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Germany’s Outcry Over Sexism Grips Twitter #Aufschrei · Global Voices
Katrin Zinoun

Journelle tweeted about a hashtag that has gripped the German twittersphere:
What I like about #aufschrei [outcry] is that it’s bringing much-deserved attention to these disgusting incidents of casual sexism that might otherwise be played down.
Using the hashtag #aufschrei [de], female Twitter users have been reporting the sexual harassment and abuse they have experienced at work or at school, or when simply going about their day-to-day lives. Ina Marinescu has collected some of these Tweets on her blog [de].

author: Katrin Zinoun


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Hotel Development near the Pitons Raises Concerns in St. Lucia · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

A planned hotel development near the Pitons in Saint Lucia has fueled more debate about the way to balance development with cultural and environmental concerns.  The proposed “eco-luxury” development is “Freedom Bay”, which plans to include a five-star hotel in addition to private residences.
Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott has been a vocal critic of untrammeled development, particularly in this sensitive area, which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He addressed this latest issue while speaking to reporters at the launch of Nobel Laureate Week:
‘Where is this hotel going to be located?’ Walcott demanded. ‘Have they begun it yet? When are they starting? And exactly where is this place? Will you see it in any projection of Petit Piton? And nobody has objected to it? They have not objected to it in parliament? So the deal was approved by the Saint Lucian government. I am ashamed of my country because that’s whoring and you can quote me on that. If you are telling me right, that there is going to be a hotel built at the base of Petit Piton, visible as a hotel, then that is whoring and I am ashamed of my country. There can still be time for protest but what can you say when a country approves of its own disfigurement?’
The Pitons, St.Lucia; image by alexbooker, used under a Creative Commons license.
The Facebook group St. Lucians Aiming for Progress, seemed to be the hub for online discussion about the issue.  Leigh Allan wasn't sure about the extent to which hotel developments are worth it in the long term:
This is going to bring some jobs and that's great! St.Lucia can really do with more employment opportunities. I'm just curious as to how many of those jobs will be blue collar or white collar? Also on the topic of hotels have we sorted out the issues with some hotels not paying taxes for many years without consequences or are they using their employees jobs to not pay taxes owed to government. We also need to think about when if ever a government in St.Lucia will once and for all make it so that beaches belong to the people of St.Lucia and not the hotels?
Christopher Simmons suggested that the project is a land grab by speculators and not a major development:
Plain and simple. We have just handed over to foreign white speculators one of the most lucrative piece (sic) of real estate in the world. This project is no more than a luxury condo development and not a world established resort hotel. Therefore the positive impact on the economy will be minimum. I can tell you that that pierce (sic) of real estate will change hands and be sold for million (sic) more during the next 10 years. 6 senses are not hotel developers or investors, they are a hotel management company operating a few average resorts in the Indian Ocean…Due to transparency let the people of St.Lucia know what was paid for the property and the terms of contract, concessions etc. What use the poor excuses of Jobs?
Nadia Causabon was concerned about the loss of the nation's patrimony and proposed that the development be moved to a less sensitive area:
How much of our culture will we lose by losing access to that beach? You should demand to find out what kind of access you will have on that beach once construction starts. If you have never used that beach I hope you didn't just have an ‘its not in my backyard so it doesn't affect me’ thought! How much of our heritage will we lose? How much of our patrimony have we lost? Can we get it back?
What can you do? I urge you to write to planning, ministers and the developers, call the talk shows and other media houses to let your voice be heard.
What I would like to see is for this development to relocate to another area in St. Lucia outside of the PMA. GOSL acquire what was sold to the developer, develop what was deeded into a beach park and sell the rest of the land back to natural born St. Lucians giving first priority to people from Soufriere. AND a moratorium on SELLING any other piece of St. Lucia to foreigners, consider leasing land instead.
St Lucia – view of the Pitons from Anse Chastenet; image by heatheronhertravels, used under a CC license.
Dr. Jimmy Fletcher, Minister for Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology Government, confirmed that the Freedom Bay development is within the Heritage Site:
The Freedom Bay Development falls within the Pitons Management Area. I believe what the Permanent Secretary said is that it falls within Policy Area 4 of the PMA. The Hyder Report or the Pitons Management Area and Soufriere Region Integrated Development Plan (November 2007) establishes 7 Policy Areas and prescribes the levels of development that should take place in each of these areas.
Fletcher then indicated what types of development were allowed in the area:
Both these areas allow for trails and minor interpretation works. Policy Area 3 is the coastal area (Jalousie and Beausejour) and there are 3 different scenarios possible: (i) a restrained approach that calls for no new buildings or infrastructure. However, building refurbishment and minor leisure developments in hotel complex are allowed; (ii) a balanced or intermediate approach that allows leisure and residential developments in selected locations subject to EIA; and (iii) a Permissive Approach that allows leisure and residential developments subject to EIA. Policy Area 4 comprises the Remainder of the PMA, which is where the Freedom Bay project will be located.
He went on to say that ultimately any development is subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA):
The Restrained Approach for this Area allows for built development and infrastructure only for limited community, residential and agricultural needs and minor leisure and tourism development and the processing of local agricultural produce. The balanced or intermediate approach for Policy Area 4 allows, in addition to the concessions for the Restrained Approach, development in or adjacent to existing villages or in plantations, e.g. plantation hotels, subject to EIA. The Permissive Approach for Policy Area 4 allows development in new locations subject to EIA.
Setting Sun – St. Lucia – Pitons – View; image by Jason Michael, used under a CC license.
Dane Gibson reiterated the point that not all developments are worth the cost and linked to this 2010 profile from the Telegraph newspaper in support of his point:
While I acknowledge there is almost a certain desperation on the part of government and some of our people to improve and maintain economically the lively hoods of St Lucians we must be very careful that it should not come at the cost of selling our Natural Heritage for thirty pieces of silver
Gibson joined Nadia Causabon in suggesting that the development be moved to another location on the island:
The proposed concept and model is being offered by Sixth Senses and Freedom Bay can be done on a Conway site if done correctly. Let them build, let them build and responsibly, but let them build somewhere else on the island and preserve our Natural Heritage and Legacy.
Amatus Edwards, in reply to Gibson, added:
It is my view that lands of commercial and agriculture nature that is own (sic)by government should never be sold – only leased. Government should also move in and seek to acquire properties like this one and do a better job at sustain-ably managing it that (sic) this aging man.
Other images used in the body of the post include: “Pitons”, by alexbooker (CC BY-NC 2.0); St Lucia – view of the Pitons from Anse Chastenet by heatheronhertravels (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0); and Setting Sun – St. Lucia – Pitons – View by Jason Michael (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Matthew Hunte


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India: Penalizing ISPs For Poor Broadband Service · Global Voices
Rezwan

Nikhil Pahwa reports that India’s telecom regulator TRAI has updated its regulations to penalize Indian internet service providers that fail to meet the quality standards.

author: Rezwan


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Kurds Caught Between Islamists and the PKK in Syria  · Global Voices
Syria Deeply

As part of our collaboration with Syria Deeply we are cross-posting a series of articles that capture civilian voices caught in the crossfire, along with perspectives on the conflict from writers around the world.
Azaz, Syria: The Turkey-based Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), and its Syrian political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), have stumbled into a precarious situation. They are now  administering a string of towns and cities along the Turkish border after the Syrian army handed the PKK control of the territory last summer.
What should have been a dream come true for Kurds—who have long been discriminated against in Baathist Syria and aspired to have an independent state—quickly devolved into an even more oppressive replica of their lives in Assad’s Syria.
Bewar Mustafa, second left, Shawqi Othman, second right, and other Saladin Brigade members. Credit: Mohammed Sergie
“We can’t open our mouths,” said Walato, a pro-democracy activist from Jinderes, a Kurdish town north of Aleppo. “We have less freedom under the PKK than we had under the Assad regime.”
For activists like Walato who live in PKK-controlled towns, coexisting with the new rulers means operating with even more secrecy than under the Assad regime. Kurdish towns like Afrin, Amouda and Kobani came out in large protests early in the Syria revolution, but these displays of defiance and solidarity with the rest of the country have become rare.
“The PKK even erased the word ‘Yasqut’ [meaning in Down with Assad] from the walls,” Walato said. “Activists are often harassed for nonpolitical efforts like organizing humanitarian aid.”
(For more on the Kurds in Syria click here for a recent study by the International Crisis Group and here, here for two reports from the Henry Jackson Society).
Commanders of the Saladin Brigade, which fights in Aleppo, weren’t surprised when the PKK ended up controlling Kurdish towns. The PKK was the only group with the arms and organization able to fill the vacuum. But there was a reason it was so organized. Colonel Shawqi Othman, who heads the Saladin Brigade, said the PKK was supported by Hafez al Assad, in order to fracture Syria’s Kurds and to pressure Turkey by bolstering a secessionist current within Kurdish politics.
There is also a sectarian reason why the Assad regime backs the PKK, according to Othman. Most of the PKK’s leadership hails from a rarified minority: Alawite Kurds. Abdullah Ocalan, one of the PKK’s founders who was based in Syria and is now in a Turkish prison, is an Alawite, Othman said. Kurds make up more than 10% of Syria’s 23 million citizens, and the vast majority of them adhere to a moderate version of Sunni Islam.
Although PKK officials deny ties to the Assad regime, its top spokesman was cagey when asked where their weapons come from, according to a Washington-based researcher who covers the group closely and met with its leadership recently. Syria Deeply wasn’t able to interview PKK officials on the ground inside Syria.
Though Kurdish activists and rebels say they are stifled and threatened by the PKK, they have decided not to confront the group in order to avoid an internecine conflict among the Kurds.
Tensions remain high among armed factions, however. Captain Bewar Mustafa, the first Kurdish officer to defect from the Assad regime, and a founder of the Saladin Brigade that fights in Aleppo, says he’s on the PKK’s hit list, as are some of his comrades.
Othman says his group will try to avert bloodshed with its ethnic brethren and are willing to wait for the local Kurdish population to turn against the PKK. It might not be too long now. Walato says that  the excesses of the PKK, such as enacting taxes or tying prisoners to poles in town squares for days at a time, are denting the group’s popularity. Still, the threat from extremist Islamists has forced Kurds to be cautious of withdrawing support for their most powerful militia.
“If the choice is between Jabhat al-Nusra or the PKK, I will always choose the PKK,” said Mohammed Suleiman, an activist who works closely with the Saladin Brigade and who calls the PKK mercenaries and criminals.
Kurds have a reason to be worried. Deadly clashes between rebels and PKK fighters erupted in Ras Al Ain last week.  Islamists brigades used a tank to the shell the city (video below), which borders Turkey in Syria’s northeast and has been under nominal PKK control for months. Kurdish and Arab opposition leaders urged an end to the violence and Abdulbaset Sieda, a Kurd and former president of the Syrian National Council, said that fighting in Ras Al Ain is futile because it won’t settle the war against the Assad regime.
This isn’t to say Kurds don’t have some admiration for the Islamists. Indeed, the Saladin Brigade has fought with some groups. Sharvan Ibesh, a doctor who operates surgery centers in Aleppo and near the Turkish border, credited Jabhat al-Nusra with maintaining momentum and repelling regime counterattacks in Aleppo.
“The Islamist brigades are carrying the heavy load in the fight,” he said.
(Corrections: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that the string of towns in Syria are controlled by the U.S. and the PKK., and also stated that Ocalan was Syrian. He is Turkish. The mistakes are corrected in this version).

author: Syria Deeply


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Mauritania: Workers March 700km for Justice · Global Voices
أحمد جدو

On Saturday, January 5 [ar], a group of illegal or “Journalia” (temporary or seasonal) workers, started a long march from the city of Zouerat in order to reach the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott. In total, these workers would have walked 700km in order to protest against the injustice they are being subjected to and the deceit of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who had promised to solve their problems and put and end to their suffering. These workers wanted to convey a message centered about the fact that journalia are persecuted in their own country and deprived from benefiting from any modest wage increment, in addition to being left as preys to a group of business tycoons who don't apply the laws.
According to activist Mohamed Salem Oul Kilani, the plan was to cross this distance within 22 days and thus reach the presidential palace. At the start of the march, many sympathizers bid good bye to the protesters, expressing their solidarity and warning the authorities from turning a deaf ear to their plight. Last year also witnessed a number of protests held in mining cities by those workers demanding the improvement of their dire conditions.
Photo by @mezid_cheikh on Twitter showing some of the participants in the march
This is not the first time that such an event takes place. Two similar marches took place last year, the first one being in March 2012, when a group of Mauritanian activists walked more then 470km to demand justice for their city, Nouadhibou, eventually reaching the presidential palace. The second was when Mouzarzra residents embarked on a 50km march demanding to put asphalt on the road between their town and the city of Tikend.
Ahmed Salem blogged about the march:
من هم هؤلاء ؟ إنهم الجرنالية كما يعرفون بالصطلح المحلي لدينا هنا في موريتانيا. ظل الجرنالية لعقود يعملون في مناجم الحديد عندما كنا نشاهدم ونحن صغار كنا نقول إنهم أبطال لأنهم يحملون الحديد لكننا وبعد أن كبرنا ومرت علي آذاننا قصصا عن المستعمر, أي مستعمر يضطهد سكان مستعمرته تذكرنا هؤلاء وتذكرنا حملهم للحديد والحجارة فهمناهم وفهمنا عملهم إنهم في مستعمرة نعم مستعمرة داخل دولة إستعمار العصر( تاشرون)مقاولة الباطن ذلك الوسيط الذي يتبع له هؤلاء في غالب الأحيان يكون شخصاواحدا أومؤسسات صغيرة موجودة داخل حقيبة وصفهم مناديب العمال ذات يوم ب(التيفاي) البائع المتجول , كيف لنا أن نتخيل العامل لدي هذه المستعمرة الصغيرة كيف لنا أن نتخيل حاله ؟؟؟؟ إنه يعيش في جحيم إنه معرض للخطر أكثر من غيره في هذه المستعمرة وحتي في هذا البلد وينتج للبلد من أحد أكبر وارداتها الإقتصادية الشركة الوطنية للصناعة والمناجم كل هذا وبراتب شهري زهيد 70 ألف أوقية أي أقل من 200أورو.
Who are they? They are the Journalia, as they are known here in Mauritania. For decades, journalia worked in iron mines and when we used to watch them when we were kids we used to say they are heroes because they carry iron but now that we are older and we've heard stories on the colonizer, which persecuted the inhabitants of his colony, we remember them and we remember them carrying iron and we understand their work. They are in a colony, yes in a colony within a colonizing state (Tachron), held by a sub-contractor, this intermediate to whom these people are most affiliated, is usually one person or small companies. How shall we imagine the worker in this small colony? How shall we imagine his situation? He is living in hell; he is subjected to danger more than anyone in this colony and even in this country; and yet produces one of this country's most important economic export resources at the national company for mining and industry in return for a monthly salary of less than 200 Euros.
Abdellahi Med Abdelrrahmane also sympathized with the workers, criticizing the way the regime and the media dealt with their cause:
المسيرة انطلقت و تحمل رسالة معبأة بكل المعاني في دولة لم تعرف أن تنصف أبنائها من العمال، و إعلام و حقوقيون لم يصلوا مرحلة من النضج يتفهموا فيها مواقف كهذه.
كلنا مطالبون بالوقوف مع هؤلاء لإستعادة حقهم و علينا أن نعمل معهم جنبا إلى جنب حتى يحققوا غاياتهم و تعود إليهم كرامتهم كعمال يحترقون و يسهرون و يتألمون ليحمل الحديد من الموانيء فيتحول دورا و سيارات و قصورا في العالم اجمع، هؤلاء الذين على اكتافهم حملوا كل عبئ…
كان الله لعمال لم يتنصفهم دولتهم و لم ينصفهم إعلامهم……
The march started and carries a letter full of all meaning in a country which didn't know that half of its people are workers and journalists and lawyers who are not mature enough to understand such a situation. We are all asked to stand by them to retrieve their rights and we should work with them hand in hand till they attain their objective and their dignity as workers who stay the nights, burn and suffer in carrying iron which is then transformed into houses, cars and palaces in all over the world. Those who on their shoulders have carried every burden. May God be with workers whose state and media didn't give them justice.
Mejdi Ahmed tweeted on the conditions of Journalia workers:
@mejdmr يعمل الجرنالية في موريتانيا بدون عقد عمل ولا ضمانات سواء كانت صحية أو اجتماعية.. كنوع من الرق!
Journalia work in Mauritania without a contract or guarantees, either social or health ones, it is a kind of slavery.
Raby Idoumou also shares his solidarity with the protesters and writes:
@rabyidoumou5 نتضامن مع مسيرة زويرات الراجلة باتجاه نواكشوط.. في بلد على راس البلدان المصدرة للحديد في العالم، “الجرنالية” يفتقدون لابسط حقوقهم المشروعة!
We sympathise with Zouerat march towards Nouakchott. In a country among the leading exporters of Iron in the world, Journalia lack their basic legal rights.
Dedda Cheikh Brahim  accompanied the march in its first hours:
@dedda04 عاجل: وصول مسيرة العمال الراجلة إلى مدينة افديرك #موريتانيا #نحن_معكم_في_رحلة_الحقوق 780 كيلو متر من أزويرات وحتى القصر الرئاسي بالعاصمة
Breaking alert: Journalia march reaches the city of Afdirk in #Mauritania. We are with you in the journey of rights. 780 km from Zouerat till the presidential palace.
Sid Ahmed Baba also posted on his Facebook page:
من مدينة أزويرات سيرا علي الأقدام .. لك الله من أمة منكوبة رئيسك يعد ويخلف ويتعهد ويكذب وعمالك وعاطلوك يدفعون الثمن كل يوم بفعل مرارة الظلم وكذب الرئيس
From the city of Zouerate, walking on foot. This nation is doomed by a president who lies and makes false promises while the workers and unemployed pay every day the price of this injustice and lies of the president

author: أحمد جدو


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Mauritania: Anger over US Ambassador Statement · Global Voices
أحمد جدو

Photograph of the protest facing the US Embassy in Nouakchott – Posted on the Facebook page of the Youth of Democratic Forces Gathering
On January 23,  the opposition group “Youth of Democratic Forces Gathering”  (Jeunesse RFD), staged a protest facing the US Embassy in Nouakchott. Earlier, in October 2012, Jo Ellen Powell, US Ambassador in Mauritania had wished in a conference the failure of the opposition, comparing its members to “cats.” The American Diplomat also indicated that RFD chief Ahmed Ould Daddah thinks he is the true born or the legitimate heir of his brother's rule, former president Moktar Ould Daddah. The discourse had been made public on the February 25 Movement YouTube Page and had stirred a controversy in Mauritanian media [ar].
On its Facebook Page, RFD slammed the US Ambassador's remarks:
اطلعنا في المنظمة الوطنية لشباب تكتل القوى الديمقراطية خلال الأيام الماضية على تسجيل صوتي نشرته حركة 25 فبراير، يحتوي على تصريحات للسفيرة الأمريكية في موريتانيا تساند خلالها النظام العسكري الجاثم على صدور أبناء شعبنا وتسخر فيه من منسقية ومؤسسة المعارضة الديمقراطيتين و تسيء لزعيم المعارضة الرئيس أحمد ولد داداه إساءة صريحة
We at RFD Youth, heard a statement by US Ambassador in Mauritania, made public by February 25 Movement in which she backs the Military Regime which is oppressing our people and mocks the opposition and slams its leader Ahmed Ould Dadah directly.


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Russian Parliament Confronts Next Threat to Kids: “Homosexual Propaganda” · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

The Russian parliament's valiant effort to defend the nation's children continues. In the last year, Duma deputies have labored feverishly to shield Russia's youth from child pornography and online enticements to drug use and suicide (creating an Internet blacklist to ban such material), and—more recently—they passed a law to put an end to the scourge of American adoptions of Russian orphans. Law-makers have now zeroed in on the next heinous threat: “homosexual propaganda.” Yes, the Duma today approved the first draft of legislation to levy heavy fines on persons and parties guilty of “propagandizing” the tricks and trade of that most devious group: the gays.
The law would be a federal clone of an anti-homosexual statute created in Novosibirsk. (Similar laws against “gay propaganda” also exist in Saint Petersburg, Ryazan, Arkhangelsk, and Kostroma.) Originally submitted to the Duma in March 2012, the current version of the legislation [ru] reads simply:
Пропаганда гомосексуализма среди несовершеннолетних – влечет наложение административного штрафа на граждан в размере от четырех тысяч до пяти тысяч рублей; на должностных лиц – от сорока тысяч до пятидесяти тысяч рублей; на юридических лиц – от четырехсот тысяч до пятисот тысяч рублей.
Propaganda of homosexuality among minors is punishable by an administrative fine of 4-5 thousand rubles [130-160 USD] on citizens, of 40-50 thousand rubles [1,300-1,600 USD] on officials, and 400-500 thousand rubles [13,300-16,600 USD] on legal entities.
Twice this week, a few dozen gay rights activists have protested outside the parliament in Moscow, staging a “Day of Kisses” demonstration against the “homosexual propaganda” law. Each time, the kissing activists have attracted a slightly larger crowd of Russian Orthodox counter-protesters, who come armed with eggs, packets of ketchup, and snowballs, which they hurl at the gay rights demonstrators, before attacking them with their fists and boots.
Orthodox websites like 3rm.info have published calls [ru] for “fighters” to assemble outside the Duma to beat up the protesters:
Приезжайте все, кто сможет – нужны бойцы, чтобы драться в первую очередь. В этот раз бьем всех – Мужчин пока стоят на ногах, женщинам портим лица!
Come all who can! We need fighters first and foremost. This time, we'll beat them all—the men as long as they stand on their feet, and we'll mess up the women's faces!
Photo-journalists and bloggers have meticulously captured the escalating violence at these events, cataloging the skirmishes with photos of masked Orthodox activists and bloodied gay rights protesters.
Elena Kostiuchenko, right, covered in ketchup, outside the Duma in Moscow. 24 January 2013, screenshot from YouTube.
Elena Kostiuchenko is one of the women who attended both “Days of Kisses.” A special correspondent for liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Kostiuchenko has actively advertised the rallies on Twitter, Facebook, and LiveJournal. She also co-founded public “events” on Vkontakte and Facebook for the first rally on January 22, which attracted over 100 RSVPs (though far fewer people actually appeared). These event-groups have links to the website loveislegal.ru, which for the past two months has collected amateur photographs of gay rights supporters and same-sex couples, often holding up banners that read, “I am a person—not propaganda.”
After the first protest on January 22, Kostiuchenko posted to LiveJournal the following message [ru]:
Сегодня уверенные нелюди сломали кости двум моим друзьям и избили мою девушку. Аню.
Я больше никого не зову с собой.
Когда Госдума будет принимать этот закон, я буду там.
Любой день, в 12.00.
Кто захочет встать рядом – встанет.
Today, self-assured monsters broke the bones of two of my friends and beat up my girlfriend, Anna.
I'm not calling on anyone anymore.
When the Duma accepts this law, I'll be there.
Any day, at noon.
Whoever wants to be there alongside me, get on your feet.
Earlier today, on January 25, Kostiuchenko found herself outside the Duma again, joined by 30-to-40 allies, as deputies inside voted to approve the legislation's “first reading.” The law carried a whopping 388 votes of approval, with just one vote against and one abstention. Fifty-two brave souls didn't vote at all. One of those voteless heroes was opposition figure and Just Russia deputy Dmitri Gudkov, who told [ru] Publicpost.ru that he refused to cast a ballot, as doing so would only attract more attention to “gay propaganda”:
Я вообще не буду голосовать, потому что, когда начинают бороться с гей-парадами, они провоцируют пропаганду этой темы. Ее надо просто оставить в покое, тогда меньше будет пропаганды и разговоров об этом. Я против пропаганды, просто это невозможно грамотно прописать в законопроекте.
I'm not going to vote at all, because you only invite [more] propaganda for this topic, when you start fighting against gay parades. You need to leave this issue alone, and then there will be less propaganda and conversation about it. I'm against [gay] propaganda—it's just that it's impossible to legislate it intelligently.
Gudkov's dedication to minimizing homosexuality's menace didn't stop him from tweeting [ru] earlier today that the only deputy to oppose the legislation, Sergei Kuzin, is a member of Vladimir Putin's United Russia. While Gudkov was having his fun, Kostiuchenko and another 19 activists were detained [ru] outside the Duma building. For the next few hours, she tweeted and posted to Instagram updates and photographs from her brief incarceration. (This included a bruise sustained to her cheek, apparently when police rushed her up a flight of stairs.) Eventually, all protesters were released [ru] from custody.
Gay rights occupies an unusual space in the Russian opposition movement. While crackdowns on Internet freedom and adoption rights have sparked major outcries from the protest movement, the criminalization of “homosexual propaganda” is unlikely to instigate the next mass rally against the Kremlin.
Roman Super, a journalist who works for RenTV [ru], provoked a long debate on Facebook, posting [ru] a sharp criticism of the “Day of Kisses” protests. Super's logic is characteristic of many Russian liberals. Not only does he argue that samesex kissing demonstrations only aggravate homophobia in Russia (this was partly Gudkov's belief), but he also jokes that most federal officials are themselves closeted homosexuals. In other words, Super's response to the “propaganda” controversy is to troll opponents and supporters alike:
Федеральный закон о запрете пропаганды гомосексуализма будет означать лишь одно: элиты прямо скажут народу и, прежде всего, самим себе о том, что гомосексуальность в России — это исключительно привилегия государственных менеджеров самого высокого звена.
The federal law banning the propaganda of homosexuality will mean only one thing: the elite are telling the people directly that, first and foremost, homosexuality in Russia is the exclusive privilege of state managers of the highest rank.
In a response to Konstantin Rykov on Twitter, blogger and columnist Maksim Kononenko made a similar joke [ru] about Sergei Kuzin's stray vote against the law:
Константин Рыков @rykov
Кто? Кто этот прекрасный депутат, проголосовавший за гей-пропаганду? Это же самый крутой каминг-аут в истории российского парламентаризма!
Максим Кононенко @kononenkome
@rykov единственный нормальный человек среди 450 пидарасов
Konstantin Rykov @rykov
Who? Who is this wonderful deputy who voted for gay-propaganda? This is the coolest coming-out in the history of Russian parliamentarism!
Maksim Kononenko @kononenkome
@rykov He's the only normal person among 450 fags.
In other words, Russia remains a country where it is easier to joke about a crackdown on gay rights, than it is to protest such developments. Consider the conversation that played out on Roman Super's Facebook page. DozhdTV's Alya Kirillova took issue with his condescension of Kostiuchenko (who also commented in the same thread). Kirillova wrote essentially that he ought to say nothing, if he can't say anything kind. She even opines [ru] that “silence is golden.” Two minutes later, a homophobic commenter posted a photo of two men kissing at a gay parade (apparently in New York City), in an effort to prove how dangerous gay pride can be. In the background of that photo, a demonstrator holds high a sign that reads, “SILENCE = DEATH.” In Russia, that remains a contentious equation.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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“Stop Erasing Hong Kong’s History” · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

While Hong Kong's new city mayor CY Leung was being elected and inaugurated, billions of sheets worth of government records were trashed. In fact, if you stacked up all the trashed records, they would be about 40 times the height of the world's tallest building Dubai's Burj Khalifa ( which is 829.8 meters.)
To break it down, according to local newspaper report [zh], if you stacked up all the records trashed from March to June 2012 – the period right after CY Leung was elected but before he formally took office –  they would measure 9738.63 meters high. The same report says if you measure the trashed records from the time after his inauguration took place – July 1 till the end of 2012 – they would stack up as high 23,189.31 meters.
The former director of the Government Records Service Simon Chu found these numbers astonishing because it is impossible to review that many records in such a short time.
The Hong Kong government's access to information code and its records management system has been under fire for a while. The Ombudsman Alan Lai Nin, upon receiving many complaints, has even launched an investigation and called for modern standards of open and good administration to be implemented.
A campaign poster for open government by flickr user: opensourceway. CC: SA.
Hong Kong In-Media, a NGO that promotes the development of citizen media and information freedom took the opportunity to launch a campaign [zh], demanding immediate legislation to protect government archives and public access to information. The campaign letter said:
政府的透明度及公民獲取政府資訊的權利，早已成為國際社會落實民主參與、防止貪污、讓公民了解決策、保障公民權利、實踐新聞及資訊自由的重要手段。
Government transparency and Citizen's right to access government information has become a widely recognized standard for international society to encourage citizen participation, fight corruption, create an environment for free press and information flow. […]
香港至今仍沒有實行民主政制，公民沒有普選行政長官的權利，加上本身「畸型」的立法會分組點票機制，公眾難以向政府問責。政府內部決策文件及會議紀錄，是公眾監察官員的最後防線，也是政府政策取信於民的方法。
Till now Hong Kong does not have a democratic political system. Citizens do not have the right to elect its Chief Executive (city mayor). In addition, the obscure voting system based on the separating counting of “functional constituent representative” and “direct election representative” has resulted in the loss of accountability of the government to the public. The documents on policy deliberations and the minutes of public authorities are the baseline for public monitoring and hence the only way for the government to earn its trust. […]
由於目前的《公開資料守則》不具法律效力，政府部門經常以「沒有相關資料提供」回覆市民及記者的查詢 […] 更荒謬的是，一些官員更公然刪改會議紀錄，（如唐英年曾要求刪改維港巨星匯的會議記錄），公然掩埋真相。一次又一次的政府醜聞告訴我們，香港需要明確的法例，確保妥善保存檔案，保持官方機構的透明度，讓公眾與媒體監察政府運作，使官員能受公眾問責。
Since the information access code is not legally binding, government departments like to use the excuse that they don't have the relevant information to answer citizens and journalists’ inquiry. […] More ridiculously, some government officials have attempted to delete or change the minutes of government meetings. For example former Finance Secretary Henry Tang had demanded the minutes of Harbour Fest be deleted to cover the truth. All these government scandals tell us that Hong Kong needs legislation to protect government records and government transparency so that the media and the general public can monitor the government, making sure that the officials are accountable to the public.
The open letter has received many echoes on its petition page [zh] on change.org.
Filan Chua is frustrated about the massive dumping of government records:
Now 55 times on top of 3 times of iFC Tower2 has been destroyed without proper selection by archivist. No point having access if no records left. These belong to the people for history and good governance.
Stacy Belcher Gould, a professional archivist, shares similar feelings:
am a professional archivist with over 20 years of experience in the field of public history and archives. I care passionately about my profession – However, my real concern is as a Hong Kong resident soon to become a permanent resident. I love our city/state and I want the best for it as our community. I don't want to have a government that is not accountable and transparent for all citizens and residents of our beautiful city/state. I also grieve over our history, which we are losing every time the government destroys records without the review and authorization of professional archivists with statutory authority. In 50 or 100 years when historians, social and political scientists, public health scholars and scientists, geneaologists, and scholars of all sorts come to study Hong Kong in the early decades of the HKSAR, there will be huge gaps of knowledge because those records were either not created and saved, or they were destroyed through ignorance of their long term value. Once they are gone – we cannot get them back.
Lorraine Lui believes the records can cleanse the government:
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Let the sunlight in!
Hoi Lung Lau adds:
A place without history is always a colony
[Disclosure: Oiwan Lam is a member of Hong Kong In-Media and has also signed the open letter.]

author: Oiwan Lam


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The Egyptians Want to Overthrow the Regime  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The Egyptians are back on the streets today [January 25], calling for a continuation of their revolution, which started two years ago and saw the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak.
Violence marred today's second anniversary of the revolution, with at least eight people reported dead so far, and 370 injured.
Minutes ago, Adam Akary reported:
@adamakary: #BREAKING: At least 8 dead in #Suez, two of which are from the police. And more than 370 injured nationwide. #Egypt
And Nelly Ali writes [ar]:
احنا ثورتنا الأولى نجحت،شلنا نظام فاشل.وهننجح نشيل نظام أفشل وأغبى منه.. وهنفضل ننجح لحد منحس إن احنا بني أدمين في بلد ومش حيوانات ف حظيرة
@nellyali: Our first revolution succeeded, we removed a corrupt regime. And now we will succeed in removing a regime which is more unsuccessful and stupid than it. And we will continue to succeed until we feel we are human beings who live in a country and not animals in a shed.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Three Portuguese Language States Ignore UN Convention Against Torture · Global Voices
Mário Lopes

Three Portuguese language countries are part of a short list of states which have not ratified the UN Convention against Torture: São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola and Guinea Bissau. Fábio Pereira, Communications Officer and Assistant Editor of Torture Journal, shares an open letter [pt, pdf] he has sent to the Portuguese Language Countries Community (CPLP) and a petition in Avaaz.
I am Portuguese and I am from a generation of young people who want to completely break away from the hostilities that marked this group of countries in the 60s and 70s.
This generation dreams of a true community of Lusophone countries that uses the shared heritage as a tool to advance human development and cultural enrichment.

author: Mário Lopes


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Latinos Were Key Figures at Obama’s Inauguration · Global Voices
Robert Valencia

The inauguration of the American president Barack Obama last January 21st, was filled with a passionate speech that foreshadows what could be the next years of his administration. Besides advocating on issues like legal gay marriage and reverting the effects of climate change, he also emphasized the need for an immigration reform and an unconditional support to young immigrants, topics that are close to the hearts of the Latino community. Also, two Latino figures, Sonia Sotomayor and Richard Blanco, played an important role during the ceremony.
The first one to take oath before the 500,000 people that sorrounded Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. was vicepresident Joe Biden. Judge Sonia Sotomayor, from Puerto Rico, was in charge and became the first Latina to lead such act. After the oath and speech by president Obama, the Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco took the stage to recite his poem “One Today”. Blanco's presence during the inauguration had a strong meaning because he is the first young, immigrant, gay, poet to inaugurate the United States presidency. All these references make Blanco the person who embodies the four electoral groups that gave Obama the win for his second term as a president.
The Latino touch continued during the parties celebrated to honor the president as tradition dictates. Also, almost 5 Latino bands participated in the parades following the inauguration. The blog InmigranteTV [es] took the opportunity to remind the Latino guests who were invited to the parties of the importance of the Hispanic vote and the commitment Obama has with this electoral community:
Las celebraciones previas a la segunda investidura presidencial de Barack Obama arrancaron con el “Latino Inaugural 2013″, que reunió en la capital a estrellas de la talla de Eva Longoria, Maná y Marc Anthony, desde el pasado sábado. A Longoria y Anthony les acompañaron destacados músicos e intérpretes como José Feliciano, Chita Rivera, Rita Moreno y el español Antonio Banderas…Los latinos, que dieron un rotundo apoyo del 70% a Obama en las elecciones de noviembre pasado, se dieron cita en la capital para festejar la victoria, pero también para recordar al presidente reelecto sus compromisos con una comunidad que, por segunda vez, ha depositado sus esperanzas en él.
The celebrations preceding the second inauguration of Barack Obama started with the “Latino Inaugural 2013″ which reunited at the capital city stars like Eva Longoria, Maná and Marc Anthony last Saturday. Along with Longoria and Anthony, several accomplished musicians and singers were invited like Jose Feliciano, Chita Rivera, Rita Moreno and the Spanish Antonio Banderas… Latinos, who gave a stounding 70% support to Obama last November, joined in the capital to celebrate the victory but also to remind the re-elected president about his commitment with the community that has placed its hopes with him for a second time.
On Twitter we gathered countless comments on the inauguration. According to Twitter user fchague (@fchague) [es] the number exceeded the million milestone:
@fchague: La toma de posesión de Obama genera 1,1 millones de ‘tuits’ http://j.mp/Wd6VEH
@fchague: Obama's inauguration generate 1,1 million tweets http://j.mp/Wd6VEH
Sandra Borda (@sandraborda) [es] augura un buen comienzo de la nueva era Obama:
@sandraborda:  Obama entro con toda este año:está buscando aumentar las restricciones en posesión de armas y ahora le va a pegar al tema migratorio.
“@sandraborda: Obama stepped in strongly this year: he's looking to tighten the restrictions to gun possession and now he'll hit the migration issue.
Manuel Rodríguez B (@manuel_rodb) [es] also celebrated the details of the speech:
@manuel_rodb: No hay mayor amenaza sobre la humanidad que el cambio climático. De allí la importancia del anuncio de Obama de combatirlo, en su posesión.
@manuel_rodb: There isn't bigger threat over humanity than climate change. Thus, the importance of Obama's announcement during his inauguration to fight against it.
Efraín Frausto (@efrainfrausto) [es] is also happy about the importance of Latinos during the inauguration:
@efrainfrausto: Ayer en la toma de posesión de Obama se dio mucha relevancia a los latinos, afroamericanos y homosexuales en las decisiones gubernamentales.
@efrainfrausto: Yesterday at Obama's inauguration latinos, african-americans and gays were given a lead role in the governement's decisions.
Natalia Springer (@nataliaspringer) [es] is looking for concrete results:
@nataliaspringer: Muchos latinos en la ceremonia de posesión de Obama. Que se pase de los gestos a los hechos en favor de una minoría discriminada!
@nataliaspringer: Many latinos at Obama's inauguration ceremony. I hope that he goes beyond gestures and starts showing results for a discriminated minority!
It is said that the national anthem sang by Beyonce was lip-synched, a moment that was also widely commented among Latinos. The humor touch was given by El Mono Sánchez (@elmonitosanchez) [es] who compared the issue with what happened to Shakira when she miss-interpreted Colombia's national anthem at the America's Summit in Cartagena:
@elmonitosanchez: Pregunta estúpida…será que a Obama le afecta que el himno lo canten con “doblaje” en su posesión? Al menos no le cantaron a Ublime!
@elmonitosanchez: Stupid question… do you think Obama cares that the anthem was lip-synched during his inauguration? At least she didn't sing to Ublime!
Chigüire Bipolar (@ChiguireBipolar) also commented:
@ChiguireBipolar: Obviamente, suena es “Single Ladies” RT @CochinoPop: ¿Dobló Beyonce el Himno de EEUU en la toma de posesión de Obama? > http://ow.ly/h28Ip
@ChiguireBipolar: Obviously, background music was “Single Ladies” RT @CochinoPop: Did Beyonce lip-synched USA national anthem during Obama's inauguration? http://ow.ly/h28Ip
Juan Pablo Cuevas (@mistercaves) expressed his astonishment:
@mistercaves: Me cuesta trabajo pensar que Beyoncé “dobló” en la posesión de Obama… :0
@mistercaves: I find it hard to believe that Beyonce lip-synched at Obamas inauguration… :O
Here are some pictures taken by the author at Obama's inauguration:
Security was tight at the sorrounding areas.
People gathering next to the White House.
An invitation to the balcony sections close to Obama's podium.
The caravan that followed president Obama.
President Barack Obama addressing the people during his inauguration. Taken from YouTube.

author: Robert Valencia


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Museum of Ancient Greek Technology · Global Voices
Veroniki Bacharidi-Krikoni

Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, sign at entrance, Katakolon (Peloponnese, Greece). Photo by Drjwolfe, public domain.
Ever wondered how ancient temple gates would opened automatically after altar sacrifices?
Greek Reporter writes about the unique Museum of Ancient Greek Technology in Katakolo, Peloponnese, founded in 2005 by engineer Kostas Kotsanas [el, en]. The museum showcases some 300 operating models of ancient Greek inventions covering the period from 2000 B.C. to 100 A.D.
The Museum is supported by visitors’ donations and entrance is free, while free tours are conducted in Greek, English and French. Follow the Museum on Facebook for photo collections and video presentations.

author: Veroniki Bacharidi-Krikoni


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Peru: Violent Anti-Mining Protests in Lambayeque · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Globalizado, a blog by Juan Arellano, recounts what happened [es] on Friday January 25, 2013, when a 100 police agent detachment confronted about 400 local community members from Cañaris and Incahuasi communities in Lambayeque, department located in northwestern Peru.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Slovak President Butt of Jokes Online Due to Prosecutor General Saga · Global Voices
Tibor Blazko

The post of the Prosecutor General has been vacant for more than a year in Slovakia.
Despite this, the Prosecutor General's Office has a very strong position. For example, it has recently managed to attack [sk], in the Constitutional Court, the law on minimal wages of nurses, arguing that it was a selective law that addressed the needs of just one group of medical workers, and, moreover, there were no funds in the budget to implement it. The Court ended up “postponing” the adoption of the law.
At the time of the Slovak Courts's decision, the neighboring Czech Republic promoted a popular prosecutor Lenka Bradáčová, who is “widely praised for her anti-corruption fight.” The Czech example appeared to be the opposite of the Slovak experience and showed why Slovak politicians on all sides of the political spectrum wanted to have their “own” friendly Prosecutor General.
And if that was impossible, then it was better to have none at all.
The previous Parliament chose Jozef Čentéš in June 2011, but President Ivan Gašparovič did not appoint him. At first, he was waiting for the Constitutional Court to determine if he had the right to reject the proposed candidacy or whether he had to approve it. In October 2012, the Court found [sk] that the President could reject a candidate who either did not meet the statutory prerequisites for appointment or there were grounds to call into question his/her ability to perform this function. The President had to make a decision in a reasonable time, however.
When a month later a journalist asked Gašparovič why he still had not appointed a prosecutor, she got this response [sk] from the President:
Are you illiterate? Don't you know how to read decisions of the Constitutional Court? There you have it, white on black.
It was neither the first time that the President was rude to a woman [en], nor the first time when he said something wrong.
Slovak diplomats already know how it is when the “President of the head of the state” (Gašparovič's own construction) speaks about Serbia being located by the sea, uses the word ‘balcony’ instead of the Balkans, Lebanon instead of Lisbon, or John Major instead of Tony Blair.
Commenting on the influence of the mafia in sports, the President once said [sk]:
Well, and what [to do] now? When these people are not there anymore, there will also be no football.
Now Gašparovič's past quotes and new jokes have gone viral on the web again.
A mock graph [sk] on the contents of the Slovak internet, posted recently by Cynická obluda, reflect this trend – porn (green) and instructions on how to make a bomb (yellow) lag far behind the jokes about Gašparovič (blue):
“The contents of the internet (as of Jan. 6, 2013)” – by Cynická obluda, used with permission.
Gašparovič's “white-on-black” response to a journalist featured in another one [sk] of Cynická obluda's parodies:
“The Constitutional Court spends more on printer toner than on wages and heating combined. It is no fun when we have to publish all resolutions white on black.” By Cynická obluda, used with permission.
When this year the President finally made the long-awaited Prosecutor General decision, it was not in Čentéš's favor. His arguments will be re-examined by the Constitutional Court.
One of these arguments against the appointment of Čentéš was a quote from a nonexistent publication that the President called “RSS Daily” (“denník RSS”) – which, in fact, turned out to be .týždeň (“The Week”), an online news and commentary outlet:
Needless to say, this blunder did not go unnoticed [sk] by Cynická obluda:
“Don't teach the President! RSS Daily does, of course, exist – I buy it every morning at the “Opening hours” newsstand.” By Cynická obluda, used with permission.
On a more serious note, the President's delayed Prosecutor General decision made many people angry.
A few citizens protested in front of the presidential palace, some signed a Facebook petition [sk] calling for a referendum about the President's removal. Fortunately, the petition did not succeed, because if there was a referendum, it would most likely fail because of non-participating voters. And, in accordance with the Slovak Constitution, this would restart the slowly ending five years of President Gašparovič's term. And this is why the anti-Gašparovič activists have quickly switched to an attempt to sue the President [sk].
Another recent presidential scandal involved blogger Juraj Poláček, who wrote [sk], among other things, that in August 2009, just one day after the President left an army training area, one of his regular hunting companions was accidentally shot there. The blogger wondered if the President's January 2012 amnesty was perhaps designed for the man who did the shooting. Even though Poláček later added that his theory about the amnesty was incorrect, the President decided to sue him for libel.
The President's spokesman said [sk] his boss had been on holiday in Croatia at the time of the shooting. Journalists, however, found that it was not true, so later the President's office came up with other “sightings” of him on that day (e.g., at a football game that never took place). For a while, Gašparovič's whereabouts were simply declared a state secret.
Naturally, this strange behavior has generated some rumors online. As well as plenty of hunting jokes.
Here is one:
“We hunters promise that we will always stand behind the President. It is the only safe place!” By Cynická obluda, used with permission.
Pjotr posted this comment [sk] on SME.sk, bringing home the sobering truth that the overall situation in Slovakia is actually the saddest of the jokes circulating out there:
ANNOUNCEMENT
The Office of the President of the head of the statehood of the Slovak Republic is seeking a quantum physicist to calculate the position of His Excellency, since the president has found in himself the quantum properties and not only can he be simultaneously in two different places, but he can also appear as an element of the ruling party and as one riding on the wave of a civil candidate, but, judging by his functional performance, it is not clear if he is alive or dead.

author: Tibor Blazko


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Are Yemen Youth Marginalized in the National Dialogue? · Global Voices
جلوبال فويسز

Global Leadership Awards Winner, Yemeni Journalist Shatha Al-Haraz comments through her blog, on the poor representation of the youth in the National Dialogue Conference.
اربعون مقعدا فقط هو نصيب الشباب المستقل في مؤتمر الحوار الوطني من اصل 565 مقعدا. لا تكفي!
حقيقة لا يعنيني العدد بقدر ما يعنيني قوة صوتهم و وضوح رؤيتهم في المؤتمر ففي نهايه المطاف شخصيه قياديه واضحه الرؤيه تقود جموع من الناس اذن فالعدد ليس معضله كبيرة و ان كان مجحفا
Forty seats only out of 565 is the share of independent youth in the National Dialogue conference. Not Enough! To tell you the truth, I don't really care about the number as much as I care about the power of their voice and the clarity of their vision in the conference. For, at the end, a leading personality with a clear vision can lead masses, so number is not a problem even though it is unfair.

author: جلوبال فويسز


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Cicero Guedes, Brazilian Landless Leader is Murdered in Rio · Global Voices
Paula Góes

One of the main leaders of the landless movement in Brazil was shot dead on Saturday as he was cycling home in Rio de Janeiro state. Publishing a picture he took of Cicero Guedes, Marcos Pedlowski [pt] emphasises that “the loss is not only human, but deeply political. Besides being an exemplary man, husband and father, Cicero embodied the best qualities that true leaders must have”. According to the Catholic Church's Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), the number of land activists threatened has jumped from 125 to 347 between 2010 and 2011.

author: Paula Góes


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Debate over Kazakh Script Reform · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

While some analysts remain skeptical about Kazakhstan's Latinization reform, bloggers offer [ru] practical proposals on how to do the reform ‘right’ and analyze [ru] the experience of other former Soviet countries that switched from Cyrillic to Latin script. Yet comments under these blogs show that the reform remains very controversial and, even among proponents of the change, there is little agreement on how to go about it. One reader notes [ru]:
It looks like the reform will be more difficult and will take longer than many of us anticipated…

author: Alexander Sodiqov


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Meeting the Mummy at the Museum in Mumbai · Global Voices
Rezwan

Anuradha Shankar at ‘A Wandering Mind’ writes about the ongoing Egyptian Mummy exhibition in Mumbai, India. These mummies started a global tour from the British Museum to educate people across the continents about their ancient civilization.


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Mozambique: Citizen mobilization to help flood victims · Global Voices
Janet Gunter

After heavy rains and flooding in southern Mozambique that has displaced tens of thousands and killed scores of people, Mozambican civil society group Makobo has started a solidarity campaign called “S.O.S. Chókwè” to collect humanitarian supplies to deliver to victims.

author: Janet Gunter


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After 15-year Trial in Turkey, Pınar Selek Sentenced for Life · Global Voices
Baran Mavzer

Pınar Selek, a Strasbourg-based sociologist and a writer, previously accused of bombing the Istanbul Spice Bazaar in 1998, has been sentenced to life in prison in Turkey. The final verdict was delivered on January 24, 2013. If she returns to Turkey, she will be arrested by the police. During her nearly 15 year-long trial, she was acquitted three times.
Selek's first arrest
Selek's long journey with the Turkish Judicial System began on July 11, 1998, just two days after the explosions at the entrance of Istanbul's Spice Bazaar. The explosion killed seven and wounded approximately 100 people. Despite suspicions regarding the cause of the explosion being caused by a PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) bombing, six investigative reports indicated that the explosion was not due to a bombing or terrorist attack. Things started to get interesting after this. Pınar Selek was arrested two days after the explosion; authorities assumed that she was a member of PKK.
Another suspect, Abdülmecit Öztürk, was arrested around two weeks after Selek and confessed that they had planned and carried out the bombing together. But, as soon as he was transferred to court, he claimed that he had been tortured and had been made to accept the charges despite non-involvement. During the trial,  Öztürk's confession indicated that his aunt had met with Pınar Selek as her nephew's fiancée. The indictment indicated that when visiting the house, Öztürk and Selek entered a room together and stayed in there alone for a while. The aunt recognized Selek by her picture and admitted that Selek and her nephew had visited. But, while on the witness stand at trial, Öztürk's aunt clearly did not know any Turkish and could only speak Kurdish, which cast doubt on her ability to give a statement in Turkish without any linguist or translator present. This was in addition to dubious reports concerning the explosion, as all reports failed to establish a connection between the explosion and a bomb. The reports suggested that the main reason of the explosion was a gas leak.
The court ordered life sentence for Pınar Selek. Picture taken from her Facebook Page.
The acquittals
Pınar Selek was arrested in July 1998 and freed after two and a half years, on December 22, 2000, by a local court. After an appeal by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Istanbul Police Department's, another group of experts (members of gendarme) proposed that the explosion could have occurred by a bomb, even though, one of the civil experts in the group did not accept the result of the report. This expert prepared another report showing that explosion did not occur by a bomb and claimed that the report prepared by the gendarme experts was unacceptable and not scientific or trustworthy.
On June 8, 2006, the Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court announced its first ruling of acquitting Pınar Selek and Abdülmecit Öztürk, saying that, in regard to the Spice Bazaar explosion, “no certain and believable evidence that requires punishment could be found.” This decision was reversed by the 9th Penal Department of the Supreme Court on April 17th, 2007, on the basis that “no verdict had been given.” On May 23, 2008, Selek was acquitted for the second time by the Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court. After another appeal to this decision, on February 9, 2011, she was acquitted for the third time. The public prosecutor appealed the acquittal, just one day after the decision given by Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court. And on January 24, 2013, the court ordered a lifetime sentence on Pınar Selek.
Selek's supporters
On her Twitter account, Pınar Selek called her supporters to the gates of the court during a break before the announcement for the final verdict, by tweeting:
@Pinar_Selek: Davaya karar icin ara verildi.Herkesin Caglayan Adliyesi C kapisinda acilen toplanmasi cok onemli. Gidisat iyi gorunmuyor
A break given before the final verdict. It is so important to meet up in front of the Caglayan Court Gate C. It does not seem good.
Author of “Blood & Belief”, Aliza Marcus expressed shock with the Turkish Judicial System by tweeting:
@AlizaMarcus: The Turkish court system is so unbelievable: sociologist Pınar Selek acquitted 3 times & then sentenced to life in prison
Journalist Balçiçek İlter tweeted:
@Balciceki: Pınar selek'e 3 kez beraattan sonra müebbet! Bu ülkede hukuk bitmiştir! Adalet mi? Guldurmeyin beni!
Life sentence for Pınar Selek after three acquittals. There is no law in this country any more! Justice? Do not make me laugh!
Another journalist Cüneyt Özdemir supported her by tweeting:
@cuneytozdemir: Pınar Selek yalnızca yanlış zamanda yanlış yerde bulunmadı. Yanlış zamanda yanlış ülkede doğdu!
Pınar Selek was not only at the wrong place at the wrong time. She was also born in the wrong country.
Pınar Selek supporters shared this picture on the Facebook Page of “Collectif Solidarité Pınar Selek” to rally support for her acquittal:
Supporters of Pınar Selek are protesting the verdict of the court by carrying a banner saying “We want Pınar Selek's acquittal back”. Picture taken from Collectif Solidarité Pinar Selek Facebook Page.
International organizations were trying to draw attention to Pınar Selek's trial earlier this week. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) posted articles on January 21 on their websites mentioning the continuous judicial harassment against Pınar Selek. In December 2012,  PEN, the worldwide association of writers, also expressed concerns regarding the judicial harassment of Pınar Selek.
After all she has been acquitted three times and still fighting for a fourth acquittal. It might be hard to understand how she can handle a 15 year-long trial which might end up in a definitive life sentence. But, her words on www.pinarselek.com [tr] website which has been lauvhed by her friends to support her, explains how she still fights for her freedom:
Yoksunlukları, adaletsizlikleri, şiddeti keşfettikçe kendi kendimize soruyoruz: “Mutluluk mümkün mü?” Ben, bu kısacık varoluş macerasını güzel yaşamak için adalete ve özgürlüğe ihtiyaç duyanlardanım. Bunun için politika yapıyorum. Başkalarını kurtarmak için değil, mutlu olmak için, herkesinkiyle derinden ve karmaşık bağlara sahip olan hayatımı değiştirmek için… Gözümü yumup mutsuz olmamak için gözlerimi açıp acı çekiyorum.
We ask to ourselves when we explore the poorness, unfairness, violence: “Is happiness possible?” I am one of the people who need freedom and justice to live the very short and beautiful adventure of existence. That is what I am fighting for. Not to save others, to be happy, to change my life which has deep and complicated connections with the lives of others… I am keeping my eyes open and suffering, instead of closing my eyes and being unhappy.

author: Baran Mavzer


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Prominent Blogger Detained in Azerbaijan · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Screen capture of Facebook page ‘Support Azerbaijani Activists in Administrative Detention’
Dozens of peaceful protesters were detained following yesterday's rally in Baku, the capital of oil-rich Azerbaijan. The demonstration was organized to express solidarity with recent protests in the town of Ismayilli. A Facebook page has been created in support of prominent blogger Emin Milli as well as other protesters sentenced to ‘administrative’ detention after the rally.


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Syrian Children Pay the Steep Price of War  · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/13
During the last 10 years, around 10 million children are estimated to have been killed as a result of war, reports the
Children's Rights Portal. The site categorizes child war victims as civilian victims, soldiers, displaced, orphans, wounded or handicapped, imprisoned and exploited children (sexual exploitation or even forced labor). Despite the fact that the right of children of survival and protection are guaranteed according to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA), and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was signed on 20 November 1989, children continue to suffer around the world.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 19: State Parties must “take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence”
Forgotten victims
Angels live in Syria's graves. Source: @NMSyria on Twitter.
Since March 2011, when the Syrian revolution erupted against Bashar Al Assad's regime, the children of Syria were among the first victims of violence, torture, and killings. According to HRW report: “We’ve Never Seen Such Horror” on June 2011:
The protests first broke out in Daraa in response to the detention and torture of 15 children accused of painting graffiti slogans calling for the government's downfall. In response and since then, security forces have repeatedly and systematically opened fire on overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrators. The security forces have killed at least 418 people in the Daraa governorate alone, and more than 887 across Syria, according to local activists who have been maintaining a list of those killed. Exact numbers are impossible to verify.
Ever since, an estimated 4,355 Syrian children been killed (up to 15/1/2013) according to the latest report released by Martyrs of the Syrian Revolution Database. Besides thousands more are wounded, detained, or left without a family, or medical aid and humanitarian assistance. Human Rights Watch, for instance, shares evidence, which shows that cluster bombs was used to killed children at the hands of the regime's air forces.
Angels… are angels that have left us … a very high price that the Syrians are paying for this absurd war…Source: NINO Fezza cinereporter on Facebook
On January 18, UNICEF's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Maria Calivis stated:
“A series of reports from Syria this week underlines the terrible price children are paying as long as conflict in the country rages.
Meanwhile, Syrian children are the forgotten victims of the 22-month conflict. The number of children's lives lost continues to accumulate every day; and Syrian activists have no choice but to post the bad news on social media.
Here's a round up of reactions from Syrian netizens on Twitter:
15 Jan 2013: @rallaf: The Assad regime killed at least 21 children and 130 adults in #Syria yesterday, mostly in air strikes on homes and bakeries.
1 Jan 2013: @RevolutionSyria: Slaughtering over 52,000 defenseless civilians incl. 4,000 children isn’t a civil war but gigantic crimes against humanity. #Syria
26 Dec 2012: @RanaKabbani54 27 children + 13 mothers murdered by genocidal #Assad today, among 120 killed so far as a Christmas gift to our people. #Syria #AssadCrimes
31 Dec 2012: @farGar: NOT including today, more than 103 Syrians kids have been killed since Christmas eve #Childvictims
Dozens of Children Murdered in Syria
On May 25, 2011, after almost a month in custody, the world heard the horrifying story of torturing and killing of Hamza Ali AlKhateeb, a 13-year-old Syrian boy who died allegedly while in the custody of the Syrian government in Daraa.
His death showed numerous injuries, including broken bones, gunshot wounds, burn marks, and mutilated genitals
One year after Hamza's martyrdom story,  Al-Houla Massacre took place. On May 25, 2012, activists blamed forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad of murdering 108 Syrians, including 25 men, 34 women and 49 children under the age of 10 (per U.N. observers) by in the town of Al-Houla in Homs. The next footage [Warning: Graphic, Children Death] depicts the aftermath of a massacre showing children bodies, and human parts covered with blood.
Syrian children are paying the price of war between adults in Syria. Syrian refugee children are overwhelmed, as they have never imagined being caught in such a situation. The Syrian Organization for the Defense of Human Rights wrote on its Facebook page on December 28, 2012:
Almost 4,000 Syrian children have been killed so far in Assad's war on Syria, tens of thousands more are maimed and wounded, all are traumatized and terrorized.. Question for World leaders How many murdered children will it take to make a ‘red line'? by a regime that sees them as legitimate targets.
Many initiative are available to help the children of Syria. For instance, people can donate to Save the Children to provide warm clothes, shoes, and blankets for children. Winter aid packages specially-made for infants are available.
Hopefully, we could make a difference as Leila hoped on Twitter:
@leila_na: Looking forward to the day when I'll open my computer and will not find pictures of beautiful children slaughtered. #ThisIsSyria
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/13

author: Rami Alhames


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Thai Activist Editor Gets 11-Year Jail Term for ‘Insulting’ King · Global Voices
Aim Sinpeng

The packed courtroom in Bangkok, Thailand was in shock following the Criminal Court's verdict of 11 years imprisonment for labor rights activist and editor of Voice of Taksin, Somyot Prueksakasemsuk for lese majeste (royal insult) crimes. The shock was both regarding the guilty verdict, but even more so because of the severity of the sentence. While the maximum punishment for violating lese majeste laws is 15 years, previous cases involved shorter prison sentences. Somyot was not so lucky and was slapped with 5 years sentence for each crime, two counts in total, plus an additional year for the now cancelled 1-year suspended sentence he received in 2009 (for a different charge).
Somyot is escorted from the Criminal Court after being convicted to 11 years in prison. Photo by Lillian Suwanrumpha, Copyright @Demotix (1/23/2013)
This is a real disappointment for Somyot, who was reportedly optimistic that he would be found innocent because he believed he did not commit any crime. Prachatai reportsthat Somyot's friend inside the Thai prison, where Somyot has been detained for more than 20 months, revealed that Somyot was hoping the Court would uphold ‘justice’ and ‘do the right thing.’ His lawyer will appeal against the sentence and seek bail.
Somyot's optimism stems from the nature of his crimes. Somyot was the editor of a political magazine, Voice of Taksin (banned in 2010), which published two articles in 2010 that was deemed to have violated lese majeste laws. He was formally charged in 2011, refused bail 12 times and finally convicted on January 23, 2013. The articles were published under pseudonyms and made no direct mention of the monarchy. However, the court believed that it was clear to whom the articles were referring and that as a senior editor, Somyot should have known full well about the ramification of their publication yet he did them any way.
“The court's procedure showed the articles which Mr Somyot published did not contain academic views of the monarchy. The articles were insulting in nature and caused damage to the King,” Judge Thawee said.
The verdict received numerous criticism from rights groups in Thailand, international news agencies and international rights groups. Inside Thailand, however, the news received a rather sober coverage from mainstream media.
Thai netizens’ reaction to Somyot's verdict was, as in previous cases, divided. Some argued that Somyot got what he deserved because he continued to be outspoken against Article 112
mitrapaap says in the Bangkok Post's web board:
He was out there on bail. He perfectly knew the risks of not keeping his mouth shut. One has to make his choice based on the current laws not matter whether you like them or not. You don't change laws by breaking them.
ploydonut added:
Thailand is good country, and bad people who insult our country, institutions, and do the bad crime should go to jail for long time.
Khon Thai Hua Jai Singh wrote on Manager's web board:
To those belonging to the anti-monarchy movement – if you think that Thailand is not a good place to live because we have the monarchy, then leave our beloved country, the country that reveres our monarch.
Or if you believe that you have been duped by convicted felon Mr….. Now it's time to change your mind. It's not too late for this society and your family to forgive you for what you've done. You must choose your path.
On the contrary, rights groups both in Thailand and abroad condemned the verdict and some argued that Somyot received such harsh punishment because he was also an activist who advocated for the reform of Article 112
10 years is too harsh of a punishment for a person who has a different opinion than others. Respecting different opinions and values is something our society needs to learn,” argues a Thai activist.
Luk Chaona Thai wrote on the Prachatalk web board:
The guilty verdict for Somyot is an imprisonment for free thinking. It's natural for human beings to have diverse views on issues and one must be able to live in a society where people have different views.
The biggest disappointment, although not surprising, is the null reaction from the Yingluck government. After all this was the pro-Thaksin magazine which has bee transformed into a Red Shirt (closely allied with former Prime Minister Thaksin, the brother of incumbent Prime Minister Yingluck) publication, Red Power. Acting UDD Chair, Thida Thavornseth, was at Somyot's trial and several Red Shirt groups have organized activities in support of the Free Somyot campaign. Yet, as one suspects, the ruling Pheu Thai party has no intention of intervening in this case. As Professor Duncan McCargo argues:
Yingluck Shinawatra is performing a delicate balancing act to preserve the political deal which keeps her in office – and doing so involves keeping the country’s conservative institutions, including the palace, the judiciary and the military onside.

author: Aim Sinpeng


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Video: China’s Social Media Landscape  · Global Voices
Abby Liu

TeaLeafNation editor David Wertime speaks at Harvard University about China's social media landscape and challenges and advantages with social media reporting.

author: Abby Liu


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Where Russia’s Honest Ones Go to Die: Dolmatov’s Suicide · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

On the morning of January 17, 2013, Russian political refugee Alexander Dolmatov was found having hanged himself in a solitary cell of a Dutch deportation center. Dolmatov left Russia last summer [ru], believing himself to be under observation by Russian security forces and in danger of arrest for participation in a May 6, 2012, Moscow rally that turned violent. He was also a long-time natsbol—a card-carrying member (card #3056 [ru]) of the National Bolsheviks, Eduard Limonov's radical opposition party. Although National Bolshevik political activity has been banned for several years, many former members participate in Limonov's current project, Other Russia.
January 18, 2013 — Other Russia members picket in front of the Dutch Embassy in Moscow. YouTube screenshot. January 26, 2013.
Dolmatov's involvement with the opposition, as well as his day-job as a rocket engineer at a military plant, make the case murky, to say the least. The actions of the Dutch authorities are unclear, but there has clearly been a lack of oversight on their part [ru]. Dolmatov's original petition for refugee status in the Netherlands was denied, and his lawyer was in the middle of an appeals process. Nevertheless, after the denial he was moved to a deportation center, where he was kept in isolation. While in the Netherlands, Dolmatov apparently attempted suicide twice, prior to this third, successful effort.
The news and the somewhat mysterious circumstances of Dolmatov's death quickly captured the attention of Russian netizens, not in the least because much of the story developed online. On the morning of January 18, Dolmatov's former natsbol colleague, the writer Sergey Shargunov, tweeted [ru] that he was with Dolmatov's mother and they had just read his suicide note. Shargunov continued [ru]:
Его довели до самоубийства. Если это было самоубийство. Пишет, что уходит, чтобы не выглядеть предателем.((
He was driven to suicide. If this was suicide. He writes that he is leaving so as not to appear a traitor.((
Popular journalist Oleg Kashin immediately requested [ru] a picture, repeating Shargunov's emoticon-punctuation:
@shargunov Сфотографируй текст(
@shargunov Take a photograph of the text(
Shargunov complied, and Kashin posted the photographs as an album on his Facebook account [ru], leaving out a page for privacy's sake. According to Kashin [ru], Shargunov saw a copy of the note—a scan that a Dutch lawyer had emailed to Dolmatov's mother. The text of the note was also posted on Facebook [ru] by Denis Solopov, another Russian political refugee living in the Netherlands:
Мама мамулечка! Я ухожу, чтоб не возвращаться предателем, опозорив всех. весь нашь род. Так бывает. Выдержи. Я прошу тебя. Я с тобой тот, что был раньше. [Page missing] что довело меня до бегства из России. лень и разгильдяйство не дали изучить новые законы. Я предал честного человека, предал безопасность Родины. Пусть М(…) переезжает к нам. ничего, вы выдержите. Это лучший вариант. Живи с ним. В России скаж(…) что просто несчастный случай. Покеда. Верьте в Бога. Не слушайте всякий деятеле(..) Россия сильна, как ни одна другая страна и будет только сильней. Жить в России гораздо лучше чем где бы то нибыло. Если это возможно отправти моё тело в Россию.
Mother, mommy! I'm leaving so as not to return a traitor, having shamed everyone. our entire kin. It happens. Stay strong. I ask this of you. I'm with you, the same as I was before. [Page missing] what lead me to escape Russia. laziness and carelessness kept me from studying the new laws. I betrayed an honest man, betrayed national security. Let M(…) move in with us. it's ok, you'll be fine. This is the best option. Live with him. In Russia say that it was just an accident. Bye-bye. Have faith in God. Don't listen to any “figures.” Russia is strong, stronger than any other country, and will only get stronger. Living in Russia is much better than living anywhere else. If it's possible, send my body to Russia.
Domlatov's note is strange, even haphazard. His talk of betraying national security, a strong Russia, shame, and patriotism has struck some people as particularly odd. Of course, in the current climate of suspicion and paranoia, there is but a short jump from suspicion to accusations of Kremlin involvement. One of Kashin's readers commented [ru]:
Мне кажется, в случае с Долматовым тоже есть рука спецслужб, по крайней мере предсмертная записка оставляет такое впечатление. Я не верю, что человек может изменить свои взгляды настолько быстро, поэтому возможно ему в этом помогли.
It seems to me that the security forces also had a hand in Dolmatov's case—at least the suicide note leaves this impression. I can't believe that a man can change his views so quickly, so, maybe someone helped him in that regard.
Another reader, Svetlana Chulkova, just couldn't believe [ru] that someone with such a pleasant face could write the note. Journalist and blogger Alexander Archangelsky also thought, based on the “style” of Dolmatov's language [ru], that the note was dictated to him or someone forged it.
Oleg Kashin, on the other hand, reminded [ru] everyone that Dolmatov's language fits in with National Bolshevik ideology:
Дорогие креаклы, имейте все-таки в виду, что у нацболов лозунг “Россия все, остальное ничто” […] если нацбол пишет в предсмертной записке, что любит Россию – это не потому, что его пытали, а потому, что он ее действительно любит.
Dear creacls [ru], bear in mind that the natsbol slogan is “Russia is everything, the rest is nothing” […] if a natsbol writes in a suicide note that he loves Russia—it's not because he was tortured, but because he actually loves it.
Statements from Dolmatov's mother appear to support this interpretation. In a conversation with journalist and blogger Oksana Chelysheva, she mentioned that [ru]:
Понимаете, он там, в Голландии, последнее время очень просился домой. Говорил мне: “Мама, я приеду. Хочу домой”. Я говорила: “Саша, не смей. Тебя тут схватят”.
You see, there, in Holland, he has recently been very homesick. He told me: “Mom, I'll come back. I want to come home.” I told him: “Sasha, don't you dare. You'll be arrested here.”
Meanwhile, Eduard Limonov, Dolmatov's ideological leader, seems less sure [ru] about the note:
Записка видимо частично подлинная, но какие.то странички, по моему мнению, дописаны.
The note is probably partially genuine, but, in my opinion, some of the pages have been added to.
This hasn't stopped Limonov from publishing half a dozen blog posts, claiming that pressure from western security forces to divulge national security materials caused the suicide. Limonov believes Dolmatov's rocket engineering background was key [ru]:
После опубликования предсмертной записки Саши Долматова стало ясно что его допрашивали голландские а возможно и натовские спецслужбы.
Sasha Dolmatov's suicide note makes it clear that he was interrogated by Dutch and perhaps NATO secret services.
Limonov later elaborated [ru]:
Дебрифинг- это серия допросов осуществляемых спецслужбами, для выкачивания информации. Этот метод тяжелой обработки применяют к разведчикам, военнослужащим или обладающим секретной информацией. Долматова подвергли именно такой обработке.
Debriefing is a series of interrogations performed by secret services to pump for information. This method of heavy handling is administered to intelligence officers, the military, or those who have secret information. Dolmatov was subjected precisely to this handling.
As a consequence, Limonov has declared that Dolmatov is the thirteenth member of the National Bolshevik party to die by “homicide.” [ru]
Although some other bloggers [ru] and human rights activists [ru] agree with Limonov's reading that Dolmatov was pressured to give up state secrets and was not willing to comply, others have pointed out that he couldn't really have had access to any such secrets. According to blogger Valera Streltsov [ru], Dolmatov had the lowest level [ru] of security clearance possible, which did not even preclude him from traveling out of the country:
Я сам учился по данной специальности в МАИ. Так вот, всей нашей группе автоматом давали третью степень секретности. При ней совершенно свободно можно выезжать за границу и загранпаспорт не забирают на работе. […] На данном заводе, только два цеха секретные. Работа на них – автоматом присвоение второй степени секретности. Следовательно, Саша там не работал.
I myself specialized in the same field at MAI. And guess what? Our entire group was automatically given third level security clearances. With that, you can freely travel outside of the country and no one takes away your foreign passport at work. […] At the given factory, there are only two secret departments. If you work in one of them—it's an automatic second level security clearance. This means that Sasha did't work there.
If it wasn't the pressure from the NATO intelligence, why did Dolmatov kill himself? Isolation from friends and family, pessimism about the chances of getting refugee status, and the ineptitude of emigration bureaucracy are probably enough reasons to make a man despair. But, even if his story was less Bond and more Kafka, it is no less tragic for it. Eurosocialist blogger Pavel Pryanikov thinks [ru] that the tragedy is a teaching moment for the Russian opposition:
Забудьте вы о том, что “заграница нем поможет”. Может, Чичваркину, банкиру Бородину, ворам из ЮКОСа и пр. из этой когорты она и поможет. Но не вам – честным людям.
Forget about “help from abroad.” Maybe there will be help for [former cellphone tycoon Yevgeny] Chichvarkin, the banker Borodin, the thieves from Yukos, and the rest of that gang. But not for you—not for the honest folk.

author: Andrey Tselikov


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An ‘Evolution in Thinking’ in Afghanistan · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Ahmad Shuja, an Afghan blogger and political commentator based in US, shares his observations on how today's Afghanistan is different from what it used to be under Taliban rule:
Afghans and some foreign observers claim that Afghanistan is a vastly different country now than it was under the Taliban. Few of these observers can tangibly explain exactly what they mean by this change apart from pointing to the number of students in school, the proliferation of TV channels and the improved road networks… [I]t’s the evolution in thinking and expectations that has made Afghanistan such a different place now than it was a mere 10 years ago.


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Arab World: Pan Arab Web Awards Academy Scam · Global Voices
Layal Al Khatib

Lebanese blogger Rita exposes the terms and conditions of the “Pan Arab Web Awards Academy” competition which makes the participants “buy” their award in this post.

author: Layal Al Khatib


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Brazil: “Massacre of Pinheirinho”, One Year Later · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

January 22, 2013 marked one year since the violent eviction of the Pinheirinho settlement in the city of São José dos Campos, Brazil. As Global Voices reported back then:
On January 22, the Military Police of São Paulo (PMSP) and the Metropolitan Civil Guard (GCM) of the city of São José dos Campos, in the state of São Paulo, invaded the settlement known as Pinheirinho to comply with an order of repossession issued by the state court. The violent eviction of the community became known as “Massacre do Pinheirinho” (Massacre of Pinherinho) after a demonstration of violence and brutality by the police in the expulsion and intimidation of residents dumped in the midst of a huge legal mess.
“No more runaround, we want a solution”. Photo taken during the demonstration marking the one-year anniversary since the eviction. Photo by Beatriz Bevilaqua. (Used with permission.)
A demonstration to commemorate the date took place at the entrance to the grounds of Pinheirinho – now empty – in São José dos Campos. Historian Rogério Beier, participating in the filming of a documentary about the case, commented [pt] on the current situation of the more than 1,500 families that were evicted, “causing much pain and suffering to more than 8,000 people living on the land”:
Passado um ano desde a desocupação, essas pessoas seguem sem uma solução definitiva com relação a moradia adequada e, pior, continuam sofrendo diversos tipos de violências como preconceito e discriminação, desintegração da família, péssimas condições de moradia e dificuldades para encontrar emprego, dentre outras.
[…]
O ato foi muito importante para marcar um ano desde a reintegração de posse do Pinheirinho. O terreno, desde então, continua vazio e as pessoas que ali moravam, seguem desabrigadas. A data não podia passar em branco e a organização do evento está de parabéns por relembrar ao Brasil que a luta do Pinheirinho ainda continua. Também entendemos que é bastante importante saber que os políticos que participaram do ato, se posicionam claramente ao lado dos ex-moradores do Pinheirinho na luta por uma solução definitiva para a moradia dessas mais de 8 mil pessoas. Apesar disso, esperávamos que o ato fosse marcado pela participação dos ex-moradores como personagens principais das atividades que ali se desenrolariam, o que infelizmente não aconteceu. Foi impossível não sair com uma sensação de desapontamento ao constatar que, tal como alguns moradores haviam nos adiantado, o ato do Pinheirinho no Poliesportivo acabou dando muito mais um espaço aos políticos do que aos ex-moradores.
One year on since the eviction, these people still haven't been able to find a final solution with respect to adequate housing and, worse, continue to suffer various types of violence such as prejudice and discrimination, family breakdown, poor housing conditions and difficulties in finding employment, among others.
[…]
The demonstration was very important to mark one year since the repossession of Pinheirinho. The land has since remained empty and the people who lived there still remain homeless. The date could not be allowed to pass by unacknowledged and event's organizers are to be congratulated for reminding us that the struggle of Pinheirinho still continues. We also understand that it is very important to know that politicians who participated in the demonstration, clearly aligning themselves in support of the former residents of Pinheirinho in the fight for a permanent solution for the housing of over 8,000 people. Nevertheless, we expected that the demonstration would see the participation of former residents as central figures of the activities that would unfold there, which unfortunately did not happen. It was impossible not to come away with a feeling of disappointment to find that, as some residents had warned us in advance, the Pinheirinho demonstration at the sports center ended up giving much more space to politicians than to the former residents.
Photo taken during the demonstration marking the one-year anniversary of the eviction. Photo by Beatriz Bevilaqua. (Used with permission.)
The COADE – Coletivo de Advogados para a Democracia (Lawyers for Democracy Collective) in its blog described [pt] what has changed in a year:
Um ano se passou e lamentavelmente a violência ainda permanece. Os moradores ainda não tem um teto para morar, ainda estão lutando por justiça e a justiça parece estar mais lenta do que de costume.
Por outro lado, estes cidadãos resistiram e resistem até hoje e não estão sozinhos. Temos o dever de exigir do poder público a devida reparação dos danos morais e patrimoniais causados àquela população.
Moradia é uma necessidade básica de sobrevivência. Trata-se de dignidade humana. É por isso que este Coletivo apoia incondicionalmente a luta das famílias do Pinheirinho.
A year has passed and unfortunately violence still remains. Residents still do not have a roof under which to live, they are still fighting for justice and justice seems to be slower than usual.
On the other hand, these citizens fought back and continue to fight back today and they are not alone. We must demand the government award due compensation for damages and injuries caused to that population.
Housing is a basic need for survival. It is about human dignity. That's why this Collective fully supports the struggle of the families of Pinheirinho.
Photo taken during the demonstration marking the one-year anniversary of the eviction. Photo by Beatriz Bevilaqua. (Used with permission.)
Blogger Conceição Oliveira (Maria Frô) commented [pt] on police violence against the population, especially against the elderly Ivo Teles, who later died of the injuries:
O senhor Ivo Teles dos Santos que aparece no vídeo abaixo com seu corpo frágil de  mais de setenta anos e que foi brutalmente espancado pelos PMs durante a invasão da tropa de choque no Pinheirinho e que após internação veio a falecer  é o símbolo da covardia e a violência do Estado contra seus cidadãos.
Militares da tropa de choque que espancaram idosos,  jogaram bombas de gás em mulheres e crianças e são acusados de violência sexual  foram parte do espetáculo grotesco do dia 22 de janeiro de 2012.
Mr. Ivo Teles dos Santos, who appears in the video below, with his frail body more than 70 years old and who was brutally beaten by officers during the invasion of riot police in Pinheirinho and who died after hospitalization, his case is the symbol of the state's cowardice and violence against its citizens.
Military riot police who beat the elderly, threw gas bombs at women and children and are accused of sexual assault were part of the grotesque spectacle on January 22, 2012.
She also posted a YouTube video by user Wilian Cesar showing the Ivo Teles arguing with police and showing the marks of violence he suffered:
The final message of struggle, comes from [pt] the blog of the Rede Extremo Sul (Extreme South Network) that represents the impoverished population and victims of violence from the southernmost parts of São Paulo:
Enquanto esse sofrimento, tão disseminado, não cimentar nossa união, e enquanto ele não for canalizado para o combate desse sistema que nos massacra, a cada ano teremos mais massacres para lembrar e lamentar. Que os lutadores e as lutadoras não demoremos a decidir e a dizer numa só voz: este foi o último! A dor desses massacrados é a nossa dor!
As long as this suffering, which is so widespread, does not unify us, and as long as it is not channeled in order to fight against this system that is killing us, every year we will have more massacres to remember and mourn. Let us hope that those that fight do not tarry to decide and say with one voice: this was the last one! The pain of those massacred is our pain!
Photo taken during the demonstration marking the one-year anniversary of the eviction. Photo by Beatriz Bevilaqua. (Used with permission.)
The land where Pinheirinho used to be remains empty. The Lebanese-born speculator Naji Nahas [pt], who owns the land, has not used it for anything. The recently elected mayor of São José dos Campos, Carlinhos Almeida, of the Workers Party – same party to which President Dilma Rousseff belongs – has failed to present a plan for the land or for those evicted by the previous government of the opposition Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy. At the same time, the federal government has also failed to find a solution for 6,000 to 9,000 people who lost everything.
YouTube user Fabiano Amorim posted a documentary which includes interviews with victims of the Pinheirinho eviction:
A documentary titled “Pinheirinho: One year later” is being recorded after a fundraising effort via Catarse, a crowdfunding website.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


text:
Central African Republic: How Strong Is The Peace Deal? · Global Voices
Julie Owono

This post is part of our International Relations & Security coverage.
Rebel in Northern Central African Republic by hdptcar on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
On January 11, 2013 the Central African Republic (CAR) government, led by President François Bozizé, and the rebel coalition Séléka signed a new peace deal. The agreement comes after a month of political and military instability that saw rebels advance on the capital Bangui in an attempt to overthrow Bozizé during a military advance. It is expected that the peace deal will result in the naming of new a prime minister and the formation of a government of national unity. According to Centrafrique Presse Info, President Bozizé is expected to respect the decision to appoint Nicolas Tiangaye, [fr] a lawyer and former president of the Central African Human Rights League, as the country’s new prime minister.
Questions over Séléka’s supporters
Despite the rebels’ attempts to seize control of an important region of the CAR, little is known about Séléka and its coalition partners. L’Observateur [fr], for example, raises the following questions:
Qui est cette rébellion? D’où sort-elle? De qui reçoit-elle les financements? Autant de questions dont les réponses ne sont pas faciles.
Pour certains analystes, comme Thierry Vircoulon, chercheur à l’International Crisis Group (ICG), les insurgés centrafricains bénéficient d’une logistique importante et sans doute des soutiens politiques au Tchad. (…)
Ce pays est depuis une dizaine d’années le protecteur de la Centrafrique. La libération des geôles de N’Djamena dans les mois passés de plusieurs opposants aujourd’hui dans les rangs du Séléka étaye notamment les soupçons. Tout comme la passivité montrée ces derniers jours par la force d’interposition tchadienne dépêchée à Sibut, un verrou à une centaine de kilomètres de Bangui.
Who is behind this rebellion? Where does it come from? Where does it get its money from?
For some analysts, such as Thierry Vircoulon, a researcher at the International Crisis Group (ICG), Central African insurgents enjoy significant logistics and probably political support from Chad. (…)
This country has been for the past ten years the protector of the CAR. The release from N’Djamena jails in the past months of several opponents today in the ranks of Séléka supports such suspicion. As well as the passivity shown in recent days by the Chadian interposition force dispatched to Sibut, a barrier located a hundred kilometers from Bangui
A Wikieaks cable by the US embassy in Bangui from 2009 confirms suspicions of the involvement of Chad in supporting the rebels. However, Séléka has always denied being supported by a foreign power, a stance that it reaffirmed as recently [fr] as January 1. These declarations, however, have not stopped President Bozizé from accusing the coalition of being manipulated by outside actors.
African Mobilization
The renewed violence prompted a host of African states to redeploy troops in support of MICOPAX [fr], the peacekeeping operation in CAR led by the Economic Community of Central African States. On January 6 South Africa announced that they were also sending 400 troops to the CAR, a decision that was criticized [fr] by the country’s opposition. Pretoria’s decision nevertheless reflects that South Africa has a history of providing military to support to the CAR. In 2006, for example, the US Embassy in Pretoria revealed that South Africa had agreed to provide military training and assistance to the CAR on the basis that stability in this region is important to the country’s wider interests.
Yet in an opinion piece [fr] published on Le Plus Nouvel Obs, Florence Gabay, Vice-President of the Robert Schuman Institute for Europe, suggests that such mobilization represents a turning point for conflict resolution in this part of Africa:
Il est intéressant de noter que la force apaisante est ici une force économique, la CEEAC. C’est un fait lourd de sens : Benjamin Constant décrivit fameusement comment le commerce tendait de plus en plus à se substituer aux conflits armés. L’Afrique en montre des signes clairs : on ne fait pas la paix d’abord au nom d’abstractions, au nom d’idéaux, si nobles soient-ils, mais on la fait au nom d’intérêts économiques.
It is interesting to note that the soothing strength here is an economic strength, the ECCAS (Economic Community of Central African States). It is a fact full of meaning: Benjamin Constant famously described how trade tended increasingly to replace armed conflict. Africa is showing clear signs of it: Peace is not done first in the name of abstractions, in the name of ideals, however noble they may be, but it is done in the name of economic interests
Solid Ground for a Sustainable Peace?
However, some of observers question the ability of this new deal to bring a sustainable peace to the CAR. Survie, a French Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that is critical of the ‘Françafrique system’ published an article claiming that the CAR remains ‘terminally ill’ [fr]. Its author, Raphaël de Benito, argues that conditions for the next crisis are ripe:
L’accord qui en a découlé ne satisfait personne : Bozizé allant jusqu’au bout de son mandat en 2016, flanqué d’un premier ministre de l’opposition civile tandis que la coalition Séléka rentre bredouille au grand dam de ses chefs militaires qui contrôlent la majeure partie du pays.
This agreement will not satisfy anyone: Bozizé will stay in power until the end of his mandate, flung with a prime minister from the civil opposition, while the Séléka returns empty-handed, to the chagrin of its military chiefs, who control most of the country.
This post and its translations to Spanish, Arabic and French were commissioned by the International Security Network (ISN) as part of a partnership to seek out citizen voices on international relations and security issues worldwide. This post was first published on the ISN blog, see similar stories here.

author: Julie Owono


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Colombia: Campaign Against Smoking · Global Voices
Cati Restrepo

Las Colombianadas del Facebook posts a video [es] where two children ask smoker adults to light up a cigarette for them. The adults refuse, claiming their are too young and it's wrong, but they are surprised when the children handle them a paper with the message: “You are worried about me, and not about yourself?”
Colombia has the law 1335 of 2009 [es] and according to it, it is forbidden for minors to purchase tobacco products.

author: Cati Restrepo