text:
Sleeping or Dead – Part 3: Thought is the Crime · Global Voices
سرمد الجيلاني

PHOTO: Public Domain from PIxabay.
This is the third installment in “Sleeping or Dead”, a six-part series by activist Sarmad Al Jilane about his experiences in a Syrian prison. Read parts one and two.
You memorize your executioner’s face from the sound of his footsteps. We’re falling all the way from the seventh sky, at least so it feels, when he unlocks the chain suddenly, then the handcuffs. He pulls us up and drags us to the door kicking and screaming.
Screams and moans fill the corridor. Your senses merge together in your ears, and deep down everybody trembles in fear. Only death roams freely, in tranquility, not afraid of the executioner or the victim, caring neither about the hanging, nor the cable, nor the tire, unconcerned about the interrogators or the “traitors”, not even about Mohammed, who chokes the remaining life out of us.
We return to our cell. Two steps, and we collapse on the floor. The others wipe the blood off our hands and feet. Each one of them has saved us a little piece of bread; they feed us and we fall asleep till death, or beyond.
For three days that was our routine, repeated in every detail. Day four, the roll call begins, the roll call ends, and our names aren’t called. Being in prison is harder than you imagine. Heavy are the days and heavy are the nights. Heavy is the darkness. Even if they don’t torture you, the mere act of waiting does. Have they forgotten us? Are we going to stay in here forever? Why haven’t they called us today? Have they found the mobile phone, the laptop? The never-ending stream of questions you ask yourself.
The day passes. All days are the same: the stench of rot and blood, the moaning around you. You memorize every crack in the other prisoners’ skin and in the identical walls. The repulsive familiarity of everything.
Same routine on day five, until the afternoon. The guard opens the door, calling: “Sarmad, out!” I step out, bracing for my head to be covered and my wrists handcuffed. I cross the corridor into a room. I imagine it being similar to the first one. “Down on your knees!” I kneel with my head down. The squeak of a pen writing slowly on paper accompanies the oration; there are now two persons. “Sarmad, Oh Sarmad. Honestly you look well-off, you even look older than your age, and being the son of a doctor, I assume you must have been well brought up too. Why carry a weapon, then?”
He starts with a charge of weapon possession, expecting me to confess at least to participating in protests. “I didn’t carry a weapon and I’m not willing to.” One stroke of the whip from behind and I fall to the ground, and someone—a third person, apparently—sits on top of me. His knees press down right under my shoulders. “Answer the interrogator with respect so that we keep respecting you!” he says, trying hard to disguise his original accent.
The Interrogator continues: “Look, Sarmad, you can tell us everything calmly. We’ll even get you a cup of tea. I’m going to believe you: you didn’t carry a weapon, but don’t tell me you didn’t go out to protests and filmed, or you’ll make us mad.” The person sitting on my back gets up. “Yes, I protested, and I still do.” Blows rain down on me from my back down to my feet for several minutes, before he decides to stop.
“Well, Sarmad, let’s listen to this together.” He plays a video of me participating in a protest. “Are you listening, Sarmad? We don’t treat anybody unjustly here. That’s your voice, and this video is taken from Al-Jazeera”. The thought springs to mind: “The same Al-Jazeera you claim fabricates things? This must be fabricated then.”
That statement marks then end of the oral interrogation, and he starts talking to me in the only language he understands. He starts beating me, continuously, with occasional short breaks. After what I estimate to be about an hour, he finally stops. Reeling, I go back to the cell.
It takes a kick to wake me. It feels like I’ve been asleep in a state of torpor since the first interrogation. Head covered, hands cuffed, and we travel the same morning route, in the same direction. Same voices echoing again. I kneel. I have a paranasal sinus problem that causes me to breathe noisily. “If you cannot swallow your noise then you better stop breathing, else I’ll stop it for you!” I guess he is busy doing something. I breathe in very slowly and out as quietly as possible. I’m shaking: out of fear or cold? No difference, it still sets my teeth chattering. “OK, Sarmad, why don’t you just confess and let us get it over with so I can finish this and go home and give you a release so you can also go home? Who else was filming with you? How did you send the material to the TV channels? Anything else we don’t know? Though we know everything already, I’d still love to hear it from you.”
There’s no room for thinking here: the faster you answer, the less they doubt it. “I didn’t film anything. I could’ve simply denied everything and said I didn’t do anything, but I told you I did go out on protests because I believe they are for the good of this country.” He gives the order for them to uncover my eyes. “See? I’m better than you, I’ve uncovered your eyes so you can see me. Take my advice, Sarmad, you’re still young and the future is ahead of you. We can either shut all the doors in your face or open a thousand doors for you; you’re free to choose. Have a seat, here’s a laptop: log in to your Facebook account or this Yahoo thing or whatever you use to send your videos, and tell me to whom you send them, and let us both get it over with.”
The lines of all prisoners’ testimonies intersect in your mind at a moment like this. The value of your life is inextricably linked with the value of the lives of those around you. You start prioritizing: who should be kept safe no matter what? And who could be sacrificed if you absolutely had to? My mother always used to talk about “calamities you don’t wish even upon your enemies.” This is one of them. I don’t wish anybody to  go through what’s happening to me.
“My email is for nothing but casual communication. Here you are, I’m logging in.” After receiving a series of smacks on the back of the neck for entering wrong passwords—despite having prepared this fake account beforehand for situations like this—I manage to log in on the third attempt. Dating websites, chat rooms and dozens of online forums. He is not convinced. “Who the hell do you think I am? A lousy criminal investigator? You don’t really understand what Military Security Branch Investigator means, do you? No problem.”
He covers my eyes, puts on the handcuffs, takes his things from the table and leaves. Minutes pass, with no one to count my breaths, no jailor, no whip to lacerate the life out of me. The door opens. “Down on your knees!” The voice changes. He squeezes a tire over my body and starts whipping me. Starting at the feet and working his way up. Screams burst out of me uncontrollably. He goes on, with short breaks during which he douses me with pailfuls of very cold water. He carries this on for hours, during which time he prepares himself a drink that I could hear him sip; I can also smell cigarettes. Unfortunately the room is non-smoking, so he has to stub them out on me.
I am exhausted, so he decides to let me go, on condition that I can stand up without help. I manage to, after several attempts. Dragging myself, he leads me back to the cell. I walk in and faint.
This is merely one anecdote from a hare-brained system that perceives thought as a crime, and thinkers as criminals who deserve to be thrown in prison. A system that wants us to quit hallucinating about freedom, a freedom this dictatorship hates, as it exposes the truth.
“Sarmad… Sarmad, you cannot just keep sleeping, you need to wake up and wash yourself.” It’s Abdel Rahman. Apparently I have slept into the following evening—except for a brief moment during the usual roll call. “Easy now, man, they will either transfer or release you like all the guys here,” he says, smiling.
Abdel Rahman is a young man from the city of Tabka. He is one of the few intellectuals here, he speaks to everyone with a smile that never fades. He used to work at the cultural centre of Raqqa, which gave him the chance to read many books. They broke into his house and found some prohibited books and photos of him at protests. That was enough to get him detained.
Some newcomers arrive the next day. Everybody talks about Taher, who has been transferred to the solitary cell near ours. “They couldn’t arrest him without shooting him in the leg. He made it even harder for them by cutting his carotid artery with a blade,” says one of the newcomers, impressed by Taher’s strength. He continues: “He’s tall and big, he was a good match for them.”
Hours pass before they call Taher out for interrogation. We rush quietly to the tiny hole in the door to catch a glimpse of him: a tall, broad-shouldered young man with leg braces to keep the bones shattered by the bullet in place, and stitches on his neck. Guards were afraid of him!
They bring him out into the corridor. We’re all silent, waiting to hear anything that could be heard. Nothing! Waiting to see what’s going to happen with Taher breaks the routine. They seem to have taken him to the far interrogation room. Time passes without anybody saying a word. Everybody returns to what they were doing, which is nothing, but what else to do when there is nothing to be done but sit and wait.
The corridor door lumbers open. Sound of the guard’s footsteps gets closer. The cell door opens, for Taher to be thrown onto the floor among us. The door is shut. We wait for the guard to walk away, then start cleaning Taher’s wounds from head to toe. If we were dogs in those faraway lands we would be sitting by the fire now, eating and getting pampered, even being protected. But here, as a human, you wait your turn; you either clean their wounds or they clean yours.
In less than an hour Taher wakes up, and in a few minutes he manages to stand, barely. He puts his hand on the door slot! It is more like the window of a grave. None of us has dared to get this close to it before as it is for the sole use of the guard and his friends.
“Hey, Mr. Interrogator! I used to be a wayward young man who fooled a bunch of girls. Could your sister be one of them? Is that why you are so mad at me? Could I have beaten the hell out of you once and you’ve held a grudge against me since? If you had told me we could’ve just resolved this amicably outside. You didn’t have to go through this trouble.”
Taher screams and laughs. I could hear the heartbeats of the guys around me and was almost sure they could hear mine too. “We only live once, and only have one God. From the beginning we knew we might die. At least let’s die scaring them. Do you think all those killers around us kill only because we fear them? No—they are more afraid of us than we are of them.”
He speaks to us loudly so the guards can hear. Three guards wrest the door open and barge into the cell. They hit Taher savagely, then drag him out.
That was the last time I saw Taher in the Military Security Branch of Deir Al-Zour.

author: سرمد الجيلاني


text:
The Uphill Battle of Protecting Syrian Antiquities Amidst War · Global Voices
Syria Untold

Main Photo: Concert of the Symphony Orchestra of the (Russian) Mariinsky Theatre in Syrian Palmyra – 5-6-2016 (Kremlin.ru/CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)
This story was originally written for Syria Untold. It was translated by Cristel Abou Anni. It is republished here as part of a partnership agreement.
SyriaUntold interviewed Dr. Cheikhmous ʻAli about the multifaceted aspects of the illegal antiquities trade, and the efforts in place to safeguard Syria’s artifacts in such a delicate phase.
Dr ‘Ali is a research assistant specialized in Near Eastern Archeology at the University of Strasbourg, and the director of the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology (APSA), a network of scientists, journalists and citizens who document and disseminate information about the destruction and pillage of Syria’s heritage. ‘Ali is also a fellow at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study.
SyriaUntold: What are the main routes used to smuggle Syrian antiquities into neighboring countries? Who is involved in smuggling activities (and who are the mediators) at the local, regional, and international levels?
Dr. ʻAli: Prior to 2011, smuggling antiquities was an activity undertaken by a few people who had contacts with the [Syrian] authorities, such as intelligence and army officers, and it mostly took place via Lebanon.
As of the second half of 2011, several major archeological sites like Dura-Europos, Apamea, Palmyra, and Ebla were subjected to arbitrary excavations. Most of the artifacts looted from northern Syria were sent to Turkey, while those stolen from Homs and Damascus were smuggled into Lebanon. As for those found in the south, they were sent to Jordan. However, these countries are mere transit points; once the goods arrive there, merchants and mafias are soon contacted to smuggle the artifacts into Europe, America, the Gulf, or Asia via organized mafia networks that deliver the pieces to private collectors.
Inside Syria, smugglers of antiquities and residents of nearby villages do the excavations. When they stumble upon artifacts, they either sell them to local merchants or smuggle them directly into neighboring countries to be sold there. In some cases, the excavation first needs to be authorized by the military force in control of the region, like Daesh [also known as ISIS, ISIL or IS] in the countryside of Dayr az-Zawr and Raqqa. That way, they can get a piece of the cake.
SyriaUntold: Some say that Bashar al-Assad's regime relies on trafficking antiquities to finance its war via complex relations with key smugglers. Are there any leads or evidence in this regard, or do you believe that it is a mere accusation between the regime and the opposition?
Dr. ʻAli: In every military faction, including the regime’s army, you find a group involved in facilitating excavations and smuggling operations. Before the Palmyra site fell in the hands of Daesh, for instance, numerous smuggling operations were organized under the regime’s eyes. The same goes for Apamea; where there’s a checkpoint called Hajez al-Athar (the Antiquities Checkpoint), and excavations take place in broad daylight without any intervention from officers or soldiers.
In terms of facilitating smuggling operations, everyone knows that [Lebanon-based militant group and political party] Hezbollah and the Syrian Army control the borders between Syria and Lebanon. Nonetheless, there are often news of the Lebanese authorities arresting smugglers and traffickers and confiscating Syrian antiquities. The question is: how did these artifacts reach Lebanon in the first place? Syrian Army and Hezbollah officers undoubtedly have something to do with this.
SyriaUntold: What are the most popular pieces among private collectors? Are private collectors considered the main buyers of looted antiquities, or do international museums play an important part in this black market?
Dr. ʻAli: The most popular artifacts are exceptional pieces, such as mosaics, funerary statues, etc., but that doesn’t mean that smaller pieces – like coins and clay sculptures – aren’t on demand as well.
Most buyers are rich antiquities collectors. I don’t believe museums would take part in such a trade, since they would be bound by the 1970 UNESCO Convention to return the pieces to Syria after the end of the war, if caught. At present, there are no recently smuggled goods in any museum, but some were confiscated after being smuggled into Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and France, and they are probably stored in museum warehouses, waiting to be shipped back to Syria.
SyriaUntold: Has any Syrian authority set up of a mechanism to later recover Syrian antiquities?
Dr. ʻAli: As far as I know, there isn’t any legal archaeological committee handling this issue at present. However, from time to time, the [Syrian] Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) forms delegations to examine the confiscated items in Lebanon and oversees their journey back to Damascus.
SyriaUntold: The media often focuses on Daesh’s actions and its hostility toward archeological heritage. Who do you believe is to be held accountable the most for demolishing and plundering Syrian antiquities since 2011? Are there any reliable figures in this regard?
Dr. ʻAli: The first party to be held accountable for the destruction is the Syrian regime. Its aircrafts have shelled Homs, Qalʻat al-Madiq, the Krak des Chevaliers castle, and the Old City of Aleppo, and they continue to do so. Second comes Daesh, which has destroyed a great number of cemeteries and Sufi shrines, as well as other religious monuments in the countryside of Aleppo, Raqqa, and Dayr az-Zawr. After that, we have some opposition brigades that bombed tunnels under historical buildings to target entrenched Syrian Army soldiers in the Old City of Aleppo, near the Citadel.
Archeological sites are sabotaged with bulldozers to build barricades and dig trenches to protect the machinery and soldiers. All military forces in Syria do this, in addition to the illegal excavations often led by smugglers. However, there are no official figures that can determine the exact number of damaged buildings, museums, and archeological sites.
SyriaUntold: Since the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology stopped recording archeological damages in Daesh-controlled regions for the safety of its own members, how have you been monitoring the condition of antiquities in these territories?
Dr. ʻAli: Given the dangerous situation, there are no groups directly involved in monitoring or documentation. We mostly rely on what some individuals, or even the terrorist group, publish. For example, the latter shares news of demolished cemeteries and shrines on social media, in addition to videos of citizens and activists being executed, such as the one published on December 2, 2015, thanks to which we were able to determine the condition of al-Mayadin’s ar-Rahba Citadel.
SyriaUntold: What are the biggest local Syrian initiatives aimed to safeguard antiquities?
Dr. ʻAli: Several local initiatives have been launched in certain regions [that are located outside of regime control] through organizations and centers, such as those in Bosra (the Departement of Archeology in Bosra Sham City), Idlib (Idlib Archeological Center), Aleppo (the Free Aleppo Governorate’s Department of Archeology) and al-Hasakah (the Authority of Tourism and Protection of Antiquities). These institutions organize documentation, restoration, and awareness campaigns at the local level. As for regime-held regions, the DGAM undertakes such actions.
SyriaUntold: Who supports these initiatives at the international level? What do you think of the efforts exerted by major organizations, like the UNESCO, to protect Syrian antiquities?
Dr. ʻAli: Some international actors have supported local initiatives, like the University of Pennsylvania that implemented restoration projects in the Maʻarrat al-Nuʻman Museum. As for international organizations, all they did was sign agreements with neighboring countries to fight trafficking, as well as holding a number of conferences, and organizing training sessions that targeted DGAM employees only. Meanwhile, non-governmental organizations in regions that are not controlled by the regime have not received any support from these institutions.
SyriaUntold: Do archeologists have any alternatives at the institutional level for the way that the regime used to run the DGAM? Or do you believe that the Directorate was well-operated regardless of the regime’s despotism, and should therefore continue its work with some development?
Dr. ʻAli: There aren’t any tangible alternatives for the time being. The Directorate has 50 years of scientific heritage. This cannot be simply disregarded because it’s a government institution, but several of its regulations certainly ought to be changed, and it needs to be entirely restructured to keep up with other scientific organizations.
SyriaUntold: Documenting violations is one of the main activities of the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology. Is there any precedent for the prosecution of smugglers at the international level that has encouraged you to pursue your efforts?
Dr. ʻAli: Extremists who destroyed Sufi shrines in Timbuktu, Mali, were recently prosecuted in The Hague and the main criminal involved was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Syria’s problem relies in the fact that it did not sign the UNESCO’s Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property in 1970, which makes it impossible to ensure the prosecution of criminals who committed these violations under the present circumstances.
These circumstances might change in the future and a special tribunal could be established even though Syria hasn’t signed the 1970 Convention. We are therefore documenting all the acts of destruction committed by certain people, organizations, or states and gathering all information about these incidents, hoping to have a tribunal established one day – a tribunal where each person who harmed the Syrian heritage would be held accountable.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Syria Untold


text:
Ukraine Cracks Down on Internet Piracy · Global Voices
Isaac Webb

Image edited by Isaac Webb
EX.UA, Ukraine's most popular file-sharing service, announced on Wednesday that it will shut down its operations, citing the passage of new national anti-piracy legislation.
The announcement, which administrators posted on the website's homepage, comes amidst a broader government effort to strengthen Ukraine's intellectual property laws and crack down on internet piracy: the country's parliament recently passed a law entitled “On State Support for Cinematography” that will allow copyright holders to block sites that violate copyright laws without needing a court warrant. On Tuesday, Ukraine's cyber police seized servers belonging to FS.TO, another popular file-sharing service.
EX.UA, which was founded in 2009, allows users to upload and download content to its servers for free, and is a popular destination for Ukrainians (who account for nearly two-thirds of the sites’ users) looking to pirate movies, music, and other digital material. According to Alexa, a company that tracks internet traffic, EX.UA is the 11th most popular website in Ukraine and the 1,636th most popular in the world.
Dmytro Shymkiv, the deputy head of the Presidential Administration for administrative, social, and economic reforms, told journalists on Thursday he was happy EX.UA had come over to the “light side,” and that its closure represented an important success in Ukraine's fight against internet piracy.
У них (EX.UA) есть бизнес модель, которая давала им возможность зарабатывать средства, распространяя нелегальный видеоконтент, вставляя в него украинскую рекламу. Украинские рекламодатели платили деньги за размещение рекламы, а правообладатели контента не получали никакой бенефиции от этого.
They (EX.UA) have a business model that has allowed them the opportunity to earn money by spreading illegal video content with Ukrainian advertisements. Ukrainian advertisers paid money for ads, but the rights-holders of the content never received any compensation from them.
Shymkiv said EX.UA's proprietors made more than $1 million per year from the website.
After the seizure of FS.TO's servers, the writing was on the wall for EX.UA. Artem Afyan, a lawyer at Justucum, a law firm that represents ex.ua, told tech website AIN.ua that broad changes to intellectual property law in Ukraine had motivated the decision to shut down the file-sharing service. He expressed concern over the security of personal files and information, which site administrators have asked users to remove by November 30.
Ресурс понимает, что в условиях нынешней напряженности в обществе его силовое закрытие может привести к увеличению протестов, как это было в 2012 году. Это не ответ на конкретное действие, а осознание того, что дальнейшие действия или бездействие могут повлечь за собой угрозу информации пользователей.
The service understands that in light of the current tension in society, the forced closure [of EX.UA] may lead to increased protests, like in 2012. This is not a response to concrete action, but rather the recognition that future action or inaction could entail a threat to users’ information.
EX.UA administrators wrote that they have received direct threats, including blackmail and DDOS attacks over the past year. Some of these threats, which they say “jeopardize the personal information and personal user files being stored on the site,” have come from abroad. The administrators maintained in their letter to users that they have not broken the law, and that they are closing in order to continue acting legally: “EX.UA will never abandon its position of respecting Ukrainian law, and therefore has made the decision to shut down its operations.”
This is not the first time the government has tried to crack down on EX.UA. Authorities’ attempts to shut down the website in 2012 were met with fierce resistance from internet activists and hackers, who attacked government websites in the days after the Interior Ministry opened a criminal investigation into EX.UA's activity and raided its offices. The government was ultimately forced to back down.
Indeed, EX.UA may not go down easy. The site's users balked at the government's 2012 efforts in part because of perception that those in power were themselves criminals; they didn't want to accept intellectual property laws imposed on them by a “bunch of thieves.” With confidence in the Ukrainian government again waning, especially after the extent of state corruption was laid bare in public servants’ electronic asset declarations earlier this month, it's unclear whether EX.UA will stay down for long.
Despite the bad news for EX.UA's users, the site's administrators wrote in a post script that “the darkest light comes just before dawn,” and that a period of “uncontrolled” piracy might reinforce the importance of allowing users to access material legally. The full statement posted on EX.UA's homepage can be read below.
The message posted by ex.ua administrators on the website's homepage on Wednesday.

author: Isaac Webb


text:
Winners Galore at the 34th Athens Classic Marathon · Global Voices
Maria Soulis

Athens Authentic Classic Marathon, 2016. Photo: Athens Classic Marathon Facebook Page
The 34th Athens Classic Marathon came to Greece last weekend. This year's race, held on Nov. 13, marked 120 years since the first contemporary marathon race during the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. The marathon also celebrated 70 years since Greek runner Stelios Kyriakides won the Boston Marathon — one of the major Greece's biggest athletic successes internationally.
The Athens Classic honors the ancient course of an Athenian hoplite after the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, bringing the message of victory against Persia to Athens.
Apart from the classic 42-kilometer route, there were also the smaller 5-kilometer and 10-kilometer routes, power walking, a kids’ race, and a Special Olympics race.
Every year, the number of participants grows, attracting runners — both professional and amateur — of all ages and backgrounds. The year, a record 50,000 people took part in the marathon, according to Hellenic Athletics Federation.
50.000 άνθρωποι χαίρονται τη συμμετοχή, με τον τροπο που ο καθένας θέλει και μπορεί #AthensMarathonpic.twitter.com/Uk96Di2vmj
— Δήμαρχος Αθηναίων (@AthensMayor) November 13, 2016
50,000 people enjoy their participation [in the Marathon], every way each one desires and is able to do so.
Many volunteers also joined the event, making use of a new online registration system.
The winner of this competition was 28-year-old Kenyan Luka Rotich Lobuwan, who ran 42 kilometers from Marathon City to Athens in 2 hours, 12 minutes, and 49 seconds. The runners-up were another two men from Kenya, Kipruto Benson and Kimtai Andrew Ben.
Μαραθώνιος 2016: Νικητής ο Κενυάτης Λούκα Ρότιτς Λουμπουάν (pics&vid) https://t.co/HEbQSTbZkp pic.twitter.com/0JVO7oOYhl
— CNN Greece (@CNNgreece) November 13, 2016
Marathon 2016: The winner is Luka Rotich Lobuwan from Kenya.
The first Greek winner was Christoforos Merousis, who finished tenth, clocking in at 2:24:56.
Αυτός είναι ο πρώτος Έλληνας του Μαραθωνίου Αθήνας 2016 https://t.co/I64fhUqMjG pic.twitter.com/RxOnHQgiDp
— CNN Greece (@CNNgreece) November 13, 2016
This is the first Greek to finish the 2016 Athens Marathon.
In the women's division, Kenyan runner Nancy Arusei won first place with a time of 2:38:13, while the first Greek woman to finish was Rania Rebouli at 2:49:24.
As in years past, there was high participation in the small 5-kilometer and 10-kilometer races, which were held early in the morning in the central streets of Athens, while the finish line was at the “all-marble” Panathenaic Stadium. Simultaneously, special races were taking place for young competitors and Special Olympics athletes.
The “other Marathon” was taking place in Greek social media, as many people rushed to comment about the event and the participants, using the hashtag #AthensMarathon.
There were some negative comments about the fact that such events are getting very popular and trendy lately, with a supposed rise in participants who are underqualified to perform such physical feats.
Αύριο τρέχουμε όλοι για την Αθήνα, για τις σέλφιζ, για την προβολή, για την δημοσιότητα, για τα λάικς.. #AthensMarathon
— Andreas, Όλα έξω (@ola_ekso) November 12, 2016
Tomorrow, we are all running for Athens, for the selfiez, for extra attention and coverage, for publicity, for the [Facebook] “likes”…
-Γιατί έβαλες φόρμες κ αθλητικά παπούτσια;
-Πάω να τρέξω Μαραθώνιο.
-Πόσο πιστεύεις να τρέξεις;
-Καμιά 20αρια φωτογραφίες.#AthensMarathon
— Vasilis RToum (@toumvas) 13 Νοεμβρίου 2016
-Why did you put on your uniform and sports shoes?
-I am going to the Marathon.
-How much distance do you expect to handle?
-Just 20-something photos.
As is traditional, the race's official sponsor this year was WIND Hellas Mobile Communications, which invited members of the public to submit applications to join its sports team.
Ένα τεράστιο ΜΠΡΑΒΟ σε όλους τους δρομείς!#WINDrunningteam#WIND4G#pantanikitis#AMA2016#AthensAuthenticMarathon#AthensMarathon2016pic.twitter.com/kGNYkSmfGE
— WIND GR (@windhellas) November 13, 2016
A huge BRAVO to all the runners!
Apart from ordinary civilians, many Greek lawmakers also joined the race, perhaps hoping to score political points by posing in publicity photos. For local Internet users the effort was all too transparent:
Προφανώς τα πρώτα νούμερα μετά το 20000 δόθηκαν με αυστηρά νοητικά κριτήρια. #AthensMarathonpic.twitter.com/1tjj9xmO69
— Spidey (@Silver_Spidey) November 13, 2016
Obviously, registration numbers after 20,000 were given based on strictly IQ criteria. [photo shows 3 popular Greek MPs from different political parties]
#AthensMarathon
Ο Αγών μου pic.twitter.com/8tdWN09bjo
— Μανόλης della Creta (@baxebanis) November 13, 2016
My Struggle [An allusion to Adolf Hitler's “Mein Kampf” — photo shows Greek nationalist right-wing politician Adonis Georgiadis]
Running the authentic Marathon route is a milestone for many people all over the world.
6 years ago today I crossed something off my #bucketlist. Pretty proud about that. #AthensMarathon #FootstepsOfHistory #Original #History
— Amie Bjorklund (@Official_AmieB) October 31, 2016
Can't wait to be in Athens for #AthensMarathon 🇬🇷. In three weeks or so, we'll enter this… https://t.co/1agmBcEFF0
— iWilRun (@iWil_Run) October 22, 2016
See you again next year in Athens!

author: Maria Soulis


text:
A Mother’s Fight for Her Son Exposes Lebanon’s Institutionalized Sexism · Global Voices
Zeina Nasser

Activists marching to demand Fatima's freedom on November 7, 2016. Photo taken by Whard Sleiman and republished with permission.
After a week locked up in jail, Fatima Ali Hamzeh still refuses to surrender custody of her son to her husband, who has now married another woman while refusing to divorce Fatima. He was the one who brought the police, who promptly arrested Fatima, a schoolteacher, when she “violated the law” by saying she would not relinquish custody of their child.
On November 5, 2016, women and men marched together through Beirut to demand Fatima's release.
Rahal, who teaches at the same school as Fatima, told Global Voices that Fatima was returning from school when she found her husband waiting with the police at their house:
When she got home by the school bus, that day, her husband was waiting with the police, to arrest her.
Two days after the demonstration, Fatima was freed on bail, with her day in court pending. The “Protecting Lebanese Women” (PLW) organization filmed her release, uploading the footage to Facebook, where it was viewed more than 37,000 times. In the video, Fatima tells the crowd, “Now I have started a revolution against the oppression of women. My cause is that of all women.”
Fatima and her son Ali. Photo by “Protecting Lebanese Women” on Facebook.
Fatima's cause is the campaign to reform personal status laws in Lebanon. As Human Rights Watch explained in 2015:
Lebanon’s religion-based personal status laws discriminate against women across the religious spectrum and don’t guarantee their basic rights […] Lebanon has 15 separate personal status laws for its recognized religions but no civil code covering issues such as divorce, property rights, or care of children. These laws are administered by autonomous religious courts with little or no government oversight, and often issue rulings that violate women’s human rights.
Fatima's case is just the latest example of the impact such laws can have on ordinary people. Her son, Ali, is four years old. She was “supposed” to give up her right of custody when he turned two years old, but she refused and continues to refuse to let him go, until he reaches adulthood.
Balsam Haidar, one of Fatima's school colleagues, told Global Voices that she has been suffering for the past four years:
She was a mother and a father at the same time. She takes care of her son and provides all his needs, while his father does not pay a penny for him.
In response, a protest was organized by PLW, attracting hundreds of Lebanese demonstrators demanding reforms.
One of the organizers, Nadyn Jouny, told Global Voices that the protest brought more people than expected:
After four years of suffering and not being able to see my son, this is the first year that I'm able to scream and raise my voice. I had so much energy to let out all the pain inside me with a scream. For a second, I lifted my head to observe people's interaction with me, and I was surprised with the number of women crying painfully in front of my eyes.
Jouny repeated one of the chants heard at the protest, “We will not give up!” adding:
All the tears that we shed will turn into hope, in the eyes of my mother, siblings, everyone fighting for this cause, and especially my son, Karam
Another feminist activist who has been advocating for women's rights for years, explained why this protest was unique:
I think that this protest was one of the most important protests when it comes to women's rights in Lebanon, since it has been organized and led by women from the Shiite sect, and since it was led by women who have been excluded from the activism scene in Lebanon.
The young activist added:
For the first time, we saw women and men talking about patriarchy in a way they have never did before. We heard women and men defending women's rights, and talking about how religion has stopped women from getting their rights.
Sources close to the case told Global Voices on Wednesday, November 16, that there should be a final agreement for all parties:
Tomorrow, on Thursday the 17th of November, Fatima will be facing her husband at the court, and the judges have suggested a “conciliation.”
Global Voices was told that Fatima is reportedly prepared to surrender her monetary rights after divorcing her husband, in order to keep her son. This, says the source, amounts to blackmail, since it exempts her husband from his financial responsibilities towards her and their son.
Another source, who also preferred to remain anonymous, told Global Voices that Fatima has asked for a very small amount of child support, since she has been taking care of all the expenses for the past several years. The source added:
Why doesn't the father take care of his son?… Is it enough to cry on a TV show only and say that he misses him?
The court has not issued any decision related to the couple's expenses since 2015. Throughout the years, moreover, the court has ignored Fatima's various requests.
This left her lost, not knowing whether she will get divorced or not. Just as her husband wanted her to be
At the time of this writing, Fatima's first court appearance was scheduled. According to her sister:
In the court session which was supposed to be for conciliation today, neither Fatima nor her husband attended. Only their lawyers were at the court. The session was postponed for next Thursday, and Fatima and her husband are expected to attend it to find a final solution. Today, however, the husband's lawyer proposed a solution to the dispute regarding the part related to the child only, while Fatima's lawyer (her sister Fadia Hamza) demanded that the conflict is fully resolved, including the part related to the father's responsibility in providing the mother and the child's financial expenses. The husband's lawyer demanded that the boy stays for three days with the father and 4 days with the mother, while the judge suggested the child stays for five days with the mother, and two days with the father. However, the mother sees that the boy would be lost if this solution was implemented, especially since he must go to school.
We still do not know how this case will develop. Are we witnessing the rebirth of the pro women's rights movement in Lebanon?

author: Zeina Nasser


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Despite Suppression, Founder of Prize-winning Chinese Citizen Journalism Website Remains Optimistic · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Huang Qi celebrating with Tianwang volunteers after being released from prison in 2011. Photo: Supplied by Huang Qi.
This post was written by Catherine Lai and originally published on Hong Kong Free Press on November 12, 2016. The version below is published on Global Voices under a partnership agreement.
Despite the continued detention of his reporters and having been imprisoned twice, the founder of the citizen news site 64 Tianwang says suppression will help the organization grow.
Reporters Without Borders on November 7 awarded its Press Freedom Prize to 64 Tianwang, which is widely recognized as a pioneering human rights defence website in China.
In an interview with HKFP, Huang said that the award is a way to recognize the work of their volunteer citizen journalists, nine of whom are currently detained and five have been released on bail, according to Tianwang. Six Tianwang citizen journalists were detained for their coverage of the G20 summit in Hangzhou in September. One of them is still in detention.
Despite the continued crackdown, Huang Qi and his volunteers have continued their work.
In 1998, 64 Tianwang started out under a different name as an organization that focused on human trafficking, which Tianwang founder Huang Qi described as a “serious problem in the late 1990s.” The site was established the following year. Huang Qi, a Sichuan resident, founded the project with money from his previous career as a businessman and factory owner.
He told Hong Kong Free Press:
As we were helping these people who had gotten lost or separated from their loved ones or who had gone missing, we discovered that in the mainland, behind these cases were judicial corruption or human rights infringements, so we expanded our work.
At times, their work has earned Tianwang positive coverage from mainland media, including from the People’s Daily, which is the largest official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. But they have also been criticized for their reporting on human rights.
Huang was jailed for five years for subversion in 2003 after hosting on his site articles about the 1989 pro-democracy movement in China that resulted in the Tiananmen massacre. He was again jailed for three years for “possession of state secrets” after investigating allegations that poor construction contributed to the deaths of schoolchildren in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. He said:
I’m scared of being sent back to jail too, but so many people are suffering worse than us. And our work can help alleviate their suffering […] We also believe that Chinese society will finally progress towards democracy and rule of law.
Today, Tianwang is an independent news site that posts articles and information about human rights incidents in China, including detentions by police, forced demolitions, petitioner activism and demonstrations.
Huang even stood up for the rights of disgraced former public security chief Zhou Yongkang, calling for the authorities to protect his rights and not to treat him as a scapegoat.
We hope that in mainland China, everyone will have an equal judicial environment, and that [they] will not use double standards to deal with Chinese officials.
Although the site is blocked in China, Huang thinks it is still reaching domestic readers. He said:
They have all sorts of tools to get around the blocks… and they have their own ways of sharing posts.
The site is read by thousands of Chinese citizens, rights organizations, foreign media, and government officials and police – some who are wary of the site reporting their misdeeds and others who are hoping for things to change.
When asked if he was worried that the award might cause suppression to increase, Huang said:
In 18 years, we’ve met with many kinds of suppression, but we’ve never yielded. We also think that this kind of suppression is a necessary condition to help us grow and help us perfect our work.
He said:
In 18 years, no 64 Tianwang volunteer has ever agreed to sign a confession drafted by the authorities […] The main reason they haven’t confessed is that they themselves believe that what they’re doing is right. Their actions are in accordance with the charter of the People’s Republic of China and its related laws, and Xi Jinping’s principle of the rule of law, and the principle of a harmonious society.
He told state media in 1999 that Tianwang would become a media organization on par with outlets like the Washington Post, the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and CNN.
When asked if he had attained this standard, he said:
Right now, our standard is still very poor, because we have poor material conditions and we are constantly met with suppression. But in the future, we will definitely do a great job.
Huang helping victims of the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. Photo: VOA.
Despite the authorities’ suppression of their work, Huang remains optimistic – to some, maybe, unreasonably so. Huang insists that the human rights situation is improving in China if viewed in the context of wider trends as opposed to individual cases, even though human rights organizations have said that the situation is deteriorating under current president Xi Jinping.
The human rights situation in mainland China has changed hugely in the past 18 years… I think that eventually – at worst in eight or ten years – China will achieve real press freedom.

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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“Golden Ridicule”: St. Petersburg Street Artist Mocks Officials Who Send Their Children Abroad · Global Voices
Darina Gribova

Hioshi's “Golden Ridicule (Or, Please Take My Son)” in St. Petersburg. Republished with permission.
Hioshi, the pseudonym for an anonymous Russian artist who is known for exhibiting small pieces of art on the streets of Saint Petersburg, debuted an installation earlier this week. “Golden Ridicule (Or, Please Take My Son)” portrays several Russian officials being put through a golden meat grinder; one of them is holding a newborn baby, asking a young graduate to take his son abroad with him so that, according to Hioshi, “he doesn't have to grow up in a world of his father's legislation.”
The installation, which stands about 10 inches (25 cm) high and is made of ceramic, iron and acryl, appeared a couple of days ago along the Bolshaya Neva River in Saint Petersburg.
В Петербурге на улице появилась инсталляция «золотая мясорубка с чиновниками»https://t.co/OYR0kiQqrr pic.twitter.com/IkmSIdBXNE
— Йод (@YodNews) November 16, 2016
A “golden meatgrinder with officials” installation appears in St. Petersburg.
“The more officials and deputies come up with legislative and regulatory initiatives, the more persistent they are in their desire for their children to move as far away as possible from Russia,” Hioshi told RuNet Echo.  The piece, he says, criticizes officials’ pretend patriotism and their artificial animus towards the West. The street artist says he chose a golden meat grinder because it perfectly describes Russian officials’ lives: “Imagine a swamp or quicksand that sucks you down – where there is no bottom, and every move you make, every stir, makes you sink deeper and deeper, together with those around you.”
Countless high-ranking Russian officials send their children abroad to be educated: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, United Russia MP Sergey Zheleznyak, former Russian Railways president Vladimir Yakunin, and numerous others have children who are currently studying in the West.
The installation is Hioshi's reaction to a recent piece of draft legislation that would ban official's children from studying overseas. “My installations will hardly change the situation in Russia, or even affect those who are corrupted, very patriotic, or religious – they have locked themselves in a dark closet together with [state television host and propagandist Dmitry] Kiselyov and [MP and anti-LGBTQ campaigner Vitaly] Milonov, hissing towards the West from their cozy comfort zone,” Hioshi says. “But for those who sees through the lies and groundless hatred on state programs, for those who hope desperately for fair elections, I want to send a signal with my art: never say die. There is still life glimmering here; you are not alone.”
Hioshi's most significant installations include “Studio Rules of Composition” (2016), which is dedicated Russia's incommodious and unobtainable housing, and “TV Dinner” (2015) which features a dining family of four transfixed by state-owned TV station Channel One.

author: Darina Gribova


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In Trump’s New America, San Francisco Is Building ‘Walls of Empathy’ · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

Image of the Wall of Empathy at the 16th Street BART station in San Francisco. Photo from the Wall of Empathy Facebook event page.
Along with the hundreds of anti-Trump protests across the US, collaborative walls of empathy went up at subway stations in San Francisco to offer group therapy after one of the most divisive and polarizing election seasons in American history.
Muriel MacDonald, Tamilla Mir, and Melissa Goldman, the three-women organizing team behind a San Francisco collaborative art project, said they were inspired by a similar “post-it event” in New York, and they decided to name their project the “Wall of Empathy” — partly as a play on words aimed at President-elect Trump's promised wall between the United States and Mexico.
San Francisco is one of the most progressive cities in the US and voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton. President-elect Trump only received 10 percent of the vote from this city/county, and his campaign that rode on bigotry, sexism, and racism is unacceptable to many, in the city, as well as Californians throughout the state, where nearly twice as many voters supported Clinton over Trump.
About three thousand people RSVPed for the “Wall of Empathy” event and within 24 hours thousands of colorful post-it messages lined the walls at three San Francisco subway stops.
The temporary walls were created at three of the busiest stops in the city: 16th and Mission, 24th and Mission, and Montgomery — two of which are in San Francisco's historic Latino district, the Mission. As soon as commuters would come up the escalators, they would see the post-it walls, markers, and notes. Many got busy reading the notes and some started writing their messages of support.
The collective behind the art project is using the hashtag #WallofEmpathy and calling themselves “Dumbledore’s Army” (a reference to the fictional guerrilla group in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.) and @DAGuerillas on social media. The project started on November 14 and will be live until the evening on November 18, when they will have a closing event of music-making and conversation, before dismantling the temporary art project.
“Dumbledore’s Army” hopes to continue creating “radical acts of public art” to counter the “Trump effect.” Global Voices got in touch with one of the group's three organizers, Tamilla Mir, whose interview you can read below.
Global Voices (GV): What personally motivated you to organize the Wall of Empathy?
Tamilla Mir (TM): I was born behind a wall in a communist country, Azerbaijan. It took two years to reunite with my mother in US. We were not sure what would happen but wanted to search for a better life, the American dream if you will. This past week's election has shook a lot of immigrants and families who've escaped violence and corrupt governments. Empathy ultimately comes from place of pain and loss and that why I wanted to bring the community together and share positive messages that we are not alone and that we can overcome whatever might happen in the next four years.
Wall of Empathy on 16th and Mission BART station. Photo by Instagram user @mzhangx
GV: What surprised you about the participation? Did any interactions stand out?
TM: The overwhelming positive reaction was the most beautiful part. When you stand in front of the wall and you read hundreds of notes that say “I love you” “I'm am with you” “Let's stand together”, it builds an intense powerful feeling. When we started setting up 7 am on Monday, we had five notes, three of which we wrote. In the next couple hours, people started writing, by the end of Monday the whole wall was covered and it kept going. My favorite part is to see people coming up the escalators with headphones, from the gym, from work and look up, read a couple of the notes and then decide whether they want to write something positive as well. My favorite note is “I hate you, but I love you”
Photo by Instagram user @DAGuerilla.
GV: Did the wall kickstart any conversations to bridge the divide?
TM: I saw a man in a suite sharing a cigarette with a homeless man, they chatted about weed legalization. We had a man interviewed who said he has never cried after an election and has cried twice this week. I spoke to a woman in Spanish who has been in US for 26 years and paid taxes for 20 years and she has hard time explaining to her kids what's happening. This event was very last minute [and] put together [in a hurry] but it was reassuring to see those conversations happen. We want to do a better job bringing people from different community members together in future projects.
GV: Tell us about the other organizers. How did you come to collaborate together?
TM: My co-organizer Muriel and I have been friends for awhile. We met through mutual friends. We both shared shock and deep sadness after last weeks’ elections. We wanted to do something beyond reading Facebook articles or posting comments on friend's walls. She brought on Melissa, who helped us reach media outlets and organize during the event. We are hoping to continue to use participatory art projects in public spaces to draw attention to pressing issues and bring people together and take action.
Close-up shot at 16th Street station by Instagram user oohlulu.
GV: San Francisco is one of the most diverse and tolerant cities in the US, how can we help transport that culture across the US?
TM: I think San Francisco is diverse and tolerant but we also have issues of losing this diversity due high cost of living. I think we can show that diversity is good and that people working together makes a world a better place, that would be a powerful message to the rest of the country.
GV: What advice do you have for people of color, immigrants or members of the LGBTQ community who are struggling to find the capacity to engage with the other side that voted for Trump?
TM: I think at some point when you start hating the other side, you no longer see them as people and instead they become an image of an enemy. You stop seeing their struggle and the pain that they are suffering. At that point violence evokes more violence and as Mahatma Gandhi would say “eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind”. That is my worst fear after this election. This is the time to come to together and stand up for America we are all proud of and not just one only benefits the few.
GV: Trump's plans for America hit at many of your identities: immigrant, Muslim, woman. What gives you hope?
TM: This wall gave me a lot of hope, honestly. Reading hundreds of messages of people who support immigrants, who are accepting of other religions, who encourage to take action. While the country seems pretty divided, I am really excited by how many people are waking up from their daily lives and starting to engage about larger issues.

author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


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Netizen Report: Trump Win Triggers Safety and Surveillance Fears · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Images from February 2014 anti-surveillance demonstrations, from top left: a mural by War Design art collective in Bogota, Colombia; a public protest in Manila, Philippines (photo by ; a public rally in San Francisco, US (photo by Ellery Biddle); an anti-surveillance cartoon by Egyptian cartoonist Doaa Eladl.
In the week since real estate and reality TV mogul Donald Trump won the US presidential election, reports of harassment and hate speech online and off have spiked in the United States.
Alongside many one-off incidents of identity-based harassment online, one case has stood out as a upsetting example of how networked technologies can be used to target specific groups. Dozens of African-American students at the University of Pennsylvania discovered on November 12 that a former classmate had used their Facebook profile information to build a list on the platform GroupMe, where instigators used racial epithets, called students “dumb slaves”, and promoted an event called “The Daily Lynching,” a reference to the post-Civil War phenomenon of mob killings of people of African descent.
Journalists and activists reporting hate crimes online are also routinely experiencing second-wave harassment, simply for speaking out about these acts of violence. According to research from the Southern Poverty Law Center, immigrants and people of color have been the most common targets of reported incidents. New York Daily News journalist Shaun King, who has been independently collecting reports in coordination with civic groups, estimated that 70% of those targeted are women.
It hasn’t helped that platforms like Facebook and Twitter are unable to respond to the volume of hateful and inciting speech on their platforms with strong and consistent policy enforcement, despite the fact that they forbid hate speech and incitement to violence. As Think Progress’s Lauren Williams points out, “Online harassment, whether it’s sexist, racist, anti-Semitic— is likely to stay unless tech companies decide untrammeled free speech no longer outweighs consumers’ desire to have abuse-free platforms.”
While these acts can’t be explicitly blamed on the President Elect, it is easy to see how supporters of a candidate who ran on a rhetoric of prejudice towards women, people of color, Muslims and Latinos, and proposed to create a registry of Muslims in the US, would act on the sentiments behind these ideas.
And what of the promised registry? Kansas Secretary of State and Trump advisor Kris Kobach says Trump’s transition team is discussing a “Muslim registration” system through which Muslims would carry a unique form of ID that denoted their religion. In a November interview with Reuters, Kobach said the team had also discussed reinstating the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, a program developed under the administration of George W. Bush, in which male immigrants and visitors from select countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia were required to undergo fingerprinting, interrogation and be photographed, and to maintain regular communication with immigration officials regarding their whereabouts.
The program was discontinued under the Obama administration after multiple organizations including the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a civil suit arguing that the program violated constitutional rights to privacy. CAIR and the American Civil Liberties Union have vowed to take the government back to court if the registry comes to fruition.
Befeqadu Hailu, a member of the Zone9 collective, a Global Voices author and one of the best-known voices in Ethiopia’s stifled media environment, was arrested on November 10, 2016. Authorities told him that an interview he gave on Voice of America about Ethiopia's state of emergency was the reason for his arrest. Since the government declared an official “state of emergency” last month, social media and mobile Internet connections have been periodically blocked and any form of speech or gesture indicating opposition to the government can merit punishment.
A few days prior to Befeqadu’s arrest, Global Voices contributors and contact in Ethiopia reported that the international citizen media website was no longer accessible in the country. Technical tests conducted by Global Voices’ partners have since confirmed their findings.
Saudi authorities arrested women’s rights activist Mariam al-Oteebi on November 1, following a complaint submitted by her father for “parental disobedience”. Al-Oteebi has been very active in the online campaign #IamMyOwnGuardian, launched by women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia to call for an end to the male guardianship system. Under the system, women must have the consent of a “male guardian”, usually a father, husband, brother or even a son, to travel, get married, and work. According to Saudi activists, al-Oteebi has previously been harassed by her brother, over her Twitter profile photo, which displays her passport and national ID card.
The trial of Colombian biologist Diego Gomez, who is facing charges for sharing an academic paper online for which he did not have copyright, has been postponed yet again. The case against Gomez, which has been in progress for three years is likely to set an important precedent in Colombia for the right to access knowledge online.
According to estimates by the Bahraini rights advocacy group, Bahrain Watch, Internet disruptions in the protest-village of Duraz, have cost residents at least 265,000 USD since 20 June 2016. A previous investigation published by the same group revealed that ISPs were imposing “an internet curfew” in Duraz, a hotbed of anti-regime protests, by deliberately shutting off internet service from 7:00 pm to 1:00 am on a daily basis by disabling cell towers and dropping about 90% of packets on fixed-line connections.
Turkey expanded the network throttling campaign it began in Kurdistan in late October by blocking circumvention tools including Tor, Hotspot Shield, Tunnel Bear and Psiphon. Though Turkey has instituted Internet blockages before, Turkish netizens say the current blocks are unusually expansive. The disruptions have been linked to the arrests of Kurdish party leaders.
The UK parliament passed the long-debated Investigatory Powers Act on November 16, codifying practices of requiring telecommunications companies to store and provide the government with access to a wide range of user data, and to break encryption at the government’s behest.
Ecuador’s national assembly is debating a draft law addressing privacy and data protection. The draft law aims to protect the privacy of personal data that can be found in databases, electronic archives and other physical and digital platforms. It also extends specific protections for data pertaining to public servants. This element of law has raised concern among academic and civil society groups.
In Oman, the online independent newspaper Albalad which was launched in 2012 and covered a range of topics in the sultanate including politics, economy and culture, put an end to its operations on November 3. In a farewell post, the newspaper mentioned pressures it had faced in the past but did not specify a reason behind this decision. Albalad’s closure coincides with a broader crackdown on press freedom in Oman. Last August, the government closed the daily newspaper Alzamn and suspended its website over a report on government interference with the judiciary.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Weiping Li, Leila Nachawati, Laura Vidal and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Under a Fiscal Control Board, Puerto Rican Voter Abstention Is at an All-Time High · Global Voices
Ángel Carrión

As the world anxiously observed the US elections, Puerto Rico, a US territory, also held its general election on Tuesday, November 8. And in a place that prides itself for historically having very high voting participation, turnout in these elections reached a new low.
The illustration reads: “Don't forget to vote,” but uses a play on words. Normally, “to vote” would be written with a “v,” but in this case the artist decided to write it using a “b,” which changes the meaning to “to throw out [the garbage].” The red and blue represent the colors of the two largest political parties in Puerto Rico, red for the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) and blue for the New Progressive Party (NPP). Image by Kike Estrada and taken from planetakike.com. Used with permission.
While the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP in Spanish) is celebrating that its candidate, Ricardo Rosselló Nevares, was elected governor and that they achieved a majority in the Legislature, the fact remains that voter participation for these elections reached only 55.09%, according to the official numbers of the State Electoral Commission (Comisión Estatal de Elecciones, or CEE, in Spanish). This number is extremely low, considering that Puerto Rico traditionally has had a turnout of well over 75%. This year's numbers represent a huge drop from 78.19% in the 2012 election.
Another point of interest is the fact that Ricardo Rosselló won the election with only 655,626 votes, or 41.76%. This is the number that is usually used when discussing by how much a candidate won an election. Bear in mind that Puerto Rico has a population of roughly 3.5 million, of which approximately 2.9 million were registered to vote. This means that the governor was elected only by a little over 22% of registered voters, or roughly 19% of the population. This is the first time that a candidate for governor has been elected to office with such low numbers.
One of the main theories for the widespread abstention is that these are the first elections held under the fiscal control board imposed by the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, or PROMESA. Composed of seven unelected members, the fiscal control board was created by the US Congress with bipartisan support and imbued with powers that override Puerto Rico's already limited constitution. With the aim of tackling the archipelago's $72 billion debt, the board answers only to Congress, not the Puerto Rican people.
This has prompted many to question whether even having elections was worth the trouble, since the board has control over the government's budget, revenues and operations.
It is worth pointing out that some of the voters who abstained from participating in this election may have done so out of the conviction that to vote in Puerto Rico means to validate colonial rule. Historically, this has been a position long held by some supporters of Puerto Rican independence.
The two political parties hardest hit by voter abstention were the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP in Spanish) and the Working People's Party (PPT in Spanish). Because the electoral law in Puerto Rico is rather archaic, both parties now have to start yet again the long and uphill process of gathering signatures in order to be considered an official political party with representation and participation at the electoral commission due to their low amount of votes each got in this election — 2.13% and 0.34%, respectively.
University of Puerto Rico professor of political sciences Ángel Israel Rivera, writing for the digital magazine 80 grados, called for a reform of the electoral system in Puerto Rico:
Bien mirado el problema, las elecciones de 2016 podrían ser un buen momento para iniciar un movimiento masivo de indignados a favor de un CAMBIO en el tipo de sistema electoral que existe en Puerto Rico. Un sistema que es tan injusto y tan limitado que produce bipartidismo o partido único hegemónico y nada más. ¿Por qué? Pues porque la forma de elegir legisladores está prediseñada para excluir de nuestra Asamblea Legislativa a los pequeños partidos y a los candidatos independientes. Un sistema que es tan antidemocrático que en un distrito puede ganar la representación total un partido que sea el más votado con 40%, a pesar de que los demás partidos obtengan, entre todos, un 60%. Es decir, a pesar de que el partido “ganador” sea realmente minoritario. Un sistema que le hace muy difícil a los partidos de minoría, si entraran a la Asamblea Legislativa, promover y afectar la legislación porque el partido mayoritario (sea el PPD o PNP) se cree con el derecho siempre, o casi siempre, a gobernar y legislar mediante caucus partidista.
If the problem is properly looked at, the 2016 elections could be a good moment to initiate a massive movement of indignant people in favor of CHANGING the electoral system in Puerto Rico. A system that is so unfair and so limited that it produces bipartisanship or a hegemonic single party and nothing else. Why? Well, because the way to elect legislators is predesigned to exclude smaller parties and independent candidates from the legislative assembly. A system that is so antidemocratic that a party could win the representation of an entire district with only 40% of the vote, in spite of other parties obtaining 60%, combined. In other words, disregarding the fact that the “winning” party is actually in the minority. A system that makes it extremely difficult for minority parties, if they enter the legislative assembly, to promote and affect legislation because the majority party (be it the PPD or PNP) believes itself with the right to always, or nearly always, to govern and to legislate through a partisan caucus.
This phenomenon of high voter abstention has garnered very little comment in mainstream media, which in the days immediately following the election was busy commenting on a novelty in Puerto Rican elections: the two independent candidates.
Alexandra Lúgaro and Manuel Cidre both ran as independent candidates for governor and were not affiliated to any of Puerto Rico's four political parties. In spite of this, they managed to obtain 11.12% and 5.73% of the votes, respectively, thanks in large part to their use of social media during their campaigns and the general malaise of the population towards the two main political parties that dominate the Puerto Rican political scene: the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) and the PNP. Considering that both candidates were relative unknowns at the time they announced their candidacy, the figures are considerable.
Another reason for the little attention Puerto Rico's high voter abstention has largely been overlooked is that most of the attention was focused on the US presidential victory of Donald Trump and the implications for Puerto Rico.
Indeed, comparisons were being made between Trump and Ricardo Rosselló since before the election. Ricardo Rosselló is the son of the controversial former Governor Pedro Rosselló (1993-2000), whose administration is notorious for having contributed a sizable amount of the $72 billion debt that Puerto Rico now struggles against.
Also writing for 80 grados, journalist Manuel Martínez Maldonado had this to say a day before the election:
Como Mr. Trump, el señor Rosselló entró mintiendo. Exageró sus destrezas, consiguió un puesto que no se merecía [en la Universidad de Puerto Rico]; ha sido acusado de plagio, de copiarse los supuestos planes que tiene para el país de documentos que ya existían, y repite lo que ya hemos oído antes con adornos banales. …[S]abemos que de salir gobernador no será él quien toque ni pito ni flauta.
Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Rosselló entered lying. He exaggerated his skills, landed a job he didn't deserve [at the University of Puerto Rico], has been accused of plagiarism, of copying the supposed plans he has for the country from documents that already exist and repeats what we have already heard before with banal adornments. …[W]e know that should he be elected governor, it won't be him calling the shots.
It remains to be seen whether or not voters in Puerto Rico will continue to abstain from participating in future electoral events or if this is only because the archipelago is still reeling from a year full of bad news regarding its economy and sovereignty. The only thing that seems clear is that the next four years will be hard for both the people of Puerto Rico and the new administration, which isn't favored by a majority of the population.

author: Ángel Carrión


text:
Eastern Aleppo Health Director: Due to Systematic Attacks Against Hospitals, All Are Now Out of Service · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

English translation of the statement released by the Aleppo Health Directorate on Friday November 18, 2016. Source: SOAS Syria Society. Original Arabic.
Following some of the deadliest bombardments by the Syrian regime and Russian government on besieged Eastern Aleppo, the Aleppo Health Directorate announced that all remaining hospitals in Aleppo are out of service.
In a statement released on Friday November 18, 2016, the Aleppo Health Directorate said:
لقد خرجت كل المشافي العاملة بمدينة حلب الحرة عن الخدمة نتيجة القصف الممنهج والمستمر لهذه المشافي خلال اليومين الماضيين من قبل قوات النظام والطيران الروسي. وهذا التدمير المتعمد للبنى التحتية الأساسية للحياة جعل الشعب الصامد والمحاصر بكل أطفاله وشيوخه ورجاله ونسائه بدون أي مرفق صحي  يقدم لهم العلاج وفرص إنقاذ أرواحهم ويتركهم للموت الذي يسعى له النظام ولم ينفك يبحث عن وسيلة للقضاء على شعبنا الصامد.
مديرية صحة محافظة حلب
الدكتور عبد الباسط ابراهيم
All hospitals operating in Free [east] Aleppo are now out of service due to the systematic and continuous bombardment by the regime and Russian air forces over the last two days.
This deliberate targeting of vital infrastructure has left the besieged and tenacious people of Aleppo, children, women, men and elderly, without any facilities providing healthcare or a change to save their lives. They now face death which has all along been the aim of the regime that left no method untried to eliminate our resolute people.
Dr. Abdul-Baset Ibrahim
Aleppo Governorate Health Directorate
Other reports state that some hospitals are still functioning. Speaking to CNN, Dr Mazen Kewara of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) said:
The Aleppo Media Center (AMC) told CNN that there are only five hospitals operating in Aleppo.
This affects the over 250,000 civilians trapped in the city, who are now facing immediate danger.
In an article entitled “More than 250,000 in Eastern Aleppo could die after the next 20 days” and published on November 17, 2016, Raed Saleh, the head of the organization White Helmets, the Syrian Civil Defense, Dr. Ahmad Tarakji, the president of SAMS and Laila Soudi, who works with SAMS and the psychiatry department at the Stanford University School of Medicine, wrote that:
Today, more than 250,000 Syrians remain trapped in besieged eastern Aleppo with limited access to food, clean water and medical supplies. Living under constant aerial bombardment, residents in the eastern part of the city have nowhere to go. Eastern Aleppo is expected to run out of food and medical supplies in 20 days or less, after which we risk losing more than a quarter-million people to mass starvation and restricted access to lifesaving medical care.
Lina Sergie Attar, co-founder of the Syrian charity ‘Karam Foundation‘ reminded her followers of the sheer scale of Russian and Syrian regime bombing in the last 24 hours alone.
Imagine you lived in a city with no hospitals. None. Now imagine that city was bombed 900 times in the last 24 hours. This is #Aleppo.
— Lina Sergie Attar (@AmalHanano) 19 November 2016
But whereas airstrikes are not always discernible, the use of barrel bombs has become a signature of the Syrian regime. Among the most recent barrel bombs attacks were:
BREAKING: Sakhour district, a civilian populated area of Aleppo has just witnessed 2 barrel bomb attacks by Syrian Air Force.
— Rami Jarrah (@RamiJarrah) 18 November 2016
BREAKING: The Saif al Dowleh area of Aleppo just witnessed a barrel bomb attack claiming the lives of at least 2 and wounding over a dozen
— Rami Jarrah (@RamiJarrah) 19 November 2016
There have also been multiple reports of the Assad regime's use of Chlorine gas:
Suffocation cases between the civilians in Masaken #Hanano after #Assad helicopters throwing barrel bomb loaded with chlorine gas
— Ahmad Alkhatib (@AhmadAlkhtiib) 18 November 2016
Reports of a new Assad barrel bomb chlorine gas attack targeting the Ard al-Hamra area in #Aleppo, #Syria
— Sami (@Paradoxy13) 19 November 2016
The news quickly mobilized journalists and activists who are using their social media presence to amplify Dr Ibrahim's statement.
Aleppo-based Syrian neurosurgeon and activist Omar Ibrahim shared:
“Whoever saves 1 life saves all humanity.” All Eastern Aleppo hospitals destroyed. Speak up. #aleppowithouthospitals #standwithaleppo pic.twitter.com/m7yFlRsVvK
— Omar Ibrahim (@Neurosurg_Omar) 18 November 2016
Aleppo-based Syrian journalist Hadi Abdallah, who was recently honored with Reporters Without Borders’ journalist of the year award, said:
Continuing systematic targeting of hospitals, pro-regime air strikes destroy Hakeem Children's Hospital & Bayan Hospital in besieged Aleppo. pic.twitter.com/Y0cwMhkmGQ
— هادي العبدالله Hadi (@HadiAlabdallah) 18 November 2016
Dr Zaher Sahloul, a Syrian-American doctor and co-founder of SAMS who was recently interviewed by Global Voices, said:
S.O.S. Urgent! All remaining hospitals have been bombed by #Assad/Putin airstrikes & shelling.The situation is catastrophic!#StandWithAleppo
— Zaher Sahloul (@sahloul) 18 November 2016
Borzou Daraghi, Middle Eastern correspondent for BuzzFeed News, said:
Letter by Aleppo health association says all city's hospitals inoperable because of Assad/Putin bombardment. Nowhere to treat the wounded. pic.twitter.com/WoeM77qU8c
— Borzou Daragahi (@borzou) 19 November 2016
London-based journalist Emma Beals released a series of tweets offering some context for the doctor's statement. She emphasized the regime's notorious tactics designed to force rebel-held areas into submission.
She also reminded her followers that the methods used in Aleppo were already used by the regime in other liberated areas such as Daraya and Douma.
As of this evening, all hospitals w/ emergency facilities in #Aleppo are out, food rations are now gone, heavy bombardment is continuing 1/
— Emma Beals (@ejbeals) 19 November 2016
The siege, in place since July, some four months ago, is tightened. Regime's ‘Siege & starve’ + ‘submit or die’ strategies converging 2/
— Emma Beals (@ejbeals) 19 November 2016
Situation in #Aleppo is neither a surprise, nor a one-off. Same siege policy has been used to cripple areas all over #Syria since 2012 3/
— Emma Beals (@ejbeals) 19 November 2016
Heavy bombardment to force submission has come on the back of siege across #Syria to force evac. We saw it in #Darayya and now in #Douma 4/
— Emma Beals (@ejbeals) 19 November 2016
While attention of UN, UNSC, US, Russia and much media was on #Aleppo, this policy has been implemented to wrestle back control elsewhere 5/
— Emma Beals (@ejbeals) 19 November 2016
The policy has gone virtually unchallenged. It's woefully underestimated by outsiders. But regime and Russia now know it works v well. 6/
— Emma Beals (@ejbeals) 19 November 2016
#Aleppo is merely the largest example of this inhumane policy being enacted. Screws are on in the same way in east-#Ghouta, al-#Waer too. 7/
— Emma Beals (@ejbeals) 19 November 2016
Look, in al-#Waer egime has ‘lost’ 6k local detainees so evac plan stalled, bombings now are to force oppo's hand. Nobody even noticed. 8/
— Emma Beals (@ejbeals) 19 November 2016
#Douma in truce negotiation, bombings to ‘remind’ them of the wisdom of that, forcing evac would be a massive strategic win for regime 9/
— Emma Beals (@ejbeals) 19 November 2016
Finally, guardian journalist Kareem Shaheen said:
All hospitals in east Aleppo are now out of service due to regime airstrikes. The world stood by and watched as a people were murdered.
— Kareem Shaheen (@kshaheen) 18 November 2016
After a systematic campaign of annihilation, all of East Aleppo's hospitals have been put out of service, on the world's watch.
— Kareem Shaheen (@kshaheen) 18 November 2016

author: Elia J. Ayoub


text:
No Surprise: Backdoors and Spyware on Smartphones is the Norm in China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Remix image.
Kryptowire, a security firm, recently identified several models of Android mobile devices that have preinstalled permanent software, known as firmware, that serve as backdoor that collects sensitive personal data, including text messages, geolocations, contact lists, call logs and transmits them to a third-party server in Shanghai, China.
Without users’ consent, the code can bypass Android's permission model. This could allow anyone interested in a mobile user's data — from government officials to malicious hackers — to execute remote commands with system privileges and even reprogram the devices.
The firmware was developed by Chinese company Shanghai ADUPS Technology Company. ADUPS confirmed the report with a  statement explaining that the software was a “solution” to a Chinese phone manufacturer’s demand to “flag junk texts and calls” in response to user demand. It said the collected messages would be analyzed to “identify junk texts” and “improve mobile phone experience.”
Kryptowire's research reveals that the collected information was protected with multiple layers of encryption and then transmitted over secure web protocols to a server located in Shanghai. The data transmission occurred every 72 hours for text messages and call log information, and every 24 hours for other personally identifiable information.
ADUPS explained that the “accustomed” firmware was accidentally built into 120,000 mobile products of one American phone manufacturer, BLU Products. After BLU raised the issue, ADUPS explained that the software was not designed for American phones and deactivated the program on Blu phones.
The news has been widely reported in foreign media as ADUPS is among the largest FOTA (firmware over the air) providers in the world. The company provides a cloud platform for mobile device management to over 700 million active users in 200 countries, which is equivalent to 70% of the global market share as it works closely with the world largest cheap mobile phone manufacturers ZTE and Huawei, both of which are based in China. In 2015 alone, Huawei sold more than 100 million smartphones.
Chinese netizens have not been surprised by the news. Reports about spyware preinstalled in Chinese mobile brands have circulated for many years among mainland and overseas Chinese speaking-communities. In 2014, Hong Kong Android Magazine reported that Xiaomi’s smartphones designed for overseas markets were automatically connecting to an IP in Beijing and that all documents, SMS and phone logs, and video files downloaded were being transmitted to a Beijing server.
In 2015, Germany-based security company G-Data also found out that at least 26 Android mobile brands had preinstalled spyware in their smartphones. The three biggest Chinese smartphone manufacturers, Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo were all listed.
China's newly passed Cybersecurity Law has provided legal ground for the smartphone’s backdoor operation. The law requires “critical information infrastructure operators” to store users’ “personal information and other important business data” in China.
Other laws, such as the Child Protection Bill (still in draft), also requires hardware companies to pre-install surveillance software on communication devices and legalize specific approaches to treating internet addiction, all in the interest of protecting children.
In addition to the surveillance of private data as required by law, Chinese Android phone users regularly download Android apps from unofficial third party app markets since Google left China in 2010. These Android markets are flooded with apps containing malware that can steal and manipulate personal data.
On November 16, the New York Times reported that American authorities say it is not clear whether this represents secretive data mining for advertising purposes or a Chinese government effort to collect intelligence.
In response to the news, many Chinese netizens are pointing out the abusive use of personal data and government surveillance has become the norm.
信息泄露人们早就见惯了，即使是被Gov监视人们也不会在意。we are nobody.
We are so used to the leaking of personal data. We don’t care about government surveillance anymore. We are nobody.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Sharing the Untold Stories of Child Abuse to Raise Awareness in Bangladesh · Global Voices
Rezwan

I was only four. He was my brother-in-law. While playing on the roof he used to slip his hands inside my pants or tops. As I prevented him from doing that he threatened to throw me off the roof. #ChildAbuse (Image used with permission from “Meye”)
Bangladesh is home to about 53 million children aged 0-14, who constitute around 34 percent of the country's total population. Child abuse is rampant in society, especially among the rural poor, street children and the vast workforce of child labourers. Most of these traumatic events and crimes still go unheard as families actively suppress them in fear of losing face or getting ostracised from society.
However, now that a women's network is sharing untold stories of child abuse and the government has launched a helpline to prevent child abuse there is finally hope for Bangladeshis that such crimes can be prevented in the future.
Child abuse has many forms and a child can be harmed by an adult through physical, sexual or emotional means. From a very young age children are vulnerable and abuse generally starts with people close to them — their family or friends and neighbors, who take advantage of them. A lack of sexual education and awareness abets these crimes as many do not understand the seriousness of the incident or are too afraid to tell their parents.
The abuses become even more traumatic because even if the crimes become known, many families observe a forced “silence” to protect the children. In close-knit societies, families are compelled to settle the incident by local arbitration, often involving pressure from local influencers. Victims typically suffer from depression and other mental problems as they grow up.
Thanks to Meye (Bangla for “girl”), a non-profit women-led network which advocates for women's rights, empowerment and leadership, many victims are coming out of the closet and breaking a culture of silence. Founded in 2011, Meye has created a community of about 5,000 women to date, mostly connected via social media.
The campaign has already seen a number of horrifying stories shared anonymously on Facebook (see images with captions). Meye says the main goal of this initiative is to create a discussion about ways to prevent them and end the de facto impunity of perpetrators.
She was only two years old. A smiling child, Just starting to speak some words. She went to the village home on holiday with the family. But she changed after coming back. She used to cry in fear seeing strangers, “Uncle is coming, uncle is coming..” Her family thought she was possessed by Djinns. #ChildAbuse (Image used with permission)
Global Voices spoke with Salwa Mostafa, the key person behind the campaign.
Global Voices: What inspired you to start this campaign?
Salwa Mostafa: I undertook the campaign from my own volition, as I am a mother of a young child myself. Within Meye network some brave women had shared their horror stories of being abused as child. Once one person came forward, others also opened up and shared their dark memories. Many realised that they have similar past, but fear social retribution if they speak up. It was like opening pandora's box with ugly stories coming out. But everyone who did speak up, felt a relief to get that heavy burden off their chest, partly because a supportive network of women helped them feel that it was never their fault, as oppose to how society typically blames the victims. Once the stories were published on Facebook page, some men even approached us to share their stories. It seemed girls and boys alike are victims of abuse in our society. But men have even less space and more taboo to speak about it.
She was a student in class eight. She was alone at home when her maternal uncle came to visit. He pulled out his penis from his pants and told her. “Touch this, nothing will happen. I am your uncle.” #ChildAbuse (image used with permission)
GV: What responses are you receiving?
SM: We wanted to provide a platform to everyone to share their stories under anonymity through a simple online form. Within a week we had nearly 100 entries from women and men. And now we have more entries since it's going viral.
The work was too overwhelming, so I sought help from other Meye Network volunteers. Pratyasha Saha designed the images, Reejuta Sharmin and Smita Das helped draft the analysis and guidance write ups.
GV: What is the goal of this campaign?
SM: Our goal is not only sharing the stories but to provide guidance about preventing such kind of abuses. When someone spoke up, mothers/ parents expressed concern about how to protect their children from lurking predators. We also had examples of how parents had badly handled such a situation to make permanent damage to children. For every story of abuse, we try to analyse the situation, and suggest guideline on how to prevent or handle similar situation in the best manner. Because often times, child abuse is swept under the rug, because families are at shock and doesn't know how to deal with it. They assume hiding it from everyone, would make it go away, the child will soon forget and life will be back to normal. It is never the case. By repeating ourselves about the measures to take for prevention and aftermath of child abuse incident, we hope we will get people to at least think about it. Perhaps they will browse our pages to seek resources we provided under each image caption.
We had also contacted volunteer psychiatrists and had their reference handy in case any victim seeked further support.
When my sister was in class four, a teacher touched her breasts in an empty room. She pushed him and ran away. He tried this a few more times in the form of a class punishment. But she did not tell anyone in fear. She told her parents that she will not attend his class. My parents thought she was trying to skip class so they forced her to go to the classes. After all these years my mom finally heard the full story. And she was only angry a little. #ChildAbuse (used with permission)
Inspired by the initiative, more and more people in the country are opening up about the abuses in their lives. But until October this year the country lacked a national helpline to report such abuses.
The Bangladesh government has now launched the country's first nationwide toll free helpline for children facing violence, abuse and exploitation. Anyone can call the Child Helpline “1098” to report child rights violations, child abuse or exploitation.
Ehsanul Islam Tamim writes on Facebook:
শিশুদের যে কোন ধরনের নির্যাতনে ফোন করুন ১০৯৮ এই নাম্বারে, পয়সা লাগবে না। যদি ভেবে থাকেন সরকারী সেবা, লাভ হবে না, তবুও ফোন করুন, সমস্যাটা অন্তত জানান। এইদেশে পাঁচবছর বয়সী একটি মেয়ে ধর্ষিত হয়, সমাজ সেই শিশুটাকে পারলে সারাজীবন ধর্ষন করে। আমরা ধরেই নেই ছেলে শিশুদের সমস্যা নেই, তাদের সমস্যা রিপোর্ট হয় কম। [..]
আমরা যারা ফেসবুকে দেশ উদ্ধার করি, সব সমস্যার সমাধান করে ফেলি তাদের জন্য এটা একটা সুযোগ, কাজ করুন, একটা মাত্র ফোন করুন ১০৯৮ এ। হ্যাঁ, ১০৯৮ সব সমস্যার সমাধান দিবে না, সব চাওয়া এখনি হয়তো পূরণ করতে পারবে না কিন্তু যাত্রা শুরু হলো… এটা একটা অর্জন
Please call “1098” to report any abuse to any children, it won't cost you any money. If you think that it won't change anything, but do your duty, share the news of the crime. In this country, even five-year-old girls get raped, and the society rapes her further with stigma. We deem that male children are immune to abuse, but those are reported less. [..]
Those who want to make a difference with their social media posts by solving any problem, I urge to them – please act; just dial “1098” and share stories around you. Yes, “1098” may not give solution to every problem, cannot fulfil all your expectations. But this is a start… this is an achievement.
Hasan Md Naheen wrote on his personal blog that sex education from primary level and up on top of more awareness on the part of families can help lessen such abuses. Families should prioritize the safety of their children rather than leaving children alone in an environment where abuses can happen, he wrote. Also, the parents should be approachable to children allowing them to relay such incidents without fear.
Bangladesh needs stricter child abuse laws, but more than that, safe homes for children. As Jasmine Chowdhury writes at Women Chapter blog:
শিশু নির্যাতন বন্ধ করার জন্য নিজের ঘরের ভেতরে কাজ করুন। প্রতিটি ঘরকে প্রতিটি শিশুর জন্য নিরাপদ করে তুলুন। শিশু নির্যাতন কমিয়ে আনতে এর কোন বিকল্প নেই।
Start the work against child abuse in your home. Make every house safe for children. There is no alternative to that to end child abuse.

author: Rezwan


text:
This Woman Has Been Stuck in Korea for Three Years Trying to Get Home to the US · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Kim Craig has spent the past three years in Korea, hoping to get home to the US. Credit: Kaomi Goetz
This story by Kaomi Goetz originally appeared on PRI.org on November 17, 2016. It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Kim Craig was adopted at the age of 5 by a family in New Hope, Minnesota. On a recent fall day in a coffee shop in Seoul, she looked like any typical American tourist on vacation — no makeup, casual clothes. She ordered her coffee in English. But technically, Craig is not an American. She never received her US citizenship.
More than 160,000 children from South Korea have been adopted internationally since the 1950s. Most of the receiving countries conferred automatic citizenship, except for one: the United States. The process there created a loophole that left some adoptees without the rights they were supposed to receive. Last month, a Korean adoptee, Adam Crapser, lost his bid to stay in the US and is expected to be deported back to South Korea — a country he left nearly 40 years ago at the age of 3 — because he also never received citizenship.
Kim Craig’s troubles started with her unstable home life in the US.
She says her adoptive mother was abusive and gave her up after a year. Craig was then sent to live with another adoptive family in Minnesota, which didn’t work out either. She remembers having to project a certain family image, but she says it was a lie.
“I don’t have a lot of memories, maybe [most are of events that took place] outside of the home,” she says. “Inside the home, very few except for getting beatings.”
At 13, Craig tried to kill herself. She ran away and started drinking. When authorities tried to send her home, Craig refused to go. Her adoptive mother’s response was — “fine.”
Kim Craig, before her adoption to the US. Credit: Courtesy of Kim Craig
“She said, ‘well, you’re going to get what you want. We’re going to give up our rights, and oh, by the way, you’re not a citizen.’ And at the time I didn’t know what that meant,” she recalls.
Although she was raised as an American — and even joined the military later — she wasn’t a US citizen. A loophole in US immigration law required adoptive parents to observe a several-year waiting period after an international adoption before naturalization could be finalized. Meanwhile, the Korean government would routinely cancel a child’s citizenship there. But some parents, like Craig’s, never completed the paperwork. It’s not known how many international adoptees in the US currently are without their citizenship; some advocates estimate it’s in the tens of thousands. The Korean government says the citizenship outcomes of as many as 18,000 adoptees to the US are unknown, though it admits to not keeping good data historically.
Craig says she once got close to acquiring citizenship on her own as an adult. After she enlisted, the military helped her fill out the paperwork. But she missed the swearing-in ceremony because she was shipped off to Germany before she got the notice to appear. And then there was another setback: Craig says she made a mistake and was dishonorably discharged.
“I have a tendency to screw things up,” she says.
She returned to the States, got jobs, and had five kids. She married once but later divorced. As a single mother, she was too busy to give much thought to ever returning to Korea to visit.
But a few years ago, one of her teenage daughters, a rabid fan of K-pop, eventually won her over.
“She kept playing the music and I was like, ‘What are you listening to?!’ Actually I love [the K-pop band SHINee] now, they’re my favorite,” she says, chuckling at the memory. Craig liked one song in particular, “Please Don’t Go,” because it told a story of a lost love or separation. It reminded her of South Korea.
Her daughters wanted to learn more about their Korean background so they persuaded Craig to take them to South Korea. She couldn’t get a US passport, but she found out that for $35 she could obtain a Korean one. So they went to Korea for a three-month visit.
Craig says from the start, she felt a jolt of recognition — familiar smells, familiar images. She saw the mountain ranges in the backdrop of Seoul and realized that mountains she would draw as a child in the US were actually from memories of South Korea.
And there was this: “First time in my life that I can remember walking [around] and I looked like everyone else,” she says.
Just as they were getting ready to go home, though, Craig lost her wallet. It had her US permanent residence card, which she had been told she would need to return. She says she went to the US Embassy in Seoul for help but they turned her away because she wasn’t a citizen. A week later, she went back.
“They tried to say the same thing. I said ‘no, excuse me, it’s not my fault. I didn’t ask for this, I’m a permanent resident, you guys took me out of [South Korea], put me into this country [the US]. I only speak English, I can’t speak Korean; you guys have to help me.'”
Eventually someone listened and agreed to help, which is when Craig started to learn how complicated her situation might be. She couldn’t get her residence card replaced while outside the US. And without the card, she was told there was no guarantee she’d be let in.
Craig’s three-month trip to Korea has stretched into three years. She says it’s been hard for her to find work. Two of her kids are still here and they pitch in, but Craig is in debt. And being nearly 50 and single, she has a hard time fitting into Korean society.
“I try not to think about it on a daily basis but I just want to go home. But I can’t,” she says, holding back tears. “So I don’t think about it.”
Karen Christensen, who oversees citizen services for the US State Department at consulates around the world, says she couldn’t speak about Craig’s case but confirmed that immigration officials do have that final say over border entries. “That is actually technically correct [though] I don’t know how often that happens,” she said. Even if Craig entered as a visitor, she might jeopardize her status. Applying to replace a lost residency card when you’ve entered the US as a visitor could constitute fraud.
Christensen says she is sympathetic to the kinds of situations some adoptees have faced.
“They were brought [to the US] as children. I do understand it’s a difficult situation,” she said on a recent trip to Seoul. “These individuals … it wasn’t a failure on their part to take an action. I would suggest that if they are now adults that they approach the Depart of Homeland Security, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and see about naturalizing in their own right.”
Yet it’s not so simple. Advocates say adult adoptees have no shortcut. They have to apply like any other immigrant seeking citizenship, and it can cost thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees and paperwork — not to mention a psychological toll and potential trauma of having to endure a process that should have been taken care of by their parents.
In 2001, the law changed so that foreign adoptees would automatically become citizens. But that didn’t cover those over 18 at the time, like Kim Craig, Adam Crapser, and many others. There is a proposal to fix that loophole.
For now, Craig continues to hope that she’ll get home one day and be reunited with her other three children, whom she hasn’t seen in all this time. But it will take money and possibly some help from US officials.
She says her kids and her anger keep her going.

author: PRI/PRX's The World