, or you could be compensated for home demolition. Hurry up and buy if you are able now. Most young people will miss the chance to own a private apartment within the first-tier cities forever.
“Hou Lei of Ever-bright bank”, on the other hand, pointed out that the fundamental solution to runaway housing prices is to address polarized development and redistribute resources:
新闻观察称去年北上广房价的上涨用了脱缰野马这个词。为什么政府各种组合拳出击勒不住这只马？我认为最根本原因是地域发展严重失衡。政府这几年采取的措施都是头疼医头脚疼医脚。只有从医疗教育等解决地域资源的平衡问题，才是解决问题的根本之道。
News Observers used “wild horse” to describe housing prices surging in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Why have the various policies introduced by the government failed to curb the runaway horse? I think the most fundamental reason is the serious imbalance of regional development. Those policies carried out by government are superficial. The ultimate solution is to redistribute public resources, such as medical and education services [to less developed regions.]

author: Jack Hu


text:
Best Dresses of Kazakhstan Selected · Global Voices
Mahina Shodizoda

On January 23, 2014, an international jury named the winners of the ‘Best Dress of Kazakhstan’ contest, a competition for young fashion designers in the country. Ten designers competed in the event, showcasing one or two of their best dresses. The three winners of the contest will represent Kazakhstan at the International Fashion Competition ‘Dress of the World’ in Romania, in late February. Bloggers enporcelaine and Altynai Imanova present great photo reports from the event.

author: Mahina Shodizoda


text:
Congrats Tunisia on the New Constitution!  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bloggers from across the region paid tribute to Tunisia for adopting a new constitution, three years after the ousting of dictator Zeine el Abidin Ben Ali.
The country, the first to join the so-called Arab Spring, is on the right path, they say.
Yemeni blogger Noon Arabia congratulates Tunisians:
Majority vote in #Tunisia's National Assembly on the constitution. Congrats Tunisia, a step forward & hopeful example for the Arab Spring
— نون عربية (@NoonArabia) January 27, 2014
Algerian Megari Larbi follows suit:
Happy for Tunisia to have a new constitution. Giant step towards stability. Good luck brothers.
— Megari Larbi (@Larbi71) January 27, 2014
From Egypt, Mohamed El Dahshan laments the situation in his own country:
WE HAVE A CONSTITUTION! Oh, sorry, I'm just celebrating with my #Tunisia friends. The Egyptian constitution is worth less than toilet-paper.
— Mohamed El Dahshan (@eldahshan) January 27, 2014
The comparisons with Egypt continue.
Borzou Daragahi tweets:
Amazing: #Tunisia secularists & Islamists celebrate together as new constitution read aloud; big contrast to #Egypt pic.twitter.com/LbGYh7eqBQ
— Borzou Daragahi (@borzou) January 26, 2014
And Israeli Elizabeth Tsurkov chimes in:
So happy for Tunisia. They now have the most democratic constitution in MENA. All of this is thanks to the brave Tunisian people #Sidibouzid
— Elizabeth Tsurkov (@Elizrael) January 26, 2014
Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt adds:
Three years after igniting process of change in Arab world Tunisia adopts its new democratic constitution. http://t.co/z1afwKM1st
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) January 27, 2014

author: Amira Al Hussaini


text:
Egypt: Is Sissi’s Promotion a Step Closer to the Presidency? · Global Voices
Victor Salama

Interim president Adly Mansour issued a presidential decree promoting General Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, minister of defence, to the rank of field marshal. It is the highest rank in the Egyptian military.
The promotion has created a buzz online, with many wondering whether it paves the way for Sissi to run for presidency in elections penciled in for the end of April.
Adam Makary tweets:
Reminder – Sisi was #Egypt‘s first defence minister not to hold the top rank of Field Marshal. Now he has it.
— آدم مكاري (@adamakary) January 27, 2014
Louisa Loveluck notes:
Field Marshal Sisi's Wikipedia page has already been updated.
— Louisa Loveluck (@leloveluck) January 27, 2014
And Ahmed Abrass explains what the title Field Marshal means [ar]:
رتبه المشير ترجمتها بالانجليزيه فيلد مارشال قائد ميدان حرب و هي تمنح للعسكريين اللي قادوا جيوش لانتصارات مبهره
— Ahmed (@Ahmed_Abrass) January 27, 2014
“Field Marshal in English means someone who has led troops on the field battle and have obtained scintillating victories”
This isn't the case for El Sissi. However, it seems that this is not a prerequisite in the Egyptian army and that the former general had all the necessary qualifications to become a Field Marshal.
Nervana Mahmoud explains:
This arabic link say: ” fighting in war is not a pre-condition for promotion to Field Marshall.” http://t.co/pi9dbLS4RX of course! #Egypt
— Nervana Mahmoud (@Nervana_1) January 27, 2014
Bel Trew confirms:
Abdel-Fattah Sisi has necessary qualifications to be Field Marshal, doesn't need combat experience say sources #Egypt http://t.co/5tmFOlQPPS
— Bel Trew – بل ترو (@Beltrew) January 27, 2014
And Egyptian Streets says:
Government source: Promotion of Al-Sisi is aimed at honoring his actions over the past few months. #Egypt
— Egyptian Streets (@EgyptianStreets) January 27, 2014
Many netizens seem puzzled and clearly annoyed by the news.
On Facebook, Mina Labib asks [ar]:
يتكافؤه على ايه ؟؟ علي إنفجارات ؟؟!!
What is he being honoured for? The explosions?
Egypt woke up on January 24 to a series of four explosions, which left six dead and over 70 wounded in Cairo.
Some suggest that this promotion is a fast-track to Sissi's presidential bid. Nervana Mahmoud writes:
Promotion of general Sisi is a sign of imminent resignation. That is the way they do it in Egypt since decades. #sigh
— Nervana Mahmoud (@Nervana_1) January 27, 2014
Egyptian Streets adds:
BREAKING: Reports indicate Al-Sisi meeting with military leaders to plan his nomination for Presidency, likely to resign. #Egypt
— Egyptian Streets (@EgyptianStreets) January 27, 2014
And journalist Patrick Kingsley explains:
Just spoke to a senior military source who claimed #Sisi wd have to resign if he ran. But wouldn't say what the promotion itself meant.
— Patrick Kingsley (@PatrickKingsley) January 27, 2014
It seems that the presidential bid isn't the only reason for this promotion. Tarik Salama tweets:
Sisi promoted as Marshal is a salary necessity. As future president w/ a constitutionally limited salary, he needs the extra.
— Tarik Salama (@tariksalama) January 27, 2014
And Basil Al Dabh adds:
Get that pension. #recession
— Basil الضبع (@basildabh) January 27, 2014
In time of great unrest and crackdown on personal freedoms, some people see this as another step towards the deification and cult of personality that Egyptian leaders were used to enforce.
Zack Gold explains:
Given the circumstances, I think the next promotional level is “Sun God.”
— Zack Gold (@ZLGold) January 27, 2014
While Gr33ndata shares this cartoon:
Viva Alcazar pic.twitter.com/lUJfgpNde3
— Tarek Amr (@gr33ndata) January 27, 2014

author: Victor Salama


text:
Egypt: What’s Next for Field Marshal El Sissi?  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egypt's army head General Abdel Fattah El Sissi is now a Field Marshal, the country's top military rank. It is not clear whether the promotion, announced by interim president Adli Mansour, is a prelude to Sissi stepping down from his position and running for president in elections scheduled for the end of April.
The announcement was met with ridicule on social media.
Egyptian Mohamed El Dahshan says Sissi's promotion has an environmental benefit [ar]:
كويس ان السيسي أصبح مشير. عشان نعيد إستخدام لافتات و ستيكرات "يسقط حكم المشير" بتاعت السنين اللي فاتت. (إعادة الإستخدام كويسة للبيئة برضه)
— Mohamed El Dahshan (@eldahshan) January 27, 2014
It's good that Sisi has become a Field Marshal. We can now re-use the banners and stickers which called for overthrowing the Marshal's regime. It is also good for the environment.
From Saudi Arabia, Essam Al Zamil says the promotion is a prelude to him becoming an “ousted president.”
السيسي رقّى نفسه لرتبة مشير. عقبال ما نشوفك رئيس مخلوع أد الدنيا. :)
— عصام الزامل (@essamz) January 27, 2014
Al Sisi has promoted himself to Field Marshall. Let's hope we see him as an ousted president.
While Egyptian Noha Zayed considers another pain:
و الله انا بكل ألم بحمد ربنا ان اخويا مات ( أتقتل علي يد السفاح ده) عشان ميشوفش الي بيحصل ده..يا بختك يا كريم
— Noha Zayed (@NohaZayed) January 27, 2014
With much pain, I thank God that my brother is dead (killed at the hands of this monster) so that he doesn't see what is happening.
And Jordanain Mohammad Al-Abed jokes:
Myself hereby declare myself a 5-star version of myself. #cc #jan25 #egypt
— Mohammad Al-Abed (@Aboosh) January 27, 2014
According to Amr Hussein, Sissi is the fifth person to attain this coveted position:
Only 4 generals were promoted to Field Marshall after successful Mil operations. Tantawy(Gulf War) Gamasy, Abu Gazala and Ismail (1973)
— Amr M Hussein (@AmrGunner1) January 27, 2014


text:
Iran: A Facebook Administrator Arrested · Global Voices
Farid

Iran's cyberpolice say they have arrested administrator of a Facebook page called “Sherarat” (meaning villainy”). Iranian police added this Facebook page used to publish stories and photos about thugs and made publicity about their actions.

author: Farid


text:
Jamaicans Deserve Details About Proposed Logistics Hub · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

You are being manipulated. Jamaicans are effectively begging and paying their government for vital information about their country. How can we accept this?
Talk of developing an environmentally protected area of Jamaica as a major logistics hub has Cucumber Juice up in arms, as she says key information is not being provided to the public.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Journalism, Cuban Style  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Iván's File Cabinet shares some of the must-haves if you want to be a journalist in Cuba.


text:
Malaysia: The Most Beautiful Sound in the World · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The winner of the ‘most beautiful sound in the world’ competition is ‘Dusk by the Frog Pond’ by ‘Wild Ambience’ recorded in a Sarawak swamp in Borneo, Malaysia.

author: Mong Palatino


text:
Nine Questions for Arien Chang Castán, a Photographer from Havana · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

I was looking for someone. After my first foray into illustrated interviews, I wanted more. So, my editor Solana Larsen suggested a friend, Arien Chang Castán, a photographer from Havana, Cuba. As soon as I saw his beautiful website filled with old people, seas, solitudes, cities, colours, darknesses, I wrote to him.
The questions in this interview are based entirely on what I observed of his photos and what I read about him on his website. The questions, and answers, were given in an email exchange that took several weeks. I would need more time and closeness to be able to describe and tell the story of Arien Chang, but in the absence of this, below, a photographer in/from Havana.
Global Voices (GV): Tell me the story of your last name.
Arien Chang (AC): My grandfather came to Cuba as an illegal immigrant in 1927. He moved to Old Havana, very close to where I have lived my whole life. He started out in the business of casinos, gaming houses, bars, he even joined a political party that brought together many Chinese immigrants that, like him, had come to Cuba with the hope of new opportunities. Some had even used Cuba as a bridge to cross to the United States (a bridge that we still use…) Of course, working and living in Old Havana, he fell in love with a mulata, who ended up being my grandmother; hence the mix of races and the last name.
Chang is one of the most common family names in China. I had the opportunity to verify this first hand in February, thanks to “Red Gate,” a well-known institution that offers grants to artists from all over the world. For two months I was working on my project, which involved trying to find my roots, the place where my grandfather was born and raised – not because I feel rootless or that I need to find an identity in China, but rather because of the impatience that pursues us and makes us believe that we exist, simply, because we know where we come from.
As a photographer I’m always looking – in my house, in my neighbourhood, in my country – for a new image, a new concept, something that indicates why we exist, where we are going. Photography is my medium and my last name might seem exotic on this island, but that's what is magnificent and photogenic about Cuba: the races, the ages, the history of a whole people are mixed together in its streets. And what’s more, in Cuba we use two family names, the father’s and then the mother’s. My second family name is Castán, which comes from Arabic, and that’s a whole other story of roots and immigrants.
GV: Photographer, why?
AC: I don’t think there is a ‘why’, but I can tell you a bit about how I started, how my life, or rather, how photography changed my life or how my life became photography.
It all started during the hot summer of 2003 (not as hot as it is now), in the América Theatre, a spectacular construction representative of Art Deco, in Galiano Avenue in the centre of Old Havana. They were offering a photography course, along with other unrelated courses like massage and hairdressing, but I just wanted to learn how to use a camera (in those days I didn’t even think about light). It was a very basic course, but in it I finally learned how to use the Russian camera that my father had brought from the Soviet Union, it was a Zenit that had been in a drawer in my house since I was little. I used to play with it and move its controls, it all seemed very fun, of course back then I never imagined that photography would become my life, but I already knew that I liked having a camera around and pushing the shutter.
When I finished the course in the América Theatre, I discovered that I did indeed know how to work the controls but I didn’t know a thing about taking photos. Since I’m a bit stubborn and when I get my mind set on an idea I have to do it, I discovered that the best school for me was on the streets of Havana. Documentary photography is what I wanted to do, what I have done and will continue to do; I’m a photography addict and it’s too late to fix that, now all I can do is surrender myself to this addiction and feed it each day with more work. Photography exists and people can see it, but it must be discovered.
GV: Cuba has been the object of countless photographers. So many that it has developed an image difficult to reinvent. How do you photograph Cuba from the inside?
AC: Photographing Havana from the inside is very easy… you just have to have a Libreta de Abastecimiento (ration booklet) and permanent residence, an ID card or anything that allows you to live here for a while.
The life of a Cuban is not reduced to going to work in the morning and coming home in the evening, people in this country go through an odyssey every day. They are constantly tried by the dynamic of life that we have in this country, to put a name to it. The (non-)transport, the (non-)money, and all the other “nons” that each Cuban faces every day leave marks on their faces, in their clothes, in their spirit, sometimes of desperation, sometimes of fun, but they always reflect a story that if you don’t live it yourself or you don’t know how to read it, you can’t take the photo. We can add to this the incredible architecture, that as we all know is frozen in time and sometimes makes us believe we are in the 40’s. It is this apparent disguise that makes Havana easy and not-so-easy to photograph. This damned Havana is a double-edged sword, which I thank for who I am and what I do.
To create an image you must live it, you must suffer it, and that is why you can sometimes find photos of Cuba that are very well composed, with an impeccable use of colour and light, but at the end of the day they are empty, they are nice little postcards, because the photographer cannot go beyond the impression that Havana makes at first contact.
You have to touch Havana every day, handle it, enjoy it, you have to understand it.
GV: Why take portraits of old people?
AC: For their experience, their tranquility and their wrinkles.
Old people don’t mince their words, they have lived enough to have nothing to lose. In my photos you can see sweet expressions and also looks of hate-disgust at having the lens pointed directly at them. Elderly people, like children, say what they think, they act and get by without fear of the future, because the future for them is already the past.
The series “Longevity”, which I started to develop a few years ago, consists of taking photos of people over 100 years old. A century is a lot of history, even for a country, someone over 100 years old sometimes has less to say with words than with their feelings, expressions.
Old age is intriguing, I don’t expect to live long enough to take my own self portrait and add it to the series; but to photograph someone over a century old is always impressive for me.
GV: Tell me about the sea.
AC: It's impossible to ignore the sea in photography, especially if you live your whole life on an island. Since I was a kid I would escape from school with my friends to go and swim at the Malecón (waterfront esplanade) and like me, generations and generations of Cubans have grown up using this coast-beach, full of reefs, dog-tooth (sharp rocks), as we call it here. Getting to the Malecón, taking off your school uniform and throwing yourself from the highest, most dangerous, deepest part, is less an action than a sense of belonging, a power relationship, you use the sea, sometimes it uses you. Thousands of accidents have happened on Havana’s Malecón, but even so, no-one is afraid of it. The Malecón, or “el Bleco” as we neighbourhood locals affectionately call it, is there and always will be, sometimes calm and sometimes agitated, like the idiosyncrasies of Cubans themselves. It has learned to live with us and us with it, though I hope that the prohibition on swimming at the Malecón doesn’t last.
I miss the sea, when I don’t see it for a few days I miss it, my whole life it has been near me, near my city. The Malecón series, the one that carries the name “el Bleco” in honour of my childhood, is my reconciliation with this city, with this country. It is a debt that I owe it for being Cuban, for being from Havana, for living in it for part of my childhood, my adolescence, for being part of my life.
GV: Black and white or colour?
AC: I don’t think I could choose one, that would be like choosing between two pretty girls, the difference is that I don’t have to choose just one, I can stay with both and be happy.
When I started out in photography my work was all in black and white, analogue and processed in a “laboratory”, that is, the room where I was born on the corner of Monte and Ángeles streets, without any way to close it off, often without water; but with a good enlarger, from the beginning of the 20th century, which allowed me to do my own prints, control my own image from another perspective. There I learned more than anywhere else about lights, shadows, composition and I really enjoyed doing the whole process to my photos.
I spent seven years doing just black and white, even when I made that much-feared change to digital, I still didn’t use colour. It’s only in the last few years that my photos have started having “some” colour. I have always believed that colour is a very difficult technique in documentary photography, the dramatic quality of a black and white photo is always more attractive; but the use of colour when it is necessary, when the image practically cries out for it, has an undeniable strength. But, really, when you see photography you can tell when it is in colour and when it is in black and white. It’s only now that I am trying to understand the language of colour, translate it, I am searching for a personal style; always basing myself on those years that I worked only in black and white, but that helped me begin to understand colour in a different way, I’m trying to reinvent it in these colourful streets of Havana.
I can say that recently I have developed a certain fetish for colour, I really like it a lot and I don’t know… the black and white phase hasn’t ended but I think that in the future colour will predominate my work, that’s my intention.
GV: A bleeding window?
AC: That bleeding window only has one culprit: The Havana Biennial. This kind of big party was happening at that moment, with artists on the streets of Havana, where they intervene in spaces with different art forms, I simply passed by that street, that house. The bleeding window, a coincidence, I saw the image, the dress, the sandals, the contrast of colour with the window, the yellow wall, so I took the photo.
If the window had been another colour or hadn’t been bleeding, or the woman hadn’t been there, maybe I wouldn't have taken a photo or maybe I would have, but of course, it would be a completely different one. I didn’t seek it out, the window came to me and that is what’s incredible about documentary photography, the spontaneity of the moment.
GV: Solitude permeates your photography.
AC: That's an interesting question because no-one has ever spoken to me that way about my photography. I just do photography and that's what I see, maybe it’s the solitude and abandonment of this city that has so many needs, so much history, so many bad memories, and good memories too, but those are secondary.
Solitude, you say, permeates my photography, but being a documentary photographer is a kind of solitude too, it’s a way of being alone, even when you are surrounded by thousands of people, only you know what you capture with your camera that only you can control. What can I say, there are people who are solitary, sad, bitter, just as there are people who are happy, fun, sociable; I simply try to capture their feelings, the stories that they drag around often without realizing that in the way they walk, talk, move around the world, they carry their own load, their own particular solitude.
GV: What is your relationship with the city, Havana?
AC: I really feel as if I were wearing pijamas on the streets of this Havana that has watched me grow and that I am constantly looking at and looking at again and rethinking. I get home, after a whole day of moving around out there, and then, instead of resting, I take my work home because at the end of the day that’s what we photographers are, slaves to our own way of life. I download the photos, I edit, I edit again, I look at them, look at them again, you never know what surprises Havana has in store for you. Sometimes I feel like I violate her, that I am taking advantage of her, that I use her for my own good, but in the end I always thank her with my photos, or at least I try to.
Rediscovering Havana is my main project, my constant aspiration, because sometimes just going out onto her streets is not enough, you have to go into her houses, go up to her roof terraces, talk with her domino players, with the ones who have fighting cocks, with the woman who sells on the corner, and the child who plays ball. In short, my relationship with Havana is very simple: to wake up every day and go out…

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


text:
Nicaraguan Micro-Fiction by Alberto Sánchez Arguello · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Blogger Mildred Largaespada of 1001 Trópicos [es] writes about Alberto Sánchez Arguello, a Nicaraguan writer who shares his micro-stories through his Twitter account @7tojil [es].
“He is definitely an outstanding representative of Central American writers 2.0 who use new formats and genres”, she writes. Mildred also shares two micro-stories written by Sánchez Arguello and a link to his blog [es].

author: Silvia Viñas


text:
Prominent Kenyan Writer Binyavanga Wainaina Comes Out as Gay · Global Voices
Haute Haiku

Binyavanga Wainaina at the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival. Photo released by Wikipedia user Binyavanga Wainaina at the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival. CC BY 3.0
Kenyan novelist and short story writer Binyavanga Wainaina has released a chapter that was left out from his 2011 memoir “One Day I Will Write About This Place” titled “I am homosexual, mum“. Wainaina, who is the founding editor of the East African leading literary magazine Kwani?, is an award-winning author whose memoir made the reading list of Oprah's book club in 2011.
Wainaina recounts events prior to his mother's death and his struggle to reveal his sexual orientation to the people he cares about. In what he calls a lost chapter from “One Day I Will Write About This Place”, he revealed:
I, Binyavanga Wainaina, quite honestly swear I have known I am a homosexual since I was five. I have never touched a man sexually. I have slept with three women in my life. One woman, successfully. Only once with her. It was amazing. But the next day, I was not able to.
It will take me five years after my mother’s death to find a man who will give me a massage and some brief, paid-for love. In Earl’s Court, London. And I will be freed, and tell my best friend, who will surprise me by understanding, without understanding. I will tell him what I did, but not tell him I am gay. I cannot say the word gay until I am thirty nine, four years after that brief massage encounter. Today, it is 18 January 2013, and I am forty three.
The revelation came shortly after Uganda's parliament passed legislation that would jail homosexuals and President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria approved a new law that criminalises homosexual relationships and imposes prison terms of up of to 14 years.
Wainaina is quoted by Kenyan newspaper The Star saying that the anti-gay law in Nigeria was one of the things that made him decide to come out.
He has also released a six-part YouTube video titled “We Must Free Our Imagination” discussing his decision to come out, homosexuality in Africa, the church and anti-sodomy laws on the continent. Below is the first part of his video series:
Following his public declaration of his sexual orientation, Cal Advocacy blog asked, “Where are the voices of African lesbians?”:
Can lesbian women publicly and proudly raise their voices without fear of reprisals from conservative, patriarchal systems of silencing and oppression? And if we can- then why aren’t we? What systems of oppression still keep us muffled and quiet? When homosexuality is spoken about in Africa, the voice, rhetoric and overall emphasis on either affirming or disputing the rights of non-heteronormative people is more often than not the voice of gay men. Binyavanga is a gay man and he has ‘come out’ and publicly said so. But what does this mean for bisexual, trans and lesbian women? Does Binyavanga’s coming out also give us a voice and a space to claim our rights to exist in spaces that are hostile to our otherness? Can a lesbian woman in Africa copy-paste and edit his letter as a telling of her own story? Has he, in essence, spoken for us all? Women’s sexuality as a whole is a completely side-lined and unacknowledged part of womanhood, where societies, cultures, traditions and religions refuse to recognize women’s sexual rights and bodily autonomy. In this light, lesbian women struggle for legitimacy in a phallocentric world, where the absence of the penis means the absence of sex and sexuality. It can even be argued that colonial laws never took lesbian relationships to account because the very thought that two women, or women alone, could have sexually gratifying relationships was seen as ludicrous, and therefore unaffected by any kind of laws.
The post continued by praising the writer and pointing the way forward for African lesbians:
Binyavanga has helped push an already happening conversation into a public, heterosexual space. The energy around unapologetically and honestly stating our sexuality should not lose momentum. And the voice he uses in planting, firmly, his homosexual identity, is admirable. He makes no apologies, and offers no explanations. And neither should we. We need more lesbian voices, and the voices of gender non-conforming women, asserting ourselves and owning our place on the continent. It doesn’t have to be a coming out story, and you don’t have to be a literary giant. It just has to be your truth as a lesbian, bisexual or transgendered woman, but it has to be spoken out loud, because like Audre Lorde said-your silence will not save you.
On Twitter, many people praised his courage, while a few voices condemned him for his choice:
I think people should cease seeing #BinyavangaWainaina as the face of Africa. He chose his way now choose yours.
— Lord Chancellor (@Bonyton_) January 25, 2014
#Kenyan author #BinyavangaWainaina comes out as gay making him one of the most high profile kenyans to do so. A win for #LGBT in #Africa
— Niamh Ni Ruairc (@NiamhNiRuairc) January 22, 2014
#BinyavangaWAINAINA What's the hullabaloo about his being gay? It's a personal choice & private affair. Unfortunately, now in public domain
— wanja gathu (@wgathu) January 22, 2014
i need to tell those of us who think that @BinyavangaWainaina was brave that its sinful to be gay. Read Leviticus 18:22.
— Mark Bosire (@mbosire6) January 27, 2014

author: Haute Haiku


text:
Russian Conspiracy Theories about Maidan’s First Blood · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Serhiy Nigoyan, Maidan's first shooting fatality. Died January 22, 2014. Screenshot from YouTube.
Since street protests over European integration first broke out in Kiev last November, the ideological battle lines dividing Russian Internet users haven’t changed much. Western-leaning liberals generally embrace the Ukrainian opposition, whereas conservatives and many of the self-proclaimed “geopolitical” thinkers fear “losing Ukraine” would deliver a strong blow to Russia’s national interests.
Regularly topping LiveJournal’s Russian-language traffic are two distinct kinds of reportage on Ukraine: first, there are the largely opposition-sympathetic photo blogs by photographers like Rustem Adagamov (and slightly more ambiguous work by Ilya Varlamov), and, second, there are the deeply anti-opposition posts by bloggers spreading conspiracy theories about terrorist plots and Western interventions designed to undermine the Ukrainian authorities.
Given the lack of eyewitnesses, the murder of Serhiy Nigoyan, Maidan’s first shooting fatality, has naturally attracted lots of speculation about who was responsible. Nigoyan died from bullet wounds on January 22, 2014, near Dynamo stadium on Grushevsky Street in Kiev, where skirmishes against police have been most intense. Nigoyan had been serving as an informal security guard for Maidan protestors. Twenty-years-old, handsome, and apparently quite friendly, Nigoyan had become a fixture of Kiev’s protest scenery, even starring in an unfinished film documentary. (A clip from his interview in this project is now available on YouTube, see below.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xijdtFlRRT0
Though police have not concluded their investigation, Nigoyan is thought to have died from sniper fire. The dominant narrative among protestors and Western journalists, it seems, is that Ukrainian Special Forces shot him dead [ru]. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, on the other hand, claims [ru] that its officers do not carry the type of ammunition that killed Nigoyan. Further thickening the plot, Ukrainian police say not a single eyewitness has come forward to deliver a statement explaining how Nigoyan died.
The day of the murder, after the popular Twitter account “EuroMaidan” posted a photo (later deleted) of unidentified snipers atop a building, Moscow-based blogger Denis Travin and others jumped [ru] at the opportunity to show that the photograph in the tweet was actually from Kyrgyzstan in April 2010.
Other Russian bloggers have been more willing to accept the role of snipers in Nigoyan’s murder, but some have also embraced extremely elaborate conspiracy theories about the gunmen’s identity. LiveJournal user ermalex76, for instance, argues in a blog post [ru] that the American military was behind the killing, citing the irregular ammo used, and the supposedly curious proximity of a (US-funded) Radio Liberty journalist to the site of the shooting. Blaming Gene Sharp, an American political scientist famous for his work on anti-government resistance movements, ermalex76 explains that “Sharp’s Plan” calls for the creation of “sacred martyrs,” in order to motivate protestors. (The blogger goes on to clarify that Yulia Timoshenko would make the perfect sacrifice, but her continued imprisonment makes it too difficult to kill her.)
Indeed, in an op-ed [ru] in the newspaper Izvestia, Russian opposition figure (and perennial gadfly of Russian liberals) Eduard Limonov also entertained the idea that someone was posing as police snipers, as a ploy to catalyze protest sentiment.
From Nigoyan's Vk account.
Other conspiracy theorists have turned their attention away from the killers and onto the victim, opening the door to character assassinations of Nigoyan. Following his death, it wasn’t long before bloggers discovered Nigoyan’s account [ru] on Russia’s largest social network, Vkontakte, where he posted methodically about Armenia. RuNet users did not fail to miss old photos of Nigoyan in army fatigues at a firing range. Presumably, this was during his mandatory military service in Ukraine (not Armenia, which Nigoyan never once visited), though another post raised suspicions [ru] of terrorist affiliations. On November 21, 2013, Nigoyan put up a picture celebrating ASALA, the redundantly titled “Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia,” a now extinct organization that spent the 1980s listed as a terrorist organization by the United States.
While no proof whatsoever has emerged linking Nigoyan to terrorism, it seems the rumor found a receptive audience even in Ukraine’s highest echelons of power. Sources close to the negotiations between the opposition and the government told [ru] journalist Tatiana Nikolaenko that President Yanukovich originally rebuffed accusations that the police were killing protesters. “Listen, guys, this was an Armenian terrorist,” the President allegedly said during talks, in the government’s defense.

author: Kevin Rothrock


text:
Teaching Art During Vietnam War · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The British Library blog features several art works made during the Vietnam War era. It also quotes Nguyễn Toan Thi, a guerilla artist during the war:
Art classes were held outside in the forest until our schools were bombed: classes were then held underground. Art teachers and students shared the same trenches. We fought and sketched together, to record spontaneous and realistic images of the battlefield and our life in the forest.


text:
“There Are No Other Problems” in Tajikistan Besides Name Games · Global Voices
Mahina Shodizoda

More than a week after Tajikistan's Prosecutor General made a controversial statement about “unpatriotic” surnames, Internet users in the country continue debating whether the ending of one's surname is a good measure of the person's level of patriotism. Many netizens, however, are angry about the fact that the Prosecutor General has been so vocal on seemingly trivial issues while remaining silent on high-profile cases that fall under his mandate.
The following image is widely circulating among Tajikistani users of social networks Facebook and Odnoklassniki:
Anonymous image circulating online.
The text at the very top and the very bottom of the image reads ironically, in Russian: “The Prosecutor General is worried about people changing surnames. If your surname ends with “ov” or “ev”, you are not a patriot. There are no other problems in the country!”. Smaller images and texts behind the Prosecutor General's photo relate to cases that the official has apparently failed to address. These images (staring with the bottom-left image, moving clockwise) point to: a deadly car crash involving a son of a well-connected official (text reads, “Murderer”); newly-built plant emitting hazardous coal dust in the country's capital (“Ecology is dead”); recent death of an opposition activist in prison, apparently of torture (“Murdered”); recent jailing of an influential businessman-cum-opposition politician on dubious charges (“26 years in prison”); and the fact that at least a million of Tajik citizens work outside of the country to keep their families out of poverty (“Migrant”).


text:
Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly Adopts New Constitution · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Tunisia finally has a new constitution. The National Constituent Assembly (NCA) overwhelmingly approved the charter three years after the ousting of the 23-year-rule of Zeine el Abidin Ben Ali. A total of 200 NCA members voted in favour of the final text, with 12 members voting against and only four abstentions.
The drafting and adoption of the 149 article document was a lengthy process, which started in October 2011, with the election of the NCA.
The assassination of opposition deputy Mohamed Brahmi in July, 2013, delayed the process when opposition deputies boycotted the NCA's activities for several months and protesters called for the dissolution of the elected assembly broke out.
Contentious points in the text, such as the place of religion in political life, division of executive powers between the Prime Minister and the President, the appointment process of judges, and the age requirements to run for presidency, also complicated the long process. Islamist and leftist NCA deputies were left with the one choice: finding compromises and the charter is often referred to as “the consensus constitution”.
Details of the vote on the constitution. Source: Marsad
The charter enshrines fundamental liberties and rights: freedoms of expression and press, the right to access information, freedoms of conscience and thought, gender equality before the law, and gender parity at elected assemblies.
The new constitution establishes Islam as the state religion, but does not make any reference to Islamic law as a source of legislation. It rather states that “Tunisia is a civil state based on citizenship, the will of the people, and the supremacy of law”.
The charter also establishes a mixed political system, distributing executive powers among the PM and the President of the republic.
As soon as the text was approved, feelings of euphoria broke out at the NCA.
On Twitter, Tunisians welcomed the “historic moment”:
University teacher Lilia Youssef tweeted [fr]:
Allez, avouez, c'est quand même un moment spécial #TnConstit
— Lilia Sfaxi Youssef (@Lillitou) January 26, 2014
Come on admit it! Despite everything, it is a special moment
Cyril Karray said:
Quelque soit le % que vous sentez que cette #TnConstit vous représente ou le respect que vous portez à ces dirigeants: c un jour historique!
— CGK (@CyrilGrislain) January 26, 2014
Regardless of how much you feel represented by this constitution, or if you respect those who wrote it or not: this is a historic day.
And Rabeb Othmani adds:
#Tunisia has voted its new constitution. It may not be perfect but it is a major step, it is history. Congratulations homeland :) #TnConstit
— Rabeb Othmani (@Rabeb_Othmani) January 26, 2014
Lotfi Azouz, director the Tunis office of Amnesty International wrote [ar] on Facebook:
Euphoric moment at the Tunisian Constituent Assembly after the Approval of the Constitution. Photo Credit: Albawsala
اليوم يزهر الربيع في تونس
يحق لنا في تونس الاعتزاز بتجربتنا الديمقراطية الرائدة في شمال افريقيا والشرق الاوسط حيث تم التوصل لانجاز دستور هو نتاج تفاعل ايجابي بين مختلف مكونات الطيف السياسي ومختلف مكونات المجتمع المدني حيث وللمرة الاولى يشارك المواطن بفاعلية في التاثير في عملية صنع القرار.
Today, spring flourishes in Tunisia. In Tunisia, we do have the right to be proud of our pioneering democratic experience in the North Africa and the Middle East region, where we were able to achieve a constitution, which was the result of a positive interaction between the different components of the political spectrum and civil society. For the first time, citizens effectively participated in influencing the decision-making process.
However, not everyone was satisfied with the end result, including Ahmed Kaaniche [ar]:
دستور يبرر الإعدام و في نفس الوقت يمنع التعذيب، ما ينجم يكون إلا دستور منافق  #ما_يمثلنيش#tnac #TnConstit #Peine_de_mort
— ahmed kaaniche (@kaanicah) January 26, 2014
A constitution that justifies the death penalty and at the same time bans torture can only be a hypocritical constitution. #Does_Not_Represent_Me
Article 21 of the constitution states that “the right to life is sacred and shall not be prejudiced except in exceptional cases regulated by law.”
In a second tweet, Ahmed added [ar]:
دستور يحرمني من حقي في الترشح لرئاسة الجمهورية بسبب اختياراتي الدينية، دستور لا يمثلني  #tnac #TnConstit #libertéDeCulte
— ahmed kaaniche (@kaanicah) January 26, 2014
A constitution that deprives me of my right to run for presidency because of my religious choices, does not represent me
Under article 73, only a Muslim can run for presidency.
Tunisia LGBT, was not happy either [fr]:
Félicitations pour tous ceux qui se voient représentés par la nouvelle constitution, pas nous. Elle ne nous protège même pas des insultes.
— Tunisia LGBT (@TnLGBT) January 27, 2014
Congratulations to all those who feel represented by the new constitution, but not us [the LGBT community in Tunisia]. It does not even protect us from insults.
#BanKiMoon praises #Tunisia constitution, forbidding any "attack on the sacred" & making intl treaties "sub-constitutional"
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) January 27, 2014
Article 6 of the constitution tasks the State of “protecting sanctity and banning attacks on it”.
But, the battle for democracy is ongoing and does not end with the approval of a constitution.
140 characters does not suffice in describing how I feel. It isn't a perfect document. Battle is won but the war is far from over. #Tunisia
— Wafa Ben Hassine (@ousfourita) January 26, 2014
Mediapart reporter, Pierre Puchot tweeted [fr]:
Même avec ses contradictions, ce texte comporte de belles avancées. C'est une étape importante dans la construction démocratique #TnConstit
— Pierre Puchot (@PierrePuchot) January 26, 2014
Despite its contradictions, the text contains good advances. It is an important step in the democratic construction
And Malek tweeted [fr]:
#TnAC adopte la #TnConstit à 93%. Mabrouk a3lina, on va pouvoir tourner la page. La vie continue, le combat pour une meilleure Tunisie aussi
— Malek404 (@Malek404) January 26, 2014
Constitution adopted with 93% of the votes. Congratulations. Now we can turn the page. Life goes on as well as the fight for a better Tunisia

author: Afef Abrougui


text:
Ukrainian #DigitalMaidan Activism Takes Twitter’s Trending Topics by Storm · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Screenshot of the digitalmaidan.com website.
This post is part of our Special Coverage Ukraine's #Euromaidan Protests.
For the first time ever, a Ukraine-related hashtag topped Twitter's worldwide trending topics, holding its number one position on the social network most of the day on January 27, 2014.
An activist initiative dubbed #DigitalMaidan Twitter Storm called upon Twitter users to post tweets in massive numbers to show support for Euromaidan anti-government protesters in Ukraine. The mass tweeting with the hashtag #digitalmaidan began at 10 a.m. EST (5 p.m. in Kyiv) and was coordinated by social media users from the Ukrainian diaspora in the West and other activists.
Screenshot from Twitter, January 27, 2014.
The Public Diplomat, a blog based in Syracuse, New York that aims to explain public diplomacy by providing insight into “ideas, research and events that catalyze the engaging of different cultures” tweeted:
Interesting use of Twitter for raising awareness of importance of financial sanctions against Ukraine: http://t.co/5hjWcaQ0t6 #DigitalMaidan
— The Public Diplomat (@Public_Diplomat) January 27, 2014
The Facebook event page used to gather supporters for the #DigitalMaidan Twitter Storm explained:
Have you been a part of a Twitter storm before? If not, here's how they work: A Twitter storm is when people, at a specific time, bombard twitter with the same hashtag. Just before the Twitter storm starts, a google page of around 80 pre-made tweets will be shared here on this event page. The pre-made tweets target TV stations, newspapers, officials, celebrities. There will be a separate one for Canada that excludes members of Congress. By all of us tweeting the same 80 messages with the same hashtag at various media and VIPs, we can get our message trending.
During the hour of the Twitter Storm, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. EST, a mass amount of Twitter users tweeted the prepared tweets from the #DigitalMaidan page, as well as their own messages and calls for help to the international community, public figures and celebrities, to raising awareness and support the people of Ukraine's Euromaidan protests, which have endured for two months now.
Watcher.com.ua estimates there was an average of five to six tweets per minute that included the hashtag.
Ukrainian journalist Mustafa Nayyem joined the effort:
Выведем хэштеги #euromaidan #Ukraine #digitalmaidan в мировые тренды!
— Mustafa Nayyem (@mefimus) January 27, 2014
Let's get the hashtags #euromaidan #Ukraine #digitalmaidan into world trends!
The Civic Sector of Euromaidan also tweeted about the Twitter storm:
готуємося до твіттер шторму http://t.co/qPYOHljwgr #euromaidan #євромайдан #maidango #Ukraine. Це спрацює.
— Civic Sector (@maidan_go) January 27, 2014
Getting ready for the Twitter storm http://t.co/qPYOHljwgr #euromaidan #євромайдан #maidango #Ukraine. This will work.
According to statistics from Topsy, over 60,000 #digitalmaidan tweets were published during the hour of the Twitter Storm, which continued with further tweets and retweets throughout the day.
Screenshot showing number of tweets and user sentiment from Topsy.com, January 27, 2014.
Twitter user Kinoyurch summed up the intentions of the effort's participants in this tweet:
When we don't lay siege to administration, we lay siege to Twitter #euromaidan #Ukraine #digitalmaidan
— Kinoyurch (@Ukr_fries) January 27, 2014
Not all Twitter users in Ukraine took to the flashmob with enthusiasm. A parody Twitter account for the former head of Presidential Administration, Serhiy Lyovochkin, was more than skeptical about the effect of the Twitter storm:
Видя количество твитов с тегами #euromaidan #Ukraine #digitalmaidan ПР дрожит от страха.
— Левочкинъ (@slevo4kin) January 27, 2014
Seeing the number of tweets with #euromaidan #Ukraine #digitalmaidan hashtags, PR [Party of Regions] is shaking with fear.
Below is a screen capture of #digitalmaidan Twitter Storm tweets captured in real time on Twitterfall.com by Global Voices author Tanya Lokot and posted on Vimeo:
Recently, TwitterData posted an interactive visualization in the form of a map of how #euromaidan tweets have been spreading around the world during the key days of the protests:
#Ukraine protests: how #euromaidan spread around the world #dataviz http://t.co/3wdBsGD5zO pic.twitter.com/WqJNbQkrzw
— Twitter Data (@TwitterData) January 24, 2014
Over the past several days, there have been rumors that authorities may decide to shut down Internet and mobile networks in another attempt to quell the protests that have been growing for over 10 weeks now. Whether or not that happens, Internet tools and social networks are an intricate and important part of the protests, in particular in seeking support and explaining the protests to the international community.

author: Tanya Lokot


text:
Anonymous Acts of Kindness  · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

The blog BuzzFeed shares a series of images that portray simple acts of kindness by ordinary people that might have huge effects on those who receive them: “35 Pictures That Prove The World Isn’t Such A Bad Place.“

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


text:
Calypso, Race & Political Allegiance in Trinidad & Tobago  · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

The 2014 Carnival season in Trinidad and Tobago is heating up in more ways than one.  The song “False Papers” by the calypsonian “Bodyguard” has been banned from the Kalypso Revue calypso tent by leader and veteran calypsonian Michael “Sugar Aloes” Osuana.
“Aloes” justified his move by explaining that he considered the lyrics to be offensive to Indians. Bodyguard, whose real name is Roger Mohammed, has countered that he was merely responding to a statement by head of the Maha Sabha, Satnarayan “Sat” Maharaj, that while “Africans were beating pans, Indians were beating books.”
Ironically, “Sugar Aloes” has, in the past, been a vocal supporter of the Peoples National Movement (PNM), one of the two major political parties in the country and traditionally voted for by Afro-Trinidadians; he publicly switched his allegiance to the People's Partnership in 2012 by appearing on a platform to serenade the Prime Minister, who heads the predominantly Indian-supported United National Congress (UNC), the main party in the coalition government.  As a result, it has been suggested that his shift in political support is responsible for his decision to ban the calypso. Indeed, many have even pointed out that “Sugar Aloes” made a career out of singing acerbic, controversial songs – and that “False Papers” fell well within the tradition of social and political commentary in the calypso genre.
The first verse of “False Papers”, a song no doubt inspired by the increase in instances like this, goes:
It easy to say Sat will be Sat
And try to ignore people like dat
But Sat Maharaj controls a large group in society
So when he makes a definitive declaration
It carries a lot of clout
We feel he know what he talkin bout
But time has a way
Of recycling the tings we say
And holding them up against logic and reason
So when Sat say ‘Indian children beating book
While black children beating pan’
No cousin! Is better yuh didn’t say nuttin
The chorus follows:
‘Cause recently, one setta Indian people get caught
Wid false papers, false papers
I’m yet to see, one single African in the lot
And not one of them fraudsters ever face a court
So yuh theory have more holes than a water can
Like is better some ah dem Indian did beat a pan
When yuh feel dey was beating more book than the African
Dey was fabricating degrees, defrauding the land
Acclaimed calypsonian David Rudder had some fun with the situation:
There is a rumor coming through the African Fed Ex pipeline that claims that Sugar Aloes has declined the services of a Bodyguard. Hahahah! Is that true?
Ah mean,lol! I just had two.
Rudder continued with a parody of one of Sugar Aloes’ most famous songs:
I'M JUST BEING ME. (By Later Or Sooner)
I don't look like PNM, for your information
PNM doh look like me
So when come to survival,
I'm just being me
And I didn't get from PNM, for your information
Deh eh getting from me
So when come to survival, don't have no objection
I'm a UNC.
Kareen Stuart suggested that the song could inflame racial tensions:
This song, while the lyrics in it may point to truthful stories (fabrication of certificates), it can also lead to increased racial tension in Trinidad. If people are going to be concentrating on the lyrics of a song on its prejudiced approach as opposed to the melody, arrangement etc., the real message of the song will definitely be lost in a hoopla of controversy that will make…race…an even bigger issue
Wendy Howell felt that if calypsonians were to start pulling punches, it would damage the relevance of the art form:
By people not singing in calypso, what is actually occurring in the country would be to go against what calypso was created to convey. It highlights and pinpoints all that the citizens are experiencing and has (sic) to deal with daily. It gives them a voice that they would normally not have. To sing about only light stuff and not address the real issues that is (sic) eating away at the hearts of the ppl would be a terrible injustice to the artform that is our calypso.
Others, like Marla Dial Walker, condemned the song outright:
I do support culture; pan etc., but not Racisms’ (sic). And for those of you who commented on some of the songs that Sugar Aloes sang it’s all in the past. In this day and age we have no place for such behaviour. There is so much going on in Trinidad at this current time, why could he [Bodyguard] not sing a song about all the Killings, Rapes, and Druggies?
Bryan Dickson maintained that calypsos were meant to be provocative:
I thought the tent is where you go to hear the controversial, the smutty, political rhetoric, the hard facts. It is not where we look for the politically correct…we have enough censorship on the radio and elsewhere. Toughen up people!
Twitter was also rife with discussion:
While Bodyguard's song lacks tact, it's interesting that Sugar Aloes is the one who banned him. Several of his songs ruffled feathers before
— Peter Christopher (@petedchris) January 15, 2014
SugarAloes 'Royal' man, you've been bought! With so much songs of social commentary & criticism of government, 'False Papers,' is a problem?
— Kofi Blades (@kofster) January 15, 2014
@NotoriousDRE_H quipped, tongue firmly in cheek:
Sugar Aloes is the new "moral" compass of Trinidad & Tobago! "No" to racism but "Yes" to subventions! #sarcasm #sweetTnT #smh
— André (@NotoriousDRE_H) January 15, 2014
Stacy Raphael defended the freedom of the art form:
Dear Sugar Aloes, the historical perspective of calypso has been anchored in social commentary for DECADES. #FalsePapers is such a song.
— Stacy Raphael (@RaphaelStewart) January 19, 2014
Finally, referring to one of the biggest calypso competitions in the country, which traditionally takes place in South Trinidad at the open air venue of Skinner's Park, and where the discerning and often tough audience often throws toilet paper at performers who don't meet their high standards, Jeffrey James pleaded:
Lance Noel Judges,Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee pick Sugar Aloes for the semi final at Skinner park.
— Jeffrey James (@jefjams) January 18, 2014

author: Matthew Hunte


text:
China Awards Tennis Champion Li Na With Six-Figure Prize  · Global Voices
Owen Guo

Local Chinese authorities’ decision to award 800,000 yuan (130,000 US dollars) to China's tennis superstar Li Na has cast a cloud over the athlete’s homecoming shortly after her stunning triumph at the Australian Open.
The prize money was quickly captured in news headlines in China, generating a wave of mockery and criticism directed at local officials, whose move appeared to be at odds with President Xi Jinping’s pledge to fight extravagance and cut back on government spending.
Li’s second Grand Slam Title came with 2.4 million US dollars worth of the reward, and given her endorsement deals with brands at home and abroad, she is arguably the highest paid female athlete in China.
In local TV footage, the poker-faced Li was shown posing for pictures with a local government official. The two held a red board in which the amount of the prize money was printed. According to Chinese individual income tax law, the 800,000 yuan prize money awarded to Li is tax-free.
Screenshot from Sina's official sports channel
Li’s brief meeting with local provincial officials at the airport of Wuhan, where she is from, was largely symbolic. The 31-year-old athlete remained silent during the welcoming ceremony, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Li Na quickly rose to prominence after winning the 2010 French Open and since then has remained a beloved figure in China for her lighted-hearted personality. She now has some 22 million followers on China's most popular microblogging Sina Weibo.
Many netizens in China questioned local authorities’ decision over the reward money:
Zhongguo Weishengwu from Jiangsu wrote:
李鸿忠代表省政府奖励李娜80万元人民币。这钱如果是领导自己出，无话可说，如果是纳税人的钱，你凭什么啊？李娜的工作本就是一种体育商业行为，为了她的团队，为了她的家人，她必须奋战在赛场上，她的夺冠和你们有毛关系啊？当初李娜单飞最困难的时候，你们在哪里？膝盖积水无钱手术时，你们在哪里？！
Li Hongzhong gave Li Na 800,000 yuan on behalf of the provincial government. If the money was from the leader himself, it was nothing debatable, but if the money came from taxpayers, who gives you authority to do so? The work of Li Na is essentially commercial sports, and for her team and her family, she has to fight in the battlefield. How was her championship connected with you? And where were you when she went solo? Where were you when she had no money for her knee surgery? Where were you?!
A prominent sports commentator Huang Jianxiang commented：
湖北省政府奖励李娜80万，在20年前绝对没今天这么多批评。这是社会的进步。而官员的思维却还停留在过去：什么好人好事都得跟政府挂钩，都得是组织过问领导关怀出来的。其实，好多领域都是政府官员越少过问越好的，放给市场，肯定比麻烦市长要更加利国利民。特别是文化体育产业。
Hubei government's decision to award 800,000 yuan to Li Na wouldn't have created so much criticism 20 years ago. This is the progress of the society. However, the mindset of the officials pretty much stagnated as in the past: Each good personalities and good deeds have to be linked to the government, and government officials have to come out to send their greetings and congrats. In fact, in certain areas, the less government inquiry the better, let the market have the say, which will be much more beneficial to the country and the public than bothering the mayors, it's particularly true in terms of sports industry.
LeeAng1015 wrote:
李娜缺这80万吗？为什么总是用钱表达一切。80万是怎么来的？老百姓的钱，政府在SHOW吗？
Does Li Na really need the 800,000 yuan? Why do [officials] use money to express everything?  Where was this 800,000 from? It was our common people's money, was it for show by the government?
China News Service, a semi-official newswire, offered rare criticism:
政府用公共财政奖励一个职业运动员，有点名不正言不顺。首先，政府支出必须严格履行预算程序，这笔80万元的奖励支出，有预算吗？其次，财政支出必须遵守公共性原则，只能用于公共服务，职业球员拿冠军，与公共利益有何关系？
It does not make much sense that the local government uses public finance to award a professional athlete. First, the government should strictly make and implement its budget, is there such a budget for 800,000 yuan as award money? Second, the spending of public finance must be conducted in accordance with public principles, namely, they must be spent for public service, a professional athlete's championship, how is that related to public interest?

author: Owen Guo


text:
Child Artists in Syria’s Largest Refugee Camp ‘Zaatari’  · Global Voices
Syria Untold

This post is cross-posted from Syria Untold.
The impact of the escalation of violation in Syria on a whole generation of children has become a priority for many Syrian activists and organizations. Colors from the Zaatari Camp is one of the many initiatives focusing on the future of Syria by trying to improve the life conditions of refugee and displaced children.
Children drawing at Zaatari Camp. Source: Colors from the Zaatari Camp Facebook page.
The Zaatari camp, located on the Syrian-Jordanian border, is the largest Syrian refugee camp, hosting more than 100,000 refugees, many of them children. According to Dima al-Malakeh, who works for the Dubai-based association For Syria:
“We chose Zaatari for this project because it is a place where many Syrians live together now, one where we can start working together in the field of schools and education.”
She added:
The Colors of Zaatari project throws light at the work of children to highlight their voices, their talents and their dreams, in an attempt to reach out to international organizations and institutions so that they can help them go back to school. Going back to school is what the children dream of, and so do we.
Zaatari children painting, exhibited in Amman, January 16-17. Source: Colors of the Zaatari Camp Facebook page
The idea was born after activist Mahmoud Sadaka saw a number of drawings that children living in the camp had made. “The drawings were beautiful, powerful and revealing, and I thought it was a shame that they stayed in the camp and no one else could see them”, he explained to Syria Untold.
In coordination with For Syria and other Syrian journalists and activists such as Milia Aidamouni, they decided to highlight Syrian talent through these children’s creations. They collected the best works and organized their first exhibition in Amman on January 16-17, 2013. A total of 60 art pieces, properly framed with the help of artist Lina Mohamid, were exhibited.
This post is cross-posted from Syria Untold.

author: Syria Untold


text:
Critical Cybersecurity Issues for the Caribbean · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

ICT Pulse names the three cybersecurity resolutions it thinks Caribbean organisations should make this year.


text:
Fairy Tales in the 21st Century · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

On the column Breviario [es] from the website El MalPensante [es], Argentinian author Hernán Casciari [es] concludes that many timeless fairy tales that are part of children's imagination and many other stories would have never taken place had their main characters had access to the current technology:
What happens with the chosen story? Will the plot go smoothly, now that the characters can call each other from any place, now that they have the choice to chat, generate video conferences and send SMS? It doesn't work at all, right?
[…]
With a phone on her hands, for instance, Penelope does no longer wait full of uncertainty for Ullises the Warrior to come back from combat.
With a mobile phone in her basket, Little Red Riding Hood would alert her granny just in time and the lumberjack's presence is no longer necessary.
And he concludes by saying that “our plots are losing their charm because we've become lazy heroes”.


text:
Guyanese Website Could Be Game Changer in Regional Crime Fighting  · Global Voices
Gerard Best

One tech entrepreneur based in Georgetown, Guyana is taking a fresh approach to the country's crime problems. Vijay Datadin is the main player behind Guyana Crime Reports, the country's newest data journalism website. Guyana Crime Reports combines GIS mapping and crowdsourced crime detection to bring a fresh look to traditional online reporting.
Datadin says the site was born of the desire not to report news, but to fight crime. This goal is undoubtedly supported by the fact that Datadin is also the founder of Red Spider, a small web development startup, which today maintains Guyana Crime Reports’ presence on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, where its handle is @GuyanaCrime.
The tweets give concise, but specific information:
Two held with grenades, M16 rifle and ammo http://t.co/z0B4H3OxuJ #Guyana
— Guyana Crime Reports (@GuyanaCrime) January 23, 2014
Police badge triggers shooting of cop during robbery http://t.co/pLHRyUf0J1 #Guyana
— Guyana Crime Reports (@GuyanaCrime) January 19, 2014
The site's Facebook page often shares more detailed stories of robberies, etc. by linking to mainstream media reports.
Guyana Crime Reports is part news aggregator, making it a good one-stop source for various crime reports related to Guyana, published in local and international news media. Citizens can submit crime reports through a form on the website, although those reports are verified more rigorously than stories aggregated from established media sources. On the site, incidents of crime are organised into different categories, ranging from fatal crime to domestic abuse – and users can get alerts from the site should an incident happen within 20 kilometers of their location.
Encouraging Conversations About Crime
Red Spider is considering forging informal relationships directly with journalists who share their interest in improving the way that crime is reported in Guyana – the aim being not to compete with established media companies, but rather to enhance the essential news service that they provide.
For Datadin, it is exciting to think of traditional and new media working together, as he believes they share a common goal, existing not just to distribute information but also to help readers make sense of large amounts of information over time. He has embraced the responsibility of helping followers understand how local crime fits into a larger national picture:
As a citizen [of Guyana], it would be to my benefit if crime went down. I'm doing this not for any immediate commercial benefit but because I think it needed to be done. There [has] to be a public conversation about crime…based not only on opinion but on facts, one that affords a more reasoned and inclusive debate about factors that cause crime and the policies that can help curb it.
He sees a more informed public as a critical part of having constructive discussions about crime, but concedes that the site has taken only early evolutionary steps toward that goal. His ultimate objective is to have a positive impact not just on public discourse, but on public policy. The company has already made what he calls “soft approaches” to the Guyana Police Force and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Mapping Crime Trends
Datadin holds a postgraduate Masters degree in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from Edinburgh University, Scotland. Plus, the word ‘data’ is literally in his name! No surprise, then, that Guyana Crime Reports relies heavily on maps to visually represent the spread and scope of crime, thereby helping users of the service to see exactly where an incident took place.
By making the crime maps public, Guyana Crime Reports effectively creates an equal opportunity for anyone seeking to understand how crime is trending both in their area and nationally. Both the public and policing officials can review the map and detect trends, both in specific areas and throughout the country as a whole. According to Datadin:
You can see not just what happened recently but what has been happening over time.
By using maps to visualise crime data, Guyana Crime Reports has already set a significant precedent for digital journalism in the region. Its popularity and success thus far suggest that audiences across the region would benefit if more Caribbean newsrooms added maps to their arsenal of storytelling tools.

author: Gerard Best


text:
INNOVATION: Containers as Student Housing at European Universities  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

“Containers” at DTU Campus Village in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark via wikipedia CC-BY-SA-3.0
In order to alleviate the lack of student housing available across Europe, a few universities in Denmark, Germany, France (Le Havre) [fr] and Spain have tried to turn containers into student dorms. Containers appear to be the structure of choice because they are less costly and readily adaptable to include the necessary amenities. However, a few associations have already raised a few issues [fr] regarding thermal isolation and safety in the containers.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


text:
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan: Trip to the Dying Aral Sea · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

The Aral Sea lying between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan was once one of the world's four largest lakes. Over the last five decades, however, the sea has lost over 90 percent of its original size, mainly as a result of disastrous irrigation projects which diverted rivers feeding it. On the Caravanistan travel blog, Aziz Murtazaev presents a photo report about his recent trip to the “dying sea”. A more detailed report by the blogger, in Russian, can be accessed here and here.

author: Alexander Sodiqov


text:
Kenya Blog Awards 2014 Open for Submissions · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The 2014 BAKE Kenyan Blog awards is now accepting submissions until February 10, 2014. Users can vote online from March 1 to April 30, 2014 for their favorite blogs in 17 different categories, including the new additions of Best Health Blog and Best County Blog.
Logo of BAKE. Image source: http://bloggers.or.ke.
The Kenyan Blog Awards, an initiative of the Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE), seeks to reward bloggers that post on a regular basis, have great and useful content, are creative and innovative. Other categories include:
Below is a video of the inauguration of the Kenyan Blog Awards:
Blogs can be submitted using this link.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


text:
Presidential Debate in Panama Creates More Questions Than Answers · Global Voices
Ariel Moreno

Panama is preparing for presidential elections in May 2014, and only four months from polling day, the campaigns are ratcheting up the rhetoric and everybody is breathing political propaganda.
There will be four candidates from official parties and for the first time in history, three independent candidates are running.
On January 20, 2014, the second presidential debate was held, with three of the seven candidates participating, calling attention for the second time to the absence of the government party candidate (Democratic Change) José Domingo Arias.
The candidates participating in the debate were Juan Carlos Navarro for the Partido Revolucionario Democrático (PRD) [es], Juan Carlos Varela for the Panameñista Party, and Genaro López [es] for the Broad Front for Democracy (FAD in Spanish).
The debate had a great impact on social networks, where Panamanians went to share their opinions and to vent.
The humorous news account El Gallinazo created the Hashtag #Preguntaspaldebate [es] where Panamanian netizens tossed out ideas for questions that should be asked during the debate.
The government party took advantage of social networks to make excuses for their candidate, saying that he would participate in debates organized by the Electoral Tribunal (ET), even though this same party voted against a bill proposing mandatory debates organized by the ET.
Que el Tribunal Electoral organice debates. Que medios y gremios parcializados no impongan su agenda oculta. Imparcialidad y transparencia
— Comunicación – CD (@ComunicacionCD) January 20, 2014
Have the Electoral Tribunal organize debates. Don’t let the media and interested unions impose their hidden agenda. Fairness and transparency.
Blogger Erik Simpson comments that the absence of the official candidate shows that José Domingo Arias can’t even think for himself, let alone govern:
No se atreve a darles la cara a los panameños n debates pero pretende dirigir Pmá. Si no sabe sustentar su oferta elect menos podrá presidir
— Erick Simpson A. (@pty_507_pma) January 20, 2014
He doesn’t dare face Panamanians in the debates but he thinks he can lead Panama. If he can’t even back up his presidential bid, how will he lead.
But for Cesar Urrutia the proposals of the candidates who attended the debate are nothing but a carbon copy of the current government:
@TReporta @JDAriasV Propuestas en su mayorías son una copia del plan de @JDAriasV otras utópicas, irreales fuera de nuestra realidad.
— CESAR URRUTIA (@CESARURRUTIA4) January 20, 2014
For the most part, their ideas are carbon copies of José Domingo Arias, more utopian plans, out of touch with our reality.
El Gallinazo shared a photo in which the current government candidate is represented as Wilson, the volleyball from the film Cast Away.
pic.twitter.com/sW7pxqGZkV
— El Gallinazo (@ElGallinazo) January 20, 2014
Which of the four is winning the debate?
The same site created a humorous video [es] about the debate:
And for most Panamanians, the debate lacked substance. Candidates seemed to answer whatever they wanted in the face of rather succinct questions. Elviz says:
Los debates en Panamá es tu me preguntas algo y yo respondo lo que me da la puta gana!
— Elviz (@elvizprezz) January 20, 2014
The Panamanian debates are like you ask me something and I answer whatever the hell I want!
Gina Lee comments wryly on how candidate Genaro López expresses himself:
Genaro es como Gollum y Smeagol… él man siempre habla de sí mismo en plural. “Nosotros pensamos…”, “Nosotros decimos…”
— ♥ (^_ _^) (@nowginalee) January 20, 2014
Genaro is like Gollum and Smeagol…the man always speaks of himself in the plural. “We think….” “We say….”
Chris Fawcett asks what the point was of the “debate” that took place on the evening of January 20:
Si te preguntan una cosa y respondes otra que no tiene nada que ver, ¿se considera aún un “debate”?
— Chris Fawcett  (@ChrisFaw) January 20, 2014
If they ask you a question and your answer has nothing to do with the question, is that a “debate”?
RPC Radio, who organized the event, created hashtags where people could vote yes or no for each candidate. The winner of the evening according to the station was Juan Carlos Navarro, who garnered 51.7% of the “vote”:
Esta fue la aceptación de cada candidato durante el 1er Foro Presidencial #Voto2014 @JC_Varela @juancanavarro pic.twitter.com/uei4NkA8Wd
— Rpc Radio (@rpc_radio) January 20, 2014
These are the results for each candidate during the 1st presidential debate.
A few months before they have to choose a new president, Panamanians seem undecided given the shortage of options. El Ñeque Noticias's account concluded on a humorous note, which however could sum up the feelings of a large number of Panamanians.
Panameños concuerdan que, si las elecciones fueran hoy, pedirían a Uruguay que envíe a Pepe Mujica para gobernar Panamá.
— El Ñeque Noticias (@ElNequeNoticias) January 20, 2014
Panamanians agree that if the elections were today, they would ask Uruguay to send Pepe Mujica to run Panama.

author: Ariel Moreno


text:
Qaraqalpaqstan, the ‘Forgotten Stan’ of Central Asia · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Qaraqalpaqstan (or Karakalpakstan) is one of the least-known “stans” of Central Asia. Part of Uzbekistan, this region is a true gem for a curious traveler. On the Caravanistan blog, Steven writes about this “forgotten stan”:
…Living under the shadow cast by the desiccation of the Aral Sea, this little-known stan has gotten a bad rep and has drawn mostly disaster tourism in recent years.
Tourists with an open eye, an extra day to loiter and the imagination to appreciate the weight of history, the power of landscape and the nomadic traditions of a desert nation however, will find Karakalpakstan a fascinating place…
Most surprising is the long history of the region. Places like the UNESCO World heritage desert castles of Toprak Qala, Ayaz Qala, Koy-Kirilgan Qala, Big Guldursun, Pil Qala, Anka Qala, Kurgashin Qala and Djanbas Qala Mizdakhan give an inkling of a once-blooming society, the powerful state of Khorezm that guarded part of the ancient Silk Road. These are places few foreigners get to see, and they are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of archaeological treasures strewn around in the desert…


text:
So Long to Russia’s Only Independent TV Station? · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Could TV Rain end up in the trash bin of history? Images mixed by Kevin Rothrock.
The only opposition television station operating today in Russia is now threatened with losing access to cable broadcasting. A product of the brief political thaw under President Dmitri Medvedev, TV Rain, or “Dozhd” in Russian, has been on air since April 2010. The station is accessible online (for a fee), by satellite, and via cable television. It is this last option that might go the way of the dinosaurs very soon.
The tentative reason for ending TV Rain’s cable television dissemination is a supposedly unpatriotic poll the channel aired on January 27, 2014, asking readers to assess Soviet military tactics during the Siege of Leningrad in World War II. The question that caused the uproar was, “Should Leningrad have been surrendered [to the Nazis] to spare hundreds of thousands of lives?” (The station later canceled the poll and apologized [ru] for the question.)
A day later, Yuri Pripachkin, President of the Cable Television Association of Russia (AKTR), said publicly [ru] what many interpreted to mean eliminating the cable broadcasting of TV Rain in Russia. Pripachkin later clarified [ru] his remarks, explaining that AKTR is not considering a requirement that cable operators drop TV Rain from coverage, but acknowledged that the organization is debating whether to allow operators to make that decision for themselves “based on financial considerations.”
Pripachkin’s argument is that TV Rain, offered as part of a package of many television channels, frequently offends viewers with provocative content, causing cable operators potential losses, when consumers supposedly leave in disgust. Another grievance from AKTR is that TV Rain’s regular promotion of its online stream—available for about $90 a year—also bleeds cable operators of money and clients. (At the time of this writing, AKTR’s website was disabled by what appeared to be a DDoS attack.)
The response to this scandal from TV Rain’s supporters has been tenacious. While most admit the wording of the Leningrad blockade poll was unfortunate, many of the television station’s fans insist that the subject should remain open to debate. The threat to Russia’s only opposition TV station has of course galvanized the country’s most active group of bloggers: Russian journalists.
Andrei Arkhangelsky argued [ru] in a Facebook post that the World War II question, whatever its tone, performed a service to society by drawing out expert opinions about the siege. Rustem Adagamov, a Russian photo-blogger living in self-exile in Prague, came to similar conclusions [ru], pointing out that TV Rain never expressed any approval for the idea of surrendering the city to the Germans. In a somewhat different vein, television personality and director Andrei Maksimov wrote [ru] on Facebook that Russians should expect nothing else from young people, given the “castration” of modern education, severing today’s generation from the past’s values of the Great Patriotic War.
GQ Russia magazine’s Michael Idov posted [ru] to Facebook one of the most interesting, if not peculiar, reflections on the possible crackdown against TV Rain. Trying to demonstrate the power imbalance weighing on the station, Idov asked readers to consider, what he says is, “the only justification for the behavior of the state of Israel”—a mental exercise, whereby you imagine the situation “inside-out.” In the case of Israel, this means seeing a world where Israel is a small, lone Muslim state, surrounded by Jewish countries. In order to understand TV Rain, Idov recommends imagining a lone, tiny television station dedicated to pro-regime hardliners, surrounded in a sea of liberal media giants. (This might mark the first time in history when someone appealed to the Israel-Palestine conflict as a more coherent antagonism.) Idov contends that TV Rain, despite mistakes along the way, has come to be a media powerhouse worthy of respect.
The TV channel hasn’t won over all the netizens, of course. Kirill Shulika, an often-shrewd activist in Russia’s Democratic Choice party, observed [ru] on Facebook that TV Rain’s managers must have anticipated a reaction like Pripachkin’s. Shulika suggests that the television station might have engineered the scandal in order to whip up publicity, or possibly to rid itself of its cable TV contracts, which he speculates have been less than profitable.
As fate would have it, TV Rain’s World War II history faux pas wasn’t Russia’s only in the last 48 hours. The Kremlin-friendly television station Russia-24 experienced its own, far more entertaining screw up [ru], when the channel’s social media marketing staff included a photograph and quote from Nazi ideologue Joseph Goebbels praising Vladimir Lenin. The quote, “Lenin was the greatest among the Russians,” was part of a collage of famous remarks about Lenin for the 90th anniversary of his death.
Russia-24 quickly fired [ru] the entire editorial staff of its social media marketing team. At this time, no one with any authority [ru] in Russia has proposed sanctions against the station for propagating the visage of the Third Reich’s most zealous advocate. On the other hand, Roskomnadzor, the Russian government’s media watchdog agency, has announced [ru] that it has received complaints and will open an investigation into TV Rain’s poll about the siege of Leningrad.


text:
South Korea: ‘Less is More’, Net Users Turn Sour on Typical Movie Poster · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

French Poster Image of Movie ‘Frozen’. Fair Use Image
A massive Disney hit movie, Frozen is rapidly gaining traction also in South Korea. However, more young Koreans are turning sour on typical Korean-style movie poster, which has long been criticized for being either too confusing or overly interrupted [ko] by extra-bold text dropping names or media/net users’ reviews ridden with cliche [ko]. One net user from the TodayHumor site compared different versions [ko] of Frozen poster (allegedly tailored for audiences in US, France, Japan, China and Korea) and Koreans exchanged heated discussions on what has made Korean movie distributors select such cluttered posters as one can see below. (In comparison, on the left is the poster released in France which has been lauded by many net users for its artistic simplicity)
Three Korean Poster Images of Movie ‘Frozen’. Fair Use Image

author: Lee Yoo Eun


text:
Sri Lanka’s Best Bus Terminal   · Global Voices
Rezwan

Freelance writer, translator and blogger Nandasiri Wanninayaka writes about the multi-purpose bus terminal-cum shopping and entertainment complex in the resort town of Negombo:
You wouldn’t expect a bus stand in Sri Lanka to be like a mini airport. But if you happen to go to Negombo Bus Stand, renamed as “Negombo Bus Terminal,” it is a little airport. It has almost all the facilities needed in a modern day bus stand. It is considered Sri Lanka’s best bus stand in terms of facilities.

author: Rezwan