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China Announces Campaign to Weed Out Party Corruption · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The Chinese Communist Party is launching a year-long campaign to clean up the party to do away with corrupt elements in its organization, state-run news agency Xinhua recently reported.
But many Chinese netizens have expressed skepticism toward the campaign, arguing that democracy with the open participation of the people, and not a closed internal process, is the best way to get rid of corruption.
In a high-level party meeting on June 18, 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping explained the slogan of the party's clean-up campaign: “Look in the mirror, tidy yourself up, wash your body, and treat the illness” (照镜子、正衣冠、洗洗澡、治治病):
照镜子，是在工作作风、廉洁自律上摆问题、找差距、明方向。正衣冠，是自觉把党性修养正一正、把党纪国法紧一紧。洗洗澡，是以整风的精神开展批评和自我批评。治治病，是坚持惩前毖后、治病救人方针，处理有作风问题的党员。
Look in the mirror is to reflect upon the working style. Make yourself clean and disciplined. Find out the differences [between you and the people] and thus the direction. Tidy yourself up is to keep yourself straight according to the morality and discipline of the party. Wash your body is to engage in self-criticism and reflection in alignment with the campaign spirit. Treat the illness is to punish those party members who are corrupted so as to save the patient [the party].
Historical photo of the first Clean-up Campaign in 1941. Mao Zedong gave a talk to the CCP party member in Yan'an. (Public Domain)
However, this is not the first time the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] has expressed a determination to fight internal corruption. There have been at least four major party clean-up campaigns and numerous smaller-scale ones in CCP history.
The first clean-up was conducted in 1942 before the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The main purpose of the campaign was to consolidate the leadership of the CCP under Mao Zedong. A large number of CCP members were labelled as “anti-revolutionary”, “traitors” or even “spies”. The political slogan at that time was also “self-criticism” and “treat the illness”.
The second clean-up [zh] against party bureaucracy and corruption happened soon after the establishment of the People's Republic of China. About 320,000 CCP members was dismissed, but more than one million new members was recruited.
The third party clean-up campaign happened between 1957 and 1959 against rightists, who criticized the Soviet collectivism model, namely the ideologies of Leninism and Marxist-Leninism. and thus created a potential threat against the one-party dictatorship. Around 550,000 intellectuals were prosecuted and many of them died before the vindication in 1977 marking the end of the Cultural Revolution.
The most recent party clean-up was launched by Deng Xiaoping, the engineer of China's economic reform between 1983 and 1987 to eradicate the supporters of the Gang of Four, a controlling political faction during the Cultural Revolution led by Mao Zedong's last wife that eventually fell out of favor, and prepare for the the country's Open Door policy.
Against such historical background, people's responses towards the announcement of a new clean-up effort were rather skeptical. Many stated that democracy is the key to a successful and thorough clean-up of party corruption.
“Ma Ning's Weibo 2013″ (马宁的微博2013) is a CCP member and has been through three clean-up campaigns since he joined the party. He wrote on popular Chinese microblogging platform Sina Weibo:
掐指一算，自我入党以来，已经历了三次整风 […] 每次都讲党风关系到生死存亡，危机意识不可谓不强。但是党风依旧不佳，廉政依旧遥远。根本问题不解决，恐怕就不会有什么结果。
Since I have entered the party, I have been through three clean-up campaigns so far. […] Every time, it's the same old story that party morality is a matter of life and death. But so far nothing has changed and we are far from being clean. If you don't touch the fundamental problem, there won't be any results.
Wen Jinrang (汶金让), a law professional, believed that the campaign has to include people's participation:
整风要达到自我净化、自我完善、自我革新、自我提高之目的，如果不发动群众对官员进行批评、教育、帮助、提高，一切都是空谈！现在的官员，狡猾大大的，想让他们自我改正，那真是痴心妄想！
Without involving ordinary people to criticize and educate the officials, the campaign will never achieve the purpose of clean-up, self-improvement, self-reform. The officials are so cunning these days, they will never reflect and correct their behaviors.
Both Song Zude (宋祖德), head of a film business in Guangzhou, and “Jilin investigative reporter” (吉林记者调查) spelled out that people should be given votes to clean up the party:
宋祖德:【党内整风是好，就怕流于形式】每次会议似乎都发现了问题，也想解决问题，关键是谁整谁的风，往往上级比下级风气更不正，己不正何以正人？加上都是上级任命的官，有着错综复杂的利益关系，喊几句空口号绝对整不了风，只有让人民参与，给人民选票，歪风不整自灭。
@Song Zude: [party clean-up is good, just worried that it remains at the ideological level] They have identified the problem and want to solve it. However, who should be responsible for the clean-up? Those who are in high ranking positions are usually more corrupt, so how can they be responsible for cleaning up the low ranking officials? Moreover, all of them have embedded interests and entangling relationships. The slogan can't achieve anything without people's participation. Give them the vote and the corruption will vanish.
吉林记者调查：当年“三讲”、“三个代表” 教育不也流于形式了吗，没见实效。整风关键有群众参与,处理一批独断专行,不干实事,违法乱政的领导干部。当然，用选票说话，是最佳解决作风问题的途径。
@”Jilin investigative reporter”: We have been through the “Three Talks” (Campaign to Talk about education, politics and morality in 1995) and “Three Represents” (in 2002), all of these are just ideological campaigns. The key of the campaign should be people's participation. We are now dealing with a group of corrupt party leaders and officials who have no responsibility and pay no respect to people. Only by giving people votes can the problem be addressed.
Apart from giving people the right to vote, many, like “Hello to God” (问候上帝—), pointed out that the party should allow dissent in order to monitor officials:
新一轮的整党整风开始了，纠正四风是当务之急。一个班子没有反对意见，那就是有可能是两个问题：一，是一个英明的决定，二，那就是一把手集权。所以一把手要首先允许有反对意见，这样才能有所谓的民主
@”Hello to God” A new wave of clean-up has begun and it is necessary to correct the four major misbehaviors of officials. There are two possible explanations for the lack of opposition voices within the ruling party: 1. All the decisions are correct; 2. It is a dictatorship. Thus, the leader should allow opposition view and this is the only way for democracy.
Some netizens, such as “My country is so sick” (我的国家超变态) and “Commercial world — wise and strong” (天下为商—灵智枫华), reinstated the need for “rule of law” in China:
我的国家超变态：没有法律，整风就是整人。
@”My country is so sick”: Without law, the clean-up will turn into political prosecution.
天下为商—灵智枫华：什么整风、改革？？都完全是法盲口气和腔调，有了整风，还要法律做什么，将司法机关体系置于什么位置？
@”Commercial world — wise and strong” : What is clean-up? Reform?? It sounds as if they know nothing about law. What does it mean for rule of law in this clean-up campaign? And what is the role of our judiciary in the campaign?


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Counseling Service for Mental Health In India · Global Voices
Rezwan

Ugich Konitari introduces iCALL (initiating Concern for All), a counseling service for Indians via email and telephone. At this social venture of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, qualified psychologists are waiting to listen talk, and give people helpful information, guidance and encouragement.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rezwan


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Social Media Plays Crucial Role in Brazil’s ‘Vinegar Revolt’ Protests · Global Voices
Debora Baldelli

A banner reads “We Are The Social Network” at a protest in Rio de Janeiro on June 17. Photo by Arthur Bezerra used with author's permission/Facebook.
[All links lead to Portuguese-language webpages unless stated otherwise.]
The protests [en] that started on June 13 with a public call to lower bus fares in São Paulo have reverberated far and wide on the Internet. During the protests, and as national support has grown, a number of new websites, tools, and blogs have emerged to help publicize complaints and mobilize the online world to act offline.
And it has been through social networks that most of the protests have taken place. The information exchanged ranges from specifics on protest times and places to practical advice on how to keep safe while walking through the streets, where to seek help or shelter and from whom, and how to report incidents. Advice concerning activism is also exhaustive, including, for example, how to report acts of violence throughout Brazil through videos and photos.
For example, the Ushahidi platform, a collaborative map was set up by the blog #protestosbr (Brazil protests), collects complaints of violence and conflicts during what has been dubbed the Vinegar Revolt [en].
Screen capture of the #protestobr collaborative map.
The collaborative site No Movimento (In The Movement), which emerged during the protests, publishes images from protests all over Brazil and also includes a list of volunteer lawyers offering legal aid for protesters in need. The blog Brazilian Protests promises to publish “the truth” about the protests in Brazil in English for those who do not speak Portuguese. The site Vemprarua.org (take to the streets) seeks to gather information about protests throughout Brazil and has also contribute to Vemprarua.com's collaborative map.
One video that has been widely circulated on social networks teaches viewers “How to Film a Revolution”:
Online activism and offline passivity?
These protests born in a virtual universe ask people to get off the Internet and take to the streets, as exemplified with the hashtag #vemprarua (take to the streets).
Whether or not an online protest is possible is not under debate, but a number of protests throughout the world, such as Egyptian Revolution in 2011 [en], have already shown how social media has the potential to encourage widespread social movements to claim citizen rights.
Residents of the city of São Paulo walked away from Facebook and headed to the protests on June 13. This photo, widely circulated on blogs and Twitter accounts, was collected by @NoMovimento during collaborative coverage of the protests in Sao Paulo.
The true novelty seems to be that Brazil, a country that has an extremely wide presence in a majority of online social media, is learning to better harness the potential of online networks to fuel national protests.
This has generated both surprise and contentment among users. On Facebook, historian Fred Coelho, from the blog Objeto Sim, Objeto Não (Object Yes, Object No), stressed how social media is playing an important informative role in the protests (reprinted with permission):
Hoje foi um dos dia mais bem informados da história do facebook – ao menos, da minha timeline. A quantidade de artigos, links e videos que coletei sobre os eventos de ontem, textos do mundo inteiro, sem ter que sequer sair da rede do zuckberg foi sensacional.
Today was one of the most informative days in the history of Facebook, at least on my timeline. The number of articles, links and videos that I collected on yesterday's events, texts from around the world, without even having to log off Zuckerberg's network, was sensational.
Leonardo Sakamoto's blog discusses the difficulty politicians are facing in understanding how online tools for mobilization function:
Os políticos tradicionais têm dificuldade em assimilar como movimentos utilizam ferramentas como Twitter e Facebook. Acreditam que são apenas um espaço para marketing pessoal ou, no máximo, um canal para fluir informação ou atingir o eleitor. Há também os que creem que redes sociais funcionam como entidades em si e não como plataformas de construção política onde vozes dissonantes ganham escala, pois não são mediadas pelos veículos tradicionais de comunicação. Ou seja, onde você encontra o que não é visto em outros lugares, por exemplo.
Traditional politicians are having difficulty assimilating how movements use tools like Twitter and Facebook. They believe these tools are merely a space for personal marketing or, at best, a way to reach or get information to voters. There are also some who believe social networks work are entities unto themselves and not platforms for building politics where dissonant voices gain major ground since they are not filtered by traditional means of communication. In other words, where you find what is not found elsewhere, for example.
The post also addresses social medial as a form of social participation:
Essas tecnologias de comunicação não são ferramentas de descrição da realidade, mas sim de construção e reconstrução desta. Quando a pessoa está atuando através de uma dessas redes, não reporta simplesmente. Inventa, articula, muda. Vive. Isso está mudando aos poucos a forma de se fazer política e as formas de participação social. O poder concedido a representantes, tanto em partidos, como em sindicados, associações, entre outros espaços, tende a diminuir e a atuação direta das pessoas com os desígnios da sua polis, consequentemente, aumentar.
These communication technologies are not tools describing reality, but rather the building and rebuilding of reality. When a person is acting through these networks, s/he is not simply reporting. S/he is inventing, articulating, changing. Living. This is slowly changing both how politics is done and the forms of social participation. The power granted to representatives, in terms of parties, unions, associations and the like, is decreasing, and direct action by the people, as the architects of their own political reality, is consequently increasing.

author: Debora Baldelli


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Haiti: Model Camp Morphed into Slum  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Three years after its star-studded launch, the model camp for Haiti’s 2010 earthquake victims has helped give birth to what might become the country’s most expansive – and most expensive – slum.
Haiti Grassroots Watch explains.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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New Law in Slovakia Would Require Citizens to Report Long Stays Abroad · Global Voices
Tibor Blazko

Slovakia's president has vetoed a controversial new law that would require citizens who plan on leaving the country for more than 90 days to inform the nearest Ministry of Interior office of their intended whereabouts during that time.
The law, which would have taken effect July 1, 2013, intends to remedy a problem highlighted most recently when authorities were unable to deliver a court summons to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, part of a lawsuit he is facing over disparaging comments he made about his predecessor, because his current place of residence is not on record.
Minister of Interior Róbert Kaliňák justified the legislation by explaining [sk] that the state needs to know where to deliver official letters and summons to citizens not currently at their permanent address.
But the law was met with public outcry. On the initiative of opposition parties, a petition was started and some 2,000 people signed it, asking the president to veto this new law [sk]. On June 16, 2013, President Ivan Gašparovič did veto the new requirement, but for other reasons, citing that some of the formulations within the law required modifications [sk] before it could be passed.
The bill is expected to be reviewed by Parliament again.
More than on the petition, however, anger was highly visible on blogs and social networks, with satirical images and sarcastic reports of whereabouts from citizens submitted through the Ministry's form for reporting this on its website. Many of them could be found on a Facebook fan page titled Conscientious Citizens Reporting Their Location to Minister Kalinak [sk]. Users are also taking screenshots of satirical “reports” to the Ministry and posting the screenshots on the popular local online forum Gulas.sme.sk. One “conscientious” citizen said:
Screenshot of website form from the Ministry of Interior.
… ide ťažký víkend a keď sa to zvrtne neviem kde skončím… ale v nedeľu som späť, Kali!
A hard weekend up ahead and I do not know where I will end up… but Sunday I'm back, Kali!
Another user simply ridiculed the topic:
hlásim že poidem do lesa
I'm reporting that I will be going to the woods
And some users went into fine detail of their planned whereabouts:
Dobrý deň, teraz sedim v kancelarii, o minutku planujem ist srat, ale o stvrt hodinky by som mal byt spat v pracovni.
Good day, for now I'm sitting in the office, in a minute I'm planning on going to the toilet, but in 15 minutes I'll be back.
For blogger Tibor Pospíšil, this law brings back memories of the communist era, when the country was closed off by barbed wire and the last Czechoslovakian President Gustáv Husák said that “Borders are not a promenade”.
In a similar tone, Peter Mikletič nominated Minister of Interior Kalinak for the Lenin Prize.
Blogger Maroš Marko wrote about fear that this is just the first step in something larger and more sinister:
Totalita poväčšinou prichádza veľmi nenápadne
Totalitarianism often comes very quietly
Tomáš Homola also viewed this new legislature as a dangerous sign:
SMEROM k totalitnému štátu
in the DIRECTION of a totalitarian state” [SMER, meaning “direction”, is the current political party in power]
Maroš Ivanič is another blogger who expressed this opinion that:
Ak si založíme Kaliňákov obojok tak si nič lepšie nezaslúžime
If we accept Kalinak's collar than we deserve nothing better
The new law is in fact just an amendment to existing laws in which reporting whereabouts was not “mandatory”, as it is in this new version. Citizens now risk paying a fine, although after criticism Kaliňák later stated [sk] that the fine would not be enforced.
In regards to this state law, blogger Bosák posed a question [sk]:
Pán Kaliňák, kedy bude hlásiť svoj pobyt predseda vlády?
Mr. Kalinak, when will the Prime Minister report his whereabouts?
Ján Škrobák, a lawyer and university professor, was the first to publicly explain the legal faults of this new law by asking why “staying abroad – which did not matter for years, now suddenly bothers [the state]?”. He also explains [sk] that this law, in its new seemingly stricter formulation, still implies that simply not announcing one's “departure in an of itself is not and will be not an offense”.
Ľubomír Drinka published a price list of verification of electronic signatures on his blog to show possible alternative reasoning behind this new law. Verification of electronic signatures is a requirement for all official email communication in Slovakia and citizens would need to verify their signature every time they would like to report an extended stay from abroad or through the Ministry's website, instead of coming back into the country to report this. This sheds a different perspective on the law, in particular because the fine for not verifying an electronic signature is several times more than the 33-euro fine (about 44 US dollars) if citizens do not report their whereabouts for stays of 90 days or more outside Slovakia's borders.
Dušan Kosec wrote on his blog that the measure may be preventative:
Nahlásenie pobytu – možná prevencia proti exodu slovenských občanov
Reporting of whereabouts – possible prevention against the exodus of Slovak citizens
Cynická Obluda had a similar opinion in the image below and a blog post titled “Waiting For the Last One” that evokes a long-standing joke in some Central and Eastern European countries that, due to large tendencies toward emigration over the decades, the last one to leave the country should not forget to turn out the lights.
Satirical image of Minister Róbert Kaliňák by Cynická obluda. Used with permission.
Čakanie na posledného
Každý, kto odtiaľto na dlhšie odíde, nám to musí nahlásiť…
Inak stratíme prehľad a nebudeme vedieť, kto mal zhasnúť.
Waiting for the last one [to leave].
Everyone who leaves here for a longer period of time must report it.
Otherwise we will lose overview and will not know who should turn the lights off.
Some humorously speculated in an edited image that the conception of this law might have been influenced by Slovakia's national hockey team participating in the recent Ice Hockey World Championships:
Image by user Nikola on www.gulas.sme.sk. Used with permission.
Príčina vypadnutia s Fínmi
Chlapci si po vyrovnaní uvedomili,
že by mohli dostať pokutu
za predĺžený pobyt v zahraničí,
preto nechceli nič riskovať.
Why did Slovakian hockey players lose to Finland
[Coach]: The boys, after evening the score, suddenly realized that they might be fined for staying abroad longer than intended, so they did not want to risk it

author: Tibor Blazko


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One Dead as Massive Wave of Protests Sweeps Across Brazil · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

A young man was killed after he was hit by a car in Ribeirao Preto and dozens were hurt in confrontations with the police in Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador as more than a million people took to the streets of large and small cities throughout Brazil in the biggest protests seen in the country in two decades.
The national force had also been deployed to Belo Horizonte and Fortaleza, the other cities hosting games in FIFA's Confederations Cup, and helped counter the protests on June 20, 2013.
Despite the focus on violence, the majority of the demonstrations were peaceful. In this second week of national protests, which began over a rise in bus fare prices, the demonstrations happened in more than 100 places despite the reduction of bus fare in many cities, including major capitals such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, showing that “it was not just about 20 cents”.
Demonstration in Rio de Janeiro. Photo by Tomás Pinheiro (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Marcos Delafrate, an 18 year-old man, was killed in a hit-and-run collision [pt] by a driver who was trying to go through a crowd of 25,000 peaceful protesters in Ribeirao Preto, state of Sao Paulo. As the crowd resisted and asked the Black Land Rover owner to go back, the driver accelerated the car and run over at least twelve people. The video posted by the user ViTvHd2 shows (at 1'40”) the moment and reports that the car's plate number was KVB 6963:
A country at war?
Conflicts between the protesters and police forces left hundreds wounded in several cities. In the national capital Brasilia, police started to shoot teargas and rubber bullets as an attempt to end the demonstration when a group of unarmed protesters [pt] tried to occupy governmental buildings. As shown in this video, a minority of protesters responded to the use of weapons by setting fire in front of the Itamaraty Palace, the headquarters of the Ministry of External Relations. The video below shows the other side of the Itamaraty:
Its author, Ocupa Brasilia [pt] explained:
Ao contrario do que a mídia anda veiculado; Uma parte dos manifestantes tentavam mobilizar outros para irem ao Congresso; Sendo que existe duas pontes/entradas e em uma delas tinha uma concentração maior de vândalos. Acabou que todos nós fomos surpreendidos com bombas de lacrimogênio e balas de borrachas; Sendo que um dos manifestantes levou um tiro bem próximo e direto em sua coxa, ficando a bala alojada até que foi levado pelo corpo de bombeiros.
Contrary to what the mainstream media has been broadcasting, some of the protesters were trying to mobilize others to go to Congress; There are two bridges/entries and one of them had a higher concentration of vandals. It turns out that we were all surprised with tear bombs and rubber bullets; One protester close [to me] was shot directly in his thigh, and had a bullet lodged until he was taken away by the fire brigate.
In Salvador, protesters faced much violence in a march that began peaceful. The demonstration turned sour when the crowd advanced towards the local stadium, where Uruguay was playing against Nigeria for the Confederations Cup. An official local government car with plate number OKU 8877 was taped firing gun shots – according to the author of the video, Felipe Amorim [pt], it was not rubber bullet. The video has thousands of shares and comments, among which witness Berlindo Ribeiro Reis, who confirmed:
eu tava la e vir tudo a Policia desceu a porrada e granada e Bala em todo mundo nao quis nem saber se tinha criança , mulher gravida
I was there and saw it all. The police came down beating up and throwing grenades in everyone, they didn't want to know whether it was children, pregnant woman
In Rio de Janeiro, conflicts between police and protesters were also registered by citizen reporters. Some netizens claimed that real weapons were used against people throughout the city. Chico Freitas [pt] reported on Facebook:
Houve guerra no Rio hoje. Um milhão de manifestantes. A polícia atacou sem pena, antes de fazermos qualquer outra coisa além de protestar, sem vandalismo. Nos cercaram em todo o centro da cidade. Usaram armas letais e não-letais, fecharam as estações de metrô e oprimiram quem tentava pegar a barca. Jogaram bombas da prefeitura até o sambódromo, nos encurralaram na Avenida Presidente Vargas, conseguimos ir até a Praça Tiradentes e vimos na TV de um bar que o Choque estava indo pra lá. Corremos em direção à Lapa e soubemos que estavam jogando bombas de gás até em crianças que brincavam por lá, então fomos pela Avenida Chile até a Cinelândia. Lá o pessoal se aglomerava de novo, em frente ao Theatro Municipal. Até que se aproximaram os carros do Choque e jogaram bombas. Me perdi do meu pessoal. Corremos todos pro aterro do Flamengo. Lá eu vi o ônibus pra Niterói e peguei. Do ônibus vi que estavam lançando bombas no aterro também. A polícia não vai deixar ninguém ir a lugar algum, aonde quer que o povo vá, eles irão atrás com opressão. Hoje a polícia foi mais violenta do que nunca. Foram truculentos, atrozes, trouxeram medo e terror. A polícia que é paga pra proteger o povo. #protestorj #ogiganteacordou #revoltadovinagre #thegiantwokeup #vemprarua #changebrazil #rio #brasil #brazil
Today, Rio was at war. One million protesters took to the streets. The police attacked without sympathy, before we were even able to do any other thing besides protesting, there was no vandalism. They surrounded us at the city center. They used lethal and non-lethal weapons, they closed the metro stations and oppressed those who were trying to catch the ferry. They threw bombs at us, from the city hall to the Sambadrome, they trapped us at Avenida Presidente Vargas, we were able to go to Praça Tiradentes and there we saw on the TV in a bar, the riot troops were going there. We run towards Lapa and learned they were throwing tear gas even at the children who were playing there, so we went via Avenida Chile to Cinelandia. There, people were gathering again in front of Municipal Theater. Until the Riot Police’s vehicles got closer and threw bombs. I got lost from my friends. We all run to Flamengo’s area. There, I saw a bus to Niteroi and embarked on it. From the bus, I saw they were throwing teargas there as well. The police will never allow anyone to go anywhere, wherever people go, they will follow with oppression. Today, the police was more violent than ever. They were truculent, atrocious, they brought fear and terror. The police, that is paid to protect the people.  #protestorj #ogiganteacordou #revoltadovinagre #thegiantwokeup #vemprarua #changebrazil #rio #brasil#brazil
A country in peace
The images below show peaceful protests in many other part of the country:
Demonstration in Jaraguá do Sul, Santa Catarina, photo published by Chan360 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Demonstration in the rain in Cascavel, state of Parana. Photo by Alexander Hugo Tártari (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Large protest in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Photo by Maria Objetiva (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Recife, Pernambuco state. Photo by Rostand Costa (CC BY 2.0)
São Luis, Maranhão. Photo by Kika Campos. (CC BY 2.0)
Natal, Rio Grande do Norte state. Photo by Isaac Ribeiro (CC BY-SA 2.0)
More demonstrations
The president Dilma Roussef has called an emergency meeting with the ministers for today, Friday, June 21, to evaluate the protests’ effects and how the national government shall operate from now on. As the Confederations Cup continues, more protests are already scheduled in several cities for the upcoming days.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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South Koreans Protest Electioneering · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

College students and civic groups took action against the National Intelligence Service (NIS)'s illegal interference with the lastest presidential election. Major universities in South Korea have released statements condemning the secret agency, the ruling party and the police. Net users have gathered 95 thousand signatures in the second round [ko] of online petition. Several protests are planned on this weekend.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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The Kremlin’s Kitchen Serves Up Russia’s Free Press · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s oldest opposition papers, has implicated Vladimir Putin’s favorite restaurant owner, Evgeny Prigozhin, in a bizarre scheme to defame several of the country’s most prominent news publications. According to Novaya, Prigozhin’s Kremlin-connected [ru] catering company, “Concord,” has been involved in an elaborate conspiracy to plant false information in different Russian newspapers, disguised as advertisements, in order to convince the public that the news is for hire.
Novaya’s June 19, 2013, exposé [ru], written by Nina Petlyanova, goes into great detail about the plot against Russia’s free press, unearthing travel records (complete with passport information), leaked internal memos, and arcane connections between different individuals. More than once in the article, Petlyanova reports that her newspaper has obtained certain revealing documents to support her charges against Prigozhin. In a section titled “Masha Hari” (a play on Mata Hari), readers learn that Concord-connected muckraking journal “GoG” apparently sent a spy to work on Novaya’s editorial staff, though Novaya seems to have converted her into a double agent, granting the paper access to the materials mentioned above.
Many comments on Novaya’s website praised Petlyanova’s thorough investigative work. Reacting to Novaya’s counter-espionage tactics, however, some readers seemed to roll their eyes. In one response to the story, Alexey Burtsev wrote:
Одна газета заслала в редакцию другой супер.шпионку Машу, а еще Майорова и Михайлов часто вместе летали самолетами Аэрофлота… просто какой-то несерьезный детский сад!
One newspaper sent to the other some little super spy, Masha, and also Maiorov and Mikhailov [two other individuals linked to GoG] often flew together on Aeroflot planes… it’s all just some unserious childishness!
Another reader, Evgeny Komarov, also took issue with Novaya’s “Masha Hari”:
То есть у НГ свои шпионы в Конкорде! Поздравляем, шпионские страсти в разгаре. Честно говоря, вся эта возня дискредитирует ОБЕ стороны – шпионаж с независимой журналистикой плохо вяжутся.
So that means that Novaya Gazeta has its own spies in Concord! Congratulations. Spy fervor is now in full gear. Honestly, this whole racket discredits BOTH sides. Espionage doesn’t go well with independent journalism.
Dmitri Bykov at the “Control Stroll” opposition rally in Moscow, 13 May 2012, photo by Evgeniy Isaev, CC 2.0.
One of the more curious episodes in the campaign against the Russian free press doesn’t actually involve a newspaper, but one of Russia’s best known writers and poets, Dmitri Bykov. In late February, earlier this year, the muckraking “Newspaper about Newspapers” (or “GoG,” mentioned above), ran a story [ru] about Bykov traveling to a town outside Sverdlovsk, allegedly to endorse a local businessman’s run for political office, for a fee of $15 thousand. GoG published materials from someone named Sergei Solovev, the same businessman man who hired Bykov to come to Sverdlovsk, sent on February 23, just hours after the poet’s performance. Solovev claimed that his campaign was a sham—intended merely as a prank to test whether he could hire a prominent oppositionist as a mercenary supporter.
With little delay, Maxim Ivanov, a deputy in Sverdlovsk’s Legislative Assembly, announced [ru] on his LiveJournal that he was calling on local investigators to verify that Bykov had paid the necessary taxes on his honorarium. Following the blog post, Bykov himself posted the first comment [ru], denying that he had endorsed Solovev’s political campaign and insisting that he always pays taxes on his honoraria. (In statements elsewhere [ru], Bykov has pointed out quite reasonably that the law does not require citizens to pay such taxes the same instant that they receive their income.) Undeterred and perhaps a bit irked by the comment’s tone, Ivanov responded [ru], suggesting that Bykov is a dishonest man, and promised to see through his appeal to investigators. On May 7, 2013, a local newspaper confirmed [ru] that Sverdlovsk’s Investigative Committee had opened a case regarding Bykov’s earnings.
Ivanov wasn’t the only attack dog unleashed after GoG’s “revelations.” There is evidence that someone activated a bot network to propagate the story, as LiveJournal and Twitter are littered with short posts embracing the hashtag “#ПродажныйБыков” (Corrupt Bykov). On February 28, 2013, YouTube user Artem Simonov also published a video [ru] against Bykov (which GoG reposted), repeating Solovev’s accusations. The video, which features inaccurate, misleading subtitles, is Simonov’s only content uploaded to YouTube. The clip has almost 300 thousand views, but nearly all occurred within a single week, and virtually no one has watched the montage since. Other prominent regime-friendly bloggers, like Kristina Potupchik and LJ user Fritzmorgen [ru], also promoted the story.
On Facebook and LiveJournal [ru], Bykov and his fans have posted materials refuting the poet’s critics. With Novaya Gazeta’s revelations, they now have fresh ammunition against his accusers, though the revealed scale of the defamation campaign against Bykov and several Russian newspapers is a new threat altogether.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Uzbek Photography’s ‘Orientalist Flavour’ · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Alex Ulko on NewEurasia.net explains where the “Orientalist flavour discernible in the works of many [Uzbek] artists” comes from. His well-informed comments about contemporary Uzbek photography are accompanied by beautiful photos (also here, here, here, here, here, and here).

author: Alexander Sodiqov


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PR Jingle Becomes Brazil Protest Hymn · Global Voices
Paula Góes

A video showing scenes of police violence against the protests that took to the streets of Sao Paulo in the first week of June with the song “Vem Pra Rua” (Take to the Streets) in the voice of Brazilian reggae/rock band O Rappa‘s Marcelo Falcão is going viral [pt]. With a chorus that says “Take to the streets / Because the street is the largest [football] stand of Brazil / Brazil will be giant / Big like never before,” the song has inspired the #VemPraRua hashtag and became the demonstrations’ soundtrack. The video has been viewed by over 620,000 people.

author: Paula Góes


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Weather, Umpire or Poor Strategy to Blame in West Indies Cricket Elimination? · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

Caribbean cricket fans are still disappointed over the West Indies Cricket team's elimination from the 2013 Champions Trophy after they drew with South Africa (via the Duckworth-Lewis method) in their final, rain-shortened, group match.
Despite the teams finishing with the same number of points, South Africa advance on the basis of their superior run rate. On what turned out to be the last play of the match, West Indies batsman Keiron Pollard was dismissed. According to the D/L calculation, the West Indies had been ahead by three runs at that pont but the loss of the wicket dropped them into a tie. Before the next batsman, Darren Sammy, could take the strike, the umpires suspended play due to the rain.
On the Facebook page WICFA (West Indies Cricket Fans Association), Phani Marella's response was swift and viseral:
great, i am just gutted now. why don't you twist the blade more in my side for @#$%^&'* sake?!!!
Ezra Hinds felt that the coaching staff should make use of teaching aids to reach the players:
If it is not against the spirit of the game I would like to pull my pocket and invest in a 3×4 WHITE BOARD and A DRY ERASE MARKER for the WI team for use during DWL games because the players in the middle always seem lost.
Darren Moore-Sampson felt that the entire team and management should be to blame for the loss:
Not one of our bowlers was able to hold a consistent line and length (unless that consistent line and length was around the leg stump to behind the batsman). Obviously, that chosen line and length also led to the accumulation of 2s thanks to the lax fielding mentioned before.
Then, in our run chase, we suffered from what we always seem to suffer from, standanddeliveritis. This ailment certainly almost always prevents us from running more than 1 run. I saw men hitting balls into the soggy outfield and JOGGING through for 1 run more often than not.
He concluded:
At the end of the day we can all blame the umpire and I am guilty of doing that myself however; WI are the real ones to blame. Until our players come to understand the REAL value of EVERY SINGLE RUN WI will always remain in this predicament.
Until we stop giving up extras, start bowling on a proper line and length consistently, begin showing urgency in the field and urgency in running between the wickets WI will stay right where we are in international cricket.
How you train is how you play. Every single ball and every single run counts.
David Springer felt it made no sense to put most of the blame on management:
Batsman running out to bat; batsman not pulling out paper when there is a massive scoreboard with information; questioning whether Pollard would have played the shot if he had known they were ahead of the scoring rate when the big scoreboard has it there displayed…….. ????? Are these really a sound basis for blaming management? Nonsense. Bravo and Pollard are both experienced players who I am sure played under D/L situations and know that losing wickets greatly affects the score to be achieved. That’s why we batted second in the first place. Bravo had just left the pavilion where I am SURE that the D/L was discussed and the giant scoreboard was working throughout where you just have to read it. I am placing far more blame on our senior batsmen for this, the Gayle, Samuel, Pollard as well as Charles and for a totally poor bowling performance. The thing is they tried but let down themselves by poor batting tactics and decisions at critical moments.
Randy Wilson recalled the West Indies’ successful chase in the final of the 2004 Champions Trophy:
Everyone know bout 2004 Champion Trophy. Bradshaw and Browne. i trying ta (sic) remember if staff member came out to them. yall can correct me. both knew what have to be done no 1 Dont lose a wicket. 2nd keep looking at de scoreboard. also a point came when [it] was very dark n umpire ask them if they wanted to go off i dont think they say lets ask de staff n see what they say. Both knew the situation.
At Wired868, Earl Best blamed the management, especially the coach:
Would Samuels have perished as he did were he fully apprised of the situation? Would Pollard, on 28 off 22 balls, have taken ‘a wild swing at a delivery that wasn’t there to be hit,’ as Michael Holding described it, had he been aware that, at 190 for 5, his side was three runs ahead of the par score?
Maybe. But I doubt it.
In my view, Gibson could not leave it to chance, should not have left it to chance. He needed to ensure that both batsmen knew precisely what was required if only by reminding them that the information was available on the scoreboard.
Commenter Stephen disagreed:
The par score at the end of the current over is posted on the score board at the start of the over and always updated when a wicket falls. 2 copies of the DL printout are given to each CAPTAIN.
The captain was on the field.
Samuels’ response tells you that the team was aware of the requirement!!
It’s just one of those things… If you looking for someone to blame, you will find someone.

author: Matthew Hunte


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‘V for Thailand’ Protesters Call for Ouster of Thai Prime Minister · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A group which calls itself ‘V for Thailand’ has already organized three mass assemblies in Thailand’s capital this month demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Wearing white Guy Fawkes masks, which were popularly used in the Occupy movement by the 99%, Thailand's protesters are decrying alleged corruption in the government. In the past, Thailand's anti-government protests have been spearheaded by the pro-monarchy ‘Yellow Shirts’ who have support from the country's upper class or 1%.
So far, the group has only managed to gather more than a thousand people in Bangkok although it claims it has strong support in many provinces. Yingluck is the younger sister of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who is convicted of plunder. Her critics accuse her of being a puppet of her brother.
In recent years, various groups have organized massive street rallies which made a huge impact on Thai politics. Among the big groups are the Yellow Shirts (anti-Thaksin and pro-monarchy) and Red Shirts (mostly pro-Thaksin).
‘V for Thailand’
White Mask protest assembly in Bangkok. Photo by Piti A Sahakorn, Copyright @Demotix, (6/16/2013)
Protesters demand resignation of Prime Minister. Photo by Piti A Sahakorn, Copyright @Demotix (6/16/2013)
Protesters in Bangkok wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. Photo by Piti A Sahakorn, Copyright @Demotix (6/16/2013)
Writing for the New Mandala, Nick Nostitz probes the recent protests in Bangkok:
While presently the different groups’ aim of overthrowing the Yingluck government seems a bit farfetched as they simply do not have the necessary numbers (yet?), these protests cannot be overlooked.
This present effort could be seen as a warming up period, which may get hotter when the parliament opens in August, and several extremely controversial issues will be debated.
While it is impossible to see the outcome yet, it is clear that Thai street politics remain fragile and unpredictable.
Meanwhile, Andrew MacGregor Marshall thinks the White Mask movement is mainly an anti-Shinawatra movement
This is an anti-Shinawatra movement, pure and simple, and it has little interest in fighting corruption and encouraging good governance in Thailand, beyond the usefulness of these issues as sticks with which to beat the government.
Writing for The Diplomat, Steve Finch interviews a university professor who comments on the use of the Guy Fawkes symbolism:
While the white-mask Occupy and Anonymous movements were typified by unstructured, Communist-driven anarchic sympathies targeted at institutions of power and money, Thailand’s version is using the same symbolism in the name of the upper classes to defend the monarchy
Zashnain Zainal is also surprised that the Guy Fawkes mask is being used by ‘ultra-monarchists’:
An ultra-monarchist, Paisal Puechmongkol, has adopted the Guy Fawkes mask, commonly associated with the global Anonymous movement. Quite a bizarre representation, intentionally perhaps, that Paisal chose the Guy Fawkes mask and the historical representation of the real-life hero – who died in 1606 before his execution, in England for an attempt at the English King's life
Obviously there is an evolution to the Thai revolution. Undeniably a confusion of colors and ideologies
Writing for the UN Dispatch, Faine Greenwood observes that rallyists also included both young and old:
Whatever its origin, the internationally popular Guy Fawkes masks are now getting a considerable amount of usage in Thailand, with three protests so far this month and more planned for the near future.
The protesters weren’t just the young and disillusioned, but included many middle-aged and even elderly marchers, holding aloft signs and pumping their fists, shouting “Shinawatra Get Out” in rhythmic timing.
As of this writing, the group's Facebook page has more than 90,000 likes.

author: Mong Palatino


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Brazil: Protest Posters Turned into Song · Global Voices
Debora Baldelli

“We are out of Facebook”. Image from the video clip
“I turned Facebook off / to show how to be tough / There is so much stuff / that one poster is not enough”. This is the translation of the chorus of the song “Brasil em Cartaz” (Brazil in Posters), a kind of collective song and video clip made from phrases on posters on display during the protests in Brazil in this month of June.
The video clip with this song has been posted on YouTube, and free downloadable MP3 version is also available. The collaborative video also shows a roundup of images shared on social media about what was initially called the Vinegar Revolt. See below a version with English subtitles.


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Censorship and Police Brutality Mark Three Weeks of Turkish Protests  · Global Voices
Baran Mavzer

This post originally appeared on the author's own blog, Azadolu.
It's been three weeks since massive protests started across Turkey. Since their start on May 31, the country has witnessed media censorship, police brutality, protests by the thousands and the deaths and injury of protestors. Here is the summary of past three weeks:
In the early stages of the demonstrations, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defined protesters as “Capulcu“, which translates to looters from Turkish. This action backfired when protesters embraced the label. Protesters even made a music video by changing the lyrics of the song “Everyday I am Shuffling” to sound “Everyday I am Capulcuing”:
Media Censorship:
Even though Turkish mainstream media self-censored the protests, social media was active and is still active in covering the protests. CNNTurk, NTV and Haberturk (the main news channels of Turkey) were all involved in self-censorship. After CNNTurk published a documentary about penguins instead of covering the protests, Twitter user emre erdem tweeted [tr] with sarcasm:
@emreerdem Memlekwt yerinden oynuyor CNNTURK'te penguen belgeseli var, medyamizi seveyim…
The whole country is shaking, but there is a documentary about penguins on CNNTurk. Love our media…
The protests against media censorship continued in front of the NTV headquarters, since the station chose to play down the anti-government protests. Its partner company, Garanti Bank, which is a national bank, was targeted by protesters too – many of whom stopped using its services. The bank announced it had lost around 1,500 customers.
And recently, BBC suspended its cooperation with NTV, after the latter refused to air their programme “World Agenda”.
The programme was prepared by Selin Girit, who tweeted:
@selingiritBBC suspends partnership with Turkish news channel @ntv over television censorship on a piece about press freedom. @bbcworld@bbcturkce
Seven Turkish newspaper ran the same headline on the protests. Photograph shared by @ozlemmisler on Twitter
There were also some interesting coincidences in the Turkish media's coverage of the protests. Seven different newspapers had the same headline on the same day. Twitter user Ozlem Isler shared a photograph of the newspapers:
@ozlemmisler 7 gazete ayni manset! pic.twitter.com/LGN5D9EaGU
Seven newspapers, same headlines! pic.twitter.com/LGN5D9EaGU
The headline reads: “I would give even my life for any democratic demands.”
Police Brutality:
Police brutality was the biggest concern of protesters. A video of policemen detaining a protestor showing on-lookers trying to protect the protestor by throwing whatever they could find on the policemen draws home the sentiment many harbour against police heavy-handedness. Here is the video:
Twitter user Capulcu S A explains the togetherness of the nation against police brutality:
@Sedat2Aral Never been like this… Doctors, Journos, students, artists, actors, business men…all turkey helping each other against Police brutality.
Ethem Sarisuluk's death after being shot by police was certainly the most heartbreaking moment of the protests. The policeman, who killed the protestor, is still missing. Sarisuluk was among four people killed and around 5,000 injured during the protests. The mayor of Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, said on a live TV show [tr] that it wasn't the police who killed him; that it was the other protesters, who killed him by throwing a rock at him. This video, which appeared online following the death, tells a different story. It shows a policeman running away with a gun, after what appears to be shooting a protestor at close range [Warning: graphic]:
You can learn more about police brutality during the protests here.
Social Media: “The Worst Menace to Society”
In return, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan vented off his anger at social media and called it “worst menace to society“. Twitter user Pelin explains the reason behind Erdogan's anger by sharing the Bloomberg report about Twitter usage in Turkey during protests:
@BettySpades Data shows why Twitter is a menace to Erdogan. Impact of social media on the gezi protests: #occupygezi#direnankarahttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-10/twitter-really-is-a-menace-to-erdogan.html …
Erdogan was also angry at the protesters who took shelter in a mosque during the police attacks. He told media that protesters dishonored the mosque by entering it with their shoes on, and that they drank alcohol in the mosque. This video here shows the opposite of what Tayyip Erdogan said. In the video, protesters are seen taking refuge in the mosque, with doctors treating injured people (Warning: graphic video):
Contradicting Messages:
Huseyin Avni Mutlu, the governor of Istanbul, also gave contradicting messages. On his Twitter account, he wrote there will not be any attacks on Gezi Park, where the protests began, by the police. Just hours later, the police attacked Gezi Park:
@Valimutlu GEZİ PARKI ve TAKSİM’e KESİNLİKLE DOKUNULMAYACAK,SİZLERE ASLA DOKUNULMAYACAKTIR.Bu sabah ve bundan sonra polis kardeşlerinize emanetsiniz.
Gezi Park and Taksim will not be touched, nobody will touch you. You are entrusted to your police brothers since this morning and henceforth.
Twitter user Utangac Adam replied to the governor:
@UtangacAdam Büyüklerimiz “İnsanlığın okulu yok” derdi.Şimdi ne demek istediklerini daha iyi anlıyorum… @Valimutlu
Our elders would always say “There is no school for learning humanity”. Now, I understand them better…
Prime minister Erdogan arranged several rallies for his supporters, including in Ankara and Istanbul. Erdogan threatened the protesters to clear Gezi Park by calling them terrorists. After his statement on clearing the Gezi Park from protesters, Turkish police attacked Gezi Park on June 16, and took control over Taksim Square and Gezi Park.
Passive Resistance: Standing Man Protests
Now the protests have turned into a passive resistance. The Duran Adam (Standing Man) protests started by a performance artist, Erdem Gunduz, who stood at Taksim Square without moving for three hours. Similar protests spread quickly all over the country.  Poet Bejan Matur said on her Twitter account:
@bejanmatur duran adam;tc tarihinin gördüğü en sofistike eylem;.iktidarın asla baş edemeyeceği şahane bir performans.
Standing Man is the most sophisticated protest in the history of Turkish Republic. A great performance that the ruling party cannot deal with, ever.
Turkish people showed their desire for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation over the last three weeks. Even though the policemen were fierce, politicians were angry and the media was silent, they continued on their journey for a better life. Perhaps this video of protesters cheering sarcastically for more teargas to be thrown on them by the police speaks volumes of their ambition for a better country and a better tomorrow:

author: Baran Mavzer


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Floods, Landslides Devastate Northern India  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Floods and landslides in northern India have killed more than 1,000 people and stranded about 70,000, many of whom are tourists and pilgrims, with little food and shelter.
Beginning in mid-June 2013 with the onset of summer monsoon season, incessant heavy rainfalls have inundated the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and surrounding areas. The Indian army alone rescued more than 18,000 people via special buses and helicopters.
The mountainous terrains of Himachal Pradesh are home to several major and historic Hindu pilgrimage sites, such as Badrinath, and at least one major historic Sikh pilgrimage site, the Hemkund Sahib, besides several tourist spots and trekking venues. To help those affected by the floods, the army has deployed 10,000 soldiers and 11 helicopters, the navy has sent 45 naval divers, and the air force has deployed 43 aircraft including 36 helicopters.
Many people are using social media to find information about their family members and acquaintances. Photographs and helpline numbers have been uploaded and shared on social media sites. Google has set up its Google Person Finder service both in Hindi and English to offer information on missing people in the flood effected areas. Media Nama has a list of important initiatives and numbers to help. IBNLive has created a live storify blog to aggregate information about missing persons and pictures from the disaster place.
New Delhi radio DJ José Covaco (@hoozay) urged people to push IBNLive's blog on social media:
@HoeZaay: Lots of useful numbers here. RT like crazy pls. RT @sardesairajdeep How you can help ukhand flood victims http://t.co/dGOa2tJTCT
Anurag Khanna (@AnuragJtpac) from Kochi called for offline action from activists, as well:
@AnuragJtpac: How many of you on Twitter are going to #uttarakhand to help out. I am sure many from Delhi can just drive up. Lets see the unity #india
The flooding has made for frightening scenes captured on video. Here is footage shot by a pilgrim depicting a bus plunging down from a road damaged from landslide. Eyewitness says that the bus was carrying more than 30 passengers who were never seen again.
Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi has asked all members of parliament to donate one month of their salary to help relief work. However, PhD student Sunny Singh (@sunnysingh_nw3) noted:
@sunnysingh_nw3: I WISH #India politicos of ALL parties would stop bloody touring #Uttarakhand – they use up precious resources that could be used for relief
Pandit Kuldeep Vyas (@PtKuldeepVyas), a legal practitioner from Rajasthan, is against politicization of the disaster:
@PtKuldeepVyas: #Uttarakhand tragedy should not be politicized… Shame on you corrupt netas :-( What would we do without the Army. pic.twitter.com/vcIYrO8uVm
Indian Army evacuating stranded tourists and pilgrims from Uttarkhand. Image by Bhaskar Mallick. Copyright Demotix (20 June, 2013)
Amid stories of heroism and courage during evacuation and humanitarian response, it is being revealed that those stranded were also subjected to exploitation, manipulation, and blackmail. One account told of a passenger taxi driver charging a stunning 15,000 rupees (about 300 US dollars) for a 200-km journey for four refugees.
Political commenter Saral Patel (@PatelSaral) was furious over a story of a restaurant asking flood victims the equivalent of ten US dollars for a bowl of rice and almost four US dollars for bread:
@PatelSaral007: Uttarakhand trauma: A bowl of rice for Rs 500 and Rs 180 for a roti http://ow.ly/mhCKP #Shame
Yash Gaddhyan (@yashgaddhyan) slammed the attempts to extort money from victims:
@yashgaddhyan: We live in a country where people try to make money even if a disaster has occurred. #Uttarakhand
Geetika (@ggiittiikkaa) noted the chaos in relief distribution:
@ggiittiikkaa: No officials to organise, collect & carry relief stuff…no attendants to distribute relief stuff when choppers land. Chaos in #Uttarakhand
Journalist Aabhas Pandya (@abyboy) criticized the silence of the corporate sector in boosting the relief operations:
@abyboy: Corporate India's stunning silence over Uttarakhand devastation surprising…not even a word, no help, no choppers! #uttarakhand
The Indian army is attempting to evacuate residents from the flood ravaged Uttarakhand. Image by Prabhat Kumar Verma. Copyright Demotix (20 June 2013)
Opinions are abound on whether this disaster is natural or man-made. Several human practices, including unplanned construction along the banks of the Himayalan rivers are blamed as a cause of this disaster. Mechanical engineer and management student Karthick noted in his blog:
The so called Char Dham Yatra [Hindu pilgrimage] has had 3 Crore [30 million] visitors in the previous year. Tourism has been one of the major contributions to the state. Despite that the infrastructure had been poor and the Government never had intentions of developing the roads and facilities.
Blogger Rishi Aggarwaal argued that due to increased population, there should be an annual entry quota for the Char Dham Yatra pilgrimage.
Journalist Vineet Khare (@vineetkhare) warned the media not to resort to sensationalism during reporting:
@vineetkhare: Dear reporters, please do not reduce the Uttarakhand tragedy into a television tamasha (farce).
Meanwhile, the rain isn't stopping, adding to the misery of thousands of people. Engineering student Sagar Singh (@RtSagar) wrote:
@RtSagar: It's raining in many parts of U'khand! Not again God, have some mercy on us! #Uttarakhand


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Iran: “We’re Going to the World Cup!” (VIDEOS) · Global Voices
Farid

Celebrating Iran's World Cup football victory (via Kosuf.com)
Iranians are relieved to be celebrating for a change. On Tuesday, June 18, 2013 they stormed the streets with joy after Iran's national football team qualified for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil after a 1-0 win against South Korea. Only days earlier there had been great happiness and celebrations after Hassan Rouhani was announced the winner of the of the presidential election.
Celebration in Laheh Park in Tehran
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OviIceNKLU4
Remembering a Jailed Opposition Leader
People celebrated the victory, without forgetting Mir Hussein Mousavi, a jailed opposition leader. They chanted “Rouhani, Mir Hussein, We're going to the World Cup”.
Celebration in Tabriz
People celebrated in all Iranain cities.
Celebration in Isfahan

author: Farid


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The Beauty Of Mount Everest At Night · Global Voices
Rezwan

Elia Saikaly's short movie catches the majestic beauty of Mount Everest at night in time-lapse.
He shares in his blog the experience of climbing to the summit of Mount Everest for the second time.


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UFO Sighting in Kerala, India reported · Global Voices
Rezwan

Sans Serif reports that two south Indian newspapers carried out a story that an unidentified flying object (UFO) was sighted in Kannur district in Kerala, India. A commenter on the post reminds that there is an app available in Google Play which lets one add UFOs to the pictures taken by a phone camera.


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Zimbabwean MP Killed in ‘Suspicious’ Car Crash · Global Voices
Madalitso Mwando

An outspoken Zimbabwean member of parliament who was investigating the ties between the ruling party and the country's diamond industry has died in an automobile accident under what some are calling suspicious circumstances.
Edward Chindori-Chininga died on June 19, 2013 after the vehicle he was driving reportedly failed to stop and rammed into a tree. Chindori-Chininga, who was a member of the parliamentary portfolio committee on mines and energy and a former minister, was looking into the plundering of the country’s diamonds allegedly by colleagues from the Robert Mugabe-led Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front).
Last week, Chindori-Chininga released a detailed report showing the involvement of ZANU PF officials and allies in the diamond industry.
Many Zimbabweans are suspicious because of Zimbabwe's long history of mysterious car accidents involving top politicians. The country has since independence in 1980 witnessed scores of deaths of politicians who met their fate on the road, leaving unanswered questions about the suspicious accidents.
Alan Martin, the director of research with Partnership Africa Canada, a Canada-based global diamond watchdog, has claimed that Chindori-Chininga confided to him that he “knew that he was a marked man”.
This prompted Zimbabweans to take to social media sites to express their dismay and suspicion on what is seen as yet another political killing in Zanu PF’s chequered history.
Edward Chindori-Chininga's car after the accident. Photo source: Baba Jukwa Facebook page.
Writing on Facebook, journalist Lance Guma recorded one reader’s suspicion:
If the car VEERED OFF THE ROAD AND HIT A TREE where is the airbag???? and why is the windscreen intact????????????????????????????”
Reader on Nehanda Radio Facebook fanpage commenting on Hon Edward Takaruza Chindori-Chininga accident.
Baba Jukwa, an anonymous Facebook phenomenon who is privy to Zanu PF’s political machinations, was the first to warn that the late MP’s life was in danger. He intimated that Zanu PF officials thought Chindori-Chininga was the man behind the mysterious Baba Jukwa. Following his death, Baba Jukwa wrote:
The Mashonaland Central mafia, has done it as l warned few weeks ago. Chindori Chininga openly told them that he will join the Vapanduki (rebels) crew if they continued with their attempt to nail him down and l wonder why he didn't listen when l was all along warning him of the impending danger.
Doesntmatter Tongogara believed that the MP was strangled:
This does seem to be a natural accident, i would like to agree with BJ [Baba Jukwa] that he was strangled and car deliberately rammed on tree. My heart bleeds for Hon Edward Takaruza Chindori-Chininga . I talked to him of facebook an warned him that as Chairman of Mines Portfolio he is at high risk if he does he job professionally. Zanupf is mafia they do not want to be exposed especially anything do do [sic] with Diamonds. RIP Hon Edward Takaruza Chindori Chininga
Minister David Coltart (@DavidColtart) took to Twitter:
@DavidColtart: I am sorry to hear of the death of Edward Chindori Chininga this evening. A brave MP whose recent exposé of corruption in mining was superb.
Journalist Nqaba Matshazi (@nqabamatshazi) posted:
@nqabamatshazi: Reports that Zim MP Edward Chindori Chininga died in a car crash. Only days after he released a damning report of abuse of diamond revenue.
This being election year in Zimbabwe, journalist Nqobile Bhebhe (@nqobilebhebhe) noted:
@nqobilebhebhe: that season of Zimbabwe politicians dying in car accidents & some arrested on sexed up charges is upon us
Sal Amanda (@Zimbird) posted:
@Zimbird: Chindori-Chininga said earlier this month that he knew he was a “marked man”. Hmm 2 car accidents a few months apart, the 2nd one tragic.

author: Madalitso Mwando


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Outrage in the European Union over United States Espionage Program · Global Voices
Lourdes Sada

Critical voices have been raised in the European Union since Edward Snowden recently revealed the existence of North American secret service program, PRISM.
PRISM is a program that allows certain U.S. organizations, like the NSA (National Security Agency) or the FBI (Federal Bureau of Intelligence), to access the communications of any citizen in the world without a court order and has received alleged help from [es] Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, AOL, Apple, and Paltalk. The U.S. government has justified it as an excuse for the fight against international terrorism. Keith Alexander, General Director of the NSA affirmed that PRISM has “prevented dozens of terrorist attacks” [es] although he did not provide any more details on these supposed attacks.
In the name of protecting the privacy of its citizens, the EU has imposed a sanction on Google [es] in February 2013 for refusing to modify its privacy policies to adapt to the strict European legislation [es]. In the European Parliament, they are also studying means that guarantee web neutrality, proposed by Vice President of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes from Holland, who stated the following according to eldiario.es [es],
Edward Snowden. Photo tweeted by Periódico Mundo News.
[prohibirán] la interferencia en el tráfico de datos a las operadoras (ISP) y que [obligarán a que] las escuchas e interceptación solo sean posible tras orden judicial.
[they will prohibit] operator (ISP) interference in data traffic and will [make it so that] the wire tapping and interceptions be possible only by court order.
It is important to point out Articles 7 and 8 from the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU [es]:
Artículo 7
Respeto de la vida privada y familiar
Toda persona tiene derecho al respeto de su vida privada y familiar, de su domicilio y de sus comunicaciones.
Artículo 8
Protección de datos de carácter personal
Article 7
Respect for private and family life
Every person has the right to respect for his or her private and family life, home, and communications.
Article 8
Protection of personal data
A question that would open a wide parallel debate also arises: the possibility that PRISM has helped the U.S. obtain trade secrets from companies that could have competed with North American corporations.
On June 11, a few hours after Snowden leaked the information, the European Parliament debated this issue. The MEPs harshly criticized the United States program [es]. According to Sophie in’t Veld, a liberal Dutch MEP:
Estamos fallando a los ciudadanos europeos y deberíamos avergonzarnos
We are failing the European citizens and we should be ashamed of ourselves
Green German MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht criticized the U.S. in these words:
No se trata sólo de un problema de protección de datos, sino también de la democracia y del Estado de Derecho, que no son compatibles con la vigilancia masiva de los ciudadanos de todo el mundo.
It is not just about a data protection problem, but also about democracy and the rule of the law, which are not compatible with massive surveillance of citizens worldwide.
Jaroslav Paška, from the group Europe of Freedom and Democracy, declared:
el comportamiento paranoico de nuestros socios americanos es lamentable.
the paranoid behavior of our American partners is unfortunate.
Paška approaches the feeling of many Europeans whose countries have supported the scourge of terrorism for decades and have seen how their authorities successfully battled such a grave problem without having to resort to invading the privacy of their citizens. As setabense [es] said in his commentary on an article about PRISM in El País [es],
Luo Jie's cartoon appearing on the Daily Paul webpage
No me parece bien, que por lo cagaos que estan, espien todas las llamadas, con la escusa del terrorismo, estan violando la intimidad de la gente, seas o no seas terrorista.
It doesn't seem right to me that, as gutless as they are, they spy on all phone calls with the excuse of terrorism, they are violating peoples’ privacy, whether you are a terrorist or not.
On June 10, European Commission of Justice, Viviane Reding, sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney General demanding detailed information on the subject of PRISM, in which she noted the following, according to El País [es]:
Dada la gravedad de la situación y la seria preocupación que ha expresado la opinión pública a este lado del Atlántico, entenderá usted que espere respuestas rápidas y concretas el viernes. La Comisión Europea rinde cuentas ante el Parlamento Europeo, que probablemente evaluará toda la relación transatlántica a la luz de sus respuestas.
Given the gravity of the situation and the serious concern that the public opinion on this side of the Atlantic has expressed, surely you understand that prompt and concrete answers await this Friday. The European Commission is accountable to the European Parliament, which will probably evaluate the entire transatlantic relationship in light of your answers.
The commissioner is referring to the free trade agreement, which is being debated between both parties, and to the cooperation agreements in effect which benefit the U.S. above all: for example, the countries in the EU deliver information about capital movement and air travelers to the U.S., information that is not shared between the states of the European Union itself.
Not long after the annual bilateral meeting between the U.S. and the EU which took place in Dublin on Friday, June 14, Commissioner Reding wrote on her Twitter account:
@VivianeRedingEU: The concept of national security does not mean that “anything goes”: States do not enjoy an unlimited right of secret surveillance. #PRISM
To which user Silviu responded:
@SinedioMD: @VivianeRedingEU Oh, of course they do and I don't believe anyone that tells me otherwise. Also, the US actions are an act of war.
At the press conference following the meeting, Commissioner Reding said:
Parody image of the privacy options on Facebook. Tweeted by Kim Dotcom.
PRISM is targeted at non-U.S. citizens under investigation on suspicion of terrorism and cybercrimes. (…) It is on the basis of a court order, of an American court, and of congressional oversight.
(…) convene, in the short-term, a meeting of security experts from the U.S. and from the EU in order to clarify together the remaining matters (…)
This descent in tone leaves European citizens doubting which criteria the U.S. government uses to “recognize” a terrorist or what it does with the useless data it obtains. While this is being resolved, this page contains a list of alternative services to those that collaborate with PRISM that respect user privacy.

author: Lourdes Sada


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Peru: Anti-mining Protests Against Conga Resume · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

The rumor that the Conga mining project would be canceled and that the workers would be laid off appears to be the precursor of a new series of protests against the project.
This rumor spread quickly on the morning of June 10, 2013, provoking the almost immediate appearance of the Minister of Energy and Mining to deny the report. He stated that the project was going ahead and as far as the workers, there would be a relocation in most cases.
Almost simultaneously, Yanacocha issued a statement confirming its activity and reported that they were in the process of socializing benefits from the recently constructed Chailhuagón reservoir. It also said “the construction of the Perol reservoir will be initiated when the necessary permits are obtained, which we estimate could be obtained by the second quarter of 2014.”
Photo shared by Alexander Luna on Facebook
These announcements confirming that the mining project would continue working somehow behind the back of the populace resulted in the community members of Cajamarca announcing a march to be held on Monday,  June 17, towards Lake Perol, located within the land intended for the Conga mining project. It was learned that various groups of workers supported the measure in defense of water resources that supply the agricultural and livestock region of Cajamarca.
The resurgence of the protests are worrying [es] to the parties interested in not losing the big mining projects. The government has also reiterated [es] the importance of this project in particular, and the decision at the presidential level to support and not hinder these investments.
In practice, this meant that in the early hours of Monday the 17th the national police reinforced [es] security measures at the Cajamarca and Yanacocha plants. For its part, the prosecutor's office of Cajamarca called [es] for calm and the avoidance of violence during the mobilization.
It was also learned on the morning of the 17th that villagers from Sorochuco, Celendín, Bambamarca and Cajamarca were heading to Lake Perol. Around mid-day it was reported [es] that between 600 and 700 protesters were already at the lake. By the evening, there were reports of 2500 or 3000 ronderos (civilian community patrollers) in the immediate vicinity of the lake, with the intent to create a permanent camp for monitoring and preventing Yanacocha from starting to work there.
Professor Segundo Matta (@MattaColun) [es] tweeted two photos, the first of the arrival of the ronderos at the lake, and the other of the site were the monitoring camp was supposedly to be set up:
“Thousands of Cajamarca residents are already at Lake Perol. Located in different parts of Conga.” Photo shared by @MattColun on Twitter.
“Here is where the camp of Cajamarca, Bambamarca and Celedin residents will be installed. Conga no va. (Protest slogan: Conga won't proceed.)” Photo shared by @MattColun on Twitter.
IdeeleRadio interviewed Marco Arana from the movement Tierra y Libertad, (Land and Freedom), a leading water justice activist. Arana stated [es] the following:
[Estoy] sumamente preocupado por la reactivación del conflicto en Cajamarca, sin que el Gobierno haya intentado buscar soluciones de fondo y, por el contrario, lo que queda en evidencia es que le han mentido al país y le han mentido a Cajamarca al decir que el proyecto estaba paralizado
[I am] very concerned about the resumption of the conflict in Cajamarca, without the government trying to seek substantive solutions, to the contrary, it's clear they have lied to the country and they have lied to Cajamarca in saying that the project was at a standstill.
The website Solsticio Perú reported [es]:
En Cajamarca hay muchos policías. En la zona de la tranquera, en el camino de acceso a la laguna El Perol, se ven a destacamentos policiales. Hasta el momento no hay indicios de hostilizaciones contra los marchantes.
There are a lot of police in Cajamarca. In the area near the gate, on the access road to Lake Perol, police detachments can be seen. So far there is no indication of hostilities against the marchers.
The blog Servindi collected information from various sources, among them mentioning [es]:
Un hecho que llamó la atención fue el inesperado corte de energía eléctrica en el sector Lucmacucho, evitando que radios locales transmitieran en vivo las incidencias de la movilización.
One fact that caught our attention was the unexpected power outage in the Lucmacucho sector, preventing local radios from transmitting live events from the mobilization.
Telesur transmitted a live report [es] from Lake Perol (video uploaded by user eduin lozano).
Actualidad Ambiental published [es] several photos from different moments of the march.
During the evening hours in the city of Cajamarca, a vigil and prayer service was held by the camping community members, known as the Guardians of the Lagoons, as reported by the Twitter user @Puruay [es]:
@Puruay: VIGILIA en CAJAMARCA: Señor te agradecemos por cuidar nuestros Guardianes, por proteger nuestras Lagunas pic.twitter.com/HF4bmYQQXp
@Puruay: VIGIL in Cajamarca: Lord, we thank you for taking care of our Guardians, to protect our lagoons.
And from Lima, the user @Indignados_Peru [es] comments:
@Indignados_Peru: Conga: Continuan las protestas en Cajamarca y empresa minera las minimiza. Se viene otra vez un conflicto social… http://fb.me/1chKle8u8
@Indignados_Peru: Conga: The protests continue in Cajamarca and the mining company is minimizing them. Another social conflict in the making….
Although it turned out that [es] three protesters were arrested, they were later released. The company also later issued a statement [es] saying there were no injuries or arrests in the protests. However, it was unknown how the situation would develop in the ensuing hours.

author: Juan Arellano


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Salafists Attack Shia Homes in Egypt, Killing Four  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Four Egyptian adherents of the Shia faith were killed in Egypt today when the house they were meeting in was attacked by Salafists, following two weeks of instigation against the Shia.
According to various reports, the house the Shia were meeting in, in Giza, Cairo, was attacked and burned. Al Badil News quotes a witness from the mortuary [ar] who says that one of those killed was slaughtered and the remaining three had injuries to their heads. The horrific incident unleashed anger online.
Hazem Barakat documented the crime, sharing bloodied photographs and a video of the attack (Warning: Graphic video) online. On Twitter, he says he was threatened for sharing the incident he has witnessed. He adds [ar]:
انا على اتم الاستعداد للشهاده امام النيابه وهقول كل اللى حصل بالتفاصيل وهقول على الشيوخ اللى حرضت على القتل
@7azem122: I am ready to testify at the Public Prosecutor and I will say what happened in detail and I will say that the clergymen were the ones who instigated this crime
He continues:
People gather at the alley in which the house where the Shia were killed in Cairo today. Photograph shared on Twitter by @7azem122
التحريض على الشيعه بدأ من اسبوعين فى جميع المساجد والنهارده كان التنفيذ شيوخ ولاد دين كلب ” قتلوهم وعندهم اطفال لسه صغيرين :(
@7azem122: Instigating against the Shia started two weeks ago in all the mosques and today they executed their plan. Those clergymen are sons of dogs. They killed people with young children
Five hours ago he tweeted:
السلفيين بدأو يكسرو سقف البيت اللى فيه الشيعه مشهد سيريالى رهيب
@7azem122: The Salafists have started to break the roof of the house the Shia are in. It is a surreal scene.
Police remained idle as a home where Shia Egyptians were meeting today was attacked by Salafists, says Hazem Barakat (@7azem122)
He also claims the police, including officers, were standing by and watching as the lynching took place.
The incident was met with anger online.
Satirist Dr Bassem Youssef tweets:
النهاردة شيعي بكرة صوفي بعده قبطي قبله بهائي و بعدين مسلم مش موافق على تطبيق الشريعة بفكركم و بعدين واحد شكله مش عاجبك.
@DrBassemYoussef: Today it is a Shia; tomorrow a Sufi, and then a Copt, a before him a Bahai. Afterwards it will be a Muslim who doesn't agree with the way you want to implement Sharia (Islamic teachings) with your ideology and then it will be someone whose look you don't like
Egyptian blogger Zeinobia shares a similar thought:
و النهاردة الشيعة و بكرة جارك اللى مش متفق معاك سياسيا و فكريا
@Zeinobia:  And today it is the Shia and tomorrow your neighbour who is not in agreement with you politically and intellectually
Ahmed Abou Hussein asks:
لما شيخك يكفر المتظاهرين ويلقب الشيعة بالأنجاس ماتستغربش انهم يقتلوا. يا مرسي السؤال مش انت فقدت شرعيتك ولا لأ، السؤال انت فقدتها كام مرة؟
@abouhussein7: When your clergyman [President Mohamed Morsi] says that the protestors are infidels and that the Shia are unchaste, don't be surprised when they are killed. Morsi, the question is not whether you have lost your legitimacy. The question is: how many times have you lost your legitimacy?
Ahmad Khalil is surprised at the way people are reasoning murder:
السلفيين قتلوا ٤ شيعة ، الغريب فى الامر ان من يستنكر هذا الفعل يقول دم المسلم حرام يعنى دم المسيحى حلال ، الافكار الطائفية اصابت الجميع
@ahmad_khalil: The Salafists have killed four Shia. What is surprising is that there are some among those who are condemning the act who say that spilling the blood of a Muslim is Haram [forbidden in Islam]. It is as if spilling the blood of a Christian is Halal (acceptable in Islam]. Such sectarian ideas have inflicted everyone.
Sherif Azer notes [ar]:
فيه احداث و تصريحات كتير حصلت في الفترة الاخيرة كانت بتمهد للهجوم على #الشيعة في مصر.عدم الاستعداد لموقف زي ده في حد ذاته جريمة #مصر
@sherif_azer: There were a lot of incidents and statements that have happened over the past period which prepared the scene for the attack on the Shia in Egypt. Not being prepared for such an incident is a crime in its own
And Adel Salib wonders why people are shocked that the Shia are being attacked in Egypt when the police previously attacked – and killed – Egyptian Copts:
مندهش من المندهشين ان الشرطة وقفت تتفرج علي قتل الشيعة ؛ اذا كان الشرطة كانت من شهرين بتضرب الكتدرائية انتم عالم مغيبين ولا بتستهبلوا ؟
@Adel_Salib: Someone is surprised that the police were watching while the Shia were being murdered when two months ago the police were attacking the Cathedral. Are you under a spell or just stupid?
Ali adds:
A screenshot of a tweet by Mohammed Saber, an anchor at an Egyptian Television celebrating the murder of Shia in Egypt. Photograph shares by @Gemyhood on Twitter
زعلان ان المسلمين السنة بيتدبحوا في بورما ..وفرحان ان المسلمين الشيعة بيتحرقوا أحياء و يتمثل بجثثهم .. انت لازم تقوم تشوف دكتور بيطري كويس
@ali4592000: Are you angry that Sunni Muslims are being killed in Burma and happy that Shia Muslims are being burnt alive in Egypt and their corpses defiled? You should see a good veterinarian
Rawah Badrawi shares some history:
@RawahBadrawi: Cairo was founded by Shias you Neanderthals. They established half its heritage sites including Al Azhar.
And Yemeni blogger Noon Arabia concludes:
نحن نعود إلى زمن الجاهليه. الإسلام بريء مما يحدث الآن من سفك الدماء. #مصر #لبنان #سوريا
@NoonArabia: We are returning to the age of Jahiliyya [ignorance]. Islam is innocent of the blood being spilled today in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria
Of course not everyone was horrified by the attack. Blogger Mohamed Beshir shares a tweet by a presenter at the Egyptian Television named Mohammed Saber, who is celebrating the murder of the Shia and calling for more deaths.
دة مذيع ف التلفزيون المصري سعيد بقتل الشيعة والناس بترد عليه يأكد ويبشرهم
@Gemyhood: This is a presenter at the Egyptian [state] television happy at the murder of Shia

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Visualising Iraq’s Oil Industry · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Iraq's oil infrastructure in a new interactive map by Internews
An interactive map showing Iraq's oil infrastructure, including the locations of oil pipelines, refineries, tanker terminals, gas and oil fields as well as oil wells, is available for the public for the first time ever. The map has been created by Internews’ Covering Energy project in Iraq and is available here.


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China: Keywords Unblocked in Weibo · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Jason Ng from Tea Leaf Nation reviewed the recent unblocking of several politically sensitive words in Weibo, Chinese biggest social media platform and pointed out that the unblocking is not a victory against censorship because there are yet many ways to screen out politically sensitive messages.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Senegalese to France: Dignity Before Visa  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

I decided to decline using my entry visa to France [..] I am waiving it off on behalf of the thousands of Senegalese citizens who deserve respect, a respect that they are often denied at the French consulate.
Those are the words written by Bousso Dramé in an open letter to the French consulate [fr] in Dakar, Senegal. Bousso Dramé is a Senegalese consultant, London school of economics graduate who was Paris-bound to receive a literary prize. The disrespect she faced [fr] while trying to obtain her visa is an experience that many African citizens could relate to according to the many online reactions [all links – fr] following her open letter.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Environmental Issues Drive Russians to Demand More of Their Leaders? · Global Voices
Nina Jobe

A recent opinion poll [ru] by VTsIOM (The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion) found that more and more Russians are concerned about the state of the environment in the country, with 56% of Russians saying they believe the environmental situation is currently bad and 9% saying that the situation is close to catastrophic. The head of VTsIOM presented these findings to Prime Minister Medvedev during the latter’s recent visit to Irkutsk. While there, the Prime Minister announced that the government would be shutting down the Baikal pulp and paper mill within the next two years, due to local concerns about the environment.
Meanwhile, in Voronezh, a group of protestors has banded together to oppose a proposed nickel mining project, claiming that mining in this area would damage both the environment and the agricultural industry.
In May 2012, a tender was granted to an opaque company called “Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company” (OAO UGMK) for the right to mine what are thought to be the last undeveloped nickel deposits in Europe. UGMK says it plans to invest 50 billion rubles ($1.53 billion) in developing two deposits. However, it is facing opposition from locals concerned about the impact on agriculture and the environment.
Over the last year, “Save Khoper” [ru] has held a series of protests to bring attention to the cause against the mining project. On Saturday, June 22, 2013, the latest demonstration turned violent [ru], after a splinter group of protestors set fire to two drill rigs and other geological survey equipment (see video below).
One person commented [ru] on the video:
Ребята я живу в Норильске, у нас идет добыча меди и никеля, город очень грязный, все выбросы газа попадают в город с ветром, земля выжжена. Наживаются на этом Потанин и Дерипаска. Отстаивайте свою землю для детей ваших.
Guys, I live in Norilsk, we have copper and nickel mines, the city is very dirty, all the gas emissions fall into the city with the wind, [and] the earth is scorched. Potanin and Deripaska are cashing in on this. Defend your land for your children.
Police arrested 25 people they said were involved in the violence, and held them for 10 hours with no explanation or legal representation. Hours later, police released everyone [ru], but said that they expect all to report back on June 26.
After the incident on June 22, Russia's Investigative Committee posted on its website a statement declaring its intention to conduct an inquiry into both the violence and the protest that precipitated it:
Следственный комитет тщательно разберется в событиях, произошедших в Новохоперском районе Воронежской области 22 июня 2013 года. В том числе следователи будут выяснять причины, из-за которых около тысячи местных жителей вышли на митинг, чтобы выразить свое несогласие со строительством никелевого предприятия.
The Investigative Committee will carefully sort out the events that occurred in the Novokhopersky region of Voronezh on June 22, 2013. In particular, investigators will find out the reason why nearly 1,000 local residents staged a rally to express their opposition to the construction of a nickel enterprise.
Back in Irkutsk, Medvedev announced he does not see anything bad about the increase in the number of Russians who are concerned about the country's environment. “This also means that these people have started attaching much importance to these issues. Society is becoming more demanding,” he said.
If Prime Minister Medvedev is right, and Russian society is demanding more of its leaders, then how will that leadership respond? The coming days in Voronezh Oblast may hold the answer.
Note: if you want a longer background on the situation in Voronezh in English, please see this excellent piece by Mark Bennetts in OpenDemocracy.

author: Nina Jobe


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#FueraChepo: Mexican Fans Want National Football Team’s Coach to Quit · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

As part of the Brazil 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, fans of the Mexican national football team have expressed their dissatisfaction with coach José Manuel “Chepo” de la Torre, due to the team's poor performance in the cup's matches.
On June 19, 2013, the Mexican team was defeated 2-0 by the host, Brazil, in Fortaleza. Some days earlier, on Sunday June 16, the Mexican team lost a match against Italy, the squadra azzurra, in the legendary Maracaná Stadium.
Journalist and football fan León Krauze [es] considers “Chepo” de la Torre has managed to convince his players of their own deficiencies, instead of their virtues, so they have faced their commitments cowardly. About this, he noted:
En el futbol, como en la vida, la cobardía es imperdonable. Por eso, Chepo debe irse.
In football, as in life, cowardice is unforgivable. That's why Chepo must go.
From Brazil, blogger Sopitas [es] anticipated the implications of losing the game against the local team:
México está obligado a sumar contra Brasil a como de lugar. Una derrota más, nos dejaría eliminados de la Copa Confederaciones a las primeras de cambio.  El Tri  ha sido exhibido y ahora vemos que el problema no es que Jamaica, Panamá o Costa Rica “se nos encerraran” [jugaran defensivamente].
El fútbol ha desaparecido, el ánimo está por los suelos y todo parece indicar que José Manuel de la Torre, tiene las horas contadas al frente del Tricolor.
Mexico has to add points against Brazil, whatever it takes. One more defeat, and we will be left out the Confederations Cup, given half a chance. The Tri [for Tricolour, as the Mexican team is popularly known] has been exhibited, and now we see the problem is not that Jamaica, Panama nor Costa Rica “got us locked in” [to play defensively].
The football has disappeared, the mood is down in the dumps and everything makes us think José Manuel de la Torre has his days counted as coach of the Tricolour.
Image by Hugo Lopez 365 alpha on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
On Twitter, the tone of comments about the issue are not that moderate, and apparently there is consensus among the fans that the Mexican national team coach should step aside.
Actor Gael García Bernal (@GaelGarciaB) highlighted the name of the football players he considers have had a good performance, but he is for changing the technical director (coach).
@GaelGarciaB: No me agüito [desanimo]: Mier, Gio, Moreno, Corona y Guardado jugaron bien. Salcido y Herrera tuvieron destellos. Aún así, cambiaría de técnico ya.
@GaelGarciaB [es]: I'm not discouraged: Mier, Gio, Moreno, Corona and Guardado played well. Salcido and Herrera had their moments. Nevertheless, I'd change technical [director] now.
Jorge Trejo (@TreEjoO) said that the Mexican team lacks tactics:
@TreEjoO: Hoy comprobe q Mexico tiene equipo…pero no tiene tecnico ni estrategia #FueraChepo [sic]
@TreEjoO [es]: Today I confirmed that Mexico has a team… but it doesn't have a technical [director] nor a strategy. #FueraChepo [go Chepo]
Meanwhile, user Hector Pavlovich (@HectorPvch) threatened that he would stop following the team if the coach is not changed:
@HectorPvch: Mientras este el Chepo no vere ningun partido del tri #FueraChepo [sic]
@HectorPvch: While Chepo is in, I won't watch any of the Tri's matches #FueraChepo
User edwin & steffany (@edwinpaclan) had a more optimistic approach, mentioning what will have to happen for the team to not be disqualified from the tournament. But he joined the outcry asking José Manuel de la Torre to quit:
@edwinpaclan Tranquilos, solo necesitamos que Japón y Brasil le ganen a Italia y que México golee a Japón para estar dentro… #FueraChepo
@edwinpaclan [es]: Take it easy, we just need Japan and Brazil to defeat Italy and Mexico to destroy Japan to be in… #FueraChepo
Javier Pons Gil (@javipons) questioned that the leading broadcaster in Mexico (Televisa, which has a share in decisions related to the national football team) isn't joining the voices asking “Chepo” de la Torre to step aside:
@javipons Hace unos años por menos Televisa y sus paleros [personas que le apoyan] pedían la renuncia de Hugo Sánchez, por que no lo hacen con el #Chepo ahora? [sic]
@javipons [es]: Some years back at least, Televisa and its supporters demanded Hugo Sánchez to quit, why aren't they doing the same now with #Chepo?
José Manuel de la Torre was appointed as coach of Mexico's national football team on October 18, 2010, in replacement for Javier “El Vasco” Aguirre and after a rare temporary period led by Enrique “el ojitos” Meza.
Under “Chepo” de la Torre, the team won the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2011, but has had some difficulties during the 2014 Brazil Football World Cup qualifiers, where the team has only won one game, against Jamaica.

author: J. Tadeo


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Haze Chokes Singapore and Malaysia · Global Voices
Oddznns

Air quality in Singapore and West Malaysia hit hazardous levels after forest fires swept neighboring Indonesia.
At 12pm on June 21, 2013 the Air Pollution Index hit 401 in Singapore, the highest in the country’s history. The following two days, it was Malaysia's turn to choke. In the coast town of Muar which is two hundred kilometers away from Singapore, the Air Pollution Index hit 750 on 23 June.
The bad air prompted many Singaporeans to make their way to hospitals and pharmacies to stand in line for face-masks. junjie.wu tweets:
Haze in Singapore. Photo by umiwurnell, Copyright @Demotix (6/20/2013)
@bbeautifool People Q for N95, look what I got to spend my weekends being crouch potato. Home the safest place to…
While Brian, Mr. SGAG celebrates finally getting a hold of one on 22 June, after air quality improved!
@SGAG_SG Bad Luck Brian. Finally gets his hands on the N95 mask after 5 hours of queueing at the pharmacy. Haze clears. #sghaze
Some though, heeded government advisories to stay home. “I’ve got a tummy” spent the weekend drinking milk and eating bread to feel  better and  stay in to watch TV:
…the worst part of it all is that, we had to still report for work despite the bad to worse weather conditions. As far as I am concerned, I had to still report for work even after the office announce that employees can work from home if work scope permits. So ironically, my work scope is very site-based therefore, I have to be back to office for work that day whatsoever.
But anyways, I fell sick after 3 days of fighting with the haze and till today, my nose is dry yet running at the same time.
A Malay couple wears a face mask while celebrating their wedding day during haze in Muar, in Malaysia’s southern state of Johor bordering Singapore. Photo by Lens Hitam, Copyright @Demotix (6/22/2013)
While B.L. Xu thought deep patriotic thoughts about what Singaporeans should be doing for the environment:
I personally think that what most of us should be appreciating is clean air, not the absence of haze caused by them. Instead of pointing fingers at others and trying to solve the root of the problem, it is more important to fully understand and digest the moral of the story
Meanwhile, Patrick Low is supporting a silent protest:
We need to stand up as a people and send a clear signal to Indonesia that we will not tolerate this harmful incursion to our health and economy.
As haze condition is getting hazardous please just pop by wear black, wear mask and bring some water for the short duration you are there.
Respromask – who have a stake in such things – reports that Malaysia has declared a state of emergency in Muar and Ledang. As a precautionary measure, Malaysia has also shut down some of their schools.
But who’s responsible and who should pay? The hunt for culprits has begun. The Singaporean Minister of the Environment called for Indonesia to name names and dole out punishments. In reply, the Coordinating Minister of Peoples’ Welfare in Indonesia chided Singapore for being childish. Singapore’s Emeritus Senior Minister had later hoped that Indonesia would adopt a more neighbourly spirit.
Meanwhile, individual Indonesian citizens are trying to make amends by expressing their concern over the haze.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has already issued a formal apology to Singapore and Malaysia for the haze caused by forest fires in some parts of Indonesia.

author: Oddznns


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Hundreds Banned from Hong Kong Website · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

HKGolden, a forum of great cultural and political influence in Hong Kong recently has banned more than 300 user accounts. While the website administrator explained that the move was in reaction to defamatory charge, some believe that it is a political purge as many of removed account users like to spread anti-communist and pro-Hong Kong independence comments in the forum. Badcanto has translated some commentaries on the incident.


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Indonesia Fuel Price Hike Ignites Protests · Global Voices
Akhlis Purnomo

It has been a tough week for Indonesia which finally decided to raise fuel prices. The controversial new energy policy sparked a lot of debates and arguments especially since the presidential election is only a few months away.
The government insists the price hike is necessary to save the economy. This was argued by Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik:
To save the economy, higher fuel prices will take effect as of tomorrow ( Saturday, June 22)
He later detailed that the new price for Premium fuel is 6,500 rupiah (66 US cents) per liter, up from 4,500 rupiah; and Solar diesel will cost 5,500 rupiah per liter, also up from 4,500 rupiah per liter.
For many years, the government has been attempting to raise fuel prices. Last April 2012, several protests in key Indonesian cities succeeded in blocking the planned fuel price hike.
Indonesians at last learned the bitter fact of the price hike after weeks haunted by predictions, uncertainty and anxiety caused by media reporting.
The fateful decision was announced after Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (Indonesian House of Representatives) passed the draft bill of 2013. The draft involved the revising of the state budget into law during the plenary session in the capital on Monday (June 17), which included the Indonesian government's proposal for a higher fuel price scheme.
As expected, various groups staged protest actions in response to the fuel price hike. Students and workers trooped to the streets to denounce the approval of the new fuel price scheme.
Students held a rally in front of the parliament building in Jakarta. Photo by Ngarto Februana, Copyright @Demotix (6/17/2013)
Thousands of workers from the Federation of Indonesian Metal Workers Union following a demonstration in front of the parliament building.. Photo by Ngarto Februana, Copyright @Demotix (6/17/2013)
To help the poor cope with the higher fuel prices, the government has pledged to provide direct cash assistance to low income families. Only those which have Social Protection Card (KPS-Kartu Perlindungan Sosial) in 14 cities and regencies are entitled to receive the short-term aid. These 14 cities are Jakarta, Palembang, Bogor, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Denpasar, Banjarmasin, Solo, Makasar dan Ambon.
This is not the first time that the government has imposed higher fuel prices. According to Merdeka.com, the highest price increase was approved on March 2005. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono raised the price as much as 2,100 rupiah per liter. Prior to the increase, the fuel price was only 2,400 rupiah.
Some Indonesians rejected the cash assistance since according to them it is not exactly what the people need to cope with the fuel price hikes. Citizen reporter Ibnu Dawam Aziz wrote:
The direct cash assistance would only fool the grassroots once again.
Others think this is what the ruling party had plotted to gain and retain public favor. One of them is Jeffry Hidayat, who believes this is how the ruling Democrat party planned to recover its degrading image before the voters.
Not all Indonesians responded seriously to the hikes though. In the popular online forum Kaskus, for instance, they made and posted jokes and anecdotes of the fuel price, like Cittapallo who wrote a comic poetry.

author: Akhlis Purnomo