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The Crocodile’s Got to Go? A Jamaican Bishop Blames the Country’s Coat of Arms for Crime · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

A postmark on Jamaica's Coat of Arms. Image by Mark Morgan, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.
If any period in the year could be described as the “silly season” in Jamaica, it would be the month of August. Once the independence day festivities have retreated, a torpor descends on public life. Journalists complain that there is no news, as the “movers and shakers” are mostly on holiday. This year, those Jamaicans who can afford the trip are at the Rio Olympics, while those at home celebrate Jamaican track victories in front of their televisions, in sports bars or at Half Way Tree in Kingston. Even Parliament goes on a long break, as Member of Parliament and public commentator Ronald Thwaites bemoaned.
In the midst of the vacuum, however, one religious leader has shaken up the summertime calm by suggesting the country's coat of arms encourages crime.
Unlike other National Symbols created at the time of Jamaica's Independence in 1962, the coat of arms, incorporating the national motto “Out of Many One,” is a legacy from British colonial rule dating back to 1661. Among other images, it depicts a man and women from the indigenous Taino community (formerly called Arawak Indians). The man holds a bow (likely used for hunting), while the woman holds a basket of fruit. A crocodile (the American Crocodile is a protected species in Jamaica) stands on a log above a royal helmet.
Bishop Rowan Edwards of the Lighthouse Assembly Church of God is a member of the Spanish Town Ministers Fraternal, an activist church grouping that holds regular rallies against crime and violence. A gang member deported from the United States in April has been blamed for a recent upsurge in violence in Spanish Town, and while addressing a prayer meeting in the town, Bishop Edwards pointed to aspects of the coat of arms that, in his view, promote violence and war.
In a radio interview, he explained:
You can have something more modern, something more unique, that does not speak of war. The Arawak Indians were involved in war…We know what they did here. But that's years ago, decades ago, and I think it's now time for a change.
In an interview with the newspaper Jamaica Gleaner, he elaborated, placing focus on the crocodile:
‘As a pastor serving the community of Spanish Town – and Jamaica on a whole – for the last 35 years, I cannot sit back and watch crime and violence take over Jamaica. … We are dealing with crime by fighting it on a pruning basis. You cannot prune a tree and have the tree die. You have to deal with things from the root,’ he said.
At the root of Jamaica's problem, Edwards believes, lies one of our national symbols.
‘We have a coat of arms that has a crocodile sitting on top of it. Those days are finished. Why should we have a crocodile sitting on top of us as a nation? Why should we have two Indians with swords in their hands, saying, “It's time for war” in this nation?’ the Bishop queried.
Stressing that it is wrong, Edwards said crocodile speaks of fear and that it is out of place on the coat of arms.
‘Secondly, if you notice the Bank of Jamaica, their monetary symbol is a crocodile holding a key. Who wants to have a crocodile hold their key? No wonder why the financial condition is so bad,’ observes Edwards.
According to Edwards, Jamaica's problem with crime and poverty is a spiritual one, and it will not be alleviated until the issues surrounding the emblems are addressed.
Bishop Edwards announced his intention to obtain thousands of signatures in an effort to have the Jamaican Government “update” the coat of arms.
In reaction, young broadcast journalist Rashona Fitz-Henley tweeted:
Off all the things causing crime, the Church has identified the Coat of Arms?? #tek it Jesus!!
— Rashona Fitz-Henley (@rfitzhenley) August 9, 2016
While many Jamaicans joked about it, others corrected Fitz-Henley by pointing out that it was only one or two individuals who raised the issue, and that they did not represent “The Church”:
@rfitzhenley @Petchary A single self-appointed religious leader – NOT “the Church”, please.
— PetaAnneBaker (@PA13Baker) August 11, 2016
Some felt the discussion was worthy of consideration, in the context of Jamaica's approach to symbols from the colonial era. The Jamaica Observer editorialized:
While we have retained some very important symbols and institutions of colonialism, there is, indeed, justification to make more changes, even as we acknowledge that it will take some time to do so…
In recent weeks, a call to change the Coat of Arms has triggered debate, which is healthy, because the fact that it has been like that for so many years does not mean that it should not be reviewed and changed if necessary.
As Jamaica continues to struggle with high crime rates, however, Rashona Fitz-Henley maintained a commonly held view:
@PA13Baker @Petchary PLEASE tell the Church that they r increasingly falling down on the job & that's y they will not b effective re crime.
— Rashona Fitz-Henley (@rfitzhenley) August 11, 2016
Columnist Franklyn Johnston dismissed the bishop's argument, suggesting “The Church” might have better things to do:
The pesky attention-seeking bishop who made an issue of our coat of arms continues the tradition of the upstart church taking selfies while Rome burns. The bishop won — he got column inches — but what impact on crime? We are chat and pose people.
One letter writer defended the coat of arms, suggesting that through the logic of the bishop's argument, symbols of the rebellious Maroons should also be removed:
The call to change the Jamaican coat of arms by Bishop Rowan Edwards is preposterous! If we were to accept his argument about the presence of the bow in the Tainos’ hands as symbols of violence, the same fallacy could be applied to the abeng of the Maroons, a powerful symbol of African culture and tradition used to alert the villagers if a wedding, birth or death was being announced, or a call to arms for impending war.
The gumbeh drum used by the Maroons and similar types now used in Anglican and Roman Catholic worship were originally for communicating with the dead, or sending messages to start uprisings against the government.
The Jamaican coat of arms, which is now 325 years old, was accepted by the Government and Opposition at the birth of independent Jamaica in 1962 as a ‘badge of great historical significance to the nation’ and should be retained.
Another observed wryly that perhaps it is time Jamaica began to live up to its national motto, “Out of Many One”:
I respect the contribution made by the goodly bishop, and I stand by his right to free speech; however, I totally disagree with his stated position. The truth exists that there are many other things within our culture which inspire and nourish crime and violence. Examples of our music and socialisation can be listed, but the coat of arms is not to be named among them.
This national symbol is perhaps one of, if not the last known symbol which pays regards to the earliest settlers of our country and notes the contributions they made. If changing its substance is a means to tackling crime, then we might as well change the national motto as well, for we certainly haven’t been living as if we are truly ‘one’.
Bishop Edwards’ words have fallen on mostly stony ground. It is generally accepted that the Arawaks were a peaceful people, and crocodiles rarely attack Jamaicans, who mostly treat them with a fearful respect. However, crime in Jamaica remains as intractable problem as ever.

author: Emma Lewis


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How Traditional and Western Medicine Are Working Together to Help Indigenous Patients in Venezuela · Global Voices
Minerva Vitti

A Wisiratu man invoking ancestral spirits with tobacco smoke. Photo by Álvaro Laiz, published with permission.
This article is an edited version of the original published by Minerva Vitti in the Gumilla Center's SIC magazine.
The first time when Jan Costa traveled to the Orinoco Delta was on 14 April 2014, the same month when he turned 24. He studied medicine at the José María Vargas School of the Central University of Venezuela and he was going to do his two-month internship in the town of San Francisco de Guayo, in Delta Amacuro State, in the eastern part of the country.
When Jan saw the precarious health situation in the Delta, he decided to come back and carry out his rural internship for one year. This was how he came to the Nabasanuka community, where he worked with the Warao indigenous people, about an hour boat ride from San Francisco de Guayo.
It was during this second stay when the young doctor learned the native language better and discovered the wisiratu, or the “master of pain.” As it is often said, no matter how much the Warao people have culturally adapted to western ways, they strongly believe in the wisiratu.
In the Warao culture, diseases are treated by three types of shamans: bajanarotu, joarotu and wisiratu. They act as intermediaries between mystical entities and human beings. The wisiratu is the shaman who serves as a mediator between their people and the jebu (evil spirit).
The wisiratu holds the power of the gods of the North, East and South, and from the moment of their initiation, they carry in their body six children of these cardinal deities, which act as guardians.
Throughout their life, the wisiratu is reminded to keep the vows they took during his initiation, and provide tobacco smoke and sago from moriche palm for the gods and their court. In return, the gods reduce the number of children's deaths and endow the wisiratu with the power to cure diseases.
Apart from their role as healer, the wisiratu also provides psychological counseling and reinforces moral norms within the group. The highest ranking wisiratu is known as the Guardian of the Sacred Stone, who plays a dual role: they are an incarnation of one of the deities, while at the same time they serve as the deity’s main source of protection.
Jan recalled that he thought of the idea of bringing wisiratu to the hospital in Nabasanuka, where Warao people who were bitten by the poisonous mapanare snake went for treatment. Patients, desperate after seeing their symptoms getting worse, asked the doctor for the intervention of the wisiratu:
Me decían ꞌdoctor me quiero ir al wisiratu’. Yo me preguntaba ¿cómo controlo esto para que no empeoren los síntomas, para que no les dé una hemorragia, si se van del hospital? Entonces se me ocurrió que si tenía a los wisiratu en la comunidad podía meterlos en el hospital, así el paciente no se va, tiene su wisiratu; es feliz y yo soy feliz.
They told me, ‘Doctor, I want to go to the wisiratu’. I wondered how I could respond to this request, so that their symptoms do not get worse and cause hemorrhage if the patients leave the hospital. Then, it occurred to me that if I had the wisiratu in the community I could bring them to the hospital, so the patients do not leave, but they still have access to their wisiratu. They are happy, and I am happy.
Pastora, a wisiratu, dedicated herself to helping the doctor cure the children who had pneumonia or diarrhea and, of course, the victims of mapanare snake bites. She is a wisiratu who sings and gives massages. Through these practices the spirits of the mapanare snake, of diarrhea, and of pneumonia are removed. Jan said:
Un día [cuenta Jan] por curiosidad le pregunté a Pastora cómo era el canto de la serpiente. Ellos consideran eso secreto, pero básicamente lo que expresa el canto es una petición al veneno de la serpiente para que dejara de causar dolor y para que se saliera.
One day out of curiosity I asked Pastora about the song of the snake. The wisiratu healers consider this a secret, but basically what the song expresses is a request to the snake venom that causes pain to stop and to leave.
In the SoundCloud file above, one of these healers can be heard singing. The translation in Spanish was done by the National Recording Center:
Joa warayaja (espíritu sanador de dolores)
Iaeee emm, soy espíritu enviado para curar. ¿Quién quiere hacerle daño a esta persona?, ¿cuál es su mal? Aquí están los que sacan el daño en lo profundo de su ser, aquí están también los que chupan los malos espíritus. Yo mismo soy el [que curará] a este nieto pequeño. Revisaré su cabeza, su estómago. Vine a curar su dolor. Colocaré y limpiaré su espíritu. Si está mal o débil, si está dañado con sangre mala o tiene un mal espíritu de muertos, devolveré su espíritu a su cuerpo, yo curaré su cuerpo dañado.
[…] Yo soy el que sacará el espíritu de muerto que ha poseído este cuerpo, curaré su mal […] Yo soy el que cura el cuerpo dañado […]. Yo sí limpiaré este cuerpo enfermo y dañado por malos espíritus y enfermedades extrañas, soy el que te curará […]
Yo sí, este cuerpo poseído por algún espíritu de muerto [mi poder] cesará su dolor […]. Ahora sí nieto, te sentirás mejor. Tu cabeza, yo así tocando y echando todo mal te curaré […] conmigo también están mis hijos que te cuidarán, sanarás, […].
Joa warayaja (healing spirit of pains)
Iaeee emm, I am the spirit sent to heal. Who wants to hurt this person? What is his illness? Here there are those who take the harm from the depths of his being, here there are those who suck away the evil spirits. I myself am the one who [will heal] this little child. I will examine your head, your stomach. I came to cure your pain. I will find and cleanse your spirit. If it is sick or weak, if it is damaged with bad blood or has a bad spirit of the dead, I will return his spirit to his body, I will heal your damaged body.
[…] I am the one who will bring the spirit of the dead who has owned this body, I will heal their illness […] I am the one who heals the sick body […]. I cleanse this sick body damaged by evil spirits and strange diseases, I'm the one who will heal you […]
If this body is possessed by some spirit of the dead [my power] will cease its pain […]. Now, child, you'll feel better. By touching your head and throwing away all sickness, I will heal you […] with me there are also my children to look after you, you will heal […].
Pastora's presence helped the Warao patients remain in the hospital. According to Jan:
[Los warao se sentían más tranquilos] porque tenían como dos medicinas: la del hombre blanco y la del warao. Disminuyó el índice de indígenas que se iban del hospital. Aunque igual, siempre te presionan para irse rápido, así tengan al wisiratu, e incluso con este tampoco es que se queden mucho tiempo […] Ellos piensan que el hospital está lleno de espíritus, duendes y fantasmas de los que murieron en el hospital. Especialmente cuando no hay luz, ellos dicen que comienzan a escuchar cosas, monstruos, escuchan sonidos de niños llorando.
[The Warao patients felt calmer] because they had two doctors: that of the white man and the one of the Warao people. This decreased the rate in which the indigenous peoples were leaving the hospital. But equally, they always put pressure on you so they can leave fast, and even with the presence of a wisiratu, they will not stay a long time […] They think the hospital is full of spirits, of ‘duendes’ (sprites) and of ghosts of those who died in the hospital. Especially when there is no light, they say they begin to hear things, monsters, sounds of children crying.
The main hospital problems are the shortages of medical supplies, of river ambulance and of electricity. Nabasanuka has two power plants, one for the hospital and another for the community. The oil that runs both electric generators is brought by the barges, which in theory should stop by once a month and leave more than 10 barrels at the hospital and more than 30 at the community, but this is not enough:
Dejan cinco o cuatro tambores al hospital y quince o dieciséis a la comunidad. Eso no dura ni un mes y siempre quedamos con un déficit de siete días sin luz. El peor de los casos fue dieciséis días sin luz. Esto ocurrió en octubre.
They leave five or four barrels at the hospital and 15 or 16 in the community. That does not last even a month and we are always left with seven days without light. The worst was 16 days without light. This happened in October.
Jan is very sure it was that month because he counted all the days. They had to attend to births at night with flashlights, and there was also the problem of not having ambulances and any way to get patients to Nabasanuka:
Había veces [en que] yo tenía que ver cómo se morían varios pacientes [por no haber] ambulancia fluvial, y si se conseguía era pidiéndole favores a la comunidad: Con uno conseguía el motor, otro warao me prestaba la embarcación, otro me daba el aceite, otro me daba la gasolina…
There were times [that] I had to see many patients dying [because of the lack of] a river ambulance, and if anything was achieved was by asking favors to the community: one got the engine, other Warao man lent me the boat, another gave me oil, another provided the gasoline…
One of the toughest cases that this young doctor remembered was of a pregnant Warao woman who came to the hospital with serious complications from childbirth. In the remote Warao communities the women prefer to give birth at home, because they do not have the means to travel to Nabasanuka. They only go to hospital when there are complications with the labor. This woman had tried to give birth in her community; when she arrived at the hospital she had been with complications for two days and the child was dead inside her.
As Jan struggled to arrange for boat, motor, fuel and oil, 30 minutes passed. They arrived in Puerto Volcán at seven in the evening. From there they called the ambulance. They had been unable to notify earlier because there was no electricity in Nabasanuka. Twenty minutes later the ambulance arrived, but the mother died in the operating room that midnight. Jan then had to find a solution for the overnight stay and for the next day return to Nabasanuka.
The Regional Health Authority did not provide any support.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Minerva Vitti


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Kyrgyzstan Still Hearts the Female Wrestler Who Fell Short at Rio · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Aisulluu Tynybekova. Official image from United World Wrestling federation.
Missing out on bronze after a wrestling bout she had seemed set to win in style, Aisuluu Tynybekova has nevertheless been hailed as a hero by the majority of the Kyrgyz internet following her exit from the Olympic Games in Rio.
Both in Brazil and London, Tynybekova was regarded as one of the small Central Asian country's few realistic hopes of a medal.
Going into her August 18 tie with Sakshi Malik, Kyrgyz were hoping Tynybekova could secure the country's second bronze, after weightlifter Izzat Artykov — later stripped of his medal for doping — had secured a podium finish the previous week.
But there was only disappointment as Tynybekova ceded a 5-0 lead in a toughly contested tie with Sakshi Malik, who eventually ran out 8-5 winner to end India's medal drought.
Wrestling is a key sport in Kyrgyzstan with a rich heritage reaching back through the Kyrgyz people's nomadic past.
But Tynybekova has upset gender stereotypes in the male-dominated discipline to become the country's highest-ranked wrestler across all categories, a fact not lost on the republic's Twitterazzi.
Пол страны чуваков с поломаными ушами, а в полуфинале боролась женщина.. #kgz Айсулуу Тыныбекова, азамат!!! pic.twitter.com/PguOoRw2D3
— Aibek Turdaliev (@aibek_turdaliev) August 18, 2016
Half the country are dudes with broken ears [injuries from contact sports] but it is a woman that made it to the semis. Well done Aisuluu Tynybekova!
Айсулуу Тыныбекова – женская сила!
— Эрика Марат (@DCErica) August 17, 2016
Aisuluu: Woman power!
Tynybekova is not an angel.
An assault charge relating to an incident that took place in an underpass in the country's capital Bishkek threatened to veto her participation at the last Olympics in London, where she exited the tournament unexpectedly early.
Now 23, Tynybekova has developed her game and stayed out of trouble in the years since the scuffle that she claimed she was provoked into.
The grappler is almost certain to compete at the next Olympics in 2020, and will once again carry the weight of Kyrgyzstan's expectations on her back when she does.
In fact, there will be even more reliance on Tynybekova to add to the country's tally of three Olympic medals in independence after another hopeful, weightlifter Izzat Artykov, became the first athlete to be stripped of a medal for doping at the games.
Artykov has hotly denied the doping charges and commented in an interview with Agence France-Presse that a French weightlifter may have “mixed the doping” — he tested positive for a stimulant called strychnine — into his food or drink.
A former presidential chief of staff lamented the short-termism inherent in the actions of the weightlifter's team on Twitter:
Как это они не знали о стрихнине! Еще как знали! Тренеры просто решили быстро взять результат. Любой ценой! Получился позор на весь мир!
— Edil Baisalov (@baisalov) August 19, 2016
They say they didn't know about strychine! Of course they knew! The trainers just wanted to seize a win. At any cost! We are disgraced in front of the whole world!
The head of the country's state sport agency, which says it will appeal Artykov's doping cherge, was one of the few public figures to criticize Tynybekova.
He claimed that she “gave victory away” in her duel with Malik, a comment that caused anger on social media.
After the shock of the Artykov doping scandal, many fans are now actually thanking Tynybekova for taking the longer, more honest route to a podium finish, notwithstanding the pain of just missing out this time around.

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


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The Dead Are Returning Home and It’s Time to Party in Japan · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Minato Mirai Bon Dance (みなとみらい大盆踊り) by Flickr user muratama. License: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Every year in mid-August, Japan observes Obon (お盆), the Festival of the Dead, when the dead return to the ancestral home for several days to spend time with the living. Obon typically occurs on August 15 throughout most of Japan. In 2016, August 15 occurred on a Monday, and combined with a new holiday, Mountain Day, on Thursday, August 11, people across the country were able to take a five-day weekend. Many families returned to the countryside to observe Obon.
Bon dances (盆踊り, Bon Odori) are also held all over Japan, as well. These dances are typically held in neighborhood gathering places, such as Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, public plazas, and even the parking lots of supermarkets.
Many people celebrating upload photographs and videos of their local Bon dances to Instagram.
✂✂✂ In the precinct of Shinanokokubun-ji Temple #summer#nightview#festival#temple#instagood#instadiary#instagramjapan #夏 #夜景 #祭り #盆踊り #寺 #信濃国分寺 location: Ueda, Nagano Pref. G'morning‼ 出しそびれたpicを出しちゃいマス 朝っぱらから夜景とか…
A photo posted by ✂ NAOTO ✂✂✂ (@ctrl_plus_v) on
Shinano Kokubunji Temple grounds, Ueda Nagano #summer #nighttime #festival #Bon dance #temple #temple #ShinanoKokubunji
Typically, Bon dance decorations include strings of lanterns, red and white bunting, and a tower or platform for musicians and a taiko drummer.
#fukuoka #藍島 #nikon #d610 #写真 #photography #夏祭り #盆踊り
A photo posted by SHIBATA HARUNA (@867_48t) on
#AinoIsland #Fukuoka #nikon #d610 #summerfestival #obon
Traditional folk songs are performed live or are played over a loudspeaker.
#盆踊り#積川町#地元#泉州河内音頭#OBON#dance
A video posted by 木村哲也 (@kim.te2.626) on
#Bondance #tsugawacho (Osaka) #countryside #OBON#dance
#夏休み ももう終わりだね。 #盆踊り #日本 #お祭り #夏休みの宿題 #なにもしてない #summervacation #japan #bondance #festival #暑假 #節日 #盆舞 #여름방학 #축제 #윤무
A video posted by Yoshiki Suzuki (@yoshiki_suzuki) on
#SummerIsAlmostOver #Bondance #Japan #chillaxing #hot #summervacation #festival
Everyone in the neighborhood comes out for the Bon dance, especially families with young children.
#盆踊り#息子#笑顔#提灯#やぐら#bonfestivaldance#son#smile#face
A photo posted by miyuki (@me.you_key97) on
#bonfestivaldance #son #smile #face
The annual Bon dance also serves as a neighborhood festival with a carnival atmosphere. There are games to play and different kinds of summer foods to eat, such as kakigori shaved ice.
近所の友達とお祭 保育園の同じクラスの子がたくさんいて あおちゃんも友達も遅くまで大暴走だんだん止められなくなってきたね… 友達のママと話しながら帰りました * * #お祭#4歳と1歳#かき氷#kodomo#kidstagram #12月生まれ#12月23日生まれ#12月21日生まれ #盆踊り#ig_kidsphoto#sisters#姉妹 #insta_toddler#thechildrenoftheworld #pixel_kids#kidsfashionforall#cutekidsclub #4yearsold#1yearsold#kids_japan#tv_kidz #kids_of_our_world#beautiful_kids_of_the_world #littleandbrave#ママカメラ#minibymini#ministyleblog#instamamme#mamxmam
A photo posted by Anri S (@anrirna) on
We went with friends from the neighborhood to the Bon dance, and there were lots of kids there from preschool. They all danced liked crazy. Walking home I had a chance to chat with other mothers.
# kidstagram #sisters# #insta_toddler #thechildrenoftheworld #pixel_kids #kidsfashionforall #cutekidsclub #4yearsold #1yearsold #kids_japan #tv_kidz #kids_of_our_world #beautiful_kids_of_the_world #littleandbrave #minibymini #ministyleblog #instamamme #mamxmam
Some Bon dances in Japan are very elaborate, attracting thousands of spectators. The Awa Odori festival in Tokushima Prefecture is probably the most famous of Japan's Bon dances, attracting at least a million people each year to the city.
Caption: First day of the Awa Odori in Tokushima (August 12, 2016)
Large-scale dances occur throughout Japan. Below, you'll find a summer dance in Kumamoto, on the island of Kyushu―the Yamaga Lantern Festival:
#山鹿燈籠祭り #盆踊り #踊り #山鹿燈籠 #燈籠 #カメラ好きな人と繋がりたい #写真撮ってる人と繋がりたい #写真好きな人と繋がりたい #写真 #team_jp_ #igersjp #icu_Japan #main_vision #Tokyocameraclub #loves_Nippon #Japan_of_insta #カメラのキタムラ
A photo posted by 花鳥風月 (@boyfriend0630) on
#yamagatoromatsuri #Bondance #dancing #Lanterns #photosthatphotographerslike #photos igersjp #icu_Japan #main_vision #Tokyocameraclub #loves_Nippon #Japan_of_insta
The lights at night are always beautiful:
こないだの町内の盆踊り #祭り #盆踊り #浴衣 #町内のお偉いさんいっぱい
A photo posted by nico 月の輪美容所 (@nicotukinowa) on
The Bon dance in our town.
#Bondance #Obon #AlltheImportantPeopleInOurTown

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
When Never Forgetting the Attacks on France, Try to Remember the Heroes, Too · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

For the past 18 months, Europe has seen a wave of attacks that has increased social tension and polarized many conversations on religion and immigration, especially in France. While the media's talking points these days seem to center around whether people should be allowed to wear burkinis at the beach, other newsworthy actions are quickly forgotten—extraordinary actions that help more to solidify France's social fabric than anything to do with swimwear. Global Voices looks at several heroic stories during the latest mass attacks on French soil.
Franck, the hero of Nice. Photo: Twitter / @Pabliteau
Franck is 49 and a father of two. When Mohamed Lahouaiej Boulhel drove a truck in a crowd gathered for fireworks on Bastille Day in Nice, he was riding a scooter nearby and witnessed the start of the tragedy. In his own words, here is his recollection of what happened:
On a pris la Promenade au niveau des Bosquets. On avançait tranquillement. En fait, je voulais aller au feu d’artifice, mais on est parti trop tard. Alors j’ai dit à ma femme, ce n’est pas grave allons manger une glace sur le Cours Saleya. On a senti un mouvement de foule venir dans notre dos. On a entendu des cris et des voitures se mettaient en travers. Ma femme m’a dit: ‘Arrête-toi, il y a un truc qui ne va pas’. Et le temps de se retourner, on a vu la foule courir dans tous les sens, comme si elle fuyait quelque chose. C’est alors que l’on a vu le camion arriver.
Nous, nous étions au milieu de la route. Il y avait peu de voitures. Je devais rouler à 60 km/h. Je n’ai même pas eu le temps de regarder dans mon rétroviseur. Et là, il m’a doublé à fond. Il roulait sur le trottoir. J’ai en tête les images des corps qui volaient de partout. J’ai tout de suite compris. J’ai alors décidé d’accélérer. Ma femme, derrière moi, me tirait le bras et me demandait où j’allais. Je me suis arrêté. Je lui ai dit: dégage! Et j’ai accéléré à fond.
Pour le rattraper, il fallait slalomer. Entre les gens, vivants et morts. J’étais à fond. Je ne pouvais freiner que de l’arrière car j’avais la poignée bloquée. Je me souviens même de crier dans le casque. Je criais à la mort en fait… Je n’avais que l’arrière du camion dans les yeux. J’étais déterminé à aller jusqu’au bout. Je voulais à tout prix l’arrêter. J’étais dans un état second mais à la fois lucide. Je suis donc parvenu à me mettre sur sa gauche, mon objectif était d’atteindre la cabine.
J’étais sur les marches au niveau de la fenêtre ouverte. Face à lui. Je l’ai frappé, frappé, et frappé encore. De toutes mes forces avec ma main gauche même si je suis droitier. Des coups au visage. Il ne disait rien. Il ne bronchait pas
My wife and I were on the Promenade des Anglais on my scooter [the boardwalk where the attack occurred]. We were moving forward slowly. In fact, we wanted to go see the fireworks, but we left a bit too late. So I said to my wife, “It does not matter. We'll eat ice cream at the Cours Saleya [Saleya Square in Downtown Nice].” We felt a stampede was coming behind us. We heard shouts and a few cars that were trying to get away. My wife said, “Stop, there's something wrong.” By the time we turned around, we saw the crowd running in all directions, as if they were fleeing something. That's when we saw the truck coming.
We were in the middle of the road; there were few cars. I was riding the scooter at 60 kilometers [almost 40 miles] per hour. I didn't even had time to look in my rearview mirror. And then the truck passed right by us. He was driving on the sidewalk. I still have in mind the images of bodies flying everywhere. I immediately understood what was going on. I decided to accelerate. My wife was behind me pulling my arm and asking me what I was doing. I stopped. I told her to get off, and I drove away quickly to catch up with the truck.
In order to catch up, I had to zigzag between people, some dead and some alive. I wanted to stop him at all costs. I was both in a daze and lucid at once. So I managed to get on the left of the truck and my goal was to reach the cabin. I was soon on the steps at the open window, facing him. I hit him again and again and again with my left hand but I am right handed. I landed blows to his face but he said nothing. He did not even flinch.
Aymeric and Sam Monrocq, a couple who lives in Normandy, set up a crowdfunding website to buy a new scooter for Franck. The initiative raised 25,466 euros (almost $30,000). Franck used than a third of the money to purchase a new scooter, and he donated the rest to hospitals, local associations, and other initiatives.
Ludovic Boumbas as published on twitter by his friend @chilavertlille
Ludovic Boumbas was 40 and an IT engineer based in Lille, France. He was sitting at the Bistro La Belle Equipe in Paris when Daesh militants opened fire on the restaurant. His friend was sitting with him, so he threw his body in front of her to protect her from the bullets. Ludovic died on the spot, while his friend was also shot, but she survived. Ludovic is originally from the Republic of Congo. His friends remember him fondly:
Friends described Mr Boumbas as someone who loved people and travelling. “He was just one of life’s good, good people,”
Nicolas Cantinat, 37, and Julien Galisson 32, reacted to the gunfire like Ludovic, shielding the people around then when the bullets rang out. Both Nicholas and Julien died from their wounds. At the Bataclan, the scene of the worst carnage that night, Sébastien, a 34-year-old man from Arles, was trying to escape from the killing spree when he saw a pregnant woman suspended at the window. She was pleading for people underneath to catch her, if she fell. The window was 15 meters (50 feet) from the ground. Sebastien recalls what happened next:
À l'une d'elles, était suspendue une femme enceinte qui suppliait les gens en bas de la réceptionner si elle sautait. En bas aussi c'était le chaos. Je suis passé par l'autre fenêtre et je me suis accroché à une bouche d'aération. À 15 mètres du sol. J'ai tenu cinq minutes puis la femme enceinte, qui n'en pouvait plus, m'a demandé de l'aider à revenir à l'intérieur. C'est ce que j'ai fait.
A pregnant woman was hanging outside a window and was begging people below her to catch her if she jumped. Down on the ground—it was chaos. I went through the other window and I clung onto an air vent to get to her at 15 meters above the ground. I held her for five minutes and then the exhausted woman asked me to help her back inside. So that's what I did.
The whole scene was caught on video:
Lassana Bathily is from Mali. He was working at the Hyper Casher grocery store in Paris when Amedy Coulibaly, a member of Daesh, walked in with a rifle and killed four people, planning on murdering even more. Lassana hid at least six people and a baby in the cold room of the store and then went out of the storage room on his own to talk to Coulibaly. Here is a video of his testimony immediately following the ordeal:
During the attacks, Yoann Cohen, Bathily's coworker at the grocery store, tried to disarm the assailant  and was consequently shot in the head by Coulibaly. Yoann's father hails from Algeria and his mother is from Tunisia.
These ordinary people did not expect the tragedies they encountered suddenly, and they responded instinctively and selflessly. In fact, there were numerous additional examples of acts of bravery during these attacks, ranging from a lone police officer entering taking on all the attackers at Bataclan to the people who opened their doors to stranded event goers.
As a populist rhetoric grows more deafening and the climate of fear seems to sweep much of Europe (especially in France), remembering these stories of altruism and sacrifice is more vital than ever.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


text:
‘When They Took Me Inside’ Syria’s Saydnaya Prison, ‘I Could Smell the Torture’ · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

Screenshot from ‘Inside Saydnaya’, Amnesty International's video report of its findings. Source: YouTube Video.
At least 17,723 Syrians have died in custody since 2011, a new damning report by the international human rights group Amnesty International has revealed. The report, entitled “‘It Breaks The Human': Torture, Disease and Death in Syria's Prisons”, started of with what is common knowledge by now, namely that:
Torture and other ill-treatment have been perpetrated by the Syrian intelligence services and other state forces for decades, fostered by a culture of impunity that is reinforced by Syrian legislation. However, since the current crisis in Syria began in 2011, the situation has become catastrophic, with torture committed on a massive scale.
But one particular prison highlighted by Amnesty International's report may be the most notorious of them all. In a Facebook post, the well-known Syrian intellectual and dissident in exile Yassin Al-Haj Saleh, who has himself spent 16 years in regime prisons for being a member of a communist pro-democracy group, described it as “the most horrible place on earth”. Eyal Weizman, director of the Forensic Architecture agency of Goldsmiths, University of London, even told British newspaper the Guardian “that the building is, itself, an architectural instrument of torture.”
Al-Haj Saleh and Weizman are both referring to Saydnaya prison, a military prison facility located 30 kilometers north of Damascus. It was this prison that Amnesty International attempted to expose in collaboration with Forensic Architecture and backed by first-hand testimony of 65 torture survivors.
Their accounts bear witness to some of the horrors endured by dissidents of the regime inside Saydnaya since the start of the revolution in 2011. Tales of the many methods of torture, including rape, were featured in the short documentary ‘Inside Saydnaya’ released by Amnesty International to coincide with the publication of the report.
One man, named ‘Jamal A’ by Amnesty International to protect his identity, was arrested for helping civilians displaced by the fighting and sent to Saydnaya in October 2012, where he stayed until January 2014. He recalls:
When we first arrived, they put us all in the shower [area of the cell], on top of each other. We were naked of course. My penis was touching [a fellow detainee’s] back. I got cramp and had to move my leg, and my friend took the space that I made. Then I accidentally put my foot down on his penis. He screamed. For this, they were beating us with a steel bar on the front of the palms. I had had an operation on my hand earlier, and we told them [but] they just concentrated on that spot, and beat it harder. The surgery meant that I had 10 times the pain.
Salam featured in ‘Inside Saydnaya’, Amnesty International's video report of its findings. Source: YouTube Video.
‘Salam’, a lawyer from Aleppo, was arrested in September 2011 and sent to Saydnaya from January 2012 to June 2014 for taking part in peaceful demonstrations. He told Amnesty International that he could ‘smell the torture’ as soon as he entered the prison:
When they took me inside the prison, I could smell the torture. It’s a particular smell of humidity, blood and sweat; it’s the torture smell. They took me three floors underground. There were seven of us after the beatings. We were taken into our cell. It was about 2.5 meters by 3 meters. There was a big wall at the end of the room with a hole. There is no shower, just a toilet. It’s dirty and wet; water is leaking from the roof of the cell. It’s totally dark; there is no light; you can’t even see the other people in the same room with you.
Another activist, ‘Shappal’, who advocated for the rights of Kurds in Syria, said he was repeatedly beaten while the guards yelled ‘Bashar is your God’, referring to Syria's President Bashar al Assad, who has clung to power throughout the last five years of civil war:
They brought the food, but it was very little. They spent two hours beating us and saying ‘Bashar is your God’. They did the same for the detainees in the other solitary cells – we could hear them coming to us, cell by cell, and going down the row after us. Of course the other solitary [underground] cells were next to each other in a row, but the sound of beating was so loud that it could reach the sky.
Screenshot from ‘Inside Saydnaya’, Amnesty International's video report of its findings. Source: YouTube Video.
These testimonies follow a report released by the UN Commission of Inquiry in February 2016 in which the killings of detainees occurring between 10 March, 2011 and 30 November, 2015 were examined based on 621 interviews. It concluded:
Detainees held by the Government were beaten to death, or died as a result of injuries sustained due to torture. Others perished as a consequence of inhuman living conditions. The Government has committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and other inhuman acts. Based on the same conduct, war crimes have also been committed.
In a statement released with the report, Philip Luther, the director at Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Program, stressed that the international community, specifically the governments of Russia and the US, must commit to ending these practices
The international community, in particular Russia and the USA, which are co-chairing peace talks on Syria, must bring these abuses to the top of the agenda in their discussions with both the authorities and armed groups and press them to end the use of torture and other ill-treatment.
Speaking to Global Voices, Yassin Swehat, a Spanish-Syrian blogger, journalist and co-founder of the commentary site Al Jumhuriya, reflected:
رغم أن تقرير الأمنستي لا يحمل جديداً بالنسبة للسوريين، الذين عاشوا ويعيشون قصصاً يومية مع الاعتقال، ومع كل الآلية المتسلطة المبنية حول مسألة الاعتقال، بما في ذلك شبكة الفساد الهائلة حولها (لمعرفة أوضاع معتقل، لإيجاد مكانه، لإيصال ملابس أو أدوية..أو حتى فقط لمعرفة إن كان لا يزال على قيد الحياة) إلا أنه تقرير مهم للغاية، إذ يوثق كيف صنع العهد الأسدي الثاني، عهد بشار، سجنه الأيقوني الخاص بعد أن كان سجن تدمر الرهيب هو السجن الأيقوني للعهد الأسدي الأول، عهد حافظ. للأسف أخشى للتقرير مصيراً مشابهاً لتسريبات قيصر، إذ أثبت العالم عدم اكتراثه لانتهاكات حقوق الإنسان من قبل النظام وحلفاءه. لكن مع ذلك التقرير وثيقة مهمة للغاية، وسيكون لها أهميتها في الذاكرة التاريخية السورية بلا شك، وأرجو أن يكون له أهمية قانونية يوماً ما كشهادة لمحاسبة آلة الطحن والقتل والاعتقال، أي النظام السوري.
Although Amnesty's report does not contain new information for Syrians who have lived and are living under the threat of arrest every day, subjected to the mechanism of authoritarianism surrounding the issue of detentions, worsened by rampant corruption (to know the prisoner’s conditions, to locate him, to deliver clothes or medicine, or to know if he’s even alive), it is a very important report that documents how the second Assad era, the era of Bashar, created its private iconic prison that followed the iconic Tadmur prison of the first Assad era, the era of [Bashar's father] Hafez al Assad.
Unfortunately, I worry that the fate of this report will be similar to the [2014] Caesar leaks [detailing the torture and execution of prisoners by Syrian authorities], as the world proved its indifference towards human rights violations practiced by the regime and its allies.
But this report is a very important document, and will have importance in the Syrian historical memory without a doubt, and I hope that it carries legal importance one day, like a testimony to hold the mass-murdering Syrian regime accountable.
Luna Watfa, the co-founder of Woman Organization for Syrian Prisoners and a former detainee herself, who spent 13 months in Syrian government prisons, asked her Twitter followers to read Amnesty's report:
Did you ever think how Assad torture centers look like?do you want 2explore it by yourself?now you can in #Saydnaya https://t.co/AwSh9EP17B
— Luna Watfa (@luna_alabdalla) 18 de agosto de 2016
The Committee to Protect Journalists took this opportunity to remind us of a journalist for Palestine Today, Bilal Ahmed Bilal, who died in December 2013, nearly two years after being sent to Saydnaya:
One of the many to have died in Saydnaya prison: Palestine Today reporter Bilal Ahmed Bilal https://t.co/STgt1gB4JV https://t.co/8he0uzoIJI
— CPJ (@pressfreedom) 18 de agosto de 2016

author: Elia J. Ayoub


text:
Defying Web Censors, Chinese ‘Worship’ Toads to Mark a Former State Leader’s 90th Birthday · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A toad worship poster from a “hasi” forum.
Chinese social media has recently been overrun with memes about toads. Why? To celebrate the 90th birthday of former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin, who many consider looks somewhat like the squat amphibian.
On the Chinese web, those who publish the memes about Jiang are called toad fans or hasi (蛤絲) and the act of publishing itself is called toad worship or moha (膜蛤).
Since early 2015, Chinese web censors have deleted toad worship memes. Still, on Jiang’s birthday this year, hardcore toad fans just could not resist poking the toad — and some have paid a price for it.
For example, media outlet Fenghuang’s editor wrote on popular social media platform Weibo, “Good morning, this is Fenghuang: Today is the 90th birthday of the elder, let’s wake up early to add one second for him.” The message accompanied a photo of a motorcycle that bears a resemblance to a toad.
“Good morning, this is Fenghuang: Today is the 90th birthday of the elder, let’s wake up early to add one second for him.” The editor media outlet Fenghuang was over this toad worship message. Screen capture of Fenghuang Weibo via Mingjing News.
Meanwhile, political cartoonist @temonwangxt retweeted on Jiang’s birthday his drawing about Jiang Zeming’s death hoax in 2014:
お誕生日おめでとうございます！ pic.twitter.com/O49zm5OIkU
— 变态辣椒 (@remonwangxt) August 16, 2016
Cartoon reads: How much longer can you live this time?
Tweet reads: Happy birthday!
Jiang served as China's president from 1993 until 2003. He is nicknamed “the elder” because of a video taken in 2000 in which a Hong Kong reporter asks him if he supports the re-election of former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee Hwa (Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China). Jiang suddenly loses his temper and scolds the reporter. “Today I am speaking to you as an elder,” he rants.
The culture of toad worship started in 2011 when rumors about Jiang’s death spread online. A similar death hoax has surfaced almost every year since then. Someone even created a playlist of 41 videos on YouTube titled “I added one second to President Toad. Excited!” The expression “add one second” or “+1s”, which means adding one more second onto Jiang’s life, also has its origins in 2011 in response to the death hoax.
Chinese netizens, in particular the millennials, find Jiang’s real-life gestures, facial expressions, preference for high-waisted pants, and mixed-language talks amusing because they stand in deep contrast with the ruling charisma portrayed in Chinese propaganda. They love poking fun at Jiang by quoting his expressions in their social media messages and doctoring photos to include Jiang or a toad.
Japanese cartoon figure Doraemon standing in front of the People's Great Hall in Jiang's high-waisted pants. Public domain image via Mingjing News.
In 2014, the toad worship subculture became more visible because of a popular WeChat public account called “Seminar on Jiang’s selective writings” (江选研讨会). The public account wrote on moments in Jiang's life in toad worship style. For example, “How many foreign languages does the elder know?”; “The elder’s love story with his wife”; “The American reporter Wallace is way above you”; “How fast does a Hong Kong reporter run?”
The last two refer to Jiang's outburst from the above mentioned video, in which he criticized Hong Kong reporter Cheung Bo Wah for being “too young” and “too simple and naive.” He also said that Hong Kong reporters “always run faster than Western reporters” and offered the late American reporter Mike Wallace as an example to follow (“He's way above you all”).
The WeChat public account only managed to survive for barely one year. It was banned in 2015.
A toad fan's profile pic from Tianya (user account deleted).
Some see the suppression of toad worship culture as a reflection of the power struggle between current Chinese President Xi Jinping and Jiang’s own political clan. The latter embraces economic liberalisation while Xi’s dream is to revive socialist culture. Others consider the ban to be a way to prevent the spread of a subversive youth culture that defies authorities.
Murong Xuecun, an independent writer based in Beijing and Hong Kong, made a political interpretation of the subculture on Twitter:
膜蛤之风的兴起，一是因为对官方话语的厌倦，基本可以视为一场「静悄悄的反叛」，它与庆丰造神密切相关庆丰鼓吹越甚，膜蛤就越是风行。二是对一个稍微宽松时代的怀念，蛤时代谈不上什么自由，但总比包时代要体面一些。在这个意义上，中国人膜蛤，差不多就相当于禁闭中的囚犯怀念那些偶尔放风的时刻。
The rise of toad worship culture reflects a distaste of official discourse. It can be considered a silent revolt against the attempt of Qingfeng [which is a nickname for President Xi Jinping] to revive the myth [of Chinese Communist Party]. Many choose to worship the toad in response to the rise of this new political culture directed by Qingfeng. The culture is also nostalgic for an era when political control was not as tight. While the toad's era was not free, it looked better than Bun's [meaning Xi's] era. In this sense, Chinese people worshiping the toad is similar to prisoners in confinement, missing their brief outdoor recess.
Despite the ban, hardcore toad fans could not resist the temptation to have a laugh. After all, the 90th birthday of the toad is a rare moment, indeed, maybe even as rare as a toad-shaped cloud supposedly spotted ahead of the special day:
A popular toad worship image circulated online of a toad-shaped cloud. Via Twitterer @ranxiangmm
Though authorities issued a warning against public celebrations of Jiang’s 90th birthday, some still insisted on holding a private birthday party, with a specially made birthday cake:
Birthday cake on Jiang Zemin's 90th birthday. Image from Twitter user @iruitui
Many birthday cards popped up online — and disappeared quickly. Here is a typical one with birthday blessings via Twitter user @wentommy:
“Elder Jiang: 1926-infinity. Stay young. Stay simple.” A birthday card to the elder.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Gourmet Chefs Use Olympic Seconds to Cook Up Free Meals for Rio’s Poorest · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

The RefettoRio team of chefs in action in Rio. Credit: Angelo DalBo/Refettorio Gastromotiva
This article by David Leveille originally appeared on PRI.org on August 18, 2016. It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Olympic athletes eat a lot more than powerbars and high protein shakes. Just imagine the roughly 250-ton mountain of food that has to be prepared to feed more than 11,000 athletes competing in the Rio Games.
The food supply chain at the Olympics, like other huge events, requires advance logistics, planning and educated guesses as to how much food and ingredients to have on hand to make nourishing meals.
Inevitably there’s going to be a surplus, whether it’s cases of bruised fruit and vegetables, or leftover palettes of potatoes and rice.
Now an international group of chefs and anti-hunger activists calling themselves RefettoRio Gastromotiva (refettorio is an Italian word meaning dining hall) has stepped in to rescue the Olympic food that might otherwise go to waste. Two chefs, Italian Massimo Bottura and Brazilian David Hertz, are leading the effort to turn excess food destined for the Olympic Village into meals for the hungry. They say the aim is to “offer food and dignity to people in situations of social vulnerability.”
Smoked banana peels substitute nicely for bacon in a RefettoRio dish of carbonara. Credit: Refettorio Gastromotiva
For the past few weeks, RefettoRio chefs have been serving up nightly dinners for 108 from the surplus of ingredients donated to them by the catering company that feeds the Olympic Village. These are not leftovers or table scraps.
“RefettoRio is going to work only with ingredients that are about to be wasted … like ugly fruit and vegetables, or yogurt that is going to be wasted in two days if you don't buy it,” says chef Hertz.
The restaurant has been set up in the Lapa neighborhood near the Olympic Village.
“It doesn't feel at all like a regular restaurant,” says Alexandra Forbes, a Brazilian food writer who helped organize RefettoRio. “The customers are so different. For many of them, it's the first time they’ve experienced a three-course dinner made by a great chef, one that’s so delicious. They feel very special.” One diner told the Times the food was the best he’d had in his 40 years.
Local neighborhood organizations that serve the underprivileged handpick the patrons from all walks of Brazilian life. They might include homeless people who are forced to pick through garbage bins for meals, street kids who scavenge for food, or abused mothers.
“They are not used to being treated with such care and respect,” says Forbes, adding that “they are so appreciative of the meal that sometimes they clap and dance with joy.”
Every day a different chef takes the lead. ”For instance,  the other day chef Massimo Bottura made a pasta, a carbonara that’s usually made with pancetta or bacon. He had a little bit of bacon but then he also used banana peels that had previously been smoked on a grill and he mixed that with the bacon, and it was smoky like bacon and it was delicious.”
Creating gourmet meals from an odd collection of ingredients can be challenge enough. But Forbes says the real goal for her RefettoRio team of cooks, bakers and servers is to “end some of the prejudice, prejudice against poor people, or against people who have problems.”
Battered women or people struggling with substance abuse, she says “are people like us, so just to show that they can be treated with respect and be served a great meal, I think, is important.”
At the same time, RefettoRio is trying to send a message about food waste. More than 30 percent of food produced around the world is never eaten because it is spoiled after harvest and during transportation, or thrown away by shops and consumers. Yet almost 800 million people worldwide go to bed hungry every night, according to UN figures.
“Events such as the Olympics are especially big in creating waste because you’re feeding so many people that it's really hard to calculate exactly what you need of each thing and it’s inevitable that you will have a lot of waste. But no one had really pointed a finger at that issue.”
Until now, that is.
RefettoRio Gastromotiva plans to build on its success by launching a paid lunch service. The profits will help offset the cost of providing free dinners for the hungry at night. There are also plans to try out the RefettoRio idea in Montreal, Los Angeles and New York.
Free meals are being served nightly to 108 patrons at a special restaurant set up near Olympic Village. Credit: Refettorio Gastromotiva

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
Ha’e Kuera Ñande Kuera: Reggae and Hip-Hop Expanding the Guarani Culture by Dialoguing With the World · Global Voices
Natali Herrera Pacheco

The group Ha'e Kuera Ñande Kuera. Photo shared by the musicians on their public Facebook page.
Fortín Mbororé is found in the region of los Saltos and Cascadas in the Misiones Province of northeastern Argentina. The village was created in 1985 and has a population of about 1,126 people who identify themselves as the Mbya Guarani people. It was within this community, which shares borders with Brazil and Paraguay, where a group of young people fused their concerns and demands with hip-hop and reggae sung in Guarani as well as Spanish and Portuguese.
This group is a trio called Ha'e Kuera Ñande Kuera, which in Spanish means “ustedes y nosotros,” or “you and us.” Its members are Juan Chamorro, Fabián Velázquez and Hilario Benítez, accompanied by a band of musicians bound together by this project.
The trio started in 2013, and in them converged three languages and two cultures. The group also mix traditional instruments with the saxophone, bass, drum, and electric guitar. The youths felt attracted to hip-hop and reggae because of its high protest content and hopes for social justice. This is how the Misiones Online reviews them in a note about Ha'e Kuera Ñande Kuera's participation in the 13th Conference of the National Network of Alternative Media:
El grupo cobra popularidad debido a que sus canciones transmiten la tristeza que sienten al ver que su cultura se pierde, que cada vez se quedan con menos tierras, y que siempre les cuesta conseguir sustento en la naturaleza.
The group gained popularity due to their songs, which convey the sadness they feel at seeing their culture being lost, ending up with increasingly less land, and always struggling to produce sustenance from nature.
Image published on Ha'e Kuera Ñande Kuera's official Facebook page.
In the last decade, mass media has reported the problems that afflict the Mbya community of Misiones. The headlines are alarming. Malnutrition and respiratory problems appear to be the most common ailments for Guarani children and youth. The community is faced with problems of malnutrition, of infant mortality, of exclusion and poverty and what's more, the threat of their own ethnic group's silent extinction.
Added to this is the penetration and intervention of lands in ways that threaten the community and cause forced displacements to the cities.
Ha'e Kuera Ñande Kuera's lyrics feed on the reality in which its members live. In this context, reggae and hip-hop, global music genres, open up a channel of communication that allows them to go further than the Guarani cultural boundaries and to reach the Creole population with a message of protest and awareness. At the same time, the use of the Guarani language in their songs awakens the interest of Mbyan youths, who find a voice by which to express their local maladies.
Ha'e Kuera Ñande Kuera's official Facebook page has allowed interaction between the musicians, their followers, and those interested in the group. With it they have generated discussions about the appropriation of global cultural products by other indigenous groups. There is no shortage of opinions that support the belief that the natives should be kept in a Utopian state of purity and isolation in order to be considered that way by the rest of society. The young people who make up Ha'e Kuera Ñande Kuera, however, have a very clear opinion about their own identity and the ways in which diversity and contact with other cultures enrich them.
On the other hand, groups like Ha'e Kuera Ñande Kuera are an example of multiple identities: for the Guarani community, the group's music and image belong to the Creole culture. For the audience foreign to the Mbyan context, the idea of Ha'e Kuera Ñande Kuera can be something mainly indigenous.
In short, the group represents the cultural consequence of various processes that contrast and interact within the musical genres that have influenced them up to now. As such, the music presents itself as a negotiation space in which urgent matters escape from the shadows and youths create a global community with cultural influences that, far from weakening them, strengthen them.
Hae Kuera Ñande Kuera – Nda ja rekovei opy arandu from lrtvcooperativa on Vimeo.

author: Natali Herrera Pacheco


text:
‘I Want to Appeal to the Doctor Within Assad’: One Syrian Medic’s Message After Visiting Aleppo · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

Dr Zaher Sahloul (Right) with two colleagues from Chicago in Aleppo, end of June 2016. Photo used with permission.
In 1988, Dr. Zaher Sahloul, founder of the American Relief Coalition for Syria and senior adviser and former president of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), graduated from medical school. Among his classmates was a man who would later impact Syria's future more than any other person: Bashar Al Assad. In this exchange with Global Voices after his latest trip to now besieged and rebel-held Eastern Aleppo, Dr. Sahloul appeals to the “doctor within” Assad.
Dr. Sahloul recently gave a talk at the United Nations, in which he compared his visit to Aleppo with the account of a Soviet lieutenant general in the Red Army who witnessed the Siege of Stalingrad (1942-1943), describing it as “10 times worse than hell“.
As with his previous trips to the city, Dr. Sahloul came prepared. The driver, before speeding up, told him to “say your final prayer because the risk of death is very high in the next five kilometers”. Those five kilometers refer to Castello Road, “the only road leading to the northern and western countryside of Aleppo”, offering the sole path to the outside world via Turkey, and consequently, to food, medicine and other necessities used in Aleppo.
The following video was recorded by Dr. Sahloul:
Dr. Sahloul recalls:
This last mission was my fifth mission to Aleppo and things have gotten really worse since the previous one. When we went there, it was on June 27 and the road to Aleppo was semi-blocked. It was already very dangerous. There were five kilometers in which we were exposed to shelling from the regime side, snipers from the Kurdish side and also airstrikes which could be from the regime or from the Russian government.
The stretch, dubbed the ‘Road of Death‘ by an opposition activist, was surrounded by burnt cars and upside-down trucks and buses in which decomposing bodies were left to rot.
The Road to Aleppo, images taken by Dr. Zaher Sahloul on June 27, 2016 and used here with permission.
Once in Aleppo, Dr. Sahloul and his colleagues reached M10, an underground hospital that has been bombed 17 times by the Assad regime in the past four years. It is one of the few remaining hospitals in Eastern Aleppo.
The working conditions of Syrian doctors have regularly been cited as among the worst in the world, if not the worst. There are an estimated 35 doctors left in Eastern Aleppo which, with a population of approximately 300,000, means that there is currently one doctor for every 8,570 people. Fifteen of the 35 doctors recently penned an open letter to President Obama, in which they say that “a medical facility is attacked every 17 hours by the Russian-backed Syrian air force”. Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders reported that at least 82 of its supported facilities have been targeted since January of 2015. All in all, at least 738 Syrian doctors, nurses and medical aides have died in more than 360 attacks on medical facilities since March 2011, according to Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).
Dr. Sahloul says the explosions can be heard throughout the day and night:
The hospital walls shake but people continue to work because they’ve gotten used to these sounds. The fact that [M10] is underground gives some level of protection and safety for the patients and the physicians. This is the largest trauma hospital in Eastern Aleppo.
You can hear the explosions in the following short video taken by Dr. Sahloul. According to a man whose voice can be heard in the recording, they were caused by a Scud missile. He says:
When the Russian government or the Syrian regime bomb these hospitals they do so with the intent of destroying the hospitals. They want to drive the doctors out so people can follow them. Because when there’s no doctors in town, when there’s no hospitals in town, people don’t stay.
According to Dr. Sahloul, of the 300,000 people living in Aleppo, 85,000 are children including about 20,000 below the age of two. One of these children is Ahmad Hijazi, just five years old. He was hit by one of Assad's barrel bombs and consequently, had a chest contusion and shrapnel lodged in his spinal cord. Unfortunately, Hijazi did not survive.
He was paralyzed from his neck down. When I saw him, he was breathing with great difficulty so we had to put a breathing tube into his mouth and put him on life support. He was between life and death when I was there and the day after I left, he had a cardiac arrest. He was five years old.
Barrel bomb victims are among the most common patients in the M10 underground hospital. Another victim, 25-year-old Fatima, was already the mother of three children and three months pregnant with her fourth when two barrel bombs were dropped on her house. Two of her children died. Abdo, nine years old and Ilaf, three, were pulled dead from under the rubble. Luckily, both Fatima, who had internal bleeding and was immediately put on life support, and her third child, Mahmoud, pulled through, but Fatima lost her unborn child.
Mahmoud, Seven Years Old in an M10 hospital room. Photo taken by Dr. Sahloul in June 2016 and used here with permission.
Dr. Sahloul recently told CNN's Hala Gorani that he wishes to appeal to the “doctor within [Assad]” to stop the barrel bombs. He explains further:
Who knows? We exhausted everything. I think the international community exhausted everything in terms of applying pressure on the Syrian regime. I don’t know if he does, but he probably knows that children are being killed and mutilated and hospitals are being targeted. I mean, he has children, he has a wife. He studied medicine. He was supposed to be an eye physician. In one of the meetings that we had with him, the first meeting after he became president, he told us that he would have preferred to be a physician rather than a president. I think we have to appeal to that side in him. I don’t know if it’ll work or not. Many Syrians gave up completely, especially after he oversaw the destruction of half the country. More than 470,000 people in Syria were killed. He caused this war. He could have done things early on in the crisis, like meet the demands of the population for reform like what has been done in other countries like Morocco and Jordan. Maybe it’s too late, but what else can we do?
He adds that he has seen Assad's power in practice:
When I came back from Chicago after the first meeting with him as president, people knew that I met with him. So the next year, I received an email from someone who asked if I can give a letter to the president and I said that I'll have to read it first, but yes. [It] was an appeal from a person whose father was a physician, a pediatric doctor, educated in the U.S. and then went to Syria in the late '80s and was imprisoned by the father of Bashar Al Assad, Hafez Al Assad. He had been in prison for 21 years, accused of supporting the opposition. So I told him that I’d try, but that I couldn’t promise him anything.
Luckily, we were invited to meet with the president in his presidential palace again. […] As I was leaving, I told him about the letter and he accepted to read it. And half an hour after we left, someone called me and he said, ‘Your friend is released’. So he released that physician after 21 years, after reading that letter.
This is just to say that he is in control and he is able to make these decisions quickly and people follow them. That physician was actually allowed to travel to the United States to see his wife who had terminal cancer. He stayed with her [for] two years before she died. And now he’s practicing medicine in Chicago.
The regime does that for people sometimes, especially when it’s someone you want to use as an ally. They do you a favor and then they expect you to stick with them. That’s the system in Syria and in other dictatorial countries. A president will do you a favor and I guess that President Assad thought this was a favor for me. It gives you an insight into how things work in Syria.
With regard to democracy in Syria, Dr. Sahloul says of Assad:
When I asked him about the question of democracy, he told me that Syrians are tribal, that there’s a lot of sectarianism, that they’re not educated civically, that they’re not able to make decisions on their own. He complained about parliament not enacting laws the way he expected them to, and how he has to do things on his own. And then he said – I don’t remember the words exactly – that Syrians are not ready for democracy. It has to be a very slow and gradual process and that was the first year after he became president. Twelve years after that, nothing happened.
As for President Obama, Dr. Sahloul met him in July 2013, one month before the regime's infamous Ghouta massacre, and told him that Syria will determine his legacy as president. This was the exchange:
I delivered a letter on behalf of SAMS. There was an Iftar at the White House at that time as it was Ramadan. I told him that in our letter we’re asking for a no-fly zone to protect hospitals and civilians, the things that we’re still asking for right now. Nothing has changed. I told him, ‘I think that your legacy will depend on what you do or you don’t do in Syria.’ So he paid more attention. And then he laughed and said that his legacy will be determined by other things, to which I replied, ‘But I think Syria will be the main factor.’ And he said, ‘I’ll get back to you.’ But he never got back to me. He never responded to the letter.


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Nine Years on, Turkey Blames Gulenists for Murder of Ethnic Armenian Journalist · Global Voices
Mel Plant

Hrant Dink. Image captured and cropped from a YouTube video uploaded by Vartkes Hergel.
Almost immediately after a section of Turkey's military botched their coup attempt last month, arrests and detentions began en masse.
Alongside members of the military, thousands of government employees including teachers, health sector workers and civil servants were detained or dismissed from their positions.
Several journalists have also faced detention under the four-week-old state of emergency.
In an atmosphere of heightened repression that has seen Turkey suspend the European Convention on Human Rights, loose ends are being tied up.
One of these is a long-running, on-off investigation into the murder of iconic ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, whose assassination Turkish investigators now say was organised by policemen-loyalists of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's former ally turned bitter rival, Fethullah Gulen.
trabzonda herkes bilir denen başkanlar grubunun dink cinayeti ile bağlantısı olabileceği araştırılmamış. jandarma irtibatlı bu çete.
— Bülent Aydın (@baydintw) August 12, 2016
In Trabzon everyone is said to know that the leading group connected with the Dink assassination had not been investigated. The group is connected with the gendarmerie.
Most of those detained in the post-coup attempt recriminations are not necessarily suspected of being directly involved in plotting the coup attempt, facing instead vague accusations of membership of FETÖ.
FETO, or Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation, is how the AKP leadership has branded followers of the secretive US-based Turkish imam Fethullah Gulen, who runs a global network of schools and business operations.
Some, in fact, now face detention for crimes committed years before the coup attempt.
While Gulen and Turkey's strongman Erdogan were once allies, competition over power stirred strong enmity between the pair, with a split rumoured as far back as 2012.
In Istanbul a banner with rival Fethullah Gulen and President Erdogan's pictures reads “one is no better than the other”. Protesters rally to protest against corruption and planned construction projects. Demotix photo taken by Fulya Atalay. ID 3553279.
The Gulen movement, known as Hizmet, was declared a terror organisation by the government after alleged Gulen loyalists in the police and prosecutor's office unleashed a corruption investigation that targeted Erdogan and his family as well as top members of the AKP leadership in late 2013.
The investigation fizzled, and the government began reprisals.
Similarly, hundreds of military officers dismissed and sentenced as part of the so-called Sledgehammer Case were released in 2015, after a court found the investigation had been guided by false evidence planted by Gulenists.
The government has said that Gulenist military personnel moved into the positions vacated by the initial convictions.
Some of the other incidents Gulen has been blamed for retroactively stretch credulity, something which Deputy Prime Minister Tugrul Turkeş hinted at in his off-message comment that “even if the shock absorber of a car breaks down, they say someone with [the Gulenists] has done this.”
An associate of Erdogan's and the owner of the Soma mine, which witnessed a fatal accident in 2014, claimed last week Gulen was behind the disaster that caused 301 deaths and had previously blamed on neglect, for instance.
And in the aftermath of a rapprochement between Turkey and the Kremlin, Erdogan publicly linked Gulen to Ankara's costly decision to shoot down a Russian warplane used in Moscow's Syria operations.
With Gulen terrorism exposed, Turkey is about to solve the mysteries of Hrant Dink assasination, Roboski attack & other divisive incidents.
— Vakkas Dogantekin (@vdogantekin) August 19, 2016
Baykal'a ve bazı MHP'lilere kaset tuzağı kuran;Uludere katliamını yapan ve Rus Uçağını düşüren ve de H.Dink'i öldürenler hep FETO.Araştırın.
— Burhan Kuzu (@BurhanKuzu) August 3, 2016
Sex tapes of Baykal and other MHP members; Uludere massacre and downing of the Russian jet and also H. Dink's murder was all FETO. Search it.
Hrant Dink was assassinated by Ogun Samast, a young Turkish ultranationalist from Trabzon, on January 19, 2007, but few ever believed Samast was carrying out his own hit.
On July 26, just over a week after the botched coup attempt, five people were detained in connection with the murder of Dink, a prominent journalist who founded the bilingual Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper Agos in 1996.
Dink had long been a target of nationalist hate mail and death threats due to his calls for recognition of the Armenian genocide, improved relations between Turkey and Armenia, and fairer government policy towards minorities including Armenians, Kurds and Greeks.
The fresh arrests in the Dink case were of four gendarmerie officers and one civilian, the owner of a publishing house.
One of the officers arrested, Yusuf Bozca, commented in a confession that “the Dink assassination was organised by members of FETO/parallel state structure and his murder then formed the basis of the [July 15] coup attempt.”
The probe's prosecutor Gokalp Kokcu, who replaced a string of prosecutors dismissed from the case, one of whom is under investigation for ties to Gulen, said Dink's murder was the “first bullet fired” in the process leading to the July 15 coup attempt.
Although Gulenist affiliations to the murder had been alleged in previous years, it is only now that these allegations are taking a central role in the case, which has led to scepticism from both Turkish and international audiences.
“Old” evidence has shown that too. Also, that AKP is complicit but wants to blame it all on Gülen now.https://t.co/X5ldXGVKdQ@ezgibasaran
— K. B. (@ex_b612) August 3, 2016
Samast, then 17, had said his motivation to kill Dink was the journalist's “denigrating Turkishness,” a reference to Article 301 of the Turkish penal code.
In mass protests that followed the killing, marchers held up signs that proclaimed “We are all Hrant Dink” and “We are all Armenian” in Turkish and Armenian, as well as “Article 301 is the killer.”
A scandal would later blow up when it was later alleged that Trabzon police officers were informed about the plot to kill Dink before the event and took no action, allegations strengthened by the fact that officers from the city posed in a photo with the killer.
Later investigations, including the Ergenekon case, linked army, gendarmerie and intelligence forces members to the murder.
Dink's family also combed security footage and phone call data, identifying four suspects near the crime scene, and in 2012 Yasin Hayal, another ultranationalist from Trabzon was convicted of giving Samast the idea to kill Dink and providing him money and a weapon.
Hayal himself claimed he had received those instructions from an MIT (state intelligence) agent, but his claims were dismissed.
The Gulenist movement, also known as Hizmet (‘Service’) or Cemaat (‘Community’), is now accused of carrying out the assassination of Hrant Dink.
Currently, 15 people have been formally arrested in connection with the Dink case, with tens more under investigation, including a judge.
On August 5, the Trabzon gendarmerie provincial commander was arrested alongside several other previous members of the Trabzon gendarmerie, under charges of failing to act on Dink's murder and “being a member of a terrorist organisation.”
On 17 August, crucial details about the Dink case came to light.
Nine gendarmerie members were arrested and accused of links to the “parallel state” structure that Turkey's government says is operated by Gulen.
Using telephone records, the prosecution has revealed how these nine gendarmerie members were involved in carrying out Dink's assassination, with some even being present at the murder scene.
On August 13, an ex-lieutenant in the Istanbul gendarmerie's intelligence department, Ali Baris Sevindik, was arrested alongside two other suspects.
Sevindik was taken to prison, with the other two suspects released but banned from leaving Turkey.
On July 25, Ercan Gun, a news editor at FOX TV, was arrested in connection to the failed coup plot.
Later released, he was again detained on August 3 in connection with Dink's case. No explanation has been given on the journalist's connection with the case.
Agos’ reporter on the Hrant Dink case, Uygar Gultekin, said in a statement to Global Voices that “even though ten years has passed [since Dink's assassination], the investigation is on the right track.”
However, both Gultekin and the Friends of Hrant Dink association that has fought for justice over his shooting are cynical as to the government's renewed interest in the trial as it looks to blitz what remains of Gulenist influence in its own ranks.
An August 8 statement from the friends read as follows:

author: Mel Plant


text:
Tajikistan Goes Crazy Over First Ever Olympic Gold · Global Voices
Bactriana

Dilshod Nazarov in action. Official olympic photo.
Dilshod Nazarov — remember the name. People in Tajikistan will not be forgetting it in a hurry.
Nazarov sealed the country's first ever gold medal in the hammer throw in Rio 2016 on August 19 by catapulting the metal ball some 78.68 metres to claim victory over more fancied opponents.
The Facebook user Javononi Shahri Vahdat summed up the elation that has swept the Central Asian country ever since, writing:
Зинда бошанд модарони тоҷике, ки ба мисли Дилшод Назаровҳоро ба дунё овардаанд. Аҳсант бамодари Дилшод.
Long live Tajik mothers who give birth to sons like Dilshod Nazarov. Well done, mother of Dilshod.
Tajikistan, the most remittance-dependent country in the world, has had a torrid few years after an economic crisis in Russia, where over a million citizens live and work, rattled the national economy to its core.
The country has enjoyed few sporting achievements during a 25-year independence that began with a bloody civil war and has continued on through poverty, corruption and authoritarianism.
No surprise, then, that Nazarov is being placed on a pedestal with the same pride he exhibited when he topped the podium on a sweltering Friday evening in Rio.
One Facebook user proposed to greet Nazarov at the airport in a post liked around 200 times:
Эмоции переполняют!Просто-этот человек-гордость нации!Это Дильшод Назаров-Олимпийский Чемпион в Рио-2016!Спасибо за победу, золотой наш человек!!!!Ура!!!!!! Уважаемые участники группы,есть предложение встретить нашего героя в аэропорту с почестями!Кто с нами?
Bursting with emotion. This man is simply the pride of the nation! This is Dilshod Nazarov, Champion at the Olympics in Rio 2016! Thank you for the victory, our golden man! Hurrah!!! Dear members of this group, I have a proposal for you. Let us meet our hero at the airport with full honours!  Who would like to join us?)
Dilshoda Nigmonova joked:
Чи гуна кайд мекунем,аз чониби Хукумати ЧТ барои мардум оши милли мешуда бошад?
How should we celebrate this event? Will there be national pilaf for people organized by the government of Tajikistan?
But all of this paled in comparison to a proposal on change.org to make Nazarov a national hero of Tajikistan, an honour usually reserved for dead poets and the country's long-serving autocrat President Emomali Rakhmon.
The athlete himself was a picture of patriotism in the aftermath of his unexpected win, wrapped in a Tajik flag and wearing a t-shirt bearing the image of his late father, who was killed in the civil war fighting for pro-government forces.
The text on the t-shirt read: “This throw is for you”.
Writing from Rio on his Facebook, Nazarov returned the love of his homeland in a post dripping with emotion:
Дорогие друзья,соотечественники и все те кто меня поддерживал ! Благодаря вашей поддержке у нас есть эта победа. Выходя на арену олимпийского стадиона я чувствовал мощную энергию миллионов болельщиков. Эту победу я посвящаю всему таджикскому народу, эта наша общая победа.
Спасибо большое. Ташакури зиед. Thank you so much.
Dear friends, compatriots and everyone that supported me. Thanks to your support we have this victory. Going out into that Olympic stadium I felt the powerful energy of millions of supporters. I dedicate this victory to the people of Tajikistan. This is our shared victory. Thank you so much.
N.B. Tajik social media users with longer memories and/or an eye for detail have pointed out that Nazarov is not the first Tajik Olympic champion. That honour belongs to another hammer thrower, Andrei Abduvaliyev. But Abduvaliyev won his gold in Barcelona in 1992 representing the Unified Team consisting of former Soviet states. Nazarov's is therefore the only gold medal that officially counts in the republic's totals.

author: Bactriana


text:
The Week That Was at Global Voices Podcast: The Status Quo Has Got to Go · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

The Week That Was at Global Voices podcast takes a look at some of the stories that have recently come out of the Global Voices newsroom. This week, we speak to our contributor Endalk about protests, identity politics and state violence in Ethiopia.
We also tell you tales of tragedy, discrimination, and language activism from Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago and Australia. And Salma Essam, narrates the anguish she’s feeling on the third anniversary of the Rabaa massacre in Egypt.
Many thanks to Sana Saleem, Eduardo Avila, Janine Mendes-Franco and all our authors, translators and editors who helped make this episode possible.
In this edition, we featured Creative Commons licensed music from the Free Music Archive, including Please Listen Carefully by Jahzzar (CC BY-SA 4.0); Clover by Little Glass Men (CC BY 4.0); Stay by Igor_Khabarov (CC BY-NC 3.0); Modulation of the Spirit by Little Glass Men (CC BY 3.0 US); The Sink by Cory Gray (CC BY-NC 3.0); Se recourber by Monplaisir (CC0 1.0); and Bongo Avenger by Eric & Ryan Kilkenny (CC BY-NC 4.0).
The feature image in this story is a protest in Ethiopia from Abdi Lemessa's Facebook page. Used with permission.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


text:
Nicaragua Has a Cervical Cancer Problem. A Coffee Farm Is Trying to Help. · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Maritza Blandón, a coffee grower in the mountains of Nicaragua, got her first pap smear at the age of 47. She tested posted for HPV and get treatment. Blandón is a single mother. If she died of cervical cancer, no one would be here to take care of her eight children. Credit: Shuka Kalantari/PRI
This article by Shuka Kalantari originally appeared on PRI.org on August 18, 2016. It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Maritza Blandón is crouched over a row of young coffee plants at a farm in Matagalpa, in the Northern mountains of Nicaragua. She works with a handful of other female coffee farmers who live and work here with their children. Most of them are like Blandón: on their own with their children.
“I'm both mother and father to my children,” she says while carefully weeding the coffee plants.
Blandón had her eight children at home and had never been to a hospital before. Then a few months ago another coffee grower, a friend, was diagnosed with cervical cancer. It spread to her intestines. She died nine days before I met Blandón.
Nicaragua has one of the highest cervical cancer death rates in all the Americas. Women like Blandón, in rural areas, are most at risk of not getting medical care.
Country data from 2009 or latest year. Age-standarized mortality rate (ASMR) is a technique used to compare different populations when their age profiles are different. Source: WHO. Graph by Kuang Keng Kuek Ser for PRI. Click the image to visit the interactive graph on PRI.org
At 47 years old, Blandón went to a clinic and got a pap smear. It was the first time she has seen a doctor in her life. She tested positive for human papilloma virus, HPV — a major risk factor for cervical cancer. She got treated immediately, and now goes in for regular checkups. (Note: There is no formal HPV vaccination program in Nicaragua currently).
Blandón says she can afford to miss a day of work, but as a single mother, she can’t afford to die.
Her friend, Mely Montenegro, grows coffee with her. She insisted Blandón get a pap smear. She did it herself five years before and also had to be treated for HPV. Like her friend, it was Montenegro’s first time seeing a doctor. She was 28, a single mother of three.
“It was an embarrassing thought,” Montenegro says. “None of us wanted to see a gynecologist.”
Community health workers started visiting the farm and urging the women to go to the clinic and get exams. Montenegro didn’t like the health workers, and she wasn’t about to let them look at her vagina. But then she thought of her kids who live with her in a one-bedroom cabin on the farm.
“If I got an extreme case of cancer, where would my children go?” Montenegro says. “Who could I leave them with? So I made the decision to go to the clinic and get tested.”
More people in Nicaragua die from cervical cancer than any other cancer.
Marcela Cisne wants to change that. She’s with Fara Foundation, which owns the coffee farm, runs the health clinic and manages health workers. It’s crucial work, because most coffee growers here are women.
“We have to take care of women in the community because they’re the glue that keeps that whole family together,” Cisne says. “If a woman dies, they eat the chicken, they sell the pig, the house falls down, the crop dies because nobody waters it, and the husband goes and lives with somebody else. And the children go with the grandparents or the aunts or the neighbors. The whole community has collapsed. That’s why we want to keep that woman alive.”
Cisne says even when women in Nicaragua manage to get tested, they often never get results. Doctors don’t follow up, or patients have to head back into the mountains before results are ready.
But Cisne says the main culprit for the country’s high cervical cancer death rates is Nicaragua’s machismo culture. Men have multiple partners here, and they spread HPV. But these same men think it’s taboo for their women to go to a gynecologist. And there’s very low contraception use.
“When we offer free condoms we say, ‘You need to have protected sex.’ They say, ‘Oh no, no, my husband would kill me,’” Cisne says. “Then we have to explain to them, ‘Well he’s somehow killing you.’ We have to educate this woman.”
Back on the coffee farm Mely Montenegro, the woman who got tested and persuaded her friend to do so too, is on a mission to get her friends tested.
“I tell my friends to not be embarrassed by getting pap smears,” Montenegro says. “Because they’re nothing compared to cervical cancer.”
Montenegro says she’ll teach her own daughters to get screened for cervical cancer when the time comes. She’ll teach them there is nothing taboo about wanting to stay alive.


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With Brazil’s ‘More Love Between Us’ Project, Women Lean On Each Other · Global Voices
Adam Lee

Image from Mais Amor Entre Nós Facebook page
Brazil is no stranger to non-monetary and alternative means of mutual assistance, but the country has shown there's room for even more social initiatives with the arrival, a few years back, of time banks, and now of a grassroots campaign-turned-platform Mais Amor Entre Nós.
The project, which means More Love Between Us, started in March 2016 as a Facebook hashtag by Bahia-born journalist Sueide Kintê and focuses on the gift economy concept with an important difference — it's exclusively for women.
Launched in Brazil's center of Afro-Brazilian culture, the city of Salvador, the idea grew into a community of black Brazilian women helping each other through one-hour donations of their time. Members offer varied services such as assistance with video editing, sewing, house cleaning, vegetarian cooking, and to discuss topics like self-esteem, politics, race and gender.
It not only encompasses any and all women, but those across Brazil and now several other countries.
As mentioned in a May 2016 article in the Brazilian magazine TPM, her reasoning behind the decision is straightforward (even if the underlying cause is complex):
É só para as mulheres porque somos um sujeito mercantilizado. Se existe um grupo de pessoas dentro da sociedade brasileira que é mais vulnerável, é o de mulheres, principalmente as negras.
It's just for women because we are a commercialized people. If there is a group of people within Brazilian society who are the most vulnerable, it's women, especially black women.
The Facebook post below, where the hashtag was introduced, was a simple message that Sueide posted to her personal account; it was enough to start an entire movement:
Se vc é mulher e precisa de ajuda em alguma das coisas listadas abaixo eu faço de GRAÇA pra vc menina! Estou disponível uma hora por dia. Me procure no zap ou inbox.
Posso ficar de babá do seu filho para vc fazer algo q precise, te ensinar a nadar, a andar de bicicleta, projetar seu site pessoal, fazer um release seu ou do seu trabalho, trançar seu cabelo, fazer seu dreadlock com agulha de croché, meditar com você, praticar hit dance contigo, cozinhar massas com molhos inusitados e deliciosos, escrever projetos culturais para captação de recursos, ajuda-la a tirar uma ideia do papel(sou boa nisso), ou, simplesmente só te ouvir.
Me pede inbox q te passo meu zap
#maisamorentrenos
If you are a woman and need help with some of the things listed below, I'll do it for you for free, girl! I am available for an hour per day. Search for me on WhatsApp or [send a message to my] inbox.
I can take care of your child so that you can do something you need to do, I can teach you to swim, to ride a bicycle, to design your personal website, to do a press release for yourself or your job, braid your hair, do your dreadlocks with a crochet needle, meditate with you, practice your dance hit with you, cook spaghetti with delicious and unexpected sauces, write grants for your cultural projects, help you get an idea on paper (I'm good at this), or simply just listen to you.
Ask me [through my] inbox and I'll send you my WhatsApp
#morelovebetweenus
As the post suggests, the type of gifts that are exchanged is totally up to the community, which is currently more active on Facebook than on the project's official website. Some of the less day-to-day offerings include personal care for women with the Zika virus and even advice on how to publicly assume one's own sexuality. In addition, both the site and the Facebook community have an online store component, where members are welcome to declutter their closets and offer any unwanted items for free to other members.
Screenshot from Mais Amor Entre Nós website
Sueide and her team are currently working on turning the site into a mobile app to increase interaction between members and improve the ease of participating in the network itself — 22,500 people have joined the official Facebook page in a matter of just five months. With a solid idea that continues to gain traction (even abroad), an app in progress and an interested public, it looks like Sueide, much like anyone who has a good idea and implements it, might find herself too busy to take part in her own creation. Luckily for her, though, she has over 20,000 women ready and willing to back her up.

author: Adam Lee


text:
A Jamaican Company’s Offensive Olympic Tweet Offers a Lesson in Social Media Responsibility · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Screen grab of a YouTube video showing Omar McLeod's stunning gold-medal finish in the 110m hurdles at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Jamaicans love the track and field portion of the Olympics; it's a “feel good” mood all round. Yet, an offensive one-word tweet threatened to derail Jamaicans’ joy over one of their medal-winning track athletes, raising issues about the appropriate use of social media by corporate entities.
After Omar McLeod emphatically won the 110-meter hurdles (the first Jamaican to win gold in this event), Jamaica Gleaner employee Terri Karelle Reid tweeted an innocent question:
IF YOU COULD CAPTION TOMORROW's @JamaicaGleaner front page of Omar Mcleod what would it read? #RioGoldRush #JAinRio
— Terri-Karelle Reid (@TerriKarelle) August 17, 2016
Of the many smart and witty headline suggestions on Twitter, one single-word response — “goldfish” — struck a sour note. “Fish” is a derogatory term for a gay man; to make matters worse, it was sent from the account of a local manufacturing and distribution firm.
The reaction from Jamaicans on Twitter and Facebook was immediate and condemnatory, and the company, Lasco Distributors Limited, issued an appropriate retraction soon after on its Facebook page. In it, they announced the employee behind the tweet had been fired:
Dear All:
Earlier this evening an unauthorized and offensive tweet was posted via our company account.
We wish to sincerely apologize to our fans, friends, customers, consumers, partners, Jamaicans and everyone for this terrible act. Most importantly, we issue our sincerest apologies to Mr. Omar McLeod.
The LASCO Affiliated Companies are also offended by such utterances which are a clear breach of our own values. Consequently, we have removed the tweet and deactivated the account. Further, we have terminated the employee who posted the tweet as this action was a violation of our code of conduct.
We, at LASCO, have the utmost respect for the remarkable achievement of Omar McLeod. We congratulate him on his gold medal victory in the Men’s 110 M Hurdles Olympic Event. We deeply regret any embarrassment or displeasure caused by the post and again offer our sincerest apologies.
Humbly,
LASCO Distributors Limited
Screen shot taken from Ingrid Riley's commentary on the issue.
After her initial angry response on Facebook, digital strategist and blogger Ingrid Riley shared her blog post about the issue, noting that it was a “teachable moment” for companies on social media. She recommended that companies educate their management so that they understand how social media can (or cannot) work for them, and that social media policies should be updated and circulated:
Social media has irrevocably changed the way we do business, offering us a new model to engage with customers, colleagues, and the world at large. This kind of interaction, helps all businesses to build stronger, more successful customer relationships, that inevitably lead to business growth. It is not a fad of the youth, it is a legitimate, profit generating strategy for your Caribbean business. […]
Further consider this, Lasco Jamaica is a publicly traded company, it has shareholders to answer to and it is in the middle of expanding, so this was NOT a great thing to happen at this time. It literally could have cost them way more brand equity and real loss of dollars. So, it was good for them to have moved so quickly. I would [love] to see them take it further, by embracing Omar McLeod in a special way only the Lasco brand would.
Social media expert and journalist Ross Sheil noted in his blog that local companies have not taken the responsibility of social media seriously enough:
First Lasco’s Twitter account last night sent a homophobic tweet directed at Olympic gold medallist Omar McLeod. Second they claimed the account had been hacked. Third, amid a firestorm of social media backlash, they sent another apology […] this time acknowledging and sacking the employee responsible. Their chairman Lascelles Chin then appeared on radio this morning to apologise further.
From my experience (and yes mistakes) working for, consulting and training Jamaican companies I’m only surprised something this ‘OH SHIT!’ never happened sooner. Surprised because few companies have taken digital seriously to prevent such a thing happening.
Another point about training: diversity. I was proud to have played a role in founding Respect Jamaica and in doing so had to recognise that we still have a long way to go in our workplaces in recognising ALL forms of discrimination. It was great to see so many corporates sign up to support the programme but reality is that within local companies discrimination and harassment too often gets whitewashed.
(Read more about the kind of work Respect Jamaica does here.)
That evening, opposition leader Portia Simpson Miller tweeted:
I encourage all J'cans to celebrate our athletes who make us proud with their accomplishments. Let us unite to reject hate & bigotry. #OneJa
— Portia SimpsonMiller (@PSimpsonMiller) August 17, 2016
Sports journalist Leighton Levy wrote in the mass market tabloid, the Jamaica Star:
On Tuesday night, Omar McCleod created a bit of history of his own by becoming the first Jamaican man to win an Olympic sprint hurdles title. […]
His accomplishment was hailed and celebrated like it should be. However, some of us would not be satisfied until they found a way to taint his accomplishments, not because of something he did, or did not do, but because of something we believe him to be.
Omar McLeod is an outstanding young man. A talented athlete and a good student, and did you hear his articulate post-race interview and see how engaging he was? But apparently, for some of us that is not enough.
Because of his mannerisms some people have categorised him as someone that makes Jamaicans extremely uncomfortable. That I feel was what made someone send out a most unfortunate tweet that subsequently cost them their job. And rightly so.
I can never wrap my mind around why in someone's moment of glory while representing his or her country, should we try to tear them down because we believe they are different from we are. And belief is all it is. […] And whether or not those among us who feel that he is the way they feel about him is actually true, so what?
Nevertheless, award-winning blogger Zaheer Clarke warned:
@GlenDivo @Petchary @Sheekz_ @jaevionn @yaneekpage Away from the prying eyes of FB/Twitter many spew bigotry in WhatsApp groups re the issue
— Zaheer E. Clarke (@zaheerclarke) August 20, 2016
On Facebook, public relations practitioner and former journalist Elon Parkinson observed:
The #Goldfish tweet reveals more than just a casual acquaintance with bigotry; it also demonstrates how differently the society will respond when the prejudice is directed towards a person they hold in high esteem, against another who is not so lucky to be considered.
Jamaicans ended the Olympics on a high note, however, celebrating McLeod's sunny personality, his cry of “Thank you Jesus!” as he crossed the finish line, and his heartfelt singing of the national anthem on the podium:
Omar McLeod just sang the national anthem putting in an appropriate BOOM while standing on the podium. Big up yu a real yute #Rio2016
— one876ent (@One876) August 18, 2016