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Detention of Businessman in Kazakhstan Prompts Fears Over Torture, Political Motivations · Global Voices
Almaz Bisenbaev

Iskander Yerimbetov. Image provided by Gaini Erimbetova. Widely distributed.
Iskander Yerimbetov runs multiple businesses in Kazakhstan, including a sweet factory and a large helicopter transport company. He is not a major political player in the Central Asian country and yet finds himself accused of laundering money on behalf of Mukhtar Ablyazov, the arch-nemesis of the country's long-reigning President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Yerimbetov was arrested on November 13, 2017, while leaving a shopping mall with his wife. He has been held ever since.
His mother Gaini Yerimbetova alleges that he has been ill-treated in detention.
(Iskander's mother) Yerimbetova told the Norwegian Helsinki Committee that when she met with her son on January 11, his face was bruised and swollen, and that he had a wound on his forehead, with coagulated blood. She said she also saw bruises on her son’s arms and legs and that he appeared to be in “considerable pain, continuously held one hand to his side and complained about headaches and dizziness.”
This was not the first time Gaini Yerimbetova had reported seeing direct evidence that Iskander had been tortured.
The fresh marks on his skin were “revenge for the fact that we publicly spoke about the torture and a warning that it was going to be worse!” Yerimbetova claimed.
Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee have demanded a fair and impartial investigation.
The Yerimbetov family says that Iskander has no personal connection to Mukhtar Ablyazov, a fugitive banker based in France, who has admitted to financing opposition political activities in Kazakhstan and has been accused of massive fraud.
Instead, the family says, Kazakh authorities are using Iskander's detention to try to put pressure on his sister, Bota Jardemalie. Jardemalie is a lawyer who has worked with and represented Ablyazov for a number of years. Authorities want her to return to Kazakhstan and testify as they continue to build a case against the banker.
Last month, as US President Donald Trump prepared to meet 77-year-old Kazakh leader Nazarbayev at the White House, Jardemalie wrote an impassioned op-ed asking Trump to pressure Nazarbayev on Yerimbetov's case and on human rights more generally.
My brother has been taken hostage as a reprisal against me for my legal work in support of political victims of the regime, including Ablyazov. I too have faced false accusations from Kazakhstan, leading Belgium to grant me political asylum. Officials have promised my brother that they would drop the charges against him if he persuades me to go back to Kazakhstan to provide false testimony against Ablyazov.
Trump is not believed to have raised human rights at the meeting.
Mukhtar Ablyazov is a controversial figure in Kazakhstan. By the time he was accused of escaping from the country with up to $6 billion in funds embezzled from a leading bank in 2009, he had already served time in a Kazakh jail on abuse of office charges relating to his period as the country's energy minister from 1998 to 1999.
Nowadays, he regularly reaches hundreds of thousands of Kazakhs with vociferous criticism of Nazarbayev on Facebook and YouTube. The government has periodically resorted to blocking social media to counter the Ablyazov scourge.
Ablyazov has refugee status in France, where the country's highest court ruled against extraditing him from French territory in late 2016 on the grounds that the case against him was politically motivated.
As noted in a recent Human Rights Watch blog post on Yerimbetov's case, Kazakhstan is a signatory to the Convention Against Torture. It is also very conscious of its international standing. In the lead up to Nazarbayev's visit to Washington, several articles burnishing the government's image appeared on Western news websites, likely the products of a relentless PR drive directed by the country's foreign ministry.
This makes the fact that authorities initially did so little to disguise Yerimbetov's condition all the more concerning.
On one of her visits to see him in jail, Yerimbetov's lawyer described his wellbeing as follows:
Он был тяжело болен, бледный, в страшно подавленном состоянии, запуган, периодически терял сознание, речь была бессвязная, не мог вообще разговаривать, плакал. Также он просил воды, видно было, что голоден.
He was sick, looked pale and very depressed and seemed to be scared. He passed out from time to time, couldn't speak and cried. He asked for some water. It was clear that he was hungry.
According to Jardemalie's post on Facebook, Yerimbetov was recently introduced to two “foreign forensic experts from Britain” who wanted to examine his body, almost a month after his family cited clear indications of torture.
The fear is that these “foreign forensic experts” are being deployed to reinforce the statements from Kazakhstan's anti-corruption agency asserting that Yerimbetov is in good health.
Despite the fact that Kazakhstan's government is known to closely monitor online discussion linked to Mukhtar Ablyazov, the local social media reaction to Yerimbetov's case has been broad and indignant.
Kazakhstan's mainstream media, however, has toed the government line. When Iskander's relatives began to speak out about his situation, Kazakh news outlets and TV channels largely remained silent, or concentrated instead on his “luxury lifestyle.”
On January 12, one popular, privately-owned news website, Nur.kz did visit Yerimbetov — unannounced — in jail.
The website afterwards reported confidently that his mother's claims of ill-treatment have “no grounds in reality”, although it is is not clear to what extent Nur.kz's journalists have any qualifications to draw this conclusion.
Yerimbetov's sister Jardemalie, meanwhile, is under no illusion as to what will await her if she returns to Kazakhstan. Speaking to RFE/RL's Kazakh service In an interview with RFE/RL's Kazakh service on February 19, she said:
— Понимаю очень чётко одну вещь — если я вернусь в Казахстан, Искандера, конечно, никто не отпустит, меня арестуют, так же как Искандера, так же как Искандера, меня будут пытать, нас обоих посадят на долгое время и отберут у Искандера весь его бизнес, фактически разрушив всю нашу семью.
One thing I know exactly – if I come back to Kazakhstan, Iskander will not be released and I will be arrested and tortured too. They will put both of us in jail, take away all of our our businesses and break up our family.

author: Almaz Bisenbaev


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A Sudanese Village Arts Festival Looks Back to the Future · Global Voices
Khalid Albaih

The village of Karmakol, site of the Karmakol Festival. Photo by Khalid Albaih. Used with permission.
About half a year ago I came across a video that was making the rounds on Sudanese Facebook, about an arts festival scheduled to take place in December 2017 in a northern Sudanese village with a funny name I never heard of before. The village, whose name is Karmakol, turns out to be the birthplace of Altayib Salih, one of Sudan’s most celebrated writers.
The arts festival sounded incredible and I immediately applied to participate. The organizers told me I was the first to apply, and invited me to join the team coordinating the Art House as well as to conduct workshops.
They also told me the story of how this unusual arts festival in such an out of the way location was first dreamed up.
It all started when a team of filmmakers decided to make a short film inspired by Altayib Salih’s novel Season of Migration to the North. So they packed up their equipment and traveled to Karmakol, 330 kilometers north of Khartoum on the western bank of the River Nile.
In the course of trying to make their film, the team had countless meetings with the mayor, the village elders and the family of the author, in an effort to negotiate village politics and tribal differences and bring everyone together. After several months, all parties came to an agreement to establish the Karmakol Cultural Center, with a plan to renovate the part of the village where all the family homes had been abandoned in the 1980’s due to the Nile’s continuous flooding of its banks. They also agreed to launch an annual international Arts festival which would take place in these renovated Nubian style houses, or hush, as they are called in Arabic.
A traditional dwelling in Karmakol. Photo by Khalid Albaih. Used with permission.
As a political cartoonist who uses art and culture as a tool of resistance, I get invited to a lot of “artivism” events. But because of the risk of being targeted by the Sudanese government, this was the first time I had participated in a public event in my homeland.
Even before I arrived in the village, I knew that this Karmakol Arts Festival was going to be a deeply personal experience for me. I had no idea what to expect, so I decided to remain open to whatever it would end up being.
I arrived in Khartoum in December 2017, and after a few days of weddings and visiting family and friends, headed to Sudan Film Factory, from where buses were transporting organizers, volunteers and attendees on the six-hour journey to the festival. As we left the city the random urbanism of the capital gradually disappeared, to be replaced by desert and those villages that make you wonder if the few people that live there know or care what year it is. It felt like we were driving back in time.
The festival was incredible and drew people from surrounding villages, as well as many from Khartoum. In the few days I stayed in the village I saw urban intellectuals, artists, engineers, urban designers, tourists, volunteers, members of civil society organizations working with the local community, farmers, teachers, government representatives in tribal clothing. I saw a marketplace coming together organically not only with the people of Karmakol, but from the surrounding villages too. Young art school graduates from Khartoum worked alongside local artists and builders to restore these beautiful traditional houses. As the scene unfolded, you could almost imagine characters from Altayib Salih’s books walking through it.
Sudan doesn’t have a film industry like our northern neighbor Egypt, but we were treated to two great Sudanese feature films in the Festival’s open-air cinema. The first, from 1984, was called “Tajooj”, starring the actor Salah ibn Albadya. The second film, “Iman”, made last year, starred Salah Ibn Albadiya’s grandson Ibrahim, in a gesture that embodies the Festival’s spirit of cultural continuity.
In the Music House, anyone who wanted was invited to jam with some of Sudan’s coolest bands. Sufi chants and traditional music mingled with the mixed English-Arabic songs of stylish city musicians.
“Some wondered: “Why is this art if I can draw the same khrabish (gibberish)?” The Omda (Mayor) always answered, “Fananin majann sai—these are the crazy artists.” Photo by Khalid Abaih. Used with permission.
In the Art House, artists used a variety of media to transform, recycle, interact, discuss and collaborate with the public in open spaces free of any censorship except their own.
I watched children and their parents properly experience a modern art exhibition for the first time in their lives. Some laughed distinctly at the image of a bare-chested woman, some just walked in and out, but a few stopped and asked questions about what these artworks meant. Some wondered: “Why is this art if I can draw the same khrabish (gibberish)?” The Omda (Mayor) always answered, “Fananin majann sai—these are the crazy artists.”
. نتحدث اليوم عن إحدى أهم المجموعات الشبابية الموسيقية التي إشتهرت حديثاً، وباتت محببة جداً لدى الشباب السوداني؛ فرقة أصوات المدينة. بدأت أعمالهم عن صداقة وطيدة أصبحت بعدها سبباً في اتخاذ الفن والموسيقى وسيلة للتفاعل مع الآخرين في ما يتعلق بمحاور مختلفة كنشر السلام، وأهمية العمل الخيري والتطوعي، والتي انعكست بصورة شخصية عليهم كونهم من المؤثرين إيجاباً على من حولهم في المجتمع.  هل سمعت أغانيهم؟ وماهي أغنيتك المفضلة لهم؟ شاركها معنا هنا! Today we are posting about the popular young Sudanese band "Aswat Almadina”. They started as friends but that friendship took them to broader horizons; beyond music and into peace, charity and voluntary work and more generally into anything community development related. They never hesitate to devote their positive energies towards the individuals around them, using their music as an effective means to touch our hearts and minds. Do you know their songs? What is your favorite one? Share it here with us!  www.aswatalmadina.com #KarmakolFestival #Karmakol #Nafeer #مهرجان_كرمكول
A post shared by  مهرجان كرمكول الدولي (@karmakolfest) on
The thing I appreciated the most about this bold social experiment of using art to bring together parts of Sudan that exist in such different worlds, was that while the people of the village maybe didn’t always understand what we were doing, they respected it as part of society as they experienced its benefits.
There’s a term in the “art world” for a big cultural investment that puts places with limited international profiles places on the map. It’s called the Bilbao Effect and is named for a small city in northern Spain where a leading international architect, Frank Gehry, built a world-class art museum and transformed the city in the process.
“Karmakol didn’t have a billion-dollar building, but it had something the area and the artists needed in order to flourish—freedom.”  Photo by Khalid Albaih. Used with permission.
Karmakol doesn't have a billion-dollar building, but it had something the area and the artists needed in order to flourish—freedom. And for me, that is what this festival was all about. The fact that it took place outside Khartoum, the seat of government power, gave the artists and participants freedom from Big Brother, the censorship that’s constantly watching and blocking every gathering of young creatives in the capital.
Creativity often scares governments, and unfettered creativity scares them even more.
But this freedom offered the participants in the Karmakol festival a rare look back in time at the Sudan our parents told us about, but also the Sudan that could have been and, hopefully, the Sudan that could be.
I went back to the future. And it was full of hope.
Khalid Albaih is an artist, independent cartoonist and designer from Sudan. See his work on Instagram.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Khalid Albaih


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Lynching of Indigenous Man in India’s Kerala Exposes Intolerance Towards Minorities · Global Voices
Inji Pennu

Madhu Chindakki, 30, was killed by a mob in Kerala. Screenshot from YouTube video by Crazywoods
The brutal lynching of an indigenous man in the Indian state of Kerala on February 22, 2018, has sent shockwaves across the state and the whole country.
Madhu Chindakki, an indigenous man, was beaten for more than four hours by a mob of 15 or more people after he was accused of theft. Police transported him to a local hospital, where the 30-year-old succumbed to his injuries.
His death is one more in a string of mob violence in Kerala in recent years, usually targeted at women and minority groups who don't enjoy much, if any, political clout, such as transgender people, members of the Adivasi indigenous communities, members of the Dalit (“oppressed”) caste, immigrant workers, or Muslims. The perpetrators often photograph and record the lynchings, and later circulate the visuals on social media.
The Kerala police reportedly have apprehended more than 10 people in connection with the killing:
Ten People Including Man Who Took Selfie Before Lynching Of Tribal Man Arrested In Kerala https://t.co/j8qebHE4lI
— Santhosh (@Santhuyuva) February 25, 2018
Some have accused mainstream media of ignoring the case until the social media erupted in protest.
#keralalynching : few questions…!!#cartoon #spectoons pic.twitter.com/Uva9nwhf7D
— Vinod Tripathi (@spectoons) February 25, 2018
Magare Bhupali, from Delhi, who is an elected representative of the Jawaharlal Nehru University's Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment, wrote on Facebook about Chindakki's death and placed it in its context:
Sharing message received from Sunija (Student from TISS)..
Madhu Chindakki, 27-year-old Adivasi youth, was brutally murdered by a violent mob for alleged theft on Thursday, 22-02-2018 in Agaly, Attappadi, Kerala. The perpetrators clicked selfies with the victim before beating him to death. These photos are being circulated in social media as well. […]
Madhu's murder is not a singular incident, it is part of systemic violence perpetrated against various marginalised communities in the “progressive” Kerala.
The indigenous communities of Kerala, known as “Adivasis“, have struggled for their land rights for decades. TA Ameerudheen recapped the history recently for independent news and analysis site scroll.in:
[Adivasis] traditionally occupied and cultivated large tracts of forestland in Wayanad, Palakkad, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts. But in the 1970s, they started losing these lands to non-Adivasis. The majority of Adivasis were soon rendered landless. Losing their lands also drove them to starvation.
In 1975, the state government passed a law promising to give them back their lands. But in the following years, both the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front regimes failed to implement this law.
In 2003, five were killed, including an officer, when police fired on a protest of Adivasis in Muthanga village, who were calling attention to delays in the distribution of land from the local government.
Praveena Kanngagattu, a Ph.D. scholar at University of Hyderabad, thought that some people were trying to explain Chindakki's killing away and not taking into account this terrible history:
വിശപ്പ്, കറുപ്പ് എന്നൊക്കെ പറഞ്ഞ് കാൽപനിക വിരിപ്പുമായി വരുന്ന “മനുഷ്യരെ”; …..ആദിവാസി ആയതുകൊണ്ട് മാത്രമാണ് മധു കൊല്ലപ്പെട്ടത്.
People who are trying to find romanticised reasons for the murder, it is only because he was an Adivasi, he was killed.
Binesh Balan, who studies a master's degree in anthropology at the University of Sussex in the UK and hails from the Adivasi community, observed that the same people who call themselves “civilised” or “urban dwellers” while disparaging indigenous communities are the ones who robbed Chindakki of his life:
ഞങ്ങളെയെല്ലാം അതിജീവിക്കാൻ പഠിപ്പിച്ചത് കാടിന്റെ നിയമമാണ്.. നാട് ചതിച്ചാലും കാട് ചതിക്കില്ല.. കാരണം അടിച്ചമർത്തുക എന്നത് നാടിന്റെ നിയമമാണല്ലോ.. അതുകൊണ്ട്, “കാടത്തം” എന്ന വാക്ക് ഞാൻ “നാടത്തം” എന്നു തിരിച്ചു പറയാൻ അഗ്രഹിക്കുന്നു..
The forest taught us how to survive. Even if civilization fails, the forests never failed us. Because oppression is a tool only of the urban societies. So, when I am accusing you as “urban dwellers” whenever you mock us as ‘tribals’ or ‘savages’.
Asha Rani, who is a Ph.D. scholar at the Mahatma Gandhi University's School of International Relations, argued that some people's outcry over the killing was hypocritical, as they have perpetrated wrongdoings against the Adivasis:
ആദിവാസിക്ക് വേണ്ടത് ‘കഞ്ഞി വീത്തലും’ സൗജന്യ ഭക്ഷണവും അല്ല പട്ടിണിമാറ്റാൻ.. സ്വന്തം ഭൂമിയിൽ നിന്നും വനത്തിൽ നിന്നും കുടിയിറക്കപ്പെട്ട ജനതക്ക് വേണ്ടത് അവരുടെ അവകാശങ്ങളാണ് , അവരിൽ നിന്ന് കെെയ്യേറ്റക്കാർ മോഷ്ടിച്ച് കൊണ്ട് പോയ മുതലുകളാണ്… വിശപ്പു ഗാഥകളുടെ ഉടമകൾ മനപൂർവ്വം മറന്ന് പോകുന്നത് ഈ ചൂഷണത്തെപറ്റി പറയാനാണ്…
സൗജന്യ റേഷനും പഴന്തുണിയും കാത്തൊരു ജനതയെ മതിലുകൾ കെട്ടിത്തിരിച്ചിരിച്ചു സൂക്ഷിച്ച് വയ്ക്കേണ്ടത് ആരുടെ താത്പര്യമാണ്…
The Adivasis do not need charity or free food. What they need is ownership and land rights. People who are crying foul now, are the same people who snatched away lands from them. They are conveniently forgetting this. To put the Adivasi communities under poverty schemes and to keep them out of their lands is to protect others interests.
Swathi Manalodiparambil from Kerala's Waynad district, explained the existence of systematic and structural prejudices, racism and casteism:
A casteist mob murdered an Adivasi youth accusing of theft. It's a normalised death for few of the mainstream Malayalam media. […] We have teachers accusing the Adivasi kids that they are coming to school for having free midday meal. A number of us serve them food in portico or the place reserved to them on backyard thinking that there some kind of dirt in them which can't be cleaned up. It's time to address the what make us think in this way is Caste. […] It's important to be open about the subtle violence we perpetuate on them every day, let's reflect on ourselves.
Deaths such as Chindakki's have usually been followed by outrage, only to quickly disappear from social media timelines. The fight cannot be sustained solely by the few groups and activists who regularly work on these issues. For justice to be achieved, it is important that a wider selection of people speak out and continue to do so.

author: Inji Pennu


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‘Monarchy Restored’? China Set to Remove Two-Term Presidential Limit from Constitution · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

“Monarch Restored. Tempest Ahead.” Derivative photo composed by PH Yang. Use with permission.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee proposed on February 25 to remove term limits on the presidency and vice presidency of the People's Republic of China, which would pave the way for Chinese President Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely.
Specifically, the committee suggested deleting a line from the country's constitution that states the president and vice president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms.”
The two-term presidential limit was put in place by former CPC leader Deng Xiaoping in 1982 to restrain internal power struggles within the party by establishing the collective leadership of the CPC. The decision signified the end of Mao Zedong’s era of individual dictatorship.
But the proposed constitutional amendment would end collective leadership and open the door for power to once again officially rest with an individual, and in this case with President Xi, who is also the CPC’s general secretary and military chief. Xi will finish his second term in 2023.
CPC mouthpiece Global Times described the proposal as a consolidation of the party’s “Power Trinities” and urged people to follow the party. But oppositional voices see the move as an imposition of an absolute monarchy system on top of China's single-party political system.
Public discussion on the constitutional change is censored on mainland Chinese social media. Outside China, a statement co-signed by more than 40 public figures against the amendment was circulated widely online. The statement (via Chinese exiled activist Wang Dan's Facebook) said:
我們認為，這個修改意見，為重新建立新的最高領導職務終身制建立了基礎，未來的中國，將有可能出現沒有皇帝的皇帝，不叫帝制的帝制。我們認為，廢除這一規定，就是袁世凱復辟，就是實行“新帝制”，就是反共和，這是歷史的大倒退，也是對40年改革開放的徹底否定。事關中國未來，我們，和所有中國人在一起，面對辛亥革命以來的又一次歷史大倒退，不能不站出來，表達我們堅決的反對意見。
We believe that the amendment is the foundation for the establishment of a tenure system of top leaders. In the future, China may [develop into a political system that has] an emperor without calling it an emperor and a monarchy without calling it a monarchy. The abolition of the two-term limit is another version of [early 20th-century Chinese emperor] Yuan Shikai’s [short-lived] restoration of monarchy and a de facto manifesto of a new monarchy system against the very idea of a republic. This is a historical regression and a denial of 40 years of China’s reform effort. This is about China’s future and we, and all Chinese people, should stand up to express our outright objection to such historical regression since the 1911 Xinhai revolution [which led to the downfall of the Qing dynasty and the end of monarchy in China].
In addition to sharing the statement, Wang Dan also signed it. He commented further on Twitter:
中共正式提出修改憲法，國家主席可以連選連任，至此，習近平準備重新恢復最高領導幹部終身制，當永遠的統治者的個人野心，已經昭然若揭。
習近平大開歷史的倒車，硬把中國拉上了倒退回封建皇權時代的專制舊路。這樣的舉動，只能用瘋狂兩字來形容。但是我相信，物極必反，中共必將在他手中，成為歷史。
— 王丹 (@wangdan1989) February 25, 2018
The CPC has officially suggested a constitutional amendment. The country’s presidents will be able to hold their office without limit. Now it is clear that Xi Jinping is set to restore the tenure system of top leaders. His ambition to become a lifetime ruler has been revealed. Xi Jinping is riding backward and forcing China to return to the old path of despotic feudal monarchy. Such an act can only be described with the word “crazy”. But I also believe in dialectics, the extreme will bring about change and he will turn CPC into history.
While some believe that such a “crazy” act will eventually end the “people's democratic dictatorship” under the CPC, others are more pessimistic. Under Wang Dan's Facebook post, one commenter said:
可惜絕大多數中國人都是支持皇帝的，震驚一晚上後，就會從”怎麼會這樣“，變成“反正已經這樣了，該幹嘛幹嘛”。
Unfortunately, the majority of Chinese people would support emperor's rule. After the shock, people's attitude would change from “what has gone wrong” to “this is it and we have to accept the reality and carry on”.
Another comment in response to Wang on Twitter said:
修不修宪其实没必要那么“惊诧”，修宪无非是把“团伙”终身制独裁换成“个人”终身制领导“团伙”独裁！玩得不爽的时候再换回来“团伙”独裁嘛！
Actually, the constitutional amendment is not that surprising. The amendment is just turning “party dictatorship” into “party dictatorship led by an individual for his lifetime”. If it doesn’t work out, they can shift back to “party dictatorship”.
There are also some pro-Xi comments on Twitter. This one attempted to rationalize Xi’s decision:
习近平想当终身独裁者的话，不需要连任国家主席，只要连任军委主席即可。所以取消国家主席连任不得超过两届的宪法规定应该不是要为当终身独裁者铺路，而是为改革做准备，让他有足够的时间进行改革，待改革结束后完全可能重新写入宪法，这只是权宜之计。可以预见的是，一场全面彻底的政治改革即将开始
If Xi Jinping just wants to become a lifetime dictator, he does not need to continue in the office of president, he just needs to continue acting as the head of the military committee. That’s why the abolition of the two-term limit is not paving the way for lifetime dictatorship, but to prepare for reform — to buy more time for reform. After that, the constitution can be amended again. This is just a temporary tactic. We can foresee that a thorough political reform will begin soon.
Many Chinese netizens were shocked to see the constitutional amendment proposal as it clearly deviated from Deng Xiaoping's 1982 reform effort. However, search terms related to the online discussion like “Xi Jinping”, “shameless” (不要臉), “long live the emperor” (萬歲萬歲萬萬歲), and “Yuan Shikai” (袁世凱) have been blocked on social media platforms in China.
Under the constitutional amendment proposal, Xi’s thoughts on “socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era” would also be incorporated into the country’s constitution. Moreover, the to-be-established anti-graft Supervision Commission, together with the administrative, judicial and procuratorial commissions, would be listed as official organs of the state. The Supervision Commission would merge the party's Discipline Inspection Committees with the anti-corruption powers of the procuratorates (responsible for investigation and prosecution) and be the only agency focused on graft. The creation of the Supervision Commission has been interpreted as a strengthening of party control over the government.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
What Were Global Voices’ Readers up to Last Week? · Global Voices
L. Finch

A gargoyle reading a book. Photo by Flickr user Eric Frommer. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
At Global Voices, our community researches, writes, edits, and translates stories with a mission to support human rights and build bridges of understanding across countries, cultures, and languages.
We don't publish just to grab clicks or follow a news trend. We do, however, like to keep track of the ways in which our hard work has impact around the world.
To that end, one useful metric is how readers respond to our stories and translations. So let's take a look at who our readers were and what caught their attention during the week of February 19-25, 2018.
Last week, our stories and translations attracted readers from 209 countries! The top 20 countries represented across all of Global Voices’ sites were:
1. United States
2. France
3. Brazil
4. Mexico
5. Japan
6. Spain
7. Italy
8. Colombia
9. Philippines
10. United Kingdom
11. Germany
12. India
13. Taiwan
14. Canada
15. Russia
16. Ecuador
17. Argentina
18. Indonesia
19. Bangladesh
20. Peru
But that's only a small slice of the diversity of our readership. Let's use the True Random Number Generator from Random.org and take a look at a few other countries on the list:
129. Lithuania
94. Ghana
31. Macedonia
191. Comoros
75. Jordan
The English-language site is where the majority of original content is first published at Global Voices. The top five most-read stories of last week were:
1. “Do Others Know We Exist?”: A Nurse’s Testimony from Syria’s Besieged Eastern Ghouta
2. Hannah Mouncey Becomes First Transgender Player in Australian Women’s State League Football
3. Trinidad & Tobago Finally Gets Its ‘Steups’ Emoji
4. All of the Soviet Union’s Academy Award-Winning Films Are Legally and Freely Available Online
5. Censorship in Serbia Hits a New Low After Newspaper ‘Edits’ an Obituary
Lingua is a project that translates Global Voices stories into languages other than English. There are about 30 active Lingua sites. Below is last week's most-read story or translation on each active language site.

author: L. Finch


text:
Who Is Responsible for the Avalanche of Garbage That Killed 16 in Mozambique? · Global Voices
Alexandre Nhampossa

A survivor who lost her neighbours in the tragedy. Photo: Marco Simoncelli. Used with permission.
Mozambique’s government is set to speed up closure of the country’s largest waste disposal site, following the collapse of a mound of rubbish that led to the deaths of 16 people on 19 February. The tragedy exposed the poor waste management in the capital Maputo, as well as the precarious situation of the hundreds of garbage collectors living near the site.
The heavy rain hitting the country recently caused the avalanche at the Hulene waste disposal site, in Maputo’s outskirts, burying several houses. Nine adults and five children died at the scene, and another four adults and two children were hospitalized. The incident happened at around 2 a.m., when residents were sleeping. Seven homes were completely destroyed and over 120 people were removed from the area.
In operation since 1972, the open-air waste disposal site is the largest in Mozambique and the only to serve Maputo, a city with over a million inhabitants that produces around a tonne of rubbish per day. The Hulene B neighbourhood, spread over 17 hectares, or around 24 football pitches, is an area with a high population density located approximately seven kilometres from central Maputo.
During the country's civil war (1977-1992), many moved to the area of the waste disposal site searching for safety. Today, it is an income source for many families working as garbage collectors. There is no public recycling service in Maputo; it being done by private companies that collect waste with the garbage collectors of Hulene.
For years there has been talk of closing the site. With the tragedy, politicians appear to be committed to accelerating the process – the next day, the central government recommended to Maputo’s administration that it expedite relocating the families.
As well as resettlement, the closure of Hulene supposes the suspension of receiving new waste, according to the minister of land, environment, and rural development, Celso Correia. He also stated that the process would take at least five years and would cost 110 million dollars to the public purse. It is not clear what will happen to the heaps of trash remaining there or to the space itself.
As such, the garbage would be taken to the Matlemele landfill which should be built in the city of Matola, around 20 kilometres from Maputo. It is foreseen that, from the first part of 2019, the new landfill will receive the two cities’ waste.
The new infrastructure is planned to include a recycling unit with the capacity for 200 tonnes per day, as well as a waste treatment facility and a system for producing energy from biogas, a type of biofuel — capabilities that the Hulene site does not have as it is simply a waste disposal site.
An amateur video made by Radio Indico journalist Lote Sigauque shows how much the area lacks minimum standards for housing:
Central government spokesperson Ana Camoana described the incident as a “tragic accident” at a press conference the following day, 20 February, attended by Global Voices. However, citizens assert that this could have been avoided if the government had taken certain measures.
According to environmentalist journalist Isac Naiene, people living in the area had already warned that such a disaster could happen. He wrote on Facebook:
[…] entrevistei um sem número de famílias que residem nas redondezas da lixeira de Hulene, que relataram o drama que é viver ali […] e durante a conversa, algumas pessoas já previam que uma tragédia como a da última madrugada viesse a ocorrer. Dito e feito. Talvez agora que o pior aconteceu, as autoridades tomem consciência da necessidade urgente de se encerrar a lixeira de Hulene.
[…] I previously interviewed countless families who live in the vicinity of the Hulene waste disposal site, who recounted the drama of living there […] and during the conversation, some people already predicted that a tragedy like that of this morning was bound to happen. Said and done. Maybe now that the worst has happened, the authorities will alert themselves to the urgent need of closing the Hulene waste disposal site.
The president of the Maputo City Municipal Council, David Simango, who had already promised the site’s closure during his 2013 electoral campaign, accepted responsibility for the event but refused to “debate” if the institution which he runs could have avoided the situation or not.
In the press conference held on the day of the tragedy, Simango said:
[…] Nós assumimos a responsabilidade de tudo que aconteceu […] Queria pedir a todos para nos concentrarmos no socorro das pessoas em vez de fazer um debate da lixeira […] Não queria discutir se foi por negligência ou não, eu prefiro dizer que temos a responsabilidade no que aconteceu e assumimos. Agora, se é na amplitude ou na forma limitada, esse debate vamos deixar para depois.
[…] We take responsibility for all that happened […] I wanted to ask everybody that we concentrate on saving people instead of having a debate about the waste disposal site […] I did not want to discuss if it was due to negligence or not, I prefer to say that we have the responsibility for what happened and we accept it. Now, if it is completely or in limited scope, we will leave this debate for later.
The suggestion of Bitone Vitage, a political scientist and avid commentator on social media, was that the site’s managers should resign from their posts in the name of the victims:
Em outros países isso valeria renúncia por parte do Presidente e dos vereadores para área de saneamento e das infraestruturas. Por uma questão de ética e de vergonha na cara o Edil deveria renunciar em nome da dor que estas famílias terão que carregar por toda a vida.
In other countries this would merit resignations on the part of the president and the councillors of the area for sanitation of infrastructure. In the name of ethics and dignity the official should resign due to the pain that these families will have to bear for their whole lives.
On 23 February, the country’s president, Filipe Nyusi, visited the families resettled in two tents, provided by the municipal authorities, at the Bairro Ferroviário (Railway Neighbourhood). He mentioned the visit on his official Facebook page, where he also confirmed his call for the population to not return to their old residences around the waste disposal site “as it lacks minimum conditions of hygiene and safety”.
The municipal authorities have been promising to close the site since 2014. The only measure taken so far, though, was the resettlement of some of the resident families to another area, but according to Yolanda Manuel, secretary for health and social action in Maputo, some of those resettled have returned.
On this subject, Dercisio Tembe wrote on Facebook:
Muitos deles se não forem todos há anos foram indemnizados para sair daquela zona, mas só saíram por um tempo e voltaram, afirmo isso, porque conheço uma família que tinha saído e voltou, optando por usar o dinheiro e vender os terrenos disponibilizados pelo governo. […]
Many of them if not all were compensated years ago to leave that area, but they only left for a time and then returned, I say this because I know a family that left and returned, choosing to use the money and sell the lands made available by the government. […]
However, the residents that Global Voices spoke with denied these accusations, stating that those who were moved were residents of areas of the Hulene neighbourhood which were hit by flooding and not really those who live close to the waste disposal site.
Hulene waste disposal site, the only to serve Maputo, Mozambique’s capital. Photo: Marco Simoncelli. Used with permission.
Besides, even the resettled families have been complaining of the lack of basic services, such as electric energy, access routes, and markets, in the resettlement area.
In another Facebook post, José Machado, underlined that resettlement, when not accompanied by other measures guaranteeing the families’ incomes, run the risk of failure, given that it is at the trash site where many earned money:
A lixeira que hoje matou mais de uma dezena de pessoas é a mesma que alimenta mais de uma centena de famílias. […] Parem de querer encerar a nossa fonte de rendimento sem antes nos dizerem pra onde devemos ir, de forma humilde, ganhamos o que ganhamos nessa nossa pobre actividade de todos os dias e assim criamos os nossos filhos e sustentemos as nossas famílias.
The waste disposal site that today killed over a dozen people is the same that sustains over a hundred families. […] Stop wanting to close our source of income without before telling us where we should go, we humbly earn what we earn in our poor activity every day and thereby raise our children and support our families.
The tragedy has moved Mozambicans over the last week. On Twitter, users created the hashtag #PrayForHulene to mobilize resources for the 32 families involved in the resettlement process.
Sei que unidos e dando um pouco do que temos e podemos, somos mais fortes e podemos ajudar quem realmente está a precisar neste momento! #AmigosDoTwitter #PrayForHulene #HelpForHulene
— #HelpForHulene (@Gerdio_) 20 de fevereiro de 2018
I know that united and giving a little of what we have and can, we are stronger and we can help those who really are needy right now! #TwitterFriends #PrayForHulene #HelpForHulene
Gente e isso vamos ser empáticos e solidários toda a ajuda e bem vinda #AmigosDoTwitter #WeBack #PrayForHulene pic.twitter.com/UeKqtHOtM1
— Okoye (@yarabonga) 20 de fevereiro de 2018
Image: I, Yara Bongo, am going to participate in a social action to help the victims of Hulene, for this I ask earnestly for help with clothes, non-perishable food, hygiene materials. Help me to help. [Number] Contact for more information. #TwitterFriends #PrayForHulene
Tweet: Guys, we are going to be empathetic and show solidarity all the help is welcome #TwitterFriends #WeBack #PrayForHulene
Hours after the hashtag’s creation the first results were already being seen. Jessica tweeted:
Continuem trazendo as vossas doações. #PrayForHulene#AmigosDoTwitter@Amigosdott2018
Endereços nas mensagens em circulação…
Ou DM pic.twitter.com/U6abGcdRaK
— Uma Chata Qualquer (@Jezckaa) 21 de fevereiro de 2018
Keep bringing your donations.#PrayForHulene#TwitterFriends
Addresses in the messages which are circulating…
Or DM
The heavy rains hitting the country have so far affected around 130,000 people, especially due to flooding in urban areas.

author: Alexandre Nhampossa


text:
‘Ready to Reckon With the Colonizing World, Daring It to Try’ — What the ‘Black Panther’ Film Means to Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Black Panther toy from the Walmart Exclusive release. Shuri character from the 2018 Marvel Legends TRU exclusive two-pack with Klaw. Photo by Tom Hamilton, CC BY-SA 2.0.
The film “Black Panther” is out, and as predicted, has been breaking all kinds of box office records — and not just for superhero movies.
Based on the Marvel comic book character of the same name, the blockbuster film sees King T'Challa returning to the technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as its new leader, but there are opposition forces at work. With Wakanda in peril, the new king must rely on his superhero persona, Black Panther, along with the help of a C.I.A. agent and the Dora Milaje (the country's special forces), to save the day.
The Caribbean — and Trinidad and Tobago in particular — was just as excited about the film's release as the rest of the world. Trinbagonians celebrated the success of one of their own in the cast (Tobagonian actor Winston Duke plays the villain M'Baku), as well as the fact that this was a film populated by black actors in positive starring roles.
Because of the country's history of colonisation and slavery, and the system of indentureship that replaced the labour structure after emancipation, Trinidad and Tobago's ethnic demographic is mainly split between people of African and Indian descent. As is the case in other post-colonial societies where race has been used to divide and conquer, the concept of blackness has continued to be manipulated by politicians and amplified by the media. The result is that many false stereotypes are perpetuated.
This film challenged the inaccurate, unidimensional image of blackness touted by such sources, and made room for Afro-Trinbagonians to reclaim their narrative.
Moviegoers used several screenings as opportunities to celebrate their African roots and culture with drumming and dancing. Adults and children alike showed up in elaborate costumes that were a nod to the fictional African nation of Wakanda as much as they were an outward gesture of recognition for the nobility of their African roots. Many patrons, decked out in African garb, were overjoyed to take in the film, saying, “De road was long but we made it!”
During one celebration in Tobago, Winston Duke tuned in via Facebook Live (at approximately 17:13 on the video's timeline) to see the festivities for himself. The actor seemed genuinely touched by the tribute, saying, “Amazing. This is amazing.” He later added, “We're creating spaces so that all our stories can be told…all the diverse stories of Trinidad and Tobago and all the places of the diaspora.”
While one Facebook user, photographer David Wears, shared a lighthearted video which perfectly illustrated the delight that people felt about seeing the movie, many netizens examined the weightier side of the film and its astounding repercussions, both positive and negative.
In a Letter to the Editor at the popular Wired868 website, Jan-Michael Williams called out the online condemnation of exuberant Black Panther movie fans:
There is a lot of hype surrounding the actions of people, particularly African and/or Black people, before and after watching this new film, Black Panther.
Firstly, let me say that I have not yet seen the film, I’ve only seen its effects. And, for me, it is the best movie of my life so far.
There are some Trinis who have missed the importance of the fact that this is the first movie to have a cast of mostly black people who have roles that do not entail being a drug dealer, prostitute, thug, gangster or any of the negative stereotypes the film industry has created for black people from its inception.
He continued:
I’m sure that some of you have tried to speak with a Chinese accent after watching those old Kung Fu movies. Some have even engaged in friendly sparring matches to try to reproduce the karate moves. […]
If this film provokes a genuine sense of African pride, a deep connection to something truly meaningful yet missing and/or a thirst for more knowledge about our culture, heritage and homeland, then let us please allow it to do its part. If for others, it’s just another fashion event, then so be it. It is not that they are making a mockery of the culture.
Wired 868 guest columnist Claudius Fergus explored how the film has helped to dismantle negative stereotypes:
Superhero comics were created to boost the image of whites as the world’s progenitors and purveyors of justice, peace and security. Likewise, Hollywood has earned its reputation as the quintessential flagbearer of American cultural imperialism for well over a century. […]
The main actors and actresses in Black Panther concur that it is a manifestation of African potency historically denied by a large segment of the world’s population. […] Most commentators agree with [film critic Billy] Niles that what makes Black Panther revolutionary is its ‘predominantly black cast […] set in a prosperous (if fictional) African nation, that didn’t focus squarely on the historical global suffering of black people.’
Fergus then illustrated how such age-old stereotypes had been “well illustrated” in Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, the country's national festival:
Prior to the mid-1950s, the prime material for Trinidad Carnival portrayals of Africa came from Hollywood films, which persistently presented the continent and its people as ‘primitive and uncivilized’. […]
In 1957, revolutionary bandleader George Bailey started an artistic movement to reclaim Africa from Hollywood, beginning with his portrayal, ‘Back to Africa’, which won the Band of the Year title.
Despite these radical Carnival portrayals — and now the “Black Panther” film picking apart these boilerplates — Trinidadian radio personality Errol Fabien had reservations:
I Marvel at the support for Black Panther. I myself cannot wait to go see the movie. […] But what is my support to accomplish? […] What does this black cast get from this phenomenal effort on their part? Well guess what? The movie is not black owned, it is a Disney product, Disney owns Marvel. We get so very caught up in consumerism and the agenda that is set for us by white America that we never look further. Black Panther is great but it is just another case of a Anti Black Society finding another way to bleed money out of the people who are so easily fooled by crumbs. […] Now I love the movies, do not get me wrong but here is a proposition, an idea, how about supporting some local productions too. […] I have seen films with all black casts already, this is not the first. They were made right here in Trinidad and Tobago. It is like the global amazement of a black president of the USA… I know about Black Leaders all my life. Obama was great but not novel. […] Not because White America says something is great makes it great. […] Yes this is a great movie for Black actors and ah we boy Duke, but a greater movie for Disney… they making the money.
Writer Lisa Allen-Agostini responded:
While I hear what he's saying, I'm going to pay money to see this movie. The film industry understands one language: MONEY. When the film breaks records they can no longer ignore cinema of people of colour. Will they continue to cut their own throats by stifling black, Caribbean and other cinema? By ‘they’ I mean not just Hollywood, but also T&T, who still seem to think of our indigenous film products as novelties, or charity.
Perhaps, though, one of the most poignant and balanced summaries of the film came from poet Shivanee Ramlochan:
Black Panther is sublime. Not because it's a perfect narrative. No such thing exists. […] It's sublime because it's an ardent vehicle for black joy.
[…] I am not black, except in the eyes of an agent of empire who sees me as not white = black. I do not speak as an authority on the/any black experience, consciousness or understanding. I celebrate black joy. I care deeply about black narratives stealing from the mouth of the empire to make what is theirs, to take (back) what is theirs, to (re)(en)vision themselves with steel, reggae, blood, canboulay and all other forces that move and speak, for the living and the ancestors.
Afrofuturism is a vital part of Black Panther's narrative exoskeleton. Afrofuturism is vital because, in many ways, it yearns to be a representation of the AfroNow. You will find that yearning articulated with almost painful beauty in this film. And that articulation will, if nothing else, give you hope. Hope that yes, there is a Future/Now where black kings are superheroes. […] Hope that somewhere, in a part of the African continent you haven't yet beheld, behind a holographic partition, a city made of commerce and creativity, its ziggurats and spires polished in silver, its catacombs rivering with gold, its arsenals whirring with dread, dense technology, works and sleeps, ready to reckon with the colonizing world. Daring it to try.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
São Paulo City Hall’s Official Facebook Page Is Blocking Users Who Criticise the Mayor · Global Voices
Taisa Sganzerla

Mayor João Dória takes question from major media outlets, but not from all citizens. Photo by Jonas Pereira/Senado Federal via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Moderators for the official Facebook page of São Paulo's city hall are actively blocking users and banning words used to mock the current mayor João Dória, according to a new report by Ingrid Alfaya for local news site R7.
With 350k followers, the page is a popular communication channel between citizens of Brazil's largest city and its administration.
Drawing primarily on documents obtained by R7 via Brazil's access to information law, the report reveals the opaque moderation practices of the page, casting some light on the uncharted legal territory of how official digital accounts of public institutions are administrated when they are hosted by private platforms, such as Facebook.
There are currently 33 words blacklisted by the moderators. Any comment on the City Hall page that includes these words is deleted. Some people who used blacklisted words in their comments on the page report that they have been blocked from commenting on the page altogether. Documents obtained by R7 confirm that there are currently 80 users blocked from interacting with the page.
Among the banned terms are words that social media users have used to mock Dória, such as “prefake” (a wordplay with prefeito, which means mayor in Portuguese), “João Dollar” and “doriagray” (a reference to Oscar Wilde's famous narcissistic character). Comments containing “http” and “https” are also forbidden.
These rules are not explicitly stated in the page's code of conduct. The rules say that moderators will delete comments that promote illegal activities (“including harassment, fraud, libel, discrimination”), that contain “offensive comments, swearing with threatening tone or personal attacks”, “false, distorted or misleading information” and “partisan-political propaganda or favorable and contrary opinions to candidates and political parties”.
But they fail to specify which “offensive comments” are prohibited, or what would constitute false and misleading information. The code also does not say that users who violate the rules may be blocked, nor does it mention a blanket prohibition on all links, which the ban on “http” and “https” seems to imply.
Three Facebook users were quoted in Alfaya's story saying they had comments deleted for criticizing the Dória administration, and one of them was blocked by the page.
The Facebook page also states that it is non-partisan and represents the public interests of the city and its inhabitants. Yet the R7 report indicates that page administrators are not entirely willing to allow for open dialogue to take place between citizens and public officials when the dialogue includes public criticism.
A similar situation unfolded last year after Donald Trump blocked several Twitter users from replying to his tweets or appearing in his Twitter feed. A group of these users sued Trump, arguing that his account amounts to a public forum in which he, as a government official, cannot bar people from participation.
The lawsuit argues that by blocking people from reading his tweets, or from viewing and replying to him, Mr. Trump violated their First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
The lawsuit stated:
“The @realDonaldTrump account is a kind of digital town hall in which the president and his aides use the tweet function to communicate news and information to the public, and members of the public use the reply function to respond to the president and his aides and exchange views with one another”.
The lawsuit includes arguments that Mr. Trump was imposing an unconstitutional restriction on the plaintiffs’ ability to participate in a designated public forum, get access to statements the government had otherwise made available to the public and petition the government for “redress of grievances”.
Though this marked new territory for such interpretations of the First Amendment, it was not without precedent. In 2017, the US Supreme Court unanimously overturned a state-level ban (in North Carolina) on social media use by convicted sex offenders, on the grounds that the state law violated the First Amendment because social media had become “the modern-day public square”.
Nonetheless, many of legal arguments that ensued hinged upon whether Trump's personal Twitter account could be considered an official channel. The controversy with Mr. Dória, on the other hand, took place on the official page of City Hall — which would leave little leeway for such an argument.
It is unclear how the current Brazilian law could be applied in such a case, despite the country's 1988 Constitution having some robust provisions that enshrine a citizen's right to be informed. Those include the 2011 Access to Information Law, which, among other things, establishes the centrality of online communication by making it mandatory for public institutions to make information of collective or general interest available specifically on “official sites on the world wide web”.
Both cases also bring to the surface broader questions about whether private internet companies — i.e. Facebook and Twitter — should adhere to special obligations when it comes to the accounts of public officials. When a public official blocks users from commenting on their official pages, they effectively censor those users’ voices within a space for civic debate.
This isn't the first time that Mr. Dória has punished social media users for being critical of him. Since the beginning of his term in January 2017, a team of lawyers has been privately demanding that users take down posts he deems offensive. These demands have typically been sent via Facebook Messenger.
A Messenger screenshot from May 2017 obtained by BuzzfeedNews Brazil shows how one lawyer, after introducing himself as a person “from João Dória's legal team”, asked a user to edit a post in which he suggested Dória would end up having eggs thrown at him, in retaliation for his public comments about a general strike that took place in April 2017. Out of fear, the user ended up editing the post as requested. João Dória nevertheless was hit by an actual egg a few months later, during an official trip.
Also in April 2017, the same lawyers won a legal challenge in which they demanded that Facebook reveal the identity of the owners of a Facebook page entitled “Leave the Left Free”, which organized a mock version of São Paulo's Virada Cultural street festival in front of João Dória's house. This was intended to spoof the actual Virada Cultural, São Paulo's largest yearly street festival, after Dória transferred most of the music stages to a racetrack on the outskirts of the city.
Dória's legal team told Buzzfeed that it represents the mayor in a personal capacity and has no links with São Paulo City Hall. But with Secretary of Justice Anderson Pomimi having only recently stepped down from working as an associate of the practice (he resigned in upon taking public office, but remains a shareholder), the line between private and public remains undeniably blurry.

author: Taisa Sganzerla


text:
“Stop Bombing Syria!” Berlin Protest Demands Immediate Ceasefire in Ghouta and Afrin · Global Voices
Sina Zekavat

Photo of the rally in Berlin on February 26, 2018. Photo taken by the author.
On February 26, close to 200 people attended an anti-war march and rally in front of the Russian and Turkish embassies in Berlin.
Organized by Adopt A Revolution, a leading grassroots organization initiated by Syrian and German civil society activists in 2011, the protesters demanded an immediate and unconditional end to the bombardment and besiegement of Syria's Eastern Ghouta, Idlib and Afrin by the Assad regime, Russia, Iran and Turkey.
The rally was attended by prominent cultural and political figures from both Syria and Germany such as the chairwoman of the Green Party Annalena Baerbock, Christine Buchholz from The Left Party as well as Syrian writer, journalist and political dissident Yassin Al Haj Saleh.
In their statement, the event organizers wrote:
Syria has become the Ground Zero of international law. None more so than Russia carries the responsibility for the escalation in Ghouta and Afrin. Without Russian approval, the Erdogan regime would not have been able to attack the Syrian-Kurdish region of Afrin. In Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, Russia even actively intervenes in the fighting with its Air Force. According to the independent international NGO “Medecins sans Frontieres” (MSF), more than 15 medical facilities have been destroyed only in the recent days, and bakeries and even schools have been targeted. This is no longer a fight against radical Islamist rebel groups, but a massacre of the civilian population of Eastern Ghouta.
We can no longer accept this inferno in Eastern Ghouta! We cannot remain silent about the murders of Turkey in Afrin!
We, therefore, demand the following:
+ The weapons must be silent! Whether in Ghouta, Idlib or Afrin: + Everywhere in Syria, an instant ceasefire is needed.
+ Humanitarian access in all areas of Syria must be made possible immediately!”
Since February 19, the Assad regime and its allies Russia and Iran have escalated their aerial and ground military offensive against opposition-held Eastern Ghouta. A collection of working-class farming towns just east of Damascus with an estimated population of 400,000, has been under intense siege by the regime since 2013. As of February 28, 582 civilians, a quarter of them children, have been killed in Eastern Ghouta according to the death toll collected by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
Since January 20, 2018, civilians in Afrin, a district as well as a town in the Aleppo province under the control of the US-backed Kurdish PYD and YPG forces, have also been under a heavy military offensive by the Turkish military and Turkish-backed FSA forces. The area, named after the Afrin river, is inhabited by 172,095 people — 36,562 live in the town of Afrin itself. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has called the Turkish offensive “a massacre” while health officials in the Kurdish canton stated on February 26 that close to 200 civilians, many of them children, have been killed since the beginning of the Turkish offensive.
To complicate matters, on February 20, as part of a deal made between the Assad regime and the Kurdish leadership, hundreds of regime fighters entered the Afrin region.
Russia, under Vladimir Putin's expansionist foreign policy, has actively supported and participated in both military campaigns against Eastern Ghouta and Afrin.
Photo from the protest. Taken by the author.
Speaking with Global Voices, Zakaria Mohammadi, a Syrian-Palestinian from Aleppo, said that he believes that different communities involved in this war have to overcome their disagreements and stand united in order to stop this war.
We are here to stand against the killings, against the war, against everything. We are humans, we have to live. People from different communities with different opinions about this war always hold their own separate rallies, they don't agree on anything, but in this protest people from different communities came together to say stop the killing, whether it's in Al Ghouta or Afrin, against the Arabs or the Kurds, we have to stop the killing. Whatever our religions and ethnicities are, we don't care about it, we have to live together.”
Photo from the protest. Taken by the author.
The rally was perceived as a significant effort towards challenging the military, financial and geopolitical influences by the hegemonic regional powers over the conflict. The fact that Turkey has been one of the only political and military sponsors of the Syrian opposition didn’t prevent anti-Assad Syrian activists to stand in solidarity with the victims of Turkish military aggression towards Kurdish communities in Afrin. At the same time Syrian Kurds joined Syrian Arabs in the condemnation of the brutal military aggression by the Assad regime and its allies against Eastern Ghouta, Idlib and beyond.
As the conflict continues to take a heavy toll on civilian lives from different ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds, calls for inter-ethnic solidarity has been expressed by members of both Arab and Kurdish communities inside and outside of Syria. In a highly informative article from 2017, exiled Syrian journalist Loubna Mrie reminds us of the regional power dynamics which have influenced the relationship between the Kurdish and Arab communities since the 2011 social uprising in Syria:
One cannot deny that Arabs and Kurds have both been victims of state repression, and thus, we are natural allies. It is the cynical games of big, powerful countries that have set Arabs against Kurds and vice versa.

author: Sina Zekavat


text:
Did the Macedonian Orthodox Church Really Start a ‘Crusade’ Against a UNESCO-Protected World-Heritage Custom? · Global Voices
Marko Angelov

Photo of ‘mărţişor/martinki /mártenitsa/martis,’ traditional amulets used in the Balkans via pxhere. The image is released free of copyright under CC0 Public Domain license.
The Macedonian Orthodox Church's attempt to preach against wearing traditional white and red good luck charms seems to had backfired.
As March 1, 2018 approached, people in the Balkans geared up to celebrate the Grandma March Day, a Balkan tradition of exchanging handmade amulets made of red and white wool. This year was special because just a few months ago, UNESCO protected the Balkan Grandma March Day custom as intangible cultural heritage.
The hand-made amulets are known by many names: martinki (Мартинки in Macedonia), mártenitsa (Мартеница in Bulgaria), mărţişor (in Romania and Moldova), and martis (Μάρτης in Greece). The term for ‘Grandma March’ in Slavic languages is ‘Baba Marta,’ and the following tweet is one of many enthusiastic examples:
Happy Baba Marta – a tradition that (with some differences) can be seen in #Bulgaria, #Macedonia and #Romania,- people welcome #spring with #martenitsa https://t.co/0oRSMzYuyR
— Petya Barzilska (@PetyaBarzilska) March 1, 2018
The custom and the new UNESCO status continued to serve as the basis for cross-border cooperation. In Japan, for instance, embassies of Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania and Moldova organized a joint event a few days prior, introducing both the wool amulets and other aspects of the cultural heritage of these countries:
However, back in the Republic of Macedonia, the custom became the subject of a new controversy when the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric (MOC) issued its annual announcement warning its believers on the use of amulets. Some media focused on one particularly negative aspect of the announcement, with sensationalist titles such as “MOC: Wearing ‘Martinka’ is a Superstitious and Magic, and therefore a Demonic Custom:
Секој оној што на својата рака ќе стави или на својата облека ќе закачи таканаречена ‘мартинка’ (нешто како нараквица направена од црвен и бел конец) за здравје и среќа, да знае дека од тој момент (свесно или несвесно) се откажал од Бог, односно од Православната Вера и Црква, и не може да учествува во нејзините Свети Тајни. Не може истовремено да веруваме и во Бог и во ‘мартинка’. Верата и суеверието немаат ништо заедничко, исто како што и Бог нема ништо заедничко со ѓаволот. А на два господари не можеме да им служиме, или ќе Му служиме на Бог или на ѓаволот – па секој слободно нека избере кому ќе му служи. И секое друго суеверие, спротивно на православната вера, не е од Бога.
Any person who would put on their hand or clothes the so called ‘martinka’ (a kind of bracelet made of red and white wool thread) for health or luck, must know that from that moment (consciously or unconsciously) renounced God, the Orthodox Faith and Church, and can't take part in its holy sacraments. One cannot at the same time believe in God and in the ‘martinka.’ Faith and superstition have nothing in common, just like God has nothing in common with the Devil. One cannot serve two masters, one can either serve God or the Devil – so anyone can freely choose whom to serve. Any other superstition, contrary to the Orthodox Faith, is not godly.
Similar announcements were issued during previous years, resulting in waves of defiant and ironic social media posts:
ако ставите мартинки нема да воскресне Македонската империја, па размислете сега #мпц
— Зоран Кардула (@ZKardula) March 1, 2017
If you put martinkas you will directly inhibit the resurrection of the Macedonian Empire, so think hard about what you'll do…
И мартинки се грев сега, дај МПЦ нека го ажурира списокот, многу гревови ми се собраа
— Скрачи (@Skraci) March 2, 2017
If Martinka is a sin now, then MOC should update their list, it's becoming too extensive. I've got too much of them on my soul now.
One such tweet mocked the custom of some priests to lounge in luxury, such as by wearing expensive jewelry and watches, which has been the subject of criticism in other countries with Orthodox Churches, such as Russia:
МПЦ: „Осудуваме носење на мартинки како пагански обичај…“
Ја: … pic.twitter.com/vqtWKm5Knt
— Daniel Anastasoff (@algorit007) March 3, 2017
MOC: “We condemn wearing martinkas as pagan custom…”
Me: …
This year, linking to an article with similar contents from a MOC-related religious website named “Pokajanie” (meaning “Repentance”), cultural heritage activist Vasilka Dimitrovska also expressed a widespread discontent with the meddling of some church figures in politics:
Фала на МПЦ за маркетингот што не им го нарачавме. Ако сакаат да се бунат, нека тркнат до УНЕСКО. Попатно може да ги решат преговорите за името. На полпат нек се едуцираат за разликите помеѓу религија и традицијата признаена како светско културно наследство https://t.co/Tqj329fDBw
— Vasilka Dimitrovska (@Arheoblog) February 27, 2018
Thanks to MOC for the free marketing we didn't even order. If they want to complain, why don't they go visit UNESCO. By the way they can also solve the name issue negotiations. While going there, they should educate themselves on the differences between religion and tradition recognized as world cultural heritage.
In fact, the original MOC announcement was not unconditional and written in much milder language:
Значи, ако мартинката се носи неколку денови или една недела, дали како негување на стара традиција, дали како мода, дали во чест на нашите предци, дали како заедничко балканско културно наследство, дали заради забава или од некоја друга причина, тогаш не е во спротивност на Црковното учење.
Но, ако носењето мартинка стане суеверен и магиски, а со тоа и демонски обичај, тогаш таквото поведение не е во согласност со учењето на Црквата. Секако, секој е слободен да го послуша, или не, учењето на Црквата, и е одговорен за одлуките што ги носи.
So wearing a martinka for a few days or a week, either to nurture an ancient tradition, or out of fashion, or to honor our ancestors or the common Balkan cultural heritage, for fun or some other reason, is not contrary to the teaching of the Church.
However, if wearing a martinka is with the purpose of superstition and magic, it is therefore demonic custom, which is not compliant with the teachings of the Church. Of course, any person has the liberty to obey, or not, the teachings of the Church, and bears responsibility for one's own decision.
Even though Macedonian citizens regularly score high on the index of religiosity, they increasingly resent mixing religion with nationalism, including support by clergy for the former ruling political party, and their participation in rallies related to the Macedonia name issue.
In either harsh or mild form, the MOC announcement indeed seems to have had opposite effect and increased the visibility of the ‘martinka’ custom. There were numerous media items promoting the old custom now protected by UNESCO, including the publication of a book for kids about them in the Macedonian, Albanian and English language.

author: Marko Angelov


text:
Guinean Blogger Sally Bilaly Sow: “Accountability Must Be in the Minds of Every Citizen” · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Sally Bilaly Sow, on the right, at the University of Montpellier with Mamadou Maladho, during the celebration of the 59th anniversary of Guinea’s independence. Photo taken by Moussa of Baga Studio, used with permission
The history of Guinea is peppered with violence against journalists, media workers, and private radio closures by the government. However, there has been no recorded case of bloggers being harassed for their writing so far. This is probably due to a combination of unfamiliarity with blogging from authorities and a fairly new space for blogging in the public sphere. The Guinean blogosphere uses this room for maneuver to involve itself as much as possible in several areas. As such, they have come together in the “Guinean Bloggers’ Association” (#ablogui).
Some of their activities have been lauded and noted by national and international media, including El País, Jeune Afrique, BBC, Radio France internationale, France 24, Voice of America, RUClip, and others.
Sally Bilali Sow, who lives in Labé in the Fouta-Djallon region, more than 400km from the capital Conakry, is responsible for the association’s commission on technical and development issues. He was happy to discuss several questions with Global Voices.
Global Voices (GV): You are part of the Guinean Bloggers’ Association (#ablogui), of which you are one of the founding members. What are your roles and the activities implemented by you and #ablogui?
SBS: Je suis le responsable de la commission technique et développement de cette association qui a vachement contribué à mon ouverture d’esprit sur plusieurs sujets d’intérêts communs. Notamment sur l’observation citoyenne des élections, la bonne gouvernance et le contrôle citoyen de l’action publique.
En 2015, lors des élections présidentielles, j’ai été l’assistant technique du projet #GuineeVote qui, à mes yeux, qui fut une des plus grandes initiatives de la société civile guinéenne en matière d’observation électorale, avec plus de 400 e-observateurs disséminés partout à travers le pays, ce fut une activité qui restera longtemps dans mes annales. Avec l’audace et l’engagement des membres de l’association, nous avons pu relever un grand défi.
Pour les élections communales du 04 février 2018, nous avons lancé le hashtag #VlogCommunal, pour observer, analyser et scruter les projets de société, en clair faire autrement l’actualité électorale. Pour nous, c’est une autre manière de donner la parole aux citoyens et de questionner ceux-là qui aspirent à gérer nos mairies.
Ablogui lance souvent des campagnes numériques pour alerter l'opinion et exiger de l'état des actions concrètes, par exemple #DroitAlidentite, #MontronsNosRoutes et pour se solidariser à une cause commune #1LivrePourZaly qui a pour objectif de collecter des livres et du mobilier pour la bibliothèque de N’zerekoré au sud du pays.
SBS: I am in charge of the association’s commission on technical and development issues which has really contributed to my interest in several common interests. Notably in the citizen observation of elections, good governance, and citizen control of public actions.
In 2015, during the presidential elections, I was the technical assistant for the project #GuineeVote which, in my view, was one of the greatest initiatives of Guinean civil society regarding electoral observation, with more than 400 e-observers spread throughout the country, it was a project that will stay in my memory for a long time. With the audacity and commitment of the association’s members, we were able to take up a great challenge.
For the communal elections of 04 February 2018, we launched the hashtag #VlogCommunal, to observe, analyze, and examine social projects, to put it simply, report election news in a different way. For us, it is another way of giving a voice to citizens and to question those who aspire to run our city councils.
Ablogui often launches online campaigns to raise awareness and demand concrete action from the state, for example #DroitAlidentite, MontronsNosRoutes, and to show solidarity for a common cause, #1LivrePourZaly has the objective of collecting books and furniture for the library of N’zerekoré in the south of the country.
SBS: En #Guinée, le collectif @Ablogui croit dur comme fer que les réseaux sociaux peuvent aider à faire avancer la société… à travers les campagnes #MontronsNosRoutes et #1LivrePourZaly, ils vous expliquent comment ils influencent positivement le quotidien des Guinéens… pic.twitter.com/eZtMuCPOJ9
— Les Observateurs (@Observateurs) 24 janvier 2018
SBS: In Guinea, the collective @Ablogui believes as hard as iron that social media can help to advance society… through the campaigns #MontronsNosRoutes and #1LivrePourZaly, they explain to you how they positively influence the everyday life of Guineans…
SBS: Une autre campagne des blogueurs guinéens qui a attiré beaucoup d'attention tant au niveau national qu'international. Et les autorités ont pris des mesures pour un début de solution.
SBS: Another campaign by Guinean bloggers which attracted a lot of attention at both national and international levels is explained in the following video show below. The video shows that many Guineans do not possess an ID card and the authorities took measures as a beginning of a solution:
GV: What is #LAHIDI?
SBS: Lahidi est une plateforme qui suit et évalue les promesses du président de la République. Cette initiative citoyenne découle du projet #GuineeVote. Précédemment, la société civile s’arrêtait juste à l’observation électorale et probablement elle se disait tant pis pour les promesses électorales. Au sein de l’Ablogui, nous avions estimé qu’un président est élu sur la base de ses promesses et qu'il doive, donc, rendre des comptes aux citoyens. C’est la fondation Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) qui nous finance dans le cadre du mouvement pour le suivi des services publics (Mossep). Je pense que c’est judicieux de veiller aux promesses. Cela permettra aux  politiques de comprendre que la politique à l'aveuglette a atteint son apogée. La reddition de compte doit être dans l’esprit de chaque citoyen.
SBS: Lahidi is a platform which follows and evaluates the promises made by the president of the Republic. This citizen initiative comes from the project #GuineeVote. Before, civil society did not go beyond electoral observation and probably it was telling itself “too bad” for electoral promises. At Ablogui, we took the view that the president is elected on the basis of their promises and they must, therefore, be accountable to the people. It is the foundation Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) which finances us as part of the movement to monitor public services (Mossep). I think that it is wise to watch over the promises. That will let politicians understand that doing “blind” politics has reached its limit. Accountability must be in the minds of every citizen.
GV: Do you think that Guinean bloggers can contribute to better governance?
SBS: Les blogueurs guinéens, à mes yeux, contribuent à la promotion de la bonne gouvernance. Aujourd’hui, les blogueurs guinéens sont des acteurs incontournables dans l’édification d’une Guinée nouvelle et démocratique.
Les membres sont des personnes qui  se distinguent au travers des actions qu’ils mènent sur le terrain. Ils ne se limitent pas qu’à la dénonciation, ils font aussi des propositions concrètes allant dans le sens de l’amélioration des choses.
SBS: Guinean bloggers, in my view, contribute to the promotion of good governance. Today, Guinean bloggers are indispensable actors in the construction of a new and democratic Guinea.
The members are people who distinguish themselves through projects that they lead on the ground. They do not limit themselves only to critiques, they also make concrete proposals in view of improving things.
GV: What are your other activities?
SBS: Avec l’association Villageois 2.0, mes amis et moi, nous visitons les différentes écoles pour former gratuitement les élèves sur les avantages et risque des technologies de l’information et de la communication, au blogging et au Vlogging. Nous voulons démontrer aux guinéens que le numérique est une arme contre le sous-emploi. Il y a plusieurs opportunités sur Internet qu'il faut connaître pour les exploiter au mieux et cela passe absolument par la formation.
La liberté d’expression aussi est un combat qui nous tient à cœur ou que nous chérissons. C’est pourquoi sur notre site www.lesvillageois.org ce sont des élèves et étudiants qui s’expriment. Vu ‘l’engouement que cela suscite, nous avons compris qu’il fallait renforcer leurs capacités c’est pourquoi nous organisons chaque week-end des sessions de formation. C’est le lieu pour moi d’ailleurs de féliciter tous ceux-là qui s’impliquent pour la poursuite des objectifs
SBS: With the association Villageois 2.0 [“Villager”], my friends and I, we visit different schools to train students for free on the advantages and risks of information and communication technologies, in blogging and Vlogging. We want to demonstrate to Guineans that digital technology is a weapon against underemployment. There are numerous opportunities on the Internet that one must know to exploit them as best as possible and that absolutely happens through training.
Freedom of expression is also a struggle which we hold close to our hearts, or that we cherish. It is why on our website www.lesvillageois.org it is students who are expressing themselves. Given the enthusiasm that it sparks, we have understood that we had to strengthen their capacity and it is why every weekend we organize training sessions. It is the place for me to congratulate all those who involve themselves in achieving the objectives.
GV: You have just completed a tour in Europe related to your activities as a blogger and human rights activist. What was the aim of this trip exactly?
SBS: L’objectif de ce séjour était de participer à la cérémonie de clôture du projet #Connections citoyennes de l’agence française de coopération de médias (CFI medias). Le projet Les Villageois 2.0 devenu Association Villageois 2.0  était parmi les quinze lauréats. Je représentais le côté guinéen à cette randonnée africaine des projets numériques et citoyens. Malgré le fait que notre projet n'ait pu remporter de prix, cette rencontre a néanmoins permis d’élargir mes réseaux relationnels et solidifier certains qui, je l'espère seront bénéfiques à l’association.
Lors de ce séjour également, j’ai été invité par les jeunes Guinéens vivant à Montpellier où j’avais animé une conférence à l’occasion du 59e anniversaire de l'accession de la Guinée à la souveraineté nationale. J'ai pu y rencontrer d’autres activistes et leaders d'opinion.
SBS: The objective of this trip was to participate in the closing ceremony of the Citizen Connections project run by the French agency for media cooperation (CFI medias). The project Les Villageois 2.0, which has become Association Villageois 2.0, was among the fifteen candidates. I represented the Guinean side at this tour of African online and citizen projects. Despite the fact that our project was unable to win the prize, this meeting has nevertheless allowed me to expand my personal networks and consolidate others which, I hope, will be beneficial to the association.
During this trip I was also invited by young Guineans living in Montpellier where I led a conference on the occasion of the 59th anniversary of Guinea’s accession to national sovereignty. Here I was able to meet other activists and opinion-leaders.
GV: A while ago you published a commentary in which you revealed that the internet connection was so slow in Labé that even opening your messages took several minutes. Has the situation improved?
SBS: Certes, il y a eu des améliorations qui s’opèrent avec le déploiement de la 3G dans certaines localités mais le mal persiste toujours. Un simple exemple, pour uploader une vidéo de plus de 700 MO, il me faut parfois 24 heures, imaginez. C’est très pénible! Je sais que les opérateurs de téléphonie font plus de profit dans la capitale, mais l’intérieur du pays ne devrait pas être lésé. Il y a du potentiel à la base et l’autorité des régulations de postes et télécommunications (ARPT) doit veiller minutieusement sur les activités de ces multinationales. C’est extrêmement important.
Du 25 au 26 novembre 2017, ablogui a organisé un blog camp à Nzérékoré en Guinée forestière avec la participation de 25 jeunes venus de toute la région, sous le thème “Bloguer pour une citoyenneté active”. Malheureusement, la connexion Internet de tous les opérateurs était presque inutilisable, je vous assure. Certaines de nos activités n’ont pas pu se tenir comme nous aurions souhaité. Les citoyens doivent  jouer un rôle d'avant-garde sur la surveillance de la qualité des services des FAI.
SBS: Certainly, there were some improvements which have happened with the installation of 3G in certain places but the problem still persists. As a simple example, to upload a video of more than 700 MB, I sometimes need 24 hours, imagine it. It’s such a nuisance! I know that the network operators make more profit in the capital, but the interior of the country should not be ignored. There is some fundamental potential and the Authority for Regulating Post and Telecommunications (ARPT) must pay close attention to the activities of these multinationals. It is extremely important.
From 25 to 26 November 2017, ablogui organised a blog camp in Nzérékoré in Guinea’s forested region with the participation of 25 youths from across the region, under the theme “Blogging for an active citizenship”. Unfortunately, the internet connection of all the operators was almost unusable, I assure you. Some of our activities were not able to take place as we would have liked. Citizens must play a leading role in monitoring the quality of internet service providers’ services
GV: And what problems are there with some telephone and internet service providers? What are they? Have they been resolved?
SBS: (Rires), il y en a toujours mais nous faisons avec. Les problèmes se trouvent parfois au niveau des forfaits auxquels nous souscrivons. Les utilisateurs se plaignent souvent. La taille du forfait peut ne pas être exacte. Nous essayons  de jouer aux lanceurs d’alerte quand la situation s'empire.
SBS: (Laughs) there are still some but we make do. The problems are found sometimes with the packages to which we subscribe. The users complain often. The size of the package can be imprecise. We try to act as whistle-blowers when the situation worsens.
The Ablogui association still has many projects in store. More importantly, they have demonstrated that it only takes a motivated, passionate few to get the ball rolling towards online activism in Guinea.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


text:
In Armenia, ‘When You Have a Good Pigeon, You Get Great Respect’ · Global Voices
Eurasianet

Ashot Metsoyan, a 65-year-old Gyumri ghushbas, feeding his pigeons. (Armine Avetisyan)
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org written by Armine Avetisyan. Republished with permission.
In his story “Doves,” the 19th-century writer Vahan Totovents described the lowly social standing of dove breeders in Armenia.
“People pointed fingers at dove breeders as if they were thieves or criminals,” Totovents wrote. “No one would give their daughters to a dove breeder's son, and no one proposed to a dove breeder's daughters. And they investigated further, to make sure that nowhere in the family of the young man or woman was a dove breeder.”
David Shirvanyan laughs when he recalls the famous line. “Now the attitude has changed, nobody criticizes us anymore. We are accepted by society,” says the 38-year-old dove breeder from Yerevan. “But in any case I won't let my children keep pigeons – it's like a disease, and I don't want them to live like me, everything for the sake of these birds.”
Shirvanyan has been keeping doves (a type of pigeon) since he was five years old, when he got a bird as a gift from a relative. He fell in love, and today he has 300.
He plies his trade at Yerevan's bird market, which operates on weekends, offering animals both for food and for pets.
Pigeons start at 5000 drams (about $10). The top price Shirvanyan has gotten for a pigeon is $5,000, but there are some he considers priceless. Recently, he says, one buyer offered to trade a nearly new Opel Astra car for his favorite dove, but he turned the offer down.
“Even if I am offered a price of a luxury apartment in [Yerevan's elite] Northern Avenue, I will not sell it. Even if a gun is put to my head, I won't sell it. People don't believe it, but when you are connected to a dove, it becomes like your own baby,” Shirvanyan says.
Shirvanyan and the other dove breeders – known as ghushbas in Armenian – are getting ready for spring. That is dove competition season in Armenia, when ghushbases pit their best birds against one another to see which can fly the longest.
The competitions last weeks, with each pigeon getting his or her own day to fly. The prize money comes from an entry fee of $100 per bird, but that's not the main incentive, Shirvanyan says: “The money is not as important as the issue of honor: when you have a good pigeon, you get great respect.”
The Yerevan record is an 11-hour flight. If a pigeon can only stay in the sky for less than an hour, on the other hand, it's considered dishonorable and the owner gives the bird away.
Gyumri, Armenia's second city, also has pigeon competitions, but with different rules. The stakes are smaller – the entry fee for each bird is between $10 and $20 – and pigeons aren't judged by their endurance, but their ability to perform aerial tricks.
“Our city is the cultural center of Armenia, we value beauty and in this case the beauty of pigeon flight,”  says Ashot Metsoyan, a 65-year-old Gyumri ghushbas. “There are different kinds of jumps in figure skating, and our pigeons also should make similar kinds of jumps.”
Pigeons aren't only used for competition. One pagan custom, which endures to this day in Gyumri, sees the pigeon as a “pure” bird to be sacrificed upon the birth of a child, or when a family member survives an accident. Pigeons are killed by slitting their necks, then the birds are cleaned and eaten.
Pigeons are also bought for weddings across Armenia, and newly married couples traditionally release a pair of pigeons to ensure a happy, peaceful life together.
Metsoyan's grandfather was a pigeon keeper, and his son and brother took up the vocation as well. But Metsoyan himself didn't have anything to do with the birds until the devastating 1988 earthquake in Spitak, near Gyumri.
“My father, son, brother, and my brother's pregnant wife died,” Metsoyan says. “I was going mad. I wanted to commit suicide. I didn't care about anything.” One day, though, he walked out of his house and saw a nest of pigeons that appeared to be starving. “It broke my heart,” he recalls. “I decided to feed them and from that moment my life changed.”
Metsoyan estimates that out of his pension of 36,000 drams a month, he devotes about 20,000 to feeding pigeons: “I can stay hungry and thirsty, but they should have food.”
Like other ghushbases, Metsoyan says he puts love for the birds over his commercial interests.
He recalls selling one pigeon to a buyer who took the bird to Tbilisi. A few days later, the pigeon returned to Gyumri. “I called the buyer and told him to come and take his money back, as my bird doesn’t want to stay with him,” Metsoyan says.
And he points to a yellow pigeon, which he calls his favorite. “I've been promised a house, a car, a great deal of money, but I'll never sell it.”

author: Eurasianet


text:
Netizen Report: Tunisian Court Refuses to Ban Online LGBTQ Radio Shams Rad · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

LGBTQ pride celebration. Photo by lewishamdreamer via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
A primary court in Tunis has refused to ban the online radio station Shams Rad, which caters to the  lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community, in response to a legal complaint.
The decision comes despite the fact that same-sex relationships are illegal in Tunisia.
In a lawsuit filed by a union representing imams (worship leaders at mosques), the group asked the court to request that the Tunisian Internet Agency block access to Shams Rad under the pretext that it threatens “social and family values.”
In its February 14 response, the court ruled that the radio station had not violated the rights of others or their reputations, and that the union did not have standing to make such demands.
When Shams Rad launched in December 2017, its founders received a huge volume of online harassment and threats of violence. As in a majority of Arab region countries, homesexuality is a crime in Tunisia, where it is punishable by up to three years in jail.
In another judicial victory for free expression, the High Court in Pakistan ruled that mobile network shutdowns as carried out by the Pakistani government are illegal, and contrary to the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-Organization) Act.
The ruling raises the question of whether neighboring countries might someday follow their lead. In Bangladesh on February 12, authorities temporarily shut down mobile internet and throttled broadband speeds during nationwide school exams in an effort to curb attempts at cheating. It then changed course, instead imposing a mobile phone ban near exam halls.
Aktuality.sk reporter Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kusnirova were found dead on February 25 in their home, about 65 kilometers from the capital Bratislava. A police commander working on the case said that the killing was “most likely related to the investigative work of the journalist.” Kuciak had been working with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project on an investigation of the Ndrangheta mafia, which the organization describes as “one of the world’s most powerful and fearsome criminal groups.” The group also indicated that Kuciak is the first Slovak journalist ever assassinated in retaliation for his work.
Two people were arrested in Uttar Pradesh, India, for allegedly making derogatory remarks made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Hindu gods in a video posted on Facebook and WhatsApp. Authorities say they will be charged under India’s penal code for committing “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion and religious beliefs.”
The Venezuelan Intelligence Unit (SEBIN) arrested unionist and Communist Party of Venezuela member Elio Palacios on February 14, after he used WhatsApp to warn fellow residents of anticipated electricity blackouts. Palacios said the blackouts would likely be a result of negligence and lack of proper maintenance. This contradicts the government’s narrative that blackouts are the result of sabotage by opposition groups.
A parliamentary commission in Turkey has approved a bill that would require online broadcasters to be licensed and regulated by federal broadcast media regulator RTÜK. The bill may also extend RTÜK's regulation authority to personal social media accounts, raising concerns of political censorship among free speech advocates. The Committee to Protect Journalists has strongly condemned the bill.
Facebook users navigating to the official page of São Paulo’s city hall are being forced to mind their words or face being blocked. According to official government documents obtained by news outlet R7 via an Access to Information request, moderators for the page are actively banning certain terms and blocking users who criticize current Mayor João Dória. The page is a popular platform for dialogue between the city’s residents and its administration.
Covering the story for Global Voices, Taisa Sganzerla notes that “when a public official blocks users from commenting on their official pages, they effectively censor those users’ voices within a space for civic debate.”
Cuban authorities blocked the website El Estornudo (“The Sneeze”), adding it to a growing list of media outlets that are censored by state authorities. The site features critical essays on social issues and cultural change, and aims to tell stories of the “other Cuba” that is not part of the official story told by the government. In response, its editors wrote an open letter to “the Censor” saying that they would not change their editorial line, despite the block.
A Spanish man was fined for superimposing an image of his face over Christ and circulating it on the internet, which prosecutors said showed “a disregard towards and mockery of” a local religious group, which brought the case against the 24-year-old. The decision led to a wave of indignation online, wherein numerous users posted similar images of their own faces superimposed onto that of Jesus. Supporters also raised money to pay for the fine, which the man says would have cost him 10 days’ worth of wages.
A new report by Human Rights Watch sheds light on the magnitude of China’s predictive policing surveillance infrastructure in the western Xinjiang region, where the population is largely comprises Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. Using a combination of CCTV facial recognition technology, mobile phone surveillance software, national ID systems and physical surveillance, police now routinely aggregate and cross-reference data about citizens’ activities, movements, financial transactions and a host of other points as part of China’s “Strike Hard Campaign,” which claims to target violent activities and terrorism.
Meanwhile in the US, The Verge published new findings that the New Orleans police department used predictive policing software developed by Silicon Valley firm Palantir in order to track the identities and activities of gang members in the southern US city, without the knowledge of local city councillors.
According to the tech news site, the software “traced people’s ties to other gang members, outlined criminal histories, analyzed social media, and predicted the likelihood that individuals would commit violence or become a victim.” This information escaped the scrutiny of civilian government officials because the software was given to police as part of a “philanthropic” relationship between the department and the company.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Marianne Diaz, Rohith Jyothish, Laura Vidal and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team