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Implementation Day in Iran: Nuclear Diplomacy Leads to Prisoner Releases and Sanctions Relief · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

The Sunday, January 17 cover for Iranian reformist newspaper Ghanoon states: “Hello to a Iran without sanctions: We are relieved.”
This past Saturday was implementation day for the removal sanctions agreed upon during the nuclear negotiations between Iran, the P5+1 and the United States in July. This is a short overview of the events of a changing day in Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif started the historic Saturday off with a tweet around 9 am labeling the day with the hashtag #ImplementationDay.
#ImplementationDay, it’s now time for all—especially Muslim nations—to join hands and rid the world of violent extremism. Iran is ready.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) enero 16, 2016
It's notable to mention other hashtags related to the news around the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) included #IranDeal, #JCPOA and برجام# (or “barjam,” the acronym for JCPOA in Persian).
Upon his arrival in Vienna on Saturday morning, Zarif explained to the press the plans for the day, including meetings with Frederica Mogherini, the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and US Secretary of State John Kerry before awaiting the International Atomic Energy Agency report confirming Iran's compliance with the conditions set out in the JCPOA for Iran's nuclear facilities.
#Iran FM Zarif upon arrival in Vienna: Today #JCPOA will be implemented w #IAEA DG issuing its report & then a joint statemnt will be issued
— Abas Aslani (@abasinfo) enero 16, 2016
#Iran FM Zarif: I'll meet #IAEA DG. We'll announce #JCPOA implementation. I'll have bilats w Mogherini & other FMs including #SecKerry.
— Abas Aslani (@abasinfo) enero 16, 2016
Meeting @JZarif in Vienna to finalise work for #ImplementationDay #IranDeal pic.twitter.com/CBiA2kmRaN
— Federica Mogherini (@FedericaMog) enero 16, 2016
Sometime around the scheduled talk between Zarif and Kerry, unforeseen news started to circulate amongst American and Iranian news outlets of a prisoner swap between the two nations.
#Picture: #Iran FM Zarif & #SecKerry meeting now underway. picture via @marieharf #ImplementationDay #JCPOA pic.twitter.com/m1ghFEcgt1
— Abas Aslani (@abasinfo) January 16, 2016
BREAKING News from #Iran. The country’s judiciary says four ‘dual-nationals’ including Jason Rezaian freed in prisoner exchange,
— Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) January 16, 2016
It soon became clear that a deal had been agreed upon for the release of four Iranian-American dual nationals imprisoned, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, former US Marine Amir Hekmati, pastor Saeed Abedini and the larlgely unknown Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari. A fifth American without dual nationality was later announced to be Matthew Trevithnick, a student who was detained a few months ago.
In exchange, the US agreed to release seven Iranians in American jails (Nader Modanlu, Bahram Mechanich, Khosro Afghahi, Arash Ghahraman, Touraj Faridi, Nima Golestaneh and Ali Sabounchi) mainly for the crimes of violating US sanctions against Iran, with one exception in a prisoner extradited from Turkey on charges of hacking into a US company.
An article by Robin Wright in the New Yorker published a few hours after the prisoner exchange explained that the swap was part of a secret secondary round of negotiations that occurred alongside the nuclear negotiations:
The initiative grew out of nuclear negotiations, launched in the fall of 2013, between Iran and the world’s six major powers. On the margins of every session, Wendy Sherman, the top American negotiator, pressed her Iranian counterparts about the American cases. The Iranians countered with demands for the release of their citizens imprisoned in the United States for sanctions-busting crimes. More than a year of informal discussions between Sherman and her counterpart, Majid Takht Ravanchi, the Iranian Foreign Ministry official in charge of American and European affairs, led to an agreement, in late 2014, that the issue should be handled separately—but officially—through a second channel.
The swap came on the heels of Iran's release of the US Navy sailors who were held captive after wandering unauthorized into Iranian waters. Many have attributed the fast release of the sailors to warmer relations between Iran and the US in the midst of the finalization of the JCPOA.
Implementation day also coincided with the 37th anniversary of the day the former Shah left Iran before the beginning of the Islamic Revolution. The irony of the historic day was not lost on Iranians.
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Iran on January 16, 1979, changing history. 37 years later, history is changing again on the same day.
— Adrienne Varkiani (@AdrienneMahsa) January 16, 2016
Many Iranians were sharing altered versions of iconic images of signs stating, “The Shah left”, changing them to, “Sanctions left.”
۳۷ سال پس از ۳۷ سال سلطنت محمدرضا شاه تازه داریم جشن میگیریم که تحریم ها رفت! خدا میدونه ۳۷ سال دیگه کجا خواهیم بود؟ pic.twitter.com/JYysIg8ySj
— Bohlool (@BohloolSays) January 16, 2016
37 years after the 37-year reign of Mohamed Reza Shah, we are finally celebrating the end of sanctions! Do you know where we could possibly be in 37 years?
In the midst of the impatience to hear the official announcement that sanctions had been lifted, Zarif urged his followers on Twitter to be patient, describing the diplomatic meetings delaying the announcement as “nothing serious.”
We're getting to #ImplementationDay. Nothing serious. Diplomacy requires patience, but we all know that it sure beats the alternatives.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 16, 2016
One of the finalizing moments of Implementation Day came with the announcement by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran had abided by all conditions set out by the JCPOA on Iran's nuclear facilities.
#IAEA Director General confirms #Iran took all steps to start the implementation of #JCPOA https://t.co/02H1NTqiQ8 pic.twitter.com/iDV2hwnWAx
— IAEA (@iaeaorg) January 16, 2016
This was a process largely confirmed in early December when the IAEA released an assessment report, based on four years of research, that concluded there was no evidence that Iran has tried to develop a nuclear weapon since 2009. The Implementation Day confirmation was a result of an assessment by the IAEA's 35-nation board to decide whether to close the case on Iran's nuclear program based on the earlier findings.
The joint press statement between Mogherini and Zarif officiated the lifting of the nuclear sanctions around 10 pm, which was followed by a separate statement by John Kerry:
Joint statement now being read out. pic.twitter.com/eFmIHM4MPk
— Abas Aslani (@abasinfo) January 16, 2016
“UN sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program are lifted” @FedericaMog #IranDeal pic.twitter.com/BtUehkgIT5
— Mahsa Alimardani (@maasalan) January 16, 2016
Kerry started his speech in press center. pic.twitter.com/kGStMEfYFO
— Abas Aslani (@abasinfo) January 16, 2016
The final conditions of the sanctions removal were documented by the American Department of Treasury, including which sanctions have been removed by the US, and which still remain in place (particularly related to human rights and terrorism).
While previous steps in the nuclear negotiations were received largely by jubilant celebrations in the past, Implementation Day seemed to be more of a quiet affair, as it became finalized late Saturday night (Sundays are work days in Iran), and occurring according to the plans set out last July.
In reaction to the final announcement, Iranian newspapers prepared headlines for Sunday morning playing on the famous “Shah is gone” headline from 1979. President Hassan Rouhani was also quick to take to social media to share his joy towards the lifting of sanctions.
Similar headline, sam day in 1979: “Shah left”/”sanctions left” #implementationday #irandeal pic.twitter.com/kIPWfvYxxl
— Mahsa Alimardani (@maasalan) January 16, 2016
#ImplementationDay–I thank God for this blessing & bow to the greatness of the patient nation of Iran. Congrats on this glorious victory!
— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) January 16, 2016
The president's Instagram account also featured an edited version of a dramatized 2013 campaign interview in which he promised his government of “prudence and hope” would hold the key to solving the nuclear issue, removing sanctions, and creating a booming economy.
.@HassanRouhani has reposted video of his main election promise, lifting the sanctions and solving the nuclear issue https://t.co/NDDqDJhfAJ
— Sanam Dolatshahi (@khorshid) January 16, 2016
Critical reactions throughout the day pointed to the fact that Iran should also endeavour toward national reconciliation following the momentous international one. Calls for the release of Iranian prisoners and to improve human rights were amongst the sentiments shared on social media.
On point! Release of Iranian Americans Welcomed, Time 4 All other Political Prisoners https://t.co/mkoIOuY9yu @ICHRI pic.twitter.com/XKOAEsDgND
— Omid Memarian (@Omid_M) January 16, 2016
“Sanctions by foreign gov removed but #Iran‘s sanctions against its own ppl remain,incl filtering,house arrest,jail” https://t.co/8BC04qMyaI
— Golnaz Esfandiari (@GEsfandiari) January 16, 2016


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In Oil-Rich Azerbaijan, People Protest; Government Responds With Arrests · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Protest in Guba, Azerbaijan. Photo by Azeri Service of the RFE/RL
Hundreds of people across Azerbaijan have been gathering in city centers and in front of government buildings demanding jobs and protesting against price hikes, devaluation and soaring unemployment. The country, which has enjoyed a certain level of economic stability thanks to its oil-dependent economy, is now experiencing tougher times thanks to the slump in global oil prices, which have now reached less than US $30 per barrel.
The unrest comes amid the sudden crash of the local currency, Manat, which devalued first in February 2015 and then once again in December 2015 by almost a third, as the country shifted to a floating exchange rate. Added to the steep decline in oil prices and the country’s extravagant spending on projects like the European Games, it is becoming evident that Azerbaijan can no longer sit back and depend primarily on oil revenues.
Residents of several districts, including Fizuli, Agsu, Aghcabedi, Siyazan, Quba, Sumgayit and Lankaran, were angry and frustrated, taking to the streets and calling for immediate attention to be paid to their poor living conditions.
A 38-year-old internally displaced man climbed onto the top floor of a five-storey building, ready to commit suicide, saying that he could no longer afford even bread for his family. Netizens were sharing stories of the protests on Twitter:
#Protests erupt in #Azerbaijan over jobs, #economic woes. Protesters clash with #police in #Siyazan; 55 detained. pic.twitter.com/Jd6i2VVyRd
— Ulviyya Ali (@UlviyyaAli) January 13, 2016
Currently, four regions in #Azerbaijan are protesting against price hikes and salary delays. #Agsu #Agcabedi #Siyazan #Fizuli
— Fuad Alakbarov (@DrAlakbarov) January 13, 2016
Protesters seemed taken aback by the government's reaction. Riot police and internal troops used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters and arrested dozens of them — including opposition leaders, some of whom were suspected to have organised the demonstrations. In the Siyazan district alone, police arrested more than 50 people for “illegal marches”.
Azadliq Radiosu (Azeri service of the Radio Liberty) reported that Popular Front party chief Nazim Hasanli, and Musavat party local branch chairman Iman Aliyev were detained in Lankaran. In addition to opposition leaders, some prominent members of the opposition parties were also detained. Despite their pleas of innocence, detainees were sentenced to different terms, up to one month in jail, for taking part in unlawful protests.
Videoblogger Huseyn Azizoglu, known for his short, critical videos which he shared via the Three Faces (Uc Uz) Facebook page, was also detained in Baku and sentenced to 15 days in jail. Two days after Azizoglu’s arrest, according to this tweet, all the videos illustrating the way in which the Azerbaijani police dealt with protesters were deleted from his YouTube channel:
Hüseyn Əzizoğlunun Üç Üz səhifəsində polislərə aid bütün vine-lar silinib. Məsələ məlumdur)
— Əbülfəz (@Ebulfez_1899) January 13, 2016
Huseyn Azizoglu’s videos about police were deleted from Uc Uz page. Everything is clear [smiley]
In an interview with Azadliq Radiosu, Agil Abbas, parliament member from Agchabedi, said there was nothing to worry about and that people were actually sabotaged:
İndi orda əmin-amanlıqdır. İnsanlar öz sözlərini dedilər, dövlər adamları o sözləri eşitdilər və görəcəkləri tədbirlərlə bağlı danışdılar. Artıq una görə ƏDV ləğv edilidi. Mən sizə səmimi deyirəm, burda bir az təxribat da var. Yəni müəyyən adamlar insanların hissləri ilə oynayıblar. Hətta özləri də etiraf etdilər. İndi bütün dünyada böhran var, eləcə də Azərbaycanda. Amma bunu bu gün… əldə bayraq eləmək olmaz.
Now everything is fine there. People said their piece, government officials heard them and they all talked about measures to be taken after this [referring to a meeting which took place between protesters and city officials]. Already, taxes for flour were lifted. I can honestly tell you, there is also a little bit of sabotage here. Basically, some are playing with people's feelings. Even the residents told us this. There is crisis in the whole world right now. And also in Azerbaijan. But we shouldn't go around making a big fuss out of it.
While the authorities sought out potential traitors via the opposition parties and religious groups, protesters kept telling media they organized the marches at no one’s initiative but their own:
Dolanışıq, çörək yoxdur. Camaat bahalığa, işsizliyə, unun, ərzağın qiymətinin qalxmasına etiraz edir. Bu gün də daxili qoşunları, texnikanı yeridiblər, həbslər var. Rayonda belə bir vəziyyətdir.
There is nothing to get by with. There is no bread. People are protesting price hikes, unemployment, increased prices of food products. And today, they brought in internal troops and equipment, carrying out arrests. This is how things are at the moment. People were protesting difficult living conditions and yet they faced arrests.
Fearing more anger and upheaval in other regions, the government sent internal troops to patrol the regions of Guba and Sheki — but the move did not prevent Guba residents from raising their voices too.
Local political expert Arastun Orujlu believes that responding to people’s grievances with violence will only bring more violence. Orujlu told Radio Liberty:
Hakimiyyət aksiya iştirakçıları ilə danışıqlara getməkdənsə, onların qarşısına silahlı polis, daxili qoşunlar çıxardır. Bu, daha pis əlamətdir. Deməli, hakimiyyət belə bir şəraitdə də cəmiyyətlə danışığa hazır deyil. Məsələ burasındadır ki, bu cür zorakılıq adətən daha artıq zorakılıq doğurur. Hesab edirəm ki, bu, təhlükəli tendensiyadır. Həm də bu aksiyalar təkcə genişlənmək yox, idarəolunmaz formaya da keçə bilər. Bu, daha təhlükəlidir.
Instead of going for negotiations with protesters, the authorities send armed police and internal troops. This is the worst they can do. It also shows that even in this critical situation, the authorities are unwilling to go for a dialogue with people. The problem is that that the violence leads to more violence. I think it is dangerous game with severe consequences of spiraling totally out of control.
Shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, car dealerships, and even small groceries are being closed, one by one, amid the ongoing crisis which is making it practically impossible for them to continue to do business.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


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Moroccans Protest Ban of VoIP Calls, Including Whatsapp, Viber, Facebook and Skype · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Moroccans switched off their phones yesterday and today to protest a ban on VoIP services. Many users, like Othmane Haikouma, opted to turn their phone to airplane mode for the duration of the boycott. Photograph from Othmane's Facebook page
Morocco's telecom providers have banned free VoIP calls, including those on popular platforms, Whatsapp, Viber, Facebook and Skype, saying the services breached their regulations. The move has angered citizens who have called for a two-day boycott of telecom companies in protest against the block.
Moroccan Amine Ragheb took to Facebook to call for boycotting those “greedy” companies whose only way of dealing with competition is blocking services. In a video he shared on his page, which has been viewed more than 484K times so far, he warned the companies that if they do not change their stance, customers will escalate their move:
“We are customers and not sheep and you cannot cut off any services of the Internet because the Internet is a free space, free of charge, and no one has the right to control it. Today, you have cut off all VoIP services on Whatsapp and Skype and others. You are muzzling us. This is an invitation for all Moroccans to switch off their phones on January 16 and 17. This boycott is just a warning and to test the waters and see if Moroccans are united or not. If telecom companies do not go back on their decision, we will escalate. I personally will not use the phone and not pay the bill. Let them cut off the phone service.”
While some comments on the video, which has been shared 14K times and liked 19K times, were in favour of the boycott, others were not optimistic such a boycott would work.
One reader, Ahmed Sellami, even comes up with another suggestion:
ممكن عندي حل افصل بما ان من الصعب الاستغناء على الاتصلات فعلينا ان تغيير الشركة ونختار واحدة فقط اما انوي او اتصلات او ميديتل و الشركتين الاخرى نوصلوهم للافلاس ، وفي هده الحالة هده الشركتين هما من سيبحت عن الحل . )نخلو الكبار اضاربو بينتهم (
Perhaps I have a better suggestion since it is very difficult to give up using the telephone. We should all move to one company (out of the three telecom providers) and force the other two to go bankrupt. In this case, the two companies will work on a solution. Let's make the big guys fight amongst themselves.
Meanwhile, some Moroccans aired their complaint on Twitter. Dutch Moroccan Boutaïna Azzabi, a multi-media journalist based in Istanbul, Turkey, tweets:
#Morocco has stopped calls made through mobile internet connections, the ban on Skype, Viber&WhatsApp calls will apply to 3 mobile operators
— Boutaïna Azzabi (@Boutaina) January 8, 2016
Local media in #Morocco are speculating whether security controls were behind the VOIP ban.
— Boutaïna Azzabi (@Boutaina) January 8, 2016
Tried calling my aunts in #Morocco via Skype and Whatsapp…#fail. Guess the ban has been implemented. No more internet calls
— Boutaïna Azzabi (@Boutaina) January 8, 2016
Others showed their solidarity with the boycott campaign with many opting to turn their phones to airplane mode for the duration of the boycott.
Number off ! only facebook ! #مقاطعون
— Abdelali nour (@aliinour) January 16, 2016
God bless Airplane mode #مقاطعون
— TARIK RAISS (@TARIK_RAISS) January 16, 2016

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Viral Story About Special Train Service for Hokkaido Schoolgirl Causes Problems for Student · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Kamishirataki Station in Hokkaido has become an obsession with Japanese trainspotters in January. Photo by Wikipedia user 221.20 Licensed under Public Domain.
January began with a heartwarming viral story from Japan about a train line that has been kept in service for just one student until she graduates from high school. The story started in Japan in December 2015 when some Japanese Twitter users noticed there was a train stop in rural and remote Hokkaido that served just one passenger — a high school student — and was widely reported in the media there. Unfortunately, while the story itself has been partly debunked, a local blogger reports that the high school girl has become the target of tori tetsu (撮り鉄) trainspotters who demand to take her picture.
According to the story that went viral, the train made one stop in the morning to pick up the girl to take her to school. The train made a special return trip to drop the girl off in the evening after school.
女子高生一人しか利用者がいない駅、✌( ‘ω’ )✌最高～ pic.twitter.com/NzYiDaUvCG
— はたらくキツネ (@foxnumber6) December 31, 2015
There's a train station that's only used by one high school student. ✌( ‘ω’ )✌ How great is that?
In early January, China's CCTV News discovered the story. In an English-language post that has been shared nearly 90,000 times, CCTV News explained:
For years now trains have stopped at the station just for her. Japan Railway will keep the train station open until she leaves school. The girl is expected to graduate on March 26, 2016, when the station will then be closed. Every day only two trains stop at the Kami-Shirataki station with a unique timetable depending on when the girl needs to go to school and back.
After that, many other English-language media outlets around the world picked up this feel-good story.
There were some skeptics. For example, Singapore's Straits Times pointed out the story may have been romanticized. The timetable was never created uniquely for the student, who can actually can choose from several transportation options when commuting to and from school.
As well, the end of the Japanese corporate fiscal year (when railways such as JR tend to change operations) occurs in March, as does high school graduation. It's just a coincidence that that end of the rail service coincides with the student's graduation from high school.
Whether based on reality or a feel-good fantasy, the viral nature of the story in Japan has caused problems for the female high school student at the center of it.
According to one local blogger in Hokkaido, the student is being pestered and stalked by over-eager trainspotters.
Trainspotters in Tokyo. Image by Wikipedia Leinsd. Licensed under CC 3.0.
Trainspotters, known as densha otaku or tori tetsu in Japanese, are a major and sometimes majorly annoying cultural force in Japan.
While trainspotting involves taking and sharing photos and videos of trains, for some enthusiasts the hobby can border on an obsession. For example, any self-respecting trainspotter will have purchased an all-Japan freight timetable and travel to remote locations to take snapshots of specific locomotives.
Many trainspotting “maniacs” (マニアック) will also seek out specific seasonal scenes, such as a steam locomotive passing through cherry blossoms or an express train traveling through snow.
In the case of the Hokkaido high school student, it seemed like every trainspotter in Japan was traveling to Kamishiritaki in hopes of snapping a picture of the girl waiting for her train.
The obsession with the student seems to have crossed the line into harassment. The situation is so disturbing that one trainspotter, Mint Jam, a local blogger who lives in the area (and also happens to blog about trains), has made an online plea to trainspotters to stop their harassment of the student:
この旧白滝駅を定期利用している高校生がいることも　新聞やテレビなどに取り上げられています
そのせいか 新聞記事のようにその高校生の汽車通学のシーンを撮りに、主に鉄道ファンの方が多数方　ほうぼうからこられているそうです
Recently it's been reported in newspapers and on television about how a high school girl here is the sole user of Kyu-Shirataki Station. Because of the publicity, a number of trainspotters have traveled here to capture pictures of the student boarding the train.
According to Mint Jam, trainspotters have been demanding the student pose for their pictures. What's worse, they tell her exactly how and where to stand:
[…] いろいろな注文をする方が多いとかで
ご本人もご家族も迷惑していると聞きました　　年頃の高校生しかも受験生、
こんなことで心休まらない朝を過ごさせるのはよくありません […] 高校生は生活者であり都合のよいモデルなどではありません […]
A lot of trainspotters are giving the student directions, and I've heard people are even bothering her family at home. She's just a young student and she's also preparing for her final exams. It's becoming impossible for her to relax at all during the day.
It's also important to remember this is a private citizen and not some paid model you can order around.
While Mint Jam didn't know whether or not anyone on the Internet would actually ever read her plea, her blog post imploring trainspotters to improve their behavior itself went viral, and was picked up by several Japan matome (news aggregator) sites.
Mint Jam's blog post was discussed on Japan's 2chan (a massive discussion board roughly equivalent to Reddit or 4chan), where Japanese trainspotters are typically loathed and despised.
In one of the milder comments in a thread about tori tetsu behavior toward the student, one 2chan user said:
撮り鉄って、本当に周りに迷惑しか掛けないクズばかり
Trainspotters are just made up of worthless people who don't give a damn about anyone or anything around them.
For the next two months or so until graduation it seems the student will have to gaman (我慢) or just put up with tori tetsu trainspotters.
For others perhaps unaware of her plight, the lonely, doomed train station provides some nostalgia to relieve the winter blahs.
最高の時刻表 pic.twitter.com/DQHBaEgcE2
— はたらくキツネ (@foxnumber6) December 31, 2015
This train schedule is totally awesome.
Note: while many Japanese and English-language publications have printed the student's name, we have chosen not to do so to help protect her privacy.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Russian Study Finds that One in Nine Duma Deputies Is an Academic Phony · Global Voices
Darina Gribova

Some Russian lawmakers didn't feel the need to cite their sources, borrowing pages of other people's research. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
The people who adopt federal laws in Russia are under scrutiny—or rather, their degrees are. If the State Duma deputies have cheated in their academic careers, who knows what else they might lie about?
On January 13, the Dissernet project reported on the results of their three-year investigation of plagiarism in the doctoral theses of Russian State Duma members. Dissernet found that 52 out of 450 lawmakers could be labeled “falsifiers and liars,” as the project puts it on their website—or, as lawyers insist on calling it, those MPs who “incorrectly adopted or cited” information from other sources in their scientific works. What this means is that one in nine politicians in the lower house of the Russian parliament has a suspect or blatantly fake academic degree.
It should come as no surprise that the biggest group of politicians with faked degrees or plagiarized dissertations (35) comes from the ruling “United Russia” party. Nine people represent the Communist Party of Russia, five—the Liberal Democratic Party, and three more cheaters come from “A Just Russia.”
The infographic created by Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta in collaboration with Dissernet presents a color-coded map of the state of academic honor in the State Duma, showing all the seats occupied by deputies from various parties.
Infographic by Alexey Komarov, “Novaya Gazeta.” Click for full-size version in Russian.
Although the majority of Russian MPs (color-coded as white) don’t hold a candidate’s or doctoral degree, quite a few claim one or both in their official bios. Dissernet notes that among those claiming academic degrees, 50 individuals (marked in purple) were exempt from investigation since their dissertations were written a very long time ago, before they went into politics.
Dissertation texts of 42 of the investigated lawmakers (marked in green) showed no signs of plagiarism or copyright violations.
The 52 individuals whose works showed signs of plagiarism or whose degrees were not recognized as valid by a state committee are singled out in red. This group includes the head of the Duma, Sergey Naryshkin (also of “United Russia”), whose candidate’s and doctoral theses were both found to contain plagiarized content.
The infographic indicates that a certain number of deputies working in the Duma have what is called a “phantom thesis”: the degree is mentioned right there on the State Duma website, but the dissertation itself—even its title—is nowhere to be found. These people’s Duma seats are marked in gray with a little ghost icon. A few other dissertations are still being investigated.
The most epic plagiarism was found in the dissertation of the “United Russia” deputy Igor Igoshin. In 2004, he borrowed someone's research written in 2002 wholesale and simply replaced the word “chocolate” with “beef.” Except for these changes, Igoshin left 177 pages of text untouched.
It seems like this “auto-replace” approach is the easiest way to buy a degree without buying the thesis itself, through simply bribing the dissertation board: in other cases of wholesale plagiarism examined by Dissernet, “North-West” was substituted with “North Caucasus,” “rats” with “people,” and “people” with “women.”
A typical expert evaluation by the Dissernet activists looks like a table where each page is colored: the more colors – the more sources that the text was copied from or used without acknowledgement. The analysis is done using the special software developed by Dissernet experts, as well as by manually examining texts page by page.
The page-by-page table representing all the sources used without acknowledgment in the candidate's thesis of Duma speaker Sergey Naryshkin. Image from Dissernet.
The roots of the movement took hold in 2013, when scientists Andrei Rostovtsev, Andrei Zayakin, Mikhail Gelfand, Kirill Mikhailov, and journalist Sergey Parkhomenko started running the show. Three years later, Dissernet has become an extended network of activists, researchers, and reporters who work voluntarily. The financial support for the community comes from crowdfunding.
Crucially, Dissernet activists don’t stop once the plagiarism is exposed on their website and social media channels. They also file appeals to the state's Higher Attestation Commission and to various courts in order to divest officials and public figures of their bogus degrees.
Колесики юридический машины крутятся медленно, со скрипом, но мы заставляем их вертеться — пока не поздно, откажитесь от ваших степеней, если вы нашли себя на сайте «Диссернет».
The wheels of juridical machine are spinning slowly, with squeaks, but we make them spin – before it is too late, abandon your degree if you found yourself on the Dissernet website.
Andrei Zayakin, theoretical physicist, co-founder of Dissernet, in an interview to Bumaga website.
Previously, Dissernet has exposed cheating and plagiarism in academic works by Saint Petersburg governor Georgy Poltavchenko, children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinskiy, Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov, and many other prominent figures. Despite being widely covered by the mass media, these disclosures did not have any noticeable consequences for these top-level officials.
In November 2015, however, based on an appeal from Zayakin and Dissernet, a court divested “United Russia” deputy Rishat Abubakirov of his doctorate. Ironically, it was this very lawmaker who “launched” the whole Dissernet movement in the first place: angry with the Magnitsky Act passed in 2013, Zayakin had decided to check the validity of the deputies’ academic degrees—and Abubakirov happened to be at the top of the alphabetical list.
Dissernet has managed to collect an extensive database of 5,000 bogus dissertations and has no intention of stopping. Instead, the activists have started a side project called RosVuz (stands for “Russian University”) that concentrates on investigating school headmasters and heads of universities who hold doctorates. Through their meticulous and thorough sleuthing, the activists are revitalizing both politics and academia in Russia, while also trying to unravel the fake dissertation chain (known as the “thesis-for-sale” black market) along the way.

author: Darina Gribova


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Taiwan Welcomes First Woman to Be Elected President · Global Voices
Sophie Hsu

Taiwan's President-Elect Tsai Ing-wen speaking to foreign and domestic media at her campaign headquarters after her opponents conceded defeat. Photo from Tsai's Facebook page.
Taiwan has elected its first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, an opposition candidate from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tsai won 56.12 percent of the popular vote (6,897,744 ballots), soundly defeating Eric Chu from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who won 31 percent of the vote, and James Song of the People’s First Party (PFP), who won 13 percent.
Tsai, popularly known as “Little Ying” and “Xiao Ying,” also led her party to a majority in the legislature, taking 68 of the 113 seats up for grabs, handing the president-elect a considerable mandate for the next four years. Tsai is expected to focus on improving social security in a struggling economy that's facing rising unemployment, low salaries, and a rising cost of living.
Facebook user Chen Fang-yu summarized what many were feeling, following the election:
關於選舉的幾點感想：
1、政黨輪替是民主政治的常態，其目的不是在選出一個最好最「英明」的領導人，而是在告訴執政者：你做不好的話，就會被換掉。
2、這是我國立法院史上第一次的政黨輪替，先前泛藍席次從來沒有低於五成過。從來沒有。
民進黨第一次完全執政，人民將權力託付給民進黨，接下來四年希望每位政治人物都不要忘記、不要辜負這個託付。人們會繼續大力監督的（大家平常要多關心政治呀！生活處處皆政治）
台灣現在面對的內、外挑戰都相當大，必須認真地面對。
馬英九政府的失敗主因就是不願意傾聽人民的聲音，民進黨必須記取教訓。
3、綠黨與社會民主黨還是無法通過門檻，實在可惜。
台灣需要真正意義的左派力量來制衡兩大黨都偏向右派的政策取向。
These are my election views:
1. Party alternation is a normal occurrence in a democratic political system, and the goal of elections is not to choose the wisest leader, but to tell the ruling party: “If you don’t perform well, you can be voted out.”
2. This is the first time party alternation has happened in my country’s legislature. Pan-blue [KMT and its affiliates] seats in the past never fell below 50 percent. For the first time in history, the DPP was entrusted by the people with a complete mandate. I hope, in the next four years, these politicians do not forget that their mandate comes from people, who will continue to monitor their performance. (Everyone please be more interested in politics! Every aspect of our lives involves politics!)
3. Taiwan faces many challenges—both domestic and international—and we must deal with that seriously. The failure of President Ma Ying-jeou's administration was the result of the government's failure to listen to people's voices, and the DPP must remember this lesson.
4. It is a pity that the Green Party and the Social Democratic Party were unable to to gain any legislative seats. Taiwan still needs meaningful left-leaning parties, in order to strike a balance against the two major parties’ right-leaning policies.
Tsai supporters shared their celebration online. Irene Chang joined the crowd at Tsai’s campaign headquarters and wrote “We've made it!” on her photo:
Photo: Irene Chang / Facebook.
While the weather was good after a rainy week in some parts of Taiwan, voter turnout was the lowest recorded in all presidential elections, reaching just 66 percent (compared to 74 percent in the previous election in 2012). Absentee voting is not an option in Taiwan.
Some did return home to vote, such as the owner of this coffee shop in Chiayi County. He closed his business for the day, so he could return home to his registered voting precinct. The sign he posted on the shop's gate has gone viral online:
International observers from various backgrounds (including academia, think tanks, and the news media) traveled to Taiwan a few days ahead of the election to observe the country's democracy in action. Many of them reported their observations on Twitter. Those who couldn’t come to Taiwan followed the Twitter tag #TaiwanElection to see the election unfold online.
The note on the gate reads, “Taiwan won't miss a few cups of coffee, but it will miss this vote. This store is on vacation. I've gone home to Vote.” Photo from Facebook Noodles News.
Varsity, a magazine run by students from the Chinese University School of Journalism and Communication, also organized a team of reporters. They observed how the failure of the One Country and Two Systems in Hong Kong has helped DDP to gain voters’ support:
Banner outside DPP headquarters says step over the corpse of HK and stay away from China #TaiwanElection pic.twitter.com/tdrvosDPq4
— Varsity CUHK (@varsitycuhk) January 16, 2016
Lorand C. Laskai, a media observer, commented:
#TaiwanElection shows power of sustained civic activism. It's a rare brightspot for democracy in recent years. On China's doorstep, no less.
— Lorand C. Laskai (@lorandlaskai) January 16, 2016

author: Sophie Hsu


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The Creeping Politicisation of Theatre, Film and Public Media in Poland · Global Voices
Anna Gotowska

Cultural figures who have come under fire recently include Elfriede Jelinek, Jan Klata (Łukasz Giza / Agencja Gazeta), and Krzysztof Mieszkowski (Kornelia Glowacka-Wolf / Agencja Gazeta)
Less than a month after winning the November 2015 elections in Poland, the conservative Law and Justice party gained international attention for its controversial internal politics. One of the most heated discussions was triggered by the new Culture Minister and Deputy Prime Minister professor Piotr Gliński. In an official letter addressed to the governor of Lower Silesia, Glinski urged to cancel ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’ (‘Princess Dramas: Death and the Maiden’), a play written by Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, displayed at the Polish Theatre in Wrocław.
“Hard pornography is not to be subsidised by the State,” Gliński stated, never having seen the play in question but responding to speculation that pornographic actors were to perform in the play. Some newspapers pronounced the move “preventive censorship,” as the letter was sent before the play had debuted.
During an interview concerning the play held on the public television channel TVP Info, Gliński made accusations that foreshadowed changes in the political approach towards public media. Despite admitting that he might have been misled on the matter of pornography, he attacked presenter Karolina Lewicka and accused her and the whole station of hosting “a propaganda programme,” stating that the station had been “manipulating” public opinion for years. As a result Lewicka was suspended and subjected to investigation, though the charges were eventually dropped.
The Jelinek incident was not an isolated one. On the day of his nomination as an adviser to the ministry of culture, Konrad Szczebiot – a drama critic and lecturer at the Theatre Academy in Białystok – requested recordings of all plays displayed at the Old Theatre in Kraków since its director Jan Klata took the position. Szczebiot expressed the urgent need to “judge the artistic merit of the plays for the purposes of internal review.”
Klata, like Wroclaw Theatre director Krzysztof Mieszkowski, has faced years of accusations from religious and conservative groups of impiety and of polluting state cultural institutions with “liberal and leftist propaganda.”
The Polish state’s interference in artistic expression of publicly subsidised institutions of culture has a long tradition, one exceeding Law and Justice’s rise to power. As a matter of fact, before Law & Justice took up the case against Jelinek’s play, members of the Regional Assembly, dominated by supposedly liberal local Civic Platform representatives, demanded immediate removal of the play in early November 2015, threatening the theater with severe cuts in funding and calling on the ministry for support in their crusade.
A year ago, a huge scandal broke out during the Malta Festival in Poznań. ‘Golgota Picnic’, a play by Rodrigo Gonzales, controversial for its critiques of consumerism and social inequality, was cancelled due to the threats of massive protests by Catholic organisations, among them the Rosary Crusade.
“Similar protests were organised in many places around the world, where ‘Golgota’ was performed, but Poznań was the first city to give in,” Gonzales said after the event. The festival director Michał Merczyński accused city president Ryszard Grobelny – an independent, but endorsed by Civic Platform politician – of passivity and lack of support for freedom of artistic expression on City Council's part.
Two burning issues are apparent from this pattern of events. First, there is the tendency of Polish politicians to give in to the conservative, Catholic viewpoint of what’s socially acceptable in art, in a country which – according to its own Constitution – is secular.
As almost 90 per cent of Polish citizens identify themselves as Roman Catholics, it has been easy for Polish representatives to use religious rhetoric to gain political influence. The Catholic Church of Poland was one of the most important institutions of the opposition during the communist regime, and still holds a lot of political power and influence over Polish society. Manifestations of religious affiliation were central in President Andrzej Duda’s campaign last year and continue to influence his current politics.
Present-day artistic censorship can usually be traced to religious protests deeming plays “immoral” and calling for theatres to “go back to more traditional ways, promoting national, catholic values”. Making sure that the national debate about values and borders of artistic expression is truly pluralistic is still a challenge to be faced.
Secondly, there is the case of funding itself, and the way management of culture is organised on both national and local level. The Polish state is the main actor when it comes to financial support of cultural institutions. While other countries may rely on the private sector for funding, Poles can’t afford to fund cultural events.
Just a month ago, Central Statistical Office of Poland published a report, based on data collected in 2014, summarising the average annual spending on culture in the typical Polish household. With the average (yet inflated by incomes in the cities) wage being around 920 euro (minimal wage being 440 euro) only 5.50 euro per person were spent on theatre or cinema tickets. By comparison an average European household spends around 1,300 euro annually on culture and recreation.
With the burden of financial support falling mostly on the state, it is also the state that dictates fund division. And so, it is the Ministry of Culture that decides not only who is appointed to key positions in many prominent cultural institutions, but also on the composition of supposedly independent Expert Councils which advise and oversee those institutions. Any change in the parliamentarian distribution of power usually means an immediate change in personnel and, as a result, in the direction of Polish cultural policy.
Protest rally in Warsaw on 9 January 2016 calling for freedom of expression in the media. Photo by author.
On paper, the state’s influence is not that wide – only three institutions are fully controlled by the Ministry, Teatr Stary in Kraków being one of them. Most of the 140 Polish public theatres are financed by the regional governments. Yet, the majority of regional politicians are linked to one of the national parties, and thus obliged to fulfill their party lines. Also, according to the report published by the National Centre for Culture Poland, funds on culture in the overall structure of the budget of local governments are the lowest since 2010 and it has been hard not to rely, even partially, on centrally controlled support.
“Redistribution of public funding on the local level – up till now – was less affected by politicisation and depended more on personal connections. Some people [now] occupy leading positions for years with virtually no artistic achievements to support it. Although, with Law and Justice’s new appointments to the province governor positions, the whole process of subsidising private theatres may become highly politicised. With private theatres being hardly able to stand on their own, probably only those who would bend their artistic line to the party’s values would be supported – and as a result – survive,” commented an anonymous source connected to the Kraków’s theatre community.
This sheds the light on another problematic point: along with public institutions, the state also subsidises private and nongovernmental cultural initiatives. Up until now, this was left up to fairly independent Expert Councils, but it was only the goodwill of the government that guaranteed the stability of this process. With the ministry announcing a “new redistribution of the cake,” and naming Wanda Zwinogrodzka as vice minister and special adviser on the subject of public theatres, this tradition may soon be forgotten.
Although Zwinogrodzka has claimed that the “State needs to stay away from the artistic freedom of expression,” she responded to the debate around Klata’s controversial directorship by stating, “Left-wing screams are paralysing the ability to speak. They need to be hushed in order to let someone else speak.”
Recent events concerning the Polish Film Institute also follow the pattern of deepening politicisation of cultural institutions. Every year, a list of experts – people known for their achievements in film industry – is composed by the Institute. These experts become members of the committees responsible for assessing applications for funding. The list needs to be approved by the Ministry of Culture, which usually does so without applying any changes. Yet this year, an additional 30 names appeared and several were crossed out. Some of the new names raised eyebrows in the film community, especially Rafał Ziemkiewicz and Jan Pospieszalski – known conservative journalists and longtime supporters of the ruling party, whose connection to the film world can be seen as questionable.
Such tendencies can be observed in many Polish institutions supported by public funding, not only those dedicated to culture. Legal changes to the public media prepared by the ruling majority make it likely that cases similar to Lewicka’s suspension may become everyday reality. During the last days of 2015, a final vote took place on an initial bill which would regulate the process of electing boards and leading positions in The National Broadcasting Council. According to this bill, the Minister of Treasury would decide how such positions would be filled and vacated. The bill would terminate open competition for those offices.
Opinion given by Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights states clearly that:
Suggested regulations oppose the basic European standard set for Public Media, standard stating that Public Media need to be free from political influence as much as it is possible. The bill – despite the claims of the ruling majority – does not contribute to the better functioning of the Public Media, but can lead only to deepening already existing malfunctions of this institution.
It needs to be said that the progressing politicisation of public media in Poland is a complex process that dates back to at least 2002, if not earlier. Although the board election and leadership appointment procedures have always allowed some level of political meddling, never have they reached the level of politicisation introduced by the aforementioned bill.
It seems like 25 years of democratic regime was not enough to create truly stable, independent institutions, which – while still relying on state funding – would not be affected by the state’s changing politics and values. The goal of the public cultural institution should be to include all of the perspectives present among members of the society, discuss and challenge them, deconstruct them by opening up a space for a public debate. Narrowing it down to just one world view impoverishes it drastically.
This constant wheeling and dealing makes it almost impossible to discuss the true artistic merit of national productions – for any voice of critique or praise is seen as a political statement. The ultimate victims of these political power plays, are – as it usually is the case: the citizens.

author: Anna Gotowska


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Why Do Hong Kongers Call Chief Executive CY Leung ‘689’? · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun Ying was endorsed by 689 votes in the election committee in 2012. Photo from HKFP.
This post was written by Hong Wrong and originally published on Hong Kong Free Press on January 17, 2016. The version below is published on Global Voices under a partnership agreement.
Many Hong Kongers know 689 to be the nickname of the city's top leader, Chief Executive CY Leung.
In 2012, Leung was elected to his post with just 689 votes from the election committee — the select group of voters representing various sectors that are allowed to vote for chief executive. That process is set to change for the 2017 chief executive election to allow all Hong Kongers to vote, albeit from a list of candidates approved by committee similar to the election committee.
Now that Taiwan's newly elected President Tsai Ying-wen was elected with 6.89 million votes, the number is becoming more magical.
In 2014, news agency APF tweeted an infographic that explains the complicated system:
Why do they call Leung Chun-ying ‘689’? #Infographic explains how #HongKong leader got his nickname among protesters pic.twitter.com/90cghEGvi3
— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 1, 2014
Leung is often heckled in the legislature by pan-democratic lawmakers – most notoriously by Wong Yuk-man – who enjoy reminding him of the number. Below is a speech that he made to criticize the chief executive in the Legislative Council:
The speech was made during the Q and A section of Leung's policy address on 22 October 2015. The first 30 seconds of Wong's speech were as thus:
Three years back, I used this term 689 to describe the person who is lacking credibility, a liar with low character. This person does not have any qualifications to run Hong Kong. After three years, what he has done has proven that I was fair and objective…
He ended his speech with a question: “689, when will you die?”
The number is also commonly seen at protests:
The protest sign says, “689: Step down ASAP”. Photo: HKFP.
And was especially popular during the 2014 pro-democracy Occupy protests.
Night bus number: 689. Destination: Hell. Photo: HKFP
In January 2015, the athletic brand Puma removed a photo it posted on Facebook of a runner’s identification tag bearing the number “D7689” upon receiving complaints from pro-government netizens. “D7” can be interpreted as Cantonese profanity and the photo attracted a large number of comments, like “support D7 [f**k-up] 689″ or “right on target, admin!”
Screen capture of Puma's self-censored photo. Image from HKFP.
Netizens have since taken joy in spotting instances of the number around Hong Kong, as well as in creating art works and parodies related to “689”.
Below is a simulation of a video game produced by Ronnie Chau, a political satire video producer, showing how “689” gains energy from the Chinese Communist Party (represented by the communist symbol). Hong Kong, being a special administrative region of China, enjoys a high degree of autonomy from the mainland, but China's influence is nevertheless potent:
Netizens also noted that, when added together, 6+8+9 equals 23 – as in, Basic Law Article 23, which refers to the local legislation of China's national security law. A related bill which criminalizes speech and many NGOs’ advocacy activities as threatening to China's national security was drafted, but was withdrawn following protests in 2003. The Hong Kong government has not attempted to restart the legislation process yet and the public is worried that Chief Executive “689” will table the bill to the legislature once he is re-elected in 2017.
Viral photo circulated online, via HKFP.
But Leung is not the only Chinese leader haunted by the figure. Taiwan’s outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou was elected with 6.89 million votes in 2008, and the nickname also stuck. Over the weekend, Taiwan’s new leader Tsai Ing-wen was also elected with 6.89 million votes. The visualization of the difference between 689 and 6.89 looks like this:
The distance between 689 and 6.89 million. Image from HKFP.
It is unclear if it will become her nickname, though the coincidence did not go unnoticed by Hong Kongers — it inspired the creation of another figure by Mr & Ms HK People:
When Tsai Ying-wen (Ms. English as Tsai's first name literally mean English in Chinese) stands on scale with Mr. 689, the latter becomes almost invisible.
Mathematically, 689 is also a magical number. As findthefactors.com explains, it is a strobogrammatic number, meaning it can be read upside down.
Screen capture from findthefactors.com via HKFP.
It is also the sum of consecutive prime numbers 227, 229 and 233, and it is the sum of the prime numbers between 83 and 109.
For Hong Kongers, however, 689 will always be indelibly linked to the city’s unpopular leader.

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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Will Lebanon Finally Have a New President After Geagea Endorsed Aoun? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Hell is freezing over,” quips Anthony Elghossain (@aelghossain) as he watches the Aoun-Geagea agreement playing out on his computer. Photograph shared on Twitter.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced his endorsement of his war time rival Michel Aoun‘s candidacy for presidency today. The agreement could mean Lebanon may finally have a new president after leaving the country's top post vacant for 20 months.
Geagea, the executive chairman of the Lebanese Forces, the second largest Christian political party in Lebanon, and Aoun, former Lebanese Army Commander and founder of the Free Patriotic Movement, were enemies fighting each other during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). On January 31, 1990, Lebanese Army forces with Aoun as its commander-in-chief clashed with the Lebanese Forces, after Aoun had stated that it was in the national interest for the government to “unify the weapons” which meant that the Lebanese Forces must submit to his authority as acting head of state. This fight led to the death of hundreds of civilians.
To further complicate matters, Geagea is reportedly supported by Saudi Arabia, while Aoun, has the backing of Hizbullah, which is backed by Iran. While this endorsement brings Aoun closer to the presidency, it does not guarantee him an automatic position, as he still needs the backing of Walid Jumblatt, the head of the Progressive Socialist Party, in addition to the backing of Hizbullah, which Aoun has. He should also try and get the backing of other parliamentary blocs, including that of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri, who heads the March 14 movement, and who is backing Suleiman Frangieh‘s bid for president. In Lebanon, the president must be a Maronite Christian, but he must still be elected by parliament.
Confused? You are not alone. Join all those netizens who share their confusion.
Lebanese politics can be confusing, as Fouad Khreis explains:
عون : مع سلاح حزب الله جعجع : لسحب السلاح غير الشرعي الحريري : بشار الاسد مجرم فرنجية : بشار الاسد صديقي انا : !!!!
— مصدر مسؤول (@fouadkhreis) January 18, 2016
Aoun: With Hizbullah being armed
Geagea: Against Hizbullah being armed
Hariri (Saad): Bashar Al Assad is a criminal
Frangieh: Bashar Al Assad is my friend
Me: !!!!
To add to the confusion, Ziad Achkar tweets:
Anybody in Lebanon can you fill me in with what's happening? #Aoun #Geagea # Lebanon https://t.co/fSrc4gIpQo
— Ziad Achkar (@ziadachkar) January 18, 2016
And Foreign Policy Middle East editor David Kenner, who is based in Beirut, delves into old newspapers to dig up more information about the arch rivals:
26 years after this article, these two guys kissed and began a fresh alliance, because Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/F28wpfqW96
— DavidKenner (@DavidKenner) January 18, 2016
Man, I am going back and reading the Geagea-Aoun coverage from 1990, and it is just bonkers. pic.twitter.com/jof4ZVUUlu
— DavidKenner (@DavidKenner) January 18, 2016
Many are stunned with the announcement.
Abir Ghattas shares this GIF:
#Aoun after #Geagea‘s endorsement \0/ #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/5sDWeldn7R
— Abir Ghattas (@AbirGhattas) January 18, 2016
And Lina Arabii shares THE moment:
Tayyar ma3 el Ouwet 😍😆 #ليه_جعجع_رشح_عون pic.twitter.com/ruPYKDGnks
— Lina Arabi (@LinaArabii) January 18, 2016
The Free Patriotic Movement with the Lebanese Forces.
Rami Kiwan asks:
How come the writers on Game of Thrones are not of Lebanese descent? #Geagea #Aoun
— Rami Kiwan (@rami_kiwan) January 18, 2016
Halim Shebaya wonders:
did any of the new year's astrologers predict this nomination?
Back to Achkar, any solution seems to be welcome:
I'm not a fan of either Geagea or Aoun but any move towards reconciliation ought to be welcomed. We can't live like this anymore.
— Ziad Achkar (@ziadachkar) January 18, 2016
The reconciliation between Geagea and Aoun is even welcomed by Lebanon's infamous singer Elissa, who tweets to her 8.2 million followers:
Finally… 30 years later… Christians are united on national issues… Let's hope it will last https://t.co/1OM2TH4OXg
— Elissa (@elissakh) January 18, 2016


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British-Iranian Journalist Tweets Her Experience Being Denied Boarding on a Flight to the US · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

BBC Persian Reporter Rana Rahimpour posted tweets Tuesday night explaining how her and her daughter were prevented from flying to the United States because of Bill H.R. 158. Photo from Rahimpour's Twitter.
Twitter went into overdrive for many Iranians Tuesday night in response to BBC Persian reporter Rana Rahimpour‘s tweets after she was stopped from boarding a flight from the U.K. to the United States.
3 days after lifting #Iran sanctions, #US denied #ESTA/visa waivers for me and another 2 #British citzns cos we have Iranian nationality too
— Rana Rahimpour (@ranarahimpour) January 19, 2016
Rahimpour explains in her tweets that she was held back because of the new restrictions enforced by the Visa Waiver Legislation (or Bill HR 158). The legislation was passed on 18 December with congressional approval and President Obama's signature. As a result, it requires citizens of the 38 member countries (including all European Union countries) currently exempt from obtaining visas to enter the United States to request visas if they have travelled to “terrorist hotspots” such as Iraq and Syria or countries “supporting terrorism” such as Iran and Sudan.
HR 158 stipulates the following regarding individuals who will not be exempt from the waiver program:
The bill itself indicates that the legislation will go into effect as of 1 April, 2016, and the official website for the US Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) makes no reference to the new bill.
Rahimpour explained her surprise at discovering the bill was already in effect, with a confirmation from ESTA, keeping her from her flight.
@ranarahimpour Though most people think new #US travel restrictions not effective until April, #ESTA told me they are already in place.
— Rana Rahimpour (@ranarahimpour) January 19, 2016
@ranarahimpour Received confusing messages @USAinUK wasn't sure whether we needed a visa. #ESTA website still says request is pending.
— Rana Rahimpour (@ranarahimpour) January 19, 2016
In what appeared to be an emotional tweet, Rahimpour explained her daughter, who is a full British national, was kept from her cousin's birthday in the United States because of the restrictions placed on her as an Iranian dual national.
@ranarahimpour My fully #British daughter can't attend her #American cousin's bday cos her mum was born in #Iran. pic.twitter.com/8Rt1aHLlTD
— Rana Rahimpour (@ranarahimpour) January 19, 2016
Prior to this incident many had already taken to social media to express discontent at this misplaced targeting of Iranians and Iran, as the bill was invoked in the wake of the threat represented by Daesh (also known as ISIS), the brutal Al Qaeda offshoot that has taken over swathes of Iraq and Syria. While Iran does maintain strong ties to groups designated by governments as terrorists such as Hezbollah, they are also one of the countries that have been fighting Daesh since early on in the conflict.
The reactions to Rahimpour's ordeal have already started to pour out.
The discriminatory policies against dual Iranian- Syrian- Iraqi- and Sudanese citizens are already in force. #HR158 https://t.co/qR4a8xJee2
— kamran rastegar (@kdrastegar) January 19, 2016
If not clear discrimination against Iranians… then what is this? @JohnKerry @ranarahimpour #HR158
— Nima Fatemi (@mrphs) January 19, 2016
Earlier this year, the organizers of a Quantum Computation Conference at Iran's Sharif University of Technology cancelled an international conference hosting European academics in response to the new American legislation.
..in order not to put our international invitees and participants, and the conference itself, in an inconvenient and undecided position because of the new US bill concerning the visa-waiver program, which puts restrictions on travelers to Iran.
Iranian officials have already condemned the bill, with Iranian Foreign Minister calling it “absurd,” and other officials recognizing the detrimental effects it could have to tourism and commerce in Iran. Prior to sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program being lifted, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry assured Iranian officials there were multiple ways to prevent H.R. 158 from affecting business with “potential tools” such as specially issued business visas.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Expand Your Movie-Watching Horizons With These 16 Films From Around the World · Global Voices
Global Voices

Photo by Flickr user weegeebored. CC BY-ND 2.0
This story was compiled and edited by Taisa Sganzerla, L. Finch, Georgia Popplewell and the Global Voices community.
There's a big, wide world of film out there, but we don't often see that diversity represented on our local theater marquees, and it can be a little daunting to break out of the mainstream and explore the vastness of world cinema on your own.
So we've done the work for you. We crowdsourced movie suggestions from the Global Voices community of authors, editors and translators around the world, and came up with a list of 16 films from five different regions, ranging from the old to the new, from the internationally praised to the completely obscure.
Movies are a great way to get a glimpse into a place or a time you know little about. Ready for some armchair travel? Read on.
Screenshot from Manila Under the Claws of Light.
An absolute classic of Filipino cinema that's appears regularly on worldwide best movie lists, director Lino Broca's film depicts the poverty and desperation of the period of Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship in the 1970s. Trailer available on YouTube in Tagalog. (Recommended by author Karlo Mongaya)
Screenshot from To Singapore, With Love
This documentary, which has been banned in Singapore, profiles nine political exiles who fled the island nation in the 1960s during Lee Kuan Yew’s crackdown on leftist activists, and out of fear of persecution, never returned. The current Singaporean government claims the film gives a “distorted and untruthful account of how [the individuals] came to leave Singapore”. Trailer on Vimeo, available to stream in its entirety for a fee. (Recommended by author Kristen Han)
Screenshot from Siti.
Winner of Best Film at the 2015 Indonesian Film Festival and Best Original Script at the Shanghai International Film Festival, Siti depicts the struggles of a young wife working, to support her family, as a karaoke hostess in the tourist hotspot of Parangtritis Beach in Jogjakarta. Trailer with English subtitles available on YouTube. (Recommended by translator Juliana Harsianti)
Screenshot from Lovely Man.
Another Indonesia production about family relationships, this film follows the journey of a pious woman who finds her estranged father living as a transgender prostitute in Jakarta. Starring award-winning Indonesian actor Donny Damara, this is a rare example of a Southeast Asian movie centered on LGBT issues. Trailer available on YouTube in Indonesian. (Recommended by author Juke Carolina)
Screenshot from La Operación
A revealing short documentary on the sterilization policies the US imposed on Puerto Rico in the 1950s and 60s. Over a third of the nation's women were sterilized as hospitals refused to admit healthy pregnant women for delivery unless they consented to sterilization afterwards. (Recommended by Spanish-language editor Firuzeh Shokooh Valle)
Screenshot from Isle of Flowers
An absolute classic, this award-winning 13-minute short film was screened endlessly in high-school classrooms in Brazil in the 1990s. With its satirical voice-over narration and bizarre illustrations, the movie follows the journey of a rotten tomato all the way from a small farm to a landfill where a group of families live. (Recommended by author Fabiano Post)
Screenshot from Herod's Law
This Mexican comedy tells the tale of a janitor-turned-mayor of a town in the middle of the Mexican desert who gradually realizes exactly how far his newly acquired power and corruption can get him. The title refers to what some see as the governing principle of political life in Mexico: do it to them before they do it to you. Trailer available on YouTube in Spanish. (Recommended by author and social media team member Elizabeth Rivera)
Screenshot from Magallanes
A nominee for this year's Spanish Goya Awards, the film follows a veteran soldier-turned-taxi driver in Lima and his struggles with memories of deployment in Peru's Andean region of Ayacucho, the former base of the Maoist guerrilla insurgency Shining Path. Trailer on YouTube with English subtitles. (Recommended by author and translator Gabriela Garcia Calderón)
Screenshot from The Longest Distance
A moving story of a 10-year-old boy who travels to La Gran Sabana to meet his grandmother and rebuild family ties. This road movie takes viewers from the turbulent urban environment of Caracas to the rural landscapes of the Venezuelan state of Bolivar, all the way to the top of Mount Roraima. Trailer available on Vimeo with English subtitles (Recommended by author Marianne Díaz)
Screenshot from A Trip to Karabakh
Looking to buy drugs, a group of young Georgian men cross the border into Nagorno-Karabakh—the region between Armenia and Azerbaijan contested since the fall of the Soviet Union—but end up being detained by local authorities. (Recommended by author Mirian Jugheli)
Screenshot from Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Considered a key cinematic work in Ukraine, the film delves deep into the culture of the Hutsuls, an ethno-linguistic group from the Carpathian mountains. (Recommended by RuNet Echo editor Tetyana Lokot)
Screenshot from The Scoundrel
If you enjoyed the Oscar-nominee Leviathan (2013) and would like more insight into Soviet Russia, don't miss The Scoundrel (Yaramaz in Azerbaijani), a comedy tackling the corruption of the late Soviet bureaucracy in Azerbaijan. (Recommended by author Arzu Geybullahyeva)
Screenshot from Stories of Our Lives
This movie, produced by a Nairobi-based arts collective, is comprised of five short stories exploring LGBT issues in the country. Due to Kenya's anti-gay laws, the film has been banned locally. Trailer available on YouTube in English. (Recommended by author Pernille Baerendtsein)
Screenshot from Tabataba
Its title means “rambling” in Malagasy, but it's also a code word describing the events of the 1947 Malagasy Uprising. This movie depicts a Malagasy village's struggles for independence from French colonial rule during that period. (Recommended by Lova Rakotomalala)
Screenshot from No One Knows About Persian Cats
Through the eyes of two aspiring musicians in Tehran, the film gives viewers a peek into Iran's underground music scene. Its soundtrack features some famous Iranian musical talents, such as the rapper Hichkas and rock band Yellow Dogs, whose vocalist and drummer were murdered in New York in 2009. Trailer available on YouTube with English subtitles. (Recommended by Iran editor Mahsa Alimardani)
Screenshot from Where Do We Go Now?
This movie takes viewers into Lebanon's hinterland in the 1970s, as the country is on the brink of civil war. When animosities between Christians and Muslims begin to build in a small village, a group of women conspires to keep the men from fighting each other. Trailer available on YouTube with English subtitles. (Recommended by contributor Mohammed Najeen)

author: Global Voices


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How a Weapons Trafficking Case Brought Puerto Rico’s Political Status Before the US Supreme Court · Global Voices
Ángel Carrión

According to the United States Attorney General, Donald B. Verrilli, Puerto Rico's Constitution is not comparable to the constitution of a state; instead it has the status of a town charter. Image uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Thief 12 and utilized under the following license Creative Commons Genérica de Atribución/Compartir Igual 3.0 (CC BY-SA 3.0).
A new chapter concerning Puerto Rico's political status has begun over the past weeks. This is due to a case under the consideration of the United States Supreme Court that questions whether Puerto Rico, which is a US territory, and the federal government each have their own sovereignty.
The case presented before the Supreme Court, Puerto Rico v. Sánchez Valle, started as a criminal case of the illegal sale of weapons and has to do with the double jeopardy clause in the United States Constitution (which guarantees that a person is not accused of the same offense twice, unless each accusation is under two distinct sovereign states). It has become one of the most interesting cases concerning the relationship between Puerto Rico, which as a territory has limited rights and lacks voting representatives in Congress, and the United States. Nothing similar has been witnessed since the famous Insular Cases in the beginning of the 20th century in which policies that are still in force today were established.
Richard Pildes, a constitutional law academic, had anticipated since October that the case would acquire greater significance both for Puerto Rico and the United States:
The issues are historically and legally fascinating, but also the most politically explosive and divisive issues in Puerto Rico:  they go to the existential question of what Puerto Rico is and what its current and future relationship to the United States is and is likely to be.
Following much debate, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled in favour of the accused, who had argued that since Puerto Rico does not have its own sovereignty, it is not possible to pursue Sánchez in Puerto Rican courts after he was tried for the same offense in federal courts. The implications of this decision troubled the governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla, who belongs to the ruling Partido Popular Democrático. As such, the administration decided to appeal the case to the US Supreme court.
Consequently, the US attorney general, Donald B. Verrilli, submitted a legal brief to the Court as amicus curiae (friend of the court), summarising Puerto Rico's judicial development under United States sovereignty. Verrilli concludes that, effectively, Puerto Rico does not have and indeed has never had its own sovereignty, but its sovereignty lies with the US Congress. This reiteration of the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States led Governor García Padilla to denounce what he understands as a change in the federal government's attitude. He expressed this in a letter sent to the United Nations:
In a legal brief filed before the United States Supreme Court on December 23, 2015 […] the United States Government abruptly reversed course, and took the position that the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico do not emanate from the people of Puerto Rico after all. […] The Commonwealth believes that the recent interpretation made by the Solicitor General on behalf of the United States of America is misguided and should not prevail in the Supreme Court. However, in light of the grave importance of this matter, I hereby fulfill my duty to the People of Puerto Rico and the international community by informing you of this development.
The case revived interest in Puerto Rico's status in the political arena, to the extent that it will probably become a relevant theme during this year's political campaigns. In 2013, sociologist Emilio Pantojas García published an article in Puerto Rican magazine 80 grados, in which he summarises the history of Puerto Rico's political status.
Another contributor to 80 grados, Carlos Morell, alluded to the Puerto Rican governor's stance in an article in which he expressed his differing opinion:
[D]ecir que Estados Unidos está cambiando de postura sobre lo que pasó en el 1952 es echar más de 50 años de historia y discusión del tema al olvido. En definitiva no puede ser amnesia ya que es difícil pensar que un salto al olvido de esta magnitud sea un brinco involuntario.
[T]o say that the United States is changing its stance about what happened in 1952 is to forget about 50 years of history and discussion on the subject. In fact it cannot be amnesia, since it is hard to believe that one can be involuntarily oblivious to something of this magnitude.
In 1952, Puerto Rico's Constitution was approved through a referendum, and Puerto Rico became a Commonwealth of the United States (neither a state of Union or an independent country). This gave Puerto Rico certain autonomy. A year later, the United Nations removed the island from its list of non self-governing territories.
According to Daniel Nina, in an article for the El Post Antillano, the attorney general's stance is not a novelty. Nonetheless, what he finds curious is who is currently stating it:
Se trata de la primera vez que en un caso ante el Tribunal Supremo federal el gobierno de dicho país, por vía del poder ejecutivo, manifiesta este pronunciamiento. Aunque consistente con la trayectoria de dicho país, ya desde el informe de la Casa Blanca sobre el futuro de Puerto Rico, publicado en el 2005, habían dicho algo similar. Valga la aclaración, bajo el gobierno de George W. Bush se dijo esto hace una década. Ahora se dijo bajo el gobierno de Barack Obama. Bush es republicano, Obama es demócrata. Ambos presidentes están diciendo lo mismo: eso sí es novel.
It is the first time that, in a case tried before the federal Supreme Court, the government of the country in question, by means of its executive power, manifests this standpoint. Even so, it is consistent with the United States’ trajectory on the subject. In 2005, the White House had already published a report on the future of Puerto Rico in which a similar view was expressed. It is worth noting that this was stated under [former US President] George W. Bush a decade ago. Now it has been stated under Barack Obama's government. Bush is Republican, Obama is a Democrat. Both presidents are stating the same thing: that is the novelty.
The US Supreme Court publicly addressed the matter on 13 January, but the case is still pending.

author: Ángel Carrión


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Arrrrrr! Putin’s New Internet Advisor Tied to Online Piracy · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Pirates of the Kremlin. Edited by Kevin Rothrock.
It turns out that Vladimir Putin’s new Internet advisor could be an enormous facilitator of online piracy, according to a new report. Joining the president’s team just a few weeks ago, German Klimenko has already managed to worry many, first by threatening to shut down messaging app Telegram, and then by touting the benefits of “going the Chinese route” online in Russia. Now he's making headlines again, though it doesn't seem to be by design, this time.
According to an article published on January 18 in the newspaper Vedomosti, Klimenko’s company Mediametrics is tied to another agency called “ECO PC – Complex Solutions,” which owns the website Torrnado.ru, an online index and repository for torrent files.
On January 17, a day before Vedomosti’s report, Klimenko announced that he intends to transfer control over many of his business holdings to his son. According to Vedmosti’s sources, Torrnado.ru will be one of these assets.
In comments on Facebook, Klimenko called Vedomosti’s story a “donos” (“denunciation”), implying that someone is using the newspaper to try to smear his reputation. Klimenko also said, “There’s nothing illegal about owning [torrent trackers]. You just need to cooperate with copyright holders and help them fight for their rights.” Three hours later (now well past midnight in Moscow), he wrote facetiously and not without some desperation, “You know, the list of my sins really is impressive: I’m shutting down Telegram, and building a Chinese Internet in place of Russia’s. And I support pirates. All single-handedly and simultaneously.”
Some say Klimenko’s ownership of a torrent index amounts to a conflict of interest. Last week, on January 14, for instance, Klimenko told the news agency Praim that Russia should delay any strict enforcement of copyright law, until the country exits its current economic recession. “In fact, demand for copyright protections rises with economic growth,” he explained. “But when the situation is bad, it seems to me, people shouldn’t terrorize everyone unnecessarily with these questions [about torrents].”
Internet jokesters (with Star Wars memes at the ready) are already going to town with Klimenko's predicament, mocking him for tough talk against Western Internet companies, while having ties to a website that facilitates online piracy.
Советник президента по интернету оказался владельцем торрент-трекера https://t.co/mYjTsmqeKn pic.twitter.com/Kz3N9Jvd4S
— Лентач (@oldLentach) January 18, 2016
It turns out the president's Internet advisor is the owner of a torrent tracker. [Caption reads, “You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the torrent trackers, not join them!”]
At the time of this writing, the splash page for Torrnado.ru (torrNADO, or “Gotta Torrent”) featured links to torrents for several clearly pirated Hollywood films, including Hotel Transylvania 2, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Ant-Man, and more.
Klimenko was appointed to serve as President Putin’s advisor on the Internet and online commerce on January 4. Klimenko’s duties and responsibilities in this new position remain unclear. The executive order hiring him reads merely, “German S. Klimenko is named advisor to the president of the Russian Federation.”
Klimenko isn’t the first Russian Internet official to be accused of using state office to protect his own business interests. In October 2015, anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny charged Dmitry Marinichev, the Kremlin’s “Internet commissioner,” with earning billions of rubles on uncontested government IT contracts, and then helping engineer a law that “blackmails” foreign companies into renting data servers in Russia. In his own defense, Marinichev claimed that Navalny failed to understand the negligible impact he says data-localization regulations will have on demand for server space in Russia.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Russian Blogger Shipilov Granted Political Asylum in Ukraine · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Dmitry Shipilov in Kyiv, Ukraine in August 2015. Image from Facebook.
Dmitry Shipilov, a Russian journalist and blogger who was previously charged with insulting the governor of Siberia's Kemerovo region in posts on his blog, has been granted political asylum in Ukraine.
Shipilov, who first applied for Ukrainian asylum in February 2015, when crossing the border between Belarus and Ukraine, reported the news on his Facebook page.
And full stop. The ten-month epic journey is finally over, thank you, everyone, time to break up this party.
The blogger, himself from Kemerovo, was first charged with “insulting a state official in public” in 2012 for critical blog posts about the governor of Kemerovo Aman Tuleyev and the local culture and national policy department head Larisa Zauervain. The court sentenced Shipilov to 11 months of community service, but Shipilov refused to acknowledge his verdict and escaped to Moscow.
Though living incognito in Moscow initially proved to be possible, on September 10, 2014 the blogger was apprehended by law enforcement. Because Shipilov had escaped from the initial community service sentence, the Kemerovo court issued a three-month prison sentence instead, and he was moved from Moscow to a Kemerovo penal colony. On December 29, 2014 Shipilov was released after the full three-month imprisonment term ran out. The blogger left Russia in February 2015.
Replying to congratulatory comments on Facebook, Shipilov noted that while the asylum-seeking procedure took him over 10 months and several attempts, he managed to do it on his own, without soliciting help from lawyers. The blogger does not intend to return to Russia, fearing further persecution.

author: Tanya Lokot


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The Internet Helps an Unknown Brazilian Footballer Beat Messi to Win a FIFA Award · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

Wendell Lira never wore Corinthians’ colours. Nor São Paulo’s, Internacional, Flamengo, Cruzeiro, Grêmio or any other big league Brazilian team with a world title on the shelf. During his nine-year career as a professional football player, Wendell played for teams such as Goiás and Fortaleza and though he had a chance at the Brazil’s Under-20 National Team, it was never enough to make a name for himself.
On January 11, 2016, however, he beat out Argentinian legend Lionel Messi for the Puskás Award for the most beautiful goal of the year, which he had scored during the Goiás state championship while he was playing for Goianésia, a national league team in the fourth division. Wendell was the only Brazilian nominated in the category and the only Brazilian awarded during the FIFA’s Ballon d’Or ceremony for the best of 2015.
When news came in November that he was in the Top 10 nominees for the Puskás, Wendell's contract with the Tombense team, which he had joined after Goianésia, had ended and he was living with his mother-in-law.
For Brazilians, still traumatized by the 7-1 loss to Germany during the World Cup hosted in their country, Wendell's win was a needed reminder of the spirit that made the world first regard their country as “the Football Nation”. As FIFA described on its official page:
It may sound like a cliché, but Brazilian football genuinely does combine technique, talent, spectacle and end product. Wendell Lira proved that once again last year with a breathtaking bicycle-kick which has been voted by users of FIFA.com and francefootball.fr as the best goal of 2015.
The Puskás were voted through an open online poll. Wendell’s bicycle kick received 46.7% of the 1.6 million votes. Messi, from Barcelona, ranked in second place with 33.3%, and Alessandro Florenzi, from Roma, in third with 7.1%. And here is where the Internet enters the story: the unknown Wendell Lira had the help of a handful of Brazilian sites to get the trophy, especially from one site called Não Salvo.
A screenshot of a FIFA video showing Wendell's goal for Goianésia that earned him the Puskás.
The site is known for its humorous content, but also for being a master prankster. In 2014, during the World Cup in Brazil, a mocking video created by Não Salvo went viral and was republished as real news by several news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo News and BuzzFeed. The story? North Korea’s government was supposedly editing images and telling its citizens the national team was heading to the World Cup finals against Portugal.
But this time, it wasn’t a prank. Cid — Não Salvo’s creator — sent his followers an actual, serious call to arms to help Wendell Lira, “an unknown Brazilian player”, to win the FIFA’s Puskás Award and defeat football's “consecrated” giants such as Messi. Soon, the campaign was embraced by other sports and comedy websites in Brazil. And it worked.
A screenshot of a YouTube video of Neymar and Wendell during the ceremony.
For the entire month of December, Brazilians voted tirelessly to carry Wendell from the Top 10 nominees to the three Puskás’ finalists. Wendell’s sudden fame even guaranteed him a proper suit to go to the award’s ceremony, offered by a tailor from his hometown Goiânia, Goiás.
Barcelona’s Neymar, who also won a Puskás while playing for Santos FC in 2011, praised Wendell’s accomplishment:
Falei que era meio “karatê kid” (o estilo do gol). Não sei de onde ele tirou a manobra, mas foi golaço. Merecido.
I said it was like a “karate kid” kind of thing (the goal style). I don’t know where he got that maneuver from, but it was a great goal. He deserves it.
When his name was announced, Wendell and his wife cried. The commentators broadcasting the ceremony live immediately remarked that “his bank account wouldn't ever be the same.” You see, Wendell doesn't exactly fit the mold of the multimillionaire society that attends FIFA’s events.
During his speech he remembered the Biblical passage of David facing the giant Goliath and joked:
Queria primeiramente agradecer a Deus por este momento único na minha vida. E poder estar aqui conhecendo grande jogadores, que são meus ídolos, e que eu conheço só de videogame. Hoje estou aqui, podendo conhecer pessoalmente.
First, I’d like to thank God for this unique moment in my life. And for being able to be here and to meet great players, my idols, that I’ve only known from video games. Today, I’m here, meeting them in person.
Wendell, now 27, was the typical Brazilian kid who dreams about playing football and becoming one of the idols they impersonate on PlayStation. The tough reality of that romantic dream, though, is that the large majority of these kids end up enduring poor working conditions “to not give up on the dream” — as Wendell did.
While playing for Goianésia, the team he was with when he scored the Puskás goal, Wendell received 3,000 reais a month (close to 750 US dollars) to support his family. Almost three times the minimum wage in the Brazil, but less than Brazilian football star Neymar’s one-hour payment when he arrived in Barcelona in 2014.
His path to the Puskas award wasn't exactly easy-going. Earlier in his career, he suffered major injuries while playing, and at one point had to spend 10 months away from the pitch to recover from a knee lesion. In 2012, his contract with the Goiás team wasn't renewed, and Wendell had to work as a waiter at his mother’s diner to pay the bills. He almost gave up football, but friends and family encouraged him not to lose hope.
He played for different teams in the years afterward, and had received offers from low-level local teams before his Puskás nomination. But his win has pushed his career to new heights — he has received an offer from a new club, from the second Brazilian division, to play with in 2016. If an offer from a European team comes his way, though, Wendell said he could change his plans.
In an interview for a local newspaper from Goiânia, Wendell explained how difficult it can be to make a living off of football:
Essa vida de jogador é muito difícil. Eu sempre falei que se eu tivesse uma profissão que eu tivesse a certeza de que todo final do mês eu ia ter o meu salário, seria muito mais fácil. Mas, quando eu estou desempregado, eu tento me virar. Porque, tendo emprego ou não tendo, minha filha tem que beber leite, eu tenho que comprar fralda.
This footballer’s life is really hard. I’ve always said that if I had a profession that could guarantee my wage at the end of every month, it would be way easier. But, when I’m out of work, I try to get by. Because, whether or not I have a job, my daughter still needs to drink milk, I have to buy her diapers.
“I am the real Brazilian player: I earn little but I struggle a lot.” Image tweeted by @BomSensoFC.
The majority of professional football players in Brazil find themselves in this same situation.
This is one of the causes that athletes movement Bom Senso FC has highlighted for the last two years, as Global Voices reported in 2013. But there's been little to no change so far. Quoted by the movement, Wendell said:
“Sou como 90% dos jogadores do país, que treinam em campo ruim, sofrem para achar time, têm dificuldades para pagar as contas.” Wendell Lira
— Bom Senso F.C. (@BomSensoFC) January 11, 2016
I’m like 90% of the country’s players who have to train in bad fields, suffer to find a team, struggle to pay the bills” – Wendell Lira
In a time where billionaire transactions, corruption and merchandising steal attention, Wendell’s underdog, Rocky Balboa-like victory helps remind football fans what the game is about, as football commentator Douglas Ceconello wrote on his blog:
Apesar da mania de grandeza, da hipnose quando toca a música da Champions League, nós não vivemos o futebol pela final da Copa do Mundo, não vivemos nem para ver Messi e nem para ter a sorte de torcer pelo maior esquadrão de todos os tempos. Na verdade, nós vivemos o futebol esperando por um Wendell Lira.
In spite of our mania of grandeur, of the hypnosis for when the Champions League theme plays, we do not live football for the World Cup final, we don’t even live it to see Messi or for the luck of cheering on the best squad ever. Actually, we live football waiting for a Wendell Lira.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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The Strongmen of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan Don’t Want to Leave Office Anytime Soon · Global Voices
Salam Aleik

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon (left) is being welcomed by his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguli Berdimukhammedov in Ashkhabad, capital of Turkmenistan. Picture is from the official news agency of Tajikistan “Khovar”
Two Central Asian countries, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, started the new year off with talk of amending their constitutions to prolong their incumbent leaders’ grip on power.
In Tajikistan, where presidents are limited to two consecutive terms (although current President Emomali Rahmon has won four elections, changing the constitution twice to be eligible), the new rumored changes might remove the term limits for the so-called “Leader of the Nation.” They would also double his family’s chances to keep power by lowering the age limit from current 35 to 30, which would make Rahmon’s son, Rustam, also to be eligible for the presidency. Rustam Emomali, 28, is the head of the powerful Anti-Corruption Agency, and a few days ago was re-elected as the president of the Tajikistan Football Federation.
The news was not unexpected for citizens of the poorest country in the former Soviet Union, which recently was also named the country most vulnerable to hunger in the post-Soviet territories.
In reaction to the news, Facebook user Mahina wrote:
Нужно переименовать Республика Таджикистан на “Королевство Таджикистан
Time to rename the Republic of Tajikistan as the Kingdom of Tajikistan
While Zarrina asked:
Почему бы вообще эту статью не убрать из конституции? Все равно ведь выборов как таковых нет, зачем засорять конституцию
Why don’t they just remove this article [mandating term limits] fully from the constitution? Anyway, there are no real elections, so why fill the constitution with trash?
That suggestion isn't so far out of the realm of possibility, at least in Turkmenistan. Turkmen President Gurbanguli Berdimukhammedov recently ordered his government to speed up constitutional changes. Although no details about the nature of the changes were given, media speculated about an attempt to increase the presidential term from the current five years to seven years.
There are no term limits in the country, whose leader just few months ago built a huge golden monument of himself in the centre of his capital.
Commenting on the development, Web user Michael recalled:
Ниязов в своё время назначил себя пожизненным президентом, дабы не тратить бюджетные деньги на выборы. Так что Гурбангулы Мяликгулыевичу есть на кого ровняться.
Niyazov [former Turkmen leader, whose presidency only came to an end with his death] appointed himself a life president to save budget money on elections. So, Gurbanguli Berdimukhammedov could do the same.
But not everyone seemed unhappy with the possible changes in Tajikistan:
Молодец! Браво Лидеру нации. Не каждому оно доно. Любой из Вас был бы на его месте зделал бы тоже самое. А Вы нечего неможете только гавкаете зря. Мне интересно ваши возмущение кто то услышит. Лучше бы стремились бы чему небудь лучшему. А чтобы доказать что Вы дети своей страны для этого нужно зделать для этой страны в потом что-то говорить!
Kudos to the Leader of the Nation! Not everyone has this luck. Any of you in his place would do the same. You cannot do anything, but just bark. I wonder if anyone listens to your perturbation. Better if you do something good to prove that you are children of this country.
اغوا و شور نیندازید Ozodi ، اینکه سن پایین برده می شود کار بسیار خوبی است. موسفیدان باید نصیحت و استراحت کنند. اساسش، جوان لیاقت داشته باشد.
Do not make provocations, Radio Liberty! It is a good idea to lower the age limit. Old men should have rest and give advice. More important that the young guy should be talented.
While one Web user anonymously ironized:
Так чего мелочиться, надо сразу бессмертными себя назначать и смерти законно запретить их посещать
Why trifle? Better to directly announce yourself immortals and ban death from coming for them.

author: Salam Aleik