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Scandal in Argentina as Judges Say a Six-Year Old’s Alleged Homosexuality Invited Sexual Abuse · Global Voices
Global Voices Latin America

Photo of a mother and child unrelated to the case in question. Image courtesy of André Delhaye on Flickr under Creative Commons license.
An outrageous decision in a sex abuse case brought before Judges Horacio Piombo and Ramón Sal Llargués of the Chamber of Criminal Cassation of Buenos Aires was recently made public.
A man charged with sexually assaulting a six-year-old, saw his sentence reduced to 38 months by the two appeal judges who determined the case had mitigating factors, namely that the victim “displayed a homosexual orientation and was accustomed to being sexually abused.”
The accused, Mario Tolosa, former vice-president of the soccer team for which the child played, had already been sentenced to six years in prison after a court found him guilty of the crime of aggravated sexual assault.
In response to the chamber's decision, the Argentine Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Federation (FALGBT) expressed its astonishment and assured the news agency Andar Agencia that the organization would be calling for the impeachment of judges Horacio Piombo and Ramón Sal Llargués.
Estupor en la FALGBT por el fallo que habría reducido la pena a abusador sexual por supuesta orientación sexual de su [víctima]
Posted by Federación Argentina LGBT (FALGBT) on Saturday, May 16, 201
Total shock at FALGBT over the decision that reduced the sentence of a sexual offender because of the alleged orientation of his victim.
The judges declared that the abuse committed by Mario Tolosa was not responsible for “the warped sexual development of the minor child” and that from their perspective, “it is clear that the child's sexual choice—despite his young age and in light of the considerable testimony of those close to him—had already been made.”
The judges based this conclusion on “prior remarks, recurrent aberrant behaviour and cross-dressing.”
The public defender of the Province of Buenos Aires, Marcelo Honores, characterized the judgment as “perverse” and expressed his concern for “the discriminatory and homophobic arguments” on which the judges’ decision was based.
The prosecutor in the case, Carlos Altube, revealed that the sentence has already been submitted for appeal to the Supreme Court of the Province of Buenos Aires. Its admissibility has been confirmed, and the case now awaits a profound review, with many hoping the man accused of sexual abuse receives a harsher punishment.
Both magistrates were involved in similar proceedings in 2011 when they sought to reduce the sentence of a preacher accused of abusing two adolescent girls, aged 14 and 16. At the time, they argued that the victims “were from a social class in which sexual permissiveness was acceptable at an early age.” And as if that were not enough, the same judges also softened the punishment of a man found guilty of killing his wife:
Piombo ya favoreció a otro abusador y tiene un juicio político pendiente http://t.co/ZYgxWfhjZj pic.twitter.com/0HjLBeKWRD
— La Nacion (@lanacioncom) May 20, 2015
Piombo indulged another abuser and has a pending impeachment against him.
Outrage was expressed across social media:
El fallo de los jueces Piombo y Sal Llagués da vergüenza. Muestran un Poder Judicial burocrático, arcaico y sin ningún tipo de sentido común — Florencio Randazzo (@RandazzoF) May 18, 2015
The decision by judges Piombo and Sal Llagués is embarrassing. It shows a justice system that is bureaucratic, outdated and without a shred of common sense.
#RT RT PARA ESTE INFRADOTADO “JUEZ” PIOMBO QUE LLAMA TRAVESTI A UN NIÑO DE 6 AÑOS, MERECE ESTAR PRESO!! pic.twitter.com/MywPkVvPmr
— Betty (@bettiana_ciel) May 18, 2015
This moronic “judge” Piombo who calls a six-year-old a transvestite deserves to be thrown in jail!
Meanwhile FALGBT president Esteban Paulón asserted:
“Pretender que la supuesta orientación sexual de la víctima de un abuso quite gravedad al hecho, o sea considerado un atenuante al momento de juzgar un caso de este tipo es discriminatorio, estigmatizante y violatorio de la Convención de los derechos del niño y la ley de Protección Integral a la infancia, al tiempo que cae en el lugar común de vincular la orientación sexual de una persona con un delito como es el abuso sexual, dos aspectos que no tienen ninguna relación.”
To claim that the supposed sexual orientation of a victim of abuse diminishes in any way the seriousness of the matter or constitutes an attenuating factor in passing judgement in the case is discriminatory and stigmatizing, and it violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Child Protection Act; at the same time it is misleading to link a person's sexual orientation to a felony such as sexual abuse, two completely unrelated factors.
The scandal also had repercussions in academia. Judge Piombo, who defended himself by saying he “was fulfilling his duty”, will not see his contract renewed in at least one of the universities where he teaches.
Students have asked that both judges be removed from any academic post:
Al Juez Piombo, que le bajó la pena a un violador. lo separaron de la Universidad de Mar del Plata: daba clases pic.twitter.com/4Jda2daKn5
— Gustavo Saldaña (@gustsaldana) May 20, 2015
Judge Piombo who reduced a sexual offender's sentence was fired from the Universidad del Mar del Plata where he taught.
Universitarios se movilizaron para exigir que se expulse de la UNLP a los jueces Piombo y Sal Llargués http://t.co/IMwULIu2QV
— Late Paternal (@latepaternal) May 20, 2015
University students mobilized to demand that judges Piombo and Sal Llargués be expelled from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata.


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Thailand Police Detains Student Protesters During Coup Anniversary · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Students gather in a plaza during the coup anniversary. They were later arrested by the police. Photo from Facebook page of LLTD
Dozens of students have been arrested in Thailand for holding protests during the first anniversary of the May 2014 coup. At the time of writing, 48 have been detained for publicly speaking out against the military-backed government.
The army launched a coup in 2014 to end the political turmoil in the country. It controlled the media and banned protests including the gathering of five or more people in public places. Before the end of 2014, it drafted an interim charter which became the basis in establishing a civilian government led by military appointees. The army chief, Prayut Chan-o-cha, was selected prime minister.
Despite prohibitions imposed by the army, many Thais, especially youth have called for the restoration of democracy in the country. They have consistently demanded the return of the free media, open elections, and civilian rule.
Banner says “Object the coup” rally @ Khon Kaen RT @moui: นศ.ดาวดิน ชูป้ายต่อต้านรัฐประหารในวัน #1AnniversaryThaiCoup pic.twitter.com/EPe3oqdV6J
— Zashnain Zainal (@bedlamfury) May 22, 2015
The army revoked martial law last April but it still retains almost unlimited powers in the government.
The iLaw research group cited some of the activities of the army in the past year which undermined human rights:
After the coup, at least 751 individuals were summoned by the NCPO [name of the military-backed government]. At least 424 were deprived of liberty. Some have been forced to undergo “attitude adjustment” to re-educate them about the necessity for the military to seize the power and then let go. Meanwhile, at least 163 individuals have been pressed with political charges. At least, 71 public activities were intervened or cancelled by the use of military force.
364 days after the coup, at least 428 people arrested, 124 civilian tried at Military Court http://t.co/lNstO8yUgk pic.twitter.com/6Zt58dhrGD
— iLawFX (@iLawFX) May 21, 2015
Journalist Saksith Saiyasombut criticized the excessive regulations of the army:
Not only is it like a bad teacher that expects its students only to obediently memorize stuff, but also like an overbearing nanny overlooking us at every step.
Below are some of the photos of students arrested by the police yesterday:
Cops say detained for ‘risky behavior’ RT @aofpressman: เบื้องต้นตำรวจยังไม่แจ้งข้อกล่าวหา เพราะมีพฤติกรรมสุ่มเสี่ยง pic.twitter.com/4RuAEeg94A
— Zashnain Zainal (@bedlamfury) May 22, 2015
13 Khon Kaen university students held for protesting against the May 22 coup http://t.co/ClYcTsF63m pic.twitter.com/FJXtQtyy05
— ThaiPBS English News (@ThaipbsEngNews) May 22, 2015
Police starts arresting nonviolent students!! @LLTD_TU #ThaiCoup #1AnniversaryThaiCoup pic.twitter.com/CS3lAW5bAI
— TH Students fr Democ (@TSCD_EN) May 22, 2015
Activists from Permas (students and youth of Patani) are also detained at police station http://t.co/j0ScsdWbEz pic.twitter.com/fDkYaC6XJ2
— Zashnain Zainal (@bedlamfury) May 22, 2015
Students said that cops didn't care about their activist friend who needs medical attention. http://t.co/42YnV1knSO pic.twitter.com/Wm09yvBBq4
— Zashnain Zainal (@bedlamfury) May 22, 2015
A group which calls itself Young People for Social-Democracy Movement (YPD) released a statement against the coup regime:
We cannot build a democratic society if we lack freedom, liberty, rights, justice, and reconciliation. We believe that peace in society will not be born out of a lack of resistance. Peace in the society will only be born out of equality and justice in terms of power, economics, and politics.
A year after the army launched a coup, Thailand is still suffering from political instability. The people wanted respite from the incessant squabbling of politicians but not at the cost of a military government which was quick to rescind civil liberties.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Mong Palatino


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This Mexican Author Says Languages Aren’t Straitjackets, but Tools to Start a Bilingual Conversation · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Mexican author Cristina Rivera Garza speaking to a panel at the 2015 LéaLA Spanish-language book fair in Los Angeles. Credit: Betto Arcos. Published with PRI's permission
This article and radio report by editor William Troop and producer Betto Arcos for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on May 19, 2015, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Cristina Rivera Garza is a Mexican writer and professor who has developed her career on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Her novels in Spanish have won literary awards in Mexico, and she’s taught writing both in Mexico and the United States.
So she knows what it’s like to work and write in both Spanish and English. Producer Betto Arcos caught up with her at LéaLA, the Spanish-language book fair in Los Angeles, and asked her what it's like being a published author in two languages, and how living on both sides of the border has affected her work. Here’s an edited transcript of their conversation.
Cristina Rivera Garza: I'm a Mexican author who's been living in the United States for the last 25, 26 years. I’m a Norteña in Mexico, I was born in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. This is the city on the other side of the border from Brownsville, Texas. And I've been living in San Diego, California, for a number of years on the other extreme of the border as well.
You know, most of my creative work, I've been publishing that in Spanish. Most of my academic work, I've published in English. And for a while that kind of division worked quite well. But for the last 7 years I've been teaching in the MFA program in creative writing at the University of California-San Diego, and I've been teaching in English mostly. No, not mostly, only. And so that difference, the fact that I saw myself as a Mexican author writing in Spanish and as a continental academic writing in English — all of that was somewhat subverted by this experience. Obviously, I've been here for such a long time that I've been writing also in English, things that I’ve decided not to publish. But that might be changing in the near future.
Betto Arcos: What do you mean subverted? What's that experience about?
CRG: Well, I’ve been very concerned with, and I want to maintain, my dialogue with Mexican literature, with Mexican authors, with Mexican readers as well. But living here for such a long time, I’ve had to be aware of the fact that we not only have Mexican readers on this side of the border but also Mexicans who've been reading both in English and Spanish. So for me it has become an issue of just plain awareness, of where I’m located and the kind of critical conversation that I would like to engage with. Based on that, I had to subvert my own way of thinking. You know, that difference between a Mexican author who publishes in Spanish, and an academic who can publish in both Spanish and English — it does make sense, and it’s kind of easy. But at the same time, it does not cover the complexity of our contemporary world, the geopolitics on which I’m located right now. So that has to change, and it has changed in fact.
BA: Is it fair to say that you have a thinking cap you put on when you write in English, and a thinking cap you use when you write in Spanish? What's the difference between the two?
CRG: That's a very interesting question, and a very hard one to answer. I thought that there was a difference until very recently, when I was forced to be aware of something. That is, I've been writing material in Spanish that once I get to read it very carefully, and once some translators have been trying to translate this into English, I realized that very often I'm writing this material both in English and Spanish, the original version. And that somehow that gets into the very DNA of the writing. So there is no special side or special compartment for each of these languages. They come in waves, they are totally intertwined. And it’s more a matter of with whom I want to have this conversation, rather than what kind of material I’m working with closely on my own.
So I've been writing bilingually for a number of years. But I've been publishing that in Spanish because that's the conversation that I've been fostering. And [now] I see the tremendous richness that comes to my own world by fostering the same kind of conversation with readers on this side of the border who might be reading both in Spanish and in English.
And I'm not talking about mastery of both languages. I'm talking about taking or borrowing aspects of English, and aspects of Spanish, and combining them in ways that are even to me ways that I’m not necessarily expecting.  And what I'm looking at right now is just to start fostering, and to engage actively with, a conversation with the men and women that I live with here in this country. I've been here for such a long time, and it seems to me I've been waiting, I’ve been slow to react and that's my time right now.
BA: You touch on something very interesting. Because when I write, when I try to say something, there are so many ways I can say it in English. And then I try and adapt it to Spanish, and sometimes it doesn’t work. What's your experience with that?
CRG: Yeah, but the thing is if you're trying to force that — well, that happens to me. If I don’t follow not only the language but the format, the structure, the syntax in which that thought or that specific construction came to me, then I get into a lot of trouble. And at times it’s so massive that I become paralyzed! And it’s much easier and much more organic when I just let it go, and I start to write in a way that seems to be more faithful to my own perception, and to the way in which my body reacts to the world that is surrounding me at that point.
So I guess that's the transformation that I'm talking about. Instead of looking at languages as straitjackets, as disciplinarian ways in which I have to behave, I'm taking what is more useful, what is more truthful to the kinds of things that I want to convey, to the kinds of materials that I want to share. And so I've been doing it, and I mean this might not be in perfect Spanish or it might not be in perfect English. But when we write we're not concerned about matters of mastery or dominion or power. When we write, we're talking about a deeper sense of communication, a deeper way of getting in contact with other human beings. So that's what concerns me right now. That kind of possibility.

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Dear Ukrainian Officials: Russian Security Services Thank You for Your Cooperation! · Global Voices
Anna Poludenko-Young

The Federal Security Service is allowed simplified access to data from Russian Internet services. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Given all the discord and conflict between Russia and Ukraine over the past year, one would expect Ukrainian officials to be very, very careful about their information security. But this is not so. It turns out that over 20% of Ukrainian government servants and state institutions are using free email accounts provided by Russian companies and hosted on Russian servers.
Why is this an issue? Using Russian email services grants the Russian security services and law enforcement easy access to Ukrainian official communications. With Ukraine struggling to win the open information war with Russia in the media, such negligence in internal government communications is surprising.
Ukrainians in general do not seem to see any problems with using Russian Internet services. According to research conducted by Ukrainian bank PrivatBank, 64% of its Ukrainian clients use Russian email services, 14% prefer Ukrainian, and another 14% use Gmail. Ukrainians also favor Russian social networks, with about 27 million Ukrainian accounts in VKontakte and about 11 million in Odnoklassniki.
All your emails belong to the FSB
A group of journalists from the Ukrainian investigative website texty.org.ua decided to draw the attention of Ukrainian officials to the potential dangers of using Russian email services—and to play a prank on the bureaucrats to raise awareness of the issue. Texty.org.ua had previously analyzed an open database of thousands of Ukrainian state and government emails (it only accounts for 2-3% of the total number), and compiled a list of all .ru-based emails they found—around 1700 of them.
Ivanna Kobeleva, a reporter for texty.org.ua, then selected 1159 .ru email addresses from the list and decided to check whether they were actually active, and whether their Ukrainian owners realized the precarious position their electronic communications were in. She created a fake email inbox for “FSB (Russia's Federal Security Service)” and sent unsuspecting Ukrainian state servants the following email.
Здравствуйте!
От имени ФСБ Российской Федерации благодарим Вас за то, что пользуетесь электронной почтой на российском почтовом домене.
Вся информация с Вашей электронной почты доступна Федеральной службе безопасности России.
В 2014 году ФСБ получило возможность по упрощенной процедуре официально получать данные с серверов любых интернет-служб, находящихся на российской территории. Все российские почтовые домены контролируются ФСБ.
На днях Роскомнадзор получил право проверять личную переписку пользователей социальных сетей, среди которых – “Одноклассники” и “ВКонтакте”, электронную почту и мессенджеры Агент.Mail.ru, ICQ, а также блог-платформы.
Спасибо за сотрудничество!
С уважением,
Александр Бортников,
Директор Федеральной службы безопасности Российской Федерации
Good Afternoon!
On behalf of the FSB of the Russian Federation we want to thank you for using email services with Russian domains.
All the information from your email inbox is available to the Federal Security Service of Russia.
In 2014 FSB was granted simplified access to the data on servers of any Internet service located on Russian territory. All Russian email domains are under FSB control.
Recently Roscomnadzor was granted the powers to track personal messages of Russian social media users. Among them are: Odnoklasniki, Vkontakte, messengers like ICQ, Agent.Mail.Ru and blog platforms.
Thank you for your cooperation!
Sincerely,
Alexander Bortnikov,
The head of the Federal Security Service of Russian Federation
To the dismay of the journalists, the parody “FSB” email received only 173 replies. Most of them were automatic messages that the email address was no longer active, along with a handful of replies providing a new email contact, and a few automatic receipt notices. The fate of most of the addresses remains a mystery.
But there were a few more personal (and clearly human) responses from Ukrainian officials, though some of them were quite baffling. For example, an email from an archival department of a local council in the Cherkasy region replied (hilariously) with “Thank you for your cooperation.” Another local council in the Chernihiv region said they were “always happy to cooperate,” though the reply came not from their old (Russian) inbox, but from a new (Ukrainian) one.
A handful of official contacts were a bit more critical of receiving an email from “the FSB.” A pension fund office in the south eastern Kyrovohrad region wrote back: “I don’t give two sh*ts. Without respect, Dmytro.” Another regional pension fund office in the western part of the country replied: “This is a spoof. Glory to Ukraine!”
The prank, which involved impersonating another country's secret service, is certainly unethical, but that seems to be part of the idea. It is eerily reminiscent of cases when state officials resort to impersonating activists to gain access to their networks and personal information—exactly the scenario the prankster journalists are hoping to avoid by raising Ukrainian authorities’ awareness.
What can Russia really access?
The Russian Federal Security Service already has simplified access to data transported by Russian ISPs and Russian Internet companies working with user content. On April 8, 2015 similar powers were granted to Russia's Internet regulator Roscomnadzor, giving its employees power to track the personal messages of Russian social media and email users. This includes email services in the .ru domain, Odnoklassniki, Vkontakte (both popular Russian social network websites), instant messengers such as ICQ and Agent.Mail.Ru, and many Russian blog platforms.
The resolution, part of an “anti-terrorist” legislation package signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, grants Roscomnadzor these “simplified information access” privileges as a step towards “protecting the rights of Russian citizens.” The changes allow Roskomnadzor to track received, sent, and delivered messages, as well as to analyze information about the sender. Another bonus is access to logs of users’ private actions online—that is, records that would normally be visible only to the users themselves. At the same time, Roskomnadzor emphasized that the legislation only grants them access to the metadata, but does not allow them to read the content of e-mails and online messages. To do that, they would need an official request from law enforcement forces engaged in an investigation.
The point of the texty.org.ua experiment, according to the journalists, is to continue raising awareness of the dangers of lax information and communication security policies of the Ukrainian state. With that in mind, they published the list of all .ru-based emails that belong to Ukrainian officials and implored their readers to write emails to at least some of them asking the owners to change their email providers and be more aware about who might be tracking their email exchanges. While this may generate some improvements, state officials and government bodies on all levels in Ukraine abandoned free web-based email altogether. Making every official use only government-provided email services and beefing up their security might be the best way to mitigate potential embarrassing information leaks.

author: Anna Poludenko-Young


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What Should Singapore’s Response to the Rohingya Refugee Crisis Be? · Global Voices
Kirsten Han

Immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh arrive in Langsa, East Aceh in Indonesia. At least 678 immigrants arrived on boats in poor health. Photo by Dodi Kurniawan, Copyright @Demotix (5/16/2015)
Singapore has remained aloof during Southeast Asia's Rohingya refugee crisis even as leaders of neighboring countries have been meeting to find solutions.
The Rohingya belong to a Muslim minority group in Myanmar but the government there has refused to recognize them as citizens. Since they are considered illegal immigrants, they are placed in several refugee camps while many have escaped to nearby countries to seek shelter and work. In the past month, Rohingya boat refugees were rejected by several Southeast Asian governments, decisions which triggered international uproar.
With thousands of Rohingya migrants stranded at sea, countries in Southeast Asia have belatedly been stirred into action. Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand gathered to discuss their response to the crisis with Malaysia and Indonesia agreeing to provide temporary shelter.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has also ordered search and rescue operations to locate migrant boats:
I have further ordered @tldm_rasmi and APMM to conduct search and rescue efforts on Rohingya boats. We have to prevent loss of life.
— Mohd Najib Tun Razak (@NajibRazak) May 21, 2015
Singapore, on the other hand, has declared its inability to take in any refugees. “As a small country with limited land, Singapore is not in a position to accept any persons seeking political asylum or refugee status, regardless of their ethnicity or place of origin,” a Ministry of Home Affairs spokesperson told the press.
This has long been Singapore's policy with regard to asylum seekers. A news report in 1978 covered then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's refusal to accept Vietnamese refugees in which he reportedly said: “You've got to grow calluses on your heart or you just bleed to death.”
In 2012, 40 Rohingya refugees rescued at sea were refused entry into Singapore.
Glendon Giam in Singapore points out the lengths to which Singapore had previously gone to block refugees from entering its territory:
Timely reminder: in 1975, Singapore had “Operation Thunderstorm” to prevent South Vietnamese refugees landing, with lethal force authorised.
— Glendon Giam (@blueproto) May 14, 2015
However, Karen Gwee tweeted that some Vietnamese refugees of 1978 had actually been accepted:
Absolutely no reason for Singapore not to take in refugees – we did it in 1978 http://t.co/2X8jea8Mgq
— Karen (@karen_gwee) May 17, 2015
Those refugees were given shelter in a relatively well-maintained refugee camp, but only if they could be resettled in another country within 90 days.
Other photos from this era are being shared on Facebook by former Vietnamese refugee Lam-Khanh Nguyen.
The latest crisis has led to some Singaporeans calling for the rich island nation to offer shelter – even if temporary – to the desperate refugees.
On Facebook, Miak Siew questions the spending priorities of Singapore:
Folks – you ask me if we host refugees where is the money going to come from.
i ask you – Where does the millions of dollars spent on fireworks for National Day every year come from?
you are happy to burn millions shooting lights into the sky, but you are not happy saving lives? Says a lot about our priorities
Singaporean artist Joshua Chiang of Cerealbox Studios designed this poster in support of the Rohingya refugees. Republished with permission
Meanwhile, some Singaporeans are supporting the government's hands off approach, fearing that resettling refugees will be a drain on resources.
Wei Wen explains on Facebook why he understands the position taken by the government:
The much bigger point is where does this all lead to? How will they eventually be resettled? Can they really assimilate and integrate into the society? Are we going to house them for decades and beyond? How long before our generosity is worn thin and we realize that there is no other option but continue? Look at the realities in all these options seriously and tell me that our government should not have the heart to protect the best interests of its people?
While political blogger Alex Au proposes that countries should deploy their navies towards Myanmar to intercept people smugglers and and other victims of human trafficking:
Patrolling about 300 – 400 km of coast is a lot easier than scouring half the Andaman Sea looking for smugglers’ boats. Picking people up before they get hungry or thirsty reduces the amount of costly medical intervention required.
The navies should intercept and check all boats leaving Burmese waters. Refugees or trafficked persons found on board should be removed and the boat seized. Traffickers and boat operators should of course be taken into detention.

author: Kirsten Han


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Data Set Demonstrates Attacks on Turkish Opposition Party’s Campaign Offices Are Systematic · Global Voices
Erkan Saka

The Pro-Kurdish HDP (People's Democratic Party) has been maintaining a successful campaign ahead of Turkey's General Election on June 6 both online and offline. For some there is an uncomfortable link between this fact and a spate of attacks on their offices across the country.
The party's co-President Selahattin Demirtaş has promoted an attractive and unifying rhetoric in his campaign speeches, reminiscent, say some, of a younger Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey's current president. Erdoğan's AKP (Justice and Development Party) has dominated politics in the country for over a decade now, and is taking the challenge from HDP very seriously.
One of the most restrictive aspects of the electoral system in Turkey is the 10% nationwide threshold for parties. Despite continuous emphasis on the importance of elections and their centrality in a democratic system, AKP has never pushed to decrease this threshold and allow broader participation.
HDP is one of the major victims of the threshold. In order to get seats in the parliament, their deputies in previous elections were nominated as independents to bypass the threshold.
However, the way the electoral system is structured means that this leads to a smaller number of seats for Kurdish cities, allowing the remaining seats to go to AKP.
This time round, HDP is attempting to take on the threshold in a move that could crush AKP's majority in the parliament.
An election simulator here demonstrates that HDP's crossing of the 10% threshold would not affect other opposition parties likely to enter the parliament — MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) and CHP (Republican People's Party) — but having a fourth party in the parliament could be a major blow for the AKP. A simpler simulator also shows the same results.
Election arithmetic has thus ensured that voting for HDP is the best possible protest vote for anyone seeking to prevent AKP controlling the legislature. HDP also appears to have transformed itself from a single-issue, regional party by campaigning on an array of issues important to citizens across the country, rather than just the Kurdish minority.
In the meantime, there have been increasing reports of attacks on HDP campaign offices all over Turkey, some of which have involved explosives causing injuries to party workers. Representatives of the ruling AKP have strongly condemned the attacks.
A group of HDP supporters used Google Map Engine to create a map that showed where these attacks occurred.
Later, Efe Kerem Sözeri created a basic data set that is open to the public by using Google Spreadsheets, mapping attacks against HDP and other political parties.
Based on the data sets prepared, the graphic above shows attacks on the offices of all parties between February1 and May 17, with those on HDP (purple) intensifying sharply in the run up to the vote.
It appears that whoever is targeting this election's wildcard party is doing so systematically.
This post is the second in a series looking at how online tools are making a contribution to the electoral process in Turkey. For further reading, please see: Covering Turkey's General Election, One Tool at a Time.

author: Erkan Saka


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On Dubai’s Roads, Women Hop on Harleys and Shatter Stereotypes · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

A female rider on International Female Ride Day in Dubai. Credit: Amanda Fisher. Published with PRI's permission
This article and radio report by Shirin Jaafari for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on May 18, 2015, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
“When I ride, I feel like I own the world.”
That's how Dana Adam describes her experience riding a motorcycle — a Harley-Davidson, no less — across the expansive highways of Dubai.
Dana Adam isn't her real name; she's using a pseudonym because she's from a powerful, conservative family in Yemen, where riding a motorcycle was just a dream. “It's not acceptable in Yemen,” she says. “No lady rides on a bike. My family never let me do it.”
Hitting the road again after a quick pit stop for karak chai. Credit: Amanda Fisher. Published with PRI's permission
But in Dubai, Dana is following her dream — and she's not the only one. There's a whole group of female riders in Dubai, and reporter Amanda Fisher decided to spend some time with them. “I realized how many strong women there are here that defy the cliché archetype of the oppressed Arab woman,” Fisher says.
She tells the story of another rider, Shima Mehri, an Iranian woman who had wanted to ride a motorcycle since she was a little girl. Women in Iran are allowed to drive, but it's illegal for them to ride motorcycles in public.
Mehri and her husband moved to Dubai when she was 29, and that's when she finally got her motorcycle licence. “As soon as I reached Dubai, I said ‘OK, this is the time,'” she told Fisher.
But things didn't go smoothly when Mehri told her mother about her decision. She was disappointed, and worried about the reaction Mehri's riding would stir up in the family.
Shima Mehri leading the pack of Dubai Ladies of Harley riders on International Female Ride Day. Credit: Amanda Fisher. Published with PRI's permission
But not only did Mehri's mother come around, she confessed to her daughter that she, too, once rode on motorbikes. “[Mehri] got a message from her mother with a photo, and in the photo was her mom at age 18, also on a motorcycle,” Fisher says.
Fisher says the Harley-Davidson chapter in Dubai is a closely-knit community. The riders go out in mixed groups for safety, but also because riding together is fun.
Dubai Ladies of Harley riders riding back to Dubai after marking International Female Ride Day two. Credit: Amanda Fisher. Published with PRI's permission
“The Harley gang is kind of like their extended family,” she says.
It's also because many members are expatriates living in Dubai. “It's such a melting pot,” Fisher says of the group. “There are Russians, Polish, Germans, Moroccans, Lebanese.”
A Dubai Ladies of Harley rider on the road during International Female Ride Day. Credit: Amanda Fisher. Published with PRI's permission
As for the scorching heat, Fisher says the riders go out earlier in the morning as the summer gets closer and closer. But they also found a novel way to get around the heat: ice jackets.
The jackets that have a lining into which riders can slip ice, which keeps them cool for a couple of hours.
“It would take a lot to keep these women off the road,” Fisher says.


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Peru Sets Up First Bilingual Spanish-Awajun Civil Registrar · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Delegation of the Awajun community during a visit to the Peruvian Congress. Image taken from Flickr and published under license (CC BY 2.0).
May 21 marks the National Day of Cultural and Linguistic Diverisity, and to commemorate the occasion, the Peruvian National Registrar of Identification and Civil Status (Reniec) launched the Awajun-Spanish bilingual civil registrar:
Las actas generadas de esta manera tendrán el mismo valor oficial que las actas tradicionales en castellano, y sus copias certificadas podrán obtenerse en cualquier agencia o Plataforma Virtual Multiservicios (PVM) del Reniec.
The documents thus generated will have the same official validity as the documents in Spanish, and the authenticated copies will be available in any agency or at the Virtual Multiservices Platform of Reniec.
The Awajún are an ethnic group from the Peruvian Amazon region. Their language has 70,000 Peruvian speakers in the departments of Amazonas, Cajamarca, Loreto and San Martín.
On Twitter, users shared remarks and pictures of this new registrar:
#RENIEC implementó el primer registro civil bilingüe (castellano – awajún) en línea de América http://t.co/QJlvlgxxBj pic.twitter.com/fCQjvZYpQJ
— RENIEC PERU (@reniecdigital) Mayo 20, 2015
RENIEC set up the online first bilingual civil registrar (Spanish – Awajun) in America.
Tengo clases de Awajún. Lo había olvidado. https://t.co/NlFQBYxXo0
— Vanessa (@LastSpica) Mayo 22, 2015
I have Awajun lessons. I had forgotten.
Nuevo Registro Civil Bilingüe Awajún tiene la innovación que sus registros, además de manuales, se realizarán en… http://t.co/5JXCOvHV2N
— Carlo Magno Salcedo (@carlomagno21) Mayo 22, 2015
New Awajun bilingual civil registrar has something new: its registers, besides being manual, will be…

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Southeast Asia Migration Routes and Statistics · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The International Organization for Migration has released a map showing the routes taken by boat refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar when they sought shelter in several Southeast Asian countries.
As of May 19, 2015, the IOM estimated that 4,000 refugees are still stranded in the sea while 3,200 have already landed in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Malaysia and Indonesia have initially rejected the refugees but they are now ready to rescue those who have been victimized by traffickers.


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It’s a Small (Social Media) World, After All · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Kyoto resident and Kyoto Journal associate editor Lucinda Cowing experienced a moment of social media serendipity recently.
Cowing wrote on her Facebook page (which is private, but quoted with permission below):
Woaaa, talk about “it's a small world” moment. I had a suspicion the girl opposite me was taking a sneaky phone picture on the Eiden the other weekend. Sure enough, that photo appeared on Instagram, and now, a friend of mine living in Beijing sees it and says he's sitting opposite the Taiwanese girl who took it.
Next stop
A photo posted by tammytu (@tammytu) on
Cowing's friend in Beijing then posted a photo on Facebook of Instagram user tammytu, who snapped the photo during a recent sightseeing trip to Kyoto.
Photo: Will Wilcox
The two women are now friends, according to Cowing.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Leaked Emails Reveal Details of China’s Online ‘Youth Civilization Volunteers’ · Global Voices
Patrick Wong

China's Communist Youth League sets the target of recruiting more than 10 million civilization volunteers to spread positive messages online.
On May 17, a hacker nicknamed XiaoLan leaked a package of emails revealing details of the recruitment of college students by the Shanghai League of Communist Youth, one of the most significant Chinese Communist Party organizations under the single party regime. The students serve as voluntary online commentators that spread positive energy and “purify” the internet.
The existence of the commentators is not a state secret: the latest round of massive recruitment was revealed in a document issued by the China Communist Youth League in February 2015. The League set out to recruit no less than 20 percent of its members to serve as “civilization volunteers” by spreading positive energy and acting as models for “good netizens”.
The League had more than 89 million members at the end of 2013, which means it must recruit around 18 million “civilization volunteers” to meet its target. The characters depicted in the sketch at the top of this post are two figurative examples of “civilization volunteers” posted by the Youth League in April on China's Twitter-like Weibo.
Pro-government Internet commentators are a constant target for criticism by China's netizens, who give them the sarcastic nickname of “wumaodang” or “50 Cent Party” in English, since it is said that they receive a typical payment of half a Chinese Yuan per post, equivalent to 8 cents in U.S. dollar terms.
Though the nature of their work is similar, the “civilization volunteers” are political loyalists who do not receive payment at all. The hacker's revelation shows that the League mobilized its members for Internet-civilizing via its college sub-branches.
The leak is a zipped package of around 11.49 gigabytes in size, consisting of nearly 10,000 emails with a number of attachments. Most of the emails address the routine activities of the Youth League in local colleges and high schools, detailing statistics of League activities, how many league cadres are in each college, reports on student opinion about recent social events, and manuscripts from leaders’ speeches.
Within this vast archive, some emails with subject lines such as “Form of Establishing Youth League Online Civilization Volunteers Division in Shanghai’s Colleges” and “Registration Form of Online Civilization Volunteers’ Basic Information,” provide an interesting glimpse into the operation of youth civilization volunteers in higher education institutions.
Some of the attachments contain spreadsheets counting “civilization volunteers” in each college and listing personal information — job titles, QQ, WeChat and Weibo accounts, as well as mobile phone numbers.
Other files specifically recorded students’ publicity assignments on Weibo and WeChat. Their responsibilities involve posting enthusiastic comments on key events and themes. The volume of views, reposts and comments for each post are subsequently recorded in spreadsheets to monitor performance. Tasks vary from publicizing “Xi Jinping's speech” and “My China's Dream” to “commemorate the Nanjing massacre.” The term “China's Dream” is a political theme under Xi's leadership to unify the nation and the people.
A document “Notice of Establishing Youth League Online Propaganda Division in Shanghai’s Colleges” lists six responsibilities for the online propaganda team:
建设高校共青团网络宣传员队伍，重点在于发挥队伍成员的作用，为构建清朗网络空间、巩固壮大网上主流思想舆论作出积极贡献。职责如下。
1、按照统一部署，踊跃参与全团“青年好声音”网络文化行动，集中传播“青年好声音”，在网络上大力唱响青年思想引导的主旋律，形成强劲的青春正能量。
2、对团中央、团市委、本高校团组织指定的内容在个人微信、微博、QQ、飞信、人人网及青年学生聚集度较高的论坛等网络空间进行转发、评论。
3、对团中央官方微博、团中央学校部官方微博、团学小微公共微信，团市委官方微博、公共微信，以及本高校团组织官方微博、公共微信加关注，对其平台上发布的内容进行转发、评论。
4、对个人接收到的各类媒体平台上的正面内容在个人网络新媒体工具上进行转发、评论。
5、按要求到指定的网络空间参与跟帖、转帖、评论工作，及时发声，自觉针对网络上的错误言论和思潮进行正面信息传播，壮大网上主流思想舆论。
6、每人每周转帖评论量不少于5条。
To establish youth league online propaganda division in Shanghai’s colleges, we should emphasize the function of team members, and make a contribution to building a clean Internet space and strengthening the mainstream of thoughts and sentiments. Responsibilities include the following:
Yang Kangling, like many China's netizens, who despise pro-government Internet commentators, raged at the phenomenon of students blindly distributing propaganda:
现在的学生缺乏好奇心想象力和批判性思维，甚至有些大学还组织一批学生充当五毛“网评员”，以“稳定压倒一切”的口令去歌功颂德，对社会的黑暗一面给予漠视，无形中是在维护社会丑陋，把批判社会黑暗面的人说成汉奸美分等等，甚至把这些情况说是负能量。导致这个社会基本的正义感基本沦陷。
Now students lack curiosity, imagination and critical thought. Some colleges even organise flocks of students to work as “Internet commentators.” In this way “stability crushes everything” to sing praises while remaining indifferent about the darker sides of society, unconsciously defending its ugliness. [They] insult people who criticize these dark sides as traitors of [China's] society – meifen [meaning “US cent” in English – a term used often groundlessly to suggest netizens who support democratic values are receiving money from the USA.] and take social criticism as negative energy. The basic sense of justice in society is collapsed as a result.
Twitter user Jian Alan Huang believes the civilization volunteers are “more harmful” than the 50 Cent Party, precisely because they fully believe in what they are doing:
网络文明志愿者就是小逼养时代的红卫兵，虽然换了个叫法，但同样代表着为红色政权冲锋陷阵的炮灰。这玩意儿比五毛害人得多，这将再一次使整整一代人成为毫无思考能力的废物和不学无术、横行霸道的人类公敌。
— Jian Alan Huang (@hnjhj) May 18, 2015
Online civilization volunteers are just Red Guards from that f***ing era [the Cultural Revolution, 1966-76]. Although they have a new name, they are still the cannon fodder in the fight for the red regime. They are more harmful than the 50 Cent Party. A whole generation will lose the ability to think and learn and eventually become bullies and enemies of humankind.
The government mouthpiece People's Daily reported on April 16 that the recruitment of civilization volunteers was proceeding at pace in many provinces, including Jiangxi, Hunan, Henan, Guangdong, Hubei, Gansu, Xinjiang, Hebei and Anhui.

author: Patrick Wong


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Region-wide Presidential Term Limits for West Africa? Not So Fast. · Global Voices
Demba Kandeh

President of the Gambia Yahya Jammeh. He has been in power since 1994. UN photo by Erin Siegal. Used under Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 2.0.
West African leaders meeting in Accra, Ghana, have dropped the idea of instituting a two-presidential-term limit across the region, thanks to the opposition of The Gambia and Togo, the only member states without term limits. Throughout most of West Africa, states’ constitutions prevent presidents from serving more than two terms.
Last year, Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore was ousted when he tried to change the constitution to stay in office after 27 years in power.
President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia seized power in a military coup in 1994 and had since won four presidential elections. Domestic and international election observers, including observers from the African Union (AU) and Commonwealth Secretariat have always described the election as “free fair and peaceful”. However, in the run up to the last presidential election (in November 2011), the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) declined to send election observers to The Gambia, arguing that the elections will not be “free and fair”.
President Faure Gnassingbe, on the other hand, gained the Togolese presidency in 2005 after the demise of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, who took power in a coup in 1967. Last month, Mr Gnassingbe, now 48 years old, won a contest marred by opposition protests, though the AU and ECOWAS described the election as “free and fair”.
According to Reuters, Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Hannah Tetteh, said that the proposal was put on the agenda at the meeting in Accra, but the “dissenting view (from Togo and The Gambia) became the majority view at the end of the day”, Tetteh explained.
People throughout West Africa have vented their anger online about the abandonment of region-wide term limits. While some are still optimistic, others are disappointed and outraged, especially given the widespread sentiment that the region has made difficult progress toward adopting such checks and balances on executive state power.
Gambian Internet user Sanna Camara was unhappy with the summit’s outcome, wonderng how 16 heads of state could make such an important decision while ignoring the wishes of millions of West Africans:
Where's the voice of ECOWAS citizens in decisions such as the ones that just took place in Accra?
Whatever happens to the ECOWAS of the People's dream?
How could 16 ECOWAS citizens (call them heads of state) take certain crucial decision without the voice of hundreds of millions of her people?
No wonder the economic integration process and the single currency project (Eco) suffered a staggering slow process of realization…
Ignorant and self serving leaders, who became leaders by chance or dictators by design are the ones expected to take our dreams forward… I am not a historian but I understand that unity as we yearn for in Africa today cannot be realized if countries are not willing to relax their stiff sovereignty muscles which they flex in the name of their people and states, to reflect on the implications of present day decisions over future prospects for their people…
Al Amin Jahaten replied cynically:
Well, what do you expect when the power of the state – the power to make decisions on behalf of the citizens – is in the hands of ‘legitimate’ criminals, rogues and thieves who legalise their powers with the votes of the ‘educated illiterates and ignorant'….
Nshomwanmomtanla was surprised that dissenting views from two countries could become the “majority view”. Commenting on Facebook, he wrote:
how did a dissenting view by 2 countries become a majority view in a regional summit that had more than 4 countries in attendance? were there abstentions?
Alhagie Jobe echoed similar concerns:
Only two nations should not hold all 15 nation bloc to ransom. A vote should have been conducted and the majority should carry the vote. How can only two nations say no against 13 other nations and it stand. In fact, the leaders where just acting as sheep in wolf clothing. All of them did not support it but where pretending as if they are.
Ona Victor Obinna expressed a certain hopelessness:
Yaya Jammeh and Faure Gnassigbe are recipes for political instability in the West Africa sub region, yet the other heads of statement couldn't caution and control their power drunk minds. It's a shame.
Thierno Ba had a warning for ECOWAS:
I might add we don't wanna hear any condemnation of any eventual coup against those despots.
Hassan Matia wondered how a country like The Gambia can be part of a forum about democracy:
What do you expect telling a thief to investigate itself. What the heck was Gambia doing there in the first place? Gambia is not qualified to talk about human right or democracy.
Modou Joof thought that the regional bloc is joking, asking how the views of two heads of state supplanted the interests of 13 nations:
How can the views of only 2 of 15 States become a ‘majority view'? We knew the whole bloc was pretending, an insult to the intelligence of over 300 million citizens of the community.
Some Internet users, however, such as Adisa A. Alkebulan, argued that leaders should serve as long as the people want them to:
Presidents should serve for as long as the people will have them. One term or 10 as long as they serve at the pleasure of their people. But they should not impose themselves on an unwanting people or by exralegal or military means. And we shouldn't reject a president because Europeans have trained us into believing in the divinity of 2 terms. Having said that, most euro/America serving African presidents aren't worthy of a single term
“Why change them if they are working hard?” asked Juneil Bryte:
Allow Africa learn their own form of democracy. Stop forcing us to change our presidents after 2 terms. If they are working hard y change them? This is what the west and America use to destroy us. Do we always have to be like them. This is Africa. Allow us..
While the debate about presidential term limits continues online, it's unlikely to have any effect on the decision reached at the summit. The citizens of The Gambia and Togo will probably have to rely on other means, should they wish to pursue democratic change.

author: Demba Kandeh


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After Earthquakes, Nepal Faces Looming Danger of Landslides · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Landslides in Sindhupalchok. Image by Deepesh Das Shrestha. Used with permission
It was predicted. After the 7.8-magnitude Great Earthquake on 25 April and the big aftershocks – 6.7 magnitude on 26 April and 7.3 magnitude on 12 May – the fragile hills have been vulnerable to landslides. Usually happening due to heavy rain during the monsoon season, Nepal has seen a series of landslides during the quakes and in the aftermath, the Kali Gandaki landslide being the latest.
That landslide, which ensued around wee hours on 24 May, was neither due to heavy rains nor a major earthquake. According to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the slope, which was loosened by the earthquake and aftershocks, gave way with no apparent trigger.
Nepali Times editor Kunda Dixit tweeted:
Kali Gandaki landslide shows monsoon rains, major earthquake not needed to block Himalayan river Site is 100km west of April 25 #NepalQuake
— Kunda Dixit (@kundadixit) May 24, 2015
By the morning the blocked Kali Gandaki River had resulted into a landslide dam.
Nepal Police tweeted:
कालिगण्डकी थुनिन गई १५० मि. गहिराई, १ कि.मि लम्बाई, १०० मि. चौडाई पानिले डुबेको । खुलाउने पहल भैरहेको, कुनै मानबिय क्षति नभएको ।
— Nepal Police (@NepalPoliceHQ) May 24, 2015
150 meters deep, 1 kilometer long, 100 meters wide [piece of land] has blocked the flow of the Kali Gandaki [River]. Efforts initiated to drain the water, no human casualties reported.
Like in the earlier case of a massive landslide in Sindhupalchok last summer, where an engineer Kapil Dhital (@bewitchkapil) tweeted live from the site, Gokul Chhetri (@gocoolchhetri) tweeted live from the scene.
कालीगण्डकी थुनिएर पुरै तालमा परिणत भएको छ अझै पहिरो जान रोकिएको छैन। छिट्टै पानीको बाध फुट्ने संभावना छैन pic.twitter.com/y2Hhv6KB3I
— म्याग्देली भाइ (@gocoolchhetri) May 24, 2015
Kali Gandaki [River] has been blocked, turning into a lake. Landslide has not stopped yet. No immediate possibility of dam explosion.
यहि ठाउँ(बैसरी) हो जहाँ शुक्रबारको पहिले बिस्ताबितलाइ हिजो मात्र उद्दार गरिएको थियो तर आज त्यो ठाउ पुरै सकियो pic.twitter.com/XMLuCEReaJ
— म्याग्देली भाइ (@gocoolchhetri) May 24, 2015
This is the place (Baisari) where the displaced were rescued this Friday, but today this place is gone.
A high alert was issued and the 144 megawatt Kali Gandaki A Hydroelectric Power Station was shut down.
कालीगण्डकी ए को उत्पादन बन्द , ड्याममा उच्च सतर्कता pic.twitter.com/3FoPFLfN89
— Narendra K Shrestha (@NarendraDaju) May 24, 2015
[Electricity] production halted at Kali Gandaki A, high alert at the dam.
The landslide buried 25 houses in Baisari, but no deaths or injuries were reported. Given the possibility of the bursting of the landslide dam, the surrounding and seven districts downstream were asked to stay alert by the Flood Forecasting division of Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.
The imminent danger subsided when the water started flowing over the landslide dam after 16 hours.
अबस्था बिस्तारै सामान्य बन्दै। #धन्यवाद भगवान हामी लगाए हाम्रो बेनिलाई बचाइदिनु भएकोमा। pic.twitter.com/nCuLZDgvqg
— म्याग्देली भाइ (@gocoolchhetri) May 24, 2015
Condition slowly normalizing. Thank God for saving us and our Beni.
Beni Bazaar, a picturesque town located at the confluence of Kali Gandaki and Myagdi River, had been vacated at the onset of landslide.
After the earthquake, 547 landslides have occurred in 19 districts, as reported by online portal Onlinekhabar.
The districts at high risk – Rasuwa and Gorkha – have witnessed 160 and 135 landslides, respectively. Similarly, Dhading and Sindhupalchok have had 77 and 62 cases of landslides.
A gruesome video of a landslide at Rasuwa posted online shows how dangerous the phenomenon can be.
Earlier, on the day of Great Earthquake on 29 April, the whole Langtang Village was washed away by a landslide killing all 200 inhabitants of the village.
Likewise, scores of people were buried in the earthquake induced landslide on the Araniko Highway, the road linking Kathmandu to Tibet.
A preliminary landslide susceptibility map created by Dr. Tom Robinson of University of Canterbury in New Zealand shows areas of greatest chance of landslide occurrence. They include major river valleys of Central Nepal – Kali Gandaki, Marsyangdi, and Trishuli Rivers as well as parts of Sunkoshi River catchment.
Likewise, a second map created by Dr. Rob Parker of Cardiff University says that landslides are also expected in the foothills, particularly north of Chitwan.
Landslide in Sindhupalchok. Image by Deepesh Das Shrestha. Used with permission
At these sites, there is constant fear of landslides blocking the rivers resulting into landslide dams. The dams while blocked are feared to cause inundation in the upstream and on bursting have the possibility of washing away the downstream communities.
The Landslide Blog advises monitoring the rapid change in the flow of all rivers and minimising risk by positioning a spotter at any landslide dam formed with a communications link to all villages downstream. It also suggests maintaining a clear protocol for communities to move to higher ground in case of a dam failure.
Abiding by these will not only make the residents living in the areas aware and alert but will also give ample time to communities living downstream to save themselves from flash floods.

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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Bangladesh Wants ‘Third Gender’ Hijras to Serve as Traffic Police · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

Hijras are celebrating one year of acceptance as a third gender in Bangladesh. Images by SK Hasan Ali. Copyright Demotix (10/11/2014)
The Bangladesh government is planning to recruit hijras, who have officially been recognized as a separate gender in Bangladesh since 2013, as traffic police in an attempt to rehabilitate and offer them new employment.
Hijra is a feminine gender identity that some people who are born male or intersex adopt, often labeled as transgender by the West. The government's initiative to hire them as traffic police has received high praise from Bangladeshi netizens.
Blogger Arif Jebtik saw this step as sign of the country moving in a positive direction:
হিজড়াদের এই নিয়োগ চিন্তা রাষ্ট্র হিসেবে মানবিক হয়ে উঠার পথে একটি ক্ষুদ্র কিন্তু অতিশয় গুরুত্বপূর্ণ পদক্ষেপ। প্রথম দিকে এই প্রজেক্টটি হয়তো পুরো সফল হবে না, হিজড়াদেরকে সামাজিক ভাবে অবস্থান দেয়ার ক্ষেত্রে অনেক বাঁধা-বিপত্তি আসবে, কলিগদের মাঝে অসন্তোষ হবে, পথের মানুষ হয়তো সহজে তাঁদেরকে সিরিয়াসলি নিতে যাবেন না-তবে আমি আশাবাদী এসব ঝুটঝামেলা শেষ হয়ে এটি একটি সুন্দর উদ্যোগ হয়ে উঠবে।
Recruiting Hijras in police department is a small but an important step for the country to become more humanitarian. At the first phase the project may not be successful, hijras will face lots of obstacle to gain their social status, there will be disappointments among colleagues. People may not be take them seriously. But I hope they will overcome all barriers and it will turn out to be a great initiative.
Twitter user Harun ur Rashid welcomed the government plan:
#Hijras to be recruited as traffic police in #Bangladesh. A very welcome step by #government. http://t.co/R5xHDiju2y pic.twitter.com/w1zxl5I1mH
— Harun ur Rashid (@Chhokanu) May 20, 2015
Hijras face widespread discrimination in Bangladesh and have trouble finding work. Ex-banker Syed Ashraf Ali wrote in an op-ed in the Financial Express:
Denied of employment opportunities, the hijras are forced to eke out a living by doing things that are often not to our liking. Many take to extortion of money by disrupting work or creating nuisance in public places. Some, however, perform at ceremonies while others turn to begging or sex work.
Rubait Saimum cautioned netizens from praising the government's initiative before hearing the practical details:
[…] যারা দুই দিন আগেও রাস্তায় চাদাবাজি করত তারা কিভাবে ট্রাফিক কন্ট্রোল করবে তা ভাবার বিষয়, সাধারন ট্রাফিক পুলিশের ট্রেনিং বাইরে আর কি কি ট্রেনিং এর আওতায় আনা হচ্ছে তা খতিয়ে দেখা দরকার আর এটা কতটুকু বাস্তবায়ন যোগ্য আর বাস্তবিক তাও ভাবা উচিত শুধু প্রশংসা আর মারহাবা শোনার জন্য কোন সিদ্ধান্ত সরকারের নেয়া উচিত হবে না।
[…] Only days ago hijras were snatching money through threats and different activities on the streets. So, we need to think how they can control traffic in road or get respect. We also need to understand which types of training they will get along with the general police training. Moreover, we also need to think whether this initiative is realistic enough to be implemented successfully and how would it be more realistic. The government can not take any thoughtless decision only to get praise.
Dev Saha thought that hijras will do better than the average traffic police. For example, he mentioned how two hijras captured two of the men who had attacked and killed blogger Washikur Rahman in the street in March as they fled from the murder. Saha wrote in the Dhaka Tribune:
Transgender people might do better job than regular Bangladeshi police as evidenced by the Washikur murder incident. Only they could catch the attackers with their bare hands. Shameful indeed for the well fed Bangladeshi Police!
The department of social services estimates that there are over 10,000 hijras in Bangladesh. Since the 2012-2013 fiscal years, the government has allocated about 9 crore taka (US$1.15 million) to the hijra skills development program.
Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is one of the most unlivable cities in the world, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, and its extreme traffic congestion contributes a lot to this fame. The city simply can’t handle the increasing volumes of traffic, and it is a source of stress for many. There's hope that as traffic police, hijras will be able to contribute to reducing the traffic congestion.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


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Philippines’ Deadliest Ever Factory Fire Linked to Lax Labor Standards · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

The Kentex factory facade with the infamous grilled windows that prevented the trapped workers from escaping the building during the fire. Photo Credits: Tudla Productions
A fire in a sandal factory in a northern Manila suburb claimed the lives of 72 workers, mostly women, who were trapped in a two-story building on May 13. It is being called the deadliest factory fire in Philippine history. The owner of the factory, Kentex Manufacturing Incorporated, employs 200-300 workers in the production of rubber slippers, including “Havanas”, an imitation of the flip-flops brand Havaianas.
According to an independent fact-finding team led by the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER), the Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD), and the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), the fire began in the ground floor after welding sparks from the factory gate, which was being repaired, ignited highly flammable and improperly stored chemicals placed on the floor.
Relatives of the Kentex factory fire victims wait in line to view the bodies hoping they will be able to identify their loved ones. The bodies are charred beyond recognition. Photo Credits: Tudla Productions.
The hazardous chemicals lacked proper labels and workers were not informed about the danger. Though the government certified Kentex's full compliance with safety standards in 2014, the factory had no fire alarms, no sprinklers, and no fire exits. According to the fact-finding team, “workers who had been working for years in Kentex have not experienced any fire and safety drill conducted by the management”.
With the gate for trucks locked, employees only had access to a single exit at the time of the fire. Even the windows were blocked by metal grills and chicken wire—put in place to prevent workers from stealing products made inside the factory. IOHSAD advocacy officer Nadia de Leon shares the testimonies of Kentex workers and those in the vicinity of the factory during the fire:
Of the 72 dead bodies, 69 were retrieved on the second floor. Thus majority of the dead workers were trapped in the second floor… Witnesses even saw the workers on the second floor shouting, but they couldn’t open the windows, they couldn’t escape because of the grills.
Photo Credits: Kilusang Mayo Uno
Nadia de Leon also highlights how the government of President Benigno Aquino III shares accountability for the May 13 tragedy. So far, officials’ response has not inspired much confidence, such as the knee-jerk reaction of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), which responded to the fire by assuring the public that Kentex complied with safety regulations:
The DOLE has a big responsibility for the tragedy. This is especially because Labor Sec. Rosalinda Baldoz admitted that their office’s inspection of Kentex eight months ago had the result of the factory’s being compliant with safety standards. This shows how unreliable and questionable their system of inspecting factories is.
According to journalist Tonyo Cruz, the Kentex fire is but the latest in a series of workplace fires and related incidents that have claimed the lives of many workers since 2010:
Workers group express sympathy for the victims of the Kentex factory fire. Photo Credits: Tudla Productions.
The recent horrific incident in Manila has raised concerns not only about health and safety conditions in factories across the country, but also the problems of contractualization and low wages. The majority of Kentex's workers, for instance, are considered independent contractors—they graduate to “casual” employee after 10 years on the job, and only attain “regular” worker status after a whopping 20 years.
Workers, moreover, revealed to the fact-finding team that they received a daily wage of Php 202 to P220 (about $5), depending on their years on the job—far below the P466 ($11) daily minimum wage for private-sector workers in metropolitan Manila. There are also workers hired on a piece-rate basis who work for 12 hours a day with no formal contracts.
Kentex workers, relatives of the fire victims, and supporters hold a vigil in front of the factory during the May 18 “National Day of Mourning”. Photo Credits: Vencer Crisostomo
For writer and teacher Candy Cruz Datu, the sorry condition of Filipinos who are forced to accept unjust working conditions just to survive is an indictment of the Noynoy Aquino government’s empty campaign promise to eliminate corruption and poverty.
Some netizens also questioned President Aquino's silence and absence in the wake of the tragedy. Meanwhile, workers from other economic sectors from all over the country have been quick to express solidarity and support for the Kentex workers and their families.

author: Karlo Mongaya


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Dying in Secret: The Ethics of Investigating Russia’s Ukraine Casualties · Global Voices
Aric Toler

One of the new graves that Leviev and his team claim belongs to a Russian soldier killed in Ukraine fighting. Photo from http://ruslanleviev.livejournal.com.
Russian opposition blogger Ruslan Leviev and his small team of investigators have released a new investigation into the deaths of three Russian soldiers who seem to have died during a battle in eastern Ukraine in May 2015 (English translations available here and here). The most striking evidence from the group included photographs of the gravesites of the three Russians who were active members of the 16th separate Spetsnaz (special forces) Brigade, military unit 54607.
The investigation found these gravesites through deep dives into the social media connections of the three soldiers and by directly contacting local sources. Unlike other open source investigation groups and individuals (such as Bellingcat, Ukrainian blogger Askai, and Ukraine@War) who almost exclusively use online open-source research, Leviev’s team adopted a mix of on-the-ground reporting and long-distance open-source research to get their results. Some of these research methods are rarely, if ever, used in traditional open-source research. They also skirt widely accepted boundaries of ethical reporting, such as having a State Duma representative’s aide reach out to a slain soldier’s mother for information or using social engineering to convince local citizens to find and photograph gravesites.
RuNet Echo interviewed Leviev and his team members to learn about their motivations, methods, and about the necessity for their investigation. We also asked them where they see the boundaries of ethical research and reporting in a situation of conflict.
Motivation
When RuNet Echo interviewed three open-source investigators (two pro-Ukrainian, one with pro-separatist leanings) in March, it appeared that the motives for doing citizen journalism were fairly consistent: a dissatisfaction with the mainstream portrayal of the ongoing conflict, and a desire to see the truth of the matter behind all of the propaganda from both sides. Leviev and his fellow investigators said their motivation was somewhat different, focusing on a sense of duty to reveal what they see as the truth of the conflict and show other Russians and Ukrainians the unrepresented narratives of the war’s consequences.
Leviev is a fairly well-known opposition blogger who has also worked for Newcaster.tv, which airs livestreams of opposition-related events and rallies. He sees his work as an opportunity to make a better Russia for its own people.
Я начал этим заниматься потому что чувствую большую ответственность перед окружающими меня людьми. У меня в жизни было много трудных моментов, в которые меня очень выручали порой совершенно случайные люди, поэтому я чувствую долг перед ними.
I started doing [this investigative work] because I feel a great responsibility to the people around me. I have had a lot of difficult moments in my life when totally random people have rescued me. So, I feel that I owe it to them.
“Tolik” is an anonymous Russian contributor to Leviev's investigation who conducts research in his spare time away from his normal full-time job. He hopes that his contributions to investigations of Russia’s involvement in the war in Ukraine will help reduce the violence and discourage others from participating in the conflict.
Считаю, что озвучивание доказательств участия РФ откроет глаза бОльшему количеству жителей страны на ту катастрофу, на те беды, что творит сейчас РФ в отношении Украины. И надеюсь, что будущий сепаратист, будущий контрактник не пойдет на эту не нужную никому войну.
I believe that revealing proof of Russian involvement [in the war in Ukraine] will open up the eyes of a greater number of the country’s inhabitants to the catastrophe and the troubles that Russia is now creating in relation to Ukraine. And I hope that a future separatist or a future kontraktnik [Russian contract soldier] will not join this unnecessary war.
Methods
When asked if his team’s methods were unique, compared to either traditional journalism or open-source citizen investigation, Leviev agreed, citing a different approach to ethical concerns and unorthodox ways of making contact with the sources used in investigation.
Наши методы уникальные, да. Потому что то, что делаем мы, категорически запрещено делать любому нормальному журналисту, ибо это противоречит журналистской этике.
Our methods are unique, yes. Because what we do is either strictly forbidden for any normal journalist, or is contradictory to the typical journalism ethics.
One of these methods was used to quickly obtain a photograph of the grave of one of the Russian servicemen who died fighting in Ukraine, Timur Mamayusupov. As described in the report from Leviev and his team, the team messaged a young man on the social network site VKontakte and convinced him to help.
We give our team another task: find a young (16–20 year old) guy on social networks, contact him, win his trust under the “dead comrade’s relatives” legend, ask him for help, tell him it’s urgent and even offer money for help. Why a 16–20 year guy? Because they are the easiest to convince to do such a small job. After a few minutes of searching and talking we get the photos of Timur’s grave, which is 950 km from Tambov (a lot of travel time and money saved).
How far can one go to investigate something? RuNet Echo asked Leviev if he has received criticism from anyone for his methods, along with what he considers to be the ethical boundary for how far he and his team will go in their investigative activity.
Со стороны журналистов и других исследователей с критикой методов не сталкивался. […] Методы начали критиковать только нашисты (без шуток). […] Грань проходит в эмоциях. Когда начинаешь в работе допускать эмоции – все, ты перешагнул черту, твоя работа насмарку, это не расследование.
I have not faced criticism of our methods from journalists or other investigators. […] Only [pro-Kremlin] Nashi members have begun to criticize our methods (not kidding). […] The boundary [of investigation methods] is drawn at emotions. When you start to allow emotions in your work—that’s it, you crossed the line, your work is down the drain, and this is no longer an investigation.
Most of the ethically questionable approaches that Leviev and his team use in their work involve misrepresenting themselves to others in order to obtain information. Other than the aforementioned instance of messaging a local resident for photographs of a nearby site, Leviev and his team also found phone numbers of friends and family members of the slain soldiers and asked where the graves sites were, so that they could visit them. While this was technically true—they did want to, and eventually did, visit these grave sites—they found it more effective to not present themselves as investigative journalists.
As Leviev's boundaries of ethical investigation seem to be rather ambiguous, an important question to consider is if he and his team believe that “the ends justify the means.”
Сама фраза «цель оправдывает средства» очень философская и размытая. Я предпочитаю говорить о конкретной ситуации. Наши методы расследования войны оправдывают цель остановить ее.
This phrase “the ends justify the means” is very philosophical and fuzzy. I’d prefer to talk about a specific situation. Our methods of investigating the war justify the goal of ending it.
Filling the gap
Independent online media in Russia has suffered numerous blows over the past two years, including the takeover of Lenta.ru, the blocking of Grani.ru, and the overall rise of self-censorship, leaving a vacuum for investigative journalism.
The efforts of Leviev and his team have already gained attention in Russian independent media, including interviews on Echo of Moscow and TV Rain. Leviev believes that he and his team help fill this vacuum with their non-traditional reporting methods, or so-called “blogger Internet research.”
«Блоггерское интернет-расследование» играет в современной России важнейшую роль, ибо практически все независимые СМИ у нас задушены. Когда происходят такие инциденты (странная гибель наших военных), понимаешь, что никто из журналистов расследовать это не будет, потому что существует запрет на такую деятельность СМИ под угрозой их закрытия. Поэтому мы восполняем этот пробел.
“Blogger Internet research” plays an extremely important role in contemporary Russia, since almost all independent media in Russia have been snuffed out. When such incidents occur (the strange death of our soldiers), you realize that no journalist is going to investigate it, because there is a ban on such media activities due to the threat of closure. Therefore, we fill this gap.
Outstanding investigative journalism does still happen in Russia—look no further than Novaya Gazeta, whose investigative reporters have published several groundbreaking reports and interviews detailing Russian involvement in Ukraine over the past year. Compared to Western media outlets, though, this is a mere drop in the ocean. Given the especially web-savvy urban middle class and youth in Russia and Ukraine, a new type of investigative journalism that blurs the lines between armchair Internet sleuthing and hard-hitting investigative reporting seems to have a more promising future—at least in terms of finding interested audiences, if not viable business models for long-term survival. The ethics of such investigations, however, remain an issue—especially when they go against the grain of traditional journalism standards.

author: Aric Toler


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Singapore Bans Music Video for Its Pro-LGBT Content · Global Voices
Kirsten Han

Screenshot from Jolin Tsai's music video ‘We're All Different, Yet The Same’
UPDATE: The government's Media Development Authority has confirmed that it advised local broadcasters in Singapore not to air the music video because of ‘mature content’.
Reports have emerged that Taiwanese pop songstress Jolin Tsai's song and her music video “We're All Different, Yet The Same” has been banned from broadcast in Singapore.
Singapore's Media Development Authority has reportedly sent notices to television and radio stations in the city-state informing them that the song and music video should not be aired. According to reports, this was because the lyrics encourage marriage equality for same-sex couples, which is in conflict with local laws. The music video is about a lesbian couple who has been living together for three decades.
Gay rights has long been a controversial issue in Singapore, where politicians often assert that the populace is still too conservative to be ready for further acceptance of LGBT rights. A constitutional challenge to Section 377A of the Penal Code – which criminalises sex between men – was dismissed last year by the country's apex court.
The ban was supported by some Singaporeans, especially those who have been vocal in their opposition against pro-LGBT rights events like Pink Dot. Adi Asjor at the We are against Pinkdot in Singapore Facebook page was in support:
What is the purpose of this marriage? To be happy for today? To satisfy their needs for today? What about tomorrow? Who will take care of their old age needs being childless (don't talk about adoption cos the child is the offspring of a man and wife). What about the next generation – same sex marriage means, simply put, the end of the road for them. Marriage is about procreation, about a system of family with children, about education, about the future of mankind. Marriage between man and woman is the foundation of the future of mankind. This IS the core value people must NOT forget.
Yet the news, which began to circulate on the day Ireland voted to allow same-sex marriage, frustrated many Singaporeans:
I sincerely wish MDA’s ban on jolin tsai’s MV gets everyone watching, because the ban is ridiculous, and the MV has a great message.
— Ernest Sim (@mistsenre) May 23, 2015
This country’s awful stance on LGBT really gets me raging. 2015, self-proclaimed first world global city and we are still so narrow minded
— Ernest Sim (@mistsenre) May 23, 2015
How ironic is it that on the same day SG bans a song with gay marriage content, Ireland votes in favour of it? @PinkDotSG
— Shah Kyle Malinda (@shahkylemalinda) May 24, 2015
Blogger and LGBT rights activist Alex Au criticised the MDA's decision:
By contrast, the MDA’s move is not just regressive, it is risibly petty and self-defeating. Like many people, I had never heard of this song before. But now, it is being shared by many on social media. I am pretty sure Pink Dot organisers are thinking of a way to weave it into this year’s event.
…
Do they think Singapore can remain exactly where we are while the world moves on?


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Ukrainian and Russian Users Petition Facebook to ‘Stop Political Blocking’ · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Title image from the Change.org petition page, displaying headlines of media coverage of the Facebook bans.
A group of Internet and social media users who call themselves “the worldwide community of Ukrainian and Russian FB users” has started an online petition on the Change.org website to protest what they insist is ongoing, unwarranted, and biased blocking of Ukrainian and Russian Facebook profiles.
The petition, titled “Stop political blocking on Facebook,” provides a summary of some of the recent high-profile cases of censoring Facebook users in Russia and Ukraine, and cites them as evidence that “Facebook has become an efficient tool of the Kremlin.” Examples include the December 2014 blocking of the event page in support of the Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, the more recent takedowns of posts and accounts of prominent Russian online figures such as Rustam Adagamov, Anton Nossik, and journalist Sergey Parkhomenko, as well as popular Ukrainian accounts of journalists Vakhtang Kipiani and Yuri Butusov, and outspoken poet Andriy Bondar.
The petition's authors express regret that Facebook is not taking the situation “seriously enough” (the social network's founder Mark Zuckerberg has addressed some of the concerns publicly, but mostly dismissed the accusations of “political” bias) and call for a stop to blockings of Russian and Ukrainian accounts “until a new moderation system, designed to withstand paid troll attacks and prevent misuse to achieve political aims, is put in place.”
We don’t know why Facebook seems so eager to block people protesting against the Russian government policies. Perhaps its moderator team is not savvy enough, not large enough, or politically biased. […] But whatever the reason, the Russian government has learned to subvert the current moderation system and abuse it for its own political gains.
[…]
Cyber-attacks against opposition that come from Russia and target mainly Russians and Ukrainians may seem like a small problem that only concerns a fraction of Facebook users. However, if this problem is not addressed today, tomorrow the same tactic might be used by governments and political movements across the world to silence their opponents. During the Arab Spring, Facebook became synonymous with the freedom of speech. It will be sad indeed if it turns into a symbol of its suppression.
The petition, started on May 26, has attracted over 1,700 signatures during the first ten hours after its launch, including many prominent Russian and Ukrainian public figures.
Facebook has previously admitted to making some errors when taking down content reported for violations of its community standards, but insists that mass complaints are not considered a “good indicator” of whether or not a post violates the site's policies.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Washington Post Reporter Jason Rezaian Starts Closed Door Trial in Iran · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

A photo drawn by Molly Crabapple, and shared by Ali Rezaian on Twitter.
This morning was the first day of trial for Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, after spending 10 months in jail over accusations of espionage in Iran.
In anticipation of the trial, the Washington Post's Executive Editor Martin Baron published the following statement on May 25 condemning the murky and unjust nature of Jason's arrest:
The shameful acts of injustice continue without end in the treatment of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian. Now we learn his trial will be closed to the world. And so it will be closed to the scrutiny it fully deserves.
It’s worth recalling what kind of system we’re dealing with. Jason was arrested without charges. He was imprisoned in Iran’s worst prison. He was placed in isolation for many months and denied medical care he needed. His case was assigned to a judge internationally notorious for human rights violations. He could not select the lawyer of his choosing. He was given only an hour and a half to meet with a lawyer approved by the court. No evidence has ever been produced by prosecutors or the court to support these absurd charges. The trial date was only disclosed to Jason’s lawyer last week. And now, unsurprisingly but unforgivably, it turns out the trial will be closed.
Thomas Erdbrink, one of the few correspondents working for American media in Tehran along with Rezaian, explained in an article today the following about the case:
The judge in the case, Abolghassem Salavati, has a reputation for tough sentences, to the point that the European Union placed him on a blacklist in 2011 for human rights abuses. He has ignored foreign requests for court access, and it had been expected that only Mr. Rezaian and his lawyer would be present in the courtroom.
The trial is expected to last two to three days, Ali Rezaian said in a telephone interview from California, where he and his brother were born and grew up, adding that the lawyer had told the family of the judge’s decision on court access only on Monday. He denounced the decision, calling it “unconscionable.”
Pleas to free Jason have been strong on social media, especially within the human rights and journalism communities.
If Iran had a case against Jason Rezaian, it would try him in public. It doesn't and won't. http://t.co/0Ru5y0nr8y pic.twitter.com/F3Wux1SD88
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) May 26, 2015
No real evidence has been used to backup claims that @jrezaian was gathering classified info in #Iran for the US gov't #FreeJason
— Holly Dagres (@hdagres) May 26, 2015
Mood: thinking of Jason Rezaian, whose trial in Tehran on “espionage” charges started today #FreeJason pic.twitter.com/OAxgFrOQ7b
— Gissou Nia (@GissouNia) May 26, 2015
Petition: We request the immediate, unconditional release of Jason Rezaian from Iranian custody @jrezaian #freejason https://t.co/DGkQRKqP6X
— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) May 25, 2015
Thanks to our friend @mollycrabapple for this new #freejason sketch to help get @jrezaian out of prison in Iran. pic.twitter.com/XnOgZi1DQn
— ali rezaian (@arezaian) May 23, 2015
#Iran must respect transparency in @jrezaian trial @FreeJasonYegi #FreeJason https://t.co/TUnDPzyQc3 pic.twitter.com/a4Vw2tAjBH
— CPJ (@pressfreedom) May 23, 2015

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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What Africa Day Means to Africans and Friends of Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kwame Nkrumah, the founding Father of the Organisation of African Union whose formation is remembered through Africa Day. Public Domain photo by Abbie Rowe – John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Africans and friends of Africa celebrated Africa Day on May 25, 2015. Some celebrated on Facebook and Twitter by sharing messages of unity and optimism about the continent.
Africa Day is the annual commemoration of the 1963 founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), when the leaders of 30 of the 32 independent African states signed a founding charter in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Remembering this day on Facebook, Steve Sharra from Malawi asked:
How many countries celebrate #AfricaDay as a national holiday? Answer is 4. Didn't know either. Wonder which ones. Anybody knows? #AfricaDay2015
Kenyan blogger Daudi Were wrote:
Happy #AfricaDay! Unity, solidarity, justice, peace, cohesion and cooperation among the peoples of Africa and African States.
Green Beings encouraged others to appreciate the continent's beauty:
Happy #AfricaDay everyone! Take a moment to appreciate this beautiful continent we are blessed to live on. A moment to acknowledge the immense treasures available to us.. And mostly to salute all the amazing people that call Africa #home
Grazia SA explained what he thinks it means to be an African and shared a link about ‘nine unknown things” about Africa:
We are not African because we are born in Africa, we are African because Africa lives in us.
9 things you didn't know about #AfricaDay http://bit.ly/1FaC0wa
CCTV Africa asked:
What kind of Africa do you want? What should bring that change?
To which David Ugo replied:
I want an africa that is not alway motivated by foreign culture which is applied in a stupid sense at the expense of the entire populace.#iwant an africa that is eager to avoid all forms of corrupt practices.
On Twitter, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, wrote:
On #AfricaDay let's remember the continent's progress + the importance of putting women&girls at the centre of its longer term development
— Valerie Amos (@ValerieAmos) May 25, 2015
The Chairman of the African Union, Dlamini Zuma, noted:
You skill your people, they'll figure out what to do. #AfricaDay
— Dr Dlamini Zuma (@DlaminiZuma) May 25, 2015
Nigerian satirist and lawyer, Elnathan John, advised:
Please before you put up the pic of you in African fabric, be sure it is not made in China. Support African products. #AfricaDay
— Elnathan John (@elnathan) May 25, 2015
Ugandan Public Relations practitioner, Sarah Kagingo, shared her African dream:
I dream of #Africa tuned in to innovation and tech, leading the way; dataways, transborder highways, railway and super waterways #AfricaDay
— Sarah Kagingo (@SarahKagingo) May 25, 2015
South African lawyer Barry Roux warned:
It is so easy to break down and destroy. The heroes are those who make peace & build. #AfricaDay pic.twitter.com/DlVICWOWui
— IG: BarryRouxLaw (@Barry_Roux) May 25, 2015
Miss Earth SA—a semi finalist in the 2015 “I Am an African” contest—emphasised the need to maintain trade relations between African countries:
This is Africa….Imagine Africa's economy if African countries preferred doing business with one another #AfricaDay pic.twitter.com/0EUrx6LLom
— I Am an African (@Me_Chaela) May 25, 2015
Jay Naidoo, the chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, described the ideal Africa Day:
#AfricaDay will mean so much more if we stood up, spoke truth to power and demanded #accountability from our leaders https://t.co/I1dPP3mBMX
— Jay Naidoo (@Jay_Naidoo) May 25, 2015
Most people online shared messages of Africa Day expressing the hope that Africa will change from its image of corruption, internal division, and lack of development and become what the founding fathers of the Organisation of African Union had in mind.

author: Ndesanjo Macha