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A Shocking Murder Has Chinese Wondering If Education Does Enough for Students’ Mental Health · Global Voices
Jack Hu

Wu Xieyu who is suspected of murdering his mother uploaded this image to his social network back in 2012 and invited others to pass on if they managed to see the hidden words “love u mom”. Screen capture image.
A wanted poster for Wu Xieyu, a student at China's top university suspected of murdering his mother, has gone viral on social media in the last week.
Wu, an economics student from Peking University and an elite student who has earned top marks since middle school, vanished after his mother Xie Tianqin's body was found in her residence in Fuzhou, the capital of the eastern province of Fujian, on February 14. Xie, who was a secondary school teacher, lived in a teacher's dormitory.
The wanted poster said the victim's 22-year-old son was a prime suspect in her death and he “had fled for fear of being punished.”
Police's wanted poster for Wu Xieyu.
The case has shocked Chinese society as family are at the core Chinese values. Some blamed China's exam-oriented education system for neglecting students’ mental health.
The details of the crime indicate that the murder was premeditated and included a sophisticated escape plan. Xie reportedly was murdered last July. According to Wu’s online payment records, he had bought knives, waterproof cloth and a doctors’ coat in June, then activated carbon and large plastic sheets in July.
Her body was found wrapped in plastic sheets with activated carbon tucked into them, apparently to lessen any odor. The door of the dormitory was sealed to prevent odor from leaking out and surveillance cameras allegedly linked to Wu's phone were installed inside the room.
Wu allegedly faked his mother's resignation letter and sent it to the school in August. Police said he then borrowed about one and a half million yuan (approximately 230,000 US dollars) from relatives by sending messages from his mother's smartphone saying that the family needed the money to move to the US.
Xie's body was found when a relative came to the dormitory to visit her.
Friends of Wu have described him as a positive, well-disciplined person who is always willing to help. A bright student who consistently performed well on tests, he once won a cash award for his extraordinary performance on the GRE, a US graduate university entry exam.
Wu Xieyu received a cash award for his high scores on the GRE. Photo from Wu's social media network (Ren Ren)
According to police, Wu was in a relationship with a sex worker, with whom he had filmed a few sex videos. They said he had proposed to marry her and offered her more than 100,000 yuan as a pre-wedding bride price.
The case has drawn a huge amount of discussion online. The majority of commenters assume Wu is guilty. Some argue he was born evil, while others believe such a tragedy could have been prevented had the education system paid more attention to students’ all-round well-being, instead of just academic performance.
Below are a selection of comments from one of the news threads on popular Chinese social media platform Weibo:
母亲的教育非常成功，孩子考上中国最知名的学府，同时母亲教育又非常失败，败到丢了性命。对一个人的一生来说，心理健康比什么都重要，扭曲的人性和冷酷的行为令人啧舌，是什么让一个孩子痛恨母亲到了非杀死不可的程度。
The mother’s education of her child was very successful, given that he entered the most prestigious college, meanwhile the mother’s education failed terribly given that she lost life. Psychological health matters more than anything else for a person’s life. The public is shocked by the student’s distorted human nature and ruthless behavior. What made a child hate his mother so deeply that he must kill her?
高分教育的悲哀！现代教育只注重分数，竞争教育机制下的孩子越来越自私，没有爱心，没有善，不能忍辱，不懂得关爱生命，嫉妒，贪婪。毒死同学，杀害母亲……以后还会发生什么？！
How sad for the exam-oriented education! Within the existing education system, only focusing on scores has made students more and more selfish, lacking love and kindness. They don’t understand how to endure humiliation or navigate their love life, instead they become jealous and greedy. Poisoning classmates, killing mothers…what will happen in the future?
Wu Zhihong, a well-known psychologist, joined the conversation and explained how long-time repression of emotions could lead to mental problems:
弗洛伊德说，一个人如果不能象征性的、合理的表达自己的攻击性也即恨，那就会出现心理问题。一些哲人也说，要选择能表达愤怒的人做朋友。看似只能表现爱与好意的人，他们的恨与愤怒，就可能以更具破坏性的方式去表达。
Freud said a person would have psychological problem if he or she can’t express aggression, namely hate, symbolically and reasonably. Some philosophers also said it’s better to make friends with those who can express anger. Those who just express love and kindness will probably deliver their hate and anger in a more destructive form.
Like most commenters, Iris was just shocked:
吴谢宇还没抓到，高智商犯罪，弑母。天才和神经病一念之间。好怕人
Wu Xieyu is still on the run. High IQ criminal, matricide. The line between a genius and a psychopath is so thin. This is terrible.

author: Jack Hu


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For These Syrian Women, Their 20s Have Been Defined by War · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Aicha Hassan left Syria for Lebanon for years ago. She doesn't want to stay in Lebanon, but “I don't intend to go back to Syria, either, even if things get better.” Credit: Venetia Rainey. Used with permission
This article by Venetia Rainey originally appeared on PRI.org on March 14, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Five years is a long time. In Lebanon, for some 1.1 million Syrians, five years is the difference between peace and war, being a citizen and being a refugee, having plans for your future and total uncertainty.
For Aicha Hassan, a 25-year-old student from Homs, the war has muddled everything.
“At first when we came here, we were asylum seekers. We considered that maybe we were going to stay here for two years or [so],” she says as she shakes her head. “Not more than two years.”
Four years later, she and her parents are still in Lebanon. She was part of the first wave of refugees to come into the country in late 2011, back when most thought the unrest would be over quickly, as it was in other Arab countries that had experienced similar anti-government protests. At the beginning of the crisis, she and her family were able to take advantage of then-plentiful aid resources.
“Things were not so difficult three or four years ago,” Hassan explains with a rueful look. “When we came here, more organizations were ready to help people and our [the Syrians’] number was limited.”
Now, Syrians account for a quarter of Lebanon's population, and providing them all with aid has become impossible; food vouchers have been reduced and rent assistance slashed. As a result, many are seeking to move abroad.
“I cannot imagine a future here in Lebanon,” Hassan says. “Five years ago, I was in Syria. Now I'm in Lebanon, even my siblings, two of them … travelled to foreign countries. No, I don't imagine that in two years I will be here in Lebanon.”
She pauses before adding, “I don't intend to go back to Syria, either, even if things get better. That hatred of the people who killed someone, it will always be around you.”
For Marwa, a 24-year-old stay-at-home mom from Damascus, adjusting to her new reality took years.
“You see this view?” she asks, pointing at the scenic landscape outside her window. “It took me three years to realize how pretty it was. As refugees, we had other concerns.”
Marwa came to Lebanon along with tens of thousands of others in late 2012, when the war in Syria was spiralling out of control and swaths of the major cities were becoming no-go zones. As new refugees, she moved with her family from village to village, desperately looking for work for her husband and a school that would accept their two young children.
When they eventually settled in a small village in Mount Lebanon, they also had to deal with widespread suspicion and mistrust from a population growing increasingly weary of playing host. These days, locals have become accustomed to the extra residents, but while time has improved community relations, it has not been kind to the guests’ finances.
“My neighbor is going back to Syria,” Marwa explains. “Even though there’s a lot of suffering there, she's in too much debt here. My husband is thinking the same because he's paid so little at work and can't take it anymore.”
She throws her hands in the air and says, “I tell him ‘You can go back, but I'm not going with you. What did our children do to deserve living in the middle of a war?’ “
These days, Lebanon's borders are shut to new arrivals. The government made a decision in late 2014 to accept only extreme emergency cases and those in transit to another country. Ever since, the number of refugees in the country has stayed roughly the same. The conditions in which they live, however, have got significantly worse. Visa requirements, in particular, are now so onerous that most refugees can no longer live legally in the country, exposing them to abuse and exploitation.
“It’s so difficult,” says Hala, a 31-year-old accountant from Aleppo. “You have to get a sponsor, and the sponsor should be a Lebanese national and should have property in Lebanon.”
On top of a sponsor, Syrians must now pay $200 for a one-year visa — a sharp change from the free, easily renewable six-month permit they used to be able to get at the border. Without proper papers, refugees are unable to rent an apartment, get a job or even go to a hospital without fear of being arrested.
Hala knew all of this, and put off coming to Lebanon for as long as possible. When she eventually fled Aleppo last September with her mother, it was only because she got news that they had got through to the interview round of their application to seek asylum in Canada. She was luckier than most: she found a sponsor, got her visa, and managed to find a job while she waits for her interview.
Even so, she says the uncertainty of life here as a Syrian is unbearable.
“We can’t stay here because the Lebanese laws for Syrian people change every day,” she says. “I don't know when the Lebanese government will decide to issue new rules and tell the Syrian people, ‘Go back to Syria’. If I think about my mind, I have to go to Canada where there are rights for refugees and we are never told to go back to Syria.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Japanese Mapping Project Records Last Movements of 2011 Tsunami Victims · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Screenshot of video walkthrough of interactive map of Tohoku Tsunami. Image taken from YouTube.
An innovative mapping project tracks the last moments of the victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Called “May We Never Forget: Recording the Last Movements of Tsunami Disaster Victims” ( 忘れない: 震災犠牲者の行動記録), the project examines the last moments of 1,326 people, based on interviews with their surviving family members.
On Friday, March 11, 2011 at 2:46PM local time, a massive earthquake occurred on the sea floor northwest of Japan. The earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that destroyed many coastal towns and cities along more than 500 kilometers of Japan's coastline.
The March 11 tsunami killed almost 16,000 people, and another 2,562 people are still missing and presumed dead.
Iwate Prefecture, with its coastline of narrow fjords that could channel the energy of the tsunami, experienced particularly high waves; some waves were reported to be as tall as a ten-story building. 5,797 residents of Iwate were killed or are missing as a result of the tsunami.
[L] 「忘れない 震災犠牲者の行動記録」の凄さと切なさ : https://t.co/rNnUrYei0N
— 堀 E. 正岳（ほりまさたけ） (@mehori) March 12, 2016
“May We Never Forget: Recording the Last Movements of Tsunami Disaster Victims” shows the sheer power and horror of the tsunami.
The May We Never Forget project ( 忘れない: 震災犠牲者の行動記録) traces the last steps of these people before the tsunami struck where they lived. The online mapping project provides insights into how people react to natural disasters, and promises to help improve how governments can respond and help save lives.
A page with several video demonstrations of the map in different cities is available here.
The full online mapping application is available here. Using the left-hand menu, users can select individual towns and cities along the Iwate coastline.
Blue dots represent male victims, red dots represent females. Animations show the paths the people took ten minutes following the tsunami. Some people fled on foot, while others walked, which explains why some people were able to travel a longer distance in ten minutes. Using the scrollbar at the bottom of the screen, it's possible to scroll back and forth in time.
Screenshot from May We Never Forget ( 忘れない: 震災犠牲者の行動記録) online mapping tool.
Click on a dot and information about that person, including their name and their age, and how they spent their last ten minutes alive is presented on a popup on the right side of the screen.
Every dot on the map represents someone who died, and information about their whereabouts, their route and what they did was determined after interviewing surviving family members, who likely would have spoken to them on a cellular phone as the tsunami approached.
The map also pulls in information from Google Street View so that the location of the tsunami victims can be seen.
There are several video walkthroughs of different towns along the coast.
The project is the result of a collaboration by Tokyo Metropolitan University and its resident design studio WTNV, and Tohoku media outlet Iwate Nippo.
Some of the insights from the mapping project include the fact that, even when tsunami warnings had sounded, many of the victims immediately went to their designated community emergency shelter (避難所, hinanjo) rather than seeking high ground, where they would have likely had a better chance of survival.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Netizens Mock Mark Zuckerberg’s Love Affair with China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Meme of Zuckerberg jogging in Beijing spread on Facebook. Via OpenStudioHK.
Whether Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's enthusiasm and positive attitude towards China is genuine or just a kowtow to the world's biggest Internet market, a growing number of netizens are losing patience with his uncritical attitude regarding Beijing's human rights abuses.
Increasingly, these netizens are voicing their discontent on Zuckerberg's Facebook page.
On March 18, Zuckerberg uploaded a photo taken in front of Beijing's Forbidden City on his Facebook page and said:
It's great to be back in Beijing! I kicked off my visit with a run through Tiananmen Square, past the Forbidden City and over to the Temple of Heaven.
Immediately, sarcastic comments piled up.
One of the most popular comments came from Joshua Wong, a well-known student activist in Hong Kong, who raised the question:
How do you update your Facebook in China?
Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009 and during the two-week session of the parliament in Beijing from March 5 to 16 this year, major virtual private networks that help provide access to uncensored content beyond China's ‘Great Firewall’, were disrupted.
Moreover, in politically tense regions like Xinjiang, individuals using WhatsApp and VPNs can have their phone service suspended. The freedom Mark Zuckerberg seems to have enjoyed in China is extraordinary.
The Hong Kong political group Civic Passion's leader Wong Yeung-tat raised another question to remind Zuckerberg of the bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen square student democracy movement in 1989:
Did u see the tank?
Cao Yuzhou added more details on that historic incident:
The floor you stepped on has been covered by blood from students who fought for democracy. But, enjoy your running in China, Mark.
As Tiananmen Square has become a very politically sensitive location, abrupt body movements or major group activities without prior government approval are prohibited.
Qingye Jiang reminded Zuckerberg of this:
Mark, you have a total number of 6 people in the running team. Did you apply for the authorization to run on the street? If not, this is illegal in China. Please respect the local law when you are in a foreign country.
Less politically-oriented folk worried about his health as the air quality on Friday reached hazardous levels.
Michael Wester from The Beijinger, a lifestyle blog, mocked Zuckerberg's love for China:
How far would you go to curry favor with China?
How about running through Tiananmen Square without a mask in this morning's thick-as-pea-soup AQI 337 air? […]
If this doesn't get Facebook unbanned in China, nothing will.
Memes of Zuckerberg's run spread rapidly through Facebook circles in Hong Kong, where the social media platform is not blocked.
This one is about the smog:
Image from Open Studio Hong Kong's Facebook.
This is not the first time Zuckerberg has been mocked by Chinese netizens.
When China's Internet Czar Lu Wei visited Facebook's Silicon Valley offices in December 2014, Zuckerberg was photographed with Chinese President Xi Jinping's book ‘The Governance of China’ on his table.
Chinese news websites reported he had bought up copies of the book for his colleagues so that they could understand socialism with Chinese characteristics. Zuckerberg was later depicted in Internet memes as a Red Guard — ideological warriors from China's infamous Cultural Revolution — holding Xi Jinping's book.
And last October, he was mercilessly ridiculed for asking Xi Jinping to name his unborn baby daughter, an offer Xi promptly rejected.
@Tibetans What a love! .Xi Jinping refused to help name Mark Zuckerberg's unborn child http://t.co/XGZyXJJMcK pic.twitter.com/o0P1AXLXRu
— clara (@clara111) October 4, 2015
Zuckerberg will attend the China Development Forum this year, where his very public wooing of Xi will no doubt continue to catch the world's attention.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Twitter Through the Years: The RuNet Edition · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Dmitry Medvedev opened his Twitter account at the network's HQ in Silicon Valley in June 2010. Image from kremlin.ru.
Where were you when Alexey Navalny or Dmitry Medvedev published their first tweets?
For Twitter's 10-year anniversary, the Russian news outlet Kommersant published a feature story called “Long Story Short,” collecting dozens of “the most emblematic” tweets that Kommersant's reporters believe best showcase the microblogging service's growing influence in the fields of communication, news, politics and society.
The tweets span the years from Twitter's creation to our time and bring to memory some of the most exultant and tragic moment in recent history: finding water on Mars; the introduction of hashtags; Michael Jackson's death; protests in Tunisia and the rest of the Arab Spring; #OccupyWallStreet; the Boston bombings; the Roman Pope and Dalai Lama getting on Twitter; the Ice Bucket Challenge; and so much more.
Quite a few of the “historic” tweets selected by Kommersant come from the Russian segment of Twitter. RuNet Echo has translated the relevant messages, as well as Kommersant reporters’ explanation of the tweets’ significance, below. The tweets are arranged in chronological order, as they appeared on Twitter.
http://navalny.livejournal.com/411199.html
Травим ВТБ.
И это моя первая запись, кстати
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) November 30, 2009
We're bullying VTB. Oh, and by the way, this is my first tweet.
Comment: The first tweet highlighted by Kommersant was from political activist Alexey Navalny promoting a post he had written on a probe looking into money laundering at the state-owned bank VTB. “In the first few days after the investigation into VTB Bank ‘How They Steal at VTB’ was announced on Alexey Navalny's famous LiveJournal blog and on his new Twitter account,” Kommersant wrote, the investigation “was read by 70,000 people.”
Всем привет! Я в Твиттере и это мое6 первое сообщение!
— Дмитрий Медведев (@MedvedevRussia) June 23, 2010
Hello, everyone! I'm on Twitter and this is my6 first message!
Comment: “Medvedev's account, which gained a record number of followers on the RuNet Twitter, was registered at the network's HQ in California, which then President Medvedev famously visited in 2010.”
Всем привет! Я в Твиттере и это моёб первое сообщение!
— Пeрзидент Роисси (@KermlinRussia) June 25, 2010
Hello, everyone! I am on Twitter and this is myb first message!
Comment: “One of the most popular microblogs in the Russian Twitter segment, KermlinRussia, was launched as a parody of the Russian President's official Twitter account (just a few days after Medvedev launched his own).”
By the way, quite a few Russian Internet luminaries, journalists and politicians posted their first tweets some time in 2009-2010.
“The Rain” is Putin's new nickname
Comment: “After a terrible rain shower in Moscow, a Russian word (дождь—”rain”) featured in Twitter's top-10 world trending topics for the first time. The second Russian word that trended, five months later, was “Manezhnaya” (square).”
@DZelenin: This happens in Alexandrovsky hall as well. They serve beef with a salad featuring live earthworms.
Comment: “Dmitry Zelenin, governor of Tver region in 2010, published a tweet with a photo from a dinner at the Kremlin. The tweet was deleted very soon, and Zelenin resigned ahead of his term six months later.”
#yukos Ходорковский и Лебедев, после оглашения первых строк приговора, похоже, потеряли интерес к происходящему
— Радио Свобода (@SvobodaRadio) December 27, 2010
#yukos Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, after the first lines of the verdict have been read, have lost interest in the proceedings, it seems
Comment: “Although court proceedings in Russia had been livetweeted for several years (including the one in Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Yukos case), the Supreme Court officially allowed livetweeting only in December 2012.”
@riapress: Mikhail Gorbachev has died in SHOKO cafe, Yekaterinburg. He was at a table with Yevgeny Roizman discussing the coming elections
Comment: “In response to the tweet posted by the hackers who hijacked the RIA Novosti press center Twitter account, the former president of the USSR said: ‘I am alive and well. Stop trampling Gorbachev, as they say.'”
А также МЫ НАЧИНАЕМ ИГРУ #путинбинго: ВАРИАНТ 1 http://t.co/Avsjn5Cjse
ВАРИАНТ 2 http://t.co/7A77CTPbj6
ВАРИАНТ 3 http://t.co/6nHNKJ5kGa
— Lenta.ru (@lentaruofficial) December 19, 2013
And also, WE BEGIN THE #putinbingo GAME:
OPTION 1
OPTION 2
OPTION 3
Comment: “The bingo game tracking words uttered by the Russian president during an annual press-conference was announced on Twitter and paralyzed the work of half of Moscow's offices.” Words to be tracked included “pensions,” “order,” “lawbreakers,” “implementation,” and “conservative.” “Navalny,” “Ukraine,” and “Russia” also had a place of honor on the list.
Законы обязательны для всех.Но отдельным чиновникам нужно думать,прежде чем объявлять в интервью о закрытии соцсетей https://t.co/V1nu5aykin
— Дмитрий Медведев (@MedvedevRussia) May 16, 2014
The laws are mandatory for everyone. But certain officials better think before announcing in an interview that social networks will be blocked.
Comment: “Dmitry Medvedev, now the prime-minister of Russia, criticized the deputy head of Roscomnadzor Maxim Ksendzov, who threatened Twitter with blocking in Russia.”
@villemilonov: Democracy is in hell, and in heaven there's a kingdom
Comment: “This is the content of one of the last tweets of lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, whose Twitter account was suspended for violating the social network's terms of use.”
Доброе утро! Вот так выглядит в конце октября Веденское ущелье. pic.twitter.com/tXwcNuIYAt
— Рамзан Кадыров (@RKadyrov) October 22, 2014
Good morning! This is what Vedensky Gorge looks like at the end of October.
Comment: “On the same day head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov—one of he main stars of the Russian Twitter segment—gave an interview to TASS in which he suggested blocking access to Twitter in Russia.”
#Космоселфи от Геннадия Падалки, которое он сделал во время своего десятого выхода в открытый космос 10 августа pic.twitter.com/8UEsrd7Fjx
— РОСКОСМОС (@roscosmos) August 17, 2015
#Cosmoselfie from Gennady Padalka, which he made during his tenth space walk on August 10th.
Comment: “Russian astronaut shot a selfie with the International Space Station in the background.”

author: Tanya Lokot


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A Side-by-Side Look at Prison Life in France and Madagascar · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

‘Madagascar: A Call for Plague-Free Prisons’ – Screenshot of a video report on Madagascan prisons and the threat of disease
Conditions in prisons across the world vary widely. By focusing on two countries, a comparison emerges of daily life in France and Madagascar's penal institutions. Many blogs and social media platforms provide information on prison life, decoding the politics of incarceration and revealing the realities on the ground. These sites also give a voice to those who witness daily life in prisons: the detained and their loved ones, professionals, and activists.
Clearly, conditions for the incarcerated in the two nations differ significantly, but some common themes emerge. In Madagascar, several sites shed light on prison life. Virginie de Galzain is an independent photojournalist who had the chance to visit several Madagascan prisons in 2012 as part of a Doctors Without Borders mission. She writes of her experience:
Des espaces surpeuplés datant le plus souvent de la colonisation, des odeurs d’urine qui vous prennent à la gorge et vous imprègnent à peine la porte des “dortoirs” franchie, la menace récurrente de la peste en raison d’une forte présence de rats(voir vidéo ci-dessous) et de puces, un nombre important de décès faute d’alimentation suffisante et de soins, des droits humains non respectés… Telle est la situation insupportable des prisons de Madagascar
Overpopulated buildings that usually date back to colonial times; the smell of urine filling visitors’ lungs and permeating the air all the way to the broken-down doors of the ‘dormitory'; a recurring threat of disease due to infestations of rats (see the video below) and fleas; a significant number of deaths due to malnutrition and lack of healthcare; human rights going unrespected… Such is the unacceptable situation in Madagascar's prisons.
De Galzain adds:
Les prisons sont surpeuplées. Les détenus dorment à même des sortes de longues banquettes superposées et composées de planches en bois plus ou moins disjointes dont la longueur, bien inférieure à celle d’un homme, ne permet pas de s’allonger. C’est en plus souvent là qu’ils mettent leurs rares effets personnels. Entassés les uns contre les autres, ils doivent parfois faire des tours de sommeil faute de place pour tous. Une des “chambres” de cette prison fait 35 mètres de long et quelques mètres de large. 229 détenus y sont enfermés de 5 heures du soir à 6/7 heures du matin.
The prisons are overpopulated. The detained sleep on long benches made of disjointed bits of wood, stacked one on top of the other, and so much shorter than a man's height that it's impossible to stretch out. These benches are, moreover, where they keep their few personal effects. Crammed against each other, they must sometimes take shifts sleeping due to the lack of space. One of these prison “dorms” measures 35 meters long by a few meters wide and houses 229 prisoners from 5 p.m. to 6 or 7 a.m.
Screenshot of the photo reporting on prisons in Madagascar via Youtube
Neglected prisons and an inconsistent judicial system are nothing new in Madagascar. One of the most infamous penal colonies on the island can be found in Nosy Lava. This prison camp was created for political prisoners and repeat offenders. With successive regime changes and lapses on the part of the administration, many prisoners get lost in the shuffle and live without knowing if there will ever be an end to their sentences. Here, their stories are presented in a video report by Régus Michel:
Though their situation isn't as desperate, many questions persist for prisoners in France regarding the deterioration of their living conditions. In 2012, France had 67,373 prisoners in detention and space for only 57,408.
The project Prison Insider wants to put measures in place to observe prison conditions in France and around the world. On its crowdfunding page, the project's creators explain their idea and the reason for their mission:
Le projet est de centraliser toute l’info sur les prisons du monde et la rendre accessible au plus grand nombre. L’information existe mais est disséminée dans de multiples sites sur les prisons. Il reste très difficile d’accéder à une information vulgarisée et dans sa langue. Il y a trois types de besoins auxquels Prison Insider veut répondre :
-Un besoin d’informations-service. Pour savoir, par exemple, comment rendre visite à un détenu ? comment lui faire parvenir de l’argent ?…
-Un besoin d’informations documentaires. Dans le but de connaître les conditions de détention : combien de détenus par cellule ? sont-ils correctement nourris ?…
-Un besoin d’un espace pour agir. Pour alerter ou témoigner sur ce que les proches vivent.
This project aims to collect information on prisons all over the world and make it available to as many people as possible. Information on prisons exists, but it is often scattered between multiple sites. For many, it remains very difficult to access information in lay terms in their language. Prison Insider aims to address three types of needs:
-The need for information services. Information pages and forums can help people figure out, for example, how to visit a prisoner, how to send them money, etc.
-The need for background information that can illustrate conditions for the detained. How many prisoners are kept in each cell? Are they fed properly?
-The need for a platform to act. People need to be able to report on or talk about their loved ones’ situations.
One poorly understood difficulty of prison life is described in detail by the Observatoire International des Prisons, an activist group that fights for the rights of the incarcerated:
Il n'existe en prison qu'un seul lieu, non surveillé, où sont autorisées les relations sexuelles : les unités de vie familiales (UVF). Avoir accès à ces unités est un droit, pour tout détenu. Pourtant, seulement 36 établissements pénitentiaires sur 188 en sont équipés. Les pratiques des personnels pénitentiaires sont toutefois très variables. Une ancienne surveillante raconte que les agents en poste au parloir doivent « le vouloir pour vraiment voir.” [..] il y a des surveillants plus compréhensifs, ils ne font pas de ronde pendant les parloirs ». Certains choisissent de ne rien dire : « Une fois, un surveillant nous a surpris. Mais de la façon dont j’étais habillée, il n’a rien pu voir. Il a juste compris. Il est ensuite parti, rien de plus. Certains surveillants ferment les yeux à partir du moment où c’est discret ». Réussir à voler quelques moments d’intimité dépend ainsi du bon vouloir de chaque surveillant
In prison there is only one unmonitored place where sexual relations are permitted: family life units. Access to these units is a right for all prisoners. However, only 36 prisons out of 188 are properly equipped, and prison staff take widely varying approaches. A former warden says of guards stationed in the visiting room that ‘if they see anything, it's because they want to.’ Some guards who are more sympathetic don't make rounds during visiting hours. Some choose to say nothing: ‘Once, a guard walked in on us. The way I was dressed, he couldn't have seen anything, but he knew what was going on. He left, and that was the end of it. Some guards close their eyes once things get intimate.’ Thus, stealing a few private moments depends on the goodwill of each guard.
In daily life, prisoners find ways to take care of their sexual needs despite sharing a cell. As one prisoner explains:
À une époque, j’étais dans une cellule de cinq personnes, on était entassé. Les codétenus avaient mis en place une organisation spéciale. Chacun pouvait avoir la cellule pour lui tout seul pendant quelques heures. Ils m’ont dit : “ Tu ne fais pas n’importe quoi en cellule, interdit d’avoir des pulsions la nuit, etc. En revanche, une fois dans la semaine, on te laisse tout seul et tu fais ce que tu veux
At one time, I was crammed into a cell with four others. My fellow inmates had put a special system in place. Everyone could have the cell to himself for a few hours. They told me, “You can't just do whatever in the cell, no self-love at night, etc. In exchange, once a week, we leave you alone and you can do what you want, we don't want to know.”
Several associations help improve daily life for the detained and ease their return to life outside. France's national federation for social reinsertion (FNARS) explains the actions they take to promote reinsertion into society and prevent recidivism:
La peine judiciaire s’accompagne trop souvent d’une peine sociale ; elle ne doit pas être un moyen de régulation sociale, par le biais de la mise à l’écart des personnes condamnées. Les coûts individuels et sociaux de l’incarcération dus aux ruptures qu’elle provoque (perte de travail, ruptures familiales, perte de logement, désinsertion sociale) par rapport aux effets escomptés, passent malheureusement au second plan et demanderaient à être mieux évalués.
The courts’ punishment is too often accompanied by a social punishment; the judicial system should not be used as a means of stratifying society by holding former inmates at a distance. The individual and social costs of incarceration, including loss of work, broken families, loss of housing, and social exclusion, sadly exceed even the formal punishment, and call for closer evaluation.

author: Rakotomalala


text:
Is Exposing Corruption Becoming a Crime in Botswana? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Journalist Sonny Serite. Photo from from his Twitter account @kivuki.
Tenacious Botswana journalist Sonny Serite was arrested and charged March 17 with receiving stolen property in violation of the Botswana Penal Code.
Serite, who calls himself the “Bruce Lee of journalism”, was allegedly caught by officials at the Office of President while receiving a confidential file for a corruption story he was working on.
Serite's defenders say he received the file, whose contents are not known yet, without knowing or having reason to believe it was unlawfully obtained or stolen from the Office of President.
It is believed the file may relate to a March 10 published story in the Botswana Gazette highlighting corruption in Botswana Railways’ purchase of a rail passenger coach.
The journalist has since been denied bail as well as access to a lawyer.
The Botswana Media And Allied Workers Union (BOMAWU) has condemned his arrest and treatment.
Anti-corruption and freedom of speech activists are campaigning for his release on Twitter with the hashtag #FreeSonnySerite.
Scores of supportive tweeps have leapt to the journalist's defence:
Knowing the truth about government becomes perilous.Reporting a crime is a crime in Botswana yet we preach #AntiCorruption #FreeSonnySerite
— Mabena (@iam_mabena) March 18, 2016
How do you detain a journalist for exposing corruption smh #freesonnyserite
— Goitse® (@geelek) March 18, 2016
Do you honestly believe the folks in power will just hand over these files? No. The system leaves journalists w/ no choice.#FreeSonnySerite
— that circx dude (@Thabi_Kuswani) March 18, 2016
It is actually stupid to charge a journalist for receiving info, stolen or not. Where do you think we get this info, idiot! #freeSonnySerite
— thapeloNdlovu (@thapeloindlovu) March 19, 2016
Whatever happened to “don't shoot the messenger ” #freesonnyserite
— thusi (@thusi12) March 18, 2016
Botswana is lauded as one of the least corrupt countries in Sub-Saharan Africa by organisations such as Transparency International. The consulting firm Cushman & Wakefield released a report in 2015 titled Emerging & Frontier Markets which showed that Botswana is actually the most transparent emerging economy in Africa.
But Serite's arrest has caused some to revisit that praise:
#Botswana government arrests journalist digging into corruption. What happened to the country's famed transparency? #freeSonnySerite
— John Feffer (@johnfeffer) March 18, 2016
On Facebook, Radifalana Turpelo Bobo Ronald was of the opinion that journalists should be able to get information by any means:
[…] I still say where there is corruption, it has to be exposed. Action taken against Serite are clear evidence that corruption indeed took place. How he got the info doesn't matter, we need journalists like him who work tirelessly digging info about things that affects Botswana.
But others, such as Yusrah T Gareegope said Serite should answer before the law like anyone else:
detain Sonny Serite until you get whatever info you need from him, he's not the first nor the last to be detained nor is he special from all the other Botswanans who are always detained!
Sethamiso Moritshane noted:
He is just like any Botswanan who can commit crime , so what's special about him?
And Tlhagisang Duncan Sakie Masake wrote:
The security agencies are doing a good job we should learn to respect the law and write quality not quantity news where possible.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


text:
Russian Journalists Create New Independent Trade Union · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Founding members of Russia's new independent journalist trade union. Photo by Pyotr Verzilov on Twitter.
Russian journalists have founded a new independent trade union organization to boost professional solidarity and provide more support for reporters working in the country. The union emerged as a response to the growing number of challenges to journalists’ safety and restrictions on access to information.
The creators of the new trade union include journalists from Slon Magazine, Mediazona, Znak.com, RBC and Novaya Gazeta, among others. Mediazona will serve as the base for the organization.
журналисты только что проголосовали за создание профсоюза на учредительном съезде в Москве pic.twitter.com/8HbKb8vHr3
— Feldman (@EvgenyFeldman) March 20, 2016
journalists have just voted to create a trade union at the founding meeting in Moscow
Исторический момент: участники учредительного съезда Профсоюза Журналистов голосуют за его создание. Единогласно! pic.twitter.com/jowcypNKsK
— Pyotr Verzilov (@gruppa_voina) March 20, 2016
A historic moment: participants of the founding meeting of the Journalist Trade Union are voting to create it. Unanimously!
The idea to create an independent trade union was floating around for some time, but gained traction after an attack on a group of journalists and human rights defenders on the border between Chechnya and Ingushetiya in Russia on March 9. The minivan that the group was traveling in was attacked by a group of Chechen-speaking men who assaulted the reporters and activists, beat them, and damaged some of their equipment, setting the minivan on fire. Kremlin officials called the attack an act of “absolute hooliganism” and the assault is currently being investigated by law enforcement.
A total of 27 people (including staff reporters, editors, and freelance journalists) attended the founding meeting of the trade union on March 20, where they also adopted the organization's statute, according to a reporter with Yod News, who was present at the event.
Slon Magazine reports that the new trade union plans to work in several areas, with different members curating its efforts in each area, such as press and publicity, relations with international organizations and unions, government relations, internal member relations, labor rights, human rights, and fundraising. The union's first general meeting will take place in three months.
твоё лицо когда учредили профсоюз журналистов pic.twitter.com/XfsCO4fBTO
— саша богино (@echolalialia) March 20, 2016
your face when you've just founded a journalist trade union


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Series of Animated Stories Revitalise Indigenous Languages in Mexico · Global Voices
Giovanna Salazar

Photo: La última danza (The Last Dance) Animated Mayan folk tale. Screenshot taken from Vimeo.
“You can't love what you don't know” is the premise of ‘68 tongues, 68 hearts’, an animated project aimed at preserving and sharing the indigenous languages of Mexico.
The project aims to promote pride, respect, and encourage the use of the indigenous languages of Mexico, through a series of animated stories narrated in these languages and subtitled in Spanish.
An example of the project is the video below. The story is based on the traditional storytelling of the Yaqui people. El Chapulín Brujo (The Sorcerer Cricket) tells how the Yaqui people survived the attack of a ferocious monster, thanks to a divine tree and the Sorcerer Cricket who managed to defeat the beast.
The animation is narrated in Yaqui, a language of the Mexican state of Sonora.
The name of the project alludes to the 68 indigenous languages of Mexico which, according to the National Indigenous Languages Institute (NILA), are currently spoken in the country. According to the project's Vimeo channel:
Las lenguas indígenas engloban una visión única de la vida y del mundo. Al desaparecer, se pierde la cosmovisión y cosmogonía única de cada pueblo, perdiéndose una parte importante de la humanidad.
The indigenous languages encompass a unique vision of life and of the world. Their disappearance would imply a loss of the unique world view and existence of each community; an important part of humanity.
In this sense, the project recognises the indigenous languages as visions of the world and seeks to avoid their extinction.
This is illustrated by the following animation, based on the poem “Cuando muere una lengua” (When a tongue dies) by Mexican historian and anthropologist Miguel León Portilla, a prime authority on Nahuatl thought and literature.
The story is narrated in Nahuatl, more specifically in the Huasteca variation of the language.
Cuando muere una lengua […]
Entonces se cierra a todos los pueblos del mundo, una puerta, una ventana.
Un asomarse de modo distinto a las cosas divinas y humanas, a cuanto es ser y vida en tierra.
When a tongue dies […]
A door or a window is then closed on all people of the world
A glimpse at all things divine and human from a different angle; life on Earth and our existence.
This first series has successfully brought to life certain stories of popular tradition and selected works of indigenous poets and artists, as well as historians and philosophers, experts in thinking and indigenous languages. The page of the project reads as follows:
En esta [primera] serie se retratan siete de estas 68 visiones del mundo: huasteco, maya, mixteco, náhuatl, totonaco, yaqui y zapoteco, a través de la visión de siete escritores y siete ilustradores gráficos.
In this [first] series, seven of these 68 world views are portrayed: Huastec, Mayan, Mixtec, Nahuatl, Totonacan, Yaqui and Zapotec, through the vision of seven writers and seven graphic illustrators.
The following video is based on the story “La última danza” (The last dance) by Mayan writer Isaac Esau Carrillo Can. The story focuses on the story of a woman who recalls a conversation with her father, who has bid farewell to this earthly world to be reunited with her mother. Her father bids her farewell, assuring her that ‘the great seed of the dances’ has been sown in her and she will have to go forth and spread these in the world.
The language of narration is Yucatán Maya.
In an interview with Global Voices, creator and director of the project Gabriela Badillo stated that they are currently working very closely with NILA, and also with speakers of the indigenous languages in order to cover, one by one, each of the 68 indigenous languages of the country, above all those at greatest risk of extinction.
Badillo reiterated that the project is the product of collaboration between contemporary authors, translators and interpreters of indigenous languages, illustrators, animators, audio and musical designers, as well as a research and adaptation team. He stressed the importance of participation of the indigenous people and communities that have shared their stories of popular tradition.
When asked about the reception of the project, Gabriela shared with us the following:
En general, las comunidades con las que nos hemos acercado lo han recibido con emoción, por ver en un video parte de su historia, tradición, cultura. No mostrada como una “cultura estática” y antigua de museo sino [como] algo vivo que va cambiando y creciendo con el tiempo y con las nuevas generaciones; sin caer en los “clichés” de lo indígena sino incluyendo a los jóvenes de las comunidades, así como a artistas mexicanos que aportan un grano de arena. Sobre todo, en aulas de enseñanza nos han comentado que las y los niños se muestran muy emocionados.
In general, the communities that we have approached have received [the project] with emotion, eager to see part of their history, tradition and culture in a video. They are not shown as a ‘static culture’ or a museum exhibit, but rather [shown as] something living that is evolving and growing with the times and the new generations; avoiding the usual ‘clichés’ of indigenous people and including the youth of the communities, as well as contributing Mexican artists. Above all, in classrooms we have been told that children have been particularly touched [by the project].
The 68 Tongues Vimeo Channel contains all information about the project, as well as the credits corresponding to each video and their descriptions in English. Some animations can also be watched with English subtitles on the YouTube channel.
More information and updates about the project are available on the Facebook page and on the page of the Hola Combo creative team.

author: Giovanna Salazar


text:
Teacher’s Intolerant Tirade Raises Questions About Education in Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Two students on their way home from school in Trinidad and Tobago. Photo by Georgia Popplewell, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
A secondary school teacher has become the focus of frustrations with Trinidad and Tobago's education system after audio of her disparaging gay people and atheists and accusing a student of drug dealing was publicly shared on Facebook.
The teacher, Nadira Nandlal, was having a follow-up discussion with her class at the all boys Naparima College on public comments she made the week before — during a school assembly — vilifying homosexuals within the school body and making reference to one student in particular. Acknowledging that some of her peers criticised her for her statements, she held her ground, going as far as to say that if given a gun, she would “fix the problem” of homosexuals and atheists. In the recording, which could have slanderous implications, she also identified a student whom she alleges is into drug dealing.
After the recording of what is being described as “a rant” went viral, the school referred the matter to the Ministry of Education. Thus far, no definitive action has been taken against Nandlal, although it appears that she has not reported for duty since the incident.
For her part, Nandlal justified her position as nothing other than a fierce commitment to protect her young, impressionable charges.
Social media, meanwhile, went ballistic. Structured on a system that focuses on passing a placement exam in order to enter secondary school, education in Trinidad and Tobago is grappling with poor academic performance, teacher absenteeism, violence and lack of discipline.
For many, the recording seemed to exemplify some of these issues. Posting on the comments thread of the Facebook recording, Jason Dookeran said:
[…] she is a good example of why the T&T education system is in such an abysmal state. […] The more I listen to this thing, the more I believe that she doesn't understand what she should be doing in a school.
Others posted an image of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) guidelines on teacher responsibilities:
Teacher guidelines; image widely shared on Facebook.
It seems a number of her students do not feel the same way — they soon launched an online petition supporting her that garnered just over 1,000 signatures in two days. In it, the boys called her “sincere”, “generous” and “loving” and said the impressions of her on social media and in the news were “misleading”:
From the perspective of an uninformed outsider, the statements made by Miss Nandlal which were unwittingly captured on the voice recording could be viewed as being radical and extreme.
Such a viewpoint is of course, understandable, but what is not, is that persons who have taken their personal issues with Miss Nandlal to the internet have served to misinform the public, and guide their opinion toward pronouncing unfair judgment upon this woman.
Those students who have been in her class and have interacted with her during their stay in Naparima College can testify that Miss Nandlal was simply using some harsh euphemisms given the context of the situation.
To many social media users, this display of support — from the school's students and from other netizens — has been one of the most astounding aspects of the situation. On one comments thread, nvllivs_in_verba countered many of the points made in the petition statement:
So I guess this means that the recordings have some how rendered Ms Nandlal's message out of context. Because we all know there are some contexts in which a teacher making targeted verbal attacks at a student, calling him names and implying harm upon him and his guardians can be justified. […]
The reason I am suspect of the petitions motive is due to the fact that nowhere have they tried to show any sympathy for the targeted student. They are unapologetic and are attempting to shift the victim role from the student to the teacher. They are trying to paint the oppressor as the oppressed. And this is what I take issue with.
In a telephone interview, teacher and Facebook user Patrice Cox-Neaves — who emphatically stated that she felt the teacher needed to be removed from her post — noted two areas of concern. One had to do with the fact that Naparima College is a school which falls under the purview of the Presbyterian School Board, which so far, has not made a statement on the issue.
In the cases of religious denominational schools like Naparima College, while the country's Teaching Commission may interview prospective teachers, the relevant denominational boards also conduct their own interviews — and teachers are only appointed if these boards approve the candidates. In this case, Cox-Neaves feared that the board's silence may be consent.
She also made the point that while Nandlal may be a good teacher “in the generic sense of the term”, her statements prove her “mastery of the hidden curriculum”:
This is the end result of a long story that we don't know about. The fact that [Nandlal] feels safe to stand in front of a class and say what she did tells you something right there. I find it worrying that she has student support, but at least one student — the one who made the recording — felt otherwise. You must always be aware of the influence you have over your students and use it responsibly.
Angelo Bissessarsingh, a past pupil of the school, wrote in a public Facebook post that Naparima College wasn't always a “haven to bigotry and intolerance”:
Now that the matter has come out into public domain, I can address myself fully to the erring teacher, Ms. Nandlal and those lads who blindly threw themselves behind her. I have this to say, YOU SHAME ME and generations of your predecessors.To even contemplate that an educator in this noble academy could publicly utter words of hate and derision against a student for his personal preference is unthinkable. In my time , there were schoolmates who were obviously gay, but NEVER in the seven years I spent on Paradise Hill did I bear witness to even a hint of victimization from students far less a teacher . Our tutors were to the last-young and old-committed to their charges above and beyond the call of duty and my old comrades and I count ourselves fortunate to have been guided by them. Even the cranky few bore an inherent nobility of spirit which made their chastisement morally sound. It pains me to now assume that the Naps I knew and loved is now haven to bigotry and intolerance unheard of in my time.
Youth advocacy group The Silver Lining Foundation also voiced its concern:
School should be a place where a student is free to grow and learn in a safe, caring environment. That safety should apply to all students regardless of their sexuality or religious beliefs.
Finally, in yesterday's Sunday Guardian, columnist Kevin Baldeosingh wrote that “the student at the centre of this issue sent me an email on Wednesday to give his side of the story”:
‘The comments made by (the teacher) on that tape are unfounded and untrue about myself and my parents,’ he wrote. ‘I am not gay, I embody an all encompassing view of human beings; I am not God to be the judge of anyone.’
He told me that he was being persecuted by some students who agreed with the teacher’s comments and he had also been targeted by cyber bullies. ‘(Her) comments was the impetus that led to me and my family now being placed in serious danger of being attacked by an ill-informed and hostile bunch of people who have labelled me as gay and my parents as atheists.’
So here is a young man who thinks for himself, who made a stand for tolerance, and who is now being vilified for it. That is the hypocrisy of this country’s education leaders, who claim to want more people like him but who promulgate a system which fosters and indeed rewards ignorance and intolerance.
Trinidad and Tobago's education system may indeed be at a crossroads.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
When in Need, Some Peruvians Pray to Unofficial Saints · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Photo: Image of Sarita Colonia, widely shared online and offline.
Folk saints are individuals who, after their death, have become venerated by some Catholics as saints, even though they aren't recognized as such by the Roman Catholic Church. Believers turn to them in times of need and say these folk saints even perform miracles.
Peru has a good share of folk saints to whom people pray for help. The most known is probably Sarita Colonia. Although there are no official birth certificates, it's said she was born in Belén in the Áncash region. We know for sure, however, that she passed away in El Callao when she was 26 years old.
The youth-oriented news website NAPA outlines part of her biography on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of her death in December 2015:
Sarita Colonia nació en 1914, se mudó a Lima cuando era una adolescente y trabajó como vendedora de pescado en el Mercado Central [y] también fue empleada doméstica. Según los historiadores, a Sarita le dio paludismo, enfermedad que terminó con su vida en 1940.
Al fallecer no tuvo un funeral y su cuerpo terminó en una fosa común. Sin embargo, sus fervientes fieles la siguen venerando hasta el día de hoy. Aunque muchos peruanos la consideran una “santa” por los milagros que se le han concedido, la Iglesia católica no la ha reconocido como tal.
Sarita Colonia was born in 1914, and moved to Lima when she was a teenager and worked as a fish seller at the Central Market [and] also worked as domestic maid. According to historians, Sarita caught malaria, a condition that ended her life in 1940.
When she died, there was no funeral and her body ended up in a mass grave. However, her devotees continue worshiping her until today. Although many Peruvians consider her a “saint” due to the given miracles, the Catholic Church has not recognized her as such.
In spite of what appears on her death certificate, her family claims that “the cause of death was an overdose of castor oil”. In her hometown, they say she:
[…] realizo milagros estando viva. Cuentan en su ciudad natal que apenas siendo una niña, vaticinó la muerte de un comisario diciéndole: “Usted ya no está detrás de usted. No hay nadie detrás de sus ojos. Resulta que ya no lo veo, señor comisario”.
A los siete meses en el mismo lugar que Sarita Colonia le comento lo mencionado, [el comisario] murió.
[…] performed miracles while she was still alive. In her hometown, they say that when she was just a little girl, she predicted the death of a police inspector and told him: “You are not behind you anymore. There is nobody behind your eyes. It turns out that I don't see you anymore, inspector”.
Seven months after this, on the same place where Sarita Colonia made these comments to him, [the inspector] died.
The only photo of Sarita is the image that appears at the top of this post, and is very popular on religious illustrations, T-shirts and posters. Among her first devotees were seasoned criminals from Peru's chief seaport, El Callao, and that's why she became known as the “saint of the deprived and the poor ones“. Her devotees even turn to Twitter to thank her for the favors they believe she has bestowed upon them:
Hoy se conmemora el nacimiento de Sarita Colonia, donde los fieles le rinden tributo en la capilla del Callao pic.twitter.com/npAOCskCzo
— StarPerú (@starperu_) 1 de marzo de 2016
Today marks the birth of Sarita Colonia, when devotees pay homage at the chapel in Callao.
Un día como hoy nació en #Huaraz, #SaritaColonia, Santa Popular a la que se le atribuyen una serie de milagros. pic.twitter.com/XCEpBgInZr
— Antamina_Peru (@Antamina_Peru) 1 de marzo de 2016
Today in Huaraz, Sarita Colonia was born, a folk saint to whom a number of miracles are attributed.
Ways in which Sarita Colonia's followers celebrate her have evolved with the passage of time. For example, rock band Los Mojarras has a song dedicated to her (see lyrics in Spanish here):
Another folk saint with devotees in Peru is cumbia singer Lorenzo Palacios Quispe, widely known as Chacalón (Big Jackal). Palacios Quispe, who died in 1994, is called “an angel of the poor“, and is considered a male version of Sarita Colonia:
Chacalón ya no canta pero su voz además de seguir perpetuando un estilo para los provincianos de la Lima, informal y achichada, hoy habita en los fastos de los prodigios y hasta le quieren construir un parque. Hace milagro también, dicen, si le rezas con fervor. «Chacalón» fue el artista que vivió en el magma de la pobreza más cruel y hoy sigue siendo un paradigma de los desterrados, que a más de una década de su muerte hoy lo consideran un santo y ocupa la versión masculina de otro personaje venerado por los humildes, los ladrones y las prostitutas, Sarita Colonia.
Chacalón doesn't sing anymore, but his voice, in addition to perpetuating the off-the-grid and “chicha” lifestyle of the provincial people in Lima, lives on today in the opulent celebrations of his miracles, and they even want to build him a park. He does miracles too, it's said, if you pray to him zealously. Chacalón was an artist who lived in the magma of the cruelest of poverty and is still today a paradigm for the disenfranchised, and a decade after his death, he is today considered a saint and is the male version of another figure worshiped by the poor, thieves and prostitutes, Sarita Colonia.
In this case, “chicha” is a tropical Andean musical style, and by extension, it's used to refer to the off-the-grid lifestyle that's common among many residents of Peruvian cities, especially migrants from Andean zones.
On Twitter, some have expressed nostalgia for Chacalón:
Abrir tu baúl de los recuerdos y encontrarte con los primeros LP de #LosShapis y #Chacalon !
— Boriz Laynes (@BorizLaynes) 28 de octubre de 2015
To open your box of memories and find your first LPs of LosShapis and Chacalón!
Los Shapis is a tropical Peruvian band that started in the early 1980s and still plays together today.
According to Peruvian anthropologist Luis Fernando Calderón Carvajal, the penetration the Roman Catholic Church still has in Peruvian society is very deep:
Es tan importante en el Perú la presencia de la religión católica […] que la existencia de los santos como iconos es muy relevante; los hay para todos los gustos y condición […]. No solamente son patrones o patronas de instituciones los santos oficiales (canonizados), los hay también los que la voluntad popular ha santificado, es el caso de Sarita Colonia, la “santa” de los delincuentes y prostitutas; el mismo camino esta siguiendo el malogrado cantante de música popular “Chacalón”.
The presence of the Catholic religion is so important in Peru […] that the existence of saints as icons is very relevant; there are all sorts of them. […] Official saints (canonized) aren't the only patrons of institutions; there are also those who have been made saints by popular will, such as Sarita Colonia, the “saint” for criminales and prostitutes; on that same path we find the deceased popular music singer “Chacalón”.
This tweet picks up a popular phrase:
Cuando canta Chacalón, los cerros bajan. Y no va shel
— Ten Sun Ly (@Colagusanoo) 27 de febrero de 2016
When Chacalon sings, the mountains go down. Y no va shel
The phrase “y no va she” is a distortion of the very common “y no va a ser” (roughly translated as “and that's that”), used to refer to something that isn't a matter of dispute.
Other Peruvian folk saints are Brother Ceferino, the Unknown Soldier and Sister Maria.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


text:
An Artist Captures Kathmandu’s Recent Hardships in His Imaginative Artwork · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Trail of Liberation. Artwork by Ashim Shakya. Used with permission.
Though things are slowly returning to normal in Kathmandu, residents haven't quite been able to breathe a sigh of relief even after the unofficial blockade by India, which lasted for nearly five months, was lifted. Nepal has suffered from a major shortage of fuel and supplies since late September 2015, as several thousand trucks with vital goods from India remained stranded at the India-Nepal border.
Due to the chaos resulting from the man-made disaster and the black-marketing of essential goods including cooking gas, people are still reeling under scarcity.
Ashim Shakya, a self-taught artist and musician from Kathmandu, has captured the situation in a series of artwork. “Pressurized” below shows the strain Nepalis were living under during the blockade.
Pressurized. Artwork by Ashim Shakya. Used with permission.
In his creation “Annihilation,” he depicts the black-marketing of scarce cooking gas.
Annihilation. Artwork by Ashim Shakya. Used with permission.
Another work, “E X T R A C T I O N,” shows the elements and results of crisis, black markets and blockade.
E X T R A C T I O N . Artwork by Ashim Shakya. Used with permission.
As the fuel shortage resulting from the unofficial blockade made people rely on electricity to cook food, pump water and perform other daily needs, more than 500 transformers that couldn't bear the increased load exploded across the country.
Ashim came up with his artwork “Explosive Aftermath” to depict these occurrences.
Explosive Aftermath. Artwork by Ashim Shakya. Used with permission.
In a Facebook post, he explained the concept behind “Explosive Aftermath” in more detail:
This symbolizes the recent issue of exploding Transformers due to overload of electricity. The transformer poles are levitating itself for the people as it[‘]s no longer safe to be on the ground proving its smarter than most of the officials here. Though this is the main theme behind this work, everyone may relate it to your respective Interpretations and feelings. Thank you.
His work “Breakdown I E N C L O S E D” powerfully depicts the state of Kathmandu during the April 2015 earthquake that left nearly 9,000 people dead.
Breakdown I E N C L O S E D . Artwork by Ashim Shakya. Used with permission.
Facebook user Su Bash wrote about his impressions of the piece:
For me this depicts the black day, the day when earthquake struck. The world came crashing in. This is a powerful image.
Shakya doesn't only focus on scarcity, chaos and destruction in his art, but also shows the hope and harmony that is abundant in Nepal.
In his “Mellow Dwellings” piece, a line of homes are reimagined as instruments in a band. Shakya explained on Facebook:
“Mellow Dwellings “
Souls of triumphant comes over these houses where Music dwells in every walk and gestures as I pass the melodies of my path. A lone house may chant some notes but it's the community that composes a “Harmony” .
Mellow Dwellings. Artwork by Ashim Shakya. Used with permission.
A Facebook user, Manjima Sharma, commented:
Amazing imagination. If the houses were constructed to reflect the sketch , it could have been a world landmark. Wonderfully done.

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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Cubans Cast a Critical Glance on Obama’s Havana Tour · Global Voices
Ellery Roberts Biddle

“Cuba and Obama reestablish relations.” Cartoon via Linhas Livres.
“Cuba’s future will be decided by Cubans.” Speaking in Havana on March 21, 2016, Obama vowed that the US trade embargo on Cuba “will end” and signaled his intention to respect the decisions of Cubans about their country's future.
While Obama’s tone marked a clear departure from the rhetoric of past US presidents, his choice of words left plenty of netizens wondering who Obama really means when he says “Cubans”.
Pro-government blogger Iroel Sanchez responded, asking:
#ObamaenCuba ha dicho que el destino de #Cuba es asunto de los cubanos. El problema es cuáles cubanos ¿la minoría que el quiere “empoderar” haciéndolos dependientes de los negocios con #EEUU o todos los cubanos?
Obama says that the future of Cuba is a matter for Cubans to decide. The problem is, which Cubans — the minority that wants to “empower” them through dependence on US businesses? Or all Cubans?
Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits are watching intently this week as President Barack Obama becomes the first sitting US president to visit the country since 1928. Hundreds of US journalists reporting on the visit appear almost giddy as they tweet and report on everything from trade to AirBnB accommodations to the upcoming Industriales – Tampa Rays baseball game.
Meanwhile, Cubans on the island (at least those with Internet access) and off are voicing firm critiques of both leaders.
Writing for La Joven Cuba, a collective blog of university students who tend to express support for the Castro government, Jesús López Martínez suggested that rather than allowing Obama to “bring a vision of progress” to Cuba, Cuban leaders should teach Obama the benefits of their system:
Podemos ofrecerle experiencias en el campo de la salud para que las lleve a su país donde millones de personas no tienen atención médica. Que quiere hablar de derechos humanos, pues enseñémosle como actúa nuestra policía y a lo mejor puede evitar que sus gendarmes maten los negros a mansalva en el país del norte.
We can offer our insight on public health, something he can take back to his country, where millions of people have no healthcare. If he wants to talk about human rights, we can teach him how our police behave, so that he can avoid the manslaughter of black people by their own police forces.
While numerous Twitter users echoed Martínez’ sentiment regarding public health, heavy policing of public areas and a surge in detentions of anti-government activists before and during the visit undercut his second argument.
Indeed, the visit has been marred by arrests and detentions of some of the Castro government’s most vociferous local critics. Multiple outlets reported on the Sunday afternoon arrests of the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), an organization of wives and mothers of male prisoners of conscience in Cuba who regularly demonstrate — and sustain short detentions by state police — in public spaces in Havana.
High-profile human rights advocate Elizardo Sánchez was also detained while en route to Havana on Saturday, where he intends to meet with Obama. Sánchez estimates that 180 Cubans have been arrested before and during the visit thus far.
In a joint press conference between the two leaders — a rare event for Castro — the topic of human rights arose multiple times. Prominent US television journalist Andrea Mitchell asked both leaders how the two countries would work together given their disagreements on the issue. Following Obama's response, Castro said:
What country complies with [all human rights]? Do you know how many? I do. None. None whatsoever. Some countries comply some rights, other comply others. And we are among these countries. Out of these 61 instruments, Cuba has complied with 47 of these human rights instruments. There are countries that may comply with more, those that comply with less. I think human rights issues should not be politicized.
Castro then continued, touting Cuba's healthcare and education systems and guarantees of equal pay for all genders.
Shortly thereafter, a reporter asked if the Cuban government would consider releasing political prisoners. Raúl Castro first expressed doubt as to the existence of political prisoners in Cuba, then responded: “Give me a list of political prisoners and I will release them,” and then refused to speak further on the matter.
Shortly thereafter, Cubans and Cuban-Americans on Facebook and Twitter began sharing multiple versions of such a list. Technologist and blogger Eliécer Avila pointed out that Raúl’s response showed a total lack of due process in Cuba:
Demuestra que aquí no hay ley ni sistema judicial más que su voluntad, por eso afirma confiado que si le pasan una lista de presos políticos “estarían en la calle esta tarde”.
…It demonstrates that here there is no law or judicial system beyond [Castro’s] will, this is why he confidently promises that if he’s given a list of political prisoners, “they’ll be on the street by tonight.”
Multiple reports have surfaced indicating that Cuban state police exerted increased control on the public and on vocal critics of the regime in particular. Democracy advocate and council member of the Christian Liberation Movement Rosa María Rodriguez described state precautions around the visit as “millimetric.” “Nothing moves without them knowing about it,” she said.
Rodriguez’ organization, which is based in Cuba, was founded by Oswaldo Payá, a democracy advocate best known for pushing for democratic change within the bounds of Cuba’s constitution until he died in a car crash under mysterious circumstances in 2012.
Multiple critics, most of whom are writing from outside Cuba, commented on the meaning of Obama's political identity and image within the Cuban context. What does it mean, they asked, for Cubans to see a relatively young, black president elected for two terms in the US, while Cuba's top-level leadership is still dominated by white men in their 70s and 80s? Recent census numbers indicate that 14% of the US population identifies as black or mixed-race, while an estimated 36% of the Cuban population identifies as black or “mestizo” (mixed race).
Writing for Huffington Post, US sociologist and Cuba expert Ted Henken reflected on racial discrimination in both the US and Cuba, describing Obama as “a powerful symbol” of US achievement in “racial justice and equality,” while acknowledging that the US still has a “long way to go.”
Writing for El Pais, Cuban historian and Mexico-based writer Rafael Rojas reflected on Obama as a symbol of progress not only in the area of racial inequality, but also as one who “speaks the language of democracy of the 21st century”:
Obama encarna muchas cosas que la ciudadanía joven de la isla valora positivamente después de 56 años de comunismo: el ascenso social y político de los afroamericanos en Estados Unidos, la apuesta por una gestión pública en beneficio de las mayorías, un ejercicio diplomático que prioriza la negociación de conflictos, un demócrata del siglo XXI que habla el lenguaje de las democracias del siglo XXI. Pero Obama es, además, la prueba viviente de algo que la juventud cubana tiene que ver con una mezcla de extrañeza y fascinación: un político que abandona el poder a los 55 años, la edad que tienen los sucesores más jóvenes de los octogenarios gobernantes de la isla…
Obama embodies many things that young Cubans on the island value after 56 years of communism: the social and political rise of African-Americans in the United States, a push for public policies that benefit a majority of citizens….a democrat of the 21st century who speaks the language of democracy of the 21st century. But Obama is also living proof of something that young Cubans must view with a mix of longing and fascination: a politician who will be stepping down from power at 55 years old, the age of the youngest people among the governing octogenarians on the island…
Observatorio Crítico, a communist intellectual blogging collective put forth a more nuanced critique of the way Cuban authorities handled the visit, drawing from a Marxist perspective:
En situaciones como la visita de Obama a nuestro país se impone evitar manifestaciones de confrontación, pero reivindicamos la necesidad de distinguir entre los protocolos de gobierno y las expresiones del pueblo.
…
Es indispensable que las organizaciones de masas y otras expresiones de la sociedad civil puedan realizar agitación política ante la visita de mandatarios como Obama y François Hollande, o ante las arbitrariedades cometidas por gobiernos con los que se tienen relaciones económicas prometedoras.
In situations like Obama’s visit, our country is supposed to avoid showing conflict or confrontation, but we reserve the need to distinguish between government protocols and public expression.
…
Public organizations and other avenues for civil society expression are indispensable in process of achieving political agitation in the face of official visits by leaders such as Obama and François Hollande, or in the context of arbitrary moves made by these governments towards entities with whom they want to improve economic relations.
Observatorio Critico makes a keen observation here: Despite their disagreements on human rights and social policy, at the end of the day, the rekindling of diplomatic ties between Cuba and the US may stem chiefly from a shared belief that the shift will better serve the economic interests of both parties.
Visit Global Voices’ special coverage of US-Cuba relations.

author: Ellery Roberts Biddle


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Despite Tradition and Convention, Salsa Keeps Egyptians on the Dance Floor · Global Voices
Rawan Gharib

Aasim Rady and Rasha Sadek. Social Salsa Dancing in Egypt, January 2015. Image: YouTube
Believe it or not, but Latin America and Egypt have more in common than ancient civilization and pyramid-building. After sampling food and music from South America, the Cairo cultural scene is now swaying with salsa dance fever. And the fever, it seems, is here to stay.
While the Cairo Opera House is considering hosting a Monthly Latin American Night as a part of its yearly program after this January's warmly-welcomed Jazz and Latin American Flair, dreams of dancing tango and salsa are becoming a reality, thanks professional dance schools like Latin Love Dance School and enthusiast groups like Latino Dance Community – Egypt on Facebook.
The expansion of salsa in Cairo has been taking place for years. According to a 2010 news report that's recently gained popularity on YouTube, young people in the Egyptian capital are particularly attracted to the dance. Five years ago, news reporters wondered how long Cairo's “salsa fever” could last. Today, however, the craze in the city and online appears to be as strong as ever.
The spread of salsa in Egypt hasn’t been without certain challenges, however. Sara Reda illustrates this in her short audio documentary “Salsa Egyptian Revolution: Culture Resist and Salsa Persist,” where she reveals the joy and confidence dancing salsa can provide to young Egyptian men and women, while reviewing some of its stickier aspects.
Nour, a 24-year-old salsa dancer interviewed in the documentary, points to the contradictions and double standards dancing salsa can impose, particularly for women:
In Egypt, many men would claim to be open minded and not conservative. I don’t think this way, but you know how men are. They judge you. [But] It’s not just about men. It’s about everyone. Some women actually would judge you for dancing and being veiled. […] I think the problem is with the entire culture. Some men would dance with you and respect you for doing what you do and following your passion in life, no matter what your conditions are, being veiled or not, but others would disrespect you.
Nour also highlights certain social limitations and the prejudices imposed on women who want to dance salsa while wearing the veil:
People automatically assume that veiled girls are religious and culturally reserved. So, they expect them to act very conservatively. They label them. Thus, when a veiled woman does anything that they believe to be “indecent” she is directly labeled as loose and, you know, forsaking religion. They have no idea that not all veiled women are religious. Veiled women became more of traditional trend. It’s not related to religion anymore. At least not as it used to be before. Egyptians have a problem of not accepting diversity in personalities and beliefs. They tend more to label people. They need to have a price tag on you.
Poster for the second edition of the International Salsa Congress in Egypt. Image: International Salsa Congress / Facebook
But it isn't women alone who face social restrictions, when it comes to dancing salsa. Reda's documentary reveals how being part of the salsa community can be complicated for many men, as well. Mohamed, one of the dancers interviewed, says many men, especially those coming from less educated backgrounds, don’t have it easy on the dance floor. He says social conventions related to dancing can make things challenging:
Salsa nights in Egypt are totally different than anywhere else. They are mainly for young people. For young men of course. That’s because in religion, dancing is a taboo and in the Egyptian culture dancing is inappropriate and unrespectable. For example, old people are expected not to dance because they have to respect their age […] for [younger] men, dancing is considered girly and for women, dancing is unrespectable. This makes dancing problematic for all social strata.
Egyptian men's lack of sense of freedom, Mohamed argues, is key in this dynamic:
Poor Egyptian men are in a big problem. They were taught that dancing is sissy. Thus, they grow up having no connection with their bodies, no sense of freedom at all. What is even worse, is that not only are men socially prohibited from dancing, women also are but definitely for different reasons and not to mention that dancing is attached with a low public image.
Despite these traditions and social conventions, Egyptians continue to dance. Other cities have joined in creating groups and classes to continue the trend, too. Challenges remain, but so do the will and the joy brought by a dancing tradition that seems to be less and less foreign in Egypt. As Rasha explains in the documentary:
Yeah, I think salsa is spreading in a fast pace everywhere in Egypt now. It started in Cairo, moved to [Alexandria] and Hurghada and everywhere else. […] although it still faces challenges and limitations and some misconceptions due to the restraints and the cultural aspect of things, uhh but otherwise it’s still spreading.
If you can't witness Egypt's salsa dance scene in person, the next best thing are videos shared on YouTube, filmed at salsa nights and dance classes. Some wonderful clips can be found at Egyptiansasero’s channel:
Check out Aasim Rady’s channel, too, where there's lovely footage from a salsa night at the Bian Cafe in Cairo.

author: Rawan Gharib


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European Union Signs Controversial Deal to Deport Refugees to Turkey · Global Voices
Lourdes Sada

Refugees will find it more difficult to request asylum in Europe. Photo published by Diario Octubre under a CC-BY-4.0 licence.
Despite mass protests in numerous European cities, European Union (EU) authorities signed an agreement with Turkey on 18 March to address the increasing number of refugees attempting to apply for political asylum within member countries. Many of those refugees are stuck on Greek soil in extremely precarious conditions.
According to the agreement, beginning on 20 March the EU will begin turning back asylum seekers of all nationalities except Syrian to Turkey, and will take in one Syrian refugee for each refugee sent back, in what has become known as the 1:1 scheme. In return, Turkey will receive 6.8 billion euros (about 7.6 billion in US dollars) in aid and its citizens will be able to enter and travel visa-free around the Schengen Zone — an area comprising 26 European countries that don't have border controls between them. The deal also speeds up the process allowing Turkey to join the European Union, at a time when the Erdoğan government is being criticised more than ever for its attacks on freedom of the press and its questionable observance of human rights.
Authorities somewhat toned down the language from the 8 March draft agreement. According to Spanish news agency Europa Press, “the text ensures ‘individual treatment’ for each asylum request received in Greek territory and [makes] an ‘express’ reference that there will be neither ‘collective expulsions’, nor on-the-spot deportations.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has declared that the agreement “shows that the EU is capable of making difficult decisions and dealing with complex crises.” On the other hand, Amnesty International has called the agreement “a historic blow to human rights,” declaring that “guaranties to scrupulously respect international legislation are incompatible with turning all irregular immigrants back to Turkey.”
Turkey is not considered “a safe third country” by the majority of EU members, making the agreement incompatible with Europe's own laws. According to independent Spanish news site eldiario.es, “the institutions have spent days trying to give it a patina of legality without attending to the pact's morality.” Numerous humanitarian organizations have strongly criticised the agreement, such as this declaration from Oxfam Intermon:
(…) la UE tiene capacidad suficiente para acoger a las miles de personas que solicitan asilo, además del deber moral, como garante de los Derechos Humanos. Sin embargo, le devuelve la responsabilidad a países como Turquía que ya acoge a más de 2,5 millones de refugiados.
The EU has sufficient capacity to accommodate thousands of asylum seekers, in addition to its moral duty as a guarantor of human rights. However, it is placing the responsibility upon countries like Turkey, which is already accommodating more then 2.5 million refugees.

author: Lourdes Sada


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From Goldfish to Swan Candles: 11 Memorable Images of Persian New Year · Global Voices
Tori Egherman

Photo: Sophia Shah / Instagram
Do you find yourself awake at night, tossing and turning, wondering about the most interesting displays from this year's Persian New Year (“Norooz” or “Nowruz”)? If so, and you've arrived at this article, you are in luck. After scouring the interwebs, Global Voices presents some of the very best images from Persian New Year now tearing up the Internet.
Norooz celebrants make displays called Haft-Seens (Seven S's), depicting seven items that begin with the letter “S.” (Naturally, translating the names of such items into English obscures this.)
According to the website My Persian Kitchen, the Seven S's include:
1. Somagh (sumac), which symbolizes the color of sunrise
2. Serkeh (vinegar), which symbolizes age and patience
3. Senjed (dried fruit from the lotus tree), which symbolizes love
4. Samanoo (sweet pudding), which symbolizes affluence
5. Sabzeh (sprouts), which symbolizes rebirth
6. Sib (apple), which symbolizes health and beauty
7. Sir (garlic), which symbolizes medicine
Additional items that begin with the letter “s” that are commonly seen on the Sofreh are:
Sekkeh (coin), which symbolizes wealth and prosperity
Sonbol (hyacinth), which a spring spring flower
Other items included are:
Mahi (fish), which symbolizes life
Tokhmeh Morgh (egg), which symbolizes fertility
Sham (candle), which symbolizes enlightenment
Shirini (sweets), which symbolizes spreading the sweetness
A book of poetry or prayer
The website has some great images, as well. Take a look.
The absence of a Haft-Seen and of the celebration of Norooz can be felt as strongly as its presence. People living far from family and friends—far from their homeland, and far from its traditions—can feel that something is incomplete. They often miss these things, aware that the world goes on around them. Photographer Davood Mousavi, who lives outside Iran, captures this feeling in his image of an empty Haft-Seen. This year on Norooz, he was alone with a banana, a laptop, and a candle.
Photo: Davood Mousavi. Used with permission.
Mousavi wrote on Facebook:
Its not a good feeling to be alone and very far far away from everything and everyone!
#Norooz in #exile!
2. Not everyone in the Iranian diaspora marks Norooz with an empty Haft-Seen. Shervin Nekuee, a curator at Writers Unlimited Winternachten Festival in The Hague, shared this image by photographer Balout Khazraei on his LinkedIn profile. In it, children hold several of the traditional items. The seventh is missing.
Haft-seen photographed by Balout Khazraei. Used with permission.
3. We fell in love with this Haft-Seen from UX designer and artist Sara Emami, whose Haft-Seen is elegantly displayed on a beautiful Persian carpet. Check out the Delft blue eggs.
💛💛💛🐤🐤🐤🍎🍎🍎🌼🌼🌼
A photo posted by S A R A E M A M I (@saraemamii) on
4. In the next photo, a father and daughter have a bit of fun. And they have some swan candles. Did we say swan candles? Yes we did.
TAVALODET EYDE SHOMA MOBARAK! Nowruz Piruz! Finally Spring arrived and a new year! Have a good one!
A photo posted by Sophia Shah (@shahsophia) on
5. Journalist Hooman Askary shares a photo he took of a Haft-Seen display in 2008. It was recorded at Ferdowsi's tomb in Iran.
ای همه کسانی که دلم با شماست، هرجای دنیا که هستین سال خیلی خوبی رو براتون آرزو می‌کنم، امیدوارم خیلی زود یک جایی، یک روزی، دیدار‌ها تازه بشه. حسابی مواظب خودتون باشین و بدونین گرچه خیلی هاتون از دیده رفته‌اید اما از دل هرگز نه! #نوروز #سال_نو For those in my heart, wherever you are in this world, I wish you a very good #Persian_New_Year, I hope we shall meet again very soon somewhere. Take very good care of yourselves and remember although you are out of sight, you shall never be out my mind and heart! #Norooz #New_Year #Persian —- این عکس رو نوروز ۱۳۸۷ در آرامگاه فردوسی گرفته بودم
A photo posted by Hooman Askary – هومن عسكرى (@hoomanaj) on
6. The Tehran Bureau, an independent news organization, hosted by the Guardian, found the following Haft-Seen in Paris:
One of my favorite haft-seen spreads. #paris 2012. #nowruz #Iran
A photo posted by Iran through the looking glass (@tehranbureau) on
7. Instagram user Farnaz Galbrun shares this elegant image of her Haft-Seen.
هفت سین امسال من در شب #عید_نوروز #سال_نو My Nowruz table this year 🌱🌹🌱 #7seen #nowruz #persian #newyear
A photo posted by Farnaz فرناز (@farnaz.galbrun) on
8. Don't ask us why we love this image by Instagram user Ahsan Rasoli. It's obvious.
و انتهای این قصه‌ی سرد و سفید همیشه سبز خواهد بود تا رسیدن #سال_نو ، تنها یک سلام خورشید باقی ست . . . هزاران تبریک
A photo posted by Ahsan Rasoli (@ahsanrasoli) on
9. Atena Firouzi describes herself as “obsessed with vintage cutlery.” She published this stunning photo of her Haft-Seen.
#نوروز مبارك #نوروز95 #هفت_سین من هي #شمع رو روشن ميكنم سم هي فوت ميكنه. اميدوارم امسال براي همه پر از شادي باشه. اميدوارم امسال به همه آرزوهاتون برسين 🌸
A photo posted by Atena Firouzi (@tentunatena) on
10. Global Voices author Mahsa Alimardani shared her own Haft-Seen. It features Marjane Satrapi's book Persepolis in the place of honor.
Haft-Seen by Mahsa Alimardani. Used with permission.
11. Experiencing the Norooz holidays in Iran can be an unforgettable experience. Many of the Tehran American School‘s former students maintain ties to Iranian culture. This is true, even though most of them have no Persian roots. These students have found ways to mark the Norooz holidays and to engage with Persian communities wherever they live. Barbara Gilliland Harrison is one such case. She shared this image of her very first Haft-Seen specifically to be included on Global Voices.
First Haft-Seen. Photo by Tehran-American School alumna Barbara Gilliland Harrison. Used with permission.
There's no particular reason to end this list at eleven. More wonderful photos are out there, waiting to be discovered. If you've got other favorites, let us know!
This year, many are also sharing videos from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Barack Obama. (They both roll their R's so well.)
On a sadder note, the beloved musician Mohammad Reza Shahjarian posted his own Norooz greeting on Facebook. In it, he discusses his long bout with cancer, describing how the disease has affected his life. He ends his video with a message of hope.

author: Tori Egherman


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Indian Migrant Worker Arrested in Saudi Arabia For Denouncing Working Conditions on Facebook · Global Voices
Rezwan

Screenshot from YouTube
An Indian man has been arrested in Saudi Arabia after a video of him tearfully detailing the inhumane conditions he faces as a migrant laborer appeared on Facebook.
Abdul Sattar Makandar was arrested by Saudi police on 14 February after they received a complaint from his employer. He is being held under a Saudi law which criminalizes the “spread of misinformation” on the Internet.
Makandar is one of roughly 1.5 million Indian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Originally from Dandeli in the southwestern state of Karnataka, the 35-year-old was working as a truck driver at a construction engineering firm in eastern Saudi Arabia.
On 12 February, 2016, Makandar sent a video to New Delhi-based social activist Kundan Srivastava, who posted it online in an effort to help him. In the video, he cries and says his employer of 23 months has not paid him regularly so he cannot buy enough food, nor has his employer granted him any leave time off to visit his home in India. He says he now wants to leave the country and return to India, but his employer has confiscated his Aqama (work permit) and passport. He also claims that he was forced to sign unknown documents that allow the employer to deduct 100 Saudi Arabian riyals (about 26 US dollars) per month.
Here is the video uploaded to YouTube by user SACYouTube:
The video was widely shared in a few days’ time and made headlines in several news outlets in India and elsewhere. Makandar's employer, the Al Suroor United Group, denied the accusations to the BBC, saying that Makandar is eligible for leave after two years of service, which is about one month away. Under Saudi Arabian law, migrant workers must obtain an exit visa from their employer if they want to leave the country.
The company also claimed he was being paid regularly and on time with due bonus, and that he could resign from his job at any time.
Srivastava told newspaper The Hindu that on the same day that Makandar was arrested, he “received an email from Abdul’s employer demanding the online video be removed, and a fresh video be posted featuring the driver stating that his firm was his saviour.”
Srivastava deleted the video from Facebook and wrote:
I apologies on behalf of Abdul Sattar Makandar, and myself to company Al Suroor United Group, Saudi Arabia.
I deleted the Video now which was uploaded on my official page and would urge the company authorities to forgive Abdul Sattar Makandar mistakes which had done according to your rules and regulations.
Makandar was briefly released from custody on 17 February, but was arrested again on 18 March, according to Srivastava.
Although Srivastava deleted the video, many copies circulated on YouTube and other video hosting sites in the interim. It joins a cache of similar videos, in which laborers detail the brutal working conditions they endure in Gulf countries.
Saudi Arabia has long been accused of violating the human rights of its large migrant worker population. In 2014, Saudi Arabia finally agreed to a standard contract for Indian domestic workers, but as portal Migrant Rights reported, the contract failed to stipulate a maximum on daily working hours and didn't guarantee workers’ freedom of mobility during time off, nor private access to communication, making it difficult for workers to file complaints.
Makandar's case led some Internet users to revisit these videos, such as this video, posted on YouTube last year, in which a group of Indian migrant workers explain their plight in Saudi Arabia.
CaptainKulcha, a Reddit user, translated the video:
First guy Salaam Aleikum, I am Santosh Kumar. I am in great distress. I have been here 1 year 2 months, and I have nothing here. I was paid for 4-5 months, and after that, they haven’t even paid me. My wife is very sick, I want to get out of here immediately. I am a ruined man (starts crying unintelligibly)
Second guy Save us, save us, save us. We are in great distress. […]
Everyone starts crying “Please get us out of here.”
Another user who had worked in Saudi Arabia wrote that the experience of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia is akin to slavery:
I´ve worked in Saudi Arabia, and this is too normal. They work through Saudi Arabia Sponsors: Basically you give your passport they give you the Iqama or permit to work. What happens is that lot of sponsors don´t pay their workers and when people ask for their passports they ask for a lot of money. Yes, it´s slavery. When I was there I use to give them money from my pocket for being such a bad situation, people not being paid for several months, and some didn´t complain because they said at least we gave them food in the camp. People stucked in a country where they are treated worse than dogs, for years in very bad conditions, that´s the reality “necessary” for us to fuel our tanks. Infuriating and depressing.
I just sign in for writing this, it is well known for everybody and Saudi Arabia government but nothing is done. I wish this is something that gets to the media and somehow gets the attention that deserves
One user criticized the lack of response from the Indian government and Indian media:
Nope [the government] rarely ever intervene in such issues. It's more of a ‘Oh that's too bad’ attitude that the embassy keeps. Not even the media reports on such issues back at home. The Indian media only gets on the story after such videos go viral and are featured in American and European news.
On Twitter, @nishaONnisaa slammed India for not creating enough employment inside the country, thereby forcing people to look elsewhere for a livelihood:
India & others failing to create decent work as they grow, pushing workers out: #Migrant #SaudiArabia https://t.co/NeEqDeLE47
— Nisha (@nishaONnisaa) March 19, 2016
For now, Kundan Srivastava continues to post about the case and about the plight of another driver. Due to conflicting reports from Saudi police, Makandar's precise whereabouts are unknown.

author: Rezwan