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Diversity, Interrupted: Anti-Gay Crusades Mar Ukraine’s Tolerant Facade · Global Voices
Ania Shapiro

Source: Aleksandr Nosenko, Instagram.
As this year’s Eurovision Song Contest enters its final weekend, a half-painted rainbow arch meant to symbolize the event’s slogan, “Celebrate Diversity,” hovers ominously over the center of Kyiv.
After far-right leaders complained that the colorful paint job amounted to homosexual propaganda, the city promptly halted the makeover of the giant arch, which was renamed the “Arch of Diversity” for Eurovision (it was previously known as the “Friendship of Nations Arc” and was dedicated to Russian and Ukrainian unity in the Soviet Union).
The incomplete monument serves as a conspicuous reminder of Ukraine’s unfinished battle against homophobia—a problem that has been accentuated by a recent spate of homophobic attacks.
According to Anna Sharyhina, a Ukrainian LGBT activist and Program Director of KyivPride, numerous vigilante groups across the country have intensified their attacks on homosexuals, who are often portrayed as pedophiles, over the last several months. “Hundreds of videos from Zaporozhye, Nikopol, and other cities are already online, and there will only be more of them to come. It’s very important to unite and stand against hate crimes,” she wrote on Facebook on April 11.
These groups, which go by names like Naslediye (“Heritage”) and Modnyi prigovor (“Fashion Judgment”), are Ukraine’s homegrown spin on “Occupy Pedophilia,” a Russian movement fronted by the neo-Nazi Maxim Martsinkevich, and known colloquially as Tesak (which means “Hatchet” in Russian). Since 2012, Occupy Pedophilia has targeted gay and bisexual men through social media and online dating websites, posing as minors to arrange meetings. Upon meeting, victims are beaten and humiliated, their heads shaved and painted as they are forced to pretend to have oral sex and reveal personal details on camera. The videos are then shared online.
In 2013, this “activist movement” came to Ukraine, where it was dubbed Holubyatnya Het’!, or “Fags Get Out!”
Ukrainian vigilantes have followed in Occupy Pedophilia’s footsteps. On Vkontakte, for instance, Naslediye-Zaporozhye (Heritage of Zaporozhye) touts itself as a “social movement aimed at exposing individuals who encroach on the dignity of children.” To date, hundreds of online videos have been posted in which victims, many of whom appear to have been freshly beaten, are coerced into revealing their full names, addresses, birthdates, and places of study or work – as well as information on their sexual preferences and experiences.
Although these groups claim to be protecting the public, their violent and lawless tactics, along with their derogatory rhetoric, destroy lives and endanger the LGBT community. By proliferating these videos across social media platforms, they foster a culture of fear and hatred towards LGBT people in a country where homosexuality is already conflated with pedophilia. This brand of digitally-enabled vigilantism in turn empowers others to commit hate crimes—whether on the basis of sexual orientation, ethnic identity, or religious beliefs.
Unfortunately, it is not only organized groups that threaten the rights and safety of Ukraine’s LGBT population. On May 6, the non-profit organization Gender Z held a “Rainbow Flash Mob” in the city of Zaporozhye in southern Ukraine, in which local activists held “Celebrate Diversity” signs decorated with symbols representing various marginalized groups. After the demonstration, three participants were attacked and beaten by unknown assailants.
Meanwhile, in Kyiv, tens of thousands of Eurovision fans have gathered to revel in the very same motto that sent one of Gender Z’s activists to the hospital.
Until May 15, these visitors will also have the opportunity to view the ill-fated rainbow arch. Although the monument will subsequently be washed of its colors, the underlying ideological conflicts it symbolizes cannot be erased. With the sixth annual KyivPride LGBT festival only one month away, the question remains: will Ukrainian society finally embrace diversity—or continue to allow it to be erased?

author: Ania Shapiro


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How a Rural South African Village’s DIY Telco Lowered Its Communication Costs · Global Voices
Rising Voices

A version of this post was originally published on the website of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), which aims to promote the use of the internet for social justice and sustainable development.
The isiXhosa word “Zenzeleni” means “do it yourselves,” which is precisely what the village of Mankosi, located in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, has been doing to address their high costs of telecommunications. Through a community-owned, solar-powered mesh network, residents of this rural village now have access to more affordable telephone and internet access.
Zenzeleni Networks, as the initiative is called, is registered as a cooperative in the rural traditional community of Mankosi located within the Nyandeni Local Municipality in the Province of the Eastern Cape, considered to be one of the more disadvantaged areas of the country. The project, which is a part of the APC network, seeks to create a model for the sustainable implementation of bottom-up village telecommunications services in rural communities in South Africa.
In many parts of the country, rural areas lack internet infrastructure, and initiatives such as Zenzeleni are working collaboratively to change that.
Researcher Carlos Rey Moreno at the University of the Western Cape found that in a country with stark income inequality, residents of Mankosi had been spending approximately 22% of their incomes on communication. This percentage was significantly higher than the target of 5% of average monthly income spent on broadband set by the International Telecommunications Union.
Zenzeleni cites a lack of competition in many rural parts of the country as one of the major reasons why these communications costs have been so high. So, in order to provide lower-cost communication services, the village of Mankosi needed to take matters into their own hands.
Zenzeleni co-founder Masibulele Jay Siya, who also works with the Department of Computer Science at University of the Western Cape, told APC in an interview:
Most people in rural South Africa don’t have any internet infrastructure and this limits their access to better skills and living conditions in today’s world. But if you want to help, you have to do it by empowering people in a way that they see the value of being connected. So talking to local authorities is the first thing we did, making sure everyone else in the community had a say.
Getting community buy-in was essential, so the “inkosi” (chief) organized a village meeting to explain the project in detail, as well as select households that would function as “nodes,” or host technology that distributes data along the network.
Zenzeleni explains on its website how its mesh network works with greater detail:
The basic difference between a traditional telecoms network and a mesh network is that the traditional kind consists of large, expensive central beacons or masts that each user device (like a mobile cellphone) connects to, while a mesh consists of scattered (small, cheap) nodes, each of which can connect with a number of others. A message spreads from one part of a mesh to any other part by passing through as many nodes as necessary.
In a traditional network, the beacons are usually connected to each other (and the world) by a “backbone” landline or microwave radio link. A mesh network may or may not have a “gateway” which is just one of its nodes which is also connected to a traditional network. Thus if one member of a mesh has an internet connection, it can be shared by the whole mesh. But the nodes still connect with each other when there’s no gateway – e.g. the Mankosi community can phone each other for free even if their internet connection is broken.
The initial meetings with residents were followed by a series of administrative necessities to register the project as a cooperative so it would be owned by the entire community. In addition, opening a bank account and soliciting licenses and exemptions from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) were additional important steps in the process.
With an initial budget provided by the University of the Western Cape for hardware and installation training, the project sought the assistance of local residents to help build and install the network infrastructure. Solar panels provide power to the network, since electricity is not available in the village, and help charge the mobile phones.
When asked about the biggest challenge they have faced, Siya mentioned initial resistance to change:
Technological changes involve frustration, and you need sustainable solutions. In many rural areas we found computers that were sitting there and no one used them because no one was ever taught how. So a big part of our work now is to provide services to schools, gathering data to see what they may need internet for, so that they find it useful, and creating a sustainable solution for teachers to use them with students. There had been training projects before, but not bottom-up approach projects, so they were never owned by the community. Training is needed and we want to do it locally, through local people, training trainers.
Everything about Zenzeleni Networks emphasizes the importance of the community. This includes providing related services in the language spoken by residents — users can access and interact with voice menus in isiXhosa to select if they want to pay for service in the form of prepaid money or vouchers — which is another advantage of having a locally owned network. Siya concludes:
We understand community as people getting together to see what the problems are and find solutions together. Of course all of this is not about the internet itself, it is about the collaboration, the skills, the social needs, the building something together.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rising Voices


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Thailand Threatens to Take Facebook to Court Over Anti-Monarchy Posts · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Facebook has removed 178 posts deemed insulting to the Thai monarchy thus far in 2017, as part of their effort to comply with Thailand's strict laws concerning “royal insult”.
Soldiers standing guard outside of Bangkok Art and Culture Centre after the army launched a coup in May 2014. Photo by Hon Keong Soo, Copyright @Demotix (5/24/2014)
But the military-backed government says there are an additional 131 posts that still need to come down. They have given the company until May 16 to remove 131 ‘anti-monarchy’ posts. If they do not cooperate, Thai officials say they will take the California-based company to court.
Thailand implements one of the harshest anti-Lese Majeste (Royal Insult) laws in the world. The government says the law is essential to preserving unity in the country, but human rights groups and legal scholars believe the law needs to be amended because it is overly broad and often abused by authorities.
The government's Army Cyber Center has been aggressively searching the Internet for posts that insult the monarchy.
According to the International Federation for Human Rights, 105 individuals have been arrested because of alleged Lese Majeste violations since the army took over in 2014. Before the 2014 coup, in which the army grabbed power and established the ruling junta, only six individuals were behind bars for insulting the monarchy.
Many of the arrested individuals were activists who have been criticizing the army, which led human rights advocates to accuse the government of using the Lese Majeste law to silence dissent.
Thailand is a country in transition. It has a new king, a constitution drafted less than two years ago, and an army that has promised to restore civilian rule once electoral and political reforms have been implemented. In this time of transition, the government has been aggressive in restricting the work of media and arresting those who are campaigning for democratic reforms. Even those who simply ‘share’ and ‘like’ Facebook posts that are deemed disrespectful to the monarchy are criminally charged in the courts.
Last month, the government urged netizens to unfollow the social media pages of three overseas critics. One of these three critics is exiled academic Somsak Jeamteerasakul. On 4 May 2017, he received a message from Facebook about the removal of one of the videos he uploaded on his page:
We’re contacting you because the Ministry of Digital Economy & Society has sent us a Court Order issued by the Judge Tassanee Leelaporn and Judge Somyod Korpaisarn of the Criminal Court of Thailand stating that the following post you made on Facebook violates Section 14(3) of the Computer Crimes Act B.E. 2550 (2010).
Somsak said the video is about the lifestyle of the country’s new king. Somsak’s post about the notification he received from Facebook confirmed news reports that the social networking company is complying with the orders issued by Thai courts.
In 2016, Facebook reported that it removed 50 posts requested by the Thai government. This year, Facebook has already blocked 178 posts, but the Thai government insists this is not enough.
Aside from the 131 remaining ‘anti-monarchy’ Facebook posts, the Army Cyber Centre has identified 820 online items that allegedly insult the royal family. Of the 820 items, 365 were posted on Facebook, 450 on YouTube, and five on Twitter.
Will Facebook and other social media companies grant the request of the Thai government to remove these ‘illegal’ posts?
More importantly, as Lese Majeste-related arrests continue to rise, the online crackdown may have adverse effects on the movement calling for the protection of civil liberties and restoration of democracy in the country.

author: Mong Palatino


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This Platform Has Helped Thousands of Migrants Reconnect with Their Families Back Home · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Photo of a refugee camp in Rwanda. Photo by©Elisa Finocchiaro Creative Commons – license – BY
There are about 65 million people worldwide right now who have fled their homeland. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says this is the highest such figure since the second world war. As tragic as that is, it's even more heartbreaking to realize that many of those folks have lost contact with their families.
But help may be on the way.
Two Danish brothers and social entrepreneurs David and Christopher Mikkelsen have found a solution to this challenge. Their platform, REFUNITE, for Refugees United, has registered more than half a million migrants around the world to re-establish lost contact with their families. Here is a video that summarizes the principles of the project:
The family reconnection platform is accessible from a simple mobile phone via SMS, USSD, web or a free hotline. Whether it is an Afghan refugee in Pakistan or an internally displaced person in Iraq, anyone in need can search, re-connect and communicate with their missing loved ones – even if they are unable to pay for mobile data.
While this is an achievement to note, it comes with the somber reminder that these are people unable to find their children, siblings, parents and friends. Unfortunately, it also doesn’t stop here: the world is harboring more displaced people than we’ve seen since WWII! And while Syria is responsible for both the largest numbers of its citizens on the run and the most headlines, there are unfortunately many other crises in full bloom, and numerous new ones threatening to erupt at any moment. REFUNITE will continue to work tirelessly to help everyone looking for loved ones to reconnect. Our aim is to continuously build out our platform to provide a digital home and infrastructure to soon millions of displaced people.
REFUNITE is headquartered in Kenya, but was first created in Denmark in collaboration with Ericsson. It is funded by the IKEA Foundation and other private foundations and it has partnership with a global coalition of mobile operators and with Facebook.
So far close to 11 million messages have passed through the platform and has performed over 9 million searches, with 600,000 total registrations all over the world. By 2017 REFUNITE aims to register 1 million displaced people.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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How ‘Aspie’ Is Misunderstood, Mistranslated and Misused In Japan · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Asupe, a Japanese slang term for Aspergers syndrome. From original image widely shared on social media.
A recent interview with a popular Japanese manga creator provides insights into how the term “Asperger” is both little understood in Japan, and at the same time widely appropriated by Japanese internet subculture.
In early April, in an interview with the Japan-based pop culture website Niconico, popular manga creator Yamada Reiji (山田玲司) made comments about characters with Asperger syndrome in anime and manga.
Asperger syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder present in about one percent of the Japanese population. Yamada Reiji is the creator of the non-fiction manga series Zetsubō ni Kiku Kusuri (‘Medicine for Despair’). He says Asperger syndrome makes for the perfect protagonist for manga and anime:
最初に、ザックリ言ってしまうと、ちょっとイカれた変わり者が、何でもかんでも病名を付けられるというトレンドが、ここ20年ぐらいあるわけ。実際のところ、本当に障害なのか病気なのかは、定かではないし、専門家によっては、意見が分かれているんだけど、いわゆるアスペルガーヒーローみたいな人達が活躍する時代というのがあるのよ。
…To be frank, it's only been the past twenty years or so that the trend has been to label people who are a little “different” as having a clinical diagnosis of some kind.
While I'm not sure if it's a disease or a disability–it depends on what expert you're talking to–we're now into what's called the “Asperger Hero.”
According to Yamada, people with Asperger’s syndrome make interesting protagonists because they have high degrees of rationality as well as “analytical skills and intuition”, while lacking human empathy:
ザックリと特徴を言うと、ずば抜けた能力がある。これは、合理的な能力。分析力、直感力も含めて、能力は高いんだよね。スペックが高いという。だけど、共感力に欠ける。つまり、自分だけの世界にいて、美意識が高く、どこか人を馬鹿にしている。
Speaking very generally about the characteristics of people living with Aspergers, they have some super abilities, such as: high degree of rationality, analytical skills, logic and intuition. You could say they have “high specs.”
However, people with Aspergers lack empathy. It's because they live in their own world, and with a high aesthetic sensibility, which leads them to rub others up the wrong way.
What Yamada calls “Asperger heroes”–characters whose intelligence makes them admired, but never really liked–are regular fixtures in Japanese manga and anime. According to the trope, the hero’s lack of empathy is tolerated because he (it is most often a young male) has a some sort of “super ability.” One well-known example is the character ‘L’ from Death Note, a police detective who doggedly and expertly pursues a serial killer known only as ‘Kira’. Sporting ill-kept black hair, L is perhaps an Asperger hero par excellence. His lack of social grace is tolerated because he is good at his job.
The dramatic trope of the “person with Aspergers as hero” is not limited to Japan. According to Yamada, the BBC drama Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch, with Martin Freeman as his sidekick Watson, is a representative example of this character-type:
例えば、名探偵シャーロック・ホームズを現代に蘇らせたと評判になった。英国BBCのドラマ『シャーロック』…アスペルガーっていうのはバディー物に向いてるんだよ。クールでバンバンやっていく人の横に、一般的な人情派が付く。だから、『シャーロック』は見事。
For example, there's the detective Sherlock Holmes, who has been been resurrected in the popular contemporary television series on the BBC… Asperger syndrome lends itself to “buddy dramas.” There's a cool character doing all this stuff and, standing next to him is a representative “normal” person. “Sherlock” is a perfect example of this.
The title of the Niconico article in which Yamada's interview appears is “Considering Why We Love Protagonists Who Are ‘Aspies’ Or Have Developmental Disorders” (Asupe Ya Hattatsu Shogai No Shujinko Ga Ai Sareru Riyu Wo Kangaete Mita, アスペや発達障害の主人公が愛される理由を考えてみた).
The Niconico article uses a Japanese slang term for Aspergers, asupe, which roughly translates into English as “aspie“, meaning someone who displays the characteristics of Asperger syndrome. Yamada uses the more clinical Japanese term “Asper syndrome” (アスペルガー症候群).
In Japan the term “asupe”  (アスペ ) is recognised as a playful insult and is often broadened to include people who behave differently from the majority, or act “weirdly”.
For example, one Twitter user uses asupe to make a derogatory remark about AKB48 teen music group member Ozono Momoko:
顔面から滲み出るアスペ臭 pic.twitter.com/p1gfp6nKst
— ぼぶ田ぼぶ子 (@RIKACHAN_SUCHI) May 3, 2017
Her face just reeks of asupe.
This Internet trend in Japan was recently noticed by the Korea Times:
Japanese netizens in their 20s to 30s are using the term “asupe” to refer to a mentally disabled person or “those who behave differently from the majority.”
The Korea Times article quotes from a Japanese-language column by Japanese psychiatrist Hoshino Geinan.
Writing in the Japan-based weekly magazine Bunshun in late April, Hoshino wrote about the use of the term asupe, seemingly in response to Yamada:
簡単に「お前まじアスペ」とは言えないはずです。なぜなら、精神医学を専門に学んだ医師でも「アスペルガー症候群」と診断を確定するには相当な勇気が要ります。それほど難しい診断なのに、人と違っているというだけで簡単に「アスペ」と言うのは、ただの誤診です。
Simply put, you should never say “you're an asupe” to anyone. This is because, even clinicians with specialist training in psychology must be absolutely certain themselves before making a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome. Since it's so difficult to diagnose the condition, simply stating someone is asupe would be a misdiagnosis.
Hoshino also wrote critically of the term's use in insulting contexts:
その方々が、「アスペ」という言葉を聞いて、嬉しいと思うでしょうか。たとえ「お前まじアスペ」と軽い気持ちで言う相手が、通院などを要さない人であったとしても、周りで聞いたり見たりする人で間接的にショックを受ける人がいるかもしれません。それくらい繊細に考えるべきだと思います。
Will (people living with Aspergers syndrome) be happy to hear the term asupe used as slang, I wonder? Even if “you're a total asupe” is said in lighthearted jest to someone who may have been diagnosed Asperger syndrome, it may be shocking to others listening in.

author: Nevin Thompson


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New Documentary Throws Shade on Police Investigation Into Dissident Journalist’s Murder in Kyiv · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

A promotional banner for the documentary film “Killing Pavel” by OCCRP and Slidstvo.info.*
A new documentary film by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)* and Slidstvo.info examines the assassination of journalist Pavel Sheremet, who was killed in Kyiv in July 2016.
Ten months after a car bomb claimed Sheremet's life, the official police investigation has made no tangible progress in solving the murder. The report by OCCRP and Slidstvo.info reveals new details about the killing, and questions the quality of the investigation, alleging Secret Service involvement.
The film “Killing Pavel” is available in English, Russian, and Ukrainian. Within three days of being released on YouTube, the three videos together attracted more than 145,000 views, drawing rave reviews from many journalists in the region.
.@OCCRP @HromadskeUA thank you for this film investigating the murder of journalist Pavel #Sheremet #Belarus https://t.co/vJUXV3CZdI
— Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) May 10, 2017
The film also premiered to international coverage, and Ukrainian authorities quickly announced that they will use the report's findings to assist their investigation. The Ukrainian Secret Service, meanwhile, flatly denies any links to the case.
Pavel Sheremet started his career in Belarus, reporting on corruption issues. Under pressure from the Belarusian authorities, he was forced to relocate to Russia in 1997. Fifteen years later, his situation repeated, and he was forced to emigrate again, this time to Ukraine. In Kyiv, he ran a morning radio show and worked for the online newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda (Ukrainian Truth). He was awarded the Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award in 1998 and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Prize for Journalism and Democracy in 2002.
Online, some Internet users drew parallels to prominent critics of the Kremlin who have faced or succumbed to similar attacks in Russia:
Another killing of #Putin critic in #Ukraine – what about investigation of #Sheremet #Nemtsov murders? @Kasparov63 https://t.co/i0qz5e0JMt
— Michael Andersen (@MAjourno) March 24, 2017
#Voronenkov murder similar to #Litvinenko (insider/silovik spilling beans), while #Sheremet more similar to #Politkovskaya (pesky journo). https://t.co/5OcXQ38yEF
— Andrej Novak (@andrejfnovak) March 24, 2017
In additional to its information about Sheremet, “Killing Pavel” is also a masterclass in investigative journalism, showing viewers how reporters deal with sources, possible witnesses, data analysis, and intransigent officials.
This 50-minute documentary investigating the assassination of #journalist Pavel #Sheremet is itself a remarkable piece of journalism. https://t.co/NINcYCrEGx
— Bonnie Britt (@editndesign) May 10, 2017
* OCCRP is supported by grants by the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. State Department, Open Society Foundations, and other organizations. Global Voices does not accept state support, but it does receive funding from the Open Society Foundations.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Why 78 Asylum-Seekers Marched to the US Border, Even Though Their Requests Will Probably Be Denied · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

People fleeing violence in El Salvador sit outside the Enclave Caracol space in Tijuana before the Caravan of Refugees approached the US border on Sunday, May 7, 2017. Credit: Erin Siegal McIntyre/PRI
This story by Erin Siegal McIntyre originally appeared on PRI.org on May 8, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
In the evening of May 7, 2017, over six dozen Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Honduran migrants arrived at Tijuana’s northernmost edge to request asylum, en masse, at California’s San Ysidro Port of Entry.
The youngest was just 3 months old.
Organized by a team of American and Mexican activists from the group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, the Viacrucis de Refugiados, or Caravan of Refugees, left the southern Mexican border city of Tapachula on April 9.
A group of 200 Central American men, women and children then traversed Mexico together via bus, foot, van and by hitching rides aboard the tops of the Mexican cargo train network known as La Bestia.
Arriving in Tijuana the first weekend of May, 78 members of the group marched to the US border on Sunday, May 7.
Jimmy Antonio, 16, of El Progreso, Honduras, had been traveling alone. “The gang killed my brother,” he said, explaining that gang members had beaten him and promised to kill him, too.
His newfound friend, Aron Mendez, 19, fled La Ceiba Atlantida, Honduras, for similar reasons. The two teens became friends after joining up with the Caravan in Tapachula.
“Even though we’re all from different countries, we supported each other and overcame challenges together as a group,” Mendez said.
Yet even though all 78 migrants from the Caravan of Refugees who turned themselves in at the border were taken into US custody, their prospects of actually being able to stay are grim.
A group of 78 Central American migrants made their way to El Chaparral, the pedestrian entrance from Mexico into the San Ysidro Port of Entry to request asylum en masse. Credit:
Erin Siegal McIntyre
Statistics crunched by the University of Syracuse’s Transactional Record Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) show that the majority of asylum applicants are denied.
For fiscal year 2016, the overall denial rate was 57 percent. For Central Americans, it’s even higher. Only around 10 to 23 percent are granted asylum.
That means an estimated minimum of eight out of the 78 asylum-seekers are likely to be able to stay in the United States.
That’s also why some refugees, like Griselda, a transgender woman from Honduras, decided to remain in Tijuana instead of requesting asylum.
“I’m too scared to go into the United States,” she said, explaining that she was terrified to risk deportation if her asylum claim was denied. For her, the chance of being killed upon her return to Honduras seemed certain.
The Caravan’s arrival at the border is timely. US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly recently said he believed that the “vast majority of people” who presented asylum claims were not credible.
A young Central American boy sits while waiting in the line of asylum seekers who turned themselves in at the US border on Sunday, May 7, 2017. Credit: Erin Siegal McIntyre
Human rights groups pushed back, saying many seeking help at the US border were being turned around without having their claims processed at all.
A report published May 3 by the organization Human Rights First documented 125 separate instances of asylum-seekers being turned away instead of having their requests evaluated. Cases were documented at seven ports of entry across California, Texas and Arizona.
Under US law, Customs and Border Protection agents are required to turn asylum-seekers over to specially trained officials from US Citizenship and Immigration Services, who then conduct credible fear interviews to determine whether there may be merit in a refugee’s asylum claim.
The agency has previously said they’re following the rules.
But that’s not always happening, said American attorney Nicole Ramos said. “They’re being told, ‘We’re not taking people like you,’ or ‘There is no more asylum,’” she said. “By refusing to follow that process, the US government is basically forcing people to cross illegally.”

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Activists Say Azerbaijan’s Media Is Spreading Fear and Hate of Queer People · Global Voices
OC Media

Photo by Aziz Karimov. Used on Open Caucasus Media and republished with permission.
The following is a version of a partner post written by Vahid Ali that first appeared on the website OC Media.
When discussing queer topics, Azerbaijan’s media throws the most basic journalistic ethics completely out of the window. Instead of reporting objectively, the media spreads hate and discrimination, and takes up the role of a bastion for the national government's conservative propaganda.
Homosexuality is still a taboo topic in Azerbaijan, and queer people face discrimination in many aspects of life, and in many different fields, including education, healthcare, employment, housing, and the military and police to name a few.
When queer topics are discussed by media, they inevitably gain more attention from the public. Political actors use this to influence the public, and abuse the mass media, which is trusted by the public despite not being free.
Information warfare is a very real concept for besieged queer people living in the country. Political parties try to spread propaganda and disinformation to manipulate the public into viewing minority elements of society as the enemy.
The media is a key tool for spreading disinformation and propaganda. Whether media outlets are under the control of the government or the opposition, or are independent, in most cases in Azerbaijan they justify discrimination against queer people.
The media shapes the narrative about sexuality, it plays an important role in how society understands and accepts marginalised groups, particularly the queer community.
Samad Ismayilzadeh is the founder and one of the editors of Minority, the first queer magazine in the country. Ismayilzadeh is critical of the media; he believes that they play a huge role in determining public opinion about queer people.
Ismayilzadeh told OC Media:
Sometimes journalists forget their power, and mislead people with their unprofessional manners. This can be especially true regarding LGBT issues. When popular news agencies or social media pages share provocative posts about the LGBT community, trying to build the popularity of their portal, most of the time it creates an atmosphere of hate and agony. People start reacting aggressively, bringing some biased thoughts to the table.
When discussing queer issues, Azerbaijan’s media almost always uses homophobic and transphobic language. This includes the headlines they pick and the pictures they present, which have an impact on how readers understand and feel about queer people.
For example, when transgender people are in the news, it is usually related to crimes involving the police.
Priority is given to the perpetrator's testimony in the language of the news when reporting on hate crimes or murders against transgender people.
In most cases, the details of the crime are not covered thoroughly, with coverage instead focusing on discussion of the victim's sexuality or gender identity. The name of the victim on their state ID card prior to gender reassignment is nearly always highlighted.
Hatampasha, who became a woman, was murdered in Baku
The media also blindly spreads hate speech from politicians, ‘psychologists’, members of parliament, and other authority figures, without challenging what they say or offering alternative views. Speeches by state officials are often filled with hate speech, as they containing discriminative, racist, homophobic, or transphobic elements.
Below is an example of how media fashions a deliberately discriminatory narrative:
Gender reassignment, transition from male to female and vise versa, is prohibited by law in Azerbaijan. But, in most cases, private clinics do not pay attention to this law. Despite not being officially allowed, it’s possible to see these so-called “people” who have changed their sex on the social media. It’s interesting, if the law prohibits it, how is Kamil [a male name] becoming Kama [a female name]? The question is about changes of sex. This means that today’s man is tomorrow’s slim-waisted, long-haired women, or today’s elegant woman is tomorrow’s bearded, wide-shouldered man.
Portrayal of the queer people in the media is thus almost exclusively negative, reflecting the intolerance that is present not only in Azerbaijan, but in the Caucasus region as a whole. A more positive portrayal or increased presence of the queer community in the media could serve to increase acceptance and support for the queer community, establish queerness as normal, and provide much needed information on the topic.
According to Ismayilzadeh, there are certain cases where queer people are portrayed in a more normal, even positive light, and are even invited on TV programmes. This depends on their wealth, profession, or even their political views, he explains.
However, more commonly, they face bullying. Ismayilzadeh thinks that queer issues are something people prefer not to even think about. “[People] always see this topic as a problem that should be addressed last, when all other problems have been solved,” he says.
‘Apocalypse today. Ricky Martin and his new boyfriend Jwan Yosef on the red carpet. Brrr’.
Positive representations of queer people in media can have a huge impact on society, and the media have the opportunity and responsibility to shape culture. Through all media channels and genres, queer people could be portrayed and portray themselves as who they are; in the same way that other people, and other communities have done so over time.
Minority tries to do just that, shining a positive light on queer people. Ismayilzadeh thinks that the media should write stories about queer people, like doctors who save lives or activists who fight for human rights. “There are a lot of great people in the LGBT community that people need to know more about,” he says.
There are a few organisations fighting to protect queer rights and present a different view of queer people in Azerbaijan. But they face many challenges. According to Ismayilzadeh, queer rights groups face difficulties in identifying incidents of hate or discrimination. “There's still big taboo about LGBT, and people prefer to hide incidents from their daily life; that's why defending them becomes harder,” he says.
‘Look, who they hide in the clinic. “Mavi” (a slur for homosexuals) hidden in Semashko [a hosital] or doctors’ “Hide-and-seek” game’.

author: OC Media


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Did Tajikistan’s ‘First Parrot’ Flee Its Gilded Cage? · Global Voices
Salam Aleik

A pet African Grey Parrot on a wooden perch in a garden. Photo by Keith Allison. Creative commons.
A princess’s beloved parrot left its cage and flew to its freedom. The distraught princess’s people scoured the city for the escaped parrot and announced a reward for anyone who found it. No trace of the winged creature emerged.
A fairytale set in the middle ages, or just another day in Tajikistan? The morning the story became known — via shares on social media rather than the town crier — many Tajiks felt as if they had woken up in a foreign country.
One social media user, Dilovar Valizoda encapsulated the confusion:
: Аз сахар хезам, хама сухан оиди тути. Кадом тути?
I woke up and saw that everyone talks about a parrot. What parrot?
What parrot indeed? Only the gray and red, African-origin (Psittacus erithacus) parrot called Roma that belonged to the daughter of Tajikistan's officially titled Founder of Peace and National Unity, Leader of the Nation, Emomali Rakmon!
Ozoda Rakhmon is not just the Tajik president’s daughter but his chief of staff who is considered one of main political decision-makers in the country. But despite wielding the kind of powers that Ivanka Trump might only dream of, Ozoda's people were apparently unable to hold onto a parrot that wanted out, offering up an interesting metaphor for an authoritarian country dependent on cash transfers from migrants working abroad.
Orazshoh Poyandashoyev wrote:
Эта сладкая слова СВОБОДА…
That sweet word: FREEDOM.
Up to half of working age males in Tajikistan abandon the impoverished country to seek work in Russia and other countries.
The saga of Roma the parrot, which was not reported by any media outlets inside the country, also gave Tajik internet users cause to highlight the growing number of citizens from the country seeking refuge in Europe.
Fayziniso Vohidova:
Тути давно дар Аврупо ва панохандагии сиеси пурсидааст!))))
The parrot is already in Europe and asking for refugee status.
Others meanwhile hinted at the repressive measures sometimes taken by the country's government towards the relatives of political refugees:
Тутиро тамоми хешу авлодашонро заложникий гирифтанд
All relatives of the parrot have been taken hostage.
A rumoured reward of 1,000 Tajik somonis (around $113) for anyone that found the parrot saw further sarcasm:
Шояд тутии суханчин бошад?) Хеле сирру накшахоро донад
Maybe it was a talking parrot and knew of many secrets and plans?
Бубинед дустони гироми! Арзиши як паранда аз шаҳрванди Тоҷикистон чигуна баланд аст. Барои ҷустуҷуи як тути омода ҳастанд маблағ ҷудо кунанд ва тамоми вазоратҳову корхонаҳо думболи ин кор шаванд. Аммо шаҳрванди Тоҷик дар дохилу хориҷ мемирад касе аз ӯ суроғ намекунад..
Look, friends! A bird is more valuable than a citizen. They are ready to offer a reward for a parrot and mobilize all forces to look for it. But Tajik citizens die inside the country and outside and no one cares.
The only website that reported on the parrot's supposed disappearance in late April was the Prague-based Tajikistan-focussed independent website Akhbor.com that is generally viewed as well-sourced and reliable. Both Akhbor's articles on the matter were later deleted.
Nevertheless, there is rarely smoke without fire, and even if the story of the parrot was in some way fictitious, it seems destined to become legend due to its powerful symbolism.
Alim Sherzamonov, one of the leaders of a non-parliamentary opposition party, the Social Democrats quipped:
Sherzamonov Alim Фирори тутии аввали Точикистон водор ба як андешаам кард. Хар кадар кафас тиллои хам бошад, он кафас аст ва хастанд паррандахое ба мисли мурги хонаги, ки бе кафас хам то дар дег чушиданашон шукронаи сохибашонро мекунанд ва хастанд паррандахое мисли хамин тути, ки озодии кутохмудатро,ки мунчар ба халокаташон мешавад, авлотар аз зиндаги дар хонаи нармтарину гармтарин медонанд.
The escape of the First Parrot has led me to think that even if a cage is golden, it is still a cage. There are birds, like home birds, that even without a cage are always thankful to their owners until they end up in a pan. And there are birds that prefer freedom over a golden cage, even if it is short-term and bound to lead to their deaths.

author: Salam Aleik


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Everybody Is Hailing Billboard-Topping Musician Teddy Afro, Except Ethiopian State Media · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

Teddy Afro live in concert. YouTube video.
Ethiopian pop singer Tewodros Kassahun, better known as Teddy Afro, was all set to be the subject of a highly-promoted interview with Ethiopian state broadcaster EBC, before authorities suddenly pulled the plug.
Teddy Afro’s interview was scheduled to broadcast on Sunday, May 14, with the artist expected to discuss the success of his latest album,'Ethiopia’, which is currently sitting at the top of Billboard’s “World Music Chart”. But Getu Temesegen, a veteran government journalist confirmed on his Facebook page on May 12 that the interview would not be aired.
Ethiopian authorities are regular culprits of political censorship, targeting journalists and artists alike. Teddy's songs are often critical of the Ethiopian state.
Before Temeegesen's Facebook post, the state broadcaster had quietly removed a short video containing a promotional excerpt from the interview with Teddy Afro from its Facebook page.
Just hours later, Dawit Kebede, another pro-government journalist wrote on Twitter that the interview is back on, but the broadcaster has refused to confirm or deny that statement.
At last! EBC reached in a decision to air Teddy Afro's Interview
— Awramba Times (@AwrambaTimes) May 13, 2017
‘Ethiopia’ stormed to number one on Billboard's World Music albums chart following record-breaking sales both internationally and domestically. Since Teddy released the title song on his YouTube Channel on April 16, the song has racked up over three million views.
‘Ethiopia’ is Teddy's fifth album. All his previous albums were bestsellers in Ethiopia but his Billboard achievement is unprecedented for any artist from the country.
Following the success of his album, Teddy Afro gave interviews to different international media including Associated Press (the story was published in several major newspapers) and Voice Of America's Amharic service. He is also scheduled to appear on BBC Africa.
It was perhaps this surge in international interest that put Ethiopian state television under pressure to interview Teddy, despite state-affiliated media broadly ignoring his achievement up until that point.
However, as fans waited in curiosity for the broadcast, the censorship machine did what it does best, and spoiled the party.

author: Endalkachew Chala


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For Refugees in Seattle, Rising Rents Mean the Search for Home Isn’t Over · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Floribert Mubalama came to the US three years ago, after living for eight years in a refugee camp. He now lives in SeaTac, Washington with his family — and two other refugees he’s taken in. Credit: Isabel Vázquez/NextGenRadio
This story by Isabel Vázquez originally appeared on PRI.org on May 8, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
There’s a letter on Yulina Bilombele’s dining room table that she cannot read.
“Defendant failed to pay the rent and has further failed to vacate and surrender the premises.”
Bilombele is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo. She’s 80 years old. She does not speak English. She is too frail to work and she does not have the money to pay rent.
So, she turns to the man many Congolese refugees in Seattle call: Floribert Mubalama.
“They want us to help them,” he says. “They have to go to an appointment. They need a ride. They have to go to their first job.” Or, in this case, they need to read an eviction notice.
Mubalama, 36, has made it his mission to help his fellow Congolese refugees integrate, especially connecting them to basic, affordable housing, which is one of the biggest barriers to starting a new life in the US city of Seattle.
Congolese were the largest group of refugees to arrive to the US last year, according to the State Department data compiled by the Refugee Processing Center, about 16,000 in the past fiscal year. The nearly 300 Congolese people who arrived in the Seattle area in the past five years have found themselves dropped in the middle of a regional housing crisis.
Mubalama still keeps the green book he received during his refugee orientation in his living room. He flips to a page that lays out the timeline for resettlement in the US.
“The period expected and according to this book is two to five years,” he reads. That’s ostensibly how long it will take for refugees to integrate fully into their new lives, with stable employment and housing.
But that’s not reality.
Refugees arriving in the US receive funding from resettlement agencies that covers their rent for 90 days. After that, they are left on their own to meet their housing costs, but Mubalama says it’s not enough time for the Congolese refugees in his community to become self-sufficient.
Mubalama came to the US in 2014 after living in a refugee camp in Malawi for eight years. He met his wife there, got married and started his family.
At first, he was placed with his pregnant wife, two children and his brother in a single-bedroom apartment in Tukwila, about 10 miles south of downtown Seattle. With help from a social worker, Mubalama and his wife managed to break their year-long lease and moved to a three-bedroom apartment in nearby SeaTac, where they now live. This process, he says, is not easy for Congolese refugees.
“Landlords are very hesitant to rent to refugees,” Mubalama says. “They don’t know where you are coming from.”
Other challenges like language, lack of credit history and past trauma all make it difficult for refugees to find and maintain stable homes.
So, Mubalama started the Congolese Integration Network, an organization that connects refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo to resources and people that can help them resettle. It’s an unpaid passion project for him.
“I don’t take it as work,” he says. “It’s paying back. All the time I was living in the refugee camp, I lived out of people’s compassion.”
Just a 10-minute drive from Mubalama’s home is a large apartment complex where many Congolese refugees have found a place to live: the Buena Casa Apartments in Kent.
Mubalama says these apartments have typically been a place that new refugees can afford, a cheaper option than many other Seattle-area apartments. However, on June 1 rent will go up anywhere from $25 to $200 depending on the unit size. It’s an increase that many who are already struggling to make monthly payments will not be able to handle.
Gurmeet Singh is the co-owner of the Buena Casa Apartments. He says raising rent is the only way he can meet higher property tax bills, which increased to $390,000 this year. When he bought the property in 2009, he says his taxes were about $200,000. Rent in the apartment complex will now be $850 for one bedroom and $1,300 for two.
“My parents immigrated to the United States in 1981, so I understand the difficulties they are going through,” Singh says. “If our costs hadn’t increased, we wouldn’t have done this.”
The apartments in Kent are not a unique case.
In the metropolitan area, the cost of rent is rising by 6.7 percent annually, according to a recent Zillow report. In comparison, other regions with fast-rising rents like Los Angeles and Sacramento are seeing increases of at most 4.7 percent annually. Seattle renters will need a larger increase in their income than renters in any other US metropolitan area just to keep up.
For refugees, this poses an added challenge to starting their lives anew — one that the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services will address this month at the King County Refugee Housing Summit on May 24. The Congolese Integration Network is among several refugee organizations that will participate in the discussion.
But for now, Floribert Mubalama is worrying about Yulina Bilombele’s eviction notice.
Yulina Bilombele, 80, gathers her eviction notice and rent receipts for Floribert Mubalama to translate because she doesn’t speak English. Both are refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo living in the Seattle metro area. Credit: Isabel Vázquez/NextGenRadio
Bilombele couldn’t find a stable home when she came to the US two years ago. She stayed with Mubalama for a few days and then found herself in a homeless shelter. Eventually, she moved in with a family at the Buena Casa Apartments, but they left earlier this month. Now alone in the small unit, Bilombele must pay the full rent or face homelessness again.
“My fear is that I don’t have enough strength because of my age,” Mubalama translates for Bilombele. “The money they are asking for, I don’t have have it.”
Mubalama says the struggle to find and maintain basic shelter in the US discourages new refugees who had high hopes for their new life in America.
“When we are resettled, the first thing we expect is a home to stay,” he says. “That is the thing we didn’t get. Our first biggest expectation was not met: it was home.”
This time, there may not be a place for Bilombele at the Mubalama home. The family is already accommodating two other homeless refugees, and does not have space for more.
Isabel Vázquez reported this story while a fellow with NextGenRadio in Seattle. See more reporting from the program.


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Bangladesh: Where Heavy Metal Dies at the Doorstep · Global Voices
Rezwan

The poster of the metal concert. Image courtesy Facebook event page.
Heavy metal fans in Bangladesh were heartbroken as Brazilian death metal bands Krisiun and NervoChaos were not allowed to perform in Bangladesh in their sold out May 9 concert in the capital Dhaka.
The concert titled Metal Morgue was scheduled to be held in the TCB auditorium at Kawran Bazar as a part of the international band's Asia tour and was also set to showcase some local bands. The organizers obtained permission for the event from the Ministry of Cultural Affairs according to the rules and notified the Home Ministry for security clearance. But on the afternoon of May 8 they were informed that the concert would not be taking place for “security reasons”. The police did not divulge the nature of the security concerns.
KRISIUN Show Cancelled In Bangladesh Due To “Security Concerns” https://t.co/2z1j3v04VQ pic.twitter.com/sQxvsJvidq
— BraveWords (@BraveWords666) May 10, 2017
Meanwhile, the Bands were already on the way to Bangladesh from Indonesia via Malaysia, arriving on Tuesday early morning at around at 1:30AM Bangladesh time. Upon arrival, the crew members of the metal bands Krisiun and NervoChaos were not allowed beyond immigration and their passports were confiscated. According to reports they were asked why they had arrived despite having their clearances revoked.
The organizers requested they be placed in a hotel, leaving their equipment in the airport before flying out the next day, but the police were reportedly apprehensive about that arrangement, fearing the groups would perform with borrowed equipment. The standoff lasted approximately 10 hours and they were released following an intervention by the Brazilian embassy.
The band members stuck at the airport. Image via Facebook page of Raptor. Used with permission
Brazilian extreme death metal band Krisiun was formed in 1990 and is known across the world for their fast musical tempo and violent lyrics. Nervochaos was founded in 1996 and have toured across the world with other heavy metal bands.
Krisiun made a statement about the ordeal on their Facebook page:
We had a very unpleasant experience, where we were victims of a great misunderstanding and experienced more than 10 hours of pure prejudice and misinformation.
As soon as we landed at Hazrat Shahjala International Airport in Dhaka at dawn on the May 9, we were approached by security officers while we searched for our luggage. We had our passports withheld, without any explanation, in an extremely conservative country. The event was canceled and the visas we obtained at the embassy of Bangladesh in Brazil (were) totally disregarded.
Mukit Hasan Khan of the Immigration police told the Daily Prothom Alo that the band members came on a tourist visa and did not have the necessary security clearance from the Home Ministry.
In recent years there have been a number of killings by millitants targeting liberals, atheists, foreigners, gays and religious minorities in Bangladesh. The security forces have intensified their anti-terror drive, especially after the July 2016 Dhaka Cafe attack. The country's security situation has since improved.
Some international news websites reported that the band was detained under a “blasphemy law”, however, Bangladesh does not have such laws.
Local fans of the band were distraught upon hearing about the cancellation.
@Krisiun we are really sorry for the troubles you guys had to go through in Bangladesh. It's very disappointing.
— Mahel (@Whoismahel) May 9, 2017
sorry #Krisiun,
sorry #Nervochaos pic.twitter.com/MVZYlgVjzu
— ?∀n!ক? (@exclusive_anik) May 9, 2017
Another fan commented on Facebook:
We are really sorry. Been waiting for months to see you guys live. Sorry! :(
The other losers in the fiasco were local bands also scheduled to perform who missed a major opportunity to highlight their talent on the big stage.
The metal scene that has grown up over the last three decades in Bangladesh has faced a number of obstacles linked to the negative attitudes of conservatives towards the genre.
Krisiun acknowledged his band's fans in a Facebook post:
We are hereby to manifest our big appreciation and respect for the Metalheads in Bangladesh, We know it's not their fault the show got cancelled here today. [..]
We came to Bangladesh to make a concert and unfortunately the authorities decided to cancel, it's not the promoter's fault, it's nobody's fault, it's local authorities decision to shut the show down, the Metalheads are great here in Bangladesh the concert was sold out, We deeply thank all you guys here for the enormous support, We will be back one day! Respect, together we are strong, Metal never dies!
The band's Bangladeshi fans published an apologetic video on YouTube showing their disappointment:
Ironically, at round 11:30AM on Tuesday the Home Ministry issued a ‘no objection’ certificate regarding the concert, on the condition that the bands would not perform any music that might offend religious feelings. However, after the long ordeal at the airport, the band members were in no position to continue with the event, which had been cancelled the day before.
In May last year the Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie was also scheduled to perform in Dhaka. The event was also cancelled a few hours before the opening, with authorities citing “security concerns.”
Eluveitie posted this message on YouTube:
Some metal fans have complained of apparent discrimination towards metal culture by the authorities, as artists from other genres, notably Indian pop stars have been allowed to perform in Bangladesh without problems.
A local band member Dio Haque wrote on Facebook:
Brazilian metal band comes to Dhaka, show gets cancelled due to ‘security reasons’ and their passport gets seized, and a whole lot of fans get disappointed. No such problems when our neighbours come to entertain us. Double standard much?
The Brazilian band members left for Japan on Wednesday to continue their Asian Tour.

author: Rezwan


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A Global Call for Justice Unites Artists in Guatemala · Global Voices
Renata Avila

Indira Jarisa Pelicó Orellana, one of the victims of the “Hogar Seguro” massacre, was 17 years old when she died. Portrait by Mexican artist Claudia Navarro. Used with permission.
International Women's Day in March 2017 became a tragic one for Guatemala after 41 girls burned to death in a blaze at a state-run home for children on the outskirts of Guatemala City. After being locked in their dormitories for trying to escape abusive treatment, some of girls allegedly started a fire to force the guards to open the doors, but the guards refused.
Many of the crimes that are being investigated inside the shelter include torture and other cruel punishments. The fact remains that these young women were underage girls in the custody of the state. Two months after what many Guatemalans have dubbed the Hogar Seguro (Safe Home) massacre, authorities seem to be acting slowly and in secrecy to bring accountability and reparations to both the survivors and the families of the victims.
This has been the point of departure for certain members of civil society in Guatemala, who launched a global campaign on May 15 using the hashtag #NosDuelen56 (“We Feel the Pain of 56 [Girls]”). Participants are sharing 56 portraits, one of each of the girls killed or injured in the fire, that were made by artists from all over the world to demand that Guatemala's authorities act.
11. Yohana Desiré Cuy Urízar, tenía 15 años cuando ocurrió masacre Hogar Seguro, Ilustración: Baku Estrada-Guatemala #NosDuelen56 pic.twitter.com/Q7Rz5ZFdWQ
— PrensaComunitaria (@PrensaComunitar) May 15, 2017
Image: High in my heart your name burns.
Tweet: Yohana Desiré Cuy Urízar was 15 when the Hogar Seguro massacre took place. Illustration by Baku Estrada – Guatemala #NosDuelen56
#NosDuelen56 más de 68 medios alternativos digitales, radiales y televisivos se han sumado a la acción global por las niñas #Guatemala pic.twitter.com/lnwyKBigmF
— PrensaComunitaria (@PrensaComunitar) May 15, 2017
Image: #NosDuelen56: Global action for the girls
Tweet: More than 68 alternative digital, radio and TV outlets have joined the global action for the girls.
A #NosDuelen56 se sumaron 58 artistas de 6 países; hicieron ilustraciones de los rostros de las niñas de Guatemala https://t.co/bmsXzVgAXX pic.twitter.com/DgNaZl6do6
— La Kaja (@KajaNegra) May 15, 2017
56 artists from 6 countries joined the [global action] #NosDuelen56. They illustrated the faces of the girls of Guatemala.
All portraits can be found and shared from Flickr, Instagram and Facebook. Several organisations are joining the call to action, lead by Guatemalan news agency Prensa Comunitaria (“Community Press”) and distributed across 50 media outlets and thousands of social media accounts at once. Anyone is free to share the pictures, print them or bring them to demonstrations demanding justice. In their space in Medium, Prensa Comunitaria explained:
#NosDuelen56 es un grito por la justicia desde el arte, el periodismo, el medioactivismo y los feminismos. Es un ejercicio de memoria colectiva y de dignificación por las 56 niñas que fueron encerradas y quemadas en un hogar estatal en Guatemala el pasado 8 de marzo del presente año. De ellas, 41 murieron como resultado de este crimen femicida y 15 están con heridas de gravedad.
#NosDuelen56 is a cry for justice through art, journalism, online activism and feminism. It's an exercise in collective memory for the dignity of the 56 girls who were locked up and burned in a state-run home in Guatemala on March 8 this year [2017]. Of these girls, 41 died as a result of this femicide and 15 are badly hurt.
Guatemala has an alarming rate of femicides and violence against women — 6,000 women have been victims of torture, mutilation or murder since 2000. According to statistics presented by advocacy group Women for Justice, Education and Awareness, an average of one to two women are murdered daily.

author: Renata Avila


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As WHO Director-General Election Nears, Ethiopia’s Candidate Is Accused of Cholera Cover-Ups · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

A Unicef-supported pump in Ethiopia. © UNICEF Ethiopia/2016/Ayene. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
In January 2017, when Ethiopia’s candidate for director-general of World Health Organization, Tedros Adahanom, stormed to the top of the final three candidates — beating out six other candidates — it was a high time for Ethiopia’s government.
Although Adahanom had faced ferocious opposition from his fellow citizens, he has largely made it through unscathed, giving a propaganda victory for Ethiopian state media. With his well-funded campaign, Adahanom has traveled to more than 120 countries, and his supporters felt confident that his election is all but a matter of time.
Then on May 13, the New York Times ran a story reporting that a “prominent global health expert” had accused Adahanom of concealing three cholera epidemics from 2008 to 2011 during his tenure as Ethiopia’s health minister. Lawrence O. Gostin made the allegations; he is an informal adviser to one of Adahanom's opponents in the director-general race, the UK's David Nabarro, but Nabarro told the New York Times that he had not instructed Gostin to make the accusations on his behalf.
Finally! The @NYTimes calls out @WHO DG candidate @DrTedros for covering up cholera epidemic using the euphemism of Acute Water Diarrhea. https://t.co/ZdLSNAFqbH
— Mohammed Ademo (@OPride) May 14, 2017
Abebe Gellaw, a prominent Ethiopian journalist in the diaspora, wrote on Facebook that it was only the beginning:
New York Times has a hard-hitting article on Tedros Adhanom. Tedros says it is a “smear campaign”. But the revelation is just the tip of the iceberg. A lot more will come out in the next few days…
A screenshot of the New York Times article on Tedros Adahanom. Click the image to read the story on nytimes.com
The explosive article made Adahanom and his supporters defensive while it created a sense of vindication for his opponents. Adahanom has denied the allegations. A former Reuters journalist who wrote Ethiopia's cholera outbreak in 2009, however, responded on Twitter that the accusations as detailed in the New York Times story was consistent with what he had seen.
In 2009, when Tedros was health minister, I obtained minutes of an NGO/UN meeting, in which a cholera outbreak was acknowledged.
— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) 14 de mayo de 2017
NGOs, UN and government refused to comment. And UN officials pressured me not to run story. Full story here: https://t.co/Ixtu373nUs
— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) 14 de mayo de 2017
At the time, UN officials regularly complained in private that lack of acknowledgement from govt stopped them getting more aid in.
— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) 14 de mayo de 2017
In responding to the allegations, Adahanom accused Nabarro's camp of engaging in smear campaign with imperialistic intentions. Pro-government groups took this line of accusation even further, claiming Nabarro is working with Ethiopian opposition groups that are labeled as “terrorists.”
Ethiopia's semi-official news outlet accuses the current special advisor to the UN Secretary General, Dr. David Navarro with terrorism.
https://t.co/ksfHEyKmXI
— Zelalem Kibret (@zelalemkibret) May 14, 2017
Since April 2014, a popular protest movement in Ethiopia has challenged the government, which in turn has responded brutally. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 800 people have died, and thousands of political opponents and hundreds of dissidents have been accused of terrorism. Since October 2016, authorities have imposed some of the world’s toughest censorship laws after it declared a state of emergency.
Now, the tactic of calling opponents “terrorists” has spilled over Ethiopia’s borders and might create blowback for Adahanom as his record is examined critically by international media.
The health ministers of WHO member states will vote for the new director-general on May 23, 2017.


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Dresden Musicians Take Reagan’s Advice for Gorbachev to the U.S.-Mexican Border · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

Public domain photograph from Pixabay.
To protest against the border wall that divides the United States and Mexico (the same one Donald Trump has vowed to expand), Germany's Dresden Symphonic Orchestra will stage a concert with musicians from both the U.S. and Mexico on June 3, 2017, at Friendship Park, on the border between Tijuana and San Diego.
Friendship Park is a popular weekend destination for hundreds of families in Mexico and the U.S., where relatives reunite if only for a few brief moments, speaking through a tall fence.
The event has been named “Tear Down This Wall” — a reference to Ronald Reagan's June 1987 speech in West Berlin, addressed to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Organizers say they hope the concert will demonstrate how these two countries are united, despite the division of walls and borders.
30 years after Ronald Reagan’s famous demand ‘Mr Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!’, the Dresdner Sinfoniker will not only protest against President Trump’s so-called ‘beautiful wall’ but also against European isolation and, most importantly, against the walls in people’s minds.
Organizers raised funds for the event on Kickstarter, where they describe the concert as a bridge-builder:
Together, we will demonstrate that music knows no boundaries and art can help to build bridges across all barriers.
Organizers also cite their unique history as Germans:
Being from former East Germany we have witnessed the impact of isolation and political walls. It is a bad idea!
Together we will raise our voices like the citizens of East Germany did during their peaceful revolution.
Earlier this month, the Dresden Symphonic Orchestra reached fundraising goal:
UPDATE: The @DresdenSymphony has reached its fundraising goal & will perform a protest concert on both sides of the US-Mexico border pic.twitter.com/xH1U7GeZEx
— dwnews (@dwnews) May 5, 2017
In addition to the concert at Friendship Park, the symphony's director, Markus Rindt, has also invited artists and musicians from all over the world to stage their own artistic performances at various points along the border between Mexico and the U.S., which stretches more than 3,100 kilometers (almost 2,000 miles).
Rindt is also soliciting photos and videos from those who support his group's actions but can't physically attend the concert in June, and he encourages Internet users to share their support using the hashtag #teardownthiswall.
Speaking to Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui, Rindt said his group's campaign is tied to the migrant crisis in Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as the rise in isolationism and nationalism on a global scale.
The La Jornada newspaper added:
Se hará el estreno mundial de una pieza y se estima que intervendrán coros infantiles y de adultos, bandas de rock, pop y jazz que interpretarán al unísono música de Frank Zappa, Carlos Santana, Pink Floyd y Tijuana No.
Este maratón será transmitido en vivo vía streaming y Rindt adelantó la alta probabilidad de que el acto sea reproducido ese día a lo largo de las ciudades fronterizas entre México y Estados Unidos, como Juárez, Mexicali y El Paso.
It will be a world premiere of a piece in which child and adult choirs, rock, pop and jazz bands are all expected to come together in unison in their interpretation of music from Frank Zappa, Carlos Santana, Pink Floyd, and Tijuana No.
The marathon piece will be livestreamed and Rindt welcomes the likelihood of the demonstration being reproduced throughout the day in other U.S.-Mexico border towns, such as Juarez, Mexicalo, and El Paso.
#Teardownthiswall is just one of several current efforts by the Dresden Symphonic Orchestra, whose work has blended socio-political issues and cultural themes for the last decade. In many ways, the group's June concert resembles “The Wall” by documentary photographer Griselda San Martin, who wanted to show that a world without metal fences and military detainees is more promising than one driven by fear and hate.

author: Elizabeth Rivera


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Three Decades and Several Films Later, a Creative Translation of ‘Alien’ Endures in the Balkans · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Banner for the upcoming “Alien” film in Macedonian, reading “The Eighth Passenger: Covenant. In cinemas starting May 18. Tickets on sale.”
The announcement that another installment of the “Alien” franchise will soon hit theaters has reignited a longstanding linguistic debate among science fiction and movie fans in Western Balkans.
When the first movie in the series appeared in 1979, rather than using a word that means “stranger” or “extraterrestrial” in the local languages, the distributors in Yugoslavia, Hungary and Poland translated the title as “The Eighth Passenger,” referring to the fact that the titular alien was a stowaway on the spaceship populated by seven crew members.
Scan of the original 1979 Yugoslav movie poster containing both the Serb-Croatian translation and the original English title, with the remark “movie of the year.” Author anonymous.
So “Alien” became “Osmi putnik” in Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian, “Osmi potnik” in Slovenian, and “Osmiot patnik” in Macedonian.
This wasn't true in all the countries of the region, however. Transliteration or local variations of the word “alien” were used in Albanian, Bulgarian, Czech, Slovak and all languages of the former USSR.
And the Polish title, “Obcy – ósmy pasażer Nostromo,” used a combination of both approaches, in addition to adding the name of the spaceship at the end, resulting in the rather lengthy “Alien – The Eighth Passenger of Nostromo.” The Hungarian title, “A nyolcadik utas: a Halál,” is also a kind of spoiler, meaning “The Eighth Passenger: Death.”
Across the former Yugoslavia, “The Eighth Passenger” stuck and was used in all the sequels that followed over the next 30 years, including the upcoming “Alien: Covenant.”
Periodically, people from the region have returned to the controversy of the translation, either considering it a very creative interpretation or dismissing it as improper or obsolete.
This is reflected in the definition found at Vukajlija, an online dictionary of Serbian slang. The entry for “Osmi putnik” contains both praise and the question of “how come they didn't count the cat?” (In addition to the seven crew members, there was also a cat on board the spaceship, which apparently wasn't included in the count if the alien was the “eighth passenger.”)
U moru losih prevoda i interpretacija naziva stranih filmova na nas jezik, Osmi Putnik je retko dobar naziv filma. #Alien
— Djordje Petrovic (@BarbaDjole) December 26, 2016
In the sea of bad translations and interpretations of the titles of foreign films to Serbian, The Eighth Passenger is a rare case of good movie title. #Alien
Opet me ljute i kažu za #Alien da je “Osmi putnik” – alo, bilo ih je 6 humanoida, android, mačak i onda stvor. pic.twitter.com/13qUCs4WgV
— Brus Haltereggo (@dakishoz) May 11, 2017
Again, they make me angry when they say that the #Alien was the “eighth passenger” – Hello! There were 6 humanoids, one android, the cat, and then the alien.
Then there's Alien or Osmi Putnik which literally translates to “The Eighth Passenger”. What was the sequel translated as? More Passengers?
— Milos Markicevic (@mmarkicevic) May 10, 2017
Fans in Macedonia have shared their mixed feelings about the title's translation:
Многу се кринџам шо Alien го пишуваат Осмиот Патник по влезниците за у кино, ама М Н О Г У
— Гаровски™ (@Garowski17) May 11, 2017
I cringe a lot when they write the Eighth Passenger instead of Alien on the cinema tickets. A lot!
I don't care what anyone else thinks, Осмиот патник е генијално име за филмот, 50 пати боље од оргиналното. ❤
— Хаклбери Фина (@katiestrummer) May 9, 2017
I don't care what anyone else thinks, the Eighth Passenger is a genius title for the film, 50 times better than the original.
The film had an influence on Yugoslav pop culture beyond the sphere of science fiction. “Osmi putnik” was the name of one of the top heavy metal bands of the former federation, founded in 1985 in Split, Croatia. The band's popularity might had been a factor in the survival and the brand recognition of the translation. One of their best-known songs is “Glasno, glasnije” (Make it loud! Make it louder!).
Even political debates use references to the movie. One Macedonian Twitter user quoted law professor and former politician Ljubomir Frčkoski who used “The Eighth Passenger” in a derogatory manner when discussing the destructive role of the country's outgoing ruling party in the period right after the December 2016 elections:
“Да го ставиш ВМРО у Влада, е ко да го имаш Осмиот патник на бродот. Ко да имаш Alien на бродот” – Фрчко.
— Trakinardi (@kapetan_taki) December 27, 2016
“To include VMRO in the government would be as if having the Eighth Passenger on your ship. As if having an alien on your ship” – Frchko.


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Ukraine Sanctions VKontakte, Other Russian Social Media Websites · Global Voices
Isaac Webb

Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed an order instructing the country's Internet providers to block several major Russian social media websites, according to a decree published on the Presidential Administration's website.
The far-ranging National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) decree, “On the Use of Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions),” is dated to April 28, 2017 and targets a host of Russian companies and individuals, including the country's largest airline, Aeroflot.
The social media websites VKontakte, Odnoklasniki, all resources controlled by the holding company Mail.Ru, and the popular search engine Yandex and its subsidiary services, are among the sites that will be blocked.  VKontakte is a Facebook-like social media website that had 27 million Ukrainian users in 2014; Odnoklasniki, a website that connects former classmates and is popular among older generations, had 11 million users in Ukraine in 2014.
Russian officials, including those from the ruling United Russia party, as well as representatives of the separatist Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics in eastern Ukraine, are among the individuals sanctioned.
Total audience of social network sites in Ukraine (2014): VKontakte 27 million, Odnoklassniki 11 million, Facebook 3.2 million, Twitter 430,000. Courtesy of Yandex.
The newly-sanctioned entities join a list of more than 450 Russian companies and 1,200 individuals that have been targeted by the Ukrainian government since the Russian government annexed Crimea and began supporting separatists in Ukraine's eastern regions in 2014.
None of the websites controlled by the companies added to the sanctions list had been blocked by Tuesday afternoon.
A spokesperson for the Presidential Administration confirmed that Poroshenko had signed the decree and said he expected the NSDC to comment soon.
Several Russian media outlets have also been added to the sanctions regime, including the television stations TV Center, NTV Plus, TNT, Zvezda, and RBK. The cybersecurity company Kaspersky Labs, which U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating for its connection to the Russian government, has also been sanctioned.
Evgeny Revenko, an MP in Russia's State Duma condemned the decision, saying “Blocking [sites on] the Internet is stupid and irrational. People will get around it one way or another.”

author: Isaac Webb


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Why Is China Home to Half of the Computers Infected With WannaCry Ransomware? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

China's public security network inflected by Wanna Cry ransomware. Weibo photo via Letscorp
China is one of the countries that has been hit hardest by the ransomware program known as “WannaCry” launched on 12 May, which infected over 230,000 computers in 99 countries in just one day.
China's National Computer Network Emergency Response Center has confirmed that by 14 May, half of the infected IPs were located in China. The attacks have affected about 30,000 institutions, including universities, immigration checkpoints and oil stations.
The ransomware, which is believed to exploit the “Eternal Blue” loophole developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA), attacks computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems and locks users out of their own computers by encrypting their files. It demands that they pay USD $300 in Bitcoin in exchange for de-encryption. Once connected to the Internet through port 445 (a port for document sharing protocols), all computers running a Windows operating system would be subjected to attack if they had not downloaded the security update patches issued in March 2017.
The ransomware was briefly contained with the discovery of a “kill switch” by a British researcher, but on May 14 a new version was released.
Chinese computer users may be more vulnerable to the attack as many commonly use unlicensed (i.e. pirated) or outdated versions of Windows OS and thus do not receive security updates.
To make matters worse, many computer users were unaware of the coming of the attack as very few local media outlets reported about the security threats.
Though a majority of Internet service providers in China have blocked port 445, which is mainly used for Windows operating system file-sharing, to avoid potential massive attack targeting Microsoft Windows, many public service institutions, including universities, public security offices and oil stations have not blocked the port.
University campuses have been among the worst affected. Universities all over the country, including Qinghua, Beida, Shanghai Jiaotong and Shandong university have been infected. A large number of student theses and research projects have been (and remain) encrypted by the ransomware. Domestic media outlets reported that:
截至到5月13日20点，国内有29372家机构组织的数十万台机器感染，其中有教育科研机构4341家中招…
By 20:00 on 13 of May, hundreds of thousands computers from 29,372 institutions have been attacked by the ransomware. 4341 education related institutions have infected cases…
State media outlet Xinhua report quoted the National Computer Network Emergency Response Center saying that:
截至14日10时30分，国家互联网应急中心已监测到约242.3万个IP地址遭受“永恒之蓝”漏洞攻击；被该勒索软件感染的IP地址数量近3.5万个，其中中国境内IP约1.8万个。
By 10:30 on 14 of May, the National Computer Network Emergency Response Center had detected 2,423,000 IPs under the attack as a result of Eternal Blue Exploit; the number of IPs inflected by the ransomware is more than 35,000 [worldwide] and within China, about 18,000 IPs have been infected.
In addition to the education sector, a number of immigration checkpoints were paralyzed because the public security network was infected.
On social media, public security officials in Xiangshui City, Jiangsu Province reported that its immigration system was under attack and they had to close the immigration checkpoint service. Netizens reported that Shanghai city and Beijing’s Chaoyang immigration offices were also paralyzed because of the ransomware attack.
At midnight on 13 May, a large number of PetroChina’s auto oil-fill machines were paralyzed and the system not restored until 12pm on 14 of May.
In the face of the new version of the ransomware “WannaCry2.0”, which cannot be stopped by the so-called “kill switch”, Chinese authorities have issued a warning via major web portals, media outlets and university networks in an effort to contain the spread of the ransomware.
Thus far, there has been little evaluation of why China has been one of the most vulnerable countries in this ransomware attack. Official media outlets suggested that the spread of the ransomware was caused by university students using the school network to play online games. But this does not explain why public security and oil service networks have also been infected.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Among First Nations Youth, Hip-Hop Is a Tool for Self-Expression and Cultural Preservation · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Recording session for the “Home to Me” song – Grassy Narrows First Nation. Photo used with permission from N'we Jinan.
Young people from First Nations communities across Canada are reflecting on issues that are important to them through hip-hop, thanks to a series of travelling workshops.
As part of the N’we Jinan tour, workshops leaders have been taking mobile music studios directly to schools and youth centers to teach songwriting, recording, audio and video production, and live performance to youth groups since 2014.
The original workshops were led by David Hodges, a Montreal-based educator, who worked with 10 Cree communities in Northern Quebec, and later started to collaborate with the Cree hip-hop group The NorthStars. The workshop model starts off with conversations with the young attendees to explore topics such as “cultural identity, language, struggle, love, self-acceptance,” or whatever else is on their mind. They then use these issues as inspiration for songs and videos, with the youth in starring roles. Due to the workshops’ popularity, the team also has been working with other First Nations communities in British Columbia, and was invited to organize a similar workshop with the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska in the United States.
For example, this video from the ‘Na Aksa Gyilak'yoo School in Kitsumkalum First Nation, British Columbia, tells the story of the Highway 16 or the “Highway of Tears,” a stretch of road in Western Canada where almost two dozen young women, mostly indigenous, have disappeared or have been murdered. The cases mostly remain unsolved.
This next video from Nemaska Cree First Nation uses a video game theme to communicate the importance of maintaining traditional customs and practices despite globalization’s influences.
And while there are varying degrees of First Nations language fluency among the youth that participate, many of the song titles are in the native language. In this song recorded in Whapmagoostui Cree First Nation, the song's chorus is sung in the Cree language. The young people involved received some help from Gary Jolly from the Northstars hip-hop group, who lent them a verse in Eastern James Bay Cree.
On the N'we Jinan Facebook Page, a transcription of the verse was provided, along with the English-language translation:
Metch agah endun ehpsgatikyaan aydaytiman
Sook maak engah gwitchtan, ewt stcheet jeh bimtayyaan
Enjeesh jigga behtoonoh, eh yashkawayyat
mwetch endeh eh whinchinyat ay snacksiyat ewsneejuuyat,
muk indabwehten bayg a jeeshagow jeh psigoodowt
Mwee naawee waptan endwee ayshaa bimatchewdow
Jenndowchjehdow, Neeganshgohdowt ewshneejew gehweeyow
jeh dootkoh dan guysh eechimgoodot Chemindoo
Sometimes I feel like no ever cares about me,
but I’m still going to try to continue to walk my days on earth
this is the day you’ll hear our scream,
cause we lost our way in life as youth
but I believe that one day we will rise
I don’t want to see them live a bad life
so they can grow and lead our youth as well
so they can do as the creator destined them to
Within the same comments section, reader and Cree-language advocate Kevin Brousseau also made a contribution of the transcription of the verse using the syllabics writing system (also published on his blog and republished with permission):
ᒬᐦᒡ ᐁᑳ ᒥᑐᓐ ᐁ ᐱᓯᔅᑳᑎᑲᐎᔮᓐ ᐁ ᐃᑌᔨᐦᑕᒫᓐ
ᓲᐦᒃ ᒫᒃ ᓂᑲ ᑯᒋᐦᑖᓐ ᐆᑕᐦ ᐊᔅᒌᐦᒡ ᒉ ᐱᒧᐦᑌᔮᓐ
ᐊᓄᐦᒌᔥ ᒋᑲ ᐯᐦᑕᐎᓈᐙᐤ ᐁ ᐊᔮᔑᐦᑴᔮᐦᒡ
ᒬᐦᒡ ᐊᓐᑌ ᐁ ᐗᓂᔑᓂᔮᐦᒡ ᑖᓐ ᐁᔑᓈᑯᓯᔮᐦᒡ ᐁ ᐅᔥᒋᓃᒌᐎᔮᐦᒡ
ᒥᒄ ᓂᑖᐺᐦᑌᓐ ᐯᔭᑯ ᒌᔑᑳᐤ ᒉ ᐸᓯᑰᑣᐤ
ᒨᔾ ᓂᐐ ᐙᐸᐦᑌᓐ ᓇᑕᐐᔾ ᐁ ᐃᔑ ᐱᒫᑎᓰᑣᐤ
ᒉ ᓂᐦᑖᐎᒋᑣᐤ ᐁ ᓃᑳᓂᔥᑲᐙᑣᐤ ᐅᔥᒋᓃᒋᐤᐦ ᑲᔦ ᐐᔭᐙᐤ
ᒉ ᑑᑕᐦᒀᐤ ᑖᓐ ᑳ ᐃᑕᔓᒥᑯᑣ ᒋᔐᒪᓂᑑᐦ
It was difficult to choose just three videos to feature that showcase the creativity of these First Nations communities. All of the songs from the project can be found on the N'we Jinan YouTube channel. Five compilation CDs from the various workshops have also been released.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Beirut Activists Launch Heritage Watch Day to Defend Threatened Historical Sites · Global Voices
Christophe Maroun

Section of the poster being used for the Heritage Watch Day. Full photo.
In the years following the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war, Beirut witnessed a privatization and development frenzy that altered the shape of the city, from its coast to the hills surrounding the peninsula.
The period, known as the ‘reconstruction era’ and often referring to the 1990s but which continues to this day, has seen many of Beirut’s historical landmarks threatened with destruction to make place for ‘redevelopment’.
Academics have called this an of act of ‘spatial erasure’, arguing that “the spatial erasure initiated by war destruction is consolidated during postwar reconstruction”, in the words of Marwan Ghadour and Mona Fawaz. Bruno Marot and Serge Yazigi even went further and argued that “the rise of market-led urbanism, a lack of proper urban planning and the far-reaching sectarian polarisation” could sow “the seeds for future conflict”.
In response, activists in Lebanon are organizing a Heritage Watch Day to bring international attention to a number of threatened historical sites as well as encourage locals to actively defend them. This time, two sites will be the focus: the Hneine Palace and the Peninsula of Dalieh.
The Hneine Palace is one of the most remarkable buildings in Zokak el-Blat, once a bourgeois garden district outside the old city walls of Beirut. After the outbreak of civil war in 1975, the ground floor became home to displaced families, who used makeshift walls to subdivide the large spaces.
By 1990, these last occupants had been evicted and the palace now lies empty and decaying. The building has multiple owners, without clear agreement about its future, while the pace of real estate development in the area has been intensifying.
As for the Peninsula of Dalieh, it is an important landmark on the city’s coastal promenade with rich social and cultural value. The open rocky area along the seashore has been used for hundreds of years by working-class families for daily recreational activities like swimming and religious festivals, as well as farming and fishing.
There has been a long tradition of public access to the Beirut shoreline, beginning under Ottoman rule (16th century to 1918) and continuing through the French mandate (1920-1943) with laws prohibiting development on the coast.
But since the 1960s, a series of legal changes have removed most of the protection for the coastline, permitting almost unchecked development.
This opportunity has been seized by major real estate investors, who have managed to gain ownership of almost the entire site. The current owners now propose to build a private beach resort, and the initial phases of this work have included demolishing fishing shelters and fencing off the site to prevent public access.
The Heritage Watch Day is being organized by two groups.
The Save Beirut Heritage group, a volunteer-led NGO that works for the collective surveillance of heritage buildings and acts as a whistle-blower whenever an illegal demolition is suspected, applied to get the Hneine Palace on the World Monuments Fund’s (WMF) Watch List. The WMF is an international private nonprofit organization “founded in 1965 by individuals concerned about the accelerating destruction of important artistic treasures throughout the world.”
And the Civil Campaign to Protect the Dalieh of Raouche, a coalition of individuals and non-governmental organizations who share a strong commitment to the preservation of Beirut’s shared spaces, ecological and cultural diversity, followed with the Peninsula of Dalieh.
Image via Beirut Report. Source.
The Heritage Watch Day, which will actually take place over a number of days between May 18 and May 21, will include talks and public discussions, site-specific artistic interventions, exhibitions, school workshops and site visits, concerts, food markets and street fairs.
The program aims to recognize citizens and city users as active partners in the battle to save the city’s heritage and to enable them to voice their concerns about how market-led developments and laisser-faire governance is changing the character and identity of Beirut.
Image via Beirut Report. Source.
Both sites were put on the list along with 48 other endangered sites worldwide. The hope is that this will bring attention to other heritage sites being threatened.
Places like the Red House in Beirut's Hamra area, which reportedly dates to the 18th century, La Maison Rose, or the Rose House, one of Beirut's oldest mansions dating to the 19th century, Ramlet El Bayda, Beirut's last public beach, the Laziza Brewery, also known as La Grande Brasserie du Levant, one of Lebanon’s first major factories and reportedly the oldest brewery in the Middle East, Horsh Beirut, the city's largest green space, and the ancient ruins found in the so-called Beirut Digital District in the center of the capital are some examples of the city’s disregard of its cultural assets in favor of massive urbanization and real estate development.
As Florence Massena explained, they are “symbols of the lack of urban planning in the Lebanese capital, where heritage succumbs to money”.
The Red House was removed from “the list of protected buildings” in February 2017, just seven months after being put on the list. La Maison Rose is also facing an uncertain future after a British artist managed to briefly bring it back to the media spotlight. It was opened to the public at the end of 2016 for a couple of months. As for the Laziz Brewery, its demolition started in March of 2017 to “make way for a luxury apartment complex”.
Meanwhile, Horsh Beirut is being threatened today “by the ungoing construction of a field hospital inside the park” despite being classified as a natural site since 1940. The park originally covered 1.25 million sqm of Beirut but is now reduced to a triangle of 330,000 sqm. It was first opened to the public in September of 2015 after a 20-year closure.
As for the ancient ruins, they were only recently uncovered and seem to date to the Roman period. Habib Battah from the well-known ‘Beirut Report’ blog managed to get a glimpse of them and was subsequently physically assaulted by developers and verbally threatened by a high-ranking government official for publishing pictures of the ruins.
For the full list of programs planned for Heritage Watch Day, click here.

author: Christophe Maroun


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To Take a Stand for Love, Beirut Pride Had to Overcome Hate · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

Bracelets distributed during Beirut Pride. Photo used with permission.
Promoting self-affirmation and dignity and opposing hate speech and violence, Beirut Pride is taking over Lebanon's capital.
A number of events have been planned between May 14 and May 23, 2017. From a fashion exhibition to film screenings, passing by talks, workshops and gatherings, the idea is to present “a positive stance against hate and discrimination in general, and those against gender and sexual diversity in particular.” The full list can be found here and the associated hashtag is #BeirutPride.
Although there have been smaller events in the past, 2017 is seen as the first organized Beirut Pride.
The initiative had a rough start. The first event, organized by the Proud Lebanon group, was supposed to take place on Sunday, May 14 in Beirut's Monroe Hotel on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, which is usually observed on May 17.
The hotel, however, was pressured by a group of Muslim scholars to cancel the event. The scholars, members of the League of Muslim Scholars (Ulemas) in Lebanon (هيئة علماء المسلمين في لبنان), released a number of statements on their Facebook page threatening to intervene with protests if the event were to take place.
Writing for the French-language daily L'Orient-le-jour, Anne-Marie El-Hage explained what happened next:
Victime d'une campagne orchestrée de pressions, d'intimidations, voire de menaces proférées par un nombre d'instances musulmanes du pays, et pas seulement extrémistes, l'association s'est vu signifier par le service de sécurité de l'hôtel qu'elle était persona non grata.
The victim of an organized campaign of pressure, intimidations and even threats by a number of Muslim authorities in the country, and not just extremists, the group was told by the security services of the hotel that it was persona non grata.
The statements in question, published on the Ulemas’ Facebook page, cite the all-too-common reasons opposing the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minorities (LGBTQ+). In one status, they urge the government to “put an immediate stop to this situation that has gone too far which threatens social security, conduct, values and public health and the structure of Lebanese families”.
Although Lebanon's is often seen as a relative safe haven for LGBTQ+ in the Arab World, homophobia and transphobia remain widespread and LGBTQ+ people continue to face legal discrimination.
This is largely due to Article 534 of the law which states that ‘any sexual intercourse contrary to the order of nature is punished by imprisonment for up to one year’.
This is not to mean that progress has not occurred. Article 534 has faced legal challenges and in 2013 Lebanon's Psychiatric Society made it the first Arab country to denounce the belief that homosexuality is a mental disorder.
Speaking to Global Voices, Khaled Merheb, Proud Lebanon's lawyer, said that the government was asked by Proud Lebanon why it did not offer protection against these threats given that the group has been legally registered since 2014 (and should thus protect NGOs facing threats), but the government offered no explanation.
They said nothing about Beirut Pride in general but said that any event needs a prior permit from the general security and that the NGO should be registered with the Ministry of Interior. They said this while knowing that such events don't need a permit and that Proud [Lebanon] has been legally registered since 2014
Opposition to the event didn't just come from Muslim groups. The author of this piece also saw a WhatsApp message being distributed by members of a Christian Orthodox group in which members were asked to “pray against the threat of homosexuality”.
The message further said that “homosexuality is now recognized in most Western countries and it is now being promoted in Lebanon” followed by an invitation to a conference by a certain “doctor” who will present his view as well as that of the Church.
Consequently, the event did not take place.
But despite the bump on the road, the rest of Beirut Pride is still taking place.
It is motivated by a fundamental principle, that of “promoting self-affirmation and dignity” and opposing “hate speech and violence, especially those based on gender and sexual diversity” while advocating “non-aggression and an unbiased approach to preconceived ideas through social awareness initiatives”, as per the Beirut Pride Statement.
As part of the Beirut Pride events, the Cliffhangers group, a Beirut-based storytelling community, organized a story night on the night of May 15 under the theme “LGBTQ+ and allies and fluidity in all its forms”.
It was the “usual format”, Dima Matta, the group's founder, tells Global Voices, “a line up and then open mic”. Among the participants were Hamed Sinno, Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila‘s frontman; Laure Makarem, a feminist activist involved with the Feminist Network; Sinine Nakhle, a psychology instructor at the American University of Beirut; Lary BS, a Beirut-based costume designer, fashion stylist and consultant; and Nour Hajjar, a Lebanese stand-up comedian.
It was then followed with an open mic session during which several participants took to the stage to share their personal stories.
Photo from the Cliffhangers night. Used with permission.
On May 16, the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality (AFE), an NGO striving to “have societies where sexuality, gender and bodily rights are promoted, recognized and respected”, hosted an open house which included presentations on “How to Be Safe Online” and “Lebanese Stances In Regard to Sexual and Gender Identities“.
They also released a video on their Facebook page narrated by Ameen Rhayem, AFE project coordinator and presenter at Tele Liban, Lebanon's first public television network, that aimed to raise awareness regarding the correct terms to use in Lebanese media when talking about the LGBTQ+ community.
He explained the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity, used the term “Al Meem” (Arabic acronym) to describe LGBTQ+ and denounced homophobic and transphobic language still prevalent in much of Lebanese media.
The video was significant because it used the Arabic words for LGBTQ+, homophobia, transphobia and so on. This is a conscious decision that many LGBTQ+ activists and allies have taken over the past few years to make sure to reach a wider audience as it is still common to use the English terms while in Arabic, derogatory terms are usually used instead.
More events are planned through May 23. The full list is available on the Beirut Pride website.

author: Elia J. Ayoub


text:
Cybercrime Charges Against Jamaica’s Tambourine Army Founder Dropped · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A cross section of the crowd at the Tambourine Army Survivor Empowerment March Against Sexual Violence. Photo by Storm Saulter, used with permission.
Under Jamaica's new cybercrime laws, activist La Toya Nugent was arrested in March 2017 for publicly naming alleged perpetrators of sexual violence via social media. On May 17, 2017, the country's Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) dropped all charges against her, making Nugent a free woman, and vindicating her controversial Tambourine Army, a new movement led by women and survivors of sexual violence who are sharing their harrowing experiences, both online and in public.
The news broke on social media almost immediately. On Facebook, writer Annie Paul announced:
Breaking news!! DPP has dropped all 3 charges against Latoya Nugent under cyber crimes act!! #Tambourine!!
Twitter was also on the ball:
Charges dropped against Tambourine Army co-founder #TambourineArmy https://t.co/DtQvIqRzNl
— Jherane (@Jherane_) May 17, 2017
Twitter user Rachel Mordecai commented:
As it should be! But might not have been. Good news! #TambourineArmy https://t.co/WoyYkzi7lq
— RMordecai (@RachelMordecai) May 17, 2017
Nugent had always maintained her innocence against the charges, which were summarized as the “use of a computer for malicious communication”. From the outset, many legal experts felt that the charges could not stick because the legislation left sufficient room for interpretation when it comes to unlawful or “malicious” communication.
In an offline context, the Tambourine Army's approach of naming and shaming perpetrators of sexual violence through its hashtag #SayTheirNames would most likely be classified as defamation. But in 2013, Jamaica reformed its defamation regime to be treated as a matter of civil, not criminal, law. So basically, if someone is convicted of defamation in Jamaica, they can be made to pay damages, but not be given a prison sentence.
As shared on Twitter, the country's DPP explained her discontinuation of the case:
UPDATE: DPP Llewelyn has discontinued prosecution of Activist Latoya Nugent o/c Stella on all 3 charges. Not a viable prosecution says DPP.
— Abka Fitz-Henley (@AbkaFitzHenley) May 17, 2017

author: Janine Mendes-Franco