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Mexico’s Missing Ayotzinapa Students, Day 137 · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

A girl with a banner “We are missing 43″ during a rally for the Ayotzinapa students in Montevideo, Uruguay. November 17, 2014. Photo by Sofía González (Flickr/Creative Commons).
More than 137 days have passed since the violent events that took place in the state of Guerrero, in Southwestern Mexico, which ended in what many consider to have been the forced disappearance of 43 students of Raúl Isidro Burgos rural teacher's college, which has its main campus in Ayotzinapa. Some people are now saying outright that the students, among others, were murdered.
Currently, the case has been marked by the claims of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense, or EAAF) which, with its group of experts, has assisted the Mexican authorities in clarifying the facts but not in conducting the investigations, which are carried out exclusively by the Office of the Attorney General (Procuraduría General de la República, or PGR).
The EAAF's claims can be summarized in the following points:
It is noteworthy that in the second of the points above, related to the lack of participation of the EAAF in the first investigations in the Cocula landfill, the exact text reads:
El EAAF planteó esta seria irregularidad en reunión con el Procurador Lic. Murillo Karam en su despacho, en presencia de su equipo de trabajo y abogados de los familiares, a comienzos de diciembre del 2014, solicitando considerar excluir o evaluar la legalidad de la evidencia recuperada en esa oportunidad por la PGR en el basurero de Cocula.
The EAAF mentioned this serious irregularity in a meeting with the Attorney General Murillo Karam in his office, in the presence of his work team and the families’ lawyers, in early December 2014, requesting that he consider excluding or evaluating the legality of the evidence recovered from the Cocula landfill on this occasion by the PGR.
The PGR, on the other hand, maintains its official version, which it has called in technical legal terms the “historic truth of the events”, consisting in the illegal deprivation of liberty of the students and their murder by three individuals who have confessed to participating in the events. Nevertheless, these individuals do not include the former Mayor of Iguala, José Luis Abarca, and his wife, María de los Ángeles Pineda, better known as the “Imperial Couple“, who are suspected of having ordered the massacre.
Taking the official version of events as truth, the students should be considered homicide victims, not missing persons.
Amidst this disagreement, the Federal Institute for Access to Public Information and Data Protection (Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Información y Protección de Datos), the agency which guarantees the right to access to information in Mexico, reported in a press release that it has ordered the Mexican army to hand over information regarding its participation in assisting the investigation into these events, considering the seriousness of the circumstances:
Existe un interés público que es superior a la reserva de la información dado que las víctimas sufrieron violaciones graves a derechos humanos.
There is a public interest which is greater than the witholding of information, given that the victims suffered grave violations of their human rights.
The online newspaper Animal Político (Political Animal) reported that the families of the students in question do not recognise the Mexican authorities’ official version of events:
La verdad histórica de la PGR sobre la desaparición de los 43 normalistas de Ayotzinapa se cae a pedazos, consideraron los familiares de los estudiantes al fijar una postura sobre la información difundida por el EAAF.
The PGR's historic truth concerning the disappearance of the 43 student teachers in Ayotzinapa is falling apart, according to the families of the students on taking a position with respect to the information shared by the EAAF.
This adds to feelings of distrust and annoyance present on social media with respect to this case. For example, the user LaCompa+Bonita commented on Twitter:
Creo que la #verdadHistorica en realidad es una #MentiraHisterica
— La Compa+Bonita (@Patricia_aries) February 10, 2015
I think the #historicTruth is really a #HystericalLie
Victor Manuel argued:
En caso #Ayotzinapa existen muchas líneas de investigación no abiertas. Es una simulación judicial hablar de #VerdadHistórica: @edbuscaglia
— Victor Manuel (@VictorM37282014) February 10, 2015
In the case of #Ayotzinapa there are many lines of investigation that are not open. It is a mockery of justice to talk about #HistoricTruth
The user Agus pointed out:
Dados los resultados que #MurilloKaram ha presentado de #Ayotzinapa confío mas en el equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense que en la #PGR
— Agus (@gutycookie) February 10, 2015
Given the results that #MurilloKaram has presented on #Ayotzinapa I have more trust in the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team than in the #PGR
And Argel Mendoza G. commented in a similar vein:
El tema no es si confías más en los #argentinos que en lo #mexicanos, es confiar más en cualquier cosa que en la #PGR . #Ayotzinapa #PGRMx
— Argel Mendoza G. (@Argel_Negro) February 10, 2015
It is not a question of trusting the #argentinians more than the #mexicans, it's trusting anything more than the #PGR
To add to the uncertainty and disgrace, news recently emerged of a sinister finding in an abandoned crematorium in the Puerto Marqués neighborhood of Acapulco (Guerrero), an important tourist destination, with at least 60 bodies in advanced states of decomposition.
All of this indicates that the Ayotzinapa case is no longer just about the pain of the victims and calls to end violence; it's now also about those who are fed up with the authorities, and those seeking justice for the new bodies discovered in the mass grave, who are said not to belong to the missing students.

author: J. Tadeo


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Oil and Water Don’t Mix—Except in Trinidad  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Loading The Water Trucks in Montrose”. Photo by Taran Rampersad, used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.
Trinidad and Tobago's Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), the public entity charged with the reliable delivery of pipe-borne water to the country, admitted that the safety of the water supply was compromised this week after residents in central Trinidad noticed a strange smell coming out of their taps and an oil-like film in the water.
The company's website still has no information on the situation (up to the time this post was published, this was the most recent press release, about a water supply interruption last month), but it did issue a statement via its Facebook page:
At 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday 24th February 2015, operators at the Caroni Water Treatment Plant observed an poly substance in the river, which led to the immediate stoppage of operations at the plant.
The facility was restarted at approximately 12:45 a.m. […] Wednesday 25th February 2015, after the river was cleared of the oily substance, as well as clean up and disinfection works on the plant.
The Authority assures customers that the supply from the Plant is safe and meets World Health Organisation standards, however, flushing exercises are currently being carried out in order to eliminate any residue of the substance that may have entered the distribution system.
In the same breath, the release advised customers “who may be experiencing a kerosene-like smell in their supply […] not to use, but allow the supply to run until it clears”. It also noted that the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) had been contacted to investigate the contaminant observed in the river.
In an update on its own website, the EMA noted that its Emergency Response and Investigations team “is scouring areas upriver of the Plant to ascertain the possible source/s of the substance while simultaneously conducting tests on the water leaving the Plant to ascertain the presence of hydrocarbon.” They have since found a renewed presence of diesel sheens in the river, which subsequently led to a second shutdown of the water treatment plant. Tests conducted at 6:30 p.m. on February 25 showed a reading of 0 milligrams per litre (mg/L) for Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons, which was an encouraging sign.
It did little to assuage the concerns of affected residents, however, and WASA soon dispatched a truck-borne water supply to critical areas. Netizens were soon sharing, after several requests to the relevant authorities, information about the areas that were served by the Caroni Water Treatment Plant:
Areas affected by the contaminated water supply. Screenshot of text message that was widely shared.
Mrs. Nanan, who lives in central Trinidad, drinks about a litre of water a day — and yesterday was no different. By mid-morning, she was experiencing nausea, chills and weakness and could not understand why. She had already drunk half a litre of tap water. Facebook user Elana Nathaniel, who lives in the same area, posted:
Since yesterday my water has been smelling like kerosene. Now I hear that the caroni dam has been compromised…DIESEL! Be careful folks
Nathaniel reported that initially the contamination “was so bad that when you flushed the toilet there was the residual oil floating and markings!” Today, her supply has improved slightly and the smell is not as strong, but her family is still not drinking it or cooking with it.
Meanwhile in T&T thought a visually composited representation of the situation would be more effective:
“Meanwhile, in Felicity” – Photoshopped image by Meanwhile in T&T's Facebook group.
Even locations in north Trinidad — densely populated areas that are mixed use zones (residential and commercial) — have discovered that they are served by the Caroni plant. Ian Wilcox, who lives in the heart of Woodbrook, reported that he woke up this morning to the discovery that his water had a funny smell. “You could have lit a match in there,” he said, “the smell of oil was so strong.” Like many other consumers, his concern is how to get the oil residue out of his water tank. (Most households and businesses in Trinidad and Tobago have water storage facilities on their property to ensure an uninterrupted water supply, even when there is no water being supplied via the mains.)
The ODPM's initial recommendation was vague, advising people to use “household cleaning agents […] before you refill your tanks”. Facebook user Cecile Pemberton pressed them to be more specific:
Such as? Disinfectant? Detergent? Bleach?
State officials later answered that bleach was the most effective cleaning agent in this situation. In response to netizens’ concerns about health repercussions from ingesting the water, the ODPM said:
The ODPM does not hold jurisdiction in the areas of education or health. Should a school be affected, the principal or other officer in charge takes appropriate action as guided by the Ministry of Education. In the event a person experiences adverse effects as a result of ingestion of this water, they should seek medical attention from the Ministry of Health. In addition, affected persons may utilise the services of our Customer Care Centre at 511.
Some schools in the area were also affected:
At least one school in central Trinidad dismissed early today #contaminated #water #WASA
— Richard Lord (@Lordrich6) February 25, 2015
Social media users continued to share their experiences via various public Facebook threads. Eme Blake wanted to know what measures were in place to test the country's water supply on a regular basis:
Can you please advise what Trinidad and Tobago's drinking water standards are? (How often is water sampled and tested? For which contaminants? What are the MCLs etc.) I cannot find any data online.
Roelle Donwner, who also lives in Woodbrook, was disappointed in the level of communication with citizens over what she considered a pressing public health threat:
I had to hear about this from a friend about 8am this morning and checked my water and sure enough there was a smell […] I tried calling WASA customer service SEVERAL times with no success. I decided to contact the EMA head office in POS and they said they weren't aware of the situation and gave me a number for the central office. They confirmed the situation and I ranted about there not being an offical release anywhere. Apart from households being affected by this what about schools and hospitals that were not aware??? This should have gone out as a bulletin on TV, Radio and Social Media!!! […] Get your act together Trinidad!!
Gerzel Serrette-Soverall, who is pregnant, also thought the advisory came too late:
This is a bit to [sic] late wasa, since monday i notice that once i drank the water i hv experience[d] excessive bowel movements. I hope tht my un born baby is ok.
Official sources are not yet confirming whether or not the contamination was an act of sabotage, but there were many calls for whoever was responsible to face some sort of consequences, whether or not it was accidental. What many people cannot understand is why, when WASA discovered the problem on the night of Tuesday, February 24, the plant was not immediately and permanently shut down — at least until the source of the contamination was found and stopped, and the integrity of the water supply could be verified. Mrs. Nanan said:
What I CANNOT understand is that WASA knew the water was contaminated but still sent it to people from Tuesday. There was water by me right through Tuesday until Wednesday.
The water supply to her area was only turned off during the wee hours of Thursday morning. She is calling for better security at the dams, as she realises how easy it is for the water to be contaminated. In response, WASA has said that they intend to step up security measures:
#WASA says it is heightening security at Caroni plant.. and intensifying probe into recent spill @i955fm
— Nicole Romany (@1Nicoleromany) February 26, 2015
As of the time of this writing, WASA still had not determined what the contaminant actually is. The consensus on Twitter was that it was kerosene, but this suspicion is yet to be confirmed.
@msconfident20 #onlyinTrinidad #WASA ….they say someone threw kerosine in the resevoir
— Israel O'Neil (@oneil_08) February 26, 2015
Who the hell dumps kerosene in a water treatment plant? Now we're warned not to drink smelly water. #SweetTrinidad #WASA
— 50 Grades of Shea (@CheyenneB) February 25, 2015
One citizen, who preferred not to be named, said that he heard a radio interview on Thursday afternoon with a WASA official, who explained that the company has measures in place to detect contaminants below the water, but not on the surface. The organisation is apparently in the process of purchasing the required equipment to test surface level contaminants, as well.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Renowned Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Still Detained After 10 Months · Global Voices
Media Legal Defence Initiative

Pu Zhiqiang. Photo by Voice of America, released to public domain.
This post was written by Alinda Vermeer of the Media Legal Defence Initiative.
Prominent human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, who was arrested on 4 May 2014, has now spent ten months in detention without a trial. He is facing charges that include inciting ethnic hatred, inciting the splitting of the country and creating a public disturbance; the latter an increasingly popular means of silencing dissent often described as a “pocket crime”, as anything can be stuffed into it. If found guilty on all charges, Pu could face 20 years in prison.
Pu was arrested shortly after attending a small private gathering in Beijing commemorating the 25 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, but the factual basis for his detention has long been unclear. After an eight months of what looked more like a fishing expedition than a criminal investigation, the Chinese authorities announced that the charges stemmed from a selection of 28 posts on Sina Weibo and investigations Pu conducted on behalf of some of China’s most respected media outlets.
A student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen protests, Pu was committed to free speech and often represented high profile activists or political dissidents. His clientele ranged from artist Ai Weiwei to communist Party officials demanding redress for torture they suffered during investigations on corruption charges. He also represented Tang Hui, the mother who was sent to a labour camp for peacefully petitioning against the lenient sentences given to the men who raped and prostituted her 11-year old daughter.
Pu’s witty, scathing Weibo posts chronicled many of the public details of his cases and attracted tens of thousands of followers. Each time his following reached a certain level, Chinese authorities would close his account, after which Pu would open a new one. Looking more closely at the posts that landed Pu in jail, and which according to one of Pu’s lawyers are the prosecutors’ sole evidence on the three speech-related crimes he is accused of, it is clear that his comments on public figures and incidents may have been crude or harsh, but do not warrant criminal prosecution.
In post No. 6 for instance, days after devastating floods in Beijing in 2012, Pu responded to allegations that Beijing authorities were downplaying the death toll:
[f]rom top to bottom, this party can’t live a day without lying
In post No. 25, Pu responds to critics calling him a traitor:
I’m not the one who chose the Communists to rule the country and they never asked my views on the matter. Where does their demand for my unconditional support come from? If being a traitor could mean releasing our citizens from their torment by handing over a dozen or so provinces and three or five hundred million people to democratic countries, then my deepest regret would be only that I have failed as a traitor.
Other posts comment on terrorist attacks, ethnic tensions in Xinjiang and Tibet, and “separatism” in or around Taiwan. The selection is random and not representative of Pu’s writing in general. In some cases, the context of the post is completely unclear.
Pu’s arrest is of what human rights experts says is the worst crackdown on activists and lawyers China has seen in a decade. China has consistently been among the lowest ranking countries in the press freedom ratings, but since Xi Jinping became China’s leader in 2012, the crackdown on dissent has further intensified. At least 500 human rights activists and dissidents have been arrested and sent to prison. China’s legal system is highly politicised and as a result the case against Pu is rife with irregularities. Human rights organisations are concerned that, with Pu’s potential conviction, self-censorship will become even more pervasive.
To raise awareness about Pu’s case, the Media Legal Defence Initiative petitioned the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in December 2014, urging the UN Working Group to call upon the Chinese government to immediately release Pu and withdraw all charges against him. Read the petition here.

author: Media Legal Defence Initiative


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The Political Violence in Bangladesh Is Claiming Too Many Lives · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

The victims of a petrol bomb attack in a bus receiving treatment in hospital. Image by Khurhsed Alam Rinku. Copyright Demotix (24/1/2015)
An ongoing political protest has crippled Bangladesh for the past two months. A coalition led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has orchestrated stoppages for almost eight weeks now. Demonstrations have become violent and more people are dying each day. The total number of casualties is now more than 100.
Most deaths have been the result of homemade bombs, arson, and random acts of violence. More than 1,000 vehicles have been torched and vandalised, and another 100 people have been admitted to Dhaka medical college with serious burns.
The BNP-led opposition started the blockade on January 5, 2015, asking the government to call snap elections. One year prior, on January 5, 2014, Bangladesh held a general election, which BNP boycotted, disputing the terms. With low voter turnout, the incumbent Awami League and its coalition government were elected, despite violent protests by the opposition in an attempt to disrupt the voting. Roughly 100 people died during these events. (Read the Global Voices report here.)
With the political storm clouds gathered once again, Bangladesh Internet users have frenziedly discussed the violence in the streets, commenting on arson attacks, in particular.
Writer, educator, and a scientist Muhammad Zafar Iqbal writes in an op-ed for BDNEWS24.com:
আমরা খুব দুঃসময়ের ভেতর দিয়ে যাচ্ছি। প্রতিদিন খবরের কাগজে মানুষ পুড়িয়ে মারার ছবি দেখে, মানুষকে হত্যা করার খবর পড়ে দিন শুরু করতে হয়। মাঝে মাঝে খবরের কাগজটি সরিয়ে রাখি, যেন চোখের সামনে থেকে সরিয়ে নিলেই সেই দুঃসহ ঘটনাগুলো জীবন থেকে সরে যাবে।
We are passing through a bad time. Each day, I see images of people being burned to death, and I start the day with a heavy heart. Sometimes I keep the newspaper distant from me, as if this can keep all those horrible incidents away from my life.
Economist Shameem Ahmed writes in a column for the same online newspaper about living with the fear that he could be burned to death every time he leaves his home:
[…] পত্রিকায় পোড়া লাশের ছবি আসে, মনে হয় এইচবিওতে ‘মমি’ মুভিটা দেখছি। অস্থির লাগে। এইসব চিন্তা করতে করতে গাড়ির জানালা তুলে দিই। এসিটা ছেড়ে দিই অন্যমনস্কভাবেই, মনে হয় একটা ফায়ার ডিস্টিংগুইসার কিনতে হবে সহসা। গাড়িতে আগুন লাগলে শুধু তা নেভাতে না, বরং নিজে গাড়ি থেকে নেমে পালানোর একটু সুযোগ তৈরি করে নেবার জন্য।
When I see burnt corpses in newspaper it seem like I am watching The Mummy on TV. I can't stand it. I close the windows of my car, start the air conditioning and think of buying a fire extinguisher. [That way] if a bomb is thrown inside my car, I'd be able to douse the fire enough to escape and survive.
Supta Ahmed protests the arsons against common people in SomewhereinBlog:
[…] আমি রাজনীতি বুঝিনা, মানুষ বুঝি!!আমি ক্ষমতা বুঝি না, একটা নিরাপদ বেঁচে থাকা বুঝি!!
I don't understand politics. I understand people. I don't understand the battle for power, but I understand the right to safety.
Shaon Chowdhury compares the political violence that's characterized the battle for state power to a massacre.
গুলি আর ক্রসফায়ারের পর এবার বাসে পেট্রোল বোমা মেরে নিরীহ জনগণ হত্যা। এভাবেই কি শুধুমাত্র ক্ষমতার জন্য দেশটা বধ্যভূমিতে পরিণত হবে?
— শাওন চোধুরী (@BdChowdhury) February 3, 2015
After bullets and summary executions, now common people are being killed by bombs on buses and cars. So will my country be a killing field?
The BNP-led opposition claims they are mobilizing the protests to defend democracy, but Munazir Hussain Sayed says throwing bombs at crowded buses to enforce a strike can't be reconciled with democratic aims.
Throwing bombs at public buses is not a #DemocraticRight Is #BNP at war with @albd or #Bangladesh? #shahbag
— Munazir Hussain Syed (@Munazir43rd) February 1, 2015
As death toll from BNP-Jamaat violence mounts in #Bangladesh, govt must take concrete & immediate steps to ensure people's right to security
— Shah Ali Farhad (@shah_farhad) February 7, 2015
Jalal Tarafdar asked the government to resign and pave a solution to the political stalemate.
কোন আলোচনায় বাংলাদেশে শান্তি আসবে না যতক্ষন সরকার পদত্যাগ না করছে আর তত্বাবদায়ক সরকারের অধীনে নির্বাচন হচ্ছে,… http://t.co/lDMWNH2Qsx
— Jalal Tarafdar (@jalaltarafdar) January 31, 2015
There would be no agreement for peace until the government resigns and a fresh election is held under a neutral caretaker government.
Bangladeshi day-laborers passing idle-time due to ongoing political unrest. Image by Shafiqul Alam. Copyright Demotix (9/2/2015)
The continuous blockades and strikes are not only costing lives, they are disrupting an entire nation's commerce, education, and other sectors. Experts say Bangladesh's economy has suffered Tk 750 billion ($9.6 billion) in losses thanks to the prolonged blockade, the labor stoppages, and growing political violence. 1.5 million students appearing for their secondary-school certificate examinations have also been affected, and the strikes have resulted in postponements to many students’ examinations. Bangladesh's transportation has been among the hardest hit economic sectors, with the blockade and regular vandalism of trucks slowing the movement goods to a crawl. As a result, the prices of basic commodities has skyrocketed.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


text:
Whoever Said Japanese Students’ Indoor Shoes Had to Be Boring? · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Uwabaki indoor shoes. Photo courtesy Flickr user sanbu (CC BY-NC 2.0)
In Japan, the new school year starts in April. As the school year winds down in March, many families will be starting to think about uniforms and school supplies for the month ahead.
For many Japanese preschoolers uwabaki (indoor shoes) are an ubiquitous part of school life. Students, teachers, and visitors alike are all required to remove their street shoes before entering the school.
With their elastic straps, uwabaki are easy to put on for young children, and the rubberized toes provide traction on slippery surfaces in the school.
In recent years, attitudes in Japan towards school uniforms have softened. While uwabaki may be mandatory, in some parts of Japan it is now okay to deko (decorate) uwabaki.
Some parents decorate the uwabaki themselves for their kids, while stores now sell uwabaki that feature popular cartoon and manga characters.
かあさん夜なべして上履きデコった。おやすみなさい。 pic.twitter.com/PuUA1cIvns
— nao (@naomiama) January 25, 2015
Mom has stayed up late to decorate your uwabaki. Sweet dreams!
友人も新学期前には夜なべして上履きデコってたなぁ。何故、夜にやるのか？と聞いたら「朝起きて靴を見つけた子どもの驚く顔が楽しみなんだ」と言っていた。”@nekonoboris: 幼稚園の手描き上履きシリーズ第二弾 「ムーミン」 pic.twitter.com/aqADxmZhud“
— TOMOMI (@stargirltw) May 9, 2014
A friend of mine burned the midnight oil decorating her kid's uwabaki. When I asked her why she was staying up so late, she said, “I can't wait to see the look on my kid's face when he wakes up and sees his uwabaki.”
すごいな、今の小学生は上履きまでデコるのか。 pic.twitter.com/I6RuRG83fS
— あくた (@akt_tissue) December 18, 2014
Wow, it's amazing, they're even decorating uwabaki for elementary students now.
Yokai Watch, a pop culture phenomenon in Japan, is of course a frequent theme with uwabaki deko:
子供に頼まれて描いた上履き。 頼まれて無いのに描いたウィスパー。 pic.twitter.com/jxjBt9Gh70
— くぜ。 (@kuze_1221) February 17, 2015
My son asked me to decorate his uwabaki for school, so I thought I would draw Whisper.
姪っ子が幼稚園の上履きをデコってほしいとのことで描いてあげた乁( ˙ ω˙乁) pic.twitter.com/KaOr9vhF2d
— さちこ (@iwatobinosachi) November 9, 2014
My niece asked me to decorate her uwabaki for kindergarten. 乁( ˙ ω˙乁)
It's pretty obvious that there must be some uwabaki deko kits for sale:
姪のデコシューズ作った pic.twitter.com/Lej0wNv0CA
— 大和狸 (@yamatanu) January 1, 2015
I decorated my niece's uwabaki.
The parents get as much enjoyment out of uwabaki deko as the kids:
ってコトで娘の上靴 もう小学生だからシンプルめに… でも本当はもっとやりたいよー‼ pic.twitter.com/R3mwhUJGco
— あいあい (@aiai_janken) February 6, 2015
I decorated my daughter's indoor shoes for school. It's elementary school now so I had to keep it simple. But I wanted to do more!

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
Libyan Kids Have Been Out of School for Months, so One Woman Is Bringing the Classroom to Them · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Children in Tripoli in August 2011. Photo by MITSUYOSHI IWASHIGE. Copyright Demotix
This article and radio report by Shirin Jaafari for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on February 26, 2015, and is republished as part of a content-sharing agreement.
As Libya was torn apart by a revolution in 2011, Haifa El-Zahawi left the country for the United States.
Now a dentist, she's looking for jobs. But she's also devoting herself to a different project: Teaching kids back in Libya.
The volatile security situation there has kept kids out of school since October. So if kids can't get to their classrooms, El-Zahawi thought, why not bring the classroom to them? The Benghazi Skype School was born.
“We started with a personal account and a Skype,” says El-Zahawi from New York. She posted about her project on social media, asking Libyans if they were able to help. Within a week, she was receiving “a really huge and positive response.” She even heard from an IT company in Libya that wanted to sponsor her project.
Of course, Internet classrooms have their own problems. Patchy Internet connections are a major hurdle, as are the frequent power outages that Libyans face. “We try and make [the classes] live as much as we can, but due to the problems … we try to record the lessons and post them online,” El-Zahawi says.
But despite the challenges, the Benghazi Skype School has been a success so far. “Families send us pictures of the students doing their homework,” El-Zahawi says. “They're even wearing their school uniforms.”
The bigger idea behind the school, El-Zahawi says, is to bring hope to the families and kids who “really need it.” She's worried about news like the recent beheading of a group of men in Libya at the hands of ISIS, and she hopes that educating Libyan children will help stop the spread of radicalization.
“We have to educate our kids,” she says, “Only by learning, we can fight.”

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
French Teenagers Speak a Language All Their Own. Confused? Here’s a Guide · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

The Tower of Babel by Peter Bruegel the Elder CC-BY-20
The purpose of a language is to meet the communication needs of the society that uses it, so any living language is by its very nature bound to evolve as a result of social changes. Thanks to advances in technology, these developments sometimes progress quickly in certain demographic groups, particularly among teenagers, creating a significant chasm in the relationships between parents and teenagers.
One can often hear French parents bemoan their inability to comprehend conversation between their teenage children. It is not an insurmountable problem, but a decoder is needed to bridge the gulf. Here are some tips for French-speaking parents to reopen the channels of communication that have been obstructed by generational, technological and occasionally cultural factors.
SMS language came about as a way to reduce the length of words used and thus avoid exceeding the number of characters allowed by text messages, as well as to speed up typing on mobile phone keypads. These technological constraints gave rise to a form of communication that seems more intuitive to frequent users of SMS messaging and less familiar to parents, who do not recognise most of the codes, abbreviations and spellings used.
(Written in text speak) “This is a web forum, not a cell phone. if you want an answer to your query, try writing in a proper language”.  Anti-SMS language poster itself written in SMS language. CC-BY-20
Here are some examples of SMS language decoded for the uninitiated by the Gralon forum:
- je vi1 2 = je viens de
– tu vas réu6r = tu vas réussir
– il tadi 2 / ke = il t’a dit de / que
– koi 2 9 = quoi de neuf ?
– 2m1 = demain
- je vi1 2 = je viens de (“I’ve just”)
- tu vas réu6r = tu vas réussir (“you can do it”)
– il tadi 2 / ke = il t’a dit de / que (“he told you that”)
– koi 2 9 = quoi de neuf ? (“what’s new?”)
– 2m1 = demain (“tomorrow”)
This utilitarian transformation of language is not to everyone’s taste. Désirée explains in her post what she finds most irritating when reading texts in SMS language:
Le langage sms, c'est bien pour les ados qui veulent se montrer rebelles, pour les gens qui ne veulent pas passer trop de temps à rédiger un sms et qui s'en fichent des fautes et ceux qui s'en fichent que leur correspondant pourrait ne pas comprendre leurs hiéroglyphes immondes. On l'aura compris, je suis contre ce langage préhistorique! J'avais moi-même testé quand j'étais ado et même dans ma période la plus rebelle, je n'ai pas pu me résoudre à envoyer des messages bourrés de fautes [..]  LE problème c'est que la plupart des gens qui écrivent en langage sms ne font plus aucune différence entre mail et sms, ce qui n'est pas trop grave quand il s'agit de quelqu'un qu'ils connaissent mais qui devient un sérieux manque de respect quand il s'agit de quelqu'un qui leur est totalement inconnu.
Text speak is for teens who want to appear rebellious, for people who don’t want to spend too much time composing a text message and don’t care about errors, and people who don’t care that the person they’re writing to cannot understand their hideous hieroglyphics. As you might have guessed, I’m opposed to this prehistoric language! I tried it myself as a teen, and even in my most rebellious phase, I couldn’t bring myself to send messages full of errors […] The problem is that most people who write in text language make no distinction between emails and texts, which doesn’t matter too much when they’re writing to someone they know, but becomes seriously disrespectful when it’s to a total stranger.
Tizel is also opposed to the spread of this form of communication. He decries the increase in incomprehensibility of messages:
Le langage SMS est un vrai fléau. J'en veux pour preuve le nombre de forum devenus illisibles à cause de l'absence totale de modération sur ce plan. Mais ce fléau se retrouve également dans les blogs : la majorité des Skyblogs sont formulés en SMS; les commentaires déposés sur les blogs sont eux aussi, la plupart du temps, en SMS. Même certains mails que l'on m'envoie sont rédigés de la sorte. En plus, à force de rédiger de la sorte, je suis persuadé que ces personnes déforment leur orthographe.
SMS language is a real scourge. This is borne out by the number of forums that have become unreadable because of the total absence of moderation in this area. But this scourge is also found in blogs: the majority of Skyblogs are written in SMS; the comments posted on the blogs are mainly in SMS as well. Even some of the emails I receive are written the same way. I am also convinced that by writing this way these people are adversely affecting their spelling ability.
Some, however, see this evolution as an opportunity. Many novels for young people use text speak to convey a sense of realism. Others, such as Philippe Marso, have even written a whole novel in text speak.
Verlan is a form of French argot, in which the syllables of a word are inverted. When coupled with anglicisation of the vocabulary, it is sometimes difficult for parents to understand. Here is a glossary from Magic Maman of the words most commonly used by teenagers:
Accoucher : se dépêcher.
Arracher (s’) : partir.
Auch : verlan de chaud, cela signifie « c’est difficile ».
Balle (c’est de la) : c’est génial (une variante est possible avec « c’est chanmé !).
Boss : chef de bande ou patron.
Accoucher (literally: give birth): se dépêcher (to hurry).
Arracher (s’) (literally: tear oneself off): partir (to leave).
Auch (literally: hot but spelled in reverse): verlan de chaud, c’est difficile (It's difficult”).
Balle (c’est de la) (literally: it's the bee's knees): c’est génial or another variant is c’est chanmé! (“That's great!”).
Boss: chef de bande ou patron (boss).
But influences on the language don’t come just from English. Diversity in cities has impacted on the use of the French language amongst young people. Expressions from former colonies (mainly West and North Africa) have been naturally incorporated in this evolution. A project by a group of young people from Evry (Essonne) entitled Lexik des cités has been compiling a book of the expressions most used by young people from the cities. Here is an introduction to the project, which can be found on le Dino Bleu's blog:
“J’suis en pit », « Lui, c’est un 100 % roro », « J’ai invité mes sauces au barbecue », « Laisse tomber, il a toyé tout le monde ! », « Aujourd’hui je rince un grec », « Je suis yomb de toi »…Vous avez tout compris ? Non ? C‘est exactement pour cette raison qu’un groupe de jeunes originaires d’Evry a imaginé ce Lexik des cités illustré, bien différent des dictionnaires classiques. Pour que tous les durons (parents) autour d’eux puissent enfin comprendre leurs expressions et mieux les interpréter ! Voici la peinture d’une banlieue qui déchire, drôle et optimiste, où le langage est coloré et va du verlan à la métaphore, en passant aussi bien par l’arabe, l’africain, l’argot, le gitan que par… l’ancien français !
J’suis en pit (“I am in pit”), Lui, c’est un 100 % roro (“He is 100% roro“) J’ai invité mes sauces au barbecue (“I have invited all my dressings to the BBQ”), Laisse tomber, il a toyé tout le monde! (“Let it be, he just toyed with everyone”), Aujourd’hui je rince un greg (“Today, I will wash out my liquor”), Je suis yomb de toi (“I am yomb for you”)…Did you understand all that? No? That's exactly why a group of young people from Evry came up with the idea for this illustrated Lexik des cités, which is quite different from traditional dictionaries. So that all the parents could finally understand their expressions and interpret them better! It depicts the suburbs as vibrant, funny and optimistic, where language is colourful and goes from verlan to metaphor, drawing as much from Arabic, African, slang and gypsy as from old French.
Le Dino bleu adds:
C’est surtout l’intégration qui caractérise cet ouvrage. La juxtaposition de sensibilités, d’inspirations, de cultures, d’idées,… venues des quatre coins du monde et qui trouvèrent vite dans leur isolation forcée les conditions idéales pour se mélanger loin du conformisme ambiant si peu porteur d’inventions. Trop souvent présentés comme des zones de non-droits où ne règnent que la violence et les trafics en tous genre, en général par des médias en quête de ce sensationnalisme qui garantit une certaine audience, les cités développent en fait leur culture propre depuis un certain temps. Une identité forgée à partir de toutes ces civilisations d’Afrique, d’Asie, d’Europe de l’Est et d’ailleurs qui trouvèrent là un creuset où couler cet alliage dont on n’a pas encore pleinement mesuré la richesse.
Integration is the defining characteristic of this work. The juxtaposition of sensitivities, inspirations, cultures, ideas, etc. from all four corners of the world, which quickly found that their forced isolation gave them the ideal situation to mix together, a far cry from the prevailing conformity that does little to stimulate creativity. Too often, cities are presented as no-go areas riddled with violence and all kinds of trafficking, generally by the media looking for the kind of sensational headlines that guarantee a certain audience, but these cities have actually been creating their own culture for quite some time. An identity has been forged from all the civilisations of Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere, which found a melting pot there in which to cast this alloy, whose value hasn’t yet been fully appreciated.
Another development that has arisen from advances in technology is digital language or Internet slang, which speeds up writing and punctuation, but can also let you know rapidly that a message has been read or understood. The main thing is to convey a message or idea to one’s correspondent in real time.
This language is constantly evolving owing to the growing impact of online culture on the general public. Websites such as Urban Dictionary or Know Your Meme are reference sites that provide a better understanding of web culture. The list of internet slang terms is growing rapidly, that’s for sure. Some terms have already passed into everyday written language, for example: FYI (for your information), JDCJDR (je dis cela, je dis rien – “just saying”) or BRB (be right back).
The Internet’s role in the evolution of languages is certainly a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it speeds up the disappearance of languages by standardising the means of communication. But it also plays a role in the preservation of endangered languages, by creating communities that ensure the conservation of languages in their traditional forms.
Despite the numerous objections to the misuse of language and syntax errors, it seems pointless to be hellbent on preventing a language from evolving in response to the developments of modern society. Ultimately, isn’t the most important thing to be able to create a relationship with other people, to pass on knowledge and ideas, and to understand each other?

author: Rakotomalala


text:
Imported Bollywood Films Have Become Quite a Drama in Bangladesh · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

Film Development Corporation complex, the hub of the film industry in Bangladesh. Image via Wikimedia. CC By 3.0
Film distributors and cinema owners in Bangladesh have retaliated against popular actor Shakib Khan, who led protests against the screening of Indian movies in the country, by slapping a ban on all the films that he appears in.
Khan was not alone in his protest. Many Bangladeshi film actors, directors and production workers participated in a campaign against Bollywood movies being shown for fear that it will collapse the already crippled local film industry. At the time of the protests, Indian actor Salman Khan's “Wanted” movie was released for the first time in Bangladesh in 60 cinema theatres.
They ended their protest at the end of January after getting assurance from the government that no more Indian movies would be imported.
Distributors and cinema owners defended their decision to show Bollywood films, saying not enough people see Bengali movies while Indian movies draw a bigger crowd and keep them in business. The decline in Bangladesh's homegrown film industry has prompted the closure of more than a thousand cinemas in the past decade. At one point, nearly 100 movies were made each year; now there are only 30-40. (Read a Global Voices report for more information)
Bangladesh has had a legal prohibition on Indian films dating back to a brief war between India and Pakistan in 1965, when Bangladesh was part of Pakistan. The government briefly lifted the ban in 2010, caving to the demands of the struggling cinemas. But officials quickly reinstated it following furious protests by local actors and directors, who claimed the Bangladesh film industry was at risk from the imports.
To save the struggling movie industry and bring back audiences to the theatres, the government had again lifted the ban in 2015.
Meanwhile, Shakib Khan, the actor whose were banned in retaliation, wrote on Facebook:
কোন একটি দেশকে ধ্বংস করার প্রথম শর্ত সেই দেশের সংস্কৃতিকে ধ্বংস করে দেওয়া। বাংলাদেশে হিন্দি সিনেমা মুক্তির সিদ্ধান্ত নিয়ে একটি কুচক্রিমহল বাংলাদেশের চলচ্চিত্র নয়, দেশ ধ্বংসের পাঁয়তারা করছে।
To destroy a country the first step you will take is to destroy its culture. By deciding to release Bollywood films in Bangladeshi theatres, a a group of conspirators is planning to destroy the country.
Facebook user Kallol Mustafa thought that by importing Indian movies, the imperialisation of the Hindi language and Indian culture will be enforced:
আমি বিদেশী ছবি আমদানীর বিপক্ষে নই। বরং সারা দুনিয়ার মানসম্পন্ন ছবি যেন দেশের মানুষ দেখতে পারে সেটাই আমার কাম্য। কিন্ত সেটা এখন যেভাবে বাজারি প্রতিযোগীতার মাধ্যমে করার কথা বলা হচ্ছে তার পক্ষে নই। কারণ বাজার দেখে মুনাফা, মুনাফার প্রয়োজনে বাজার বাজারি ছবিই আমদানী করবে আর তার সাথে প্রতিযোগীতায় লিপ্ত হয়ে এদেশের চলচ্চিত্রের পুরো বিলুপ্তি ঘটবে নতুবা আরও অধগতি হবে আর পার্শ্বপ্রতিক্রিয়া হিসেবে হিন্দীভাষা আর আধিপত্যবাদী সংস্কৃতি আরো জাকিয়ে বসবে।
I am not against importing foreign films. I would rather want Bangladeshis to be able to watch quality movies from all over the world. But here the screening of Indian movies are being promoted only for commercial reasons. So the commercial interests will only look for commercial movies to import which will make quick money. In the process the movie industry of the country will lose not being able to compete with big budget Hindi movies and the cultural imperialism will be established.
Wahid Ibne Reza also protested the screening of Indian films:
সিনেমার বড় পর্দায় আমাদের অনেক নিজস্ব গল্প আছে বলার। এই গল্প বলার অধিকার ছিনিয়ে নেবার অধিকার পৃথিবীর কারো নেই।
We have our local stories to tell on big screens in the theatres. Nobody should be allowed to take this away from us.
Blogger Himu had a more logical approach to the problem — dubbing them in Bangla:
বাংলাদেশের দাপ্তরিক ভাষা দুটি, বাংলা ও ইংরেজি। এর বাইরে অন্য কোনো ভাষার চলচ্চিত্র নিয়ে যদি প্রেক্ষাগৃহ মালিকরা ব্যবসা করতে চান, সেক্ষেত্রে বাংলায় ডাবিংকে অবশ্যপালনীয় শর্ত হিসেবে রাখা হোক। একই সাথে এ ডাবিং হতে হবে বাংলাদেশের কোনো ডার্বিং স্টুডিওতে, এমন শর্তও আরোপ করা হোক।
The official languages of Bangladesh are Bangla and English. If any cinema owner wants to earn money with screening foreign films, they should dub the films — that should be the law. Also, this dubbing should be done inside the country — that should be added.
Journalist and blogger Rezaur Rahman Rizvi was in favour of not importing any foreign film. However, blogger Ekush Tapader opined that films from all over the world should be imported:
নির্লজ্জ নকলবাজরা যখন বলে তমুক দেশের সিনেমা চালালে আমরা সিনেমা বানানো বন্ধ করে দেব তখন সেটা জাতির জন্য আর্শীবাদ :)
পৃথিবীর সমস্ত দেশের, সমস্ত ভাষার সিনেমা দেখতে চাই।
When the copycat producers say that they will stop making films if films from a particular country are screened, I think that's a boon for the country. I want to watch movies from all countries, of all language.
Screenshot of the video label for the movie Beder Meye Jotsna, the best commercial success for Bengali movies. It earned 150 million taka. Image courtesy Image arcade.
Facebook user Pritom Ahmed mentioned that some movies made in Bangladesh are copies of Bollywood movie scripts and songs. Bangladesh actors even adopt the family name Khan as their screen name, copying a trend of Bollywood up-and-coming actors who do so to emulate megastars like Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan:
এদেশে হিন্দি সিনেমা প্রদর্শন বন্ধের দাবি তোলার আগে আমি দাবি জানাই বাংলা সিনেমার নায়কদের নামের পাশে বোম্বে ইন্ডাস্ট্রি থেকে ধার নেয়া “খান” উপাধি লাগানো বন্ধ করেন । যে দাদা ভাইদের নামের অংশ নিজের নামের সাথে জুড়ে দিয়ে নায়ক স্ট্যাটাস নিয়েছেন, যে দাদা ভাইয়ের ব্রেসলেট থেকে শুরু করে চুলের ডিজাইন পর্যন্ত নকল করছেন সেই দাদা ভাইয়ের বিরুদ্ধে লড়বেন কি ধইঞ্চা হাতে ??
Before banning Indian movies in this country, please stop adding “Khan” as the title of the actor mimicking Bollywood. When you are copying them from head to toe, how can you fight them?
Facebook page Dhallywood Karcha echoed Pritom's statement:
হিন্দি সিনেমা প্রদর্শনে এতো জোরালো বাধা ও হিন্দি সিনেমার প্রতি এতো তীব্র ঘৃণা থাকার পরেও তাদের সিংহভাগ সিনেমা কেন হিন্দি সিনেমার কপি পেস্ট? এই নকলের ব্যাপারে তাদের জোরালো কোন ভূমিকা কখনো দেখা যায় না কেন? তাহলে প্রতিবাদের কারণ কি নিজেদের অক্ষমতা? ভালো, মৌলিক ও মেধা না খাটিয়ে সিনেমা বানাতে চাওয়া? অথবা নকল ধরা পড়ার ভয়?
They have immense hatred of Bollywood films and protest against importing them. But why are the majority of their films copies of Indian movies? Why they did not even try to change that? Is this protest happening now because it will expose them? Or they don't want to invest the time and money into producing unique and quality movies?
Journalist and blogger Mahbub Morshed wrote:
এইসব টিভি চ্যানেল আর এইসব সিনেমা আর এইসব এফডিসি দিয়া ভারতীয় বিনোদন আধিপত্য ঠেকানো যাবে না। নিজস্ব বাজার সংরক্ষণের নামে আবাল পোষার দিন শেষ। কচু বনের শেয়াল রাজাদের দেখে দেখে হয়রান হয়ে গেলাম।
এবার নতুন কিছু করো।
You cannot impede the Indian entertainment imperialism by blocking TV channels and cinemas or through the poor performing Film Development Corporation. The days of protecting a bunch of idiots in the name of protecting our own market have come to an end. Lets do something new.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


text:
Iran Reacts to the Latest Snowden Leak on SIM Card Hacks · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Twitter user @AmirMehrabian posted this photo promoting Free Software, and opposing American Products and the NSA on the February 11, 2014 anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
The Iranian Minister of Information and Communication Technologies, Mahmoud Vaezi, has been assuring Iranians that his ministry is investigating the SIM cards of its mobile carriers to make sure they are not susceptible to American and British hacks. This is in reaction to this month's report by The Intercept on documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealing that American and British spies were hacking the internal computers of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards, Gemalto.
The report further indicated that Iran was amongst one of the countries targeted for data retrieval earlier on in their operations in 2010. The emails of employees of Iran's second largest mobile phone carrier MTN Irancell were regularly targeted by the GCHQ operations. The government hacks search for technical terms in the Irancell emails that could allow for further mining into those individuals accounts leading to the companies broader accounts. The Intercept explained:
In its key harvesting “trial” operations in the first quarter of 2010, GCHQ successfully intercepted keys used by wireless network providers in Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, India, Serbia, Iceland and Tajikistan…..GCHQ harvested the emails of employees of hardware companies that manufacture phones, such as Ericsson and Nokia; operators of mobile networks, such as MTN Irancell and Belgacom; SIM card providers, such as Bluefish and Gemalto; and employees of targeted companies who used email providers, such as Yahoo and Google. During the three-month trial, the largest number of email addresses harvested were those belonging to Huawei employees, followed by MTN Irancell.
This GCHQ internal document reveals that Iran's second largest mobile carrier Irancell was targeted for data retrieval in 2010. Photo taken from The Intercept.
In an initial response to the recent revelations, Vaezi told Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency on February 25 that he urges all state employees and ordinary Iranians to use their mobile phones when necessary, and to rely on their landlines for most communications. The minister also made a point of reminding Iranians that these kinds of interceptions by the Americans are ordinary occurrences in “this day and age,” alluding to the current security and privacy concerns in the wake of the Snowden revelations. Vaezi further elaborated:
We were even witness to the news that the German Chancellor's mobile was subject to American surveillance. It is within this context that we have been made aware of another important issue, that next to operators all over the world, Iranian cell phone operators have been subject to SIM card hacks.
The minister assured Iranians that as long as these threats to national security involve the scope of his ministry, there will always be a budget for it. He explained that within the past six months a budget of 200 billion Toman (about 60 million USD) had already been set aside to assure Iranian communications technologies were secure from foreign interception.
Iran has also been working on implementing a number of local internet platforms for social media, email and search engines in efforts to nationalize Iran's Internet. While it remains unclear whether a national Internet is an effort to eventually close off Iranians from the world wide web, recent promotion and launch of national search engines such as http://www.gorgor.ir/ highlight these efforts. Iran has taken the experience of the Snowden revelations, and especially this direct involvement of Iran's mobile operators, to further strengthen their argument towards a national Internet.
Pro-Free Software and Anti-Surveillance Slogans on Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution MT @AmirMehrAbian pic.twitter.com/makFh1uwAS
— Collin Anderson (@CDA) February 11, 2014
Vaezi emphasized that in light of the SIM card hacks, Iranians should use local mobile social media platforms as much as they can, since the hosting of these platforms occur within the country. These precautions however are futile in the face of foreign hacking of foreign made hardware such as SIM cards, and Iran's central communications operations.
Also not included as part of the national response to NSA hacks are Iran's own communications surveillance efforts, and especially those targeted at their own citizens. The ubiquitous nature of state surveillance practices against its own citizens have even become part of mainstream media, particularly following the revelation in July 2013 when a member of parliament Ali Motahari's office was subject to wiretapping. Similarly, Abbas Salehi, the current Vice Minister of Culture to the Hassan Rouhani administration and the Head of Iran’s Atomic Agency, wrote in Khorasan newspaper that “surveillance is so widespread in society that landlines and cell phones, alongside mailboxes, have no privacy…when attending meetings, are holding important conversations, cell phones are usually turned off or set aside.”
This was a point alluded to on the Day We Fight Back in 2014, when we called on the US government, alongside all other governments around to world, to bring transparency and accountability to their intelligence operations in the wake of the Snowden revelations. However, the intelligence operations of both the United States and Iran can be contextualized in the increasing Cyberwarfare in which both countries are entangled.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Macedonian Girl Dies Awaiting Grand Opening of Medical Center · Global Voices
Ellery Roberts Biddle

Protesters in white masks demand justice for 9-year-old Tamara Dimovska's death in Macedonia. February 19, 2015. Photo by Vancho Dzhambaski. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
When Tamara Dimovska needed treatment for her rare and debilitating spinal disorder, her family was told that Macedonia, a country of just two million people, didn't have the necessary specialist to perform the operation. They sought to take her abroad for the complex surgery, but the country's public health insurance fund repeatedly denied their application for funding.
The family used Facebook and held events to ask for donations so that they could pay for the medical costs abroad. Authorities then approached the family and asked them to stop the effort, promising that state medical services would take care of it — a new medical center would soon open nearby and 9-year-old Tamara could have the operation at home.
But delays persisted and then it was too late. Tamara died on February 9, 2015.
Amid a series of protests on public expenditures and corruption, a mass outcry erupted in the capital city of Skopje when independent media sources alleged that authorities intervened in the girl’s case because they wanted to showcase the child as the new medical center's first successful case. “So she died waiting, died for their PR,” said Filip Stojanovski, a writer for Global Voices.
The decision was made by committee and signed by the committee's deputy head, Aspazija Sofijanova, who admitted in recent testimony that she had done so against her professional judgement because she was told “from above.” Sofijanova is a highly politicized figure who state-affiliated media routinely depict as a humanitarian who supports ruling politicians whenever possible.
Biljana Nikolovska, a journalist who has covered the case from the beginning, commented on Facebook a few days after Tamara died about all that she had observed:
I research, I talk to physicians and I get the information that the Spinal Center for Scoliosis is in the works and should be opened in two months. I tell myself is it possible that this is the reason for delaying Tamara's surgery. Do they keep her under wraps in order to have another photo op? Medical doctors tell me that they have expert colleagues in the country, for whom such an operation would be easy, a “piece of cake.” Why, then, the opinion of the Consilium [committee] stating the opposite? I publish everything, but can't get official statements from anybody.
Shortly before her daughter’s death, Zhaklina Dimovska was reported to have approached the Prime Minster Nikola Gruevski and personally begged for his mercy to obtain approval for the surgery. An administrative letter dated February 6 approving the operation was not sent until February 11, two days after Tamara died. The letter, pictured below, contained no expression of condolence.
First page of the administrative letter regarding Tamara Dimovska's treatment. Image courtesy Novatv.mk
Over the last two weeks, Macedonians have taken to social media using the hashtags #ОставкаЗаТодоров (resignation for Todorov) and #ТодорOFF (Todorov-OFF), calling for the resignation of Health Minister Nikola Todorov, who had promised Tamara's family in November 2014 that the government would pay for her surgery. Over 18,000 people have lent their support to the campaign, led by the family and media personality Ognen Janeski.
On February 19, a small group of people wearing blank masks, as a symbol of the faceless heartlessness of institutions, protested in front of the Ministry of Health. Organized by the civic platform AJDE!, the demonstration demanded resignations from the health minister, committee members, and health insurance fund managers and board members.
A few days later, thousands of people led by Janevski and Tamara's mother gathered in front of the health insurance fund and marched through the main streets of Skopje to the Ministry of Health.
No medical professionals involved in the case have faced prosecution as of yet. In light of public protests, two public health insurance fund officials resigned.
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights has filed charges against Todorov for abuse of power and authority in the case, but it's unclear if the public prosecutor will act on them.
Todorov has defended himself, saying he did everything he could “and even more than that” to approve the funds for Tamara's surgery. In a separate interview on state TV, he referred to the girl's death as an unfortunate event that overshadows his reforms to the country's healthcare system.
On February 21, he announced that the government will be hiring 2,000 new medical personnel — 700 doctors and nurses, and the rest janitors and other technical staff.
Conversations on social networks and coverage in the country’s small but fierce independent media today provide ample evidence of the need for greater accountability among public officials in the country. Between public outcry over economic reforms and unemployment — which is the highest in Europe, at 30% — and the case of Tamara Dimovska, it seems that Macedonia may soon reach a boiling point.

author: Ellery Roberts Biddle


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Parliament Watchdog Connects Ugandans to Women MPs Through Twitter · Global Voices
Prudence Nyamishana

Uganda's parliament in session. Photo used with permission from parliament Watch Uganda.
Ugandans are taking advantage of social media to bridge the gap between citizens and legislators, thanks to Parliament Watch Uganda, a virtual tracker that monitors the Parliament of Uganda on a regular basis and provides both relevant data and expert analysis.
On 26 February, 2015, the initiative organized the #MPsEngage Twitter chat with women members of Parliament (MPs) to discuss the topic ‘Making Women Count in Legislative Processes’. Three audiences participated in the chat in real time: the people of Gulu in Northern Uganda, female members of parliament and Uganda's social media audience.
Gulu is a post conflict district in Northern Uganda. It was the center of conflict between the government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Women in the area face many challenges inherited from the war and the general neglect of the central government.
Members of the audience in Gulu asked questions via microphones, which were tweeted to the MPs by a social media expert in the audience.
During the chat, the female MPs were tasked to take stock of their achievements and challenges that they've faced during their term in office.
Ugandan social media users took it upon themselves to comment, quote and direct the attention of their followers to #MPsEngage.
Do women in Uganda have full access to participation in all political process and decision making in UG? #MPsEngage pic.twitter.com/8Oz5PlWDk1
— Parliament Watch (@pwatchug) February 25, 2015
Ugandan journalist and blogger Raymond Qatahar observed:
Taking an observatory eye into the #MPsEngage . Glad that finally, a technological solution has been found to connect legislators to p'ple
— Qatahar Raymond (@qataharraymond) February 26, 2015
Jackie Asiimwe, a Ugandan lawyer, asked:
When will we ever ask male MPs how they are advancing the cause of women, because they too are voted by and represent women. #MPsEngage
— Jacqueline Asiimwe (@asiimwe4justice) February 26, 2015
Kollin Rukundo brought up the issue of the marriage and divorce bill. The bill, among other things, makes asset-sharing mandatory in a divorce, provides cohabiting partners with property rights and makes marital rape illegal:
Referring to Marriage & Divorce Bill “How can an MP pick one clause(divorce) and use it demonise the entire bill?”- Miria Matembe #MPsEngage
— Kollin Rukundo T (@kollinsayz) February 26, 2015
Quoting Miria Matembe, a former minster of ethics and integrity, Jackie Asiimwe said:
MPs don't use their power properly. Instead they do the work of the Executive – building schools, supplying medicines – Matembe #MPsEngage
— Jacqueline Asiimwe (@asiimwe4justice) February 26, 2015
Daniel Turitwenka, a social media consultant, shared a photo of a participant in Gulu, northern Uganda, in a live phone conversation during the chat:
#Gulu had a live phone conversation with @UWOPA chair Betty Amongi – answering and directly #MPsEngage pic.twitter.com/R5IvjNyy46
— Danny T (@DannyT_UG) February 26, 2015
He quoted one of the participants:
#Gulu Mr Okello says separation of children and parents is an issue and urges @pwatchug to keep bringing the MPs to answer qns #MPsEngage
— Danny T (@DannyT_UG) February 26, 2015
Gulu residents made their needs known:
#Gulu everyone should have access to reproductive health. still a lot of women lack this! #MPsEngage pic.twitter.com/DzYSvJNHyj
— Parliament Watch (@pwatchug) February 26, 2015
They decried poor service delivery:
#Gulu “our women die every day and night because of lack of midwives! This can not be tolerated!” #MPsEngage pic.twitter.com/yVat6StZEg
— Danny T (@DannyT_UG) February 26, 2015
Although the chat took place on Twitter, Denis R Tumusiime noted that female MPs have not yet embraced social media:
@deejahn @she_infinite I am yet to see a tweet from a female mp. #MPsEngage
— Dennis R. Tusiime (@drwatooro) February 26, 2015
As the debate drew to a close, Jackie Asiimwe, the lawyer, noted that engagement should not be a one-off:
Our time here is coming to an end, but the conversation continues. We must all engage our MPs all the time. #MPsEngage
— Jacqueline Asiimwe (@asiimwe4justice) February 26, 2015

author: Prudence Nyamishana


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Russian Opposition Politician Boris Nemtsov Shot and Killed in Moscow · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Boris Nemtsov at a rally in support of prisoners of the Bolotnaya square case, 21 February 2014. Photo by Ilya Schurov. CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opposition politician, former Russian deputy prime minister, and one of Vladimir Putin's top critics, has been shot and killed in Moscow. The murder took place in downtown Moscow, minutes from the Kremlin, on a bridge south of the Red Square.
Ilya Yashin, another opposition politician, was the first to confirm Nemtsov's death on Twitter.
Немцова застрелили. Он мертв.
— Илья Яшин (@IlyaYashin) February 27, 2015
Nemtsov has been shot. He is dead.
Journalists and activists were the first to arrive at the scene.
Фотография нашего корреспондента с Большого Каменного моста, места убийства Бориса Немцова pic.twitter.com/1rEW3KobXy
— Медиазона (@mediazzzona) February 27, 2015
A photo from our reporter from the Bolshoy Kamenny bridge, where Boris Nemtsov has been killed.
Just hours before his death, Nemtsov appeared on the Ekho Mosvky radio station to promote a Sunday march that he was supposed to lead with other opposition members to protest the Kremlin's handling of Russia's economic crisis and the conflict in Ukraine.
As the RuNet learned about the tragic event, many were shocked and saddened. Fellow politicians, journalists, and commentators expressed their condolences and shared recollections of Nemtsov. Some also commented on the possible motives for the killing.
There's an opposition march on Sunday. Navalny has been put in jail so he'd miss it. Then they went and shot Nemtsov.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) February 27, 2015
Не просто оппозиционера, бывшего вице-премьера убили.
— Tatiana Souvorova (@tsuvorova) February 27, 2015
They didn't just kill an opposition figure, they killed a former deputy prime minister.
Journalist and opposition member Ksenia Sobchak shared memories of Nemtsov.
Знала его хорошо и очень любила. Он обожал жизнь,был настоящим демократом очень порядочным человеком.
— Ксения Собчак (@xenia_sobchak) February 27, 2015
I knew him well and loved him very much. He adored life, was a true democrat, and a very decent person.
Opposition Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov and journalist Sergey Parkhomenko thought the intolerance of state propaganda was at least partly to blame for the tragic event.
Однозначно политическое убийство. Даже если не по заказу, то в результате той ненависти, которую пропагандировала наша власть
— Дмитрий Гудков (@gudkovd) February 27, 2015
An obvious political killing. Even if this was not a contract hit, it was a result of the hate propagated by our authorities.
А кто-то думал, это истерическое безумие, которое год уже нагоняет госпропаганда, – оно даром пройдет?
— Serguei Parkhomenko (@Sparkhom) February 27, 2015
Did anyone think the hysterical craze that the state propaganda has been generating for a year was just going to dissipate?
Opposition leader Garry Kasparov, who now lives abroad, expressed his condolences as well.
Devastated to hear of the brutal murder of my long-time opposition colleague Boris Nemtsov. Shot 4 times, once for each child he leaves.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) February 27, 2015
The US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, was equally stunned by the death.
Nemtsov was a real patriot, who believed in the possibility of Russia's greatness. I cry now both for his family & the country he so loved.
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) February 27, 2015
Vladimir Putin has reportedly said Nemtsov's death “bears all the marks of a contract killing” and was likely intended to stir unrest or damage the Kremlin's reputation. According to his press secretary, Putin has personally ordered the heads of the Investigative Committee, the Federal Security Service, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to oversee the investigation into the murder. Other political forces, including members of the Russian Communist party and LDPR, have also called the killing “a provocation” aimed at destabilizing the political situation and hardening “anti-Russian sentiment.”
A little over two weeks ago, in an interview with Sobesednik.ru, Nemtsov said his mother feared for his life, worrying that Putin might have him killed. (Nemtsov said he wasn't as panicked as his mother.) According to colleague Ilya Yashin, Nemtsov was working on a report about the involvement of the Russian military in the conflict in Ukraine. Nemtsov's lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, said the politician recently received several death threats over social media.
After the police removed the body from the scene, Muscovites started bringing flowers to the bridge.
первые цветы вот. и лужа крови прямо на тротуаре. pic.twitter.com/7mdtZ7pfKy
— Егор Максимов (@egor_mq) February 27, 2015
here are the first flowers. and a puddle of blood right there on the sidewalk.
The organizers of the March 1 opposition rally have already said they're canceling the rally and holding a memorial in downtown Moscow, instead. There are already plans to appeal to city officials for a permit, though the mayor's office has been less than accommodating in the past.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Students in Amsterdam Form ‘The New University’, Demanding Reforms · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

Students occupying the Bungehuis at the University of Amsterdam. Photo taken from newuni.nl with permission.
A group of students and protesters operating under the name De Nieuwe Universiteit (The New University) have occupied the humanities building of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Bungehuis, in protest against planned funding cuts to the university's humanities department.
The Dutch website NLTimes reported that the demonstration involved two aspects:
… the occupation of the Bungehuis on Spuistraat by members of the De Nieuwe Universiteit organization and a demonstration by members of the Humanities Rally, an organisation which previously planned a student march and rally. A group of approximately 20 people barricaded themselves in the building beginning at 4:30 a.m., leaning out of windows, dangling banners and occasionally throwing confetti onto the masses gathered at the door.
So how did this all start?
Humanities Rally spokesperson Tivadar Vervoort told NLTimes that the protests were launched because of “a program released for 2016 by the administrative board of the university” which “describes merging multiple bachelor courses [such as Philosophy, History, Dutch Literature and English Literature] into a single liberal arts program.”
The reason for the merger is an allocation model based on the number of students who graduate per faculty. As the number of Humanities graduates has decreased in recent years, so has the budget allocated to the department.
To tackle this issue, students are finding inspiration in previous generations’ desire for increased student participation in university affairs.
“The University of Amsterdam has a history of citizen participation, democratization and protests”, Rik Van Eijk, one of the students protesting, told Global Voices.
Maagdenhuis, 1969 — 2015. pic.twitter.com/xmvctQ2ySX
— Selj (@gandyphoebus) February 25, 2015
Van Eijk is referring to the time when the Maagdenhuis, the building currently being occupied, was occupied for 5 days in the 1960s by students demanding a greater role in university affairs. At the time, UvA was governed exclusively by directors and professors. The current situation bears some resemblance to that of the 60s, says Van Eijk, except now both students and teaching faculty are being silenced by the will of the board of directors.
The teachers and students demanded a different plan which involved fewer sacrifices. Several working groups were created and alternative plans were drawn up. These plans were published in January but, according to Van Eijk, were largely ignored by the board — a claim also made by Vervoort, the rally spokesman.
This lead to the ‘New University’ movement which started on February 13 and lasted for 11 days before being broken up by riot police last Tuesday. A total of 46 protesters were arrested, and have since been released. A larger protest was organized the following day and over 1,000 people attended it, “although personally I think they were more”, Van Eijk noted.
Soon after, around 300 students and teachers moved to occupy Het Maagdenhuis, UvA's central campus.
The protesters created a website which includes a livestream of the Occupation as well as their demands, which read:
1. Democratic election of the university board
2. Change of the allocation model: finance based on input, not on efficiency
3. Cancellation of the current Profiel 2016
4. Referendums per institute and programme about collaboration between the UvA and the VU at the FNWI (Faculty of Science)
5. Fixed contracts instead of flexible staff appointments
6. An open debate about housing costs in relation to budget cuts of reseach and education.
In connection to this: retaining the Bungehuis as UvA-location
The general motivation behind all these demands is discontent with the current ways of management. Top down, efficiency-oriented management damages the very thing a university should revolve around: research and education.
Ingrid Robeyns of the Crooked Timber blog further explained:
[The students] are protesting what you could call the increasingly utilitarian or economistic approach to higher education and science policy. I can’t give you all the details in this post, but the story is familiar, and sounds quite similar to what has been happening in the UK (my hunch is that the Netherlands is following the UK’s path, with a few years time lag).
The reference to the United Kingdom is a poignant one. In November last year, Stefan Grimm, a professor of toxicology in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London was found dead at his home, having apparently committed suicide.
An email he wrote and sent to colleagues before his death quickly went viral. In it he accused the university of turning itself into a business.
“This is not a university anymore but a business with very few up in the hierarchy…profiteering and the rest of us are milked for money,” he wrote, echoing the sentiment of Richard Hall who described the University as an “Anxiety Machine“.
Grimm had reportedly been under consistent pressure to justify his position at Imperial College by bringing in funding for research projects.
One email Grimm received from a superior at Imperial read:
I am of the opinion that you are struggling to fulfil the metrics of a Professorial post at Imperial College which include maintaining established funding in a programme of research with an attributable share of research spend of £200k [per annum] and must now start to give serious consideration as to whether you are performing at the expected level of a Professor at Imperial College.

author: Elia J. Ayoub


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How One Woman Reacted to China’s Terrible Smog · Global Voices
Owen Guo

Chai addresses her audience with a picture from the smog-filled Northeastern city of Harbin in the background. Cropped screenshot from ‘China's Haze: Under the Dome’.
As a famed investigative reporter, Chai Jing worked on many hard-hitting features about China’s environmental woes. But since becoming pregnant  in 2013 — and discovering her baby was carrying a tumour in her womb — the country's runaway pollution has become personal, prompting her to ponder solutions to China’s trouble in the air.
Chai's baby survived following surgery performed last year, but Chai was left shattered and unable to enjoy the feeling of motherhood. She decided to quit her job at China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, to take care of her daughter.
Chai continued reporting, however, and her new independent documentary about China’s smog problem — a topic close to Chinese hearts and a giant political headache for the country's decision makers — has exploded on Chinese social media.
The nearly two-hour documentary, titled ‘Under the Dome’ went viral shortly after its release on Saturday. By Sunday morning, ‘#Chai Jing’s smog investigation’ was the top trending topic on China’s Twitter equivalent, Sina Weibo, and had already generated more than 30 million views on various Chinese video sharing platforms.
Packed with sobering pollution data and compelling personal anecdotes, the self-funded production has turned a spotlight on smog.
“This is my personal grudge with the smog. I need to know where it comes from and I need to figure out everything connected to it,” Chai tells viewers, adding that her daughter had to be “locked up like a prisoner” at home for half a year in 2014 due to the air pollution.
The documentary sees a softly-spoken Chai addressing a live audience in a style similar to a TED talk, with regular interludes for animations and footage of smoke-belching factories and thick lines of traffic in China's major cities.
As part of the investigation, Chai took field trips to polluting factories and even London and Los Angeles to revisit moments in smog history that have claimed thousands of lives.
What emerges from the documentary is a hard critical look at China’s over-reliance on dirty fossil fuels, its bloated heavy industries and its lax enforcement of environmental statutes.
Sixty percent of Chinese smog comes from the burning of coal and gasoline, the documentary notes, citing reports published by Chinese research institutions.
Today China is the world's largest consumer of coal, which accounts for 70% of the country's total energy consumption. Worse still, according to Chai's documentary, China washes less than half its coal, limiting the country's ability to reduce pollution and enhance fuel efficiency.
Despite Beijing's pledge to crack down on polluting industries — regularly endorsed by President Xi Jinping — resistance to environmental reform is likely to linger.
At one moment in the documentary, when Chai asks a Chinese environment official why the government cannot simply shut polluting steel plants, he offers an amazed rebuttal: “Are you joking? A steel plant with a yearly capacity of 10 million tons usually employs 100,000 workers, there is no way you could close steel plants in Hebei province.”
The documentary also highlights reluctance on the part of oil majors in China to impose more environmentally friendly gasoline standards. In most Western countries, gasoline standards are usually set by environmental authorities, but in China such powers rest with huge state-owned oil companies such as China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) and Sinopec.
The Chinese phrase for smog, (雾霾 pronounced Wu Mai) consists of two characters, fog and haze, and has only become more widely used in recent years, largely as a result of growing public demand for better air quality and a drumbeat of media reports detailing health risks.
Public discussion of the issue gained traction in January of 2013, when one key pollution indicator, (PM2.5, measuring fine particulates of less than 2.5 units in the air), went off the charts. PM2.5 is seen as particularly dangerous to public health as it can penetrate human lungs. The highest reading that month was close to 1000, nearly 40 times what the World Health Organization (WHO) deems safe for human beings.
While the documentary itself is not groundbreaking, it is the most comprehensive Chinese TV reporting on smog to date. Its release comes on the heels of a recent leadership reshuffle at China’s environment ministry, with the reform-minded former president of the elite Tsinghua University, Chen Jining, parachuted into the agency's top post.
Chen said on Sunday that he had already watched the documentary and sent a text message to Chai to thank her for raising public attention towards environmental issues, according to Chinese media reports.
In less than a week's time, at the annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC), pollution will be one of the hottest topics discussed.
Towards the end of the documentary, Chai strikes a defiant tone:
One day, tens of thousands of ordinary folks will say no. They will say they are not satisfied, they don’t want to wait and they don’t want to evade responsibility. I have to stand up and do something, and I will do it right now, right here, in the very moment where I am. I am the change.
She then casts her eye towards a rotating planet earth in the background (01:43:56 in the documentary) and makes an appeal as a mother:
One day I will leave this world but my child will still be living on the planet. That is why this planet concerns me. That is why I stare at it in the same way I stare at you. That is why I will protect it the way I protect you.

author: Owen Guo


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Aggressive Protests and Fake Images Stoke Tensions Between Hong Kong and China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Notice of restriction of powdered formula allowance at the Guangzhou-Kowloon Through Train departure concourse of Hung Hom Station in 2013. Wikipedia.
Tensions between Hongkongers and mainland Chinese have escalated sharply amid a series of protests in the former British colony against the influx of mainland tourists and parallel goods traders during the period before and after the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Some mainland netizens found the protests offensive, while a fabricated image of a Hong Kong movie director's Facebook status, in which he appeared to be calling mainland Chinese ‘dogs’, has sparked an outburst of hatred towards Hong Kong.
As the image went viral on Chinese social media the infamous censors of the People's Republic — never keen to show Hong Kong in a good light — did nothing to stem the wildfire.
Following its unification with China in 1997, Hong Kong has maintained a high level of political and economic autonomy under the policy of ‘One Country Two Systems’.
Yet China has appeared to be going back on that agreement in recent years, by depriving Hong Kong citizens’ right to nominate their city's top leader, which has led to broad mistrust of the Beijing government there. Political tensions have been transformed into growing social conflicts between the two populations over the years.
The latest round of acrimony stems from the food security crisis in mainland China, which has created a booming demand for goods from Hong Kong.
In addition, the multiple entrance visa policy that allows unrestricted entry for visitors from 49 mainland Chinese cities and provinces has resulted in large inflows of mainland tourists. In 2014, the total number of visits to Hong Kong from mainland China reached 60 million. Some — known as parallel traders — take advantage of the visa for business opportunities.
Everyday, parallel traders collect daily necessities including infant milk formula, medicines, snacks and even rice from stores and pharmacies in Hong Kong. The traders then order the goods hand-carried across the border to mainland China.
The situation has severely hampered the daily lives of residents from the northern districts of the New Territories near the border, so-called after concessions made by China to Great Britain in 1898, as local stores there have begun catering to the needs of parallel traders buying in bulk rather than locals.
In response to the tensions, Hong Kong's government has promised to raise the issue with Beijing, requesting authorities amend the multiple entry visa policy and impose a quota on entries into Hong Kong.
Offensive protests
Chinese netizens found the protests against parallel traders during the Chinese Lunar New Year offensive as photos showing Hong Kong protesters finger-pointing at Chinese tourists travelled back to mainland China via social media.
Many mainland Chinese netizens found Hong Kong protesters finger-pointing at tourists very offensive. Photo from Liu Shengjun's Weibo.
Financial Times Reporter Liu Shengjun posted one of the most controversial photos, which showed masked protesters yelling at a tourist couple on his Weibo. Liu commented:
【小小殖民地香港竟敢如此辱我中华】在香港，内地游客被称为“蝗虫”。上周日，在九广铁路沿线一家郊区购物中心发生了示威，香港警方逮捕了六名示威男子。一名示威者挥舞着殖民地时代的旗帜。还有一些人朝内地购物者大喊“滚回家”。这张照片令人震撼，斯可忍孰不可忍？！
[How dare tiny colony Hong Kong insult China like this] In Hong Kong, mainland Chinese tourists are called “locusts”. Last Sunday, a protest took place in a shopping center on the outskirts of the city along the Kwoloon-Canton railway line. Hong Kong police arrested six protesters. One of the protesters was holding a British-Hong Kong colony flag. Some yelled “get lost. go home” and shooed the tourists away. This photo is shocking.
‘Exercise book’, a popular mainland Chinese microblogger that has written in support of Hong Kong's democratic development and is aware that the protesters represent an extreme minority, also found the protest photos shocking:
看到這照片之後，我對這些身份不明的示威者間充滿厭惡，甚至有了打人的衝動。。。這些人的身份與來歷，我無從查起，是否受到煽動或者指派，也無從獲知，但這種惡毒嘴臉與無耻舉動的確是「發自肺腑的真誠」。[…] 你們對著觀光購物者表達你們對水客的抗議你們不覺得自已是傻逼麼？世界上有哪一個地方禁止觀光者購物麼？沒有 […] 所以，你們不是真正的示威者，你們是老鼠屎。挑撥矛盾，制造禍端，引起紛爭。。。你們不配住在香港，朝鮮是你們最好的歸宿。
Upon seeing this photo, I find the anonymous protesters so disgusting. I even want to beat them up… I don't know these people's background, whether or not they are being assigned or instigated to do such a thing. But from their shameless and angry gestures, their hatred is sincere. […] Don't you find yourself stupid for protesting against shopping tourists in order to express your anger towards the parallel traders? Where in the whole world would ban tourists from shopping? Nowhere! […] You are not real protesters, you are rat shit, stirring up conflicts, scourges and disputes… you don't deserve to live in Hong Kong, North Korea is the best settlement for you.
A fabricated screen capture of Hong Kong director Pang Ho Cheung's Facebook status went viral on mainland Chinese social media. Photo from Weibo.
Fuel to the fire
As if feelings were not already at boiling point, a photoshopped screen-capture of Hong Kong movie director Pang Hoi Cheung's Facebook status went viral on a large number of Wechat friend's circles on February 26.
The fake screen-capture image with Pang's photo read:
賺了你大陸人的錢，不代表就需要尊重你們，照樣把你們當狗
Earning money from you mainlanders doesn't mean [we have to] respect you. [We can] still treat you like dogs.
Underneath the photoshopped image an anonymous user had attached a message calling to cut electricity, gas, water and supplies of agricultural products to Hong Kong from mainland China:
支持香港取消自由行，還香港人民一個清靜。同樣支持取消廣東電網對港供電，取消東深供水工程對港供水，取消「三趟快車」對港農副產品輸入，取消西二線求大段管道對港供氣，還香港人民一個清靜，給廣東人民減少壓力！我是中國人！（這個必須轉）
Support the abolition of multiple individual travel visa policy and let Hong Kong people enjoy their quiet lives. At the same time, support the cancellation of electricity supply from the Guangdong [metropolis in mainland China] electric grid, water supply from the Dong-Shen water supply project, the “three express trains” for the importation of agricultural products, as well as the gas that flows via the Xier gas pipe. Let Hongkongers enjoy their quietness and reduce the pressure on people in Guangdong! I am Chinese! (Must forward this!)
Movie director Pang, an outspoken supporter of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, was an obvious target for a viral campaign. Despite the fact he explained via Weibo that the image was fabricated, it had already travelled far and stirred up hatred among mainland Chinese netizens.
Angry comments echoing the call for cutting electricity, water and food supply flooded all major social media platforms.
Distorting the conversation
It seems unlikely that such a massive mobilisation of online public opinion could have happened without a nod from China's web censors. Topics related to Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement have been subject to heavy censorship on Chinese social media platforms, yet authorities allow pro-Beijing newspapers and groups based in Hong Kong to lead online discussions.
With an attempt to address the distorted communication across the border, inmediahk.net compared the number of followers of pro-Beijing newspapers in Hong Kong on Facebook and Weibo to show the political role being played by China's mouthpieces:
三大左報更重要的功能，是製作「給內地人看的香港新聞」，三大左報在在內地社交媒體均有「強大」的傳播力，其中在新浪微博上，《香港商報》有近30萬粉絲，《香港文匯網》有近30萬粉絲，《大公報 – 大公網》更有近133萬粉絲。
三大左報發佈相關新聞及「帖子」，成為不少內地網民討論及轉發的「資料來源」。內地網民把對內地人有不滿的都歸類為黃絲，亦不懂分辨雨傘運動支持者及驅逐水貨客人士，甚至和港獨劃上等號，令內地人增加對香港不滿，不會支持香港的民主運動。
The major function of the three newspapers is to write ‘Hong Kong news for mainland Chinese’, their reach in mainland Chinese social media is great. On Sina Weibo, Hong Kong Commercial Daily has 300,000 fans, Wen Hui Bao also has around 300,000, Tai Kung Pao's number of fans has reached 1,330,000.
The news that [these newspapers] distribute has become the main source of information for mainland Chinese netizens discussing Hong Kong. These netizens consider yellow ribbon [pro-democracy Hongkongers] as the driving force of Hong Kong society's antagonism towards mainland Chinese and they cannot differentiate between the protesters from the Umbrella Movement and anti-parallel trade campaigns. Some of them even see [the yellow ribbon] as supporters of Hong Kong's independence. As tensions between China and Hong Kong escalate, mainland Chinese public opinion will not support democratic development in Hong Kong.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Duma Deputies Challenge Food Import Ban, and President Putin · Global Voices
Will Wright

Images edited by Kevin Rothrock.
In a challenge to the power of the Russian presidency, five State Duma deputies recently introduced legislation aimed at rolling back Russia's current “counter-sanctions” regime.
In early August 2014, the Kremlin countered Western sanctions over Moscow's actions toward Ukraine with an executive order banning the import of a broad range of food and agricultural products from Europe and the United States.
The Duma deputies’ bold new bill, published on the official government website on February 25, was proposed by four A Just Russia deputies, Valery Zubov, Sergey Petrov, Sergey Dornonin, and Mikhail Serdyuk, along with the independent deputy Dmitry Gudkov, who was expelled from A Just Russia in March 2013.
The legislation calls for amending the current laws “On Special Economic Measures” and “On National Security” to stipulate that enacting special economic measures, such as the counter-sanctions, would require the approval of the Parliament, and could not be done by executive decree.
In justifying the need for this change, the deputies cite Article 34, Section 1, of the Russian Constitution:
Статья 34.  1. Каждый имеет право на свободное использование своих способностей и имущества для предпринимательской и иной не запрещенной законом экономической деятельности.
Article 34.  1. Everyone shall have the right to the free use of his or her abilities and property for entrepreneurial and economic activities not prohibited by law.
The deputies argue that the ban on the import of food products, which are “beneficial and safe for the health of citizens,” violates Article 34 of the Constitution by depriving Russian firms of products vital to their business models for which there exists no economically reasonable alternative.
To illustrate this point, the proposal tells the story of a Murmansk fish plant that had been in business since 1927, but was forced to shut down due to the import ban.
The deputies also acknowledge Article 55 of the Russian Constitution in their proposal, however, which states:
Статья 55.  3. Права и свободы человека и гражданина могут быть ограничены федеральным законом только в той мере, в какой это необходимо в целях защиты основ конституционного строя, нравственности, здоровья, прав и законных интересов других лиц, обеспечения обороны страны и безопасности государства.
Article 55.  3. The rights and freedoms of citizens may be limited by federal law only to the extent necessary for the protection of the fundamental principles of the constitutional system, morality, health, the rights and lawful interests of other people, and for ensuring national defense and state security.
This constitutional article underlies the Kremlin's framing of counter-sanctions as a defensive response to external aggression, in the form of Western sanctions, and therefore as defense of the state.
As the story gained traction in the Russian media, former Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin took to Twitter to weigh in on the proposal:
Продовольственные антисанкции были не срочные. Они ударили и по самим россиянам. Лучше было обсудить их в Думе
— Алексей Кудрин (@Aleksei_Kudrin) February 26, 2015
The food anti-sanctions were not an urgent matter. They have hurt Russians themselves. It would have been better to discuss them in the Duma
Sergey Mitrokhin, leader of the liberal opposition party Yabloko, expressed support for the proposal on Twitter, as well:
“ЯБЛОКО” поддерживает законопроект @gudkovd, запрещающий Путину вводить “антисанкции” http://t.co/xsCAjQsYBO pic.twitter.com/H4OWlLyw0W
— Сергей Митрохин (@mitrokhin) February 26, 2015
“YABLOKO” supports @gudkovd‘s [bill co-sponsor Dmitry Gudkov's] legislation forbidding Putin to enact “anti-sanctions”
The “anti-crisis” march that the Russian opposition had planned to hold on March 1, before the shocking murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in downtown Moscow on Friday, February 27, also listed the cancellation of the counter-sanctions as a demand, identifying the counter-sanctions as the cause of significant food price inflation in Russia. The organizers of the March 1 event have since announced that a memorial for Nemtsov will be held on Sunday in Moscow in place of the march.
The reaction to the proposed legislation was not all positive, of course.
Senator Evgeny Tarlo of the ruling United Russia party quickly announced his intention to introduce legislation giving the president the right to take any economic, political, informational, or other measures against countries that impose unilateral sanctions against Russia. Tarlo explained to Slon that the countries imposing sanctions are carrying out an economic, information, and political war against Russia that is making it necessary for Russia to defend herself, “so we need to give the president the right to respond promptly to such actions.”
For its part, A Just Russia's leadership reprimanded the four deputies who joined Dmitry Gudkov in sponsoring the bill, and demanded that they withdraw their support.
This legislation has practically no chance of being adopted by a legislative branch controlled by regime loyalists in a political climate in which President Putin's approval rating may be as high as 86 percent.
The very fact that a handful of Duma deputies felt emboldened to present such a proposal challenging the president's power, however, may hint at wider whispers of discontent about Russia's gloomy economic situation and controversial foreign policy course.

author: Will Wright