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Chinese Netizens Want Their Government to Take a Hard Line on North Korea’s Nuclear Testing · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

China and North Korea border. Photo from VOA Chinese.
North Korea announced on January 6, 2016, that it had carried out the country's first hydrogen bomb test. Though experts doubted if the explosion was really caused by H-bomb, China's earthquake administration detected a 4.9 magnitude tremor along North Korea and China's border, and news wires from both Japan and South Korea said the quakes were caused by the test.
Instead of condemning the nuclear test, Beijing took a more moderate stance, saying it “firmly opposes” the test and urged North Korea to “remain committed to its denuclearisation commitment”.
On the other hand, Chinese netizens grew more and more impatient with the government's tolerance of their “insane” neighbor. It wasn't only polarizing US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who said China is the one who should deal with North Korea. On Chinese Twitter-like Weibo, many voiced their criticism of the government's diplomatic policy in a news thread discussing North Korea's H-bomb test.
Below are a selection of popular comments that have received more than 1,000 likes:
氢弹！难道该担心的不是我们吗，这么危险的武器掌握在一个如此危险的国家掌握在一个独裁者手上！大家真觉得很好笑吗！？
H-bomb! Shouldn't we be the one to worry about? Such a dangerous weapon is under the control of the dictator of such a dangerous country? Do you think this is a joke?!
邻居是个疯子，还是一个手握武器的疯子
Our neighbor is a nut, a nut with weapon.
天朝负一大半责任！！！
The heavenly kingdom [of China] should bear half of the responsibility!!!
其实中国应该介入制裁它了，朝鲜就是流氓国家，说不定哪天这氢弹就放在中国院内
China should sanction it. North Korea is a thug, someday it will bring a H-bomb to China's courtyard.
天朝居然还在包庇一个流氓国家，真应该感到羞愧天朝居然还在包庇一个流氓国家，真应该感到羞愧
The heavenly kingdom is still protecting this thug. We should be ashamed that the heavenly kingdom is still protecting this thug, we should be ashamed.
呵呵 没有地图西边这位哥支持能养出来这么个玩意儿？ 到时候氢弹往哪里胡还指不定呢。美国养个is，脱缰了。你中国再养个朝鲜,到时候 呵呵
Ha! Without the support of its brother located to the west on the map, how can [North Korea] gets a hold of this new toy? We can't be sure what direction the H-bomb is pointing. The US fed the ISIS, now it has gone wild. You, China, are now feeding North Korea. When the time comes…
那么多饲料，养了一个祸害！辐射到东北了吧
Spent so much feeding a disaster! Radiation can travel to Dongbei [China's northeastern region], right?
The frustration of Chinese netizens was explained in commentary by Chang Ping, who stressed that China is the major victim of North Korea nuclear tests:
谁是它一系列核试验的直接受害者？答案不言而喻：中国，甚至只有中国。世界上没有任何国家像朝鲜这样，尚在武器试验阶段就对他国造成实际损伤。[…]
朝鲜核试验最有可能对韩国和日本造成直接伤害的部分是核辐射。对此，中国外交部帮助朝鲜撇清说，到目前为止，试验没有对环境及公共卫生造成影响。倘若真是如此，日韩两国也是在为未来担忧。中国东北边境的民众的感受却并非如此。据中国央视报道，位于中朝边界的延吉、珲春、长白县等地均有明显震感。延吉市民家中桌椅摇晃，有单位对室内人员进行了疏散。一高中操场地面出现裂纹，紧急疏散学生，考试中断。可以肯定的是，弹丸之地的朝鲜若进行更大杀伤力的核试验，中国很有可能出现人员伤亡。另有报道指出，朝鲜多次进行核试验对中朝边境土壤和地下水的污染，并不像中国外交部说的那样轻松。[…]
长期的政治宣传，让很多中国人以为，朝鲜是中国的手足兄弟，是反对美国霸权的亲密战友。事实上，历史告诉我们，往往等不到外御其侮，兄弟就会先阋于墙。中国和苏联之间曾经差点爆发核战争，和越南之间则发生了惨烈的”自卫还击战”。在未来，朝鲜和中国之间发生冲突的可能性，远远大过它和美国兵戎相见。
Who is the victim of [North Korea's] series of nuclear tests? The answer is clear: China and only China. There is no other country in this world like North Korea which has brought damage to others during nuclear weapon tests. […]
The potential damage done to South Korea and Japan in the nuclear tests is nuclear radiation. But the Chinese foreign ministry has helped North Korea by announcing that the tests thus far have not done any harm to the environment or public health. Which means the threat to Japan and South Korea is still in the future tense. But that's not the case for people living in the northeast region of China. According to China Central Television's report, earthquakes occurred along the border of China and North Korea including in Yanji, Hunchun and Changbai provinces. For those living in Yanji, they felt their furniture shaking and some offices evacuated their employees. Cracks appeared in the playground of a high school and students were evacuated. Their exams were interrupted. If North Korea continues to test its nuclear weaponry, more catastrophes could occur in China. Some reports said that the series of tests polluted the soil and ground water along the border. [The public sentiment is] not as calm as the Chinese foreign minister's response.
Propaganda has made many Chinese believe that North Korea is China's brother and comrade in fighting against the US hegemony. But history tells us that humiliation usually comes from within. The brothers end up fighting against each other. China and the USSR were on the verge of entering nuclear war; China and Vietnam had the most bloody war. In the future, the chances of a China-North Korea war is higher than China-US.
Chinese economist Han Zhiguo posted on Weibo a map of the H-bomb test site in North Korea to indicate the impact of the North Korean nuclear crisis on China and commented:
Map showing the H-bomb test site in North Korea. It is much closer to China than any other country. Image from Han's Weibo.
【 对朝鲜不能养痈遗患 】 朝鲜在中国东北附近进行核试验可谓一石双鸟：既震慑美日韩又直接给中国好看。对朝核问题，中国一直忍让规劝，没有与国际社会一道进行制裁，其结果就是养痈遗患：朝鲜不但有了原子弹，而且还有了氢弹。美日韩都有美国反导系统保护，中国东北如何才能避免核污染和核事故灾难？
Should not breed a virus to do harm concerning North Korea: North Korea is hitting two birds with its one nuclear test: threatening the US, Japan and South Korea, and showing off to China. China has been dealing with the issue with tolerance rather than joining the international communities to sanction the country. The consequence is breeding a virus: North Korea has a nuclear H-bomb. While the US, Japan and South Korea are equipped with anti-missile weapons, how can the northeastern region of China protect itself from nuclear pollution and disaster?

author: Oiwan Lam


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Could Cricketer Chris Gayle’s Gaffe Inspire Caribbean Men to ‘Man Up and Know How to Behave’? · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Chris Gayle at the Prime Ministers 11 Cricket match in Canberra 2010. Photo by NAPARAZZI, used under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
The backlash against West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle's remarks to Australian sports reporter Melanie McLaughlin is growing. Not only was Gayle fined by his team for hitting on McLaughlin during a post-match interview, it now seems as if his cricketing career down under may be over.
Caribbean netizens stand divided on the issue, with some saying that “he should pay for his stupidity and arrogance” and others of the firm view that Gayle is being victimised because of his race. If anything good has come out of the controversy, it is that Gayle's gaffe has sparked a public discussion about sexism in the region.
Twitter user Judy Raymond noted:
On the upside, @henrygayle has brought out the feminist in a lot of people who didn't know/like/get the idea before
— Judy Raymond (@heyjudeTT) January 6, 2016
McLaughlin had asked Gayle, who plays for the Melbourne Renegades, in an on-camera interview about his approach to the innings in the match against the Hobart Hurricanes, but his reply left her looking rather uncomfortable:
I mean…I wanted to come and have an interview with you as well…that's the reason why I'm here, so…just to see your eyes for the first time…it's nice, so hopefully we'll win this game and we can have a drink after…don't blush, baby!
Even the editorial of January 6 in the Jamaica Gleaner (Gayle is Jamaican) called out his behaviour, saying that it “represents egomaniacal contempt for women that is an embarrassment to Jamaica's sporting fraternity and the country at large.” The article went on to call for “legislation in Jamaica to protect both men and women from sexual harassment”, noting that “already, critics inside and outside Parliament are bristling at any attempt to stifle what they believe is a subcultural norm — and that a little sweet talk is harmless.”
To feminist blogger and university lecturer Gabrielle Hosein, the issue was clearly one of sexual harassment. She explained:
There are many reasons why people don’t understand what sexual harassment looks like. First is widespread confusion about the difference between seduction and coercion, the old ‘she’s saying no but she really likes it’ interpretation.
Second is that we live in a world where women’s consent to men’s sexual advances is less important than men’s freedom to make those advances when, where and how they choose. […]
Third, the workplace, like most of the public sphere remains a masculine one where women may be talked to and about in sexualized ways even when their work has nothing to do with their vagina. It’s dehumanizing, meaning it reduces humans, in this case women, to their sexual value. It’s unprofessional, meaning it trivializes their status and identity as workers while they are on the job.
Honing in on the exchange between Gayle and McLaughlin, and lamenting a missed opportunity by Gayle to be an example to men of the region, Hosein continued:
Though McLaughlin was reported to have told her boss she was uncomfortable, Gayle felt it was his right to decide that ‘no harm was done’. All this signals sexual harassment unrecognized. […]
Gayle was unapologetically apologetic, missing an opening to score as a regional icon by acknowledging his step out of crease. He lost an opportunity to send a message to Caribbean boys following his stardom that big men have a role in stopping sexual harassment, even as they come to understand it better, sometimes in difficult ways. He dropped the ball when he could have shown an example of ideal manhood as more than hyper-sexuality, as also self-reflection and responsibility.
Fellow Trinidadian blogger Brendon O'Brien admonished Gayle to “bat in his crease” (in cricket, batting out of the crease — the white line on the pitch behind which the batsmen stand — has attendant risks), maintaining that the reason sexism is not named in the region is because it is ingrained into Caribbean culture:
Chris Gayle’s interview with Mel McLaughlin reeks of sexism. The reason some folks don’t smell it, though, it because they’re used to the smell, and they’ve been led to think it’s a good scent.
O'Brien also addressed Gayle's “alleged habit of harassing women in any field“, suggesting that it “reveals a bigger problem”:
It’s rooted in men’s socialized understanding of women as sexualized bodies first and competent workers (or even whole human beings) second […] fed by expectations of men as sexual hunters […] justified by the notion that all men do this to women – interrupt their days with attempts to flirt – and that it’s either benign or benevolent.
In this particular context, it’s further justified by the idea that Caribbean culture is more easy-going and flirtatious than others […]
Another Trinidadian blogger, Amilcar Sanatan, took a tongue-in-cheek approach to the whole affair:
Do not apologise, Chris.
No one really reads about the growing field of sexism in sports journalism. No one really wants to address the sexualising of women in public, persistent undermining of their jobs, objectifying of their bodies and undervaluing of their contributions.
Do not apologise, Chris.
Dem people not from the Caribbean!
We do not talk truthfully among ourselves about the line between complimenting and harassment. Wearing make up, looking pretty and being in the presence of a celebrity is enough to be denied your dignity. Verbal innuendo and unwanted remarks are part of the culture we do not want to get rid of.
A public Facebook status update by artist and musician Muhammad Muwakil also helped put the situation in perspective. Muwakil suggested that race was a factor in the outcry:
Every black man by necessity needs be a diplomat, you can cry about it and say the world is unfair and white men can do what they want why can't I? Man up and realize that we are in a war for ourselves and you need to watch your behavior and not get comfortable. You in the house yea but don't for a second think you so good with them that you can kick up your boots on the couch.
However, Muwakil also said that Gayle's behaviour was unseemly, raising a very interesting point about his tone, an all too familiar one in the Caribbean:
I find we not being real about it, we all know the tone Gayle used, we from the Caribbean, those of us who don't use the tone hate this tone, it is the tone of your bredren [friend] who hits on the waitress in Ruby Tuesday's for the entire course of her service, the tone of the brother next to you on the maxi [a type of taxi] boiling off the ears of a clearly uncomfortable smallie [slim girl] next to him, this tone has been making decent ppl cringe for as long as there has been decency. […]
We all know what the world gives and even when it changes one day, sitting on a bench around the savannah cat calling women will always make me sick, white black or otherwise, man up and know how to behave.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Indigenous Groups from the Amazonian Upper Rio Negro Release a Climate Cycles Calendar · Global Voices
InfoAmazônia

Annual cycles of the indigenous peoples of Rio Tiquié.
The indigenous calendar of the cycles of the Tiquié River is now available. During the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris, the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA), in partnership with InfoAmazonia, released the calendar. The work is a result of collaborative research developed by indigenous communities and associations from the Upper Rio Negro, in the northwestern corner of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, near the border with Colombia.
Together with ISA, the indigenous nations of the Tiquié River presented original research that identifies in their river basin the cycles of fishing, hunting, planting, and harvesting. The cycles are linked to other elements, such as the hydrological cycle and astronomical constellations. The data was collected between 2005 and 2008 with the participation of a team of researchers and representatives chosen by each community.
The research, rooted in indigenous knowledge and cultures, may indicate processes of climate change observed locally, expressed in the effects caused to the ecosystems of Tiquié River and its surrounding region. One of the research objectives is to conserve the biodiversity in Upper Rio Negro, in Amazonas, Brazil.
The website, in Portuguese and English, can be viewed here.

author: InfoAmazônia


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Japan and South Korea’s Historic ‘Comfort Women’ Deal Angers Surviving Victims · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Surviving comfort women rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, August 2011. Image from Wikipedia.
The governments of Japan and South Korea appeared to reach an agreement on December 28, 2015, to “finally and irreversibly” resolve the issue of “comfort women.” However, judging by the reaction of the the remaining living comfort women themselves, the December 2015 agreement appears to be aimed primarily at mending relations between the two governments rather than healing the wounds of the past.
In World War II, up to 200,000 women from more than ten countries across Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army. These women were euphemistically called ianfu (comfort women) in Japanese, and have long been a source of political controversy.
Under the December 2015 agreement, Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe “expressed anew his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.”
Prime Minister Abe's apology is notable for two reasons. Although former Japanese Prime Minister Murayama Tomiichi and former Foreign Minister Kono Yohei had both issued statements in 1995 (the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II) acknowledging that women across Asia had been forced into sexual slavery, these apologies had been perceived by Korea and other countries affected by the issue to be personal statements and not official government apologies.
As well, Abe is widely perceived to be a right-wing hawk and is regarded with suspicion by some of Japan's neighbors. Attempting to repair relations with South Korea by addressing outstanding issues from World War II was unexpected.
As part of the agreement, the Japanese government has set up a ¥1 billion (US$8.3 million) fund for the 46 living comfort women in South Korea. These women and their relatives were apparently not consulted by the South Korean government before the agreement with Japan was reached, with acrimonious results.
In a video now viewed more than 587,000 times, on December 29, the day after Japan and South Korea reached an agreement, South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Sung Nam-Lin was confronted by an unnamed surviving former comfort woman.
Screencap from CBS Notcutnews video widely shared on social media. English caption attributed to Hyun-Soo Lim.
The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan issued a statement condemning the agreement, saying:
The Korean government’s attitude towards this Agreement, which is vague and incomplete, is rather shocking. The government concurred that this Agreement represents a “final, irreversible” settlement of the issues, as long as the Japanese government is committed to the due diligence in the future. Meanwhile, the Korean government promised that it will seek a resolution for the matter of the Peace Monument in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in order to maintain the dignity of the Embassy, and will limit its criticism against Japanese government internationally. This is a diplomatic humiliation.
The peace monument in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul is a bronze statue of a comfort woman, and is just one of many peace monuments around the world dedicated to comfort women. The statues generally provoke controversy wherever they are located around the world.
Politics › No ‘comfort women’ fund until removal of Seoul statue: Japan source https://t.co/02E66a37kM pic.twitter.com/cW62hR4HYK
— TK.CTL (@TKCTL) December 30, 2015
Reaction in Japan to the agreement has generally been positive. Former Prime Minister Murayama Tomiichi welcomed the deal, while Japanese Communist Party leader Shii Kazuo, who has long been a fierce critic of Prime Minister Abe's agenda, said the deal “restored dignity and respect” to the comfort women.
Some ordinary Japanese people took to social media to argue that the comfort women were never coerced by the Imperial Japanese Army—and by extension the Japanese government—at all, and instead were conscripted by private contractors who alone were responsible for the horrible conditions of abuse and virtual slavery the women endured.
Tamogami Toshio, an ultraconservative former air force general and chief of staff who now serves an elected member of Japan's national Diet, summed up what many belonging to Japan's right wing might be thinking of the agreement. In a tweet that has been shared 1,400 times, Tamogami says:
岸田外務大臣は「日韓両政府が協力し、元慰安婦の方々の名誉と尊厳の回復、心の傷の癒しのための事業を行う」と共同記者会見で言ったという。おかしいではないか。日本軍と日本兵の名誉と尊厳の回復はどうしてくれるのか。自民党よ、本当に誇りある日本を取り戻す気があるのか。腹が立ってしょうがない
— 田母神俊雄 (@toshio_tamogami) December 29, 2015
At the joint press conference, Japanese Foreign Minister Kishida said that the Japanese and South Korean governments working together would help restore dignity and respect to the former comfort women, and the initiative is aimed at healing the wounds of the past. Isn't this all a bit odd? Who is going to restore the tarnished reputation of the Japanese armed forces and fighting men? I want to ask the Liberal Democratic Party [of which Prime Minister Abe is the leader, and of which Tamogami is a member]: are you truly interested in restoring pride to our country Japan?
This all pisses me off, but what can you do?

author: Nevin Thompson


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Rosca de Reyes: More Than a Cake for Three Kings · Global Voices
Lupita Peimbert

Rosca de Reyes at the Dia de Reyes Celebration. Flickr / Loren Javier. CC 2.0.
This post was originally published in the Lupitanews blog.
As if all the fun from Christmas and New Year’s Eve wasn’t enough, the winter holidays aren’t over yet—at least not for the families that celebrate Three Kings Day on January 6. The “Dia de Los Reyes” marks a religious legend turned into a beautiful tradition that started in Medieval times, was adopted in France and Spain, and was brought to Mexico by the Spanish Conquistadores.
According to Catholic teachings, following a bright star, “La Estrella de Belén,” Melchor, Gaspar, and Baltasar traveled to Jerusalem and Bethlehem to meet a prophet who had recently been born. That baby was Jesus, and he received gold, incense, and myrrh brought to him by the three kings.
Mexico took Día de Los Reyes seriously, and transformed it into a celebration among family and close friends, honoring children, who receive presents. The center of the gathering is La Rosca de Reyes (a King’s cake)—a delicious, sweet thing adorned with dried and candied quince, citron, peach, and other fruits such as cherries. It is accompanied with hot Mexican chocolate or atole (both of these Mexican drinks were inherited from the ancestral tribes or “antepasados”).
Inside the “rosca,” which looks like a giant doughnut, people will find a plastic mini figure. Whoever gets it will have to give a party with tamales on February 2, which is El Día de la Candelaria, another Catholic celebration.
Growing up in Sonora and Sinaloa, Mexico, I saw year after year myself and others eating this delicious cake, and getting a ring or a thimble, as well. According to popular belief, the first meant wedding coming up!, and the second of course, you will stay single—as in boring solterona.
In modern-day San Francisco, Latinos of all nationalities have taken the tradition and are transforming it. While the San Francisco Bay Area offers many kinds of diversity, the cake is still found mostly in Mexican bakeries, where it only has the plastic baby figure. The cake is delicious, it has a sweet meaning, and, what the heck, it gives you a reason to continue celebrating!
Happy Día de Los Reyes!

author: Lupita Peimbert


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Street Art Urges Hong Kongers Not to Turn a Blind Eye to Missing Booksellers · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Photo: Community Art-boratory, via Facebook.
This post was written by Koel Chu and originally published on Hong Kong Free Press on January 6, 2016, and republished on Global Voices under a partnership agreement.
A street art installation appeared in Hong Kong's downtown shopping district Causeway Bay during the evening of January 5 festooned with the words “Where are they?”
Titled “Five Missing Men,” the installation is a response to the recent disappearance of five people connected to a nearby bookstore specializing in titles critical of China’s ruling Communist Party.
Co-owner Lee Bo, who went missing on December 30, is suspected of having been abducted by Chinese security forces in Hong Kong. Four others from the same bookstore disappeared from their residences in Shenzhen and Thailand, respectively, in October.
Hong Kong police have started investigating their disappearance and inquired about Lee Bo's status with mainland Chinese police. Thus far, there is no official response from mainland Chinese authorities on the whereabouts of the missing five. But China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi described the missing Hong Kong bookseller as “first and foremost a Chinese citizen” in response to British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond's “deep concern” about the incident, as Lee Bo is a British passport holder.
Under the “one country, two systems” principle, special administrative region Hong Kong enjoys judicial independence from the mainland, and Chinese authorities do not have jurisdiction to operate there without prior approval.
The artist behind “Five Missing Men” told Hong Kong Free Press that the incident was “twisted” and “crazy,” adding that the installation was intended to block the road just as the incident itself has affected people’s daily lives.
“This incident of the five missing people has disturbed our common order of life and the values that we believe in. We cannot and should not turn a blind eye to this,” he wrote on Facebook. “Normal daily life is not normal any more.”
Most people who saw the installation gave no immediate reaction, the artist said, which had been his expectation. Although most knew about the missing booksellers, their responses have remained online only, he said.
In creating this work, the artist said he hoped to inspire people to reflect on what actions they could take, as people have “the responsibility to do something.”
Watch video of the art installation on Community Art-boratory's Facebook page here.

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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Iconic Steel Band Arranger Jit Samaroo Dies on the Eve of Trinidad’s Panorama Music Competition · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Screen grab of a YouTube video of Trinidadian artist Darren Cheewah painting a mural of the late steelpan composer and arranger, Jit Samaroo in the Renegades panyard.
The steel pan is the only surviving instrument to have been invented in the 20th century. Created in the 1930s, it was the result of a unique cross between Trinidad and Tobago's energy industry (the steel drums were originally used to store petroleum) and the strong desire for cultural self-expression — particularly among low-income young men — in the face of societal disapproval.
On Thursday January 7, 2016, the country was plunged into mourning as one of the masters of the steel band movement, Jit Samaroo, passed away after years of suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He was 65 years old.
Samaroo was best known as an arranger for the wildly popular Renegades steel orchestra — a band of musicians all playing different versions of the instrument — as an ensemble, usually accompanied by percussion (called a ‘rhythm section’). He led the band to an astonishing nine Panorama (the illustrious, annual steel band competition that takes place each Carnival) titles during his tenure, winning three of them successively — the only time that feat has been accomplished in the history of the competition.
In light of the fact that Panorama 2016 begins this evening, his death has dealt an even harder blow. On their Facebook page, the Renegades posted this message:
On behalf of the Renegades Steel Orchestra, we must say THANK YOU! Dr Jit Samaroo for devoting your entire life to this band….thank you for the great music….thank your for the history we created together……thank you for the special memories…..this one's for you!
In another Facebook tribute, the band's sponsor, BP Trinidad & Tobago, noted that:
Jit has for decades been part of the bpTT family and will also be remembered for his role as leader, mentor, advisor and friend to members of the BP Renegades Senior and Junior orchestras and everyone else who had the honour to meet him and work with him.
Scores of Facebook pages dedicated to the steel pan shared their tributes. Hear Steel Drums Play featuring Minsky Delmonte posted the sheet music of Samaroo's brilliant arrangement of ‘Pan in A Minor’, a Lord Kitchener calypso, saying:
The steel band world has lost one of its gems today. Dr. Jit Samaroo was a humble musical icon and a dedicated family man. His contribution to music will always be remembered . My condolences to the Samaroo family.
Samaroo was interviewed about his arrangement for the piece here:
Facebook group Maraval Rd. was ebullient over Samaroo's musicianship and skill:
The pan world lost one of the biggest icons today. Jit Samaroo is credited with pushing pan to the next level and has written some of what is still known as the most difficult and genre defying music ever to come from Trinidad and Tobago. Everyone is going to post PAN In A Minor, However, those that have played it knows that Mystery Band is on some other plane of existence – difficulty wise. Rest in Peace Jit Samaroo and our sympathies to your beautiful family.
Pantrinbago, the world governing body for steel pan, also expressed its condolences and posted an interesting history of Samaroo's career: he was the recipient of two national awards, the Hummingbird Medal of Merit (Silver) in 1987, and the Chaconia Medal (Silver) in 1995.
The National Parang Association of Trinidad & Tobago (Samaroo began his musical journey as a Parang player), was saddened at the news, calling Samaroo a “master steelpan player, composer and arranger”. Samaroo was also hailed as a “giant”, a “legend” and a “musical icon”.
A member of one of Trinidad and Tobago's great steel pan families, Barry Manette, recalled meeting Samaroo for the first time:
I have played with Renegades Steel Orchestra for 2 years; just so I could meet and be in the presence of the great Dr. Jit Samaroo. I would never forget the first time he met me, he came up to me and said ‘you're a Mannette’ I, totally lost for words as my mentor had spoken to me for the first time, somehow just muttered ‘yes, I am’ He then stretched out his hand to shake mine and said words I would never forget; ‘It's an honor to have you play in my band’ All I could do was say ‘Thank you, the honor is mine’
Such a brilliant, masterful arranger and composer yet a quiet and humble man whose music spoke volumes. The greatest steelpan arranger who in my respectful view deserved more than the nine victories he led Renegades to. Rest in Peace Dr. Jit and my heartfelt condolences to Amrit Samaroo and the entire Samaroo family, to Renegades and Supernovas Steel Orchestras. His legacy will live on forever.
Many netizens are gleaning some comfort from the fact that Samaroo's legacy will be carried on by his son Amrit — the arranger for another steel band, Supernovas, which will compete in the large band category of this year's National Panorama competition. The band performed a musical tribute to the elder Samaroo at a previous Panorama competition:
While some people felt that pan music would never be the same again, NH Productions TT put it this way:
Through his son, Amrit Samaroo and the Supernovas Steel Orchestra, Dr Samaroo's musical journey has not ended, but rather reborn. […]
We know that Dr Samaroo will now be playing his sweet pan melodies for the Angels.
But perhaps ART-ery summed it up best:
Some people will never really die. Thanks for everything, Jit Samaroo.


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In Kyrgyzstan, a Foreigner’s ‘Horse Penis’ Faux Pas Exposes Cultural Rift · Global Voices
Bektour Iskender

Kyrgyz soldiers, one an ethnic Russian and the other ethnic Kyrgyz, drink Maksym at a Bishkek street corner in May 2006. The popular grain-based beverage was once mostly found in rural Kyrgyz villages and consumed by ethnic Kyrgyz, but became more popular and was widely consumed at the start of the 1990s. Photo by Dean Cox of Eurasianet.org. Used with permission.
The row about the British miner expelled from Kyrgyzstan after likening a traditional local dish, chuchuk, to a horse’s penis has begun to subside. As the founder of news website Kloop.kg Bektour Iskender explains, however, the furor has exposed some rarely discussed tensions within Kyrgyz society.
The following article was translated and edited by Global Voices’ partner Eurasianet.org, having originally appeared on Kloop.kg in Russian.
Read First: Kyrgyz Laugh, Cry, Fume After British Miner's Crass Horse Penis Joke Goes Horribly Schlong
This time around the controversy has been fiercer than anything seen before and the exchange of insults more intense, sometimes descending to outright threats.
But why has this subject proven so explosive in Kyrgyz society?
At the root of the story is a profound problem, and that is the fundamental lack of mutual understanding between Kyrgyz- and Russian-speaking sections of the population.
As it happens, the original Facebook posting itself quickly ceased to be the center of attention among Kyrgyz people. Discussion turned from the ill-judged remarks by Centerra employee Michael Mcfeat into a heated debate about Kyrgyz identity and the extent to which it is permissible to mock that identity.
As polar and stark positions have hardened, I find myself somewhere in the middle, perhaps in part because of my background.
I am a Russian-speaking resident of Kyrgyzstan with a Kyrgyz name and numerous ancestors identifying themselves as Kyrgyz. That might put me in a good position to understand both sides of the argument.
This is hardly the first time that parts of the Kyrgyz-speaking population have reacted so intemperately to a joke about themselves or their identity.
An analogous incident occurred in the spring of 2013, when the Norwegian band Ylvis used Kyrgyz swearwords in a television performance as a sly dig at their producers. The adoption of those linguistic crudities enraged Kyrgyz speakers.
It is worth pointing out here that these waves of indignation over these kinds of pranks are not engineered from above, but are perfectly spontaneous and organic.
Russian speakers often fail to get what the fuss is all about.
One of my friends wrote in a comment on my Facebook page that if jokes are made at the expense of the Kyrgyz inside Kyrgyzstan, it can hardly be considered racist, since the Kyrgyz constitute a majority in their own country.
But that is missing the point.
The fact is that to this day, many Kyrgyz have retained a lingering sense of inferiority that became ingrained in them during Soviet rule and, even earlier, under the Russian Empire.
Many ethnic Kyrgyz, despite their numerical superiority, sincerely believe that jokes about their culture constitute racism. And that is even though it may be mockery directed by a minority toward a majority — a curious post-colonial phenomenon.
Critics of this attitude might remark that Kyrgyzstan was blessed in Soviet times by the flourishing of industry, art, transportation infrastructure and so on. And they would be right in their own way.
But at the same time, during the Soviet era, little care was taken to broaden the appeal of the Kyrgyz language. From 1954 onward, Russians were not even required to study Kyrgyz at school, which means few in the Slavic population have anything more than a basic feel for the language.
The practice of “indigenization” — that is, the promotion of the local ethnic population to official posts — began to decline early on during the rule of Josef Stalin.
For these and other reasons, Kyrgyz was spoken predominantly only by ethnic Kyrgyz, and maybe also ethnic Uzbeks living in the Kyrgyz SSR, for whom learning a close Turkic language came easier. The number of people in Bishkek, the capital, that spoke Kyrgyz, regardless of their ethnic background, was negligible.
Kyrgyz culture, for all the talk of friendship among nations in the Soviet Union, made few inroads into the lives of other ethnic groups in the Kyrgyz SSR or the Soviet Union as a whole.
Sure, there have been some rare cases of Kyrgyz traditions being adopted by urbanites.
One instance was the drink Maksym. (For the uninitiated, Maksym is popular grain-based beverage typically sold on street corners). And Maksym only became popular at the start of the 1990s, before which the drink was predominantly the preserve of rural Kyrgyz families.
Now, I do not want to pass judgment on whether the policies of the Soviet Union toward the Kyrgyz and their culture were right or wrong — that is a subject for weighty research. I simply want to lay out the facts and draw some conclusions.
The point is that many ethnic Kyrgyz felt, if you will, colonized. It is beside the point whether this feeling was justified.
And this sense of grievance remains especially strong among Kyrgyz speakers, particularly those living outside Bishkek.
The following scenario is commonplace, even now: Just imagine a Kyrgyz speaker growing up in a Kyrgyz-speaking setting in a country called Kyrgyzstan who speaks Russian poorly. You come to Bishkek — the capital of your own country — only to find that you can barely get by without Russian, and that if you try to speak in Kyrgyz, many will simply not understand you.
That is not even the problem. We are not, after all, the only multilingual country in the world. This person will in all probability experience disdain at his/her failure to speak Russian, or at the fact he/she speaks Russian with a marked accent. All this can hardly fail to nourish ultranationalist ideas of the “Kyrgyzstan for the Kyrgyz” variety or an insistence that “in Kyrgyzstan everybody should speak Kyrgyz.”
The resentment felt at the dismissive attitudes reserved for Kyrgyz culture are deep and festering. This kind of thing has, in turn, led to ugly manifestations of Kyrgyz nationalism toward the Russian language.
What has resulted is a situation where Russian speakers feel like a misunderstood minority in the whole country, while the Kyrgyz speakers feel like a misunderstood minority in the capital.
But we are afraid to admit that this problem exists. We, Kyrgyz and Russian speakers of Kyrgyzstan, prefer to remain silent and close ourselves off into our cultural ghettoes.
And we are reminded of all this only in the event of — and I am not afraid to use the term — clashes of civilization. I never tire of repeating: this situation only occurs in those countries where there are two or more dominant languages and where nobody does anything to ensure cultures learn to understand one another.
What has all this got to do with chuchuk you may ask? The fact is that this episode has become a litmus test for the very situation I am describing.
Many Russian speakers living in Kyrgyzstan, as well as foreigners, fail to understand the degree to which the Kyrgyz-speaking population is offended by jokes directed at their culture and traditions.
Many Russian speakers fail to understand that even after a quarter of a century since the fall of the Soviet Union, Kyrgyz speakers feel their language and culture are not being accorded proper respect, especially in the capital city.
By the same token, many Kyrgyz speakers fail to understand that what so irritated and exasperated Russian speakers and foreigners was the fact that the police felt the need to get involved over an ignorant throwaway remark about food. And that the dubious methods of the police — including the “sudden discovery” that this British citizen’s papers were not in order, just so they could deport him — foster cynicism and mistrust.
Many Kyrgyz speakers do not understand that what worries Russian speakers is the arbitrary and selective decisions of the authorities, who are willing to react to insults addressed at Kyrgyz culture, while at the same time ignoring intolerance toward others.
Many Kyrgyz speakers do not understand that Russian speakers also often feel they are being disrespected.
The entire situation is quite perverse.
As long as we leave this abyss unaddressed, every recurring incident, as petty as it might be, will continue to broaden the rift.
So is not it time that the two communities begin listening to one another?

author: Bektour Iskender


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Netizen Report: Facebook’s ‘Free Basics’ App is Under Fire in India, Offline in Egypt · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Netizens in India rang in 2016 amid burning controversy over net neutrality regulations that could lead to a permanent ban on Facebook’s Free Basics app, which offers free access to a limited number of websites (including Facebook and Facebook-owned products like WhatsApp) for users who do not pay for mobile data plans. The app was suspended in India on December 23 shortly after the country’s Telecom Regulatory Authority began proceedings on net neutrality and differential pricing that call its legality into question.
Open Internet advocates argue that Free Basics undercuts consumer choice and violates net neutrality principles, which require users have equal access to any website they want to visit — and that all websites have equal technical capacity to attract visitors. In India, the volunteer coalition SavetheInternet has been a leading driver of efforts opposing Free Basics.
Facebook responded to the suspension with an aggressive ad campaign both online and off, purchasing a smattering of billboard advertisements across the country and numerous two-page ads in leading national newspapers. In recent weeks, Facebook users across India (and some in the US) been greeted on the site with notifications urging them to send an automated email to the regulatory authority (known as TRAI) supporting Facebook’s case.
Facebook’s campaign has been further complicated by the fact that the text of the automated campaign email does not actually answer the regulatory questions that TRAI posted for public comment. On January 3, The Indian Express reported that TRAI has since asked that the estimated 5.5 million people who have sent these emails write to them again, with “specific replies instead of the generic template decided by the social media site.”
Not long after Free Basics was suspended in India, the app stopped working in Egypt on December 30, for unclear reasons. Etisalat, the local telecommunications company that partnered with Facebook to provide the service, says that the service simply terminated when the two-month contract expired. Some media and commentators speculate that the app was shut down in anticipation of the upcoming January 25 anniversary of the 2011 protests that overthrew former president Hosni Mubarak, in an effort to stifle activist activity on the social network. If the reason is not simply contractual, it is worth noting that Egyptian authorities have been known to shut down communications networks when faced with rising political tensions (which might involve actions by human rights advocates) and fears of violent extremist groups exploiting networks for their own benefit.
Yet local experts note that with over 18 million Egyptians already using Facebook over paid Internet connections or data plans, closing one avenue to the social network would have limited impact on broad scale political organizing.
The Vietnamese government announced plans to tackle social media criticism of its Communist Party ahead of its five-yearly congress this month. On its Facebook page, the government said users can anticipate an increase in “toxic” activity online. Though it’s unclear what measures it plans to use, the country has restrictive regulations for social media platforms such as Article 258 of its Criminal Code, which punishes the “[misuse of] democratic freedoms to attack state interests and the legitimate rights and interests of collectives and individuals” with up to seven years in jail in “serious circumstances”.
Since student protests over land rights erupted in Ethiopia last November, numerous mobile phone videos and images have gone viral on social media, giving a glimpse of the government's brutal crackdown on demonstrators. According to Human Rights Watch, violent assaults by state security forces have resulted in at least 75 deaths. Pro-government commentators on a state-run TV program asserted that all images and video being shared on social media are “fake” and suggested that the “government should arrest people who press the ‘like’ button or ‘share’ such materials.”
Printers in Pakistan censored a front-page article on the violent killings of secular bloggers in Bangladesh from the international edition of the New York Times. The Times’ Pakistan correspondent flagged the omission in a tweet showing the physical copy of the paper with noticeable white space and the online version with the article.
The printing partner of New York Times in #Pakistan removes an article. Readers get white spaces on two pages pic.twitter.com/ccjFvWtorj
— Salman Masood (@salmanmasood) January 2, 2016
Global Voices has reported extensively on the wave of brutal violence against bloggers in Bangladesh: Over the course of 2015 four bloggers were assassinated and publishers at two separate houses, both of which had worked with targeted bloggers, were attacked by armed assailants.
Bangladesh introduced new mandatory biometric registration rules for all SIM card owners. Owners will be required to verify their identity by providing their fingerprint, which will be checked against a national identity card database. The scheme will create a massive database of citizens’ communications data that could give the government unprecedented access to the mobile communications of Bangladeshi citizens.
A Russian activist was given a two-year prison sentence for making “public calls to separatism and extremism” on social media for her comments on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, while another blogger was given a five-year prison term for “inciting hate” online for videos he posted to YouTube and Vkontakte about the conflict.
Russian media regulator Roscomnadzor launched a new system that automatically scans online media for forbidden and illegal material. The system, which is already active in 19 regions of the country in its beta testing mode, will be rolled out full-scale across Russia before the end of the year. It primarily targets online materials covered by Article 4 of Russia’s mass media law, which covers pornography, calls to violence or terrorism, extremist materials and profanity. Once a violation is identified, Roscomnadzor issues a warning to the media outlet if it is a first-time offense. After a second warning, the agency can take the matter to court and demand the media outlet’s license be revoked, according to the law.
Index on Censorship will honor journalists, media organizations and advocates for free expression with its 2016 Freedom of Expression Awards. The long list of nominees includes Global Voices author Arzu Geybullayeva for her work reporting on Azerbaijan, Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah, Ethiopia’s Zone9 Bloggers, the #Justice4Morocco campaign, and Global Voices for its campaign to free the Zone9ers. The short list of nominees will be announced on January 16.
Ellery Roberts Biddle, Weiping Li, Hae-in Lim, Tetyana Lockot and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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‘Orwellian Dystopia’ or Trustworthy Nation? Get the Facts on China’s Social Credit System · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

East Nanjing Road, Shanghai. The bustling pedestrian street is full of tourists, scam artists, families, prostitutes, salesmen, foreigners, beggars, thieves, and photographers. Photo by William via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)
China is on the verge of launching a nationwide rating system intended to measure citizens’ trustworthiness in the eyes of the Chinese government.
Combining citizens’ financial records, online shopping data, social media behaviors and employment history, the system will produce a combined “social credit” score for each and every Chinese citizen. Unlike a credit score in the western finance system, which typically uses a person's financial records to determine their creditworthiness and set conditions of a loan, the Chinese model goes well beyond an individual's financial profile.
According to the Chinese government's Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System, the system aims to measure and enhance “trust” (誠信) between and among government, commercial sectors and citizens and to “strengthen sincerity in government affairs, commercial sincerity, social sincerity and the construction of judicial credibility.”
The Chinese government has started testing the system by authorizing a number of credit service agencies to collect, evaluate and manage peoples's credit information. Among these agencies is an Anti Financial (affiliated with Alibaba) which has piloted the system through a game-like app called Sesame Credit.
Sesame Credit measures a person's overall “goodness” as a citizen and encourages users to share their scores with friends. The score is updated each month based on a person's online activities, provided that they're conducted through Alibaba platforms and services.
The video above, which went viral in late December, describes the game as an “Orwellian dystopia”.
Since Chinese authorities first released draft plans for the project in 2014, there have been multiple waves of news stories about the system, some of them more trustworthy than others. Recent media coverage and controversy inspired Global Voices’ China team to develop a set of frequently asked questions and answers about the social credit system.
Different credit service agencies have developed unique algorithms for calculating social credit. According to Sesame Credit's official explanation, the score is built upon personal data including:
Exactly what sort of activities will result in the reduction of credit has not been publicized. But major online content service providers such as Weibo have a user blacklist based on community reports of scams and “rumors”, a term often used to describe political criticism. This has generated widespread concern that distributing politically sensitive content could result in a lower credit score.
Based on the above mentioned algorithm, Sesame Credit offers some tips to help individuals improve their scores:
The second and third suggestions here can easily bleed into political territory, as they encourage citizens to use only their real identities online. For any person involved in critical speech or news reporting on government activities, using an alias is often imperative to maintaining one's safety. The final suggestion, concerning the spread of “positive energy” gives a nod to Chinese authorities’ increasing promotion of spreading positive messages about the government and the Communist party online.
Some netizens enjoy showing off high credit scores to their peers on social media. Aside from that, an individual with a high credit score will be promoted to VIP class for tickets, hotels and car rental services without paying a cash deposit. Other privileges include getting expedited visas through credit service's visa processing system. For example, if your Sesame credit score is above 700, you can apply for a Singapore travel visa without supporting documents, such as an employment letter. A score of 750 can earn you an expedited visa to Luxembourg.
A central idea behind social credit management is to penalize supposedly untrustworthy people. In a media interview, Sesame Credit's chief manager Hu Tao explained the credit system is intended to make it so that “untrustworthy people can't rent a car, can't borrow money or even can't find a job.” She disclosed that the Sesame team has approached China's Education Bureau about sharing its list of students who cheated on national examinations so that they will pay for their dishonesty in their future when they are looking for jobs.
Credit management agencies will generate profit by using individual data to provide services to both governments and business sectors.
Internet giant Tencent's credit service partners are from the finance sector. The company will make use of the personal data from Tecent's 800 million users of messaging software QQ and their 400 billion photos to develop a facial recognition database that will help the finance sector to verify their clients’ identity. In the future, it will seek to provide facial recognition and identity verification services to online dating platforms, conference, and examination (such as domestic and overseas university entrance examinations) check-in.
While the social credit system is not targeted specifically at activists or dissidents — public security authorities already have developed a database monitoring friends and relatives of political dissidents — it transforms the stability control model from target-specific to all-citizen surveillance, by rewarding (or penalizing) individuals based on political orientation, financial records, consumption patterns and social connections, in order to cultivate the self-discipline of “good citizen”.
It is also a response to the moral crisis of the society where people no longer trust each others. It is commonly said that people in China have become afraid of helping those in need, for fear of falling into street scams. In addition, business scams, food security, and corruption have constituted a moral crisis in Chinese society. Instead of reflecting on the political-economic system that has led to the growth of crony capitalism (which has been directly enabled by government policies and practices), leaders have come to argue that the problem is rooted in the “low trust” character of Chinese culture. Thus they say the credit system in China should reflect a person's “guan-xi” (social relation) rather than just financial record.
When facing the “big brother”-type criticism, leaders argue that China “has a history of valuing harmony above much of anything else”. Harmony here means “the overall stability of the nation” thus, in their framing, the social credit system is an innovation driven by eastern wisdom rather than western ideologies. In any case, these emerging details of the project demonstrate that China's social credit system may go well beyond the specter of big-brother surveillance.


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Russian Hackers Behind Attack on Ukraine’s Power Grid, Researchers Claim · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

The hacking attack left thousands of citizens in western Ukraine without power in December. Image by Juanedc on Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
The alleged cyber-attack that led to a temporary outage of the Ukrainian power grid was likely perpetrared by Russian hackers, according to US researchers.
The cybersecurity research team iSIGHT Partners told Infosecurity Magazine that it was the work of the Russian hacker collective known as the Sandworm Team.
Ukraine's state security service has also blamed Russia for the blackout in Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region on December 23 that affected about 80,000 citizens. At the time, a local power company, Prycarpattyaoblenergo, reported that part of its service area, including the regional capital Ivano-Frankivsk, was left without power for over six hours due to “interference” in its industrial control systems. Russian officials have so far left the accusations without comment.
The iSIGHT experts assign the blame to the Sandworm collective (whose name is a reference to the “Dune” science fiction series) based on their analysis of the malicious software known as BlackEnergy 3 and KillDisk, which were used in the attack. BlackEnergy is the malware the Russia-affiliated group commonly chooses to use, and monitoring has revealed renewed BlackEnergy activity throughout the past year in Ukraine, with government, telecommunications and energy sectors all being affected. BlackEnergy was also allegedly used in destructive attacks against Ukrainian media during the latest elections.
The Russian hacker group was previously thought to be behind non-destructive attacks in the US and Europe, mainly aimed at espionage, and no outages or physical destruction was reported as a result of those attacks.
“ISIGHT believes the activity is Russian in origin and the intrusions they carried out against US and European SCADA systems were reconnaissance for attack,” an iSIGHT representative told Infosecurity Magazine.
ISIGHT's director of espionage analysis, John Hultquist told Reuters it was not clear if the Sandworm Team was working directly for the Russian government. “It is a Russian actor operating with alignment to the interest of the state,” Hultquist said. “Whether or not it's freelance, we don't know.”

author: Tanya Lokot


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These Calendars Can Get You Into Trouble in Thailand and Myanmar · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra with his younger sister, former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The 2016 calendar of their political party, which features both of them, is reportedly being confiscated by authorities in some provinces of Thailand. Photo from the Facebook page of Yingluck Shinawatra.
Calendars are supposed to be practical, harmless gifts during the New Year, but some calendars can land you in jail, especially if you are living in Thailand and Myanmar.
In Thailand, authorities confiscated some calendars that featured the photos of two former prime ministers. Meanwhile, in Myanmar, the government arrested five men who printed a calendar about an ‘illegal’ ethnic group.
The Thai junta, which grabbed power in 2014, is accused of stopping the distribution of 2016 calendars printed by Pheu Thai, the political party of Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra. Thaksin was Thailand’s prime minister who was ousted by a coup in 2006. He fled the country in 2008 after being convicted of corruption and continues to live in exile today. Yingluck is Thaksin’s younger sister who was elected prime minister in 2011 but was also ousted by a coup in 2014.
On January 5, some women supporters of Yingluck were summoned by the army for distributing the 2016 calendars of the opposition Pheu Thai. Some municipal officials in north Thailand were against the giving away of calendars, which included a photo of Yingluck hugging her older brother Thaksin. Civil servants were told not to distribute calendars during public assemblies because it can be interpreted as an act of ‘political partiality’.
The government is denying that it blocked the distribution of the calendars, although the incumbent prime minister, who was the army chief who led the coup in 2014, cautioned people to stop admiring lawbreakers. He could be referring to Thaksin, who is considered a fugitive and convicted plunderer.
Pheu Thai cries foul over Thaksin-Yingluck calendar ban https://t.co/iORwlFNX8I pic.twitter.com/LOZ53iyO4v
— Bangkok Post (@BangkokPostNews) January 4, 2016
#Thailand junta banned calendar with pictures of #Thaksin & #Yingluck as threat to national security. pic.twitter.com/meyX6ilPUt
— Sunai (@sunaibkk) January 4, 2016
Despite the incident, the calendars were delivered in many villages.
Nice calendar. #Bangkok #Yingluck #Thaksin #Thailand pic.twitter.com/vPAr1NJRAc
— Bob James (@NotThatBobJames) January 6, 2016
Journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk, who was summoned last year by authorities for his critical reporting about the junta, noted how posting photos of the calendar has become an act of defiance:
Who would've thought that mere act of taking photo with calendar could be an act of resistance? #Thailand ht PYChong pic.twitter.com/xBfAcTuBWw
— Pravit Rojanaphruk (@PravitR) January 6, 2016
In Myanmar, the government arrested the publishers behind a Rohingya calendar. The Rohingya are mostly Muslims who are not recognized by the government as one of the country’s ethnic groups.
There are more than 100 ethnic groups in Myanmar, which has a predominantly Buddhist population. Despite living in north Myanmar for several decades, the Rohingya are considered to be illegal immigrants by the government. Many of them are either living in makeshift camps or escaping to nearby countries as boat refugees. Human rights groups describe the Rohingya as among the most persecuted stateless peoples in the world.
The Rohingya calendar, which contains historical information about the ethnic group, is banned by the government because it allegedly incites hatred and violence.
This calendar gets people arrested in #Myanmar. Why? The word “Rohingya”. #EthnicCleansing #StateCrimes pic.twitter.com/2fBiwSm8st
— Sarnata Reynolds (@SarnataReynolds) January 6, 2016

author: Mong Palatino


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Kyrgyzstan Staged its First Opera Flash Mob in a Bishkek Supermarket. It Was Magical. · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

This young woman was one of the stars of the recent opera flash mob in the Frunze Supermarket. Screenshot shared by People of KG's YouTube channel.
In a week when Kyrgyzstan has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, a video that has surfaced online has given people reason to smile again.
The country's first Opera Flash Mob appeared online on the YouTube Channel of People of KG, an online initiative that highlights Kyrgyz citizens that are doing incredible things.
The video was swiftly covered by RFE/RL:
A typical evening's shopping at Bishkek's Frunze supermarket in early December suddenly turned into a cultural event with the appearance of an opera flash mob. People who seemed to be average shoppers and store employees suddenly burst into song, regaling store patrons with a piece from Verdi's opera, La Traviata. The singers, from the Kyrgyz National Conservatory, were advertising an upcoming free concert.
Unsurprisingly, the opera flash mob has proven one of the most widely shared items on Kyrgyz social media this week. Take a minute to watch and enjoy!

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


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‘You Just Need To Be White To Win’ Ad Denounced as Racist in Thailand · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A screenshot of the skin whitening video ad posted on YouTube.
The video advert of a skin whitening pill in Thailand was denounced by many Internet users as racist for carrying the tagline ‘You just need to be white to win.’
After receiving widespread criticism, the maker of the ‘Snowz’ whitening pill removed the ad from YouTube and issued a public apology.
The advert featured a Thai actress attributing her success to her white skin. She added that her popularity will suffer if she loses her whiteness, thus explaining the need for her to use whitening products like Snowz.
The ad ends with the now infamous tagline ‘You just need to be white to win.’
While the advert was withdrawn by the company it has been reposted by other YouTube users.
The ad angered many Internet users who considered it discriminatory.
It generated an intense online discussion about racism in Thailand and the cultural obsession with white skin.
Thai advert says you can be a winner if you have white skin. This is the most racist advert I've ever seen #Thailand pic.twitter.com/oB9CZM3vrB
— Richard Barrow (@RichardBarrow) January 8, 2016
Thai craze for whiteness rears its ugly head again. It never ends. Thai ad agencies are the worst of them all! https://t.co/ixUe65pdrj
— Kaewmala (@Thai_Talk) January 8, 2016
Seoul Secret, the company behind the Snowz pill, apologized for offending a lot of people.
Apology by Seoul Secret posted on the company's Facebook page
This is not the first time that a skin whitening ad was denounced as racist in Thailand. A few years ago, another company was forced to apologize after it posted an ad inside a train with the message ‘This seat is reserved for white people.’


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A China-Financed Economic Corridor Brings Promise and Discord to Pakistan · Global Voices
Veengas

Activists of Awami National Party (ANP) are protesting against the changing of the Gwadar-Kashgar Economic Corridor’s route. Image by ppiimages. Copyright Demotix (1/12/2015)
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a mega project which will link the Gwadar Port in southwestern Pakistan to China’s northwestern autonomous region of Xinjiang via a vast infrastructure network.
The 3,000-kilometre network due for 2030 will throw open avenues for commerce and cooperation with China, hosting roads, railways and pipelines as well as power plants that will generate 16,400 megawatts of electricity for the energy-starved South Asian country.
However, political bickering inside Pakistan about the route the project should take has cast doubts over its very viability.
The CPEC was first proposed in 2013 by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and the joint project is estimated to be worth $46 billion at current rates.
China has a keen interest in the Gwadar port and the CPEC is part of its plans for a broader Silk Route Economic Belt to power Beijing's Westerly trade over land and sea.
The Economic Times blogger Mr. Tilak D analyses China's interest in the CPEC:
China has specific objectives. First, the Corridor, part of President Xi Jinping’s pet project of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, exploits Pakistan’s strategic location to bypass the ‘chokepoint’ of the Malacca Straits. Rerouting part of its energy supplies to Xinjiang from the Persian Gulf via Gwadar shortens the distance by several thousand km and lessens the transport time by about 10 days. Second, the Corridor will unlock the potential of landlocked western China, especially Xinjiang. Third, by establishing its physical footprint in Gilgit Baltistan, China hopes to cut off the ingress and egress of Uighur militants enroute to Afghanistan and Pakistan for jihadi training.
But the main hindrance is the fact that Pakistan's restless political factions have been unable to agree on a route for the CPEC.
The Pakistan government initially promised a CPEC route that went through western Pakistan via Zhob and Quetta, which could help to develop the less privileged Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
This ‘central route‘ can be seen on the map below featuring the Pakistan Planning Commission's official logo.
Image courtesy of cmpru.gob.pk
Subsequently, however, other versions of the corridor route have emerged.
One ‘Eastern Route’ would pass through Multan, Faisalabad, Pindi Bhatia and Rawalpindi, while a ‘Western Route’ would pass through northeastern Balochistan via the towns Kalat, Quetta and Zhob.
On December 30, 2015, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the Western Route of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Balochistan's Zhob and emphasised that Balochistan's development was his government's top priority.
Photo Credit: Eastern route CPEC – Route Controversy Report
But critics maintain the federal government is prioritizing the ‘Eastern Route’ that is cheaper and faster as it runs through areas with pre-existing road connections.
Photo Credit: Western route CPEC – Route Controversy Report
That would imply that the corridor will be routed through areas of the country that are already relatively developed raising tensions between the centre and more peripheral regions that already feel economically and politically marginalized.
Balochistani activist and former senator Sana Baloch criticized the government:
نوازشریف کا مغربی روٹ کا افتتاح مزاق کےسوا کچھ بھی نہیں. تمام ترقیاتی منصوبے مشرقی (پنجاب) روٹ پر پلان کیئے گئیں ہیں pic.twitter.com/llrce9vmvk
— Sana BALOCH (@Senator_Baloch) December 30, 2015
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s inauguration of the Western Route was just a joke and nothing else because all development projects are planned on the Eastern Route.
Highlighting the disagreements surrounding the route, the Balochistan government's research report on the CPEC that dismissed the Eastern Route was not accepted by the central government when it was submitted last year.
In an all-party conference in May last year different parties agreed that the government should remain committed to a corridor that will benefit Balochistan.
However, the Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal warned at the conference that the corridor was not confined to a specific route, rather it was a concept that encompassed all areas of the country.
This means that all three routes will be plotted amid fierce regional politics and an almighty scrap for Chinese investment.
Moreover, the CPEC will face other challenges, including militancy vis-vis the Western Route and recurring natural calamities along the Eastern Route.
Opposition parties tend to believe the government's development plans favour the relatively prosperous Punjab region while ignoring the rights of smaller provinces.
Indeed, some analysts are calling for authorities to remember the history of Bangladesh, once a part of Pakistan until it broke off and declared independence amid tensions and subsequent war with the central government.
Justice for Pashtuns showed a tweet from the Planning Commission's account that was later deleted:
This is the Map of the changed #CPEC tweeted by @PlanComPakistan which was deleted by them when we confront them. pic.twitter.com/nt7HFvkY3z
— Justice4Pashtuns (@Justice4Pashtun) April 20, 2015
Opposition MP Buhsra Gohar of the leftist Pashtun Awami National Party also opposed the alternative routes and criticised the central government for changing its tune on Twitter:
@VeengasJ Ahsan Iqbal had initially denied there were older #CPEC maps & plans. Later said there were 3 routes. @Senator_Baloch
— Bushra Gohar (@BushraGohar) January 6, 2016
Her party, which claims a large following in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, is promoting the hashtag #ANPAgainstRouteChange in protest.
Worryingly, regional politicians such as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Chief Minister Pervez Khattak are already complaining of being cut off from the decision-making process relating to the route.
Govt. is not showing us CPEC's Agreement https://t.co/AFsi2x5nnA #CPEC pic.twitter.com/tzBXyoijZb
— Siasat.pk (@siasatpk) January 4, 2016
The CPEC is a project that could potentially transform the Pakistani economy and bring economic opportunities to some of the country's most remote and troubled regions, even as it expands Chinese influence in the region.
However, if the federal government does not consider the concerns of the federal units about potential changes of the route, the mega-project could end up causing far more strife than it saves.

author: Veengas


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A Live Surgery Draws Attention to Black Lung Disease in China · Global Voices
Patrick Wong

The first black lung transplantation surgery showed live online in China. Image from Weibo.
“He is Ren Nengping. I saw a coffin he had prepared for himself at a glance when entering his home,” said Yuan Li, a well-known Chinese movie actress who has been raising awareness about black lung patients for years.
“I hope his surgery [transplanting healthy lungs] will meet with success. The operation can be watched live online.”
In 1997, Ren began working at a mine in Henan province, where he saw his fellow miners never wore masks and thus grew sick from black lung, or coal pneumoconiosis.
But he was not aware of this and did not take necessary protection measures at his place of work until he was diagnosed with the disease in 2005.
Ren had been suffering from the disease for over ten years and was critically ill, meaning the 38-year-old was unable to afford tuition fees to educate his two children.
“[Yuan] burst into tears when seeing I was languishing under pneumoconiosis,” said Ren on China's Twitter-like Weibo.
Yuan met him in Xiangyang village, Shaanxi province last July, when she was researching the health of black lung patients in rural areas.
That trip was part of the Love Save Pneumoconiosis project.
Wang Keqin, a well-known investigative journalist, created the project in 2011 after years of fearless journalism.
It aims to bring attention to the plight of workers too poverty-stricken to protect their health.
Pneumoconiosis is an occupational disease that ruins lung tissue and stems from inhaling too much dust particulate.
The disease is untreatable by any method other than lung transplant and affects almost 6 million patients in China according to the annual report issued in 2014 by the project.
China's National Health and Family Planning Commission’s report on occupational diseases for 2014 noted over 26,000 diagnoses of the pneumoconiosis or 90% of all occupational diseases diagnosed in that year.
Yuan contributed 400,000 yuan (approximately $6,100), with a further 200,000 yuan donation from the auction of the works by painter vitriol Fan in order to arrange the January 6 surgery performed in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.
The live surgery drew the attention of around 52 million netizens on Weibo.
A brain-dead patient from Guilin, Guangxi province, contributed his healthy lungs, which were transplanted to Ren after they arrived in the operating theatre.
Following a two-hour effort, Dr. Chen Jingyu, who led the operation, said it had met with success.
A doctor took out a black nugget from Ren Nengping’s lungs. (From Liu Feng's Weibo.)
What generated most amazement among netizens was a rigid black nugget of around four centimeters in length that was stripped from one of Ren’s lungs (video contains disturbing images). Dr. Chen said some nuggets — the fatal calling card of black lung — were up to 10 cm in length.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission issued regulations on preventing and curing pneumoconiosis back in 1987, yet a large number of migrant workers continue to suffer due to unscrupulous employers and an inability to access medical care.
Zhang Haichao of Henan province was one such worker. In 2009, when he began seeking treatment, the company he worked for refused to provide a health testimonial as required by the local health clinic.
The health clinic in turn concealed the true diagnosis when it eventually examined Zhang and the hospital he turned to made a probable diagnosis that was later rejected by the local health department.
In desperation, Zhang resorted to surgery to acquire a sample section from his lungs in order to obtain a health testimonial that proved he was suffering from black lung disease.
Zhang was eventually transplanted with a pair of healthy lungs in 2013.
The National People’s Congress issued a revised law for the prevention and cure of occupational diseases in 2011, which demands employers “must provide employees effective protection facilities and articles against occupational diseases” and “inform them of the potential risks of getting disease during work.”
Last December the government-affiliated Workers’ Daily revealed outstanding issues related to occupational diseases in an investigation it published:
然而在现实中，部分企业漠视职业病防治，并未履行职业病防治责任。比如企业在签订劳动合同不予注明“职业病危害因素”，相当多的职工在不知情的情况下，长期遭受职业病危害因素的潜在侵害。另有些企业为了降低成本，不给劳动者提供相应的健康保护，不给劳动者进行职业培训，故意隐瞒职业危害，甚至隐瞒岗位对人体有毒有害的真相。
In reality, some enterprises did not value and carry out responsibilities for the prevention and cure of occupational diseases. For example, some did not write clearly the “harmful factors of occupational diseases” when signing contracts with employees, most of whom are at risk of getting occupational diseases under conditions of ignorance. In order to cut costs, some [employers] did not provide employees with relevant health protection and professional training, concealed occupational hazards, and even concealed the truth that the job itself is poisonous and harmful.
Yuan Li, an actress, worn a mask and a safety helmet covered with dust. Image from Yuan Li's Weibo.
Only two days ahead of the surgery, Yuan called for more attention and protection for workers after seeing the dusty conditions in a porcelain factory:
这是一个陶瓷加工厂，还没进厂房，就闻到一股令人头晕的气味，我呆了十分钟，看帽子上的粉尘。这也是尘肺高发作业场所。当我们用着漂亮的洗手台…等物美价廉的陶瓷生活必须品时，请记着这些农民工人的付出。合格的囗罩太重要了！！！
This is a porcelain factory, I smelled a gust of a pungent odour before entering. I merely stayed here for ten minutes. Look at the dust on my safety helmet. It is easy to get infected with black lung here. When we are washing our hands in sinks and using other porcelain products that are good quality and cheap, please remember the high price hard working migrant workers have paid. It is imperative [for them] to be provided with appropriate masks!!!
But what of Ren, whose successful surgery was viewed online by millions?
Sadly, four days after the successful surgery, Dr. Chen relayed the news that Ren had died from a cardiac arrest and a variety of other complications on the night of January 9.
“Yes, he just passed away. I feel extremely woeful, sorry,” wrote Yuan Li on her Weibo.

author: Patrick Wong


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Mexico Recaptures El Chapo Guzmán. But Is it Mission Accomplished? · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

Image shared on social media allegedly of Chapo Guzmán after being captured.
For the third time, Mexican authorities have captured one of the most wanted drug dealers and powerful men in the world: Joaquín Guzmán Loera, aka ‘El Chapo’. Guzman Loera is accused of organized crime, crimes against public health and several murders.
The arrest took place in Los Mochis, a coastal city in his home state of Sinaloa, after a shootout with Mexican marines that claimed the lives of five gunmen and left an officer wounded.
A rocket launcher, weapons and armored vehicles were confiscated.
At least two Mexican marines had died in clashes with El Chapo's men since the beginning of 2016 while according to some estimates the country's ‘drug wars’ have claimed more lives than conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan combined in recent years.
El Chapo made his second prison break through a 1.5 kilometre tunnel dug from his shower on July 11.
His first escape was from the Puente Grande jail in 2001, supposedly in a laundry cart.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, whose credibility had taken a hard blow after the drug lord's most recent escape, announced the arrest on his official Twitter account.
Misión cumplida: lo tenemos. Quiero informar a los mexicanos que Joaquín Guzmán Loera ha sido detenido.
— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) January 8, 2016
Mission accomplished: we have him. I want to inform all Mexicans that Joaquín Guzmán Loera has been arrested.
The United States is demanding Guzman Loera's extradition for the smuggling of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines.
Washington even offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture, trumping the $3.8 million the Mexican government had already offered.
On September 9 the Mexican attorney general's office said in a statement that since Guzman Loera has been recaptured “extradition [to the U.S] proceedings should begin.”
Meanwhile, the US Drug Enforcement Agency's spokesman Lawerence Payne affirmed that “it is a great day for justice and the objectives of Mexico and the USA.”
DEA is extremely pleased at the capture of Chapo Guzman. We congratulate the MX Government and salute the bravery involved in his capture
— DEA News (@DEANEWS) January 8, 2016
The arrest is a significant achievement in our shared fight against transnational organized crime, violence, and drug trafficking
— DEA News (@DEANEWS) January 8, 2016
Don Winslow, author of El Cartel, published a series of tweets with his conclusions on the arrest:
The Attorney General of Mexico has repeatedly stated El Chapo will not be extradited to US. I believe him. Was likely part of deal w/him.
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) January 8, 2016
President Enrique Pena Nieto saying “missing accomplished” is about as credible as when George Bush said it about Iraq. Same silly line.
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) January 8, 2016
El Chapo: 1 A deal was cut. 2 The “raid” (like the tunnel) was theater 3 Surrender & no extradition to USA. Mex prison will be like hotel
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) January 8, 2016
.@EPN El Chapo mañana… pic.twitter.com/t8TTmXR1lY — [adrián] (@fobiadicto) January 8, 2016
El Chapo tomorrow…
On Facebook, Juan Herroz made reference to the recent infamous mistake by Steve Harvey, the announcer of the winner of Miss Universe, who inadvertently gave the title to Miss Colombia before correcting himself and awarding it to Miss Philippines.
They caught El Chapo. Sorry, El Chapo escaped.
El chapo be like pic.twitter.com/kx1Es9h9oV
— Gato. (@_metanfetamina_) January 8, 2016
Meme: “Here I am thinking of my next escape”
El Chapo got caught today. He will escape in:
— USABlackout (@USABlackout) January 8, 2016
There were also others who wondered how this determination by the authorities to recapture El Chapo was absent in relation to other crimes, including the mass abduction of students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in 2014.
The Mexican government could capture El Chapo, but they still can't find the missing 43 students in Ayotzinapa
— Mexican Rug Dealer (@MikeElChingon) January 8, 2016
Regardless of what the future holds for El Chapo his latest re-capture has left a trail of collateral damage in Mexico including approximately 600 people displaced after the manhunt carried out by the Mexican marines in the region.

author: Elizabeth Rivera


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On the Eve of Benin’s Elections, Here Are the Main Candidates · Global Voices
Chiara Ronca

National Assembly – Congress Palace in Cotonou, Benin. CC-BY-2.0
It will be the first time that an election in Benin is not taking place under the dominant personality of the country's historical leader Mathieu Kerekou.
The leading force in the pacific transition from dictatorship to democracy in Benin died in October 2015.
The presidential vote is set to take place on 28 February for the first round and political parties are gearing up for an intense electoral campaign.
Kerekou's inability to influence proceedings adds an element of intrigue for many observers of politics in the country.
Having tried in vain to force a revision of the Constitution that would allow him to run for a third term, current President Yayi Boni, leader of the party Forces Cauris pour un Bénin Emergent (Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin — FCBE), has nominated the Franco-Beninese prime minister of Benin, Lionel Zinsou, as the official candidate of the party.
Lionel Zinsou, lead candidate for the FCBE governing party – via Media7 with permission
Portraits of Zinsou present an unusual candidate. Zinsou was born in Paris in 1953 of Beninese parents.
A friend of French Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius, Zinsou is a professor of economics at the renowned Ecole Normale supérieure in Paris as well as at Sciences Po (The Paris Institute of Political Studies). He is also teaching part-time at the London School of Economics.
His international reputation is also boosted by his position as the CEO of one of the largest French investment funds, PAI Partners, between 2006 and 2011.
His candidacy was officially declared on November 27 but has literally split the FCBE party. Zinsou himself has admitted to a poor knowledge of the country.
When he was nominated as prime minister some months ago, Zinsou declared to Radio France Internationale (RFI):
Je ne connais pas tout du Bénin. Donc, qui serais-je pour dire : ” J’arrive pour être le dauphin ” ? J’arrive pour écouter et j’arrive pour essayer d’être utile. [Le président] m’a demandé d’être le premier de ses ministres, m’a fixé des champs très précis et qui m’intéressent beaucoup, qui concernent le développement…
I do not know the country of Benin at all. So who am I to say: “I come here to be the second in charge”? I come to listen and I come to try to be helpful. [The president] asked me to lead his ministers, he set very specific targets for the development of the country and these targets are of great interest to me…
Zinsou's candidature has also been contested by other political forces. On January 5, a coalition of several political and trade unions, led by former President Nicéphore Soglo, condemned his candidacy as a political ploy by France.
Zinsou, Soglo told the BBC, is a “pawn” imposed by French interests.
Francis Laloupo, journalist and Beninese geopolitical expert, commented:
#Bénin L. #Zinsou désigné #candidat de la coalition présidentielle (FCBE). La déconcertante trajectoire du huis-clos démocratique béninois.
— Francis Laloupo (@FrancisLaloupo) November 25, 2015
Zinsou selected as the governing party's candidate (FCBE). Disconcerting to see how closed the democratic process is in Benin.
One online commenter was displeased with the indirect intrusion of a former colonial power into the coming elections:
Zinsou n'a même pas la légitimité il paie ses impôts où ? Le certificat de nationalité il l'a reçu quand en quelle année? …la France leur a promis [aux futures votants] la garantie de leur sécurité quoi qu'arrive ils sont tous prêts à céder leur patrie au colon.
Does Zinsou even have the right to run ? Where does he pay his income taxes? When did he receive his certificate of Beninese nationality? …France's support is a guarantee of security [to voters], so whatever happens, they’re ready to give up their country to their former colonizer.
On the other hand, the Franco-Beninese politician has started to gain the support of some groups, such as the Zémidjans, the famous taxi-moto drivers that crowd the streets of the biggest cities of Benin.
Some weeks ago, moto-taxi drivers began wearing the campaign slogans of political parties and candidates, with Zinsou's campaign featuring most prominently.
Victor Aidjihoundé, a leader of a group of Zémidjans, declared:
Nous avons compris que les politiciens nous utilisent contre zéro franc. Seul Lionel Zinsou nous aide à trouver des solutions à nos problèmes. Il nous a dit : “Mutualisez vos forces, vous êtes nombreux au Bénin.” Il a commencé à travailler avec nous et nous sommes en bonne voie.
We have understood that politicians use us for free…Only Lionel Zinsou has been able to help us find solutions to our problems. He told us: ‘Join forces and unionize, you’re quite numerous in Benin’. He has started to work with us and we are on the right track.
Cotonou, Benin. via the author with permission
Other prominent candidates include:
One other probable candidate is Patrice Talon, a businessman who specialised in cotton import from Côte d'Ivoire.
But few think Talon is a credible contender. He lives in exile in France amid pending accusations that he attempted to poison President Boni Yayi in 2012.
No charges have been filed against Talon as of yet.
All candidates should complete registration by January 12.

author: Chiara Ronca


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‘Russian Ebola’: Civic Project Tracks Russians’ Deaths in Police Custody · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

A Russian journalist's website is tracking deaths in police custody to raise awareness of the issue. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Over the course of 2015, 197 people died in police custody in Russia. The deaths often occurred under mysterious circumstances, and many of the detainees died even before being charged or getting to trial. Information about each of the 197 cases has been made publicly available online as part of a civic journalism project called “Russian Ebola.”
“Russian Ebola” is the brainchild of journalist Maria Berezina, created to monitor cases of death in police stations, pretrial detention facilities, and related places such as drunk tanks. The project's statistics do not take into account prisoners who have already received a jail sentence after a court-issued criminal verdict, but only record the deaths of those who were detained or faced administrative arrest.
Berezina, who previously worked in the Journalism Investigations Agency in St. Petersburg and the TASS news agency, launched the website in March of 2015. While doing work for the blog of Oleg Kashin, a Russian opposition journalist, she noticed regular reports of deaths and decided to retrieve openly available government data on the numbers of those who die in police custody from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. What she found was staggering: each month, anywhere from nine to 29 people had been dying at police stations across Russia, with few of the cases investigated and even fewer guilty parties established.
Berezina informed Kashin of her discovery, and he soon wrote a column about the incidents and the alarming trend, titling it “Russian Ebola.”
Если новости каждый день приносят внезапную смерть в полицейском участке, то речь действительно идет о какой-то странной эпидемии, нуждающейся в точном выяснении ее причин, локализации и эффективной борьбы с нею. Это менее интересно, чем Донбасс, это не вызовет бурных обсуждений в социальных сетях, да и скучно читать заунывно повторяющиеся одинаковые истории — «Умер, умер, умер». Но вы уверены, что умирать всегда будет кто-то другой, не вы? Я по поводу себя совсем не уверен, и я боюсь этой эпидемии, и хочу, чтобы все ее боялись, потому что она страшная, и ее нужно остановить.
If every day the news brings sudden death at a police station, then we're really talking about some strange epidemic that needs to have clearly identified reasons, needs to be localized and combatted effectively. This is less interesting than Donbass, this won't cause passionate discussions on social networks, and it's boring to read mindnumbingly similar, recurring stories—”Dead, dead, dead.” But are you sure it's always going to be someone else dying, and not you? I'm not so sure about myself, and I'm afraid of this epidemic, and I want everyone to be afraid, because it is terrifying, and it must be stopped.”
Berezina decided to make the publicly available data more visible and launched a separate website, borrowing the name from Kashin's piece. Though she started work in March of 2015, she went back through the Interior Ministry reports to get death numbers as far back as September 2014.
Maria Berezina, the journalist behind “Russian Ebola.” Photo from Facebook.
Soon after the launch, Berezina described her reporting routine in an interview to Russian Spektr website.
Искать такие сообщения не сложно. Я просто ищу в «Яндекс.Новостях», вбиваю запросы типа «Полиция. Умер». Времени это занимает немного. Три раза в день я мониторю интернет, это недолго. Запостить саму новость тоже — минуты две.
It's not difficult to find these reports. I just search in Yandex.News, I type in a search query like “Police. Died.” This doesn't take a lot of time. I monitor the Internet three times a day, not that long. Posting the news itself also takes all of two minutes.
Besides daily reports and summary statistics for each month, the project also publishes occasional opinion columns by human rights lawyers and advocates, addressing the issues of police abuse and detainee rights.
The 2015 figures from “Russian Ebola”‘s annual report are nothing but numbers and facts, but they paint a chilling picture:
In October of 2015, Vladikavkaz citizen Vladimir Tskaev was detained on suspicion of attacking an OMON (special forces) police officer and was pronounced dead at a hospital the day after his detention. The police claimed the man beat his own head against the floor, but Tskaev's relatives doubted the report and went to the street in protest. The operatives suspected of beating Tskaev were arrested some time later, along with the head of the city's criminal investigations department, and the North Ossetia Interior Minister lost his post. This is one of only a handful of cases where police violence was suspected and the relatives of the deceased were able to resolve the case. Most suspicious deaths in police custody remain in the dark.
In a recent interview to Daily Dot, Berezina said that she was still not hopeful for any sort of official response from Russian law enforcement. After being questioned over the website's activity by the state Center for Combating Extremism, she said she felt like even they didn't take her work seriously.
While the journalist doesn't expect to effect any tangible change or for the police to hold themselves accountable, she said the “Russian Ebola” website was created “in order for people [to] think for themselves.” Berezina's intent, she said, was not to paint the Russian police force as completely bad. “Maybe there is nothing bad at all—but then why [do] people keep dying?”


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Signs of Islamic Law Taking Root in The Gambia · Global Voices
Demba Kandeh

President of the Gambia Yahya Jammeh addresses United Nations General Assembly on 24 September, 2013. UN photo by Erin Siegal. Used under Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Elements of Islamic law principles have emerged in The Gambia barely three weeks after the president declared the majority-Muslim country an Islamic state.
A leaked government memo instructs heads of government departments and agencies to ensure that “female employees” use “head tie and neatly wrap their hair during office hours.”
The memo did not explain the reasons for the change but warned that all are “seriously advised to adhere to this new directive.”
President Yahya Jammeh declared the country an Islamic state on December 12 but was quick to add that it would be a tolerant one.
He specifically noted that there would be no restrictions on dress and that followers of other religions, that make up around 10% of the population, would be respected:
We will be an Islamic state that will respect the rights of the citizens. You the Muslim be a Muslim, worship according to the Quran and the Sunna of the Prophet of Islam Muhammad and let Christians also worship the way they do it.
In his New Year message, Jammeh further reiterated his Islamic state declaration urging Gambians to be devout Muslims and patriotic citizens:
Recently, I pronounced The Gambia as an Islamic state and republic on the basis that the majority of Gambians are Muslims and the need to uphold the country’s Islamic identity and faith in an environment of true Islam where the rights of all citizens would be safeguarded and respected. In this respect, I call on both Muslims and Christians to continue living together peacefully and work in harmony for the common good of the country regardless of our ethnolinguistic differences.
On January 6 officials of the Gambia Supreme Islamic Council (GSIC) and Banjul Muslims Elders visited the State House to express their “appreciation and support” for the declaration of The Gambia as an Islamic state.
Mr Muhammad Lamin Touray, the President of the GSIC and Imam of State House Mosque, was quoted as follows by local media:
We came here today to show our appreciation to President Jammeh for his decision to make The Gambia an Islamic republic.  The GSIC, Banjul Muslim elders and The Gambia Muslim community views the move as Allah’s additional bounty to the country and the people.
Reactions to these developments are somewhat critical of Jammeh.
And here's the biggest mistake possible to be made. Get ready for more #humanrights abuses from #Gambia 😨 pic.twitter.com/SG2cvGE3xE
— Examine Islam (@INNOCENT_E_I) January 7, 2016
Maryam Namazie, Iranian secularist and human rights activist, warned:
Gambia now requires government female employees to wear Hejab. That's how it started in Iran too https://t.co/w6o3k1FVjF No to sex apartheid
— Maryam Namazie (@MaryamNamazie) January 6, 2016
Rawlings Datir complained:
@KaylaMegwa: When Countries in other continents are thinking of better things, #Gambia is sliding backwards and shaming Africa. NONSENSE!
— Rawlings Datir (@RawlingsDatir) January 6, 2016
Sait Matty Jaw, a Gambian historian, wrote a long piece on the interaction of religion and politics in the country since independence and warned against an impending Islamicisation of The Gambia:
First it was just a simple statement declaring The Gambia an Islamic State, ignoring the stipulations within our sovereign law (the Constitution). He even threatened to change the national flag that existed way before he came to life. Some of us laughed and said this will never happen… there is now an Executive Directive forcing all female civil servants to cover their hair at work. During the declaration/pronouncement of The Gambia as an Islamic State, Jammeh clearly stated that he did not appoint anyone to be the police of the Islamic State; that no dress code would be imposed, and that the changes will not affect non-Muslims in The Gambia. What would follow this?
While the Gambia is introducing the veil, other countries in the region such as Cameroon, Gabon, Chad and Congo Brazzaville have banned the use of head covering in public places.
There has been no reaction from the president's office regarding the leaked memo. In a country where press freedom and access to information is a distant dream, observers have adopted a principle of wait and see.
For many, the president is only canvassing for votes as he prepares to seek a fifth term in office at the next presidential elections due in December 2016.
Others argue that he is turning to the Arab world as international donors such as the European Union freeze funding amid rampant human rights abuses.
Whatever the motivation is, Jammeh seems more determined than ever before that his actions and policies are in the interest of all Gambians.

author: Demba Kandeh


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SMS Platform Empowers Small Scale Farmers in Uganda · Global Voices
James Propa

A trainer showing a farmer how to use the SMS Platform. Photo coutersy of WeFarm
Despite massive advances in technology, the majority of farmers in Africa do not know how to use a smart phone. Few of them go online to research about a new species of crops or how to fight a new crop disease.
A new startup, WeFarm, intends to empower farmers with information by using the Short Messaging System (SMS). Farmers ask questions which are translated and shared with farmers in the same region and beyond. Once feedback is generated, it is then sent back to the person who asked the question.
Some of the countries already benefiting from the Startup include Uganda, Kenya and Peru with over 43,000 users worldwide in the first nine months of its operations. It will be launched in Tanzania, Cote D'Ivoire, India, Colombia, and Brazil in the near future.
In a blog post on National Geographic, they shared a story of a farmer in Kenya, and how he benefited from the startup:
This is precisely what happened to Kepha from Baringo, Kenya. After receiving advice from fellow farmers, Kepha managed to save 27 of the 52 chickens he owned.
Kepha’s chickens are very important to him. Not only do they provide eggs for his family to eat, but they’re also his main source of income. Kepha can sell chickens to other farmers or at markets when he has the opportunity to visit one. He also farms vegetables and staples that he and his family can eat, but his chickens allow him to earn a modest living.
Kepha’s story will resonate with many small-scale farmers across Africa, Latin America and Asia.
A blog post on Takepart refers to We Farm as:
Wikipedia for farmers, or as its founder describes it, “Internet for people without Internet.”
Nicki Briggs feels this is an initiative that benefits not just the farmers but also the food industry:
An initiative that benefits farmers, and the food industry = JACKPOT. Loving @we_farm info sharing platform. https://t.co/02uWj2dvMO
— Nicki Briggs, MS, RD (@nicki_briggs_) December 21, 2015
While Disrupt Africa listed WeFarm as one of the Startups to look out for in 2016.
12 African startups to watch in 2016 https://t.co/jTvRxSbMPt @yaoota @DabaDoc @shieldfinance @we_farm @SafeMotos @CladLight @GiraffeJobs
— Disrupt Africa (@DisruptAfrica) December 31, 2015
Congratulations @we_farm on an amazing 2015 – hope next year is even better! #socenthttps://t.co/Pl5G2FicPt
— Tamsin C (@TamsinChislett) December 22, 2015

author: James Propa