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People with disabilities left stranded during national lockdown in Uganda · Global Voices
Brian Oduti

Ugandan national wheelchair team practices on the court on October 24, 2013, Uganda. Photo via DfID on Flickr CC BY 2.0.
Nearly a month after Uganda enforced a national lockdown and curfew, 25-year-old Willy Oloya, who is deaf and blind, was shot by a team of Local Defence Units in Agago District, in the northern region.
On April 30, during a strict curfew due to the coronavirus, the LDU officers tried to speak to Oloya as he was walking. But Oloya could not see or hear them and continued walking when the officers shot him in the leg. Oloya had to amputate his leg and now endures the burden of another layer of disability that could have been prevented.
But Willy Oloya who has hearing and speech impairments did not. The 25-year-old resident of Mugila West Village in Agago District, was shot 5 times in the leg, by LDU personnel enforcing the 7pm to 6.30am curfew. https://t.co/4NtjWnndLz pic.twitter.com/8umM4H00Xy
— Kweeta (@KweetaUganda) May 11, 2020
Oloya's injury and additional disability are directly linked to the government's disregard for people with disabilities in the execution of its national lockdown plan. About 16.5 percent of Ugandans are people with disabilities (PWDs).
It took substantial advocacy and lobbying around the shooting of Oloya to have adequate PWD representation on the government’s national COVID-19 taskforce through its risk communication committee.
The needs of marginalized people, especially those of persons with disabilities were conspicuously absent in President Yoweri Museveni’s COVID-19 directives.
Betty Achana, who works for the National Union of Women with Disabilities of Uganda, told Global Voices:
One of our first interventions was for me to engage with our line ministry and to say that these directives are not inclusive of the special needs of persons with disabilities. We instantly began to get news of how the directives were impacting them [PWDs] negatively. They had no information on what COVID is, how it is spread, who is COVID affecting, what the directives are about. People did not know about curfew. That is how the boy in the north gets shot. That is how the girl in the north gets beaten by LDUs.
Achana and her colleagues’ advocacy paid off.
She joined the task force at its ninth meeting and promptly began a project to translate pandemic-related information into sign language. Sign language interpretation was incorporated into all official televised addresses on COVID-19.
While commendable, this progress was a little too late for some PWDs.
Annette Okuvuru travels around in a wooden wheelchair in Arua District, Uganda, via COMBRID-Friends of Disability Facebook page, used with permission.
The ban on private and public transportation was essential to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but the decision was not inclusive of PWDs, excluding those with desperate needs for health care or food supplies.
While non-disabled people could easily walk to buy groceries, many people with disabilities made the difficult decision to drive a car or ride on a boda-boda or motorcycle taxi, out of necessity, at great risk to their personal safety.
Muzamil Ali, a visually impaired teacher and nongovernmental worker in the northwestern district of Arua, was harassed by soldiers for allegedly flouting social distancing measures while walking with his personal assistant.
Lydia Abenaitwe, a woman with a physical disability in Kampala, the capital, was arrested and detained twice while driving to buy groceries. She told Global Voices:
The first time I was held at a roadblock for about 30 minutes. The second time, I was taken to Kabalagala police station. The District Police Commander expressed his remorse for how I was treated and after about an hour, I was escorted to buy my groceries.
The struggles of some PWDs exist at the intersection of class, gender, HIV/AIDS status and multiple disabilities or other power differentials, increasing their vulnerabilities.
The transport ban exposed some women with disabilities to sexual violence who could not escape their attackers. “Right now I have about five cases of women with disabilities who were raped because of this COVID lockdown,” Achana told Global Voices.
People with albinism need unfettered mobility to access skin protection creams, skin cancer surgery and post-surgery care, said Doreen Nawejje, chief executive officer of Women and Children with Albinism in Uganda. Nawejje narrated to Global Voices how lockdown made access to medical care difficult for a skin cancer patient under her care:
By the time the lockdown came, we were stopped from using private transport. One time we accessed the District Health Officer [in] Wakiso District to get clearance. But these guys [police] by the roadside confiscated our car key for hours and we missed the surgery because the doctor was on appointment. We had to make another appointment and it had to be at night. And curfew hours start at 7 [p.m.], [so] we had to incur more costs to be residential [at a private clinic] which we had not budgeted for.
Disability Awareness race in Arua District, organized by COMBRID-Friends of Disability in Arua, Uganda. Photo via Facebook, used with permission.
Uganda has a rich legal and policy framework governing disability rights. In 2008, the country ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Several state obligations come with this ratification: The government is tasked to ensure personal mobility with the greatest independence for PWDs; accessibility to transport; and inclusion in political decisionmaking.
Uganda enacted elaborate provisions on PWD rights in the national constitution, Persons with Disabilities Act, the National Policy on Disability regarding nondiscrimination, affirmative action and inclusion in political decision-making and national disability-inclusive planning guidelines.
The glaring disparity between the well-intentioned laws and policies and their implementation is partly a result of budgetary constraints.
In the national budget passed in 2020-2021, the social development sector under which PWD fall was allocated just 0.38 percent, whereas the top three priority sectors — works and transport, security and debt interest financing — respectively represent approximately 13 percent, 10 percent and 9 percent of the entire budget.
This allocation reflects the government's low level of interest in citizens’ social protection.
Patrick Pariyo, director of COMBRID-Friends of Disability, a community-based organization in northwestern Uganda, told Global Voices that the government’s underfunding of disability rights is rooted in commercial interests, individualism and a culture of quid pro quo that pervades every sector of Ugandan society.
Pariyo explained how the coronavirus measures interrupted his organization's community-based approach to disability rights. Before social distancing was enforced, they used to directly engage community educators and leaders to assess needs and help PWD acquire equipment and support.
Now, with social distancing, we were not able to reach people. COVID [-19] has blocked resources. We have over 1,500 epileptic patients in 16 health centers to whom we would provide anti-seizure drugs.  Everyone is talking about COVID [-19].
COMBRID’s plight is inevitable as donor countries begin to shift their funding focus to fighting COVID-19 at home. The government received generous donations from individuals and businesses to assist, but disability rights organizations still struggle to get citizens to care.
Ultimately, the state holds the primary legal responsibility to protect and promote disability rights.
Ali, the visually impaired teacher, said: “If we cannot have representatives who are more vocal as far as PDWs are concerned, then the same issues will continue manifesting themselves.”
Abenaitwe agrees: “You cannot expect people who do not understand what another category of people goes through to represent them well.”
Achana says that mapping disability needs and creating awareness is the key to policy change, adding that police and military officials lack awareness of PWD issues.
Uganda partially lifted its lockdown in early June, but PWD stigma and prejudice continues. The fight for inclusion ties into broader social protection issues in Uganda, such as unfair labor conditions and youth unemployment.

author: Brian Oduti


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Afro-Czechs on visibility, racism and life in the Czech Republic (Part I) · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Black Lives Matter slogan on the facade of a theater in downtown Prague. Photo taken on June 14 by Natalia Marshalkovich, used with permission.
Long invisible, Afro-Czechs, one of the smallest communities in the Czech Republic, are gradually emerging and speaking their minds in public. This post is the first in a two-part series looking at their struggle for recognition in the central European country. The second part can be read here.
Until the fall of Communism in 1989, black Africans and Afro-Czechs had no visibility in the public space, even though hundreds of them had been living in the central European country.
In reports and documents covering the period 1918-1948 when Czechoslovakia was a capitalist democracy, there are a few mentions of black Africans and African Americans serving in the army, or playing jazz in Prague bars.
When Czechoslovakia became part of the Socialist block in 1948, it actively engaged in Cold War competition between Moscow and the West, and gave diplomatic support to African independence movements, even supplying weapons to various guerilla armies on the continent. Some newly independent countries become priorities as bilateral relations intensified –Angola, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zambia were among these.
Hundreds of students from Africa were given grants to move to Czechoslovakia, where they learnt Czech or Slovak, and graduated, mostly in science, technology, military science and medicine. A special university was created in Prague from 1961 to 1974 to accommodate their needs.
While many returned to their home countries, a few married locally, or had children with Czech and Slovak women, giving birth to the first generation of Afro-Czechs.
As communism ended in 1989 and the country joined the European Union in 2004, Czech society started discussing issues of discrimination and ethnic diversity that had been banned for four decades, since Socialist ideology claimed it had eradicated racism, despite appalling treatment of the Roma community.
Since then, three segments of society have contributed to a partial integration of Afro-Czechs: civil society, media and art. A number of NGOs advocating for a better knowledge of African culture, and support to Afro-Czechs, have emerged and contribute to cross-cultural dialogues.
The second area is media, where a number of Afro-Czechs act as role models. One of the most famous names is Lejla Abbasová, a Czech citizen of Sudanese heritage, who presents popular TV shows. Czech-Ghanaian Rey Koranteng is a presenter on TV Nova, a private station that enjoys the largest share of the national audience.
Martin Kříž. Photo used with permission.
Martin Kříž is an Afro-Czech Sinologist, who makes regular appearance on Czech media and on the BBC.
He shared his views with Global Voices (GV):
Posledních asi deset nebo patnáct let přestává být otázka identity otázkou zevnějšku. Vzpomínám si nicméně, že v dobách kdy naše česká společnost ještě nebyla tak otevřená, a to zejména před rokem 1989 a když jsme my v mládí hledali kam sám sebe vrazit, tak tehdy skutečně to bylo jiné. Mluvit v české společnosti o komunitě Afro-Čechů je zatím ještě předčasné. Ve většině měst se stále jedná o jednotky nebo maximálně desítky takových lidí zcela odlišných společenských zájmu a směřování. Ale první vlaštovky se již objevují na facebookových skupinkách.
In the past 10 to 15 years, the question of identity is no longer based on external appearances. I remember, though that when our Czech society was not so open, particularly before [the fall of communism] in 1989, and when we were young and wanted to hang out somewhere, it was really different. It is too early to speak of an Afro-Czech community, in most cities there are just one or maybe ten Afro-Czechs, who each have very different interests and priorities. But we do see the first signs emerging, in Facebook groups.
A third field where Afro-Czechs have distinguished themselves is the arts, where singers, dancers and writers have established their names, sometimes internationally. Probably the most prominent example is Czech-Nigerian modern dancer and choreographer Yemi Akinyemi Dele, who has worked with global stars such as Kanye West.
Czech-Angolan singer Ben da Silva Cristóvão (known as Benny Cristo on stage) is a successful artist who was selected in 2020 to represent the Czech Republic at the Eurovision song contest with his song Kemama:
Another Czech-Angolan dancer and singer is Madalena João, who sings in Czech, English and Portuguese, sometimes with her brother Daniel, who raps.
Here she explains her sense of what it means to be an Afro-Czech to GV:
Můj tatínek studoval veterinární fakultu v Brně, a v té době se seznámil s maminkou. Bavili se v českém jazyce, který tatínek uměl a umí dodnes. Afročeška je Češka s africkými kořeny, tedy koluje ve mně v žilách i africká krev, hlavně v těle rytmus, a jsem za to ráda. Teď si uvědomuji více, v tomto věku, že to má své výhody. V Angole, kde jsem žila 9 let, jsem mluvila hlavně portugalsky, a vlastně dodnes doma s tatínkem a bratrem jinak nemluvím.
My dad was studying in Brno [the second largest city in the Czech Republic] at the faculty of veterinology, where he met my mother. They spoke Czech, a language my father is fluent in to this day. An Afro-Czech is a Czech person with African roots, thus it means I have African blood, rhythm in my body, and I am happy for that. Now I am more aware that it has its advantages. In Angola, where I lived for nine years, I spoke mostly Portuguese, and to this day this is the language we use at home with my dad and my brother.
Here is one of Joao's songs, “Vím, že jsi” (I know you exist) where she sings with popular Czech rapper Skipe, about visibility and relationships:
Cover of Obonete Ubam's latest book “Kalangu Africká moudrost na každý den” (Kalangu African wisdom for every day). Photo by Filip Noubel, used with permission.
Literature is also a field where prominent Afro-Czechs are making a mark.
The term Afro-Czech was coined by Czech-Nigerian writer and activist  Obonete Ubam, who spent seven years in Nigeria and wrote a book in which he narrates how he embraced his heritage, and eventually became the chief in his native Anaang ethnic group.
He released in June a new book called “Kalangu African Wisdom for Every Day” (Kalangu Africká moudrost na každý den) to bring African culture closer to Czech readers and is currently about to release a new book about the history of Afro-Czechs. Here is what he told GV:
Myslím si, že se Afročeši jako komunita teprve formují. Afročeši jsou v Českých zemích zhruba od konce druhé světové války. Nejdříve se jednalo o potomky amerických vojáků osvobozujících Západní Čechy. Po nich jsme přišli my, potomci afrických a kubánských studentů. Většinou jsme o sobě vzájemně ani nevěděli. Mnozí z nás pak hledali odpovědi na otázky týkající se vlastních kořenů a kulturní identity, až do dospělosti. Je zajímavé, že právě tato generace vyprodukovala ty, momentálně nejvýraznější osobnosti mezi Afročechy. Nyní dospěla třetí, zatím nejpočetnější generace Afročechů a jejich život je naprosto jiný než byl ten náš. Otevřené hranice jim navíc umožňují se i vzájemně stýkat. To je pro povědomí o vlastní identitě nesmírně důležité.
I think the Afro-Czechs are just beginning to form their community. They have been present here roughly since the end of WWII, as descendants of US soldiers who liberated the Western parts of the country. Then came us, the descendants of African and Cuban students. We usually didn't know about each other, and we looked for answers about our roots and cultural identity much later in life. It is interesting that this is the generation that produced the most prominent Afro-Czechs. Now the third and largest generation is coming up, and their life is very different from ours. Open borders mean they can meet, which is incredibly important to be aware of your own identity.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Filip Noubel


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Old statues, new maps · Global Voices
Shivanee Ramlochan

The Cantino World Map, incorporating geographical information based on four series of voyages: Columbus to the Caribbean, Pedro Álvarez Cabral to Brazil, Vasco de Gama followed by Cabral to eastern Africa and India, and the brothers Corte-Real to Greenland and Newfoundland. Public domain.
The original version of the piece below was published on the author's Facebook page.
Statues, by their nature, suggest significance. We are charged, most often, to look up to them. The difference in height matters, in perspective: what we regard at an elevation, affixed to a plinth, protected by golden braided rope, is intentional in its architecture.
You can ask any member of two of Trinidad and Tobago's most prominent faiths, Catholicism and Hinduism, about the significance of statues: a smiling Krishna garlanded in malas here, a beatific Christ with weeping candles at his punctured feet there. We miniaturize them, too: small gods for our puja rooms and prayer grottos, concentrate them to an intention of worshipfulness. We conventionally understand that these are not the gods, inasmuch as they channel the gods to us.
Is a statue of Christoper Columbus a god? Surely not. And yet.
The Jamaican author Michelle Cliff wrote in her 1984 semi-autobiographical novel, “Abeng“, of the half-monsters Columbus believed he would find in the New World:
“Dog-headed beings with human torsos. Winged people who could not fly. Beings with one foot growing out of the tops of their heads, their only living function to create shade for themselves in the hot tropical sun.”
“Abeng” is a counter-imperialist text underscored by the recorded history of the white European empire. It is this empire's sculpting of Jamaican history that “Abeng” radically confronts. It asks a question similar to Barbadian poet Kamau Brathwaite‘s “The Cracked Mother”, which is published in Brathwaite's 1973 opus, “The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy”:
“how will new maps be drafted?
Who will suggest a new tentative frontier?
How will the sky dawn now?”
Broadly, “The Arrivants”, a work that asks us to confront the internal borders we Caribbean people have constructed within ourselves, as defense/response to the borders drawn up by empire's forces to situate us, to domicile and subordinate us, poses this repeated question: who will draw our new maps? Who will signify us to ourselves?
Read more: Amid Black Lives Matter protests, fresh calls to remove statuary that hijacks the Caribbean's historical narrative
I've listened these past weeks as citizens have impressed upon me the importance of our statues of Columbus. These men and women have told me that Columbus was a fantastic navigator to whom they feel gratitude, as one of the founding fathers of our nation's history, blueprinting the very genesis of our roots. Further, I have been told that if we pull him down, where does it stop? We will have to dismantle everything made by colonial hands in our nation, and numerous Caribbean nations.
To begin to think about dismantling statues of former empires, slicing off their marble heads and pushing their alabaster, pigeon-shit-patinated bodies into our harbours, is for many of us a new and tentative frontier. It is not likely an action, of either protest or self-inquiry, that Columbus’ local devotees have ever imagined enacting: for them, the old map not only rules, but should always rule, no matter how much blood drenches it. What they perceive to be the obnoxious spectacle of contemporary activism deeply upsets them, particularly because it is a tacit attempt to begin the construction of a new map.  . .  and if the pro-Columbusites of so many dinner table discussions were to support such movements, it would implicitly reflect that their old systems are inherently flawed.
Who wants to believe the maps they have used their entire lives, that their parents used, were systemically poorly-charted? To begin to accept that would be to begin accepting that the post-colonial mythology of “work hard, hard, hard, obey the rules, make your children be doctors and lawyers, and you will achieve success, you might even retire in Florida” is not flawless. To begin to think that your concept of history could have damaged you is to acknowledge, with statuesque discomfort, that you are—and have been—unwell under the towering gaze of an idol or two.
Christopher Columbus rewarded his men with juvenile sex slaves. Here are his own words on the subject: “A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand.”
So does the imagined dog-headed, useless-winged, monstrous-human of the outlying regions of empire become a useful commodity in the hands of the conqueror: as a labourer, as a local tourist guide by force, as a skin cushion to pierce with brutality. So too, do so many of us say that this is the price of our history: not only to know it, but to create tall, stone figurines to archive its criminal record. For me, it would be enough for us not to maintain statues of a rape capitalist, in this or any age. For others, the ends justify the broken bones and rivers of blood—and to be clear, I am not haranguing those others. I am merely reflecting on what they, by their own admission, find historic.
While this debate continues, in 2020 on our island, infants are murdered in drive-by shootings. Teenagers are slain in abandoned houses. Women and children and men are dying of domestic violence. Young boys are dragged outside their houses and beaten with PVC pipe until their organs swell like rotten fruit. We, most of us, do a mixture of the best we can and the bare minimum needed to survive. Election fever begins to sing its dengue-carrying mosquito song.
Christopher Columbus, untoppled, keeps watching.

author: Shivanee Ramlochan


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Afro-Czechs on visibility, racism and life in the Czech Republic (Part II) · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Czech-Angolan dancer and singer Madalena João. Photo by Monika Šimíčková, used with permission.
Long invisible, Afro-Czechs, one of the smallest communities in the Czech Republic, are gradually emerging and speaking their minds in public.
This post is the second in a two-part series looking at their struggle for recognition in the central European country. The first part can be read here.
While the Czech Republic is considered a safe and peaceful country, occupying the eighth top position in Vision of Humanity's Global Peace Index, there are regular and documented instances of racism, mostly towards the Roma community, but also other minorities.
There have been few echoes of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) activism that has gone global — demonstrations have gathered few participants.
A notable exception was the spraying of a Winston Churchill statue in Prague with words describing him as a racist.
A statue of Winston Churchill in Prague has been defaced with graffiti, reports @iROZHLAScz. https://t.co/y2jsd2KKfZ
— Radio Prague International (@RadioPrague) June 11, 2020
Czech-Angolan dancer and singer Madalena João. Photo by Lucie Baldé, used with permission.
Madalena João, a Czech citizen of African heritage, shared her experience of racism with Global Voices:
Dočetla jsem se, že Česká republika je ve světovém žebříčku na 8. místě v mírumilovnosti ve světě. Pokud je tomu opravdu tak, je to moc hezké hodnocení, i když se tomu někdy nechce věřit. Je fajn vnímat, že je zde v České republice nás víc, kteří jsme řekněme barevní, a konáme, tvoříme, zpíváme, rapujeme, píšeme, nebo se nějak prezentujeme. Myslím, že to místo tu máme, je to naše domovina, a chtěli bychom se zde cítit bezpečně.Přemýšlím spíš teď o synovi, u kterého jsem zažila dvě narážky. Pramení to vždy z domova, tak jak rodiče budou vést své děti.
I read that the Czech Republic occupies the 8th place in a global rating of most peaceful countries. If this is true, it is a nice assessment, though sometimes it is hard to believe. It is cool to see that there are more of us, as we are called, ‘people of color’ who work, create, sing, rap, write, or are somehow visible. I think we have a home here, and we want to feel safe here. I am more concerned with my son, as he has experienced racist comments. This comes from families and depends on how parents raise their kids.
Obonete Ubam. Photo by Filip Noubel, used with permission
Obonete Ubam, who coined the term Afro-Czech, has his own explanation for what he describes as a resurgence of racism in his home country:
Představa nebílého Čecha je pro českou společnost něčím příliš nezvyklým a mnohdy těžko stravitelným. Pořád jsme terče předsudků nebo antipatií. Souvisí to s odmítavým až nenávistným diskursem posledních let, který otevřela migrační krize. Tendence bránit se cizím vlivům poukazuje hlavně na naše malé národní sebevědomí: samostatnost byla naší zemi dlouho upírána a většina nositelů cizích vlivů, kteří k nám přicházeli, si spíš brousili zuby na naše území. Je tady i problém „skleněného stropu“. Začnete se sám sebe ptát, jak vysoko můžu vlastně dosáhnout než na něj narazím? Kde přesně je ten bod kariérního růstu, za který už nedojdu, protože panuje všeobecné přesvědčení, že bych jako ne-běloch neměl?
Možná jen žijeme v pro nás, nepříznivé době. Pokud nás totiž historie něčemu naučila, pak je to, že každý chvilku tahá pilku. Nejvýznamnější centra lidské civilizace se během staletí posouvají z kontinentu na kontinent. Jak Afrika, Asie tak i Arábie už kdysi pupkem světa byly. Dnes je to západní civilizace, jenže nic netrvá věčně.
For Czech society, accepting that a non-white person can be Czech is too unusual and often not digestible. We are still the target of stereotypes and antipathy. This is related to non-accepting or hate discourses of the past few years  initiated by the migrant crisis. The tendency to resist foreign influences demonstrates our inferiority complex as a nation: our independence was often denied and carriers of foreign elements came here for personal benefits.
There is a glass-ceiling issue here: you start asking yourself, how far can I go before I hit it? Where exactly is this point in your career that you won't cross, because as a non-white person, you shouldn't?
Maybe we are just living in a time that is not very favorable to us. If history ever taught us anything, it is about the fact that we all go through ups and downs. The most significant centers of human civilization have moved across centuries from continent to continent. Africa, Asia and Arabia were at some point the center of the world. Today it is Western civilization, but nothing is eternal.
According to Martin Kříž, globalization can partly explain racism in the Czech Republic:
Fenoménu globalizace těží spíše progresivní městská omladina a podnikatelské vrstvy. Že se globální společnost čím dál více propojuje a do Čech se stěhují různí cizinci způsobuje pramalou radost lidem středního věku někde na Severní Moravě nebo v severních Čechách, pro které globalizace znamená často úbytek pracovních příležitostí a stres ze změny. Není pak divu že se projevují rasisticky nebo přesněji řečeno xenofobně.
Globalization works fine mostly for urban youth and business circles. The fact that the global world is getting more integrated and that more foreigners move to the Czech Republic does not bring any joy to middle-aged people from regions on the margins of the country, as from their perspective, globalization is seen as the reason for less job opportunities and stress due to change. We shouldn't be surprised then, that they express racism or xenophobia.
For the Roma community, however, the BLM movement offers a way to bring back conversations about anti-Roma racism in the mainstream. Kříž notes:
Ve Spojených státech je z neoddiskutovatelné, že afroameričané mají často i přes  svoje vynaložené úsilí mnohem menší šance dosáhnout na kvalitní vzdělání a pracovní uplatnění. V české společnosti se přímo nabízí ke srovnání romská populace ale to je zcela jiný příběh.
In the US it is indisputable that African Americans often have fewer chances to obtain good education and good jobs despite their efforts. In the Czech context, there is a parallel with the Roma community, but that is a rather different case.


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Harrowing tales from African domestic workers in Lebanon  · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Portrait of domestic worker Hellina Desta. Seven years ago, Hellina migrated from Ethiopia to work in Beirut, Lebanon, and has been working for her current employer since 2015. Photo taken in Beirut, Lebanon, August 18, 2015. Photo by UN Women/Joe Saade via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Nine Nigerian women are currently sleeping on the streets of Beirut, Lebanon, after they were laid off as domestic workers during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
The women had approached the Nigerian Embassy for help but were turned down, according to a Middle East Eye report on June 23. Nigeria’s ambassador to Lebanon, Goni Modu, reportedly told the women to “go back to their masters” while they await evacuation.
Lebanon is currently undergoing a stringent financial crisis exacerbated by the pandemic which has led to increased job loss.
However, these nine domestic workers don’t hold normal jobs. African domestic workers in the Gulf and Arab countries are essentially domestic slaves — and the labour laws in these countries perpetuate the exploitation and abuse.
In April, Temitope Olamide Ariowolo, 31, a Nigerian woman, was advertised for sale at $1,000 United States dollars on Facebook by Wael Jerro, a Lebanese man.
Jerro posted Ariowolo’s international passport on the Facebook group, “Buy and Sell in Lebanon,” according to screenshots obtained by Middle East Eye before the post was deleted.
A man has been arrested in Lebanon for allegedly putting up a Nigerian maid for sale. In a Facebook advert he had said the 30-year-old domestic worker could be bought for $1,000.
Read more https://t.co/ZOpBkzFIgi #BBCAfricaLive pic.twitter.com/tjtlfQzLVp
— BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) April 23, 2020
Jerro has since been arrested.
Breaking news on Trafficked Nigerian girl for sale on Facebook by a Lebanese.
The Lebanese Govt just announced the arrest of Mr. WAEL JERRO for onward prosecution against criminal sales of a human, a young Nigerian girl.
1/2 https://t.co/BBkIscyGHr
— Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (@nidcom_gov) April 23, 2020
But Ariowolo refused to return to Nigeria even after the intervention of the Nigerian Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) offered to evacuate her.
Abike Dabiri, head of NIDCOM, stated that 69 abused domestic workers were evacuated back to Nigeria.
50 trafficked Nigerian women have been rescued from Lebanon & returned home.They've all been placed in quarantine as a precaution against coronavirus.
Last month,a Nigerian woman working as a maid in Lebanon was rescued after being put up for sale on Facebook for $1,000.? pic.twitter.com/nspCTiLKqg
— Josey Mahachie?? ?? (@MahachieJosey) May 26, 2020
Early this month, the Lebanese Embassy in Nigeria suspended domestic work visas to “address rights, abuses and violations” of Nigerian household staff in Lebanon.
But this abuse of household workers is not exclusive to Lebanon, —  it is rampant throughout the Gulf region.
Dear @GeoffreyOnyeama @naptipnigeria @abikedabiri kindly help Nigerian ladies who are treated as slaves in the name of maids in #lebanon and #oman to come back home. Several of them are depressed, they need your help to come back home. Thank you.
— adekola damilola (@adekoladammy) May 19, 2020
In August 2018, two Nigerian migrant domestic staff were killed in Riyadh by their Saudi Arabian hosts.
Young girls are usually recruited as housekeepers by registered agencies in Nigeria. Nigeria’s Daily Trust newspapers revealed that contract stipulates that within the first 24-months, the servants “must not ask for a salary increment, stop work or runaway, or refuse to work or finish the contract, even for one day.”
The Kafala sponsorship system allows a migrant to work in Gulf and Arab countries by tying their immigration status to their employer. The conditions are slave-like because the migrant worker typically gives up most of their rights in exchange for a contract, allowing for abuse with impunity.
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan, and Lebanon, all actively participate in this system that provides temporary, cheap labour during economic prosperity and equally discarded during less affluent periods, according to the International Labour Organization:
The migrant worker cannot enter the country, transfer employment nor leave the country for any reason without first obtaining explicit written permission from the kafeel [employer]. The worker must be sponsored by a kafeel in order to enter the destination country and remains tied to this kafeel throughout their stay. The kafeel must report to the immigration authorities if the migrant worker leaves their employment and must ensure the worker leaves the country after the contract ends, including paying for the flight home. Often the kafeel exerts further control over the migrant worker by confiscating their passport and travel documents, despite legislation in some destination countries that declares this practice illegal.
This system, which requires the absolute dependence of the worker on their employer, is an obvious example of modern-day slavery. It promotes the abuse of migrant workers.
For instance, this Tanzanian woman was forced to work “like a robot” without rest or days-off in Oman for three years. Her employer constantly reminded her: “I bought you for 1,560 rials ($4,052 USD) from Dubai. Give it back to me and then you can go,” whenever she asked for food or improved working conditions.
Consequently, migrant workers have two grim options: Put up with the exploitative conditions or escape.
But those who escape are not entitled to compensation. In fact, they “can be fined, indefinitely detained and deported,” asserts Migrant Rights, an advocacy organization. It does not stop there —  migrants abandoned by their sponsors can “be stranded for years” since they cannot afford the cost of a return flight ticket to their respective countries.”
There is no doubt that the sponsorship kafala labour laws perpetuate the exploitation of African domestic workers. However, African states are also often complicit.
Ethiopian journalist Zecharias Zelalem revealed that in 2007, the Ethiopian government hired a US-based public relations firm that lobbied US Congress to “quash a bill condemning Ethiopia’s human rights record.”
To pay the PR firm, they misappropriated over $600,000 USD from its consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The embezzled funds had actually been raised by Ethiopians in Diaspora to rescue “Ethiopian domestic workers languishing in Lebanon,” Zelalem learned.
The case was discussed on Twitter:
After a spate of suicides by Ethiopian domestic workers in Lebanon,Ethiopians there raised $640,000 to support their community.
Then it disappeared. None knew where it went, until now
Via @mailandguardian pic.twitter.com/qVsSntJDvh
— mwanaume.com (@MarigaThoithi) June 1, 2020
In many African nations including Nigeria, policy confusion, weak regulatory laws and enforcement — compounded by victims’ desperation to migrate to greener pastures abroad — has fueled this human trafficking disguised as domestic work.
Migrant domestic workers march for improved working conditions and labor laws in Beirut, Lebanon, November 19, 2015, via Migrant Domestic Workers on Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0.
The Kafala system directly contravenes ILO's International Labour Standards that promote “decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and dignity.”
Sadly, since the adoption of ILO's Decent Work for Domestic Workers Convention C189 in 2011, only 29 countries have ratified it. On the other hand, Gulf and Arab countries like Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Lebanon — and their African counterparts like Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania — are yet to ratify and domesticate this law.
The redress of a bitter history of exclusion and injustice to migrant domestic workers may seem far-fetched. But Myrtle Witbooi, president of the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) is optimistic: “One day, we will all be free,” she said.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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History repeats itself: Chinese state terror and the dismantling of Uyghur neo-Jadidism · Global Voices
Dilnur Reyhan

Entrepreneurs Ablimit Halis Hajim (left), Abduweli Muqiyit (center) and Nurtay Hajim İskender (right) were pillars of Uyghur national education and central figures in the development of Uyghur civil society. All three have been the targets of the Chinese state's assault on Uyghur society. Photos by Dilnur Reyhan and Medine Ablimit, used with permission.
The city of Ghulja is reputed as a center of Uyghur rebellion, and has, in fact, often been a locus of resistance to Chinese power. Capital of the second independent Republic of East Turkestan from 1944 to 1949, Ghulja boasts many legendary heroes, such as Nuzugum, Sadir the Brave and Ghéni the Brave. That is just part of its identity: the city also claims renowned artists and literary figures such as Lutpulla Mutellip, Zunun Qadiri, Tiyipjan Eliov and Zordon Sabir.
Ghulja is located in Ili, an autonomous district bordering Kazakhstan. Ili was colonized for 10 years at the end of the 19th century by Tsarist Russia and has acted as a gateway for Western influences coming through Russian-speaking Central Asia. It is also the cradle of Uyghur Jadidism, a late 19th-century-early 20th-century renaissance movement led by intellectuals and entrepreneurs who aimed to reform Islam and Turkic Muslim societies as part of a broader modernization drive inspired by Western and Ottoman models. This movement of societal and religious reform played a role in the awakening of Uyhgur society and its struggle against Chinese colonialism and religious obscurantism. This gave rise to the first rebellion in the south of the Uyghur lands, which gave birth to the first Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkestan which lasted from 1933 to 1934.
During the period between 1930-40 known as the “white terror”, these religious and cultural reformers—called Jadidists across Central Asia—were driven out, imprisoned and massacred by the various representatives of Chinese colonial power. Intellectuals such as Lutpulla Mutellip, Abduhaliq Uyghur, Enver Nasiri, and Memtéli Tewpiq (the author of the national anthem of East Turkestan) were burned alive. China's then-ruling party, the Kuomintang, victimized anyone they considered a political or ethnic opponent.
Ablimit Hoshur Halis Hajim. Photo courtesy Medine Ablimit, used with permission.
During the period of the Second Republic of East Turkestan, which lasted from 1944 to 1949, Ili became the most advanced, in terms of culture and education, of the 10 districts that form the Uyghur Region, and to this day retains an independent spirit and offers a window on all that is new and modern emanating from outside. From the 1990s, when Uyghur businesspeople gained the opportunity to trade externally with Central Asia, South Asia and Turkey, many of them, including some from Ghulja, invested in supporting the education of young Uyghurs at renowned universities in other countries.
One such entrepreneur was Ablimit Hoshur Halis Hajim, who made his money in real estate and was already known for his philanthropic support for the development of Uyghur cultural identity. In October 1994, Halis Halim, together with fellow entrepreneurs Sadiqjan, Abdurishit Hajim, and Memtimin Tewekkül, gathered together around 200 Ili notables in Ghulja and raised 1.5 million yuan (the equivalent of US$200,000) to create the Ili Halis Fund, the region’s first private higher education fund. The task of managing the fund was assigned to pedagogue and public figure Abduweli Muqiyit, as Halis Hajim encouraged other Uyghur entrepreneurs to participate and offer opportunities to Uyghur students from the region. The fund’s first cohort of grantees were 800 students who had to drop out of school due to lack of money, and who were now able to return to their studies.
A year after the Ili Halis Fund was founded, another young Ghulja entrepreneur, Nurtay Hajim Iskender, founded the first school for orphans. Abduweli Muqiyit was yet again recruited to take on the huge responsibility of setting up the school’s day-to-day operations, coordination with the state, media promotion, recruiting teachers, budgeting, student selection, and even choosing a location for the school building.
Nurtay Hajim Iskender with children from his school. Photo by Dilnur Reyhan, used with permission.
A peaceful, leafy district on a wide avenue by the Ili River, a short distance from the noisy, bustling city center, was chosen as the site for an attractive modern school building that incorporated traditional Uyghur architectural features. The school initially took in 60 orphan students, but that number quickly rose to several hundred from throughout the region in the years that followed, All the students’ needs, from primary school to the end of their university studies, were taken care of by Nurtay Hajim, supported by other Uyghur philanthropists.
Nurtay Hajim Iskender School in the city of Ghulja. Photo by Dilnur Reyhan, used with permission.
Nurtay Hajim's fame spread beyond Ili and throughout the Uyghur Region. He and Ablimit Halis Hajim became symbols of the progressive entrepreneurship for which the Jadid era had been known, and increasing numbers of Uyghur entrepreneurs started investing in similar projects.
In 2017, the Chinese state renewed its campaign of state terror by targeting intellectuals, religious leaders and entrepreneurs. Sadly—and unsurprisingly—Nurtay Hajim Iskender was one of those arrested, and his school was closed and turned into a concentration camp. Almost all of the teachers at this school were reportedly arrested as well, though it is unclear what happened to the students.
Abduweli Muqiyit was another unsurprising target of Chinese state terror. His grandfather had served in the government of the Republic of East Turkestan, and Muqiyit, who had served as head of the education directorate of the city of Ghulja, in 2002 organized the 100th anniversary of Ghulja School No. 2, a combination middle and high school that was the oldest in the Uyghur region. In 2014, he also founded the Bilal Nazimi bookstore, which quickly came to occupy an important place in the intellectual life of the community, with Uyghurs from different social strata gathering there for lectures and conversations.
Abduweli Muqiyit in the Bilal Nazimi Library in Ghulja. Photo by Dilnur Reyhan, used with permission.
Information on what is really going on in the Uyghur region, one of the most surveilled locations in the world, is extremely difficult to obtain. This situation gives rise to many rumors, some of which prove to be false, but which in many cases are true.
Rumors that Nurtay Hajim had died in detention circulated for a time in the Uyghur diaspora, similar to the one about the renowned musician and singer Abduréhim Héyit that was eventually debunked. Relatives of Nurtay Hajim also denied the rumour, in early 2020, they learned through unofficial channels that Nurtay Hajim had received a life sentence. Abduweli Muqiyit reportedly received the same, though as China does not provide any official information, it is impossible to verify this information.
As for Ablimit Halis Hajim, his children, who live abroad, have had no news about whether he might have been released, or sentenced.
These three men were pillars of Uyghur national education outside official frameworks, central figures in the development of Uyghur civil society, and—in their drive to modernize education, identity, and Uyghur society—pioneering proponents of neo-Jadidism. Like many other Uyghur artists and entrepreneurs, they sought a new basis for creating a society that was both proudly traditional and undeniably modern, and are recognized for their commitment to modernization and openness. The arrest and subsequent disappearance of these three men from Ghulja has exerted a chilling effect on the Uyghur community.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the policy of “white terror” pursued by Chinese governor of the Uyghur Region, Sheng Shicai, sought to eradicate the Uyghur intellectual and bourgeois class in order to subjugate the Uyghur nation. The dismantling of Uyghur society undertaken in recent times by Xinjiang province Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, under the leadership of Xi Jinping, has felt for many like a return to this brutal period.
*The author wishes to thank the Uyghur-Australian intellectual Selime Kamal and Medine Ablimit, the daughter of Albimit Halis Hajim, for providing information on the lives of Abduweli Muqiyit and Ablimit Halis Hajim.

author: Dilnur Reyhan


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Nationalists in North Macedonia use border closures to sow confusion and mistrust · Global Voices
Metamorphosis Foundation

Screencap from the live video by Albanian PM Edi Rama that was misinterpreted in North Macedonia.
This story is based on reporting by Global Voices’ content partner Meta.mk News Agency, a project of Metamorphosis Foundation. Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Did Albania's Prime Minister really only welcome ethnic Albanian visitors from Balkan neighbours to his recently re-opened country? Did Greece really prohibit travelers from parts of North Macedonia where large ethnic Albanian and Roma populations live from visiting?
The answer to both these questions is “no.”
But amid the resurgence of coronavirus cases in still-shuttered North Macedonia, the tourist seasons getting underway in nearby countries have been used to manipulate public opinion with disinformation and to inflate toxic nationalism.
The falsehood of these manipulative claims — spread through media and social media — has been confirmed by fact-checking conducted by European Union-supported Critical Thinking for Mediawise Citizens, also known as the Crithink project.
By that time, the damage had already been done, however, with the disinformation helping to unnerve Macedonian citizens already distressed over the upsurge of COVID-19 cases in late May and the first half of June.
The Macedonian government's decision to keep the borders closed on the North Macedonia side during that time has been used by populist propagandists as an excuse to present the ruling party as incompetent and subservient.
These efforts have typically come at the expense of minorities in the multi-ethnic country, too.
On May 24, the Albanian Prime Minister made a Facebook live video to announce the opening of the country's borders on June 1. During the video, he also addressed ethnic Albanians from the neighboring countries, advising caution and mindfulness about COVID-19.
He said that the borders will open, but noted the beaches will be still closed for a time, and cautioned prospective visitors over the pandemic's potential “second wave.”
Starting from Monday, June 1, we will open the land borders with the neighbors. For all Albanians, no matter whether they posses passports of Albania, or of Kosovo, North Macedonia or Montenegro, we will continue to call upon all of you without pause, without exception, to be watchful. On June 1, the borders will open, but not the beaches.
Across the border in Republic of North Macedonia (RNM), some Macedonian-language media started publishing a faulty translation of the statement, creating an instant scandal. In their interpretation, he was alleged to say:
Почнувајќи од понеделник, 1 јуни, ќе ги отвориме копнените граници со соседите, односно за Албанците кои живеат во Косово, Македонија и Црна Гора, но граѓаните ги повикуваме да бидат внимателни, вака албанскиот претседател Еди Рама.
“Starting from Monday, June 1, we will open the land borders with the neighbors, namely for the [ethnic] Albanians who live in Kosovo, North Macedonia or Montenegro, but we will continue to call upon all of you to be watchful,” said Albanian president [sic – he is prime minister, not president] Edi Rama.
Ethnic Albanian public figures in North Macedonia, who are bilingual in Albanian and Macedonian languages, quickly sounded the alarm that some media and politicians were getting “lost in translation.”
Journalist Petrit Saracini pointed out that the faulty translation had changed the position of punctuation marks, making the segments about ethnic Albanians part of the preceding sentence.
Despite this, the opposition political party VMRO-DPMNE promptly issued a statement misinterpreting Rama and claiming that he invited “only the ethnic Albanians” from neighboring countries to local beaches, excluding other ethnic groups.
Macedonian nationalists tried to spin the statement as “proof” of backwardness and chauvinism among Albanians, and also as “a new defeat” and “slap in the face” for the RNM government.
One high ranking VMRO-DPMNE representative, MP Ilija Dimovski, blasted “madness straight out of the 19th century” and “discrimination on ethnic grounds against the citizens of Republic of Macedonia”.
Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov and the government quickly retorted that they had not received any such information from their counterparts in Albania.
A collage presenting screenshots of several articles with the fake news about Greece and North Macedonia with a warning in red “Disinformation!”. Photo by CriThink.mk, used with permission.
Several days later, it was Greece's turn, as several right-wing media outlets in North Macedonia published disinformation about the popular tourist destination's border regime.
Using a photo-shopped document allegedly from the Greek MFA as ‘proof,’ they alleged that Greece will prohibit the entrance of Macedonian citizens from municipalities where large parts of the population are Muslim (mostly in ethnic Albanian and ethnic Roma communities, implying that these groups are to blame for the spread of the novel coronavirus).
The Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the claim in a Facebook post, calling it “false news.”
When debunking the claim, CriThink noted that it would be highly unlikely for Greece to issue such travel restrictions relating only to citizens that live in certain territories, since that would be an infringement of the ETIAS agreement between North Macedonia and the European Union.
Some of the media in question removed these articles, but without issuing a retraction or apology to their readers.
Foreign beach vacations are viewed as a middle class right in the landlocked Balkan countries. Restrictions that inhibit this right, such as COVID-19 related lock-downs, have been extremely unpopular. Populist forces in the region, notably the Serbian ruling party, have tapped beach dreams for political purposes.
According to the WHO data compiled by Johns Hopkins University as of June 25, Albania has documented 2,114 COVID-19 cases, with 47 deaths, while North Macedonia listed 5,445 cases with 259 deaths. Greece had reported 3,310 infected persons and 190 deaths so far.

author: Metamorphosis Foundation


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Thailand’s ‘youthquake’: Activism in the time of COVID-19 · Global Voices
EngageMedia

Students alight their mobile phones during a protest at Kasetsart University on February 29, 2020. Photo by Chonthicha Jangrew. Source: EngageMedia / Coconet
This article by Chonthicha Jangrew is from Coconet, a platform for digital rights movement-building in the Asia-Pacific hosted by EngageMedia, a non-profit media, technology and culture organization. This story was edited and republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Hope for political change in Thailand has grown stronger in 2020 after a wave of student protests across the country followed the constitutional court’s dissolution of the opposition Future Forward Party.
This decision sparked flash mobs against Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and his authoritarian regime, which has been in power since 2014. From February 21 to March 14 there were at least 79 flash mobs in universities, according to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights group.
This wave of protests, dubbed the “youthquake” phenomenon, is reflective of growing political awareness among Thai youth.
With young people on their side, pro-democracy groups saw potential for ousting the pro-military government.
But then, COVID-19 arrived, with accompanying government restrictions. The emergent Thai civil society was soon hit with an emergency decree that prohibits public assembly, moving activists online.
But Thai authorities have also been upping surveillance of online activities.
The government even has an Anti-Fake News Center that has been dubbed the “Fake News Center” by critics who have accused it of focusing on restricting rights to freedom of expression, rather than dealing with disinformation.
The center is known to censor information and criticism regarding the government’s management of the pandemic. It has even pressed charges against citizens for stating obvious truths.
Danai Ussama, an artist from Phuket, was arrested by police under the Computer Crimes Act after he posted on an online platform that there was no COVID-19 screening at the Suvarnabhumi airport, where he arrived following a stay in Spain in March 2020.
But harsh measures have failed to stifle dissent.
In fact, the June 4 disappearance of political exile Wanchalerm Satsaksit in Cambodia reignited protests against the pro-military government, with more than 400,000 retweets using the hashtag #SaveWanchalearm the following day.
Amid restrictions, Twitter has become the main space for freedom of expression in Thailand. One of the viral hashtags during COVID-19 has been #nnevy, which emerged when Thai Twitter users sparked a war against Chinese nationalist trolls and created “a new pan-Asian solidarity”.
This happened after Chinese fans of Thai actor Vachirawit Chivaaree retweeted a tweet that called Hong Kong a “country.”
Thai Twitter users retaliated against the online attacks against Chivaaree, which appeared to be led by pro-Beijing trolls.
Soon after, Twitter users from Hong Kong and Taiwan joined the defence, which led to popular hashtags #MilkTeaAlliance and a Thai equivalent that translates to #MilkTeaIsThickerThanBlood.
Joshua Wong, the Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, posted a photo of the actor with a message that Hong Kong was standing with Thais who loved liberty and standing against persecution by China.
He even called for the building of an Asian alliance against dictatorship.
The Student Union of Thailand then came up with an online campaign to “protest from home” by sharing photos or placards commenting on government performance with the hashtag #MobFromHome. This hashtag topped Twitter trends in Thailand.
Apart from using hashtags, pro-democracy activists online have also adopted a strategy called “bombardment”, or “ทัวร์ลง”, in which a user asks other users to collectively criticize a problematic post.
In Thailand, this kind of online public mobilization has been used to counter the government’s information operation (IO) campaigns that involve online attacks targeting dissidents and critics.
While Twitter has been the platform of choice for anti-youth activists, two events that happened in close succession led to a drop of general confidence in the platform.
On May 13, the official Thailand Twitter account @TwitterThailand tweeted its first message, “Sawasdee khrap, Thailand” (Hello, Thailand!). On May 19, Twitter announced the update of its privacy policy to share users’ activities and IP addresses with “partners” to enhance targeted advertisements.
Following these updates, #NoTwitterThailand topped the country’s trending page as Thais saw this as part of the government’s programme of surveillance and restriction of free expression online.
Even more users began to doubt the security and privacy of the platform after Buddhipongse Punnakanta, the Minister of Digital Economy and Society, tweeted about his recent discussion with Twitter's senior director of public policy & philanthropy for Asia-Pacific, who is based in Singapore.
Thai Twitter users quickly began calling to stop using Twitter and move to “alternative platforms” that are open-source and decentralized. One popular alternative platform is “Minds”, especially after influencer Sarinee Achavanuntakul tweeted, “Say goodbye to Twitter and meet at Minds.”
Minds has also already installed the Thai language to accommodate Thai users.
This new distrust of Twitter poses questions for the future and efficacy of online activism.
Will enough Thai users flock to these social media alternatives to reach a critical mass, and therefore enact concrete social changes? How do we continue to talk about diverse issues in online social movements? And how do we transform awareness into the change we dream to see?
There are no easy answers to these questions. But in the case of Thailand, we continue to witness a “youthquake” and increased political awareness among Thai students.
We also continue to witness how open spaces online have led to a more critical discourse regarding the government.
Authorities’ manipulation  of the information space has simply accelerated this process.

author: EngageMedia


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WHO urges Pakistan to reimpose lockdown after surge in cases · Global Voices
R Umaima Ahmed

Motorway police patrolling in Pakistan. Image via Wikipedia by Akash0078. CC BY-SA 4.0.
At the beginning of June, the World Health Organization sent a letter to all the provinces of Pakistan announcing that the country ranked among the top 10 countries in the world reporting the highest number of new cases of COVID-19 per day. After some debate, Pakistan decided to impose a “smart lockdown” trace and testing strategy in parts of the country that are considered hotbeds for coronavirus.
Currently there are 173,590 confirmed cases in Pakistan and 3,590 have died of the virus. The government has asked citizens to take precautionary measures, avoid going out, wear masks and wash hands as the healthcare system will not be able to handle the burden of new cases.
As COVID-19 cases jumped to 165,062 after 4,944 new infections were detected in Pakistan over the past 24 hours while 136 more people succumbed to the deadly disease, is the smart lockdown proving to be effective? pic.twitter.com/E0zJHwW77q
— Global Village Space (@GVS_News) June 21, 2020
In mid-March, the Pakistani government began to implement its first lockdown measures. Prime Minister Imran Khan had been saying from the start that Pakistan could not afford a full lockdown because of fears that 25% people who live below the poverty line would die of hunger. The government banned public gatherings, shut down restaurants and all other daily activities and closed education institutions until July 15. While stores selling daily use items, vegetable and fruit shops and pharmacies remained open.
On May 10, just two weeks before Eid, an Islamic celebration after Ramadan, the government eased the lockdown after the business community started putting pressure on the government to relax restrictions. The Supreme Court of Pakistan also took a Suo Motu Notice (when a judge takes notice of a public interest incident without any party applying for its consideration) and issued a directive asking the government to reopen shopping malls across the country.
Pakistan reports 520 new cases and 17 new deaths in the past 24 hours. We are not ready to ease the lockdown. The state, such that it is, is privileging some half-baked idea of economic necessity over the lives of many.
— Kamini Masood (@hastobuud) April 16, 2020
The Pakistan Medical Association believed that the government should have taken the virus seriously and Supreme Court should have reconsidered their opinion. Doctors were afraid that the country did not have the necessary infrastructure to deal with patients if the government chose to push for herd immunity.
When the lockdown was eased, the public was asked to “become responsible and intelligent citizens”; however, people flocked to markets for Eid shopping by the thousands and violated all SOPs. In an interview with market goers refused to believe that coronavirus exists.
????#Peshawar Sadar Bazar today
Note: Peshawar is the city leading with deaths because of #COVID__19 in #Pakistan, daily 80+ positive cases and after ease in lockdown this is situation pic.twitter.com/WCn8hvQJR3
— Jalal Qazi (@JalalQazi) May 11, 2020
After a month of opening up, Pakistan had over 100,000 cases which has put severe pressure on the healthcare system.
You can predict peak only when you have taken the necessary steps (lockdown, aggressive testing, and contact tracing etc.)
Pakistan has slackened on these steps. hence the peak projection keeps shifting from one month to the other. /2https://t.co/2T5aCLw3aH
— Awais Saleem (@awaissaleem77) June 21, 2020
As expected, the cases started rising and the World Health Organization letter to the provinces pointed out that Pakistan was not conducting enough tests and must increase them at all costs. To which Bilawal Bhutto, Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party, tweeted:
WHO letter to Sindh government raises valid concerns & suggestions. Will be discussed by Sindh govt before being taken up at national level. We’ve long called for national policy to be linked to facts & our own capacity. Unfortunately so far this hasn’t been national approach.
— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) June 9, 2020
Pakistan's Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives, Asad Umar, warned in a press conference that the confirmed cases of COVID-19 could double by the end of this month and reach 1 million to 1.2m by the end of July if precautionary measures are not taken by the public.
Last week's decision by the Pakistani government to implement ‘selective ‘or ‘smart’ virus lockdown was met with confusion and challenges. A smart lockdown is targeted tracking, tracing, testing and quarantine mechanism with the help of national security apparatus to stop the spread of coronavirus. The aim is to seal the areas that have a high number of the infected population while easing restrictions on economic activities under strict SOPs. But social media users are debating this move as they believe that Pakistan should go under full lockdown.
“Sakht lockdown”
“narm lockdown”
” smart knockdown”
“selected lockdown”
“Hafta itwar band baqi din khuly”
Pakistan aa k corona b pagal ho gya hai;)
— Aleezy_khan? (@victorious_55) June 21, 2020
“Strict lockdown”
“Mild lockdown”
“Smart knockdown”
“Selected lockdown”
“Markets Closed on Saturday Sunday rest of days open”
After coming to Pakistan corona has gone mad ;)
Some provinces like, the Sindh, are facing challenges to implement the smart lockdown effectively because of a lack of resrouces, manpower and public misunderstanding.
After the letter from the WHO, all provinces started reimposing a lockdown in areas that are hot spots of coronavirus. The government is following a trace, test and quarantine strategy, following strict protocols outlined by the WHO and is also using technology, police force and a team of volunteers to help identify adherence restrictions.

author: R Umaima Ahmed


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Activists demand end to year-long internet disruption in Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin States · Global Voices
Qurratulain (Annie) Zaman

Youth protesters in Myanmar calling for peace in the Arakan region and the restoration of internet in the 8 townships in Rakhine and Chin States. Photo courtesy of Athan, used with permission
A year has passed since the Myanmar government restricted mobile internet networks in eight townships of Rakhine and Chin States. More than 1.4 million people are suffering from this shutdown and are unable to access vital information about the escalating conflict in the region and the COVID-19 situation in the country.
Aside from the shutdown of mobile internet networks in some parts of Rakhine and Chin, the government also ordered the blocking of websites that allegedly spread disinformation. But independent and ethnic media websites that provide local information were also included in the order.
The Freedom of Expression Coalition and other civil society groups marked the one year anniversary and registered their protest through an online gathering.
Athan, a youth-led civil society organization that promotes freedom of expression tweeted about the event:
Virtual Protest to Mark First Anniversary of Internet Shutdown in Rakhine and Chin States#အင်တာနက်ဖိနှိပ်မှုဆန့်ကျင်ကြ #StopInternetShutdownMM #KeepItOn #365dayswithoutinternet pic.twitter.com/jRh9lWuhGe
— ATHAN (@athan_info) June 21, 2020
The online protest was attended by 170 participants. They emphasized that the shutdown prevents locals from having any health information about COVID-19. Members of the coalition during the online event asked the World Health Organisation to urge the Myanmar government to end internet shutdowns amid the pandemic.
A banner was unveiled in the main Sule Square in Yangon that posed a provocative question.
Human rights defender Thinzar Shunlei Yi wrote about the banner's message:
You cut internet access because you dont want us to know you r committing war crimes & arbitary killings?
Question banner posted over downtown Sule bridge by Yangon activists.
Today marked 1 year #InternetShutDown in 8 tsps in #Myanmar. pic.twitter.com/RvfvhnzX9g
— Thinzar Shunlei Yi (@thinzashunleiyi) June 21, 2020
Khin, a digital rights activist, has a message for the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD):
In the midst of pandemic, today marks 1 year that people in 8 townships of Rakhine and Chin don’t have access to internet. If this NLD government has any shame left, keep the internet on in those townships right now. #StopInternetShutdownMM #KeepItOn #DigitalRightsMM pic.twitter.com/56M9WllR1A
— Khin (@malkhin) June 21, 2020
Here are additional photos and statements condemning the continuing internet shutdown:
Over 70 Arakan political parties, civil society organizations & media agencies jointly sent an open Letter to the #Myanmar President & the State Counsellor regarding the internet shutdown in 7 Townships of #Rakhine State & Paletwa Township of #Chin State. https://t.co/N2byDmO6Sq pic.twitter.com/9zHXLofxzp
— Progressive Voice (@PVamplify) June 22, 2020
Protest on internet shutdown in Rakhine and Chin states of Myanmar for 365 days pic.twitter.com/af5CfUlaXn
— Nyinyi Lwin (@lwin051965) June 21, 2020
Today, 21 June, is the first anniversary of the shutdown of all mobile internet access in Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin States. This is the longest internet shutdown in the world.#အင်တာနက်ဖိနှိပ်မှုဆန့်ကျင်ကြ #StopInternetShutdownMM #KeepItOn #365dayswithoutinternet pic.twitter.com/RxB7hzwfVf
— Yatanar (AYaungYint) (@YatanarHtun) June 21, 2020
The shutdown has been imposed in eight townships where, according to Amnesty International, crimes including war crimes were committed by the Myanmar military, as well as abuses by the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group operating in western and northern Myanmar.
The human rights group said in a statement published last year after the restrictions first began:
The shutdown has created an information black hole in an area where the Myanmar military has committed serious violations – including war crimes – raising serious concerns about the safety of civilians. It is essential that the Myanmar authorities ensure the right to information in times of crisis.
Linda Lakhdhir, legal advisor at Human Rights Watch said Myanmar should immediately end what is now the world’s longest government-enforced internet shutdown:
The internet shutdown, along with restrictions on access by aid agencies, has meant that people in some villages are unaware of the Covid-19 outbreak, humanitarian workers told Human Rights Watch. Local groups report that the shutdown has made it difficult to coordinate the distribution of aid to conflict-affected communities, and to communicate with their field teams to ensure staff safety. A local editor said the shutdown greatly impedes media coverage of the fighting between the Myanmar military and the ethnic Arakan Army, making it hard for villagers to get up-to-date information.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government defended the shutdown, repeatedly saying that the shutdown is necessary due to the intense fight between the military and the Arakan Army. U Zaw Htay, spokesperson of the President’s Office, recently told Deutsche Welle the government understands the concerns of human rights activists, including the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, but security is a top priority in the area.
He said the government is providing all necessary help it can to the military to fight the insurgents.
On June 12, the ministry of Transport and Communications announced that the government will extend the network shutdown until August 1.
“We will restore internet service if there are no more threats to the public or violations of the telecommunications law,” said Soe Thein, the ministry’s permanent secretary, at a media briefing in Yangon.
In another development, a first information report (FIR) has been registered against Maung Saungkha, a free speech activist who received the Tulip Award from the Netherlands. He and five other activists were charged under Section 19 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law (PAPPL) for organizing a protest without notifying the police. They face up to three months in jail if convicted.
This is insane & unacceptable. @maung_saungkha , free speech activist from @athan_info and other 5 activists (unknown yet) being charged with 19 of PAPPL for the movement aganist #internetshutdown on 21st.
Kyauktada Tsp police had issued a letter addressing Saungkha. pic.twitter.com/lM0RFOrAU4
— Thinzar Shunlei Yi (@thinzashunleiyi) June 23, 2020

author: Qurratulain (Annie) Zaman


text:
From prison to exile: An interview with Vietnamese activist Tran Thi Nga · Global Voices
The 88 Project

Former political prisoner Tran Thi Nga talks about the effects of prison on women and children. Source: Screenshot from YouTube video uploaded by The 88 Project
This article is from The 88 Project, an independent news site covering Vietnam, and was edited and republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The 88 Project had the opportunity to interview former political prisoner Tran Thi Nga about her experience in prison and conditions in prison for women and children.
Tran Thi Nga was released from prison in January and was immediately sent into exile in the United States. She was about three years into a nine-year prison sentence for her activism on land and labor rights when she was released.
In the video, Nga speaks about the psychological effects of her arrest and time in prison on her young children. Her youngest child was only four-years-old when he witnessed his mother being detained by the police in their own home. When Nga’s husband was taken in for questioning, their six-year-old was also detained and was even separated from his father. Nga’s children struggled with discrimination at school during her imprisonment, as well as difficulties in visiting their mother in prison. Nga was transferred to a facility 1,000 km away from the family’s hometown, and the authorities often used visitation rights as a means to try to get her to admit guilt.
She urges international stakeholders to speak up for the rights of women and children and remedy the injustices caused by the Vietnamese authorities’ poor treatment of female prisoners.
Tran Thi Nga is the fourth political prisoner in the past few years who was released early but had to go into exile in exchange for their freedom, following Nguyen Van Dai (June 2018), Le Thu Ha (June 2018) and Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (October 2018).
Tran Thi Nga worked as migrant laborer in Taiwan, where she experienced many injustices. When she returned to Vietnam, Nga became an advocate for migrant laborer rights, as well as a supporter of multi-party democracy and women’s rights. She also became involved in land rights activism to protest land grabs by authorities in her community.
She was beaten at least twice for her activism, once by pro-government thugs in May 2014, who broke her arm and leg, and once by police, who dragged her from a bus in August 2015.
Nga was arrested at her home in Ha Nam on January 21, 2017 for her online videos and writings deemed as “propaganda against the state.”
She was held in incommunicado pre-trial detention in Ha Nam until her trial in July 2017. Her trial was only one day, and her family and supporters were prohibited from entering the courtroom. She was sentenced to nine years in prison and five years of house arrest.
The 88 Project team is happy that Tran Thi Nga is now free and reunited with her husband and young children.
However, we would like to note that Nga’s early release should not be seen as a sign of improvement in the human rights situation in Vietnam. Early releases in the past few years have been scarce, and political prisoners who were released early all had to leave the country. Those refusing to leave have to remain in prison and potentially face further harassment.
Watch the full interview:

author: The 88 Project


text:
Kyrgyzstan’s journalists fear yet another hurdle to freedom of speech · Global Voices
Aigerim Turgunbaeva

A new law against “manipulating information” online worries Kyrgyzstan's journalists and activists. Illustration (c): Tatyana Zelenskaya. Used with permission.
What's it like to be a journalist in a small Central Asian state? What's it like to fight for the right to speak the truth? In cases of emergency, can journalists count on the protection of the state and human rights organisations, or will the state turn out to be their main obstacle? When writing these words, why am I wondering whether the authorities might give me a call and invite me to answer a few questions?
Kyrgyzstan comes 83rd out of the 180 countries ranked in Reporters Without Borders’ 2020 Press Freedom Index. This is a small improvement on the previous year; the international organisation notes that the pluralism of Kyrgyzstan's media is exceptional for Central Asia (its neighbours Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan came 158th, 161st, and 160th respectively.)
Nevertheless, some journalists fear the further erosion of press freedom. On June 25, Kyrgyzstan's parliament passed a law against “manipulating information.” The bill will allow the authorities to block websites containing “untruthful information,” but does not clarify who will make such an assessment or how.
The bill has been strongly criticised by international and Kyrgyz rights defenders alike; the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) characterises it as an assault on press freedom. While voting was held, 150 people protested in front of the parliament building in Bishkek against what they called an attack on freedom of speech. Gulshat Asylbayeva, the parliamentary deputy who submitted the bill, has fiercely defended it against criticism. On June 19, she stated that the online response nearly gave her a heart attack, and on June 25 complained that journalists were not covering the bill objectively, suggesting on Facebook that angry online discussions around it were themselves examples of “manipulation.”
The TV host Erkinbek Ryskulbekov changed his social media avatars in silent protest:
#НовыйАватар pic.twitter.com/fGu6ov2ZrM
— Erkin Ryskulbekov (@Ryskulbekov) June 25, 2020
These fears are grounded in suspicion that the bill could be used to silence Kyrgyzstan's small but dedicated network of online independent news outlets, which have become known for their investigative journalism in recent years.
Many in Kyrgyzstan are proud of the country's reputation as an island of freedom of speech, at least in the context of a very authoritarian neighbourhood. Recent incidents of attacks and harassment against the press have taught the country's journalists to be cautious.
For example, in March 2017 the online publications Zanoza (today called Kaktus.Media), RFE/RL's Kyrgyz-language service Azattyk, the journalist Naryn Aiyp, the human rights activist Cholpon Jakupova, and two lawyers from the opposition party Ata-Meken opposition party, were accused of disseminating “false” information. The Prosecutor General's Office filed charges accusing them of insulting the honour and dignity of Almazbek Atambayev, the former president who was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment on corruption charges on June 23. Soon after a visit by RFE/RL director Thomas Kent to Kyrgyzstan, Atambayev decided to drop his lawsuit against Azattyk. In May, Freedom House voiced concern about the Kyrgyz authorities’ attacks on independent media and human rights defenders.
Another wave of harassment of journalists began after Azattyk and its media partners OCCRP and Kloop published a high-profile investigation in May 2019. It claimed that approximately 700 million US dollars had been illicitly transferred out of the country with the involvement of Aierken Saiermati, a Chinese businessman of Uyghur origin.
A follow-up investigation was published on November 21. It stated that Saiermati, who was assassinated in Istanbul on November 10, had provided extensive evidence to journalists which implicated several powerful people in Kyrgyzstan in the illicit transfers. According to Saiermati, one of these was the former deputy chief of Kyrgyzstan's State Customs Service, Raimbek Matraimov and his allies.
On November 26, Kyrgyzstan's Prosecutor General announced that Saiermati had siphoned $932,736,000 from Kyrgyzstan into overseas bank accounts. Iskender Matraimov, brother of the former customs official, strongly denied the journalists’ accusations that he or his businesses benefitted from the scheme, and took Kloop, Azattyk, and OCCRP to court for defamation in October. In December, the case was dismissed.
Read more: Interview with Bektour Iskender, co-founder of Kyrgyz outlet under attack for corruption investigation
Over this period there were several violent attacks on journalists in Kyrgyzstan.
On September 28, 2019, a camera operator for Azattyk, Aybek Kulchumanov, was attacked while filming with a drone in the southern city of Osh for an investigative report. Four men approached Kulchumanov and demanded to know who had ordered the filming, before seizing all his equipment by force. The incident took place just 200 metres from the former customs official's house. The Media Development Centre, a Bishkek-based NGO, characterised the attack as an attempt to obstruct the work of the media. Although the equipment was eventually returned at a police station in Osh, none of the attackers has yet been held to account. Kulchumanov recovered and eventually returned to work.
On January 9, 2020, the editor-in-chief of Factcheck.eg Bolot Temirov was beaten outside his office in Bishkek. The investigative website, like others, had experienced cyberattacks after reporting on the lifestyles of the former customs official and his family members. Three unknown men stole Temirov's telephone when it fell from his hands, but left his laptop. Temirov had also been assaulted while working in September 2018. “I'm not afraid of you,” wrote Temirov in a defiant Facebook post addressed to his attackers on January 11.
Furthermore, in February 2020 Ali Toktakunov, a veteran reporter who led Azattyk's investigation, received death threats in connection with his work. In an undated video Emilbek Kimsanov, another former customs official, claimed that Raimbek Matraimov had instructed him to either kidnap or murder Toktakunov.
Toktakunov, who now lives outside Kyrgyzstan, shared his reflections on the investigation and press freedom in his home country in an April 28 interview for Global Voices:
Последнее расследование, вызвавшее большой резонанс в обществе, не только у нас,  показывает, как коррупция ушла глубоко корнями во властные структуры. Здесь огромный клубок взаимосвязанных между собой структур, начиная от границ страны, банковской системы, правоохранительных, таможенных ведомства и т.д. И в этой система Матраимов был одной главных цепей. Об этом нам поведал человек из этой самой иерархии, который передал нам ряд документов. Эти документы доказывали, что десятки людей, которые занимали, или занимают высокие посты, замешаны.
The latest investigation had huge resonance not only in our country, but also abroad. It showed just how deeply corruption has taken root in power structures. There is a huge web of interconnected structures starting from the border service to the banking system, law enforcement, customs officials and so forth. This was told to us by a man from within that same hierarchy, who gave us many documents. These documents demonstrated that dozens of people who held or hold high posts are involved.
Toktakunov and his colleague Ydyrys Isakov were summoned for an interview as witnesses by the State Committee for National Security (GKNB), Kyrgyzstan's intelligence service, on December 2. Toktakunov told Global Voices that the harassment and attacks of the previous months had not given him much hope that he would be safe:
Говоря о личной безопасности, как гражданин Кыргызстана, я, кроме наших правоохранительных органов, надеяться больше не могу никому и ничему. Говорить о каких-то других вариантах бессмысленно, у меня нет средств, чтобы обеспечить собственную безопасность. Сейчас я работаю в Праге, могу сказать, что живу в более безопасном месте. Если п приезду в Кыргызстан будут некие угрозы, или что-то, что будет угрожать мне и моей безопасности,
Однако то, что некоторые сотрудники силовых органов близки к коррупционной системе, и проявляют лояльность п отношению к лицам напрямую замешанную в расследовании – огорчает и я начинаю сомневаться в гарантиях свей безопасности.
В нашем расследовании участвовало много журналистов. 12 из них так или иначе подверглись преследованиям, избиениям, ряду угроз в виде сообщений, писем. Сайты, которые написали о расследовании, были атакованы хакерами извне.
Когда стали поступать угрозы в мой адрес, я первую очередь сообщил своему руководству об этом. Кроме этого, мы уведомили наших адвокатов, и конечно, правоохранительные органы. «Не знаю, какими путями, но вы должны привезти его ко мне из Праги…», такие указания получил Кимсанов. С тех пор никто из наших органов ко мне не обратился, не спросил, не было ли других угроз, все ли хорошо и т.д. Если слова Кимсанова подтвердятся и угрозы такие действительно были озвучены, тогда это действительно тревожный знак. Потому что это касается не только тех, кто занимался расследованием, моих коллег, но и в целом всего гражданского общества. Все звонки, сообщения, и запугивания собираю. Кроме того, поступают различные «предложения» – подождать с расследованием, либо прекратить совсем, взамен предлагаются некие материальные блага, либо другие «благодарности».
Они не гнушаются, и используют как посредников многих, начиная от моих родственников, и заканчивая депутатами парламента.
When it comes to my personal security, as a citizen of Kyrgyzstan, I have little faith in nobody and nothing apart from our law enforcement agencies. There's no point talking about other solutions as I don't have the resources to guarantee my own safety. Now I work in Prague, so I can say that I live in a safer place. If I do travel to Kyrgyzstan, there will be some threats to me and my personal safety. However, the fact that some members of the security and law enforcement agencies are close to corruption schemes and declare their loyalty to people directly implicated in our investigation deeply saddens me, and makes me doubt their guarantees of security.
Many journalists participated in our investigation. Of them, 12 have in one way or another been subjected to persecution, beatings, and threats in the form of messages and letters. Websites which wrote about the investigation were attacked by hackers.
When I started to receive personal threats, the first thing I did was to tell my manager about it. Furthermore, we notified our lawyers and, of course, the law enforcement agencies. “I don't know how, but you should bring him to be from Prague,” was the instruction given to Kimsanov. To this day, nobody from our [law enforcement] bodies has reached out to me to ask whether I have received other threats, whether everything is OK, and so on. If Kimsanov's words are confirmed and such threats really were made, then that really is a worrying sign. Because it doesn't just concern those of us who were engaged in the investigation, but the entirety of civil society. I collect all calls, messages, and threats. There are also various “suggestions”: to wait a little before investigating a topic, or to stop investigating entirely. Sometimes material benefits or other perks are offered by way of “thanks.”
They don't give up for a moment, and reach out to me through many intermediaries – starting with my relatives and ending with members of parliament.
The Kyrgyz authorities have cast doubt on Toktakunov's version of events. On June 2, at a meeting of a parliamentary commission examining the murder of Aierken Saimati, the GKNB declared that “the journalists received money.” The head of the GKNB's investigative committee, Sagyn Samidin Uulu, claimed that Saimati had paid Toktakunov $100,000 for the material, but as Kloop.kg reports, they did not present documents confirming the transaction.
Kyrgyz journalist Ali Toktakunov during a reporting trip. Photo courtesy of Ali Toktakunov.
That same day, Toktakunov strongly denied the GKNB claim, stating that he had received hundreds of original documents but “not a single cent” from Saimati. He also drew attention to the fact that the authorities had not yet taken any judicial measures in connection with the revelations. For its part, Azattyk declared several times that it was willing to cooperate with law enforcement, although the journalists involved would have to answer questions by video conference as they were all abroad.
Many journalists in Kyrgyzstan would probably agree with Toktakunov's reflections on the state of the country's journalism today:
Задача журналистов обнародовать. Остальное – задача правоохранительных органов довести расследование до конца. Нет никаких понятных результатов…
Для меня лично то, что происходит в Кыргызстане – эмоционально тяжело, и обидно. У нас были две революции, где погибли люди. Сегодня мы входим в ряды самых бедных стран мира. Около миллиона наших граждан на заработках. До сегодняшнего дня те средства, которые были выведены из страны, в казну не возвращены. Сегодня, на фоне пандемии, когда наши люди отчаянно нуждаются в помощи, в бюджете нехватка средств.

Свобода слова касается не только журналистов. Она касается каждого гражданина… То, что жизням многих моих коллег угрожали, угрожают и тот факт, что на это власти, правоохранительные органы, закрывают глаза – это тоже говорит об «уровне» свободы слова в стране.
Власть молчит.
Journalists’ task is to make things public. Everything else is the task of law enforcement agencies; meaning to carry an investigation through to the end. But there have been no comprehensible results…
What's happening in Kyrgyzstan is difficult for me emotionally, and personally offensive. We've had two revolutions in which people died. Today, we're among the poorest countries in the world. Around a million of our citizens work overseas. And right now, the funds which were extracted from the country have still not been returned to the treasury. Today, against the backdrop of a pandemic, when our people desperately need help, the budget just isn't big enough.
So freedom of speech doesn't just concern journalists. It concerns every citizen… The fact that my colleagues’ lives were threatened and are still being threatened, the fact that the authorities and law enforcement agencies are closing their eyes speaks about the “level” of press freedom in the country. The authorities are silent.
So it is not for nothing that Reporters Without Borders writes in its latest report on Kyrgyzstan that “Revelations about corruption can still be very dangerous for independent journalists and media outlets, as was seen in the Matraimov affair.”
This is the context in which the fears of Kyrgyzstan's journalists and civil society activists today must be understood.
All that now stands between the bill becoming law is now a signature from Kyrgyzstan's President Sooronbai Jeenbekov. That is why journalists, human rights activists, and media workers are now sharing posts on social media calling on him not to enact the law, with the hashtag #ЯНеФейк (I'm not fake).
Журналисты, медиаорганизации, представители гражданского общества Кыргызстана начинают кампанию с призывом к Президенту КР не подписывать принятый парламентом скандальный законопроект «О манипулировании информацией».
Поддержите свободу слова в Кыргызстане! Repost and share!
#ПрезидентЗаСвободуСлова #ФейкМыйзамгаВето #НетЦензуреВКР
Journalists, media organisations, and representatives of civil society in Kyrgyzstan are starting a campaign calling on the President of Kyrgyzstan not to sign the scandalous draft bill passed by parliament on “manipulating information.”
Support freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan! Repost and share!
#PresidentForFreeSpeech #VetoAgainstTheFakeLaw #NoToCensorshipInKyrgyzstan
— Elina Karakulova, Facebook, 26 June 2020

author: Aigerim Turgunbaeva


text:
June 2020, a month of #BLM in Japan · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

“Black Lives Matter Tokyo March live stream”, June 14 2020. Screencap from The Black Experience Japan YouTube channel.
Black Lives Matter rallies and marches were held in cities across Japan throughout June, as part of a global display of solidarity with demonstrators in the United States and other countries. They also highlighted the importance of Black lives in Japan, and the problem of police brutality in the country.
As in the United States, Japan's Black Lives Matter marches were preceded by an incident of police brutality that happened to be recorded on video. On May 30, several days after Americans began protesting the killing of George Floyd, video emerged of police in Shibuya, Tokyo, assaulting a Kurdish man.
The video was shared thousands of times as part of a social media campaign on Twitter and other social media platforms, and on May 30, 200 people attended a protest in front of the local police station.
While not directly related, the Shibuya protest kicked off a month of nationwide demonstrations opposing police brutality and voicing support for Black lives. These included a nighttime march in Tokyo on June 5; a Black Lives Matter protest organized by high school students in Nagoya, in central Japan; and a well-attended demonstration in Kyoto.
As the momentum continued to grow, a march in Osaka on June 7 attracted ten times as many attendees than had been expected:
My 72 year-old dad went #BlackLivesMattter protest in Osaka today. Around 1000 people gathered. Proud of him✊?#blmkansaimarch #BLMKansai#BlackLivesMatterKansai#AsiansForBlackLives pic.twitter.com/9p2pjQ6ieO
— Yuko Weiner (@yukoweiner) June 7, 2020
A second Black Lives Matter march, held in Tokyo on June 14, drew 3,500 people, highlighting the organizing power of Black Lives Matter Tokyo and a network of similar grassroots organizations across Japan:
Amazing turnout for #BLMTokyoMarch #blm東京行進 Very calm, great atmosphere. And was really wonderful to see the anti hate speech protestors cheering us on at Shibuya Crossing pic.twitter.com/95Fp6Mr568
— Pheebz (@PheebzEatz) June 14, 2020
While Japan has long been home to many Black residents, anti-Black racism is not unusual. The use of blackface tropes in the media and in Japanese advertising is still so common that in early June, a major television network invited well-known American white supremacist, Jared Taylor, to provide “context” about the Black Lives Matter movement.
One example of the deep-rooted anti-Black racism displayed by the Japanese media is an “explainer” of the Black Lives Matter movement that national public broadcaster NHK aired in June. NHK was later forced to apologize for the animation, which portrayed Black Americans as violent looters:
This TV program seeks to educate and update viewers on a range of issues and is quite a good show. Most of the material is appropriate and fair but not sure this video is ok. #アメリカ #抗議デモ #世界のいま #アニメ #BlackLivesMatter ?? pic.twitter.com/4WpflexivO
— Melanie Brock (@melaniebrockjpn) June 7, 2020
As Krissy, a game designer, attested in a widely shared tweet, the danger of such racist coverage is that it has the power to misinform and influence:
My job in Japan is scared I might start breaking stuff or looting because I’m a black American. The faq ? Thanks NHK
— Krissy (@kawaiigamer_19) June 9, 2020
Prominent biracial and mixed-heritage Japanese personalities have also been on the receiving end of abuse. Ariana Miyamoto, who was crowned Miss Universe Japan in 2015, endured criticism for “not being Japanese enough“.
Tennis star Naomi Osaka, who is Black and Japanese, has long been outspoken about racism in Japan, and recently said she is “in no mood to back down on support for Black Lives Matter”.
Meanwhile, Jay Jackson, a Black American pitcher in Japanese professional baseball, thought the simplest way to foster understanding is to have conversations:
How about they just ask black people from America to explain to them instead….??? There are quite a few that live or work in Japan now.
— Jay Jackson (@Jaxland58) June 8, 2020
Explaining the significance of Black Lives Matter and the ongoing crisis of police brutality in an essay for prominent business magazine Toyo Keizai, commentator, activist and longtime resident of Japan, Baye McNeil, suggested:
もし日本のメディアが本当に注意を払っていて、もし日本でも「ブラック・ライブス（黒人たちの命）」が本当に「マター（大切）」なら、そういう努力をするでしょう。しかしメディアが白人の考えしか取り上げないのを見ていると、メディアは真実を知りレポートしたいのではなくて、単に状況を理解しようとしているように見られたいだけなんじゃないか、と感じてしまいます。
One might say, if the media here really cared, if black lives really mattered in Japan, they would. The fact that the media has been soliciting white thought exclusively leaves me feeling that perhaps they merely want to appear to be trying to understand what’s going on as opposed to wanting to know and report the truth.
Not all Japanese media got it wrong, however: Toku, Da Ne, a weekday morning television talk show that is popular with retirees, received praise for its fledgling attempts to explain the issue of Black Lives Matter, and brands like Sanrio, the creator of Hello Kitty and other cute, kitschy characters, voiced support for Black lives:
Friends are always there for one another. Here are some tips on how to be a better friend and ally ? pic.twitter.com/WtXoq33db7
— Sanrio (@sanrio) June 8, 2020
The Black Lives Matter movement appears to be just getting started in Japan, with demonstrations scheduled to continue throughout the summer, including a march on July 5 in Nagoya.
Note: The exerpt from Baye McNeil's Toyo Keizai article has been updated with the original English.

author: Nevin Thompson