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Meet Russia’s New Activists, the Anti-Maidan Movement · Global Voices
Will Wright

“Anti-maidanovtsy, anti-maidanovtsy everywhere.” Images edited by Kevin Rothrock.
The latest thing to sweep Moscow's culture of street demonstrations is a coalition of war veterans, patriotic politicians, nationalist bikers, and mixed martial artists. They call themselves the Anti-Maidan movement.
The group's name signifies its opposition to the recent EuroMaidan revolution in Ukraine, and reflects its decidedly anti-Kyiv, pro-separatist position on the war in eastern Ukraine today.
Announcing the movement's launch, the Combat Brotherhood veterans group, a co-founder of the movement, tweeted:
pic.twitter.com/IjD5gWeAOp — ВООВ Боевое Братство (@Boevoe_Bratstvo) January 15, 2015
We are creating “Anti-Maidan.” So now what, Ukrainians, do you see what all your screwing around has gotten you?
Pictured left in the tweet above is Alexander Zaldostanov, one of the movement's leaders. Zaldostanov, also known as “The Surgeon,” heads the Night Wolves motorcycle club. The Night Wolves are well-known for supporting Vladimir Putin and celebrating the Kremlin's decision to annex Crimea and Sevastopol.
Other names mentioned as key figures in the Anti-Maidan leadership include Great Fatherland party co-chairman Nikolai Starikov, world-class mixed martial artist and boxer Julia Berezikova, and Combat Brotherhood deputy head and Russian senator Dmitry Sablin.
In an interview with RBC following the launch of Anti-Maidan, Sablin expanded on the movement's purpose:
Уже сейчас в движение вступили около тысячи человек, рассказал РБК сенатор и зампредседателя «Боевого братства» Дмитрий Саблин. По его словам, в «Антимайдане» рассчитывают довести численность минимум до 10 тыс. человек, поскольку «заявки организаторам приходят в больших количествах». Руководить движением будет штаб во главе с сопредседателями, а также исполком.
Численность для организации важна, поскольку, по словам Саблина, антимайдановцы собираются выходить на все крупные несанкционированные акции и численно доминировать над участниками. «Если планируется несанкционированное массовое мероприятие, то выйдут все члены организации. Если акция локальна, то мы будем смотреть по ситуации: где-то выйдут казаки, где-то представители «Боевого братства». В любом случае нас всегда будет больше, чем участников», – предполагает Саблин.
Действовать на несанкционированных акциях в «Антимайдане» обещают мирно, но в случае необходимости будут силой наводить порядок. «Мы будем ориентировать правоохранительные органы на тех провокаторов, которые своими словами или действиями будут подталкивать людей к беспорядкам. В некоторых случаях, если мы увидим, что кто-то достает файер или пытается жечь покрышку – мы будем сами выхватывать людей из толпы и передавать их силам правопорядка», – рассказывает Саблин.
Делать эту работу будут бойцы и опытные спортсмены, минимум кандидаты в мастера спорта. «Лучше не идти на провокации против нас. Мы будем стоять плечом к плечу. Поскольку в нашей организации в основном офицеры – мы это умеем. Мы не отступим и не убежим», – заверил Саблин.
Already about 1,000 people have joined the movement, senator and Combat Brotherhood deputy head Dmitry Sablin told RBC. According to Sablin, Anti-Maidan expects to increase its size to at least 10,000 people, given that “applications to the organizers are arriving in large numbers.” A headquarters with co-chairs, along with an executive committee, will lead the movement.
Numbers are important for the organization, said Sablin, because anti-maidanovtsy [Anti-Maidan members] will go to all major unsanctioned protests and numerically dominate the participants. “If an unsanctioned mass event is planned, then all members of our organization will arrive. If the action is local, we will assess the situation: Cossacks will go to some places, Combat Brotherhood members will go to others. In any case, their will always be more of us than them,” said Sablin.
At unsanctioned events, Anti-Maidan promises to act peacefully, but says it will use force to restore order if necessary. “We will direct law enforcement to those provocateurs who through their words or actions are encouraging people to disorder. In some cases, if we see that someone is starting a fire or trying to burn tires then we will pull these people out of the crowd ourselves and transfer them to the police,” says Sablin.
Fighters and experienced sportsmen, who are at least candidates for master of sport, will do this work. “It's better not to initiate provocations against us. We will stand shoulder to shoulder. Since our organization is mostly soliders, we know how to do this. We will not retreat nor run away,”  Sablin stated.
The movement's official manifesto further clarifies its political agenda:
Anti-Maidan's official manifesto.
We are Russians, who hold the fate of our Motherland and the future of our children dear. We are uniting for the Anti-Maidan movement because we love Russia and want to preserve and protect our Great Country. We are standing together in order to prevent “color revolutions,” street disorder, chaos, and anarchy. We will not allow those forces in our cities who hate a strong and sovereign Russia and who receive approval and support from abroad. We believe only a sovereign Russia can guarantee a worthy life for our citizens. Therefore, all key decisions for our country should be made in Moscow, not in Washington or Brussels. We know the history of our country, the terrible cost our nation has paid to survive the breakdowns of order that have sometimes happened in Russia.
We see the tragedy in Ukraine, where a fratricidal war in the Donbas began with the “Maidan” and street demonstrations and disorder. We are convinced that the clear position of the majority of Ukrainian citizens would have been to prevent the bloodshed and collapse of the government, but this was not so and it's not how events were reported. We are united, having realized all of this, to defend the constitutional order and law, as well as the traditional values of our society and the future of our country. We are resolutely announcing that we will not allow an armed overthrow of the legally chosen government, regardless of what pretty slogans these forces use to conceal themselves. Russia is our country. We are all Russia. And we will not allow her to be destroyed or covered with blood. We, the Anti-Maidan movement, are ready to defend our Motherland, her peace and stable development. We do not need great upheaval! We need a Great Russia!
Immediately following the launch of Anti-Maidan, the movement sprung into action, just as Sablin imagined, to crash an unsanctioned gathering outside the Kremlin walls of supporters of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny and his brother, Oleg. According to one LiveJournal photo-blogger, the mixed crowd made for a “strange” night.
In addition to protest-busting, Anti-Maidan has also organized an outdoor photo exhibition, titled “The Face of American Democracy.” The exhibition, held on Pushkin Square in central Moscow, displayed graphic pictures from American militarily conflicts and failed popular uprisings.
A scene from the Anti-Maidan photo exhibition in central Moscow. Moscow Times.
Some well-known Russian political commentators have not been impressed with the movement, so far. Stanislav Belkovsky told Echo of Moscow:
Однако опыт такого типа рода проектов показывает следующее. Патриоты в такие проекты приходят весьма хлипкие. Как физически, так и нравственно. И работают они за пусть и небольшие, но только деньги. Идейной мотивации у них нет. Поэтому в решающий момент, когда нужно выходить и спасать родину, они не будут этого делать, пока не распишутся в ведомости о получении дотации за спасение родины.
However, experience with these types of projects shows the following: patriots in such projects are extremely weak—both physically and morally. And they work for next to nothing, but only for money. They do not have ideological conviction. Therefore, at the crucial moment, when you need them to go out and save the Motherland, they will not act until the receipt for their payment to save the nation has been signed.
The next Anti-Maidan event is planned for Saturday, February 21. The movement has rented about 120 billboards around Moscow to promote the march at considerable cost, reported RBC.
The Moscow mayor's office has sanctioned the event for up to 10,000 participants, and the march will proceed along Petrovka Street, culminating with a rally on Revolution Square, just outside the Kremlin.
It's unclear what impact the Anti-Maidan movement might have on Russian street politics. So far, Anti-Maidan resembles a more militant version of the pro-Kremlin youth groups Nashi and Young Guard, created in 2005 after Ukraine's Orange Revolution to build a similar protest-busting capacity in Russia.
During the winter of 2011-2012, however, when the Putin regime found itself facing mass protests for the first time, organizations like Nashi and Young Guard exerted little or no influence on events. Whether or not Anti-Maidan can better control the streets of the capital, if and when the Putin regime again faces mass protests, remains to be seen.

author: Will Wright


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On the Responsibility of Students · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

American University of Beirut students attending a concert in AUB’s Green Field, 1980. From Maroun Baghdadi’s ‘Whispers’
The following is an unfinished essay partly inspired by Noam Chomsky’s “The Responsibility of Intellectuals” (1967) and Dwight MacDonald’s “Responsibility of Peoples, and Other Essays in Political Criticism” (1957) as well as by the works of several journalists, intellectuals, activists and historians, namely Howard Zinn, Edward Said, Hannah Arendt, and Murray Bookchin. Needless to say, focusing on Lebanon is a practical choice rather than a moral one. The essay is applicable regardless of your nationality and/or place of residence. It originally appeared in AUB’s Outlook in a slightly modified form, in print as well as online, for the week of October 28, 2014.
The year is 1980. Musician Haitham Haddad is an architecture student at the American University of Beirut (AUB) when Nadia Tueni, Lebanon’s famed poet, approaches him. She had been walking across our war-ridden country with film director Maroun Baghdadi when, at the end of her journey, she stopped at AUB. The exchange, seen in the video below, is surreal.
The scene is taken from “Whispers”, one of Baghdadi’s most hauntingly beautiful documentaries. Throughout the film, Nadia Tueni’s relentless optimism is sharply contrasted with the cynicism of the destruction around her. The shattered streets she walked on are the same ones we walk today, suggesting perhaps that optimism scored a small but significant victory.
“Whispers” allows us a brief glimpse into the past, although a disturbing one, with Tueni narrating this journey of fainting life amidst the rubble of death. But “Whispers” isn’t just a look into the past. The ghosts it hunts are still present today, albeit in a more discreet manner.
Today, we live in a state of profound cynicism where no individual action is believed to be capable of leading to genuine change. At the same time, we in Lebanon live in a country filled with talent and extraordinary resilience. The challenge, therefore, is to break down the imaginary barrier which separates the imagination from the cold reality of everyday life. This is not only feasible, but a moral imperative.
Haitham Haddad being interviewed in Maroun Baghdadi’s ‘Whispers’
And here comes a very profoundly held belief: that just as students have been at the forefront of change in virtually every society for over a century—from Chile to South Africa, Hong Kong to Vietnam, Egypt to Palestine, France to the United States—so do we, the students of Lebanon, have a major role to play in the running of this country. In fact, we have the most important one.
Students have shaped history when history seemed to be at its most rigid state, and Lebanon is no different. The exchange between Haitham Haddad and Nadia Tueni revealed a student who dared to hope and trust that young people can unite and change the world around them. Thirty-four years later, have we betrayed that trust?
Our government is by its very nature incapable of radical change. The only thing Parliament has managed to achieve was extend its own term illegally. We had to take to the streets in our thousands to demand, over and over again, that the women of this country be protected from the savagery of domestic violence; and when parliamentarians finally agreed, the law that was passed turned out to be a much weakened version of the one we had demanded so loudly and so repeatedly. (Rape is still legal, in case we forgot. We can thank the religious “authorities” for that.)
Why do we expect them to care about the injustices that countless Lebanese women are told to ‘accept’? Over half of them voted against the domestic violence law to begin with. Our foreign minister confuses representing Lebanon at the United Nations with representing his penis, and the very man who proposed the illegal extension of parliament’s term seems to be too busy punching women in the neck to listen to what we have to say.
Mothers and loved ones of victims of domestic violence at an anti-domestic violence protest organize by KAFA last summer. Photo by Cynthia Ghoussoub
And this is just one issue among too many issues to list. Realizing their urgency is necessary for the illusory helplessness we hold so self-destructively to fade away. In 1991, just as our parents were celebrating the “end” of the Civil War, the great American historian Howard Zinn wrote: “If those in charge of our society—politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television—can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.”
Is this not true of Lebanon as well? The corrupted religio-political class—those warlords, their sons and the clergy which absolves them of guilt—that dominates the intricacies of Lebanese life have domesticated us. We’ve internalized the status quo so deeply, so thoroughly, that we just lower our heads and keep silent without even being asked to. Does this not also put us at fault? Allow me to quote Edward Said who, perhaps more than anyone, was able to aptly summarize Lebanon’s current situation, almost 20 years ago:
“I have almost given up trying to plot the changes and the turns [in Lebanon], each of them denser and more complicated than the preceding ones, each of them astounding me with Lebanon’s capacity for money-making, conspiracy, and both individual and mass murder. Yet the so-called traditional leaders and their variously mediocre progeny remain unchanged, as they forge and almost immediately betray alliances with each other, as well as with the Syrians, Palestinians, Iranians, Americans, Israelis and Saudis (who seem to be bankrolling everyone). There is no one to admire or trust in this too long and too sordid spectacle of idiotic violence and limitless corruption. Even the innocent civilians who have gone on and on, with their brave routines, their ability to rebuild and restart their lives a dozen times, their courage under fire, must have secretly connived, one feels, with the leaders who have kept the war going. Otherwise, how could it have continued for such a long time?”
How could it indeed. And we could go further back in time. Gibran Khalil Gibran wrote in the 1920s—90 years ago—that there are two Lebanons: the Lebanon that is the “arena for men from the West and men from the East” and the Lebanon of everyday life, of beauty and laughter. Do we need another century before realizing that the other Lebanon, the one we loathe and are disgusted by, must be abolished for the Lebanon we cherish to be able to breathe?
Too often have we seculars blamed ‘sectarianism’ for Lebanon’s ills. But we also tend to portray it in simplistic terms: as a mere system which differentiates between the sects, and which essentially puts into practice a state-imposed definition of one’s religious belief regardless of the individual’s choice.
But sectarianism isn’t just national divisions based on one’s sect, which he or she rarely chooses in the first place. It has strong historical roots that have paved the way for Lebanon’s current system since at least the mid 19th century. It’s in our constitution, and has shaped our social classes and the way we deal with one another. Paradoxically, it has even breached the sectarian divide by infecting us all with its rampant moral corruption. In other words, sectarianism, like death, is more “secular” than most of us are.
Let us remember the countless students around the world who have succeeded in transforming their society for the better, for their friends and loved ones, neighbors and strangers. Let’s use our privileged status as Lebanese students to provoke the world around us into asking deep questions so that, together, we can put into effect that old Marxian adage, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Elia J. Ayoub


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The Colourful Sights and Sounds of Trinidad & Tobago’s Carnival · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Carnival Beauty”; photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Trinidad and Tobago Carnival has been called “the greatest show on earth”, with its costumes, pageantry, music and seemingly endless fetes leading up to the main event — the all-day street parades on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.
Like most carnivals around the world, the twin island version often makes headlines for its beautiful and scantily clad women, but the festival is much more than meets the eye.
A “pretty mas'” masquerader, Trinidad & Tobago Carnival 2015. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Carnival — or carne vale , as in “farewell to the flesh” — is an annual tradition that gives revellers a last hedonistic hoorah before the austerity of Lent. The Trinidad and Tobago version evolved from the masquerade balls the islands’ French colonisers would host; when Emancipation came, the freed slaves were finally able to mimic their former masters without consequence.
In 1881, the Canboulay Riots saw the descendants of slaves fighting for their right to put their own uninhibited spin on Carnival as a symbol of resistance. Their mimicry caused what began as an elite festival to naturally converge with what was at the time considered baser — African expressions, like the Calinda (stickfighting set to chanting and drums) and the Canboulay. Originally a celebration that revolved around the harvesting of the sugar cane (cannes brulées means burnt cane), it was full of earthy rhythms and movement, and played an integral part in honing the music of Carnival, eventually giving birth to the steel pan, since percussion instruments — such as African drums — were banned in the 1880s.
While pan music can no longer be considered the main soundtrack of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival (many would argue that soca music has laid claim to that title), the annual Panorama competition is still a staple on any Carnival lover's calendar. The genesis of the festival has not been forgotten: the Canboulay Riots are commemorated with an annual reenactment the Friday before Carnival.
“The Riot”; photo of the 1881 Canboulay Riots reenactment by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Despite the popularity of what has become known as mass-produced “bikini and beads” mas’, tradition is still alive and well in Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. Look no further than the portrayals of folklore Carnival characters and the Old Mas’ bands that provide humourous and cutting social and political commentary with their creative costumes and clever placard messages, to know that the roots of resistance are still strong.
The Dame Lorraine character represents the mimicry of the mas’ that was played by French colonisers. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
One of the Old Mas’ portrayals in this year's Carnival celebrations. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
One small band, Cat in Bag Productions (of which Global Voices Managing Director Georgia Popplewell is a member), brought the Old Mas concept to life on Carnival Monday and Tuesday by addressing the rampant political corruption in a presentation called “Red Handed”:
Traditional characters also abounded in the form of Sailor Mas’, Fancy Indians, Jab Jabs (pretty devils), Jab Molassies (the more menacing kind) and Moko Jumbies.
Fancy Sailors on stage at the Queen's Park Savannah, Carnival 2015. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Fancy Indians do their dance; Trinidad & Tobago Carnival 2015. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Devils on display; Trinidad & Tobago Carnival 2015. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Jab Molassie. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Moko Jumbies (stilt walkers) en masse. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
The Kings and Queens of Carnival competition attracted the usual interest this year, with the costumes being as large and elaborate as ever.
Roland St. George's 2015 portrayal, which won the King of Carnival title. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
One of the contenders for the 2015 Queen of Carnival title. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
On Carnival Saturday, it was the youngsters’ time to masquerade. The Junior Parade of the Bands — affectionately known as “Kiddies’ Carnival” and always a spectator favourite — drew a great amount of attention and the children had a fun time.
The 2015 Junior Parade of the Bands. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
A junior masquerader. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Carnival love. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
The Carnival excitement always crescendoes on Dimanche Gras night (the Sunday before Carnival), as it marks the cultural pageant at which each year's Calypso Monarch is chosen and crowned, the King and Queen of Carnival take to the stage and the champion steelbands perform. Most importantly, it leads into J'ouvert.
Literally translated as “the opening of the day”, J'ouvert is an acknowledgement of the raw, earthy, ritualistic aspects of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. Revellers cover themselves in mud, grease, tar, clay, body paint or various combinations thereof and dance in the streets in the wee hours of the morning while Jab Molassies “wine” (a sexually suggestive dance) to a rhythmic beat that they beat on biscuit tins. Many of the Jabs move as small bands of devils, in which some members play the role of imps, restraining the Jab Jabs with chains as they struggle to be free in their wild and wanton dance. Some blue devil characters are so serious about their portrayal that they even “spit fire”.
J'ouvert revellers. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Fire breathing blue devil. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Come Carnival Monday and Tuesday, the focus turns to pretty mas’. While many feel that this aspect of the festival has been commercialised to the point of it losing its uniqueness, no one can argue that it captures the carefree spirit and camaraderie that are part of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival experience.
Jump up! Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Friends take a break during the street parade. Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Having fun! Photo by Quinten Questel, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
So…are you coming for Trinidad and Tobago Carnival next year? The 2016 dates for the greatest street party in the world are February 8 and 9.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Video Project Documents the Life and Struggles of West Papuans  · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Photo from Papuan Voices, used with permission.
Papuan Voices is a video-production advocacy initiative that allows West Papua activists to make their own short films that tell their stories and describe their everyday struggles.
The mainstream media rarely reports anything about life in West Papua, a province of Indonesia. When reporters do turn to the region, it's usually to focus on the political conflict between the Indonesian government and West Papua's independence movement. Papuan Voices introduces readers to other aspects of Papuan culture and history:
These stories are not just framed around West Papua’s political struggle for independence; they are not the stories of conflict that are more often circulated. Rather, they are the stories behind the conflict: the struggles for education, the environment, equality and dignity.
Papuan Voices is a collaboration between EngageMedia and Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation. The project works with local organizations in Jayapura and Merauke in West Papua, where local activists attended multimedia workshops, and learned to narrate West Papua's complex story through videos. The result was a two-volume video featuring various local filmmakers and unique stories about the social, cultural, and political situation in West Papua.
The project's organizers hope “these stories will inspire others to learn and act, so that the voices of West Papua are brought to the forefront.”
Some of the videos have been screened already in other parts of Indonesia. One of the popular films is Mutiara Dalam Noken (Pearl in the Noken), which tells the story of Dr. Mia, “a Papuan woman who has devoted her life to treating the sick and tending to the disenfranchised in very remote areas in West Papua.”
Screen capture from “Papuan Voices.”
Another popular video focuses on the traditional Honai house, the center of community life in the central highlands, making a case for preserving this cultural heritage.
Screen capture from “Papuan Voices.”
Filmmaker Patricio Wetipo helped create the Papuan Voices video about the plight of women vendors. In a testimony, Wetipo lamented that violence against women is not adequately reported.
Media mostly cover political and military violence. And yet no one looks at the violence that occurs to women.
Wetipo's video is intended to expose the poor conditions of women in Papua:
I want to show the world the lives of Papuan women. They work so hard and receive no help from their family members. Their husbands don’t even help them carry goods to the market. We hope that people will see these films and be inspired to bring change to their lives.
Screen capture from “Papuan Voices.”
Another video documents the Wamena culture, focusing particularly on the symbolic importance of pigs in the local community.
The name Wamena itself comes from the word ‘Wam’, which means swine, and ‘Ena’, which means to tame. Every rite of passage is symbolized by the presenting of pigs, and a family’s wealth is measured by the number of pigs they own. Pigs are also the symbol of peace among the tribes in the central highlands. An epidemic of pig deaths would therefore present a serious economic setback for the people of Wamena.
The video shows the close relationship between the community's pigs and people, and the social impact of an epidemic that killed large numbers of pigs:
Screen capture from “Papuan Voices.”
Papuan Voices helps the public gain a better understanding of the challenges Papuans face in Indonesia. It's also a powerful reminder that we should do more to document and share the stories of ordinary Papuans, aside from articulating their political demands for justice and equality.

author: Mong Palatino


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Your Mobile Privacy is Under Threat Because of US and UK Spies · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Image by Mozilla in Europe on Flickr. Taken on February 24, 2014. CC-BY 2.0
One of the “biggest Snowden stories yet” has arrived today, according to journalist Glenn Greenwald.
Spies from the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) and the United Kingdom's Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) “hacked into the internal computer network of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications across the globe.” The information was obtained from top-secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
So what, exactly, did the spy agencies do? According to journalist Jeremy Scahill (who also works for The Intercept with Greenwald):
The NSA & GCHQ covertly stole millions of encryption keys used to protect your mobile phone communications: http://t.co/dVjLuxl4k3
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) February 19, 2015
Encryption keys are what keep encrypted communications private to third parties, such as governments. In the case of mobile technology, the key is stored in the SIM card [pdf], and the mobile carrier also holds a copy.
Communications are encrypted between the carrier and the phone only, meaning that the mobile carrier can use their key to access your data. Typically, a mobile carrier would only hand over the key if compelled to do so by law enforcement. Therefore, by hacking into the network of Gemalto, the world's largest SIM card manufacturer, the spy agencies are able to bypass the rule of law and gain access to the SIM encryption keys of potentially billions of mobile phone users, allowing them to decrypt phone calls, text messages, and other traffic.*
On Twitter, many readers seemed unsurprised by the latest news, considering all of the leaks that came before it.
@AnonyOps questioned the efficacy of the hack, asking:
It must be asked again, now that we know GCHQ/NSA have basically pwned everything: Why do we still have crime? How is ISIS even a thing?
— Anonymous (@AnonyOps) February 20, 2015
Privacy International's Eric King joked:
Who thinks it's a good idea to give Cameron a “golden key”, now we've learned spies have been able to steal millions of them in the past.
— Eric King (@e3i5) February 20, 2015
Another important question raised by the story is who is affected by the breach. As The Intercept points out, Gemalto's clients include US mobile carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint, as well as 450 wireless network providers around the world.
“The company operates in 85 countries and has more than 40 manufacturing facilities,” they report. The piece also mentions Vodafone (Europe), Orange (France), EE (Europe), Royal KPN (the Netherlands), China Unicom, NTT (Japan), and Chungwa Telecom (Taiwan), as well as “scores of wireless network providers throughout Africa and the Middle East.” A look at Gemalto's website also unearths China Mobile and South Africa's MTN as partners; the company's Wikipedia page shows telecom clients in Turkey and Italy, as well.
Some readers expressed anger at the two countries for their seemingly endless spying.
Claudio Guarnieri, an Italian malware expert, tweeted:
United Kingdom is a European Union member state. It's time the Commission sanctions the British for #GCHQ hacking of other member states.
— Claudio (@botherder) February 20, 2015
Maher Arar, a Syrian-Canadian who was once renditioned by the US to Syria and reportedly tortured while in custody, wrote:
Obama isn't at war w/ Islam but the target of the NSA malware in the US & UK were all Islamic activists & scholars: http://t.co/eSypJtGYKe
— Maher Arar (@ArarMaher) February 19, 2015
Gemalto, the company at the center of the story, has not yet responded publicly, but a video from the manufacturer shows its good intentions:
*It's worth noting that this does not allow NSA and GHCQ to access calls, messages, and other communications that are encrypted by other, additional means, such as tools like RedPhone or ChatSecure. For more information on mobile security, check out Surveillance Self-Defense or Security in a Box.

author: Jillian C. York


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Abused Indonesian Maid Urges Fellow Migrant Workers in Hong Kong Not To Suffer in Silence · Global Voices
inmediahk.net

After the abuse of Erwiana was publicized, many migrant workers unions organized marches to demand that the Hong Kong government address the problems migrant domestic workers face in Hong Kong. Photo from inmediahk.net
One year ago, the abuse suffered by Indonesian domestic worker Erwiana Sulistyaningsih at the hands of a Hong Kong housewife was exposed. On February 8, 2015, a Hong Kong court found the 44-year-old woman guilty of 19 charges, including causing bodily harm, common assault and failing to pay Sulistyaningsih's wages.
Before the trial, Wong Siu Woon, a campaigner working for the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, which has given support to Sulistyaningsih since her case was first brought to light, interviewed her about her experiences in Hong Kong. In the interview, she criticized the employment agencies and the Hong Kong and Indonesia governments for playing dumb to the exploitative conditions that domestic workers face.
The interview was originally published in Chinese on citizen media platform inmediahk.net on February 12, 2015, soon after the court announced its verdict. It was translated by Cheung Choi Wan and is published on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Indonesian maid Erwiana's name appeared in local and international media throughout 2014 because of her experience as a migrant domestic worker in Hong Kong — beaten and tortured by her employer. Photos of her abhorrent injuries went viral online. She was even named one of Times magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.
There are currently over 300,000 migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong coming from Southeast Asian countries, such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. They take care of children, elderly people and do household chores for Hong Kong families. Erwiana was one of them. Her terrible story has drawn the attention of Hong Kong people to the situation of migrant domestic workers.
Hong Kong is a city of migrants. Going to a foreign country to earn a living is a choice that many of us are familiar with. Fate has chosen Erwiana so that she may speak out for all migrant domestic workers who have been suffering abuse quietly. A year after her story was disclosed, Erwiana spoke to CTU Newsletter about what she thought of the situation of domestic workers in Hong Kong.
Like most migrant domestic workers from Indonesia, Erwiana left her home in Central Java when she finished secondary school. She went to Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital city, to work as a waitress in a restaurant. When she heard that she could earn more money working overseas, she enrolled herself in a training course conducted by an employment agency. Young women from rural areas who want to earn money are often recruited by representatives sent there by employment agencies. They are told that it is easy to earn money overseas and they would live a metropolitan life. Many young women are lured by this imaginary good life overseas. The agents are paid according to the number of people they recruit and it is calculated on the basis of how many people they get to enroll in the employment agency's training course.
Erwiana had no relatives or friends in Hong Kong. In her mind, Hong Kong was a metropolitan city where every person lived freely. Unlike many neighbouring countries, migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong enjoy a day off every week. After months of training, the employment agencies in Indonesia helps young women find employers in Hong Kong. They come to Hong Kong when they are selected by an employer. When they arrive in Hong Kong, they are picked up immediately by the employment agency in Hong Kong and lose any opportunity to learn about their rights. Erwiana had never imagined that in the eight months she was in Hong Kong, she would not have even one day off from work. Even though domestic workers are entitled to one day off every week, many employers take advantage of the fact that the workers live with them and insist that they work throughout the week.
If you had difficulties at work, whom would you turn to for help? Your family, your friends, or government agencies? Migrant domestic workers who just arrive in Hong Kong usually have no friends or relatives here and do not speak the local language. If a worker does not even have her weekly day off, how could she make friends and build her own support network? If there is no one she could trust, whom could she turn to for help?
What about the employment agency that sends her here? Erwiana said that in the eyes of employment agencies, the domestic workers were only a source of easy money. Employment agencies are not at all concerned about the situation of the workers, not to mention standing up for them. Erwiana said that this was all because of the Indonesian government that transferred the responsibility of protecting the rights of migrant domestic workers to employment agencies. In Indonesian law, when a worker changes her employer, she must do it through the employment agencies registered with the Indonesian embassy. The agencies can, therefore, take advantage of the measure and charge very high additional commissions. All the money that a worker earns is used to pay her employment agency rather than sent home to her family. However, a domestic worker hardly gets any help from the agency when she needs it.
Erwiana was grateful that the Hong Kong government pursued her case. However, it is common knowledge that not all cases of abuse of migrant domestic workers have been pursued in the same earnest manner. If not all complaints of abuse are dealt with earnestly, how can we stop abusive employers from mistreating their workers? “We come here to earn money to support our families. We should be entitled to fair protection,” Erwiana said. She believed that the Indonesian government and the Hong Kong government should regulate the commission that the agencies charge to ensure that it is not too high. They should also provide migrant domestic workers with information and education about who they could seek help from.
The employment agencies, who are concerned only about making money, and the two governments, who only act when cases of abuse catch the public's attention, might not be the ones who beat the workers, but doesn’t the fact that they often sanction employers’ abuse of workers make them accomplices in the crime committed by the employers?
Because of what happened to Erwiana, Hong Kong has nicknamed the “City of Modern Slavery.” However, Erwiana does not harbour any hatred towards Hong Kong. “In every country there are good people as well as bad people. It’s the same everywhere,” she said. What she is concerned about is the fate of other young women who came to work in Hong Kong—how their fate is being spun by powerful institutions and whether they would suffer it quietly.
No one wants to see such a tragedy again, so collective action is necessary to ensure that the human rights of migrant domestic workers are protected. As one who had firsthand experience of abuse, Erwiana’s advice for other women who came to Hong Kong to work is to learn about the laws of their own countries and those of Hong Kong, and to find out what they should do when they are in trouble. If a worker unfortunately has an abusive employer, she must be courageous and should not suffer abuse in silence. Instead, she should seek help from migrant workers’ organisations, many of which have been around for years and have a long history of working with migrant workers. A few member unions of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) work for domestic workers of different nationalities. There are also a number of NGOs that provide services to migrant workers. However, they often find it hard to get in touch with migrant domestic workers who are abused, especially when they are isolated from the rest of the world. After the case of Erwiana was publicised, many migrant workers’ organisations and local labour groups joined together to help.
On the one hand, migrant workers come to work in Hong Kong because of unemployment in their own countries. On the other hand, there is a lack of childcare and elderly services in Hong Kong as well as a lack of labour for domestic work. The relationship between migrant workers and Hong Kong people should have been that of mutual benefit. However, because of the collusion between employment agencies across national borders, unjust government policies and discrimination, workers are often sacrificed.
When asked about her future plans, Erwiana said that she no longer wanted to leave her country for work. Because of what she has gone through, physically she is unable to take up labour intensive work anymore. Her choice of work in the future is limited. She is now studying in a university in Indonesia and wants to become a teacher. Her hope is that the next generation in her country does not have to suffer the fate of migrant workers anymore.


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Banned From Filmmaking, This Iranian Director Ignored His Government—and It’s Paying Off · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Screenshot of Jafar Panahi from his film “Taxi” via YouTube user moviemaniacsDE
This article and radio report by Shirin Jaafari for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on February 17, 2015, and is republished as part of a content-sharing agreement.
What do you do when your government bans you from making films? Ignore them — in spectacular fashion.
That's what Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has done, anyway. In 2010, Iran banned him from making films for 20 years after the government accused him of working on a documentary about the 2009 uprising in Iran. He was also barred from leaving the country.
But just a year later, he released a documentary called “This Is Not a Film.” Set in his apartment and shot on a digital camera and an iPhone, it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival — after allegedly being smuggled out of Iran in a USB thumb drive hidden inside a cake.
Now Panahi has again managed to get one of his movies in front of the judges at a major international film festival, this time in Berlin. His latest film, called “Taxi,” takes place entirely inside a yellow cab snaking its way through the streets of Tehran.
“It includes a series of chats between Mr. Panahi as a not-so-anonymous taxi driver with some ordinary citizens … a teacher, a house wife, his own niece,” explains Jamsheed Akrami, a close friend of Panahi and a film professor at William Paterson University in New Jersey.
Shared taxis are common in Iran, and Panahi uses this to his advantage. “In the absence of free media in Iran, taxis have turned into spaces where people can share their grievances with the driver and fellow passengers,” Akrami says.
Getting “Taxi” out of Iran and onto the big screen in Berlin was accomplishment enough, but the film didn't stop there: It won the Golden Bear prize for best film. But since Panahi couldn't be there to accept the prize, his niece, Hana Saeidi, collected it on his behalf. Saeidi plays one of the passengers in “Taxi.”
Banned #Iran filmmaker Jafar Panahi united with his Golden Bear | #Berlinale pic.twitter.com/4LFbLPXqAA
— Sanam Shantyaei (@sanamshantyaei) febrero 17, 2015
“I'm not able to say anything, I'm too moved,” she said, tearing up as she accepted the prize.
Akrami spoke to Panahi over the phone shortly after the winners were announced. Their conversations usually revolve around the challenges that Panahi faces back in Iran, Akrami says — but not this time.
“He was pretty happy, I was pretty happy, so it was a very good conversation for a change,” he says.
Akrami says it would be easy, given the circumstances, for Panahi to give up on filmmaking all together. “It's a pretty good excuse when the government bans you from making films,” he says. “Some people would say ‘OK, I can't make film any more.'” But not Panahi. He's not one to be intimidated.
In fact, Akrami says, Panahi is probably already plotting a way to make — and smuggle out — his next movie.

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Leader of the Nation to Rescue Kazakhstan’s Economy · Global Voices
Zukhra Iakupbaeva

Nazarbayev attends he Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague in 2014. Photo by Richard Wareham. Demotix ID: 4296897.
Kazakhstan is likely to have a snap election in the hope that its 74-year-old autocrat can save its troubled economy.
Кризис не страшен когда у тебя такой Елбасы! Но хотелось бы побыстрее отдать свой голос Назарбаеву и уже со спокойной душой делать свою работу!
The crisis is not scary when you have such an Elbasy (Leader of the Nation)! I just want to give my vote to Nazarbayev faster so that I can do my work with a calm soul.
Whether these are paid trolls or reflections of genuine support for a dictator who is probably the most popular of his kind in post-Soviet Central Asia, there is no doubt that Kazakhstan's economy needs saving by someone. Having previously been regarded as a minor success story, it had a very bad 2014, witnessing a giant overnight devaluation of its own currency, the collapse of Russia's ruble and a steep fall in the price of Kazakhstan's main export, crude oil.
Some local Kazakh authorities have responded by suggesting a temporary embargo on Russian imports — extremely cheap after the ruble lost half its value last year — in order to save Kazakh producers. Some businesses have demanded a second devaluation, which would be disastrous for those still keeping savings in the battered national currency.
In the end, at a government meeting on February 11, Nazarbayev, launched a Kazakh version of keep calm and carry on, by avoiding those decisions and calling on companies and consumers alike to be patriotic by holding deposits in national currency and buying local. He also established a $1.3 billion reserve fund to support domestic production.
Five days later, on February 16, the ruling party, which Nazarbayev chairs, accepted a call from the Peoples’ Assembly of Kazakhstan, which Nazarbayev also chairs, to hold early elections in order to give Nazarbayev a fresh mandate to deal with the economic crisis. Nazarbayev, who has nearly two years left of his current term — he has been Kazakhstan's ruler since before independence in 1991 — must now accept the call.
Nazarbayev's speech on the economy can be found here.
Business versus the people?
Since January 2014 the Russian ruble has devalued 47% against the Kazakh tenge and a similar amount against the dollar as Western sanctions and then falling crude prices left the republic's larger neighbour on an economic precipice. For Russian exporters working with Kazakhstan, however, this was a good thing. Many Russian products are now 40-60% cheaper than those produced in Kazakhstan, according to Kazakh officials, and bilateral trade has become one-way traffic.
Some Kazakhs are even enjoying having the cheaper goods in a country where prices often seem artificially high.
As Douglas, wrote in the comments forum on TengriNews, a privately-owned news website:
Когда создавали ТС со всех трибун звучало о пользе для простого народа, о конкурентной среде и снижении цен. А когда реально цены упали и действительно появилась польза для простых людей, заговорили о спасении отечественного “бизнеса”!))) Радетели блага Родины! Только Родина у них в карманах и на банковских счетах!
When the Customs Union was created, [the Kazakh government] told us about the benefits of this Union for ordinary people, a competitive environment and lower prices. And when prices really fell and benefits for ordinary people appeared, they started talking about saving domestic “business!”))) Good guardians of the motherland! Only the motherland is in their pockets and bank accounts!
At any rate, that same Customs Union, which Kazakhstan and Russia share with Armenia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan (from May onwards) makes banning Russian imports problematic. As the director of the Center for Reseach on International Trade of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Alexander Knobel said:
По условиям соглашения, конечно, Россия не обязана добровольно ограничивать экспорт — на то он и экономический союз, что никаких ограничений в перемещении товаров страны не налагают.
Under the agreement, of course, Russia is not obliged to voluntarily restrict exports — for the economic union fulfills its purpose that there are no restrictions on goods’ movements.
Lower tax intake and oil revenues may have caused the government to cut the state budget for 2015-17, but that has not stopped the country's bid to stage the 2022 Winter Olympics.
So, lets have an election!
The call by Nur Otan, the ruling party, for fresh elections earlier this week was reflected in hundreds of glowing pro-Nazarbayev comments on regional and national websites, sparking accusations of mass trolling.
Казахстан – страна больших возможностей, Мы уверены в своем будущем, наш Президент сделает все для того, чтобы мы жили счастливо. Я ему верю.
Kazakhstan is a country of big opportunities. We are confident in our future. Our President will do everything so that we live well. I believe in him.
Я ЗА МИР! ЗА Н.А. НАЗАРБАЕВА!!!
I AM FOR PEACE! FOR N.A. NAZARBAYEV!!!
Strangely, however, on the TengriNews website, all of the pro-Nazarbayev comments began to receive minus votes, causing one Nazarbayev supporter to say:
Интересно, кто ж так минусует? В каких странах живут они?
Interesting, who is doing all these minuses? What countries do they live in?
To which xto to responded:
думаю мало кто плохо относиться к нашему президенту. А минусуют только из-за того, сто почти все комменты будто написаны одним человеком, каждый раз перефразировав. Но опять же повторюсь, мало кто против нашего президента, и я в том числе ;-)
I think there are few who do not support the president. People are putting minuses because nearly all the comments are written as if by one person, phrased slightly differently every time. But I repeat again, there are few who do not support the president.
A date for the election is likely to be announced in the coming weeks.

author: Zukhra Iakupbaeva


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Lebanon’s Storms Add Insult to Injury for Syrian Refugees · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

Arsal, North East Lebanon, covered with snow. Picture taken by ‘Lebanese for Refugees‘. Shared with permission.
Syria's refugees living in Lebanon have been hit hard by stormy weather and snow.
As Lebanon endures its third winter storm since January, nicknamed ‘Windy’, reports of Syrian refugees suffering from the cold are already surfacing. At the time of writing, the strong winds and snow which have reached altitudes as low as 300 meters have taken the lives of three children in Bhenin, North Lebanon. As The Daily Star reported, “Rawaa, Talal and Sabah Sleiman were killed after their tent in the northern Minyeh-Dinnieh district town of Bhenin caught fire. Their bodies were transferred to the nearby Al-Khair hospital in Minyeh.” They were killed “when their tent caught fire Thursday, after an apparent electrical short caused by the severe weather.”
That Lebanon sees power outages, river water flooding roads and agricultural fields and countless people stranded for hours in the snow speaks volume to the impact storms usually have on Lebanon's ailing infrastructure.
This most recent incident highlights the severity of Lebanon's refugee situation. Lebanon, a small country of 4 million people, has taken in more refugees, around 1.2 million registered, than the majority of the world's countries combined. Nearly 25 per cent of Lebanon's current population consists of refugees. To put things in perspective, here's a widely shared image on Twitter under the hashtag #OpenToSyria launched by Amnesty International:
Syria's refugee crisis in numbers, and what governments can do to #OpenToSyria > http://t.co/wTF0D7lp0O pic.twitter.com/ANWts26TMw
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) February 11, 2015
While Lebanon's civil society has been mobilized to try and help refugees’ basic needs, from fundraising concerts to monthly clothing donation drives, it remains insufficient on its own. And as if to make things worse, even United Nations agencies are finding themselves stretched out in terms of funding and available human resources. Indeed, only 60% ($757 million), of the amount requested by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2014 ($1.2 billion) had been donated by December 2014. The UN also recently announced that it is cutting Food Aid to 1.7 million refugees, citing “unhonoured cash pledges.”
The situation doesn't only affect the camps, but Beirut as well. As Joseph Willits of the Council for British-Arab Understanding tweeted:
73% of 1,500 kids living & working on #Lebanon's streets are refugees from #Syria. Devastating http://t.co/i9Ue3z1dfy pic.twitter.com/6vPmzVGY2P
— Joseph Willits (@josephwillits) February 18, 2015


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Peru’s Achuar and Kichwa Indigenous Communities Defend Their Territory From Oil Pollution · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

“Platform for the cause of the Kichua people”. Image from the Facebook of Northern Amazon Petroleum Observatory. Used with permission.
This post was originally published in Spanish on the author's blog Globalizado.
A new chapter in the eternal struggle of the Amazonian communities to defend their ancestral lands against oil pollution has opened. In late January, members from the Achuar and Kichwa indigenous communities, from the Corrientes and Tigre rivers basins in the Peruvian Amazon, took the Jibarito base of the Pluspetrol company, paralyzing the production of 14 oil wells, equivalent to a loss of approximately 3,100 barrels per day.
Another protest arose in the Tigre River, where the communities blocked the river as another measure of their indefinite strike, which to date has been going on for more than 30 days. Eight boats were held up in the middle of this blockade. All of these protest actions demand that Pluspetrol pay environmental compensations for the use of land and water in their communities, among other complaints.
These confrontations are taking place ahead of Pluspetrol’s contract with the state for lot 192, at the Jibarito base, expiring in August this year. A prior consultation should take place with the communities before the lot goes up for bid again. Moreover, the issue of land titling, where the Peruvian government refuses to give titles for land with “forestry capability” or for land given to oil companies, adds another level of complexity to the negotiations.
The Consultape blog, specialized in the subject of prior consultation, explains:
Este caso es emblemático pues fue el primer lote donde el Ejecutivo anunció que celebraría la consulta previa en agosto de 2012, por ser un caso complejo con pasivos ambientales que afectan a las comunidades indígenas desde hace más de cuarenta años, y porque de este lote se extrae el 11,7% del crudo nacional. Todavía no se ha iniciado el proceso de licitación del lote, y el contrato de Pluspetrol vence en agosto de este año, y para esa fecha ya debería haberse celebrado la consulta. Tal es así, que una fuente cercana del gobierno afirmaba que el caso está en una fase crítica, pues el período que dura el proceso (convocatoria de consulta previa, organización del proceso de licitación y convenios que debe establecer el ganador de la licitación además de formalización de contratos) está calculado entre 20 a 25 meses, cuando la concesión vence en siete meses.
This case is emblematic because it was the first lot where thegovernment announced that it would hold a prior consultation in August 2012, because it is a complex case with environmental liabilities that has affected the indigenous communities for over 40 years, and because 11.7% of the domestic crude oil is extracted from this lot. The bidding process for the lot has not yet started, and Pluspetrol’s contract expires in August this year, and by that time, the consultation should have taken place. This is why a source close to the government said that the case is at a critical stage, as the process (a call for prior consultation, organization of the bidding process and agreements that must establish the winning bidder plus formalization of contracts) should last between 20 to 25 months, while the concession expires in seven months.
Infographic of Tigre river basin pollution, created by FECONAT, Federation of Native Communities of the Alto Tigre. Image from Facebook of the Northern Amazon Petroleum Observatory. Used with permission.
The government's attitude to these claims and previous agreements has been ambivalent and slow. In November 2014, it unilaterally suspended a meeting with the indigenous communities in the area, and throughout mid-January it apparently managed at the highest level the development of a proposal for actions designed to address the serious environmental and social problems in the basins of the Pastaza, Corrientes, Tigre, and Marañón, where the lots 1AB and 8 are located. All this has taken place amid rumors of the next call for bidding for the lot 192 without the required prior consultation.
It should also be noted that the indigenous communities have little confidence in Pluspetrol, which systematically seeks to disregard agreements and decisions of both the communities and the state. An example is its policy of challenging the fines imposed for environmental pollution and the implementation of precautionary measures to avoid complying with the abandonment plans and others required by law.
At the request of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, residents of Pampa Hermosa and Pluspetrol began a dialogue on February 2 at the Dorissa camp, but then the talks broke down. However, Pluspetrol has made a new proposal, which offers the delivery of a fund of 100 million soles (about 32 million US dollars) to the Amazon basins of Tigre, Pastaza and Corrientes.
Meanwhile, the Achuar community of New Jerusalem gave Pluspetrol until February 6 to respond to its request, otherwise they would take forceful measures such as shutting down more oil wells. And the Environmental Defense Front of Pichanki (Junin region) called a strike on February 9 to protest against the proposed installation of Pluspetrol in lot 108.
Another round of talks was scheduled for February 9, this time in the city of Iquitos, after the regional president of Loreto mediated so that forceful measures were suspended for 72 hours and that the boats held up in the Tigre River were freed.
The communities are not radically opposed to oil exploitation. On the NoticiasSER blog, anthropologist Alberto Chirif, who studies the Amazon and its peoples, stated in an interview:
Las comunidades no están diciendo que se ponga fin a la explotación petrolera, sino están manifestando que hay problemas que deben solucionarse, especialmente lo de la contaminación y la necesidad del desarrollo. No se están oponiendo al desarrollo de la actividad extractiva.
The communities are not saying put an end to oil exploitation, but they are saying that there are problems to be solved, especially the pollution and the need for [economic] development. They are not opposing the development of mining activity.
The following cartoon by illustrator Carlín, posted by Twitter user Renato Pita, considers how Pluspetrol’s attitude is perceived by a large section of the community:
Célebre Carlín: ilustrando la prepotencia y la mentira de #Pluspetrol pic.twitter.com/6LLaOoRmK2
— renato pita zilbert (@pz_renato) February 5, 2015
Famous Carlin: illustrating the arrogance and lies of #Pluspetrol: “You guys are off of our influence area, if there is oil floating on the river is not our fault”.

author: Juan Arellano


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The Politics of ‘Wining’ in Trinidad & Tobago  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Dr. Keith Rowley, Leader of the Opposition in Trinidad & Tobago, “wines” on a female masquerader during the country's 2015 Carnival celebrations. Photo taken from Dr. Rowley's public Facebook page.
Even after the spectacle of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is over, its controversies linger on in public discussion.
Last year, there were issues with the online accreditation process for photographers and other professionals covering the festival. This year, there was a furore over the subpar broadcast coverage of key carnival events.
That — plus a few crime stories — might have been enough to satisfy the public appetite for gossip in other years. But 2015 is an election year in the twin island republic, so the calendar's standout event was never likely to escape political ‘silly season’. Thanks to the presence of Dr. Keith Rowley, the country's Leader of the Opposition at the Carnival, both mainstream and social media will have enough controversy to feed off for weeks to come.
So what did Rowley do to ignite debate?
Wired 868, a website known for its political satire, described the situation as follows:
There are several shots of the 65-year-old Diego Martin West MP [Rowley] dancing closely with a supposedly 17-year-old Ravina Rampersad and standing side-by-side with arms around each other’s waist during San Fernando’s Carnival celebrations.
UNC [the party of governmnent] supporters almost passed out with righteous indignation. […] According to UNC followers, Rowley embarrassed his wife and his post as Opposition Leader and displayed scandalous behaviour for a wanna-be Prime Minister.
PNM [People's National Movement, the opposition party] supporters suggested Rowley had a civic duty to wine on any bumper that presented itself without prejudice and called Rampersad a poster-girl for racial harmony.
In other words, a prominent politician was playing mas’ (masquerading) in a public space and took a ‘wine’ — the hip-swivelling dance for which the Carnival is famous — with a young woman (some say a teenager) who appeared, at least from photographs, to be either a willing participant or the instigator of the dance.
Suddenly public conversation becomes about everything ranging from Rowley's fitness for office to the state of tribal politics in the country:
Rowley and Rampersad meme. Widely shared.
The Jamaican blogosphere recently had a comparable debate about the appropriateness of expressing sexuality while holding public office when members of the public were shocked after Lisa Hanna, Jamaica's Minister of Youth and Culture, posted a photo of herself wearing a bikini on the beach.
The Wired 868 satire site thought it “ridiculous to suggest his Carnival behaviour will have any bearing on Elections 2015″  but joked Rowley's wife might want to know why he “spent so much time canvassing a woman who isn’t old enough to vote.”
Rowley himself laughed off the noise with a few posts on his Facebook page, showing him having “a great time alongside the southern masqueraders”, while Rampersad, who has not confirmed her age, was forced to delete her Twitter account amid the media attention surrounding the dance.
Many of the comments on the thread were in defence of Dr. Rowley. Donna-Marie De Bellot said:
Nobody pelts behind a mango tree that not bearing!! If they wasn't quaking…who Dr. Rowley wine on in the season of wine and jam wouldn't be a problem. Such petty and poor politics from this government it is simply shameful.
Playing the ‘race card’
As if the age difference of the dance partners in #bumpergate was not enough to keep copy turning and jaws moving, the girl's Indian ethnicity was another explosion waiting to happen in a country in which Indo-Trinbagonians slightly outnumber Afro-Trinbagonians.
Satnarayan ‘Sat’ Maharaj, a divisive religious and political figure in Trinidad and Tobago, who heads the country's largest and most active Hindu organisation, added his voice to the debate, saying he was “shocked” at Rowley's behaviour with a “teenager”. On the same day the opposition man was “wining”, Sat noted, the country's incumbent Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, a practising Hindu, “visited about ten temples with her son.”
The inherent ethnic stereotypes generated by the controversy were not lost on netizens. Rhoda Bharath fumed:
Demonising black male sexuality is nothing new here….but if you want to vex with a black man for wining on an Indian woman and not appear racist, you have to criminalise his sexuality….so the conversation shifts from him wining on an Indian woman to him wining on an underage Indian girl….without information to support your argument.
In a post titled ‘My Body, My Temple’, Vie Maharaj, a new blogger who is both female and Hindu, blasted Sat for “pulling the ‘race’ card”:
For the umpteenth time, this religious leader is relying on the quietly prevailing Aryan Hindu Patriarchy’s ideologies to make his argument. If she is too young to be danced with, then by all means […] let us revise the Marriage Act, which allows 14 year old Hindu girls to be married off! For if she is too young to ‘wine’ at 17, why are our girls old enough to be married at 14? Further, she is dancing with a man who is not of Indian descent! And of course the Bhagwat Geeta says you must marry within your caste and creed, but in this day and age have we not advanced enough to understand that a man/woman is more than the color of their skin or the texture of their hair? […]
These points will not be accepted until we, as Indo-Hindu Trinidadian people, begin to understand that we are Caribbean people.
Pulling apart patriarchy
Vie Maharaj's post also touched on the theme of patriarchy and its relevance for young Hindus growing up in the Caribbean. She continued:
It is a downfall of our dharma that we continue to police the female body by Aryan Hindu Patriarchal suppositions. We have set ways in which the woman is defined, her roles and functions, her limits and borders. We as a society have tested many of these and proven them to be outdated, allowing our women to be educated, have careers and take public positions. However, the woman’s body continues to be policed.
Another blogger, Amilcar Sanatan, registered his displeasure over the fact that while American hip-hop model Amber Rose, whom the blogger describes as a “foreign sketel“, was celebrated for playing Carnival in Trinidad this year, “local sketels” get slut-shamed:
Ravina Rampersad is the local sketel Trinidad and Tobago loves to hate. In a country that glosses over its racial divisions and subscribes to class pretensions Dr. Keith Rowley was guilty of being an African (‘black’) man dancing with Ravina Rampersad, an Indian woman. Bringing up her age, as bloggers did, only explained the gender ideologies that confine women’s sexuality and young women’s sexuality and Indo-Trinidadian women sexuality. So, the local sketel knew that de ole talk was more than just a politicized affair; it in fact was racialised and gendered. Bringing up a functionalist interpretation of family and trying to locate the picture with Dr. Rowley and ‘de way his wife must be feel’ further tells us how much we are alien to the peculiarities of Caribbean culture. Thank you Mr. Ivan Kalicharan for speaking up and the rest of Facebookers with a conscience who knew that that beating up on a 17 year-old in cyber space was more evidence of our collective schizophrenia and politics of the day than declining moral values in Trinidad and Tobago.
The truth of the matter is that you have the right to wine, look sexy, bruk out half naked, and take pictures regardless if you choose not carry yourself that way as an individual. On the contrary, we do not have the right to shame, send hate mail, and divide our people against each other because of our prejudice.
Revelling in the ridiculousness
As the hype surrounding Rowley and Rampersad's ‘wine’ went on, conspiracy theories flew: Twitter users suggested that Rampersad was actually ‘sent’ to wine on Rowley and create bad press for the opposition leader. Facebook user Robin Foster shared another perspective that he had heard on a local talk radio station:
On a talk show on 90.5 last night. I heard a caller say that what happened carnival Tuesday is a good indication of what Keith Rowley would do to people south of the caroni river [where people of Indo-ethnic descent mostly live] if he ever gets into power.
I know it's racist bullshit but still had to laugh. Sorry.
Laughter, in fact, is the overriding reaction to the debacle.
Artist Darren Cheewah posted a series of quirky illustrations that widely shared on social media. Here a sketch of Rowley asks a sketch of Rampersad who she votes for and whether she can cook sada, a roti made from white flour that is a popular element of breakfasts in Trinidad and Tobago.
The fake news site The Late O'Clock News posted an entire spoof about Rowley's resignation in the wake of his scandalous behaviour:
The Late O’Clock News texted the tarnished Dr Rowley to find out why he did not ask for ID from [Ravina Rampersad]. Rowley said:
‘I don’t know how it happened. One moment, I was behind my office desk drafting policies for the future of Trinidad and Tobago, then a truck passed outside playing Party Done and I blinked. When I reopened my eyes, there was a can [of] Stag [beer] in my hand, a bumper on my fender, and a feeling of jubilation in my heart. Looking back now, I am ashamed of myself, so I have decided to done my own party.’
Facebook user Natasha Ramnauth summed up the whole affair:
If all we can find to talk about is Amber Rose's wining skills, what [Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the Prime Minister] wore to a fete and who Keith Rowley wined on; then clearly this country is the model of efficiency and we have nothing pressing to worry about. Life in the Republic de Lacatan is good.


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A Passenger Ferry Capsizes in Bangladesh. Again. · Global Voices
Rezwan

Recovered bodies are brought to the shore in a dinghy. Image by Reporter#7619314. Copyright Demotix (22/2/2015)
On Sunday noon a passenger ferry reportedly packed with more than 100 passengers was hit by a cargo vessel 40 kilometres northwest of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital. It subsequently sank.
A rescue vessel located the capsized vessel and attempted to pull it up. According to reports 37 bodies have been found and many are feared missing.
UPDATE: Child killed in Manikganj launch capsize, 60 rescued; 150 on board when hit by cargo trawler http://t.co/cM9zJNtjBy #Bangladesh
— The Daily Star (@dailystarnews) February 22, 2015
Collisions with other craft is the top reason for ferry disasters in Bangladesh, which are quite common according to this study. Overcrowding and poor safety measures are the catalyst.
Passenger lists are rarely kept accurately, making it difficult to know how many people are missing when accidents occur. Many people have already been rescued from this particular craft, but it will take days to determine precise numbers. This is the country's second deadly boat accident in less than a fortnight.
Divers at work to pull the bodies out of the capsized passenger ferry. Image by Reporter#7619314. Copyright Demotix (22/2/2015)

author: Rezwan


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A Tajik Nurse Kidnapped in Yemen Arrives Home and Gets Straight Back to Work · Global Voices
Censored Voice

Rofieva did not waste time when she came across a road accident when driving back to her home town of Panjikent. Screenshot from video uploaded by RFE/RL's Tajik service.
A woman that left her hometown in Tajikistan a nurse has returned a hero.
Gulrukhsor Rofieva, a Tajik citizen held captive in Yemen for 105 days, arrived back in her homeland on February 21 and was straight back to work the same day, administering First Aid to a man injured in a road traffic accident.
Sent to work in Yemen through a Russian agency, the 36-year-old nurse was working in the women's department of a military hospital in Marib, Yemen when she was kidnapped by a local tribe on October 29, 2014.
Thanks to the efforts of both the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Yemen and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan (MFA), Rofieva was freed on February 10 in exchange for the release of a local prisoner.
She flew into the capital Dushanbe on February 21, 2015. But in a twist that has made this happy ending story even happier, RFE/RL's Tajik service, Ozodi, reported that Rofieva gave first aid to a man involved in a car accident on her way back to her provincial hometown, Panjikent.
As one Ozodi reader wrote:
Худованд нигахбонатон бону Гулрухсор хамеша дар хидмати мардум бошед аз ин пас агар системаи тандурустии Точикистон кор карден хатман аз адлу инсоф ба духтуроне ки барои дилбардории беморон пеш аз хама кисаи вайро нигох мекунан насихат кунен ки ин дунё бако надора.
God bless you Gulrukhsor! Always help the people. If you work further in the health care system of Tajikistan, please preach to those doctors who look first into the pockets of their patients.
The story of Rofieva's kidnapping in Yemen had been followed by many people in Tajikistan. Ayor, another commenter on RFE/RL's Tajik service criticized those who were skeptical about the Tajik MFA's ability to help bring Rofieva back.
He wrote:
Eeee kani hamun nafare ki Xudro Беном–mexonad!!!!gufta budi ki Xudat chorata bin hukumati Tj tura najot nameta—– fikr mekardi mardum besohibay Ee rahmat ba konsuli Tj ki dar istanbul rafiqoni mara hamsinfoma kumak kardand to vaqti parvoz…
Where are the ones who were writing not to expect any help from the Tajik government? You thought nobody cares about the people? Thanks also to the Tajik consul, who also helped my friends in Istanbul…
But the government did not escape censure completely. Tajikistan remains the most remittance-dependent country in the world according to World Bank figures, with over 90% of its migrants working in Russia and the money they send home equating to over half of GDP.
A reader calling himself ‘A slave of Russians,’ expressed his anger at the life endured by the country's million plus migrant workers.
He wrote bitterly:
Е кош хамаи гарибоне ки аз зери зулми уруси берахм ба ватан бар мегарданд чунин бо кахрамонона пешвоз гирифта шаванд. Е кош ба кадри хар як точики чигарсухта бирасанд на факат холатхои алохидае ки хукумат ба хотири обуруи худаш истифода мекунад.
I wish every Tajik migrant who came back to his motherland from the oppression of merciless Russians was welcomed as a hero like [Rofieva]. I wish they appreciated every Tajik, not only the ones who help to burnish the government's image.
Rofieva's case is not the first time a Tajik citizen was kept hostage in Yemen. Tajik doctors were kidnapped by local tribes in the Middle East country in 2007 and 2011. Relatively higher wages have already attracted around 70 doctors and nurses from the impoverished Central Asian republic to work in Yemen.

author: Censored Voice


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Can #Panzagar ‘Flower Speech’ Facebook Stickers End Hate Speech in Myanmar? · Global Voices
Juan Cebu

Image from Panzagar Facebook page
Facebook now features a new set of stickers which users can download to counter online hate speech in Myanmar.
“Speak Panzagar” (flower speech or good speech) stickers were developed by the Burmese organization of the same name in response to a noticeable rise in online hate speech in the country.
The disturbing trend was first observed in 2012 when Facebook was swamped with hate speech and generally inflammatory communication between Buddhist and Muslim users in Myanmar. Many people believe that the spread of racist and discriminatory comments on Facebook contributed to inter-community conflicts that have gripped the nation in recent years.
Myanmar has a predominantly Buddhist population but it has more than 100 ethnic groups. In the past three years, some radical Buddhist groups have accused the Muslim minority of plotting to dominate the country.
The tensions have led to riots that displaced many civilians, including the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group which is not recognized by the Myanmar government.
Some of the Panzagar stickers say “think before you share” (second row, first from the left); “don't spread the hate, alright?” (third row, first from the left); “relax/take it easy, friend” (third row, second from the left); “(I) don't believe it” (fourth row, fourth from the left); and “please don't swear” (fifth row, third from the left).
A Facebook user, Aung Kyaw Khaing, welcomed the arrival of the Panzagar stickers:
Today I am very happy to see the spread of the flower speech stickers on Facebook. I have been excited since I learnt that flower speech stickers will be available and I am so glad that now it is actually available. I am also proud to use Myanmar language stickers on Facebook.
Thanks Support Panzagar: End Hate Speech with Flower Speech & Panzagar
The Panzagar movement started in early 2014 to promote responsible use of the Internet. Some participants of the movement distributed pamphlets in major cities of Myanmar reminding the public that aside from “draconian censorship” the other threat to free speech is “irresponsible and hateful speech.”
Panzagar was founded by the well-known blogger Nay Phone Latt, who was arrested by the former military regime for posting information about the 2007 pro-democracy protest actions which came to be known as the Saffron Revolution on his blog. He was released in 2012.
Kenneth Wong SF wrote on his blog that people should be careful about what they say especially in online spaces as it can create undesirable consequences:
I see Panzagar as a movement that brings out the best in us. It reminds us to look beyond our different religious rituals, skin colors, and lifestyles; and to seek our common humanity. It holds us accountable for what we write and say. That's important in the digital era, where everyone has the ability to draw blood with sharp pixels, but few will ever be called to face their victims or witness the wounds they cause.
It is hoped that the initial positive feedback of Facebook users, the ‘flower speech’ stickers will continue to generate more enthusiasm and support to curb, if not end, the proliferation of hate speech on the country's most popular social networking site.

author: Juan Cebu


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Happy Chinese New Year… From Peru! · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Lima Chinatown. Image on Flickr by user patrikalex (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
Peru is a pluricultural place and as such, has space in its calendar for celebrations involving places and cultures that might at first seem very remote from the South American republic.
The enthusiastic celebrations of Chinese New Year in the country are a case in point.
For visitors to Peru, the Chinese community is very visible, the result of an immigración that took place between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The Peruvian-Chinese Association website sums up the links between the two countries as follows:
Los primeros inmigrantes chinos llegaron al Perú colmados de esperanzas e ilusiones, en busca de una mejor vida y un futuro prometedor. Gracias a su gran tenacidad, esfuerzo y laboriosidad hicieron realidad sus sueños.
Hoy en día, apreciamos su influencia y su presencia, en los diferentes ámbitos de la realidad peruana y sobre todo, su contribución en la fusión de dos culturas milenarias.
The first Chinese immigrants arrived to Peru full of hopes and illusions, looking for a better life and a promising future. Thanks to their great tenacity, effort and laboriousness they saw their dreams come true.
Today we appreciate their influence and their presence, in the different spheres of Peruvian reality and, above all, in the merge of two millenary cultures.
These early Chinese immigrants initially settled in the Peruvian coastal valleys before dispersing across the country. Over time, they became the most populous of the Asian communities living in Peru, having influence in many areas of Peruvian culture. People of Chinese descent are know as tusán, a word taken from Chinese 土生 pinyin: tǔ shēng, jyutping: tou2 saang1, and translating as ‘born local’.
Perhaps the most noticeable contribution made by settlers from the Middle Kingdom was culinary. In Peru, Chinese dishes — mostly inspired by recipes from Canton region with some adaptations made for the Peruvian palate — came to be known locally as chifa. The restaurants serving this food can be found both in the capital, Lima and a number of other Peruvian cities.
Every year, Peru joins celebrations of Chinese New Year from the streets of Lima Chinatown, located a few blocks away from Lima Main Square. This year — the Year of the Goat — was no exception, as an announcement on the website Publimetro made clear:
Los festejos para recibir el Año Nuevo Lunar de la oveja aún continuará (sic) hasta el 19 de febrero. Esta festividad se celebra en la segunda luna nueva después del solsticio de invierno (entre el 21 de enero y el 19 de febrero).
The celebrations of the incoming Lunar New Year of the goat will go on until February 19. This date is celebrated on the second new moon after the winter solstice (between January 21 and February 19).
On their Facebook page, the Peruvian Chinese Association expressed their best wishes:
Hoy la Asociación Peruano China les desea a todos un !Feliz #AñoNuevoChino 2015! 新年好 ！ 羊年大吉！ 喜氣羊洋 ！ xin nian hao！
Today, the Peruvian Chinese Association wishes you all a Happy Chinese New Year 2015! 新年好 ！ 羊年大吉！ 喜氣羊洋 ！ xin nian hao！
On Twitter users tweeted images and goodwill:
Hoy se celebra en Año Nuevo chino, y lo celebran con la preparación de una variedad de platos ¡Que delicia! En mi… http://t.co/CRVviDJrYY
— Silke McDowell (@mamlatinaphilly) febrero 19, 2015
Today we celebrate Chinese New Year, and it's celebrated with the preparation of diverse dishes. Yummy!
And the Peruvian Chinese Association linked to an article about the significance of the Year of the Goat:
¿Sabes cómo es el espíritu de la cabra? ¿Cómo es el hombre, la mujer o el niño cabra? ¿Qué te deparará en la… http://t.co/gTH0HX7uPT
— apch (@apchpe) febrero 19, 2015
Do you know the spirit of the goat? How is the man, woman or child born on any Year of the Goat? What will this year have in store for you?
Foreign diplomatic delegations were not going to be left out:
La Embajada Británica en Lima les desea a todos Feliz Año Nuevo Chino. #Perú
— Embajada Británica (@UKinPeru) febrero 19, 2015
British Embassy in Lima wishes everybody a Happy New Chinese Year.
Another tweep focussed on recent measures to reduce pollution in celebrations of the holiday in China:
#Noticias Año nuevo chino: menos fuegos artificiales por contaminación – Terra Perú http://t.co/AYT50jEzRR— Noticias desde #Perú (@tuitperuano) febrero 18, 2015
Chinese New Year: less fireworks due to pollution.
While some waxed astrological in the build-up to the big event:
Luna Nueva en #Acuario este Miércoles 18 a las 6:45 PM hora de Perú. Entra en #Piscis, minutos después. Año Nuevo Chino Mañana en la noche
— Ismael S. (@Hismael7) febrero 16, 2015
The new moon is in Aquarius on Wednesday 18 at 6:45 PM, Peru time. It enters Pisces minutes later. Chinese New Year tomorrow night.
To all Global Voices readers, whatever your part of the world, happy Year of the Goat!

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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High Hopes and Mixed Feelings About Russia’s Oscar Nominee · Global Voices
Lewis May

A scene from “Leviathan.” Image from Indiewire.
After months of global media adoration, the Russian film “Leviathan” has finally been released in Russian theaters. The film’s scathing and moving portrayal of small-town corruption made it a sensation at Cannes and a critical darling, but prior to its February 5 official release, only pirated online copies of the film were available to Russians. The film finished its first week in fourth place at the Russian box office, but it has become one of the most widely discussed Russian films in decades, with commentators of all stripes taking to the Internet to voice their opinions.
Like critics abroad, many Russians were quick to praise the film both for its artistic quality and portrayal of the Russian condition. After “Leviathan” won a Golden Globe, Nadia Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot and Mediazona lauded the creators and the film, which she called “a punk prayer.”
А также благодарю за чуткость и редкую для художника страсть – вслушиваться в свое время, принюхиваться к нему, впитывать его в себя. Но это именно то состояние души, которое отличает художника от спящего котика. Ценю за патриотизм – ведь Бог свидетель тому, как легко хорошему режиссеру (а Звягинцев таков) уехать из России и снимать коммерческое кино про любовь и солнце.
I would also like to thank them for their attentiveness and their rare artistic passion—to listen carefully to our time, to sniff it out, to absorb it into themselves. This is the exact state of mind that separates the artist from the sleeping cat. I appreciate this patriotism, because god knows how easy it is for a good director like (Andrey) Zvyagintsev to leave Russia and shoot commercial films about love and the sun.
Reporter Anton Krasovsky, who famously came out on-air in protest of Russia’s LGBT policy, drew attention to the religious message of the film, filled with cautious hope, despite the darkness and despair many saw.
Не было со времен «Андрея Рублева» более христианского русского кино. Кино о хождении по мукам, о крестном пути, о лжи и фарисействе, о страдании и горе. Но и о настоящем тихом Боге, о вечной жизни, о любви и вере. Даже там, где эти любовь и вера должны были бы сгнить, как сгнили тут и Иона, и кит. А остались только голые ребра, оргАном торчащие у скал. Но не этими ребрами, другими – нашими – строится Церковь. И построится. Вот увидите. Или не увидите. Богу, впрочем, все равно.
Not since “Andrei Rublev” has there been a more Christian Russian film. It is a movie about purgatory, the path of the cross, of lies and hypocrisy, suffering and grief. But it also about the true quiet God, eternal life, love and faith. Even where faith and love should have rotted, like Jonah and the whale. And only the bare ribs remain, organ-like, on the rocks (likely a reference to a scene in the film). But it is not with these ribs, but with our own that the Church is built. And build it we shall. You'll see. Or maybe you won't. To God it’s all the same.
One devout fan, Slava Smirnov, even created a website asking the nearly 6 million people who had downloaded pirated copies of the film to donate the equivalent of a movie ticket to be given to the film’s makers. The film's director Andrey Zvyagintsev however, opted to donate the 1 million rubles raised by the site to Gift of Life (Подари жизнь), a Russian charity providing assistance to children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
The film’s open portrayal of corruption at every level of Russian life prompted a critical reaction by Russian authorities. Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s Minister of Culture, approved of the film as a universal parable, but criticized it for being devoid of any positive characters and bearing no resemblance to real Russia.
Other government officials reiterated Medinsky’s criticism that the film played on anti-Russian sentiment abroad in order to win awards. Prominent Russian politician and commentator Sergey Markov took to Facebook to bemoan the mob mentality of foreign critics.
Фильм Звягинцева Левиафан это типичная российская чернуха? Нет, не типичная. Это фактически внешний заказ. Гос департамента? Нет. […] Профессионально сделанный получился антипутинский кино манифест, проклинающий российскую государственную бюрократическую машину, заодно и антиправославный акцент не забыли. Это фильм времен новой холодной войны Запада против России, […] Призы на фестивалях получает не российский фильм, а антироссийский.
Is Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan a typical “dark side of Russia” story? No, it's not. It is, in fact, made to external order. Order of the Department of State? No. […] This movie is a professionally made anti-Putin cinema manifesto, cursing the Russian bureaucratic machine with an anti-Orthodox accent. This is a film of the new cold war of the West against Russia, […] Awards at these film festivals are won not by a Russian film, but an anti-Russian film.
Тhe film has also attracted attention for its critical portrayal of a local Russian Orthodox priest. While some clergymen, including those from the diocese where the film was made, praised the film for prompting important discussion, the Russian Orthodox Church’s leadership was less than thrilled. In a popular post on the Orthodox Church’s website, Dmitry Sokolov-Mitrich lambasted the film as being both of poor artistic quality and out of touch with the reality of Russia.
По-моему, «Левиафан» — это просто слабый фильм, вот и все. Он не тянет на притчу, потому что в нем нет любви. Он не тянет на «универсальную историю для всего человечества», потому что в нем слишком много сиюминутной политической конъюнктуры. Он не тянет на «зеркало русской жизни», потому что авторы этой жизни не знают и смешат на каждом шагу…Поэтому «Левиафан» — это одна сплошная имитация.
In my opinion, “Leviathan” is simply a weak film, that’s it. It's not strong enough to be a parable, because there is no love in it. It does not pass for a “universal history of mankind” because it is too short-sighted politically. It is not a “mirror of Russian life” because the filmmakers do not understand Russian life and make us laugh at every step they make… As a result, “Leviathan” is one continuous imitation.
Though the film has already caused a considerable uproar in Russia and abroad, the furor will likely only grow after the Academy Awards ceremony, where the film has been nominated and is widely expected to win the award for Best Foreign Language Film. Though Russia's Culture Minister Medinsky has admitted that he will root for the film at the Oscars, a victory for “Leviathan” might mean more unwanted negative attention for Russia, as the Kremlin faces increasing criticism for its actions abroad in Ukraine and the deteriorating human rights situation within the country.

author: Lewis May


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How Children in Egypt Are Playing Out ISIS Execution Videos  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Children in Mahalla, Cairo, role-playing the ISIS and “slaughter” other children ISIS-style. Still from a video shared by @Shokeir on Twitter. Faces in the still blurred by Global Voices.
Children from Egypt's El Mahalla El Kubra have been video-taped “slaughtering” other children ISIS-style while playing with wooden sticks. The video raises more questions than answers on the “merits” of sharing horrific videos detailing the terror group's crimes, particularly with children.
The Al Qaeda off-shoot ISIS, which has come to control larges swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, has taken great pride in releasing highly-produced videos, showcasing how they behead their captives. Despite a cat and mouse chase to remove their graphic propaganda online, many continue to share the videos, unconcerned by the damage they could cause to viewers.
This El Mahalla El Kubra video may have been made after the militant group “ISIS in Libya” beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian workers who had been abducted in Libya more than a month ago. On February 15, the terrorists posted a gruesome and bloody video on YouTube that showed the beheading of the hostages, creating an uproar in Egypt, including the bombing of ISIS sites in Libya.
El Mahalla Al Kubra is an industrial and agricultural city in Egypt, located in the middle of the Nile Delta on the western bank of the Damietta branch, and is home to about half a million people.
Egyptian blogger Shokeir tweets a photograph from the video showing the children “playing ISIS” to his 44.1K followers, with the simple remark:
العيال في المحلة بيلعبوا .. داعش pic.twitter.com/dXu6jchFKx
— Ahmed Shokeir (@Shokeir) February 20, 2015
Children in Mahalla playing … (ISIS)
This tweet has been retweeted 150 times and counting.
Tamer Abdo Amin uploaded the video, which has been watched 86K times, on Facebook with the comment:
قابل يا عم .. آدى تأثير فيديوهات داعش على مجموعة أطفال من المحلة الكبرى .. ذات مومنت لما العيال ف مصر تلعب داعش :))
Watch this! This is the impact of ISIS videos on children in Al Mahalla Al Kubra. That moment when children in Egypt play ISIS
The child in the video describes the ISIS as fighters without allegiance to any religion or nation, before ordering his “men” to slaughter the other children. He says:
We have no religion or nation. We slaughter children, women and the elderly. We have decided the following: to kill all the youth of the town of (inaudible). Slaughter then Oh men!
Still on Facebook, Egyptian journalist Mohamed El Dahshan picks up the thread, reminiscing on the time, when children were just .. children:
There was a time when kids in Egypt, like kids everywhere, played cops and robbers. And the cops would win. And it made me smile. Natural order of things, I'd think.
Then after 2011 I've seen kids play cops and protesters. And one cop would ‘kill’ (well, you know, pew pew pew) one of the protesters, who would then revolt, and chase after the cop-kids. And it made me smile – because it was funny, but it was no less sad, because kids shouldn't have to contemplate the mere thought of police brutality.
Tonight I saw this video, of kids playing Daesh, where first kid gives a little speech (incidentally in better Arabic that the minister of foreign affairs, but i digress) and then gives the order to his acolytes to slaughter the two ‘hostages’.
And that's not a game that has a happy ending in any possible way. Nobody wins.
This is the saddest thing I've seen in a long, long time.
Comments on this post ranged from “disturbing” to “evolution turning wrong.”
Surely watching graphic videos showcasing ISIS crimes leave a dent on adults, but what do they really do to our children? Should children even watch ISIS crimes shared on video?

author: Amira Al Hussaini


text:
Kuwait Sentences Opposition Politician Mussallam Al Barrak to Two Years in Jail for “Insulting Ruler” · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Kuwaiti opposition leader Mussalam Al Barrak was sentenced to two years in jail for insulting the country's ruler. Photograph shared by @AlziadiQ8 on Twitter.
Kuwait sentenced leading opposition politician Mussallam Al Barrak to two years in jail for “insulting the country's ruler.” The former member of the Kuwaiti National Assembly (parliament) is charged for a speech he gave in October 2012, in which he threatened to depose the Amir of Kuwait Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, telling him that the people of Kuwait would not allow him to practice “autocratic rule.”
He was arrested on October 29, and released on bail four days later pending trial. In April 2013, he was sentenced to five years in prison, and a Kuwaiti appeals court reduced the sentence to two years yesterday.
When Al Barrak was first arrested in 2012, Amnesty International issued the following statement, describing his arrest as “outrageous”:
“The arrest and prosecution of Musallam al-Barrak, on account of his peaceful criticism of Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al Sabah, is outrageous and is yet another manifestation of the increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly in Kuwait,” said Ann Harrison, Deputy Director for Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.
“He did not incite violence or hatred but was engaged purely in exercising his right to peaceful freedom of expression – the Kuwaiti authorities must drop the charges against him and against anyone else facing similar charges for peacefully expressing their views.”
For many, the charges are aimed at silencing Al Barrak, 59, an outspoken Popular Action Bloc member, who has been an MP since 1996.
According to Kuwaiti blogger Mohammed Almutawa:
#Kuwait Appeals court sentences former MP Musallam Al-Barrak to two years in prison for remarks deemed to undermine the Amir
— Mohammad Almutawa (@mfmutawa) February 22, 2015
He explains:
Al-Barrak has a large following and is considered to be leading the opposition front in #Kuwait, now sentenced to 2yrs in jail… — Mohammad Almutawa (@mfmutawa) February 22, 2015
The sentencing of Al Mussallam for his views,
Bahraini human rights defender Nabeel Rajab explains to his 260K followers on Twitter:
إن #سجن_مسلم_البراك بسبب أراء تبناها او صرح بها هو انتهاك صارخ لحقوق الانسان وحريته في التعبير ويبين إن #الكويت مستمرة في تراجعاتها الحقوقية
— Nabeel Rajab (@NABEELRAJAB) February 22, 2015
The jailing of Mussallam Al Barrak for views he holds or views he expressed is a stark violation of human rights and his right to free expression. It also shows that Kuwait is regressing in its human rights record
In another tweet, he adds:
#سجن_مسلم_البراك في #الكويت هو إنتهاك للمواثيق الدولية لحقوق الانسان وكل النشطاء الحقوقيين والسياسين بمن فيهم المختلفين معه مطالبين بإذانته — Nabeel Rajab (@NABEELRAJAB) February 22, 2015
The jailing of Mussallam Al Barrak in Kuwait is a violation of international human rights accords and all activists and politicians, including those who disagree with him, should condemn it
And Kuwaiti university professor and columnist Dr Bader Aldaihani explains to his 17K followers on Twitter:
سجن مسلم البراك هو سجن سياسي فقضيته قضية سياسية من ألفها إلى يائها والقضايا السياسية من المفترض أن تحل سياسياً وليس جنائياً #سجن_مسلم_البراك
— د. بدر الديحاني (@DrAldaihani) February 22, 2015
The jailing of Mussallam Al Barrak is a political sentence as his case is political, from its start to finish, and political problems should be solved politically and not through criminal cases
In another tweet, he notes:
الناس لا يصدقون كيف يسجن المناضل الذي أفنى عمره يحارب الفساد المؤسسي بينما كبار الفاسدين وسراق المال العام يسرحون ويمرحون؟! #سجن_مسلم_البراك
— د. بدر الديحاني (@DrAldaihani) February 22, 2015
People can't believe how an activist who has lived his life fighting corporate corruption is in jail while those who steal public money and are lead corruption are free
Many Kuwaitis took to Twitter to raise alarm about the jailing of Al Barrak under the hashtag #سجن_ضمير_الأمة, which translates to “the jailing of the nation's conscience” as Al Barrak is referred to by his supporters.
According to Suhail Al Yamani:
الضمير الحي مشكلة كبيرة ومقلقة .. لذلك تلجأ بعض الأمم إلى التخلص من ضميرها حتى لا يعكر صفو ” دجّتها ” وفسادها! #سجن_مسلم_البراك
— سهيل اليماني® (@agrni) February 22, 2015
A living conscience is a big and concerning problem.. this is why some countries get rid of its conscience so that corruption can continue