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With new anti-migration laws, the space for civil society in Hungary continues to shrink · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Stickers “An organization that supports immigration” (“Bevándorlást támogató szervezet,” in Hungarian) put on the office door of Hungarian Helsinki Committee in Budapest on 27 June 2018 by ruling party members. Photo by HHC, used with permission.
New laws recently approved by Hungary's parliament that criminalize groups who help migrants are facing widespread condemnation.
The latest is the European Commission for Democracy through Law (better known as the Venice Commission, as it meets in Venice), which is the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters. It advises member states, including Hungary, on how to bring their legal structures into line with European standards of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
The Commission determined that the anti-migration laws “infringe upon the right to freedom of association and expression” and should be repealed.
Among other things, the laws create a new crime called “enabling illegal immigration” which could include providing legal advice and information on rights and responsibilities to migrants, and carry up to a year in prison as punishment.
They also impose a 25 percent tax on foreign donations to NGOs that support migration in Hungary.
As Human Rights Watch put it, if the Hungarian president signs the bills into law, “starting July 1, human rights workers and community volunteers could be prosecuted and jailed for up to a year for providing services, advice, or support to migrants and asylum seekers.”
The legislative package has been dubbed “Stop Soros,” a reference to Hungarian-American business magnate George Soros, whose progressive philanthropy has made him a target of conspiracy theories that paint him as an evil mastermind intent on destroying Hungary and Christianity. (Editor's note: Global Voices is a grantee of the Open Society Foundations, part of the Soros network.)
The atmosphere for civil society work in Hungary has become increasing hostile in recent years, and the “Stop Soros” laws are the latest of a series of policy reforms in Hungary aimed at increasing the government's power at the expense of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The 2017 human rights report prepared by the US State Department highlighted that Hungary had passed legislation that year requiring “NGOs that receive over 7.2 million forints ($26,000) per year in funding from abroad to register as foreign-funded organizations and to publish their ‘foreign-funded’ status on their websites and publications” besides other reporting obligations.
Those new requirements established in that law were, in the words of the European Commission, “discriminatory and create an administrative and reputational burden for these organizations.”
According to the state department's human rights report, the “government terminated long-standing cooperation agreements with some NGOs” during 2017, in particular those involved in monitoring of its work related to human rights, while the ruling party Fidesz vice president Szilard Nemeth declared that NGOs supported by George Soros must be “cleared out.”
It also noted that “NGOs affected by the legislation were frequent targets of media attacks by pro-government outlets,” while NGO workers consider Nemeth statement as incitement of violence.
At time time, over 180 Hungarian NGOs protested against the law, which they deemed “stigmatizing” because it implies they “pose a threat to the country” and “undermines mutual trust in society and questions the right to freedom of expression”. The overall impact of these actions is “discouraging Hungarians from creating their own NGOs to support local community projects” and stifling the work of the civil sector in a manner similar to Russia in 2011 and 2012.
According to the Venice Commission's opinion on the news “Stop Soros” laws, “establishing criminal liability for intentionally assisting irregular migrants to circumvent immigration rules is not in and by itself contrary to international human rights standards.”
However, it said they “go far beyond that” because the legislative package “criminalizes organisational activities which are not directly related to the materialization of the illegal migration” and “entails a risk of criminal prosecution for individuals and organisations providing lawful assistance to migrants.”
Many journalists and civil society activists in Hungary and across Europe have been saying as much, warning that the new laws seem to form part of this wider strategy to undermine and control civil society and the media sphere. American-Israeli-Hungarian journalist Lili Bayer tweeted:
Remember: Hungary's gov targets NGOs not because of any concern about migration, but because Hungary is small and these happen to also be the only NGOs working on civil rights of Hungarian citizens: looking into police abuses, representing protesters in court for free, etc.
— Lili Bayer (@liliebayer) June 21, 2018
Some have drawn parallels between these developments in Hungary and the legalized injustice of 20th-century regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. For instance, Serbian writer and blogger Igor Čobanović tweeted:
“U Mađarskoj donose zakon po kojem će biti kažnjivo pomagati migrantima”
Poslednji takav zakon je imao Adolf Hitler i odnosio se na pomaganje Jevrejima.
— Igor Čobanović (@DaZivimSan) June 21, 2018
“Hungary adopts a law criminalizing helping migrants.”
The last such law was brought up by Adolf Hitler and referred to helping Jews.
Supporters of the Hungarian government's anti-civil society and anti-immigration policies have fueled further comparisons.
On 12 June, members of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) affixed labels to the entrances of buildings that house non-governmental organizations which work with legal immigrants and refugees. The stickers read: “An organization that supports immigration” (“Bevándorlást támogató szervezet,” in Hungarian).
In one widely publicized case, this campaign targeted the offices of an NGO called Menedék, which helps to integrate refugees who have been accepted by the Hungarian government. The building is a yellow-star house, part of a World War II network of compulsory places of residence for around 220,000 Budapest Jews slated for execution by Nazi collaborators in 1944. Both the houses and their residents were obliged to display the yellow star, and after the war most of them were designated with memorial plaques or brass plates with the names of Holocaust victims who lived in the given building.
Another target of this labeling is the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which works to protect and promote human rights. Its members live-tweeted as Fidelitas (Fidesz party's youth branch) posted the stickers while holding a press conference in front of their building on 27 June.
We are getting the stigmatising anti-NGO sticker right now! Live press conf being held right now in front of our building. pic.twitter.com/a2GT8VdZ7J
— HunHelsinkiCommittee (@hhc_helsinki) June 27, 2018
While the Venice Commission's opinion is not directly binding, it provides legal grounds for other actions at the national and European level. On 25 June, for example, the European Parliament's Justice and Home Affairs Committee voted by a large majority in favor of triggering the European Union’s so-called Article 7 process against Hungary, which could ultimately lead to sanctions for failing to uphold the EU's core values.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Central European University remains in ‘legal limbo’ under Hungary’s new higher education amendment · Global Voices
Fruzsina Katona

Central European University students celebrating their graduation in Budapest, June 22, 2018. Photo by CEU/Zoltan Adrian (Kepszerkesztoseg), CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Note: The author of this article is a Central European University (CEU) graduate in the class of 2018. Editor's note: Global Voices is a grantee of the Open Society Foundations, which is funded by George Soros.
The destiny of Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary remains uncertain while it struggles with the Hungarian government over its legal standing based on new higher education amendments introduced in 2017.
The university, founded by Hungarian-American financier George Soros and registered in the United States (US), now faces a possible shut down due to regulations that require all foreign universities to register with their home countries before signing bilateral agreements with Hungary. CEU believes they have been targeted in an ongoing conflict rooted in populist tensions gripping Hungary and Central Europe.
In an email sent out on June 26, 2018, Rector Michael Ignatieff assured the CEU community that they had “authorization to open recruitment for the institution’s Budapest [campus] for the academic year 2019-2020.”
This was a relief to CEU’s staff of 1,160, as well as to prospective students who wondered whether their campus would be shut down due to legal battles when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's government accused CEU of noncompliance with the new law, unofficially referred to as ‘lex CEU,’ (Latin for ‘CEU law’).
In 2017, draft legislation presented the new amendments requiring foreign institutions operating in Hungary to open campuses in the country in which they are registered and then sign a bilateral educational agreement with the Hungarian government. While CEU's campus is located in Hungary, the university is registered in the United States (US) and primarily awards US diplomas, with a few exceptions of programs that are also accredited in Hungary.
Critics of the amendment view it as an attack on CEU. In the months following its announcement, multiple demonstrations were organized in Budapest and over 500 prominent American and European academics, including 20 Nobel laureates, signed an open letter in support of CEU.
Thousands in Hungary have taken to the streets in defense of @ceuhungary, one of the country's last independent universities. #IStandWithCEU pic.twitter.com/dhXBD3Wdrr
— DW News (@dwnews) May 27, 2017
The problematic lex CEU prompted the European Commission to refer Hungary to the European Court of Justice of the European Union. Top European Union (EU) leaders, such as First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans has expressed direct support for CEU's survival Hungary:
“I will continue to fight for everything pertaining to liberty, openness and European cooperation.” @TimmermansEU #Hungary #CEU pic.twitter.com/FJZJ6YebKB
— European Commission ?? (@EU_Commission) April 12, 2017
In his recent email, Rector Ignatieff wrote:
CEU has fulfilled its obligations under Hungarian law, and remains faced with the Hungarian government’s continuing refusal to bring the lex CEU matter to a conclusion…
The statement refers to the Hungarian government’s highly anticipated report about their visit to Bard College in New York, USA, which plans to host some of CEU’s programs in accordance with lex CEU. Despite its vexatious requirements, CEU says it was able to comply with the new laws by acquiring “an official letter from New York state authorities, released [June 26, which] confirms that CEU is indeed offering higher education activities in New York, and is thus in full compliance with lex CEU” as stated in a document attached to the Rector's email.
Despite securing this letter from New York state authorities, it is still unclear whether the Hungarian government is willing to sign the required bilateral education agreement with the US. Rector Ignatieff referred to this dilemma as a state of “legal limbo” which is far from over.
Experts and netizens believe that the Hungarian government may be playing a waiting game with CEU by delaying their decision so that the university will shut down on its own to avoid direct responsibility for CEU's exit from Hungary.
Official CEU emails from March informed the community about the establishment of a satellite campus in Vienna, Austria which could serve as a new home in case the university does not receive authorization from the Hungarian government to continue operations. In its most recent statement, CEU announced opportunities to learn at both the  Budapest and future Vienna campus.
About a possible move to Vienna, a recent graduate from CEU’s Legal Studies Department and future doctoral candidate Matthew DeCloedt told Global Voices (GV):
I don’t think students will be deterred from attending CEU if it isn’t in Budapest. I’m going follow it wherever it goes. The quality of education will not change, but it’d be a pity to have to move somewhere else.
Budapest has been home to CEU since 1993, directly contributing to the Hungarian economy through taxes, and indirectly by attracting students from about 120 countries who enjoy Budapest's cultural scene, nightlife, and countryside.
Incoming student Sunna Kokkonen told GV that the only thing that worries her about a possible move to Vienna is whether her diploma will be accredited in the EU and not just the US. She added that before accepting the offer of admission, she had little knowledge of what was happening at CEU.
Many of Hungary's prominent government officials graduated from CEU, considered to be a top university in Central Eastern Europe, leaving many to wonder why the Hungarian government has focused so heavily on CEU compliance. A handful of other foreign universities are operating in the country, but they usually register within the EU and only have satellite campuses in Hungary, therefore making compliance much simpler.
The conflict may stem from the university's association with Soros, whose organization, the Open Society Foundation, awarded a scholarship to current Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in 1989. This is in stark contrast to Orbán's current right-wing populist government who has presented Soros as a public enemy to Hungarians, spending millions of euros of taxpayers’ money on costly defamation campaigns against him.
Theories on Hungary's singular focus on CEU range from a Freudian interpretation of Orbán’s life to the prime minister's wish to be invited to the White House by US president Donald Trump. The most widely accepted theory, however, is that a populist leader needs a public enemy and in this case, CEU serves as the scapegoat. CEU's decision to remain in Budapest forces Orbán’s cabinet to make and announce their final decision on renewing the school’s license. If the license is not renewed, CEU must cease operations in Budapest. But judging by the university's recent statement, the institution is confident, that it will eligible for license renewal.
Meanwhile, Orbán's Hungarian-Civic Alliance (known as the Fidesz party) risks “expulsion from the European People’s Party, the biggest group in the European Parliament which has shielded the populist leader from criticism over the erosion of democracy.” The influential Hungarian website Index.hu claims that even Fidesz representatives are clueless about Orbán's next move.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Fruzsina Katona


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Netizen Report: As Erdogan’s reign continues, journalists remain under attack — are translators next in line? · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Demonstrators bound for Taksim Square in June 2013. Photo by Mstyslav Chernov via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
As Turkish voters went to the polls on June 24 to cast their ballots — and ultimately re-elect incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to a fourth term in office — internet users braced themselves for darkness.
Since the social movements that emerged in Istanbul in 2013, social media sites like Twitter and YouTube have been knocked off the internet periodically. Wikipedia has been blocked altogether since April 2017.
Shortly before the election, the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications asserted the power to block “abnormal” content on social media during elections. This led to anticipation of more blocked websites, but also demonstrates a higher level of transparency than in the past. This may be in part a response to pressure from open internet advocates and researchers both in and outside the country.
Technical researchers affiliated with NetBlocks are still gathering results from technical testing during the election. NetBlocks confirmed to Global Voices that there were various power cuts that day, and that Erdogan’s party, the AKP, pressured Vodafone not to supply temporary cell towers for opposition rallies.
Turkey has been in a continuous state of “national emergency” since the July 2016 attempted military coup. Though this is now set to expire in July, local experts suspect that  the government’s efforts to control information about matters of public interest will continue.
Journalists and human rights defenders have paid a heavy price for their work to hold power to account in the country, facing harassment, arrest and prosecution,  alongside people who have simply criticized Erdogan on social media.
The Istanbul office of news website sendika.org was raided amid a new investigation launched against its editor, Ali Ergin Demirhan, who was detained last year on allegations that he had was tried to delegitimize the results of the referendum. Censorship researchers have found that sendika.org has been blocked at least 61 times in Turkey, since its inception.
Alongside the popular targets of journalists and human rights defenders, another less common class of online actor has come onto the radar of Turkish authorities: translators.
A growing number of active social media users are rising to prominence in various parts of the world by translating news and social media reports for interested audiences. This is also a potent strategy for increasing attention around important live events, such as protests or trials.
On June 21, Turkish social media user and translator Sebla Küçük was indicted and charged with disseminating “terrorist propaganda” on Twitter. The offending tweets contained only translations of news bites from English-language media sources on Turkey’s Afrin offensive in northern Syria earlier in 2018.
Küçük told Diken news website that she suspects the real motivation of the prosecutor is her translations of the trial of former Halkbank executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla.
“Obviously [the prosecutor] was troubled by my translations concerning the Hakan Atilla trial, but since they couldn’t find anything about them, they filed a case with baseless evidence,” she said.
The European Union has come one step closer to passing the Copyright Directive, a region-wide policy initiative that could upend the free flow of information online in Europe and the world.
On June 20, the EU Legal Affairs Committee voted in favor of the directive, which requires major web platforms like Facebook to buy licenses from media companies before linking to their stories and seeks to implement an “upload filter” that would assess all content for copyright infringement before it could be uploaded to the internet. The sky-high technical barriers of such a system have not yet deterred EU leaders. Alongside the Wikimedia Foundation (which administers Wikipedia), dozens of technologists, internet policy experts, and advocates have spoken out against the policy.
A total of 264 websites, some of which were censored in Ethiopia for more than ten years, were unblocked this week at the behest of the country’s new Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed. Among those unblocked were multiple news sites that run critical coverage of the government and political parties, which had not only been censored, but triggered the arrests of dozens of media workers under the previous government.
Ethiopia’s new government is gradually asserting its power after the transition from former PM Hailemariam Desalegn, who resigned in February 2018 amid widespread public protests, rising levels of violence and a fracturing of the ruling coalition.
Despite the barriers and threats to doing journalism in Egypt, some people are still trying it. Just nine hours after the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information launched a news portal featuring stories about human rights protections and violations in Egypt, the site was blocked on all ISPs.
Chinese authorities have added the name of British American comedian John Oliver, and the name of his news comedy show, Last Week Tonight, to a list of sensitive terms that trigger automatic deletion of posts on Chinese social media platforms Weibo and WeChat. The move came shortly after Oliver in a recent episode offered a biting (and comical) critique of Chinese government crackdowns on political and religious expression.
In the run-up to the July 29 elections, three Facebook users in Cambodia have been brought to court on accusations of violating the country’s newly passed lèse majesté law, which criminalizes the act of insulting the monarchy.
Indonesia’s new anti-terror law allows authorities to “…intercept any conversation by telephone or other means of communication suspected of being used to prepare, plan, and commit a Criminal Act of Terrorism.” Many fear the law could be used as justification for surveilling human rights defenders or journalists. Human Rights Watch raised the alarm about the provision in a recent analysis.
Also in Indonesia, spiritual book author Alnoldy Bahari was found guilty of spreading hate speech on Facebook, a violation of the 2008 Electronic Information and Transaction Law. A district court in West Java sentenced Bahari to five years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of 100 million rupiahs (USD $7,155) fine. Amnesty International and SAFEnet have condemned the decision as a violation of due process rights.
Reports from The New York Times and more recently by The Intercept indicate that a defense company called Circinus run by Donald Trump fundraiser Elliott Broidy is building web tracking and surveillance software. Although their authenticity has not been confirmed, documents leaked to The Intercept appear to be intended to sell the company’s technical services to the governments of Turkey, Romania, the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus.
The Circinus website also boasts domestic surveillance services for police and prison administrators. According to the company’s website, these services “[allow] for the collection, aggregation, and analysis of all inmate communication (Skype, instant messaging, email, social media) as well as the ability to monitor activity and data extraction.”
Ellery Roberts Biddle, Mohamed ElGohary, L. Finch, Arzu Geybullayeva, Juliana Harsianti, Oiwan Lam, Mong Palatino, Karolle Rabarison, and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Simone Veil, the Immortal: A conversation with author Pascal Bresson on Veil’s human rights legacy · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Simone Veil at the European Parliament. 23 June 1984 – CC BY-SA 3.0
On July 1, 2018, human rights legend Simone Veil will be inducted into the prestigious Panthéon mausoleum along with her husband Antoine Veil. An essential figure in modern French history representing civil society, she is a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp who went on to become a leading women's rights defender and the first president of the European Parliament.
Shortly before the national ceremony of recognition at the Panthéon, Global Voices interviewed Pascal Bresson, a graphic novelist with more than 40 titles to his credit, who just completed a graphic novel based on the life of Simone Veil. The following is the narrative of our conversation exploring the meaning of Veil's legacy in the current political context as well as Bresson's current work.
Cover design of a new graphic novel “Simone Veil, L'immortelle” by Pascal Bresson
Global Voices (GV): Your work, “Simone Veil, L'immortelle,” [“Simone Veil, the Immortal” in English. Ed's note: Immortal refers to member of the French Academy] will be released June 27, 2018, by Editions Marabulles. Can you tell us about the context of this work and about your inspirations for the novel?
Pascal Bresson (PB): With great pleasure. This is the very first graphic novel authorized by the Veil family. I have been working on this project for more than three years. After visiting the Panthéon in 2014, and I have to say that, since I was a child, I have always had an admiration for these great people who have done something good for our country, upon seeing all those tombs: Zola, Jean Jaurès, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, Jean Moulin, Aimé Césaire, etcetera, I wondered who could be the next person inducted there!
Immediately, Simone Veil seemed obvious to me. A woman who was humanist, independent, and uncompromising in her convictions, with fighting spirit and moral conscience. A strong person, whose destiny was both tragic and exceptional. Beyond her image of rectitude and honesty, Simone Veil was, first and foremost, a woman who embodied her era and her struggle. Her personal story was intimately entwined with collective history: the war, the hell of the extermination camps, abortion law, the fight for women's rights, and commitment to the reunification of Europe. It has to be said that it's fascinating and intriguing.
Through these 176 pages, I unveil the mystery surrounding the exemplary journey by which she became an icon, a symbol for generations of women. Drawing upon her own testimonies, I retrace the itinerary of a smart and rebellious little girl, born in Nice on July 13, 1927, as Simone Jacob. I bring to light a behind-the-scenes view of her political battles, her wounds, and the suffering which tinged her life. Neither a hagiography nor a pamphlet, this book, intended for readers seven to 77 years old (and up) is by a passionate author who depicts, for the first time ever in a graphic novel, an essential figure of our times.
GV: Simone Veil is certainly an emblematic character in French history. However, most of her work is still not well-known to the general public. If you had to summarize, in a few sentences, why Simone Veil is now in the Panthéon, what would you most like to present from her story?
PB: Her best-known book is definitely “A Life”. The general public is well-aware of her fight in 1974 for a woman's right to choose abortion, but on the other hand, throughout her life, she also was ceaselessly waging other battles. Like her success in having Algerian prisoners who had been subjected to abuse transferred to France, she obtained political asylum for thousands of members of the FLN [National Liberation Front of Algeria] who were interned in France. But the biggest fight that she led was against the National Front to end the battle for Europe, which is inseparable from our memory of the Second World War.
And now, Simone Veil will enter the Panthéon on Sunday, July 1, 2018. There she will rest in the company of her husband Antoine Veil, who died in 2013. This is the first time that any man will make entry to the Panthéon in the role of spouse. In that regard, I have a small anecdote on the subject! The first time that I met Simone Veil and her son Jean, I remember telling him that it's important for his mother to go to the Panthéon. And he burst out laughing, saying: ‘Oh, if someday mom goes to the Panthéon, my dad will have to follow her there’.
Simone Veil will be the fifth woman to be laid to rest in this symbolic location. This will be a beautiful way to show the immense gratitude of the French people. She deserves to enter this temple of the Republic. While remembering that, in 1974, her husband Antoine stepped aside, to let his wife become Minister of Health. It was he who had been destined to become a politician, not her. He sacrificed himself through his love for her. He didn't want to overshadow her. They were a symbiotic couple. And, at the least, they will rest together eternally and never be separated again.
The author Pascal Bresson, used with his permission.
GV: You've been an author of graphic novels for 25 years, in which you have covered subjects such as humanism, tolerance, segregation, racism, injustice, and the duty to remember history. Currently, the world is still filled with situations which seem unjust, or even cruel. How do you see your role as an author in the world today, and what unjust situations, in particular, would you like to see resolved in the future?
PB: In life, there are two feelings which I dislike most of all: injustice and mediocrity. Sometimes the two go together. The injustice is really repugnant to me. In recent years, I have specialized in areas such as humanism, justice, society, racism, or ecology. I became an author engaged with our times. And it's not coincidental that my favorite author is Victor Hugo.
The question of the role of a writer in society today is more pertinent now than ever. I'd like to be a mediator in society, not just a spectator, but in an active role to describe, critique, analyze everything good or bad which is happening in our society.
An author has the role of guardian and conveyor of memory. Some observations on life are recorded on paper, so that they will endure time. Writing has always had some therapeutic value for me. By writing, you can help yourself and help others. But writing is also a way of expressing states of mind, and the funny, aggravating, or frivolous aspects of life. Writing can also be an essential educational tool. I want to be the one who collects facts, shapes them, and puts them on paper, it's a kind of transmission. I'm an emissary.
We have to keep faith in humanity. When I see human cruelty, it's heart-wrenching but I have to keep going. I'm still convinced that the future for humanity will be women. ‘The future of man, is woman’, as Louis Aragon said. And like the famous poet, there are numerous other great men who have affirmed that without the support of the women in their lives, their professional rise would have been different. Our epoch is still struggling to think of the ideas of equality and difference conjointly. It's very important to reconnect with a unique French tradition of relations between men and women as peaceful and complementary.
Excerpt from the illustrated novel “Simone Veil, L'Immortelle”
GV: One of your graphic novels “Plus Fort que la Haine“, published by Editions Glénat, received the “Readers’ Choice Prize for Best Work 2015″, in the European comic category. It tells the story of Doug Wiston, a young black worker in New Orleans in 1933, in an America scourged by racism and segregation. The presidential agenda of [Donald] Trump in the USA [United States of America] seems reminiscent of these dark days of segregation. How would you explain this resurgence of racism in the USA, and to some extent the world in general?
PB: Racism and segregation are two subjects I have often covered.  In a general way, it seems that racism today arises from fear and worry when faced with someone different than oneself, and who one can't understand.  Returning to the subject of my book ‘Plus Fort que la Haine’, one might say that the blows just keep falling upon the head of young Doug, the hero of the story, who will have to learn to control his revolt, to tame and to channel it. Meanwhile, the injustices keep accumulating for him, for his family, and for others like him. His salvation will come in the form of intervention by two wise men, one black, who stops him from making an irreparable mistake, and the other white, his neighbor who gives him his first pair of boxing gloves, and a ticket to go to the city. A humanist tale in an America scourged by racism and segregration, which proves that no matter what happens, hatred is never the answer…
Excerpt from the illustrated novel “Simone Veil, L'Immortelle”
GV: Let's go back to your forthcoming work. You got permission from the family of Simone Veil to do this novel. Madame Veil, in her time, had to face an outpouring of antipathy for her work to promote women's rights, especially concerning the right to choose abortion. Is it more difficult nowadays to advance progressive causes than it was in 1974? And is it possible we could even turn back on the progress made regarding the rights of women?
PB: In 40 years, French citizens have clearly changed their opinion about the legal status of abortion. Seventy-five percent of them say they approve of having no restriction on abortion, versus only 48 percent in 1974, the year of the ‘Veil law‘ [legalizing abortion in France]. And one could add Chile to the list of nations which are finally easing their laws about abortion. In Latin America or in Africa, certain countries prohibit abortion, and some permit it only under very restrictive conditions. It's women in Europe and North America who benefit from the most lenient laws. In practice, abortion is still strictly limited in some countries. In fact, doctors can cite ‘conscientious objection’, which allows them not to do any act contrary to their ethical, moral, or religious convictions.
This is not a sudden return of reactionary waves, it is more a state of mind, an opening of the mind. A significant number of countries continue to allow it only under restrictive conditions. Especially in the case of danger to the life of the mother. On the other hand, for many of those who oppose it, the problem that arises is this: who will decide, and on the basis of which criteria? Who will decide when there is human life, or when there is nothing, or almost nothing?
Women have the right to the disposition of their own bodies as they wish. ‘I did not imagine the hatred that I was going to incite,’ said Simone Veil, on November 26, 1974. Since then, the opinion of the French people on the conditions of abortion has changed in a very significant way. It can be seen that in today's France, there is no real gender or age breakdown in opinion on the conditions of voluntary termination of pregnancy. In fact, men and women are both equally in favor of extensive authorization of abortion.
GV: You are passionate about justice and about the ocean. I couldn't forget to mention the tragic episode of the Aquarius [ship sinking] and the refugees in the Mediterranean Sea. What is your take on the current situation of refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea, and how could this be improved?
PB: If Simone Veil were still alive and well, I can promise you that she would be pounding a fist on the table! It's a shame. This great lady, a true European, would never have allowed the sad situation we are living in to have happened. Since it's fair to say it's a shame to Europe as a whole.
Obviously, I'm just reacting as a human, as a citizen, and it is perhaps too easy to write these lines from where I am. But one still has to recognize that there is total disorder — visible incoherence — in the absence of common rules, it's a terrible everyday fact. Each country does as it likes, accepts or rejects whom they wish, even if that means sending some toward certain death. That already began with the arrival of the Syrians. While each European country had committed to a minimum reception quota for those who fled Daesh (also known as ISIS), most countries did not respect it, and especially not France. The number of people who are dying in the Mediterranean is a considerable humanitarian disaster, and yet Europe has still not been able to stop it.
All of that is scary for the future, especially for the future of our children. How can we show them a good example of cooperation? It shows the extent to which Europe has lost its moral compassion in the Mediterranean situation. These men, women, and children have fled poverty and war. I have to admit that I'm overwhelmed by this behavior. How will this situation evolve? I dare to hope that mentalities will evolve, but I also have a tendency to think humanity may be regressing.
Because, to be human is to be dignified and respectful, to think with intelligence, to share with others. To be human means to be free in the midst of a civilized society […] But all of these ways in which I have tried to characterize humanity are in regression in everyday life. For the future, I have a lot of hope.

author: Rakotomalala


text:
With elections approaching, Pakistani journalists and activists face rising risk of assault, abduction · Global Voices
Anas Saleem

A photo of ransacked house. Image via twitter account of Raza Rumi (Editor Daily Times)
With national elections less than one month away, Pakistani journalists and activists are seeing a rise in attacks and intimidation of themselves and their loved ones.
This election will mark the second time a democratic transition of power will occur in the country's history. The first peaceful transition was in 2013, when Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) handed the reins of government over to Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N). Prior to 2008, no democratic government had completed its five years in office.
Against this backdrop, attacks on journalists and activists demonstrate the will of powerful forces — of which there are various in Pakistan — to keep power in the hands of certain actors, and to prevent independent voices from holding power to account.
On June 21 in Islamabad, Daily Times correspondent and human rights defender Marvi Sirmed found her home had been ransacked after she and her family returned from a visit to Lahore. Two laptops, one smartphone, passports of family members and some other travel documents were taken.
Daily Times Editor Raza Rumi Tweeted:
Extremely disturbing. @dailytimespak correspondent & staff writer @marvisirmed’s home in #Islamabad was ransacked while she & her hubby @sirmedmanzoor were away for Eid holidays. Everything scanned but only laptops,1 smartphone & travel docs taken by the ‘thieves’. #ruleoflaw pic.twitter.com/biO1vzdIMx
— Raza Ahmad Rumi (@Razarumi) June 21, 2018
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expressed serious concern the raid on Sirmed's home. In a statement issued on June 23, the Commission has said:
Our council member Marvi Sirmed’s long-standing record as a human rights defender speaks for itself in an environment that is increasingly hostile to criticism, much less dissent. That the family’s travel documents were stolen along with their laptops and smartphone, and their home so deliberately ransacked, are not the marks of commonplace burglary
Activists and journalists in Pakistan are also seeing a rise in threats against their family members. Pakistani blogger Ahmad Goraya, who resides in the Netherlands and is known on Facebook for his satirical critiques of Pakistan's military, claimed on Twitter that men from Pakistan intelligence agency ISI visited his elderly parents on June 20. According to Goraya, they told them they had “loud and clear orders” to abduct and torture his father and attack his family, all to teach Goraya a lesson.
Thread : Men from Pakistani intelligence agency ISI visited my elderly parents in Pakistan yesterday 20th June. They said loud and clear that they have orders to abduct and torture my father and attack my family to teach me a lesson. This is not the first incident.
— Ahmad Waqass Goraya (@AWGoraya) June 21, 2018
This is not the first of Goraya's encounters with such forces. In January 2017, Goraya went missing for nearly three weeks. After he was released, he told the BBC that he believed the people who kidnapped and tortured him were linked with a government institution.
HRCP condemned this threat tactic as well:
HRCP unequivocally condemns the attempt to cow #humanrights defender @AWGoraya into silence. To use a person’s vulnerable elderly parents as leverage is nothing short of cowardly. https://t.co/REfHTSnUY3
— Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (@HRCP87) June 22, 2018
The Commission made a public statement following the incident:
The Commission has also expressed its alarm at the growing frequency with which human rights defenders are being targeted. HRCP calls for a public and transparent investigation of the incident to make it clear that such callous attempts to intimidate human rights defenders or their families are unacceptable and unconstitutional. This ugly state of affairs simply cannot be allowed to continue.
Earlier this month, journalist and activist Gul Bukhari was abducted in Lahore. She was on her way to Waqt TV Studio for a talk show when she was intercepted by unknown persons.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent organization working to promote press freedom worldwide, expressed alarm over Bukhari's disappearance and called on the police to ensure her prompt and safe return:
CPJ is alarmed by reports that @gulbukhari has been abducted in Lahore. Police should do everything in their power to investigate and ensure her prompt and safe return. Pakistani journalists have seen enough tragedy. https://t.co/9ZmQcul4xp
— CPJ Asia (@CPJAsia) June 5, 2018
After a brief disappearance Bukhari was back home and spoke out via Twitter expressing her appreciation for all those who joined hands for her well being including friends, family, colleagues as well as supporters in civil society and journalism.
I would like to express my deep gratitude and love to my friends, family, colleagues & supporters in civil society, journalism and politics across the board, for coming together in solidarity out of concern for my well being last night.
— Gul Bukhari (@GulBukhari) June 6, 2018
Concerns about freedom of expression and press censorship are also growing in the run-up to the election. In recent months, the Jang Group’s Geo TV has been pushed off the airwaves across most of the country. A number of newspaper editors have been forced to drop dissenting columns from newspapers. Some journalists, including Asad Kharal, have been assaulted publicly for being critical in their writings.
In Pakistan, many such incidents have political motives and the attacks on journalists often go unsolved. In the current climate, with the dominance of the military, a lack of electoral reforms, low levels of literacy, and the marginalization of left-wing movements, Pakistan’s obstinate adherence to democracy is a testament to the country’s resilience and belief in the power of elections.

author: Anas Saleem


text:
Q’eswachaka, the last Inca bridge that keeps communities together · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Photo courtesy of Rutahsa Adventures www.rutahsa.com – published with permission by Leonard G. on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 1.0).
During the Inca empire, also known as Tawantinsuyo, ancient Peruvians developed a broad network of roads and bridges so the extensive territory could communicate.
Of all the bridges that existed back then, the only one that remains today is the Q’eswachaka or Queshuachaca (literally, “rope bridge” in the Quechua language), which spans a narrow pass over the Apurímac River in the province of Canas, located in the southern region of Cusco.
Ultimo puente Inca #Queshuachaca https://t.co/A9Qs5jFRYG pic.twitter.com/5283LESYgg
— Inka Jungle (@inkajungle) 12 de junio de 2017
Last Inca bridge, Queshuachaca.
The Q'eswachaka is made out of ichu, a grass endemic to the Andean highlands. For more than 500 years, the local people have kept this tradition of ancient technology alive. Every year in June, the rural communities of Huinchiri, Chaupibanda, Choccayhua and Ccollana Quehue come together in a ritual ceremony to rebuild the bridge with the same raw materials and techniques used in the time of the Incas.
In 2013, the knowledge, skills and rituals related to the annual renewal of the Q’eswachaka bridge were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. According to that description:
[Las comunidades] consideran que este trabajo en común no es solamente un medio para mantener en buen estado una vía de comunicación, sino que es también una forma de estrechar los lazos sociales que existen entre ellas. El puente se considera un símbolo sagrado del vínculo que une a las comunidades con la naturaleza y con su historia y tradiciones […].
[The communities] see it as a means of strengthening their social links and not simply as a transport route. The bridge is considered a sacred expression of the communities’ bond with nature, tradition and history […]
The rite of renewal lasts three days, each one with its activities very well established.
The first day begins with an oblation to the protector Apu. The main material for the bridge is collected and twisted into narrow strands. In the afternoon, the communities bring the material together, twisting the narrow strands into thick ropes — four for the floor of the bridge, and two for the railings.
The main ropes are then extended across the river. On the second day, they're secured to each side, and the old ropes are allowed to fall.
On the third day, the chakaruhac (Inca engineer) braids the bridge together to give the bridge a surface to walk on and to stabilize the railings by connecting them to the base.
Finally on the last day, the bridge is reopened with typical music and dances from the area.
Cruzando el #Queshuachaca, el último puente inca de #Perú. MMRGonzlez1 http://t.co/mmKTmps1Ot pic.twitter.com/FRAUXdoaUw
— Maducho Arias (@maducho) 9 de junio de 2015
Getting across Queshuachaca, last Inca bride of Peru.
A user posted on Twitter a video by AJ+ that shows how the bridge is braided every year:
El puente colgante Q'eswachaka desde hace siglos se vuelve a tejer una y otra vez. Hermosidad incaica de la que podemos aprender para lograr colectivamente #elpuentequefalta. https://t.co/h8aJDuxQI3
— Ciudadano Intermodal (@arriagadaPAD) 17 de junio de 2018
For centuries, the hanging bridge Q'eswachaka is braided once more. Inca beauty that we can learn from to collectively achieve.
On Instagram, we can also find pictures of users who crossed the bridge:
#cuzco #Q’eswachaka en construcción.
Una publicación compartida de  Kenneth Figuerola Duthurburu (@kenneth_figuerola) el
#cuzco #Q’eswachaka… ahora toca cruzar.
Una publicación compartida de  Kenneth Figuerola Duthurburu (@kenneth_figuerola) el

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Turkey looks ahead to a strongman era · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Image of the Kremlin press service. Licensed for reuse.
In the latest test of his leadership, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proved once more why he is Turkey's most preeminent politician and its most dominant leader since Mustafa Kemal Attaturk. Simply, he is prepared to do whatever it takes.
The June 24 presidential election did not have to go to a second round, a possibility that remained on the cards until the day of the vote. Erdogan scored victory over the main opposition candidate Muharrem Ince with 52.6% of the vote.
That margin might seem modest in comparison to the 86% secured by President Ilham Aliyev in next door Azerbaijan earlier this year or the 75% won by Russian leader Vladimir Putin in March. But nobody in Turkey, whether for or against Erdogan, has any doubt the country is now firmly in strongman territory. The president's persona towers over the institutions of the state.
This election victory that took place under conditions of emergency rule with one opposition candidate running from jail strengthened the hold of a man who first came to power as Turkey's Prime Minister in 2003 over all branches of government.
That is because a violation-marred referendum changing the country's constitution in a way that favoured expanded presidential powers last year. The referendum passed with just 51.4% of the vote. Once again, Erdogan, whose political career is crudely but comically illustrated in the video below, had done just enough.
Not that the president is completely satisfied with the scale of his victory. Shortly after the results were announced he labeled Turkish citizens in America who overwhelmingly voted against him “Gulenists” — a reference to his foe-in-exile Fethullah Gulen.
Erdogan:
“The Gulenists fled to America; when we look at the votes from America, they are for the opposition.” https://t.co/1OH9iPOtyU
— Nate Schenkkan (@nateschenkkan) June 24, 2018
June 24 also determined the makeup of a new parliament. Here Erdogan's supporters in the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have 295 seats, and thus fall just short of an overall majority. Nevertheless they can be sure of support from their allies in the nationalist MHP who performed strongly, winning 49 seats. Together the two parties that formed an alliance in the wake of the failed military coup two years ago control the parliament, with MHP undoubtedly the junior partner. One MHP lawmaker who suggested that the party “saved” Erdogan and AKP and should leverage its position was quickly sacked.
In an indication of Turkey's presently toxic political atmosphere, MHP released a list of all those who had “doubted” them during their election campaign.
Living up to its dignified reputation, #MHP publishes a list of names of all those who doubted the party during the campaign. Incitement, pure and simple. pic.twitter.com/eudVeJ4Ozb
— Mark Lowen (@marklowen) June 26, 2018
According to the OSCE/ODIHR mission report the elections took place in an environment that clearly favored the ruling party and the president. Simultaneously, if there was one party clearly disfavoured by that same environment it was the pro-Kurdish left-leaning HDP, which was able once more to cross the 10% threshold and enter parliament despite party co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş running his campaign from a prison cell where he has been awaiting trial since May 2016.
Some say the very fact that a party like HDP can still compete in national elections and secure seats is testimony to the fact that there is still some way to go before Turkey becomes a fully-fledged authoritarian state. Nevertheless, the signs for the future are not good.
The failed military coup in 2016 that gave birth to the state of emergency AKP and MHP say they will end this month has already seen 107,000 Turks lost their jobs. Some 50,000 people who have been imprisoned pending trial, many on charges of conspiring with the shadowy Gulen organisation accused of plotting the coup. Dozens of journalists are currently behind bars in a country that along with Egypt and China has been accused by media monitors of leading the charge against the free press.
Criticized for a rights-lite approach even before all of this, Erdogan and AKP could at least take some credit for a strong economy during their first decade in power. That has not been the case in recent years. Weeks before the election, the Turkish Lira took a dive, weakening against the dollar and euro. President Erdogan has promised to continue further interventions at the Central Bank. Most onlookers are skeptical about prospects for an economic recovery.
“Now the first challenge is the deteriorating economy and he (Erdoğan) has no means to challenge the course of events”: My comment in NYT #TurkeyElection2018
Now, Erdogan Faces Turkey’s Troubled Economy. And He’s Part of the Trouble. https://t.co/2Gb7mPxhDA
— Kadri Gürsel (@KadriGursel) June 26, 2018
Erdogan has what he needed for the moment. He will now be in power at least until 2023, a year that marks the centennial of the Turkish Republic created under Attaturk. Yet for all the support he enjoys, Turkey is more divided than ever.
As Elif Safak, Turkey's renowned writer recently put it in an interview with the Washington Post:
For a democracy to exist and survive, you need more than the ballot box. You need rule of law, separation of powers, free and diverse media, independent academia, women’s rights, minority rights and freedom of speech. In Turkey, all of these components are damaged or broken after 16 years of the increasingly authoritarian rule of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). How then can we call this a democracy? It is not. Once majoritarianism had been consolidated, it was a very swift fall from there into authoritarianism.

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


text:
The dark side of World Cup fun in Russia: Online mobs are bullying women getting ‘too friendly’ with foreigners · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

Fans from abroad are talking selfies with Russian women near the Red Square // Screencapped from CBC News by Runet Echo
Despite the grim predictions, the World Cup in Russia has stunned even the most skeptical of observers. Social media posts and newspaper columns are praising not just the event's superb organization, but its genuinely festive atmosphere, with thousands of ordinary Russians celebrating together with guests from across the globe, geopolitical tensions be damned.
The revelry hasn't been strictly platonic. In fact, tongues are wagging over just how cosy Russians might be getting with adrenaline- and booze-fueled crowds of foreign fans.
But discussion surrounding the matter in Russia has gone far beyond simple observations or generalized scandal; instead, it has focused heavily on condemning the behavior of Russian women — so much so that pages on Vkontakte, the largest domestic social network, have sprung up with the specific purpose of naming and shaming “Natashas”, a derogatory slur for Russian women who go out with foreigners.
В вк создали паблик, где парни выкладывают фото и видео девушек, которые веселятся с иностранцами (в тч и сексом занимаются, да), а затем массово их травят за это и унижают. Живет и здравствует дело Плетнёвой. Весело-весело встретим Новый год. Родина никогда не разочаровывает
— Anna Veduta (@Anna_Veduta) 22 июня 2018 г.
There’s a Vkontakte public [page] where guys are uploading pictures and videos of girls having fun with foreigners (yes, that includes having sex with them too) and then subject[ing] them to mob bullying and harassment. [Senior Russian lawmaker] Pletnyova’s mission is alive and well. It’s going to be a fun and jolly New Year. Our Motherland never disappoints.
The tweet refers to a highly controversial comment made on the eve of the World Cup’s opening game by Tamara Pletnyova, a lawmaker in the Russian parliament. Pletnyova, who heads the parliamentary committee for children’s, women’s and family affairs, infamously discouraged Russian women from engaging in mixed-race sexual relations with foreign visitors.
One of the most notorious and popular Vkontakte pages, at almost 5,000 subscribers, is called Buceta Rosa — a reference to an incident in which a crowd of Brazilian fans surrounded a Russian TV presenter and goaded the unsuspecting woman into chanting an obscene song with them. This caused an enormous scandal in Brazil itself, with many commenters saying they were ashamed of their compatriots and denouncing the prank as both sexist and racist.
Vkontakte’s administration has already reprimanded the Buceta Rosa page owners, forcing them to moderate comments which often consist of nothing but verbal abuse and threats against the women in photographs parsed from social media. However, even with the comments being more tightly policed, Buceta Rosa is still online and quickly gaining new users, especially after local media reports about it.
Similar online operations have also sprung up. Videos have surfaced of vigilantes harassing and even physically assaulting Russian women walking the streets of Moscow in the company of foreign men. BBC Russian talked to some of the victims: one respondent saw her selfie with a Brazilian fan reposted by a neo-Nazi Vkontakte page, after which she said she started receiving rape and murder threats. She is reportedly so traumatized by the incident that she is considering getting psychological assistance to deal with its effects.
The debate is now raging on a national level. Moskovsky Komsomolets, a Soviet-era tabloid and one of the most popular daily newspapers in Russia, published an op-ed titled “The age of sluts: why Russian women are a disgrace to themselves and the country.”
The author argued that the promiscuity displayed in the presence of thousands of overseas guests was symbolic of a general moral collapse in Russia:
Можно сказать, что тут за них стыдно. Но, боюсь, слово «стыд» тут будет выглядеть атавизмом. Это чувство многим российским девицам неведомо в принципе. Говорить о нем — все равно что цитировать исламскому радикалу Нагорную проповедь. У российских девиц, окучивающих иностранцев, понятия стыда, морали, нравственности напрочь вычеркнуты из сознания.
We could say that we are ashamed for them. But, I’m afraid, the word ‘shame’ here is hopelessly anachronistic. The feeling is strange to many Russian young ladies. To shame them is the same as preaching the Sermon on the Mount to an Islamic radical. These Russian ladies cavorting with foreigners are utterly devoid of any shame, morals or virtues.
The article — at the time of writing read by almost half a million people — caused an enormous backlash online and sparked a Change.org petition demanding that the paper pulls the op-ed and apologize. Wonderzine, a feminist online outlet, pointed out a larger, sexist media trend:
Мы привыкли слышать, что русские женщины — «самые красивые», а их внешность представляет отдельный предмет «национальной гордости». К сожалению, за комплиментарными словами прячется убеждение, что тело россиянки принадлежит не ей, а её стране. Незадачливые женщины просто забыли об этом на время мундиаля и решили, что могут проводить время с иностранцами где и когда пожелают, не отчитываясь перед родиной. Но медиа, даже либеральные, распорядились иначе: «Радио „Свобода“» выпустило документальный фильм о том, как россиянки разыскивают иностранных болельщиков, а «Чемпионат» пошёл «клеить иностранцев с русскими красавицами». Успехи российских мужчин среди иностранок остались незамеченными.
We are used to hearing that Russian women are ‘the most beautiful’ and their physical appearance is a ‘public treasure’. Unfortunately, these compliments conceal an attitude where a Russian woman’s body does not belong to herself, but rather to her country. Some hapless women simply forgot to keep this in mind for the duration of the World Cup and thought it was up to them to choose whether to spend time in the company of a foreigner, whenever and wherever they felt like without neglecting their duty to the Motherland. But many media, including some liberal outlets, had a different agenda. Radio Liberty published an online documentary about Russian women courting foreign fans, while Championat.ru went ‘foreign fan-hunting with Russian beauties’. Russian men’s similar adventures among foreign women went unnoticed.
Zalina Marshenkulova, a prominent journalist and feminist activist, also pointed out the discrepancy between the treatment of men and women:
Не очень понимаю все-таки почему такой высокий уровень агрессии к девушкам, которые тусят с иностранцами. Мужики, вам же никто с иностранцами и иностранками мутить не мешает? Никто не пишет какие вы уроды и все такое
— маячок антихриста (@veritas_z) 23 июня 2018 г.
I don’t understand this obsessive aggression against girls going out with foreigners. Guys, no one’s keeping you from flirting with other foreign men and women, right? No one’s calling you freaks for it and all
Others have pushed back against shaming of women. Yuri Dud, a sports journalist, blogger, and the host of his eponymous, wildly popular online talk show, wrote an op-ed on sports.ru, one of the oldest sport news websites in Russia, of which he is the editor. He expressed disgust at the outpouring of hate in the comments under his Instagram photo of two fans — a Russian woman in a traditional dress and a Mexican man in a sombrero — holding hands.
Cosmopolitan Russia’s website also wrote a sharp rebuke to Moskovsky Komsomolets’s article and called out the “double standard” of women's treatment in Russia:
Но вернемся к сексу: мы уже много раз писали о «двойных стандартах» в нашем обществе. Мужчина, часто меняющий партнерш, — «жеребец», женщина в такой же ситуации — «шлюха». Для мужчин открывают курсы пикаперов, где учат «снимать давалок на один раз», — для женщин открывают секс-тренинги, где учат глубокому минету и объясняют, что анальный секс можно и потерпеть, раз мужчине это нужно (то, что это ему прямо жизненно необходимо, даже не подвергается сомнению). Женщина, ставшая жертвой изнасилования, — шлюха и сама виновата. Мужчина в той же ситуации — практически национальная святыня: после трагической истории с изнасилованием задержанного бутылкой из-под шампанского прошло уже семь лет, но ее до сих пор вспоминают как страшное, нечеловечески жестокое преступление против личности. И это совершенно правильно. Вот только изнасилованным и даже убитым женщинам такого отношения не полагается. Вспомним хотя бы жуткую историю смерти Тани Страховой и реакцию общества на нее.
But let’s get back to the sex: we’ve often wrote about the ‘double standards’ in our society. A man juggling sexual partners is a ‘stud’ while a woman in a similar situation is a ‘slut’. Men are offered pick-up lessons where they can learn such skills as ‘tapping ass for a one-night stand’ while women are taught to do deep throat and anal which is worth the pain as long as your man wants it (that this is his basic need to have it isn’t even disputed). A rape victim has only herself to blame because she’s a slut. A man in a similar situation is almost a national saint. It’s been seven years since the tragic death of a man who, while in police custody, was sodomized with a champagne bottle, but it’s still remembered as a horrific crime against humanity, as it should be. But women who are raped and even murdered aren’t considered worthy of the same attitude. The grim story of Tanya Strakhova’s death [a young woman strangled to death and raped post mortem by an ex-boyfriend who then killed himself, with the sympathies of thousands of Russian online users strongly on his side] and the society's reaction to it is a testament to that.
The World Cup euphoria will fade in a few weeks, but hard questions about women's rights in Russia are still lingering.

author: RuNet Echo


text:
With the provisional release of accused gang rapists, many ask if Spain is trivializing violence against women · Global Voices
Lourdes Sada

Protests over the court decision about “la Manada” case at Constitution Square (Malaga) Photo by CANVALCA, shared under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.
“La Manada” (the pack), a group of five young men who were accused of gang rape during the San Fermin festival in 2016, was set free on bail while awaiting the final ruling. The court in Pamplona, Spain decided, by two votes against one, to release them on a provisional basis while their case awaits appeal. This latest decision by the Spanish court has divided those who celebrate the group's release and others who are calling for justice in the name of the victim.
The group gained infamy across Spain after being accused of gang raping a young woman, stealing the victim’s mobile phone, and uploading the video of the assault to social media. “La Manada” is the name of their WhatsApp chat, on which they shared pictures of the assault and threatened to do more. The men have been in preventive detention for almost two years — the maximum time that they could be kept in custody without a final judgment. Nevertheless, this time limit could have been expanded had the court decided to do so.
Judge Ricardo González voted in favor of releasing the members of “La Manada” on bail, asking for the acquittal of the accused. He stated that the video, which was recorded by the defendants, showed “sexual acts in an atmosphere of revelry and rejoicing” and that the victim’s face seemed relaxed. The only woman in court, Judge Raquel Fernandino, voted in favor of releasing them on bail, while Judge José Cobo voted against it.
The first ruling found the group guilty of sexual assault and not the more serious crime of rape — a ruling which was deemed too mild by a good part of the Spanish public. This second ruling, which allowed for the group's provisional release, was felt by many to be a slap in the face.
Navarre's court (the autonomous region responsible for trying the case) ruled that due to the loss of anonymity and a lack of money, the defendants were not likely to escape or to commit another assault. It also took into consideration the fact that the defendants live over 300 miles away from the victim.
In response, Laura Duarte said on Twitter:
Como ya conocemos las caras de los cinco de #LaManada debemos estar sobre aviso. O sea, que caminemos atentas. Esta es la conclusión que se extrae del auto de la Audiencia de Navarra, que entiende que la pérdida de anonimato evita que reincidan. Terrible. https://t.co/RqyHCJJmjP
— Laura Duarte (@lau_duart) 22 de junio de 2018
The faces of the five culprits are well-known so we should be alert—meaning we should be careful in the streets. That’s the conclusion one might derive from the court’s decision—if they are well-known they won’t commit another assault. Terrible.
The defense lawyer said that the bond was paid rather quickly, thanks to the help of the defendants’ families. He also criticized the social outrage generated by the incident, saying that “these hysterical protests led by some political parties are unjustified and unjustifiable”.
On the other hand, on social media people were very critical of the court's decision. Miguel Urbán, an MEP from left-wing party Podemos, tweeted:
El tribunal que estimó que no hubo agresión valora ahora que no hay riesgo de fuga o de reiteración delictiva. El movimiento feminista ha demostrado estar varios pasos por delante de la sociedad; la #JusticiaPatriarcal aún está varios kilómetros por detrás https://t.co/iUA3isTZhT
— Miguel Urbán Crespo (@MiguelUrban) 21 de junio de 2018
The same court that ruled against rape charges now says that the risk of escaping or criminal reiteration doesn't exist. The feminist movement shows one more time that it is several steps ahead of society while patriarchal justice is still far behind.
Screenwriter Sergio Santesteban questioned the court's impartiality:
He perdido la cuenta. Después de la decisión de los tres magistrados de la Audiencia de Navarra, ¿cuántos miembros tiene ya “La manada”?
— Sergio V.Santesteban (@Sergio_VSantes) 21 de junio de 2018
Right now, I have lost count. After Navarre's court ruling I ask myself, ‘How many members belong to ‘La Manada'?
Many people feel that the incident and the court ruling have consequences that go far beyond the case itself. On social media, people underlined the danger of underestimating violence and pointed to the social impact that may arise from letting “La Manada” free.
In addition, four of the group’s five members have a pending lawsuit on another sexual assault committed shortly before the Pamplona incident when, presumably, they drugged and sexually abused a young woman in Pozoblanco, Cordoba.
No todos los hombres son violadores, pero con que hayamos dejado en libertad a cinco que sí que lo son todas las mujeres nos hemos convertido en posibles víctimas.
Nadie debería mantenerse en silencio ahora. El silencio, por lo que se ve, no condena.
Así que gritemos.#LaManada
— Clara D. (@Watoreon) 21 de junio de 2018
Not every man is a rapist, nevertheless, now that the five men charged with sexual abuse have been released from jail, we all become potential victims. We should raise our voices in protest. As we can see, being silent doesn't get justice, so let’s yell.
La Audiencia de Navarra se pone firme y obligará a los miembros de la manada a jurar por el niño Jesús que se van a portar bien mientras estén en la calle.
— Anacleto Panceto (@Xuxipc) 21 de junio de 2018
Navarra’s Court gets tough and orders ‘La Manada’ members to swear by baby Jesus that they will behave from now on.
A los de la Manada los reciben con vítores, otros chicos los quieren imitar, otros tantos hacen bromas sobre hacerlo. Lo vemos y somos conscientes de que no estáis en nuestro bando pero se os olvida que nosotras cada día somos más. #EsUnaGuerra
— Tartaruga.? (@NoPennywise) 22 de junio de 2018
‘La Manada’ was welcomed home with cheers, causing other boys to emulate them while others joke about rape. We realize they are not on our side, but they don’t realize that we are more and more every day.
Meanwhile, others celebrated the court ruling, like the members of Innisfree Editorial, who wrote:
Hemos estado esperando este día mucho tiempo.
Feminazis, ¡que os jodan!#LaManada está en libertad porque las contradicciones y mentiras de la denunciante repugnan a cualquiera que haya leído la sentencia. Ni delito ni abuso sexual, habrá absolución en el Tribunal Supremo.
— Editorial Innisfree (@Edinnisfree) June 21, 2018
We’ve waited a long time for this day. Fuck you, Feminazis! #LaManada was set free because the contradictions and lies told by the plaintiff disgusted everyone that read the judgment. There is no crime nor sexual assault, they are going to be acquitted by the Supreme Court.
The user, Juanote, in his comment in the digital newspaper El Confidencial, made use of all the anti-feminist clichés:
Espero que esta sea la primera victoria frente al totalitarismo feminazzi. Espero que sea la primera y no la última. Tengo miedo de la sociedad que quiere imponer el feminazzismo. Están demostrando todas las características que demostró el nazzismo en su ascenso al poder.
I do hope this is the first and not the last victory against the totalitarian feminazi. I fear a society that wants to impose feminazism, as it resembles Nazism on its rise to power.
On the other hand, although they respected and abided by court's decision, many political parties spoke out to condemn the court's ruling. Ángeles Álvarez, the Equality Commission on Congress spokeswoman for the left-wing party PSOE, stated that the court decision is estranged from justice. Justice Minister Dolores Delgado promised to analyze the situation to give an answer to a society that’s demanding it.
The decision from Pamplona's court falls a few days before the start of this year's San Fermin festival and it is seen as bad publicity for the popular event.
Los miembros de la manada salen de la cárcel unos días antes de San Fermín. No quiero ni pensar cómo se sentirá la víctima.
No estamos seguras.#JusticiaPatriarcal
— Cenicienta sin prisa (@Rockmantica) 21 de junio de 2018
The members of ‘La Manada’ were released a few days before the opening of the San Fermin festival. I wonder how the victim feels about it. We are not safe.

author: Lourdes Sada


text:
Peru bids untimely farewell to World Cup Russia 2018 with heads high and a smile · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Peruvian football fans attentively watch the Peru-France game on screens set up at Kennedy Park, Miraflores, Lima on June 21, 2018. Photo on Flickr by user Municipalidad de Miraflores (CC BY 2.0).
After 36 years of waiting, Peruvian football fans were finally able to cheer for their national team in the World Cup championship. Despite being eliminated at the group stage of this edition, fans bid farewell to their World Cup bid with their heads held high as they defeated the Australian team with a 2-0 score.
The last time Peru defeated a rival on the World Cup stage was a 4-1 game against Iran in 1978. Peruvian fans were able to celebrate a goal in this 2018 World Cup, something which hasn't happened since the 1982 World Cup in Spain:
Algunos no habíais nacido cuando Perú marcó su último gol en un mundial. Fue Guillermo La Rosa ante Polonia en 1982. Este gol.
Perú, esta noche no puedes fallar. pic.twitter.com/7ikuJ0BfvM
— Julio Maldonado (@maldiniplus) 15 de noviembre de 2017
Some of you weren't even born when Peru scored its last goal in a World Cup match. It was Guillermo La Rosa in a game with Poland in 1982. This goal.
Peru, you can't fail tonight.
This is how the Fútbol Peruano website explained that historic goal:
El gol que convirtió Guillermo La Rosa en el Mundial de España 1982 pasará a la historia del fútbol peruano y desde este martes [26 de junio] dejará de ser el último tanto conseguido por Perú en este torneo gracias al golazo que anotó André Carrillo y abrió el camino del triunfo ante Australia por el Mundial de Rusia 2018.
The goal scored by Guillermo La Rosa during World Cup Spain 1982 will go down in football history, and from Tuesday [June 26] will no longer be the last goal scored by the Peruvian team in this sports event thanks to the great goal by André Carrillo that led the way to the victory in the game with Australia at World Cup Russia 2018.
Despite their elimination, Peruvian fans celebrated their team victory against against Australia with the same joy and enthusiasm as all the previous matches. Although they were also bested by Denmark and France with the same final score (1-0), Peruvian fans showed a level of pride and cheer that caught the attention of World Cup spectators the world round. Renowned Spanish actor Antonio Banderas nodded to Peruvian fans in a tweet:
Perú queda eliminado practicando un juego noble y sin miedos en este campeonato del mundo. Pero sobre todo respaldado por una de las mejores aficiones que jamás se haya visto en un mundial. Ante ellos me quito el sombrero.
¡Grandes @SeleccionPeru!
¡Grande #Perú!#Rusia2018  pic.twitter.com/VRBSzUIpi6
— Antonio Banderas (@antoniobanderas) 21 de junio de 2018
With a fine and fearless play, Peru is eliminated from this football world cup. But above all, backed by one of the best group of fans ever seen in a world cup. To them, I take my hat off.
Tens of thousands of Peruvian fans went all the way to Russia to watch their beloved blanquirroja [literally, white and red, from the colors of their shirts] take part in the football tournament. According to estimates by Peruvian migratory authorities, about 50,000 fans traveled to Russia from every corner of the world.
Impresionante. ¡Arriba Perú! #EstamosDeVuelta #Incondicionales pic.twitter.com/y3pIO4TQx8
— plomomagic (@plomomagic) 15 de junio de 2018
Impressive. ¡Go, Peru!
This didn't go unnoticed by international media. Renowned German publication Spiegel Online pointed to the extraordinary enthusiasm of Peruvian fans after the match with France, on June 21, 2018:
32.789 Zuschauer waren nach offiziellen Angaben im Stadion. Und es kommt selten vor, dass 32.789 Zuschauer so laut sind. Auf den Tribünen waren fast ausschließlich die roten und weißen Farben Perus zu sehen. Fans aus Frankreich hatten sich entweder gut versteckt oder waren inkognito angereist. Die Peruaner sangen und brüllten und pfiffen und tröteten 90 Minuten lang.
There were 32.789 [Peruvian] fans, according to official figures from the stadium. And it's very unusual that 32,789 were so noisy. In the stands, you could only see Peruvian red and white colors. French fans were well concealed or incognito. Peruvian fans sang, roared and whistled for 90 minutes.
Peruvian dedication to the national team went so far that one anonymous fan intentionally gained 25 kilos in order to purchase a handicapped ticket and fly to see the national team in Russia 2018.
In this 2018 World Cup bid, Peruvian fans took to Twitter to express their feelings about their team's farewell:
LA imagen del primer tiempo https://t.co/G8upt8BYrT
— Jose Alejandro Godoy (@jgodoym) 26 de junio de 2018
An image is worth a thousand words.
——–
This is THE image of the first half.
Carrillo llegó Rusia como un gran jugador, sale del último partido de Perú en el mundial como ídolo y el futuro lo recibe como estrella internacional. ??
— Augusto Rey (@augustoreyh) 26 de junio de 2018
Carrillo went to Russia as a great football player, he now leaves this last match as an idol, and the future will receive him as an international star. ??
Esa lágrima del hincha emociona jodidamente ? qué tal toma.#ArribaPerú siempre. pic.twitter.com/8iZLKnhHGE
— ALfie Tassara. (@ALfieTassara) 26 de junio de 2018
That fan's tear is f***ing moving. ? What a shot. Go, Peru, always.
Australian fans, however, were criticized for shouting racists slurs at Peruvian player Luis Advíncula:
yo sigo llena de odio y estoy dispuesta a ir a mecharme con uno y cada uno de los australianos que imitaron a un mono cuando advíncula agarró la pelota
— Spock (@Wuohh) 26 de junio de 2018
I'm still filled with rage and willing to put up a fight with each and every Australian who made the sound of an ape each time Advíncula had control of the ball.
The second goal which was scored by Paolo Guerrero was widely celebrated, as the Peruvian player had a long road to overcome to contest a sentence for testing positive for doping in November 2017:
Paolo besando el escudo y diciendo bajito “Perú… Perú…”, luego de marcar un gol.
Mi momento favorito del Mundial. pic.twitter.com/nJDWO5IDpc
— Fernando VR (@elaguainmovil) 26 de junio de 2018
Paolo kissing the badge and saying in very low voice “Peru… Peru…”, after scoring.
My World Cup favorite moment.
Mexican actor Gael García Bernal also put in his two cents:
¡Qué gol más pasional y fino, Guerrero!
— Gael Garcia Bernal (@GaelGarciaB) 26 de junio de 2018
What a passionate and fine goal, Guerrero!
There was even a reference to the Simpsons:
No era la final con #Brasil, sino el partido con #Australia.
¡#ArribaPerú! pic.twitter.com/yIxIfXirIl
— César Augusto (@Cescue) 26 de junio de 2018
It wasn't the World Cup finale with Brazil, but the match with Australia.
Go, Peru!
And a final wish by Peruvian cartoonist Andrés Edery:
Copa América, Qatar 2022, etc… pic.twitter.com/CwZES9dNPc
— Andrés Edery (@otravezandres) 26 de junio de 2018
To be continued…
———–
America Cup, Qatar 2022, etc…


text:
The women behind Armenia’s “Velvet Revolution” · Global Voices
Chaikhana.media

The following is a partner post by Global Voices’ partner Chai-Khana.org. Text and video by Aren Melikyan.
Women are part of the reason Armenia now has the prime minister it does. Yet for many, the “revolution” that brought reform-minded protest leader Nikol Pashinyan to power this May has only just begun.
The thousands of women who took to Armenia’s streets for roughly 40 days this spring were protesting not only for a change in government, but for their rights in a traditionally patriarchal society.
For three of these protesters — Maria Karapetyan, 30, head of development for the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation, Avnik Melikyan, 22, a project coordinator at the non-profit Society without Violence and 23-year-old political activist Lilith Baghdasaryan — that requires more than just a seat in parliament or in the cabinet.
It requires changing attitudes and giving more Armenian women the skills they need to hold power.
In that respect, these women protesters are, indeed, “revolutionaries.”


text:
Tired of murders targeting women, Ugandans take to the streets in peaceful protest · Global Voices
Prudence Nyamishana

Ugandans protesting the rampant murders and kidnapping targeting women. Photo Credit: Katumba Badru, used with permission.
Since 2015, at least 42 Ugandan women have been kidnapped, maimed and murdered in and around Uganda's capital Kampala, half of them in a space of only three months in 2017. Some of their bodies were found with brutal signs of sexual violence.
The string of murders, all bearing gruesome similar details, has horrified the country. The motivation behind them remains unclear, but witchcraft is a popular theory. Authorities are yet to charge a single suspect.
Tired of living in fear, the women of Uganda felt they had to do something.
On June 30, 2018, the Women’s Protest Working Group (WPWG), with the support of feminists from other countries, staged a peaceful demonstration in the capital city of Kampala to protest against the rampant kidnapping and murders targeting women in Uganda.
And so I March. To remember them, they were not given any justice and no one was held accountable for their gruesome deaths. But I recognize them. I think about them, the families and friends they left behind with no closure, but fear and anger. #WomensMarchUG pic.twitter.com/r3ZQc6zXhW
— SHANINE (@sha9ne) June 29, 2018
At the march, which Global Voices attended, WPWG leader Dr. Stella Nyanzi told the crowd that the women are pursuing key interventions such as justice for the families of those murdered and also to push for action on violence against women. Fellow activist Patricia Twasiima then read out the names of the 42 murdered women.
Earlier, the police had attempted to block the protests claiming that the issues the women were protesting had already been resolved after President Museveni addressed the nation on his 10-point plan for restoring security in Uganda.
A letter from the Commissioner of Police stated:
This serves to inform you that the intended demonstration to raise awareness, express displeasure about the spate of killings and kidnap of women/girls cannot be allowed to go on as scheduled.
The women were determined to go on with the protest anyway:
We will no longer settle for speeches, thought and prayers, from the police force and government funded with taxpayers’ money. Its time for action so join us tomorrow at Centenary Park as we demand for answers to the unanswered questions #WomensMarchUg#WomenLivesMatterUG pic.twitter.com/VBXQznIy3Q
— #WomensMarchUg (@AAssimwe) June 29, 2018
The attempted ban triggered even more support from Ugandans including journalists who vowed to join, with men and women alike.
Writer Daniel Kalinaki wrote an opinion piece in the Daily Monitor that made rounds on Twitter on why he would be joining the protest:
So I will be at the march. With my daughter. We will hold hands and walk, unarmed and peacefully, along with others. I want her to love her country and learn, as a young African woman, to stand up and speak up. When she grows up she, and others like her, will be the saviours of the broken, the beaten, and the damned. Welcome to the Black Parade – and I hope the police are smart enough not to stain it blood-red.
TV journalist Mujuni Raymond said that he would also join the protest:
I have been to the murder crime scenes of atleast 13 women, I have seen the gruesome nature their lives have been ended. It's inhuman to only offer hope and prayers. Action must be taken.
Like @kalinaki I will join the #WomensMarchUG not as a reporter but as a citizen.
— Mujuni Raymond (@qataharraymond) June 29, 2018
Eventually, police gave in to the pressure. The women’s march observed strict guidelines set by the police.
This is the first peaceful protest led by activists since the passing of the controversial Public Order Management Act 2013, which grants the Police's Inspector General wide discretion to permit or forbid public gatherings. Past protests since the Act was published have turned violent.
The women of Uganda have proved that protests don't have to be violent.   #WomensMarchUG #FreedomofExpression pic.twitter.com/hxLneO6wkZ
— Kweeta (@KweetaUganda) June 30, 2018
The March wields more pressure on authorities not only to provide a safer society for women but also to uphold Uganda’s constitution and respect citizens’ right to freedom of assembly.

author: Prudence Nyamishana


text:
Was a Japanese cybersecurity expert murdered by an online troll? · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Fukuoka Growth Next, a startup community hub that was the scene of Hagex's murder. Screenshot from YouTube
On June 24 2018, a well-known Japanese blogger was stabbed to death at Fukuoka Growth Next, a coworking space and tech startup incubator located in the western city of Fukuoka. The victim, Okamoto Kenichiro of Tokyo, had been scheduled to give a talk about how to deal with online harassment. Instead, he was murdered — allegedly by one his own trolls.
By day, Okamoto — who was also known by his semi-anonymous identity Hagex — worked as a cybersecurity consultant and writer. But as Hagex, Okamoto was harassed for years by a well-known Internet troll called Teino Sensei (Mr. Idiot) — supposedly the same man who would track him down in real life and murder him:
福岡スタートアップ支援施設「Fukuoka Growth Next」（旧大名小跡）で殺人事件、被害者の41歳男性は人気ブロガーHagex氏の可能性 https://t.co/yNV6hnuIrs pic.twitter.com/4kX29xMXJ2
— techwavejp (@techwavejp) June 24, 2018
Murder at startup hub Fukuoka Growth Next (the former Daimyo Elementary School). Victim is likely the popular blogger Hagex, 41.
On his popular and prolific blog, Okamoto, using his online persona, had promoted his upcoming talk at Fukuoka Growth Next, a tech startup office space located in a beautifully restored elementary school. With one of the youngest populations in Japan, fast-growing Fukuoka offers a high quality of life compared to sprawling Tokyo and has, in recent years, branded itself as a “startup city“, offering incentives aimed at attracting tech entrepreneurs and growing Japan's tech economy.
Okamoto's talk was intended to provide Fukuoka's tech community with the tools to stay safe online, but in a tragic twist of fate, his own safety was not guaranteed. According to news reports, when Okamoto made a trip to the lavatory at Fukuoka Growth Next, the assailant stabbed him several times; Okamoto died at hospital later that evening.
The murder made national headlines in Japan. Until his talk in Fukuoka, few people — if any — made the connection that Hagex and Okamoto were the same person. Okamoto had reportedly done a good job of keeping his online identity hidden:
旧大名小学校 Growth Nextで起こった殺人事件。被害者が岡本顕一郎さんって出てたけど、画像検索したらhagexさんにそっくり。#大名小学校 #hagex #殺人事件 pic.twitter.com/E9gE0KSavd
— 今長 学 (@manavu) June 24, 2018
There's been a murder at Growth Next (formerly Daimyo Elementary School. The victim is someone named Okamoto Kenichiro, but doing an image search, he looks a lot like Hagex. #DaimyoElementary #hagex #murder
On the night of the attack, someone claiming to be Teino Sensei acknowledged responsibility for Okamoto's death on an Internet forum. The very next day, a local man named Matsumoto Hidemitsu turned himself in at a Fukuoka police station, where he produced a bloodied knife from his bag. He had learned where Okamoto's talk was going to be held, and waited in the building for a chance to attack. Asahi Shimbun later reported that Matsumoto told police he “held a grudge against [Okamoto] over Internet exchanges” and “thought [he] would kill him”.
Though this has not been officially confirmed, in the aftermath of the murder it's now believed that Matsumoto was indeed Teino Sensei, who frequently trolled and harassed Okamoto and others on Hatena, a blogging and social networking platform that is extremely popular with Japan's tech subculture.
The site includes a popular social bookmarking feature that allows Hatena's users to tag and discuss bookmarks. Via his alleged online persona, Matsumoto abused this feature by using multiple identities to spam various Hatena users — including Okamoto — and making the bookmarking service difficult to use. Using hateful and abusive comments, Matsumoto turned spamming into a constant stream of trolling.
Writing online as Hagex, Okamoto responded in kind, regularly teasing Teino Sensei. Hagex also kept track of Teino's abusive behavior on the internet, and coordinated efforts to track and shut down the troll's user accounts as they appeared. In a blog post on May 4, 2018, Okamoto explained how Matsumoto constantly created new online IDs to harass Hatana users:
低能先生という荒しがいる。
はてなブックマークに出現し、IDコール利用して複数のユーザーに対して誹謗中傷を繰り返している。
当然、すぐにアカウントが凍結されるのだが、新規のアカウントを作り罵詈雑言を行っている。
There's a troll called Teino Sensei. Using (Hatena Bookmarks’) ID Trackback feature, he was able to troll numerous other users again and again. Of course, his accounts are immediately frozen, but he just creates new ones and continues his abusive behavior.
On the Hatena platform, an ID Trackback (known as an IDコール or ID Call) tags a specific user on the platform, rather than a blog post or bookmark. Each time a user is mentioned, they receive a notification.
In his blog post, Okamoto noted that another blogger on Hatena's anonymous blogging site AnonymousDiary had tracked at least 200 different Hatena IDs that Matsumoto had created between 2016 and 2018.
Okamoto also noticed that Hatena was starting to discover and freeze Matsumoto's new accounts more quickly, quite likely because other users were reporting him. Still, Okamoto said that Hatena should be more proactive about dealing with this troll:
株式会社はてなは、低能先生に対して「威力業務妨害」で訴えるべき。
私のように罵詈雑言に慣れている人は問題ないけれど、いきなり罵倒がくると、たいていの人は怖がってしまう。
Hatena ought to sue Teino Sensei for interfering with their business. And while I'm pretty used to this kind of trolling and have no problems with it, most people who are suddenly confronted by this sort of abuse are going to be frightened.
Following the attack, Fukuoka Growth Next closed for two days in order to update and potentially improve its site security, according to a Facebook post that expressed condolences to Okamoto's family.
The situation has provoked a strong response online. One tweet, shared thousands of times, pointed out that the dispute was not specifically between Hagex and Teino Sensei:
hagexが他のユーザーを誹謗中傷して恨みを買ったから刺された、みたいな表現はやめてほしいな。元々荒らしユーザで周りに低脳低脳と喚き散らしていた奴がいて、自然と「低脳先生」と呼ばれるようになっていった。ネットウォッチ的に低脳先生の行動とその対処法をまとめていたのがhagexだっただけ
— 発狂まんべ (@osyamannbe) June 25, 2018
I wish people would stop saying Hagex brought it on himself by engaging in a flame war (with Mr. Teino). Mr. Teino has long been a troll, and has engaged in making imbecilic, hateful comments to everyone around him, so much so that he earned his nickname (‘Mr. Idiot). The only person who was actively monitoring (this troll) and trying to do something about it was Hagex.
For now, Matsumoto is being detained on suspicion of murder. He will be charged following a preliminary investigation that could last several weeks.

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
Who are the main candidates in Madagascar’s presidential election? · Global Voices
Blogueurs invités

Elections in Madagascar via Madatsara info-graphics.
(This article was written by guest author Andry R. Razafimbahoaka. The article has since been edited by Global Voices to add clarifications and context.)
Following a decision by the Constitutional High Court to settle the country's political uncertainty and popular dissent, the people of Madagascar are due to vote in elections for a new president before the end of October 2018 at the latest. However, many feel that the spotty past of the main presidential candidates leaves much to be desired.
Between April 15 and 27, 2018, there were anti-government protests in Madagascar's capital, demanding the president's resignation on the grounds of the new electoral laws which the incumbent wanted to implement prior to the election. On April 28, the High Constitutional Court of Madagascar decided to order the formation of a new coalition government, combining members from various political parties. This government took office on June 12, its mission being to extricate the country from its current political crisis.
In an effort to assuage the protests, President Hery Rajaonarimampianina named Christian Ntsay, a high-ranking official of the International Labour Organization (ILO), as prime minister (and therefore head of the government). Since then, out of 30 ministers, ten or so have been drawn from the opposition.
As required by Madagascar's constitution, President Rajaonarimampianina must resign two months before the date of the first ballot, and there is a good chance he will be a candidate against two other former presidents, both of them with somewhat controversial pasts.
According to Andriamanambe Raoto, editor of the magazine Politikà:
Painful and constant as they are, Malagasy crises represent a permanent reminder of this country's instability.
For this shrewd connoisseur of the island's history, all cycles of growth and development have been interrupted by successive political crises.
A chaque fois que Madagascar a connu une ébauche de décollage, celle-ci s’est soldée au bout de quelques années par une crise politique majeure qui a remis en question la dynamique positive amorcée.
Every time Madagascar has drafted a take-off plan, it has been sold short a few years later by a major political crisis which has put a question mark against any positive dynamic under way.
Since April 21, 2018, opponents of President Hery Rajaonarimampianina have demonstrated against the new electoral law, which they consider disadvantageous to former presidents Marc Ravalomanana and Andry Rajoelina, both principal candidates in the next election.
This new law could have prevented the two former presidential candidates from running. Ravalomanana would have been barred because of his criminal record: in 2010, he was sentenced to forced labor in perpetuity after the death of 40 protesters who were repressed by his presidential guard in 2009 — a sentence that he never served. Rajoelina, who heads an advertising company, as well as private media entities, would have been prevented from contesting the election because of the restrictions over use of the media, and certain rules concerning campaign financing. These two sections were eventually scratched from the final electoral law proposal.
But according to Mireille Razafindrakoto, research director at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD), the main preoccupation of the voting population is worsening poverty. Even if Hery Rajaonarimamapianina has succeeded in re-establishing the flow of aid from the international community, he has not managed to stem the crisis. As is often the case in Madagascar, the political and economic crises are closely intertwined: the country has been marred into poverty for the last decade, with repeated political strifes in between. As such, the return of international aid to the country has been a major boost to its economy — so should his people now be entrusting him with another mandate, or playing the change card?
After denouncing the fraud orchestrated by Didier Ratsiraka, who was president from 1975 to 1993, and again from 1997 to 2002, Marc Ravalomanana became president in 2002 — in the first round of the ballot — against the will of the international community, which was in favor of a second round. Had this happened, it would have provided the final verdict between the two candidates with the most votes in the first round of ballot. Ravalomanana argues that since he already obtained more than 50% of the votes, there was no need for a second round of ballot since he already won.
In 2008, against the will of a significant portion of the population, Marc Ravalomana mooted the potential 90-year lease of 1.3 million hectares of land to the South Korean firm, Daewoo Logistics. Then, in 2009, the country was lashed by the world financial crisis. Street protest movements, lasting several months, finally led to his resignation on March 17, 2009, and his subsequent exile in South Africa.
On that day, the army passed power over to Andry Rajoelina, who had been the mayor of Antananarivo from 2007 to 2009. He was obliged to form a coalition government with the supporters of former presidents Marc Ravalomanana, Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy. Having been handed power by the military, the international community pressured Rajoelina into giving up the presidency and organizing elections; he did so only in 2013. Over the course of his four-year term, poverty increased to an alarming degree, with zero or negative economic growth.
Rajoelina hopes, no doubt, to avenge this decision by standing in this year's elections. In that case, he will have to successfully distance himself from Maminiaina Ravatomanga, a rich Malagasy businessman — and former ally of the current president — who stands accused of tax fraud and money laundering for organized crime operations.
In this context, the next presidential election shows every sign of bringing another stormy episode to political life in Madagascar.

author: Blogueurs invités